Writer’s Workshop: Breaking Rules

2.) A rule I broke.

I break rules partly because I’m rebellious, but mostly because I’m lazy. My Mom says I was “that child”. The one that just kind of breaks a parent. She thought she had everything figured out until I came along. The kids new better than to test her because she had mastered the art of the angry mom faces and finger pointing. You know…the ones we all know so well now.

Imagine how much she must have despised me when I came along and quite simply didn’t care. My craving for whatever whatever it was I wanted was always stronger than my fear of being punished after the crime was committed.

This understandably drove my mother crazy. She describes my former child self as always having a “glint” in my eyes. I was always up to something. She didn’t trust me. And shouldn’t have. I was like Denace the Menace. Never up to any good.

I’ll tell you what else drove my Mom crazy and that’s cats. That’s right. Cats. And any other four legged furry creature to be quite honest with you. She didn’t like the maintenance, she didn’t like the smell, she didn’t like the fleas, she didn’t like the hair, and she didn’t like the bodily discharges.

Naturally I adored all animals. When I was angry I would tell my Mom that when I grew up I was going to own 100 dogs and 100 cats and let them all out when she came over to visit.

In my mind this was the perfect revenge for whatever cruelties I had suffered…like going to bed without dessert.

Mom’s house rule was that our pets were not allowed inside. It was a rule I simply could not tolerate…my precious kitties outside? Forget about it! They had feelings and they got cold and they. were. my. friends. Would you leave YOUR friend outside to freeze? I don’t think so.

I snuck my cat into my room whenever I could. It’s easy to do when your bedroom is in the basement…Mom hardly ever came down to bother my sister and I and we lived happily in the basement with my cat and her subsequent kittens.

Correction…*I* lived happily…my sister as it turns out was not too thrilled with the living arrangements, but she put up with my shenanigans and I lovingly opened the door for my kitty each night. The thousands of fleas that infiltrated our bedroom were annoying. Sure. I’ll give you that. I remember walking into our room and literally swiping dozens of them from my legs as I’d rush to leap on my bed…you know…because they can’t get me when I’m three feet off the floor. I also managed to ignore the stench that seeped past our closet door as the cats liked to use that area for a litter box.

Unfortunately for me, the odor from the closet could not be ignored forever.

My mother actually did visit our bedroom from time to time as mothers sometimes do, and when she did the fleas unleashed their madness and the smell from the closet trampled her and the cats scattered at her fury.

The room was immediately bombed and scoured in bleach. I was punished for letting the cat in and for not telling her about the problem and for just plain being a slob.

But you know what? A little piece of me felt victorious that day. I may not have the 100 dogs and 100 cats I dreamed about…but I think what I unleashed on her by breaking that rule had nearly the same affect.

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Now it’s your turn!

Choose a prompt, post it on your blog, and come back to add your name to the link list below. Be sure to sign up with the actual post URL and not just your basic blog URL (click on the title of your post for that URL). For good comment karma try to comment on the three blogs above your name!!

The Prompts:

1.) Your 15 minutes of fame.
2.) A rule I broke.
3.) If you really knew me, you would know that…
4.) What battle are you fighting? Write a poem overcoming.
5.) Write about someone who made your childhood bearable.