The Rose bush and the Bicycle

 

Janice was obsessed with bicycles. She was constantly asking her parents for one but they felt she was a bit too clumsy to manage one successfully. This didn’t stop her asking. At every birthday and every Christmas, she would start dropping hints about what she wanted for her gift. You guessed right – a bicycle.

 

One day, Eddie, a friend of her parents came to visit and with him was his old blue 10 speed bicycle. Janice was excited; she felt that if she rode Eddies bicycle if only for a few minutes, then she would be the happiest girl on the planet. When she asked Eddie if she could he said

 

“I’m so sorry Janice.. but the brakes aren’t working very well. I’m going to have to get it fixed first before I can let you or anyone else ride it… it’s not very safe”

 

Janice heard every word Eddie said, but she wasn’t really listening. Now Janice was a little girl who could be quite stubborn and determined when she was ready and mummy knew that. She had told Janice repeatedly that one day if she continued to refuse to listen then she was going to face the consequences.

 

Mummy and Eddie went inside to have some tea and talk and Janice stayed outside looking at the bicycle with a determined gleam in her face. She knew that they couldn’t hear her from inside the house so she decided to get on the bicycle anyway despite Eddie’s warning.

 

Janice got on the bicycle, put her feet on the pedals and starting riding merrily away, she was going around in circles for about five minutes when she saw herself headed towards a rose bush by the side of the house. She desperately tried to brake but the brakes would not work. I wonder why? Well if you remember, Eddie had told her that the brakes were not working. Janice let out a loud scream as she crashed  head first right into that rose bush.

 

Now this rose bush had a lot of prickles so they scratched her quite badly. Janice screamed so hard that her mother and Eddie rushed out to see what had happened. They found Janice crying her little heart out with her legs bleeding and lots of cuts across her hands and legs. Mummy gently lifted her up, carried her inside and put some antiseptic on the cuts. This made Janice cry even harder because antiseptic sometimes stings when you apply it to fresh cuts. All the time mummy was cleaning up Janice, she never said a single word. After she was finished she said

 

 “Janice do you remember what I said about listening..All who can’t hear will feel”?

 

 Janice nodded her head. “Well” said mummy,

 

 “I think you just felt. I’m sorry that you are all bruised up but I hope the next time, you will listen when we tell you not to do something”

 

Janice learnt a very important lesson that day. Do you know what that was? Well she learnt that it was important to listen to her mummy and adults around her and that there

 

are always consequences to the things we do. So do not be like disobedient Janice, listen to your parents and your teachers because often they tell you not to do things in order to protect you.

 

 

J. Osbourne