An Accidental Fall, Essay Example

Being the oldest child in a family has its privileges, especially being able to pick on your younger siblings and show them how powerful you are over them.  I used to hide my younger brother’s toys with him, cheat in competitive games so that he would always lose, and push him to the ground whenever I felt that he was getting out of line.  Thinking back on it now, it seems like such a childish, immature behavior, but we all make mistakes when we are that age.

One morning, my family was getting ready for church.  I was dressed in my excitingly new suit and tied that fit my eight-year-old frame.  I used to love the little red clip-on tie because it made me feel so grown up.  My mother was in the kitchen making us our customary Sunday breakfast, which always consisted of eggs, bacon, and white toast with butter and cinnamon sugar on it.  My younger brother was running through the house playing with a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toy he received for his birthday.

I’m not sure if I was jealous of the toy or just annoyed that my brother was running around making noise, but what I did next was the most frightening experience that I can remember from that age.  While sitting on the edge of the couch, I was looking out the screen door to the backyard right beside me.  There was a narrow walkway between the couch and the inside door that opened in towards me.  Usually, this door was opened all the way so that it cleared the walkway for people to get through, but for some reason the door was only open halfway that morning.

I began to notice a pattern in my brother’s actions.  He would run past me into the living room, circle around and head back into the other room where he came from.  It was almost like he was running a race with himself and his turtle toy.  I developed a nasty plan in my head and planned it out just right.  My brother ran past me and I put my foot out right in front of him.  It was perfect!  He went flying, the toy fell out of his hand – and then I saw his head smash right into the corner of the inside door that just had to be open halfway that morning. I immediately ran to him and felt so sorry for what I had done.  My poor brother!  I loved him so much and never meant to really hurt him like that.  The worst thing was not the spanking I received or the scolding my parents gave me, but it was the blood I saw pouring from his head.  That was the first time I had ever seen blood come out of the head and all the possibilities of problems ran through my head – stitches, brain problems, scars.  I was scared so much that I burst into tears, and no punishment that my parents could give me was enough than my own regret for hurting my brother like that.

It was a sad morning, but my brother was not seriously hurt and never even had to go to the hospital.  The bleeding quickly stopped; the punishment pursued; and my regret never left me for what I had done that morning.  That was by far the scariest event of my young childhood that I had ever gone through because of how bad it really could have been and the pain I caused my young brother.