“Mom, can I play for a while with my friends,” asked 7-year-old Tony from his mother Beth.

“Honey, it’s very cold outside, and you can catch the flu. Instead, spend your time doing your homework. You promised your father to be a lawyer, do you remember? He won’t be happy if you don’t do well in classes,” replied his widowed mother.

“But mom, he is dead, how can be unhappy?” asked Tony surprisingly.

“Even though he is dead, he can see you from the sky and will be with you forever in your heart, honey,” told Beth with a smile on her face but the agony in her heart, “however, if you want to go out, you can go to your friend Brad’s house and give her a letter.”

“Ok, no problem, mom,” told Tony with joy knowing he could go out.

“Wait a minute. I’ll give you the letter, and you will give it to her only and tell her that only she can read it. Understand? And be careful, it’s very cold and slippery outside” instructed Beth and gave the letter.

“Yes, mom, I’ll be alright,” said Tony happily. He did not even care about the letter. All his attention was getting out of the gloomy house and enjoy the outside at least for a short period of time.

It was a chilly Sunday morning in early December, but unfortunately, the cold weather came early that year adding more challenges to Beth’s life. Her husband died from a heart attack in the late spring and left her and Tony nothing but a small house and a few thousand dollars. Beth was uneducated and had no diploma to work in somewhere, but she was good at sewing and worked at a textile factory near to their house. However, due to the shortage of the demand for the clothes they were producing, their boss had to give a holiday for an indefinite period to many of the workers including Beth. So she wrote a letter asking for some money from her childhood friend Maria – mother of Tony’s friend Beth. And Tony was on her way to her house.

“Hey, Tony, where are you headed? Will you play with us? We have some new shocking toys to play with. You’ll love them,” questioned their neighbor 9-year-old Cliff when he saw Tony outside.

“Hi, Cliff. I’m sorry, I’m going to Brad’s house with urgent work and my mother did not let me play. Probably next time, Cliff” Tony apologized.

“You, stupid kid,” whispered Cliff after listening to Tony, and planned something in his head and told to other kids, “Let’s make him scared with our toy, shall we?”

“Yeah, let’s teach him a lesson, and he’ll never reject us,” said one of the boys.

When Tony was close to Brad’s house, Cliff threw a small piece of pyrotechnics behind him which exploded right after Tony looked back to Cliff. Scared Tony slipped and fell to the icy ground with his head and lost consciousness.

“Look at that jerk, boys, he lost his mind, ha-ha-ha! Merry Christmas, you fool! Come on, guys, let’s get out of here before someone sees us,” laughed Cliff with an evil smile on his face.

That part of the neighborhood was often deserted and quiet all day and there was nobody around there. Fortunately, one man called Rick from the closest house heard the noise of the explosion and went outside and caught Cliff and his fellow boys. He took Tony to the closest hospital and called Beth and the parents of the other kids too. She was so scared when she arrived, but Tony was lucky, Rick had been there on time. If he had been late for 5-10 minutes, who knows what would have happened. After the proper medications, Tony opened her eyes and told everything.

“Mom, I’m sorry. I could not give the letter,” said Tony.

“Forget about it, honey. Are you OK? You frightened me, I think I lost you, do not make me so scared again,” cried Beth.

Cliff and the other boys confessed since they heard Tony could die and they could be in big trouble. Their parents promised to punish their children and offered a huge amount of money as compensation, but they asked Beth not to report it to the police which Beth accepted.

Even though she accepted their offer, she sold the house and moved to another town with Tony. Cliff and the other boys were punished so hard that they would never do that again. But who gave them those pyrotechnics? Who had to control them? Of course, their parents. As long as parents punish their kids for their misbehavior instead of upbringing with more attention, there will always be more Cliffs and Tonys in this world, but there will not be always Ricks to save Tonys.