A Childhood Crime
When I was a child in my country Haiti, I
had a cousin named Vanessa who was two years older than me. She always called
me names, so we were always getting into fights over every little thing.
One day, we quarreled over something and I got punished. To get revenge for
that, I was on a mission to get her in trouble, so she would get punished also. As a result,
we both got into trouble for my Childhood Crime.
When I was a child, I lived in a family of height: my mom, my dad, four brothers, myself, and my cousin Vanessa, who was my mom's goddaughter. It was a beautiful Christmas day,
and as usual we all opened up our presents. My cousin Vanessa got a doll from
Santa Claus. That doll had the most beautiful dress. It was a pretty satin lavender dress with ruffles. Its eyes were shiny brown
and its hair seemed the perfect kind to comb through. The doll was amazing and
I preferred it over my doll, which was beautiful but looked like nothing compared to
Vanessa’s. The following night, I decided to switch her doll with mine, just so
I could sleep holding her doll even if it was for one night. The next morning she
woke up and realized that she did not have her doll and we got into a fight. We
pulled and tugged on both ends of the doll, yelling and screaming until finally
we heard, “Riiiiip.” We gasped as her doll ripped in half. She began to cry, as
a mother would cry for her child. When everyone came in to see what had
transpired, they called me a "The doll murder," and I got punished.
After a week of doing my punishment
chores, which was making breakfast and dinner for the house, I got even more upset. All I did was rip her doll and I had to do all of
these chores, while she was a bed wetter and she never got in trouble for it
because she had suddenly stopped. I got an idea. While she was sleeping I snuck
a balloon full of water under her bed sheet, so she would be punished. The
next morning she got punished for wetting the bed, no matter how hard she tried
to tell my mother and Aunt that she had not. For a few days she was very
unhappy about the situation, so she gave me the silent treatment as if I wasn't alive. I did the
same. I was happy and considered that we
were even.
A month later, when we were both off
of punishment, my brother told me he knew that I had to have wet Vanessa's bed, so I told him what had happened. He went straight to my mother’s ears to
tell her. This caused me to get a double punishment because I had made her go
through punishment for something she really did not do. For two consecutive Sundays I couldn’t go to the
movies with my friends as I always did. I also had to do Vanessa’s house chores for two weeks. It was horrible, and it made me angry, especially
with my younger brother. This little boy was my baby godson, and he called me "My little mom." This is why I never went after him. I love him and I still do.
That punishment made me very wrathful, and
I planned another comeback on Vanessa again. One night I took a small bed sheet, and I tied her up in bed
while she was sleeping. Early in the morning, when she realized what I did, we
got into another fight. This time I punched her in the face. Obviously, she got a big
cut on her lower eyelid. They brought her to the hospital where she got six
stitches. Everyone was outraged at me. My mother was tired of punishing me, so she decided to banish me to my grandmother's house, where I stayed for almost two years, hoping that would do the trick.
The two years that I spent over
there taught me a lesson. I realized that my behavior kept me away from my
whole family, even my childhood companions. I comprehended how crazy a child
could be at a certain age. I went to my cousin’s house to apologize, which was well needed and it was accepted. We spent the whole week laughing and
making jokes over all the fights and arguments we had. This caused us to spend
more time together and appreciate each other. The time we spent together was not spent
merely as cousins, but like sisters. We were sorry for all the trouble we had
caused each other. I felt very bad about myself. Since that day until now, I
can see that Vanessa is a woman with a gregarious personality.
