Gus the bee worked hard for months making his honey. It was a long, hard, time consuming process as each honeycomb had to be filled one by one. When one day a stranger came into the forest and destroyed Gus’ honeycomb, the one that he had worked extremely hard to make. Gus became an angry bee. He was livid! Everything he had worked so hard to make was gone in an instant. Gus flew quickly out of his hive and began to attack the strange man. He began buzzing all over the place, zipping through the air aiming to put his stinger into this strange man. With anger in his eyes, he stung the man, and then went back to work to fill his honeycomb again.

Small innocent thoughtless acts can cause everlasting permanent damage. My sister and me arrived home from school… no homework to complete! It was a beautiful fall afternoon. The leaves were turning orange and red, the sun was shining brightly, and the wind was blowing lightly. It was one of those days that we knew there wouldn’t be many more of since it was the end of October. My sister and I were in the kitchen eating a snack trying to decide what activity we should do outside, so we could take an advantage of this beautiful autumn day.  Our parents were not home. Therefore, our options were limited. We could shoot some hoops, take a walk, ride our bikes, or play catch; activities considered safe when there was no parental supervision. None of those options seemed appealing to either one of us. I’m not sure who suggested it, not that it matters, but riding our four-wheeler sounded like fun. Riding the four-wheeler was something we did quite often, but only when our parents were home. We both knew that was the absolute rule!  But really…what was the harm?  It was going to be at least an hour until someone was home, and with the days being shorter, we felt that there was not a moment to waste.  Besides, what could happen?  We’d wear our helmets and ride around the yard like we always did just like we did when they were home. Putting all common sense aside, we grabbed our helmets and headed down to the shop to rev up the four-wheeler.

The fun began as soon as we started riding the four-wheeler. We were having “the times of our lives.” Imagine riding a motorcycle through the lovely country sides of Iowa; the warm breeze hitting your face, the wind whipping through your hair, and the exhilaration of speed beneath you. Not a care in the world.  Just watching the sights go by you in a blur while you hold on tight, in no particular hurry to get anywhere. This was exactly what it was like to my sister and I at that very moment. We were careful at first, but as our ride continued we thought less about safety and focused more on our carefree mood. We started to fool around, laughing, and thinking that every little stunt was funny, so we continued to do it. My sister looked back at me, and we just laughed. It was just a quick glance back, but when we looked ahead again, we saw the small hill that was in front of us, and we began driving down it. I closed my eyes hoping that this was just a bad dream, but when I opened them again I saw this huge white building directly in the path of our four-wheeler. My sister grabbed the brakes, but it was too late. Crash!!! We just hit my dad’s shop!

The engine was still running, but we weren’t going anywhere! How could that be? We stared at each other, then at my dad’s shop taking in the damage that was done, and then looked back at each other. Our mouths wide open in shock. “What are we going to tell mom and dad?”  “I didn’t mean to do it!”  Maybe we could fix it.  So into the shop we went hoping we could push out the dent.  “Push Haleigh,” I said.  “I’m pushing!” she yelled. So we pushed and we pushed, hoping to push the dent back out. No luck. Slowly, we walked back up to the house questioning who was going to tell our parents what we had done. “You have to tell them since it was you who drove into it,” I said. Haleigh replied, “But you were the one who wanted to ride.  You were the one who was making me drive faster!” “It wasn’t my fault!” I yelled back.  Finally, we walked back to the house. We knew we were going to have to call my dad and tell him what happened. Haleigh picked up the phone and dialed my father’s number. “Dad, we need to tell you something.” I listened as Haleigh relived our exhilarating moments on the four-wheeler. I remember faintly hearing the conversation coming from the other end, but I could tell he was livid. Although the conversation was a brief one, it sure did feel like forever.

Haleigh and I went back down to the shop and put the four-wheeler away. We came back up to the house and sat at the table. “What’s he going to say when he gets home?”  Haleigh asked.  “I don’t know, but he’s going to be furious,” I replied.  After all, it wasn’t actually me who crashed into the shop. Time stood still.  We dreaded the arrival of our parents. Once our mom came home we began to tell the story of what happened. “Mom, we didn’t mean to do it.  It was an accident.”  Of course she wasn’t too mad, but we disrespected her rules so she was displeased about that. “You girls could have been hurt.  Do you understand why we told you not to ride when we weren’t home?” Terrified, Haleigh and I waited anxiously until our dad arrived home. Minutes passed, but it felt more like hours.  Dad opened the door and walked into the house. He knew we were scared, as we sat there in silence.  “Dad, we are so sorry.  We didn’t mean for it to happen” We told him the story in detail, probably not everything, and maybe some little white lies here and there. I could tell that he was very disappointed with us, but I thought that the turnout was going to be much worse.

Throughout the night, he did let up a little bit, although, he was still disappointed in my sister and I.
Just like Gus, the busy bee, my dad works hard to have nice things. We’ve heard the speech many times before, “I go to work and your mom goes to work to make money so we can have nice things.” One day he comes home to find out that something he worked hard to have had been damaged. Dad was a very angry man, as mad as a bee. A split decision to ride the four -wheeler ended up causing a huge dent in the shop reminds me of the stranger who destroyed the beehive without thinking of the hours that were spent creating it. The destroyed beehive may be gone, but the dent in the shop still remains to this day as a reminder to think about how important it is to think of the consequences of split second decision actions.