A Lesson Learned 改编.docVIP

?Reading: A Lesson Learned I stood there listening to the stern words of my father. He had gathered us and had the look on his face which told us all that one of us did something wrong. “Which one of you did this?” he asked with a sharp voice. We all stared down at the floor containing the art of a child’s handwriting in chalk. I stood there, feeling terrible in the heart and had hoped that no one else could see it. “Will he know it was me that committed the crime?” I secretly wondered. Scared, the only words that came from my mouth were, “Not me, dad.” The others denied it as well. Of course, we knew that one of us must have done it. But I, being the youngest and smallest of the three, just couldn’t find the courage to tell the truth. It wasn’t that I was a bad kid. Lying was not normal for me. But the look on my dad’s face that evening sent a chill down my spine and somehow I was unable to admit it. He had a way about him when I was a child that made me afraid of him. But I loved him for it too, because it gave me my limits, my boundaries of what I could and could not do. I wanted to please him, of course. Maybe that’s why I held back the truth that day. I was afraid of displeasing the man I looked up to. Without saying a word, he disappeared for only several minutes and came back with a piece of paper and a pencil. He was so determined to find the culprit! “I want each of you to write exactly what you see on the step.” I was not a stupid kid. When my turn came, I deliberately wrote the words differently. So when my dad compared the handwriting, he still couldn’t tell which one of us did it. Frustrated, he stood a step above us and looked down at his three small kids. “I’m going to give you one more chance to confess.” He continued to stand there for a few moments, but to me it only seemed like a second. Not surprisingly, neither my brother nor my sister spoke up. Why should they? I was the one who did it. Should I say something? Is it too late? He’ll be mad! S