As children, we think that we can outsmart our parents and get away with it, especially when there is always someone else to blame. I grew up in a small community along the eastern coast of the island with five sisters and one brother, and the occasional cousins or distant relative that my mother would feel obligated to help.

Being the third child and the Tomboy of the family I would oftentimes find myself in dilemmas that the other girls would not find themselves in and the boy being, the youngest, was not of age to do. In the process of covering up my many misdeeds I would occasionally tell a little fib or two.

My mother’s house was about fifty chains away from that that of my grandmother’s. Us kids would roam freely between the two houses oftentimes venturing into the small banana field that was within my grandmother’s property.

My parents planted some hibiscus shrubs along the border of the property. The hibiscus plant was chosen because of the bright red circular shaped flowers it blooms and the fact that once the flowers were opened they would attract the Doctor Bird, our island’s national birds that feeds on the nectar in the flower.

Well, one day we were by my grandmother’s house when my mother sent me to go by her house to fetch the hammer. Being the imp that I was, I broke off some of the branches from the beautifully manicured and blooming hedging and used them to play along the path as I went.

I went to the house got the hammer and found myself in my mother’s room. Now my mother had a beautiful bed made from mahogany.

The headboard was made almost like a narrow dressing table about one-and-half feet wide and extended on either sides with two built-on bedside tables. Two rectangular shaped boards with smooth curved edges extended into about one-third the width of the bed on either sides and has two small drawers encased in them. them. These were built on the surface. Extending across the entire headboard is a Cornish edging to enhance its beauty.

The foot board was also about one-and-half-feet wide and divided into three sections. The right and left thirds served as chess where articles were stored and it was opened by lifting a lid that spanned the entire width. The middle section was accessed from the front with two sliding glasses. Inside the flooring section was lined with a piece of red velvet, and on the opposite wall was a small mirror.

In the process of carrying the hammer it did nothing but fell from my hand and broke one of the sliding glass door.

My fright and fear was so much that I took the hammer to my Mom I said nothing to her, but was planning how to get out of this mess.

Well, on going home that evening my mother discovered the broken fence. Boy, was she mad, but of course I lied. “It wasn’t me Mom.” But I suspected she knew that I was guilty as the evidence of the tree leaves and branches were along the path to the house.

But when I thought it was peace and safety, it was sudden destruction, she had gone to her room and discovered the broken glass. I got a caning of my life.