Week 14 Story: I know what you did

Sneaking into the window, I saw a shadow and knew I was screwed. I pulled myself into my room, head down, ready to take my punishment. Weirdly my bedroom light did not flick on with urgency and suddenly I was scared. If one of my parents wasn’t in my room, who was? All of these thoughts rushed through my head as I fumbled to turn on my phone’s flashlight. I pulled it up and turned towards the shadow, illuminating my little brother.

“What the heck are you doing in here?” I scream whispered.

I was very aware I had just been caught sneaking back into my room, but also I was pissed. The question was rhetorical, as I could see my brother had found my secret stash of money and was trying to hide that by shoving it in his pocket.

“What the heck are you doing sneaking out? I am so telling mom” he responded.

“You can’t tell mom, I just caught you stealing! And I am in my room, you have no proof that I was ever not.”

I could tell I had stumped my little brother, but I saw the wheels turning in his head and I knew I did not have much time to get ahead of this.

“Give me my money back and I wont say anything. Then we will be even.” I said walking towards him.

He almost bought it and then he gave me a look that let me know he had a different plan.

“How about I keep the money in exchange for keeping your secret?” he said.

“No, you wouldn’t even know that I was not in here had you not been in my room in the first place!”

“So what!” he said raising his voice. I calculated outcomes and came to an idea.

“How about we let Jenny, James, and Jane decide?” I said listing off our siblings who were fast asleep.

“Deal!” He said and we were off to Jenny’s bedroom. We woke her up and explained the situation. Jenny had always been a hard sleeper and it was easy to tell she was not quite awake.

“You shouldn’t have snuck out and you would have seen John get your money. He should keep it” she mumbled. That was not the response I wanted, but I still had two siblings to go. We went to see James next who was awake and playing video games.

He was not happy to be disturbed in the middle of a game, but after his character died, he turned to us.

“Julie, you told on me last week when I ran into the mailbox so I think John should keep the money,” he said smirking. I had forgotten about that, but I convinced John to see what Jane had to say. She was the oldest so maybe she would persuade the others.

We went to Jane’s room. She was up reading and we explained it all to her. She thought for a second and then said, “Give me the money, John. I want to count it to see how much you took.”

John quickly handed the money over and without counting it Jane shoved it in her pocket.

With the quick motion she said, “You are both in the wrong and I know what both of you did. Go to sleep or I will tell on both of you.”

John being the less confrontational of the two of us, quickly retreated. I started to leave but then remembered an advantage.

“Jane,” I said slowly turned, “remember two nights ago when your boyfriend was over? I saw you sneak him in so if you tell on me, I will tell on you.” Jane rolled her eyes and slapped the money into my hand.

“Get out of my room,” Julie grimaced and turned out her light.

Author's note: I based this story on a jacobs tale. It was about a man and snake arguing if the snake should be grateful enough of the man who saved him not to eat him. They asked three passerbys and eventually, the snake was tricked and so was the fox who tricked him. I changed the story completely to be all human and about a sibling set. I kept the same theme of who should be indebted to whom, but turned it into a more realistic setting of siblings arguing over whether to tell their parents about the others' wrongdoings.

Image information: Bedroom window at night, Pixabay

Bibliography: Europa's Fairy Book by Joseph Jacobs and illustrated by John Batten (1916).