Papa always told me it’s important to be honest. Once, I came home with a roll of quarters n’ he asked where I got’em from. “I found em’ ” I told him without any hesitation. He bout blew a gasket when he found out I slipped it out of Mrs.Audrey’s desk when she wasn’t lookin’. “Don’tcha know them quarters where used to pay fer school lunches fer the kids that ain’t got none?” He asked. Sittin across from me in the principals office. Them both lookin at me all funny. So I shrug and regurgitate the word “sorry”. That usually does the trick. When people seem to be upset with me I just assume they waitin fer an apology. “Yer gonna give’em back, and yer gonna save up a whole new roll of quarters to give to Audrey young ma’am. Understand?” I saved the quarters just like he told me. Gave ‘em back. Mrs.Audrey even bought me a baked cookie for lunch after. “Papa. Why is it wrong to take quarters?” I asked him when I got home that day. “Cause they ain’t yours. And ya need to respect that they ain’t yours. How would you like it if I went and took yer toys?” This didn’t quite make sense to me so I just nodded and let the topic change after a little. After a week or two Mrs.Audrey became really sick n’ the whole town started acting weird. Everyone going to her house n’ making her food. Papa was workin a bunch, so I just stayed at home alone most evenings. The substitute didn’t believe in homework, so he toll us to try something new every day. I didn’t have any friends to try new things with so I ended up walkin round the yard waiting for papa to come home. Thinkin of new things to try. I’d tried lots of things already but none of em were very important. Other kids would play the same old games in their yard every day’ n then do it again the next. Sometimes I’d see ‘em fall and they’d cry and run inside. I always wondered what makes someone cry. They always act different when they cry. Papa said that crying means someone is sad, but I’ve been sad before, but don’t remember cryin. Papa said I’d cry lots when I was a baby. Said it was jus something baby’s do. That day a little bird fell out of our tree we had in the front yard. I heard it cryin. I went and looked at it as it wiggled and cried. I looked for it’s mama but she was gone too. The little bird fell out of the nest and didn’t know how to get back up. And it was cryin cause it was sad. I didn’t want it to be sad, so I took a rock n’ popped it’s head to make it feel better. When it stopped cryin I felt like i helped it. I’d never felt it before but it felt right. Next day in class our sub mister Ricorich asked everyone who tried something new to raise their hands, n I raised mine for the first time all week. He smiled and told us to keep trying new things. Said it would make us better than we were before. That day while waiting for papa to get home I went to the neighbors house to see their dog. His name was Sid, n he would always whine when his mama was at work. “Are you sad mister Sid?” I asked him as he sat there chained to his pole. He was a bigger dog. Bigger than me. “I’ll be right back Sid.” I went n got papas knife. The one that he used on his hunts. I came back and Sid was still cryin. So I pet him a little. He would always rest his big head on my lap when I sat down with him. He set his head down, n I open papas knife and put it into Sid’s head. It was allot harder than with the bird, and Sid started cryin more, so I kept putting the knife in him. Three times in his head, two times in his leg, three times in his tummy. I was helping him, but he bit me once. After a few minutes Sid was quite. His mama came home right after and ran to him.. she was cryin.. so I opened papas knife.. and helped her.