My Mother’s Ankle

When I was about eight years old, I accidentally made my mother fall down the stairs and break her ankle. I was playing with my sister when my mother called me to come down stairs. I was busy playing Barbie with my sister so I refused to go see what she wanted. I just sat there and kept playing, even when she called me again. I yelled, "What do you want?" Big mistake. I was way out of my league. I heard her coming up the stairs. My brother and I have a bathroom that connects our rooms so I ran through the bathroom, into my brother’s room, to the hallway with my mother closing on my heels. I went soaring down the stairs, but when my mother attempted the same stunt, she failed. She fell, but I didn’t think anything of it. I kept running, but I heard her calling my father and whimpering like a dying cat. My father took her to the hospital and the doctor said her ankle was broken. When she returned home, handicapped, she spanked me for a long time. Since then, I have never, ever overstepped my boundaries again. She never chased me again, but she always reminds me of the time when I broke her ankle.