A Five-Dollar Bill and a Broken Hairbrush
Rob was young, but he still should have known better. In fact, he really did know better. But that didn’t matter.
It started one afternoon in Bay City, Michigan. It was a Saturday between the end of spring and the beginning of summer.
Rob was bored, and hungry. He had one of those cravings for something sweet. And he knew just what he wanted. The man who owned the corner store a few blocks down from Rob’s house made the most delicious sundaes. They were called Van Nut Sundaes. Mr. Van Tyler, the owner of the store, made the sauce for the sundaes from a secret recipe. The recipe used chocolate and nuts, and something else, but no one could ever figure out what that something else was.
Well, Rob wasn’t one to just sit around all day wishing he had one of those sundaes. He sat on his bed to think. Nothing came to him. He sighed in frustration and left his room to get a glass of water, he was too thirsty to think.
He passed through the front hall on his way to the kitchen. He was almost at the door to the kitchen when he stopped, and walked backwards several paces. He stopped in front of the closet door and looked hard at his mother’s purse, which was hanging on the doorknob. He grinned.
He tiptoed quietly up the stairs again, his thirst forgotten. Past his room he crept. He went straight to the door at the end of the hall. He listened carefully at the closed door. Hearing nothing he pushed the door open a crack. He peered inside. He didn’t see anyone, so he pushed the door until it reached the point where he knew it would creak. He slipped carefully inside.
His mother lay on the bed, sound asleep for her afternoon nap. She wouldn’t wake for a half and hour, at least.
He slipped back outside and silently closed the door. Back downstairs he went as quietly as he could, skipping over the creaking stair. He opened his mother’s purse. He delicately took out a five-dollar bill. He held it reverently; he had never had so much money at once. Then, decisively, he snapped the purse shut and shoved the bill deep into his pants pocket.
Once he was outside he ran next door to find Jimmy. Then the two boys hurried across the street to get Henry. The boys then went to the next street over to get the rest of their gang, Roger and Ben.
They all went up the street to Mr. Van Tyler’s store.
“Hello there, boys,” Mr. Van Tyler said with a smile as the boys came in. “How can I help you?”
“Van Nut Sundaes all around, please, Mr. Van Tyler,” Rob announced, slapping the five-dollar bill on the counter.
Mr. Van Tyler looked at the five-dollar bill, then he looked at Rob. “Just a moment,” he said.
Mr. Van Tyler disappeared into the back room. Rob could hear him talking softly to someone. A few minutes later Mr. Van Tyler came back.
“I just spoke to your mother, Rob. She wants you home. Immediately.”
Rob gulped visibly.
“And I’ll be keeping this,” Mr. Van Tyler added, picking up the bill from where it still lay on the counter. “Now you boys run along home.”
The boys left the store in silence.
They were almost at Rob’s house when Ben said quietly, “It was nice knowing you, Rob.”
Jimmy and Roger laughed.
“You’ve really done it this time,” Henry added.
Rob gave them a pained look, then went up his porch stairs, leaving the gang behind him.
“Good luck!” Roger called.
Rob heard Jimmy mutter, “He’s gonna need it.”
The other boys laughed.
Rob pushed open the door with a feeling of dread. His mother stood there in the hallway. She wore a furious expression on her face, and in her right hand she held her best hairbrush.
“Upstairs. Now.”
Rob didn’t dare argue. He trudged up the stairs ahead of his mother.
Outside the gang stood where Rob had left them. A few minutes later they heard a series of yelps coming from Rob’s open window.
Rob’s mother was heard yelling, “Don’t you ever, ever, do anything like that again Robert White!”
More yelps. Then a loud CRACK!!
It turned out that Mrs. White had spanked Rob so hard that her best hairbrush had broken in two.
Rob couldn’t sit down for a week.
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