Mother's Vase (Freewrite Challenge - Vase)

shanedustin (55)in #freewrite • 6 years ago (edited)

The vase had fallen off the shelf as Robert climbed up on top to look for change. He was a child of nine years, and with his child like mind he could imagine spare change lying on top of the shelf. He finished watching a movie about a bunch kids looking for pirate treasure, and now he wanted to make his own treasure box and bury it in the back yard. Everything was going as he planned, he had buck fifty, and then his arm brushed his mother's vase. He watched with wide eyes, as if in slow motion, as the vase tipped on its edge, and for a brief second it balanced, suspended in time. He reached out for it with his left hand, but his fingers grasped nothing but air.

"No!" Robert watched the vase fall over the edge and crash against the hard wood floor. The color in his face left his cheeks, leaving his skin a chalky pale white. He could hear his mother's disappointment. The last thing he wanted to do was disappoint his mother. His mother was perfect in every way. She was beautiful, honest, pure, and an angel who breath life into his eyes. Just like most kids with their mothers the bond between mother and child was strong and unbreakable, and thinking of her being disappointed in him brought tears in his eyes.

"Mommy will be mad at me," he said, jumping off the shelf, scrabbling to pick up the pieces. He didn't know what to do. He knew he shouldn't lie to his mommy, but the fear of seeing the disappointed on her face made him do something he normally wouldn't do. He picked up the pieces, found an old shoe box in his dad's closet and hid the pieces inside and shoved the box under his bed.

It wasn't until three days later until the mother, Joann noticed that the vase was missing, and she asked her husband about the vase.

"Bob have you my vase I keep on the shelf?" she asked, biting his thumb nail, trying to think of on God's green Earth could have happened to it. It was cheep old thing, won at carnival.(5 minute timer went here) No thief would break into her house and steal a vase and leave TV's and game systems and phones laying around for the taking. It didn't make since.

Bob walked in from the kitchen into the living room and looked at the shelf. "Huh? I don't know honey. It wasn't worth anything."

"I know," Joann said. "But it held sentimental value."

"I'm sure it is around here someone. You probably missed place it in the closet or something. Don't worry it will pop up."

Joann nodded, hoping her husband was right.

Three more days past and Robert with his child like mind and doing what most children do, forgot all about the box, and ran outside and played with his fried Mark, from down the corner. And like most children he had ransacked his room. Pillows laying in the floor, the covers twisted hanging off the bed, toys scattered, and baseball cards scattered across his desk. Joann with his mother instinct done what all great women do, went to work cleaning her sons room.

Clean she did, made his bed, fluffed his pillows, vacuumed his floor, and as gently grabbed the base ball cards one by one, careful to avoid bending the corners as she placed back into the box. With her task almost done, she dropped to her knees and shoved the box under his bed, and a shoe box caught her eye. It was the shoe box that had contained the leather dress shoes she had bought her husband.

"What is this doing under her?" She asked herself, and retrieved the shoe box, it rattled. Joann furrowed her eyebrows and opened the box. Her jaw dropped open, and tears came to her eyes, it was the vase she had been looking for just a few days earlier.

Robert came running in the house, slid through the hallway, and skidded to a stop at his bedroom door. His mother had found the shoe box, and looked up at him, and the tears in her eyes made him want to cry. He had disappointed his mother.

"Mom," he said, his bottom lip trembling.

"Come here Robert," she said, and patted the bed beside her. "Set."

Robert gulped, knowing he was in huge trouble, his mother will never look at him the same again. He lowered his head, slumped his shoulders, and sat beside his mother.

Joann ran a hand through her sons hair, he was beautiful, a splitting image of his father. He would grow up be strong and handsome.

"I'm sorry mama."

"Do you know why I am disappointed?"

Robert nodded. "I broke the vase."

"No Robert," she said. "It's because you lied to me." she picked up a few shards and let the shards fall from between her fingers, letting her words sink into his mind. Tears rolled out his eyes, and dripped from the cheek bones. Joann wiped a tear away with her thumb, and placed her finger and thumb on the tip of his chin and raise his head, and quoted a verse from the bible, Matthew 15:11, "It not what comes in the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out the mouth that defiles man." Joann could see he was struggling to understand. "I trusted you Robert to tell me the truth, and you lied to me. The words that come out of your mouth is important Robert. The words we speak represent our character. If you give your word to someone, it should hold true. When we lie Robert, it tells the other person we don't value them. It is disrespectful to them and you Robert. That vase wasn't worth anything, but it was important to me. Do you know where I got it."

Robert looked up, his wide blue eyes, sparkling like diamonds. "No mama."

"I got it at a carnival. You were only two years old then, and you and your father went to a small vendor selling survivors, and your father said, as soon as he put you down, you ran to this vase." she shook the box. "And he said, he knew right then it would be perfect gift from you two."

Robert smiled.

"I love you son, but you should never lie. And always remember, It's not what comes in the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out the mouth that defiles man."

Note

This is based on half of a somewhat true story, from an experience I had when I was around nine or ten or maybe eleven. (I do know it was before the original Play Station had come out) It wasn't a vase I broke, but it was a Nintendo controller. I have always been super competitive growing up, and still am, just not as open about it, I guess you could say or should say I have grown up and don't through fits anymore, but anyways I was playing a game called Zelda, A link to The Past and I was at the very end, and you have to fight your own shadow, well I couldn't beat it and threw the controller at the TV, well It busted. Boy, were my brothers mad. But when mom asked me about it I had lied, and said, "It wasn't me." of course being a parent, parents often know their children better than the children know themselves, and she gave this speech about lying and controlling my temper, and one the things she told me was, Stay cool, calm, and collected, and till this day I try to live by those three simple and yet powerful words.

I didn't make any editing attempts, all I did was correct misspelled words. I know I always go over five minutes, sorry. I think next time, I will keep resetting the time to see how long it takes me. Be cool to keep track and find my average time. If you read it all Thank You.

I want to give Thanks to @mariannewest for the freewrite challenge.