Cherries

Cherries

Life around here was sure getting tough with old Mrs. Hawkins constantly peering out her kitchen window in the hopes she might catch me climbing on her shed. That shed was the only way to get to the best cherries that were higher on the tree. Last week she caught me on her shed picking those delicious cherries and almost broke her neck scrambling out her back door just to scream,
"Get off my shed you little devil."
"Your father will hear of this again until he does something about your foolish climbing habits.
I used to wonder if she had ever caught me what she might do to me. It was a good thing that she was old and fat and had a tough job just getting down the wooden steps that ran up to her back door. I used to have nightmares of her sitting on me waiting on my dad to arrive from work. With visions of white froth surrounding her mouth and eyes ablaze with fire, I'd awake in a most horrible sweat.
If not for the love of those cherries I would never go on that side of the house, but those darn cherries would call, daring me to climb the shed. It was one of these times when I noticed that the mean old Mrs. Hawkins had just walked to the nearby store and would be gone for a while as she was slow, walking with a cane that looked like a big snake. I raced to the shed and hopped up on the fence and then onto the roof I climbed. My taste buds going wild with excitement and the anticipation of biting into the largest and reddest of them was a bit overpowering.
As I raised my hand to pluck another prospective cherry, horror filled my ears.
"Get off my shed Toby Glen, I have bought something to keep you off my shed.
"Oh my god, has she bought a gun to shoot me with?" I said out loud, as I jumped to the ground,
I raced around the house almost knocking poor mom down as I burst through the front door. I ran up to my room and to the window that overlooked the shed and those cherries. Looking out the window and not seeing the witch that had just almost shot me, I turned my attention to my mother who was yelling for me to come down.
"Yes mother, I said, as I noticed her standing at the front door talking to someone on the front porch.
"Mrs. Hawkins has something for you Toby. Nearly in shock I stepped out the door and saw Mrs. Hawkins holding a brand new ladder.
"Toby it just worries me half to death that you may fall and be hurt or worse, climbing up on my shed using the fence as you do. That old shed is getting old like me and the roof may give way. So I bought this ladder for you, so that I won't worry so much.
As she turned to walk away she remarked that she knew my Eleventh birthday was approaching and that there may be a new bike in that old shed for me if I just used the ladder.
It seems that old Mrs. Hawkins was not as mean as I had thought. It was going to be a wonderful eleventh birthday with a new bike and a tummy full of cherries.