Excellent Parental Advice Should Be Heeded No! Just Say No contest entry Author information not displayed for this contest.

Let me say that the word, no, itself conjures up fear, especially if you're a kid under the age of four, for its counterpart, yes, isn't used a tenth as much, and when it is, it's understood as a positive word because it is accompanied with a smile and not a frown. Isn't that so? In other words, yes offers trust and a signal to run to open arms, while no bids rejection and the urge to flee beneath a bed like the dog when he pees on the floor. It imprints in children a traumatic experience, like when the last gold leaf falls from an Aspen tree, becoming as barren as a child stepping nakid from a tub before his relatives. Dispicable. And now for a whale's tale, I lived, to scare kids from repeating any similar insane mistake, and like schemes that their parents did, and that future kids will do regardless of any warning and wishes of Harambe iz ur Daddy.                         ___________________________   It was just after Christmas. The year was nineteen-sixty. I was twelve and received a pellet gun as a present. Dad warned never to aim if I did not have clearance of a hundred feet behind the target.  Danny Slater and I decided to buy some GEE-DUNK at the local confectionery. This required a hike through the woods, but first we had to walk by the Zuber's home. They had a '59 Ford Fairlane Station Wagon. It was parked on the street with a license plate on the tailgate, upon which a sparrow perched. Temptation was too much. I aimed. Fired. Missed. The bird flew off. We thought nothing of it, and went our merry way. On our return, the sun reflected differently on the glass, which seemed different. Upon inspection, the entire surface showed minimal cracks, giving the appearance of a spider web with one small hole just above the bracket holding the license.   In closing, I KNOW this has nothing to do with NO as written, but should you think of shooting a bird perched on a license plate with a pellet gun... NO! Don't do it. There. I feel I have met the requirements of the contest. P.S.- Word count 362 or 371 counting these    Author Notes This was a challenging test from the brilliant mind of Harambe iz ur Daddy. He is so.... different. As usual, I dive into the oblique, neither perpendicular nor parallel, not straight or direct, like a car without a steering wheel, or as Candy tells of sex with Alan on 2 and a half men, he may not know where he is going, but he'll get you there." The photo is my own, as often is the case. It is supposed to depict the cracked window in the story sans the bird. Enjoy.

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