Our red tree house lies curled up above the sandbox, reachable by an apple-tree ladder. We’d barricade the door against Indian Raids and spend timeless mornings playing “house”. And it was the best spot to plot revenge on Uncle Tom. He had locked us inside Grandma’s pantry, and threatened to EAT us! A grown-up, 23 years old. Supposedly, a mature human being. But mature human beings know not to pick on someone who is not their own size. We huddled in the pantry scared to death. Uncle Tom getting ready to eat us up like a handful of candy when Grandma Vonda miraculously appeared and rescued us. SHE scared him away. But worse than almost eating us and getting away, Uncle Tom remained without punishment.

“I know,” I whispered, all gathering around, our eyes a glimmer with mischievousness. “We’ll pick some of those green apples…” eyes widened as grins split our faces. “And when Uncle Tom comes outside, we’ll get him good!” Oblivious to his ambushers, Uncle Tom ambled over to the treehouse. His mistake! Once we showed him who was boss, we had him begging on hands and knees.

“I am so sorry!” he gasped as an apple ricocheted off his shoulder.

“Hah. Sorry for what? Promise you will never do it again!” we demanded, hands on our little hips as we glared down from our perch.

“I promise I won’t ever do that again,” Uncle Tom said, eyes serious? We couldn’t tell.

“You made Laura cry!” we’d been practicing the “pity-me” voice for ages. Now, finally we had the chance put it to good use. We could tell Uncle Tom had been practicing his “pity me” voice too. We just loved hearing him grovel at our feet. How far would our new power reach?

“Is there anything I can do to make it right?” This time Uncle Tom completely blew us away. We liked how this was turning out! Uncle Tom, completely in our power.

“Well…” we whispered among ourselves. “Just say you’re sorry.” We decided to go easy on him, just in case those apples hurt, for real.

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