Hi, my name is Benjamin Perfect. I am a teacher at an elementary school. My students always thought that I was so perfect as a child, but that was not the case. Before I was even twelve years old, I found myself getting into a lot of trouble with my family. I can remember several things that happened that I thought I was right about, but in the end I realized that I was wrong. The situation that stands out the most was when I was playing with a friend from church. “Benjamin, hurry up and get up. You know that there are a lot of things we have to do today,” my mother said as she opened the door wide. She walked over to the window and opened the shades to let the sunlight into the dark room. As she turned around she said in a low voice frustrated “Get up or you are not going to be able to look at television or play with your friends later.” I dragged myself out of the bed. “Ohhhh.” I was tired from the previous day of cleaning the yard all by myself. It snowed a foot and it was all wet. All of that just added more pounds to lift. “Don’t I get a break? I am only eight years old.” “When you have your own place and paying bills, then you can say that,” she said quickly.
I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth to eat some delicious eggs and bacon.
As soon as I sat down to take one bite, my mother shouted out from the kitchen “We have to hurry up. Church is going to start in one hour.” When I heard that, I just wanted to just disappear. There was nothing at church that I really looked forward to doing. I am just going to sit down in the pew and just imagine that I was fighting demons that entered the church. At the end of the battle I will save the day and everyone will thank me. Well, that is how it always ended.
“Since I do not have Sunday School why do I have to go? I did all of that work yesterday and now this. This is not right.” For a split second I closed my eyes hoping for a miracle . I knew what the next response would be after saying that.
“You are going because I said so.” I lost track of how many times I heard that response. “Beside, don’t you want to say hello to your friend Rick?”
Rick Papers is the coolest eight year old that I know. He always seems to have the first of everything. He always had the newest Jordans, the newest bike, the newest comic book, and he even had the newest sneakers that make your feet glow in the dark. The thing that makes Rick really cool is that he never brags about what he has and when you talk to him, you wanted to be his friend.
“Ok.” I took my last bite and I got up and got ready for church.
We are finally at church. The usual people are here, the old ladies that are always quick to kiss me with there bright red lipstick and tell me how nice I am, the adults that are around my parents age that are quick to give advice, and teenagers that look like they are too cool to be in church. I can’t wait to join that crowd.
Every time the service has ended, the parishioners got together to say hello to each other and talked about their week. This was when I looked for my friends.
“Hey Benjamin! What is up? I actually got a new Nintendo Game. Do you want to come by to play it?”
“Yeah,” I said without hesitation . “Let me ask my mom.” At that moment, even though my mother was talking to one of her friends, I asked, “Mom, can I go over to Rick’s house?”
She was still facing her friend and said “Yes.” This is all that I wanted to hear and I ran over to Rick and said “Ok, let’s go.” While Rick and I walked to the exit of the church I said, “Bye Mom.” She did not respond and was still talking. Well, she can not say that I was rude and did not tell her goodbye or where I was going. This was so exciting for me because my mom usually would say "I would have to check with your father", but this time that was not the case. I felt so lucky.
I could not wait to arrive at a Rick’s home. I reached Rick’s house within two minutes. He just lived around the block from the church. This was really convenient for me because did not know how much patience I had left to wait. As soon as we entered the house his mother greeted me.
“Hi Benjamin. Did your mother give you permission to come by?”
I had a great big smile on my face and replied, “Yes, Mrs. Papers. I just asked her in church.” Rick and I did not stop to continue the conversation with his mom. We went straight to the living room to play the video games.
Within ten minutes, Mrs. Papers gave us treats and soda to have as snacks. I felt like I was in heaven because my parents would not want to give me any candy. They always complained about how I react to the sweets within those products. I don’t know what they were talking about. I felt fine and energetic.
After an hour past, Mrs. Papers came into the room and asked, “Excuse me Benjamin. What time did your parents say that they were going to pick you up?”
That was a puzzling question to me because my mother never said anything about what time. “They did not give me a time Mrs. Papers.” I did not even face Mrs. Papers as I spoke because I was really into the game.
Mrs. Papers went to the snack area and looked at me, “Do you have to go to the bathroom Benjamin? You are rocking back and forth….. I was just wondering.” She picked up some of the chips, but made sure to take all of the candy and sweet drinks. I shook my head no in reply and continued playing with Rick. The phone rang about five minutes later and Mrs. Papers answered. “Benjamin, the phone is for you, it is your mother.”
I got up like a rocket and ran over to the phone and said, “Mom, thank you so much for letting me come over by Rick’s…”
“BENJAMIN, WHEN I SEE YOU, BOY ARE YOU GOING TO GET IT,” she said abruptly . There was such anger and volume in her tone that I had to put the phone away from my ears.
“We are on our way to pick you up. Man, you are in troooouble.” My sister, Joyce, said this with such joy. “If I were you I would start writing my obituary .”
If I was Batman, my older sister was definitely the Joker. She would constantly try to get me in trouble or beat me up. She was so strong that she would be able to lift me upside down while holding me with one arm. She even broke my two front teeth. Out of all the times she said cruel things to me, this was believable. My mother sounded so angry over the phone that my body felt the pain she and my dad were going to deliver.
The door bell rang and Mrs. Papers went to open the door. It was my sister!? My mother was in the car and she had a look of a wild dog trying to protect its food. I said goodbye to Mrs. Papers and Rick, as if I was about to serve my death sentence for all the crimes that I committed.
Simultaneously as the door closed to the Papers’ home, Joyce started giving me tips on what to do immediately when we get home. “Ben, run straight to your room and get some books to put in your pants. Mom and Dad are probably going to give you a new body after they are finish with you.” Can you believe she had the audacity to giggle after she said that?
We reached the car and my mother started to vent out the frustration that I caused her. “Benjamin Perfect, do you know the distress you caused this family. Your father and I were calling all over the neighborhood to find you. We thought that something terrible happened to you. Your father even went to all the parks and looked inside the trash cans. He thought that you were chopped up into little pieces because of the drug dealers that hated us. I finally called Mrs. Papers and she told me where you were. What do you have to say for yourself?”
“It was not my fault. I did ask you in the church,” I said with confidence.
She gave me a look that would set any human being on fire and said, “I never heard you ask me if you can go over to Rick’s house. I only saw you talking to him and stepping outside the church with him.”
“When I asked you in the church, you said yes.”
In reply my mom said, “I was agreeing with the idea that Mrs. Bishop had about a Christmas party. Did I face you? Did I call your name? When do I ever let you go out to someone’s home without a curfew ?
At that very moment I felt sheepish about acting as if I was right. We arrived at our home and my body felt heavier and heavier as I walked to the door of our house. The moment the door opened I ran to my room to get the books my sister suggested. Out of all the nasty things that came out of her mouth, this idea seemed to be the most plausible that would work. I changed into my house clothes and I found two small books that were right for my body size. I was ready for the beating.
The moment had arrived and my mom started to strike. As this was happening, I felt nothing. I started to exaggerate the pain by crying, “Ohhhh. Ouch. Have mercy.” Then the unthinkable happened. The books fell out of the pants.
My mother looked at the ground and said, “Ohhhh, ouch, and have mercy huh. Let me give it another try and see if you can use the same enthusiasm as before.”
Of course I had more feelings the second time around. When I finished drying up the tears, my sister came into the room and said, “You idiot. You were to make sure the books did not fall out. Only your skinny body can allow such a thing to happen.” Next, she left the room shaking her with big smirk on her face.
Ten minutes later, my mother came back into the room. She said that she was sorry for that punishment. She was angry that I did such a thing without thinking about the consequences . As I sat there in my room, I realized that I was wrong. She said, “You should have waited on me to finish my conversation and made sure that my eyes were on you while you were talking to me.”
“Sorry mom. I will remember to make sure that the person is talking to me in the future.”
It is so interesting how one moment of pleasure can lead to a lifetime of pain. I never did get a chance to go back by Rick again, but that is another story.
