Pillow Fights & Broken Vases

“What do you want to do?” asked Jessie.

Justin shrugged. “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

Justin and Jessie were bored. There was no school today, but it was cold and rainy outside.

“I can’t wait for Saturday. We’re going to have so much fun at the fair,” Jessie said, as she turned to the window and watched the rain trickle down the glass.

Bonk! Jessie was startled when something soft hit her in the head. “Hey, no fair,” she said as she picked up the pillow that bonked her and tossed it back at Justin.

Justin ducked as the pillow whizzed by. “Missed me!”

Jessie dove across the couch and grabbed the other pillow, ready for battle. Justin heaved his pillow at Jessie just as she tossed hers up and over. It smacked Justin in the face. “Hey!” he laughed.

The kids walloped each other with the pillows, laughing and dodging. Jessie caught the pillow Justin had thrown and held a pillow in each hand.

“Uh oh!” Finding himself unarmed, Justin grabbed the cushion from the back of the rocking chair and heaved it at Jessie. Jessie ducked, and the big cushion hit the shelf behind her. As the kids watched in horror, a beautiful blue and white flower vase wobbled, then crashed to the floor.

“Oh, no!” Justin gasped. They ran to the vase and picked it up. It had one long crack down the middle, and a piece was missing from the top.

“Oops!” Jessie said. “I shouldn’t have ducked!”

“My mom always uses this vase when Dad brings flowers to her,” Justin moaned. “Now what do we do?”

“I don’t know.” Jessie shrugged her shoulders. “Quick, I hear your mom coming!” Jessie opened the little door at the bottom of the shelf. Justin shoved the vase inside, then quickly shut the door.

“Hey, you two. Will you play a game with Ellie? She’s up from her nap now,” said Justin’s mom.

“Okay, Mom.” Justin took Ellie’s hand and led her to the family room. “Come on, Ellie. We’ll play your favorite game—hide-and-seek!”

The rest of the day sped by as Justin and Jessie played games with Ellie and put together puzzles. Soon the broken vase was forgotten.

The next day, while Justin and Jessie were at school, Ellie roamed around the house carrying her baby doll. “Mommy, where’s beebee bottle?” she asked.

“You want your baby’s bottle? I don’t know where it is, Sweetie. Look under the couch. Maybe it rolled under there.”

Ellie went to the couch and crouched down on the floor. She reached her hand underneath to see if she could feel the bottle. Suddenly she screamed, “Owie! It bit me!” and pulled her hand out.

Mom ran into the living room. “Ellie! What happened?” She looked at Ellie’s hand, and saw a small drop of blood on her finger.

“It bit me,” Ellie cried and pointed at the couch.

“Let me see.” Mom scooted the couch back, and to her surprise, she saw a piece of her favorite vase lying there on the floor. “What is that doing there?” She carefully picked up the piece of pottery and laid it on the shelf, then took Ellie to find a bandage for her finger.

Later that afternoon, Justin came in from school and sat down for a snack. “Hi, Mom! Hi, Ellie!” he said.

Ellie showed Justin her bandaged finger. “Owie!” she explained.

“How’d you get an owie?” Justin asked.

“Justin, do you know what happened to my flower vase?” Mom asked. “Ellie found a piece of it under the couch and cut her finger.”

Justin swallowed hard. “I guess so,” he said, and stared down at his cheese and crackers.

“I guess you’d better explain what happened,” said Mom with a stern look.

Justin told how he and Jessie had accidently broken the vase and then hidden it. “We didn’t know there was a piece under the couch. We forgot to look for it. We didn’t mean for Ellie to get hurt.”

“I know you didn’t mean to hurt anyone,” Mom said. “If you had told me what happened right away, I could have helped you find that piece before Ellie did.”

Justin finished his snack and went to his room to work on his take-home pages from school.

That evening after dinner, Jessie and her parents came over to talk about what had happened. The kids and their parents sat down in the family room. But the parents didn’t laugh and smile like they usually did when they were together. They looked serious.

“Whether we make a mistake or even sin on purpose,” said Justin’s dad, “we need to be honest and not hide it. Remember, it’s lying when we hide something like that.”

“It could have really hurt Ellie or anyone else who might have reached under the couch,” Justin’s mom explained.

“We’ve decided that we won’t be going to the fair on Saturday,” Jessie’s mom told the kids. “I’m really sad about that. I was looking forward to it.”

“Instead, Justin and Jessie will help around the house to earn some money to buy a new vase for Mom,” explained Justin’s dad.

“Mom, we’re really sorry we broke your vase,” said Justin. Jessie nodded her head.

“I know. I forgive both of you. It was an accident. But I hope you will never be afraid to tell me or Dad about something you’ve done. It always makes it worse when you try to hide things,” Justin’s mom replied as she gave the kids a hug.

“The next time you want to pillow fight, ask one of us to put away the breakable things first!” said Justin’s dad as he bonked Justin with the pillow.