POISON KANDIE
(Stories)
Phillip And The Fence
By: THIRTEENTWO
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Sweet and Sour KandieBook View/ Sign Home
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Phillip said a lot of mean things because he got mad easy. He didn't think it was his fault, he just had a very short temper. He made his sister cry all the time. He upset some of his friends so much sometimes they didn't want to be around him. He spent more days after school in class than at home because of how much his mouth got him in trouble. One day, Phillip's attitude pushed his father too far. His father took him outside and Phillip expected a beating. He had been spanked a few times before, but never outisde. And then his daddy picked up a hammer. That's when he really got scared. He would have wet his pants if he hadn't already gone to the bathroom. Thank heaven for small favors. His father came to him with the hammer and put it in his hand. Then he pulled a nail out of his pocket and put it in Phillip's other hand. "From now on," his father said. "Every time you lose your temper, I want you to put a nail in this fence. You put a nail in for every time you lose your temper until you learn to control yourself. Every day that you don't lose your temper, you can take one nail out." His father left him outside to put the nail in the wooden fence. That just made Phillip angrier and before the day he put 4 more nails in the fence. He put several in a day every day for a few weeks. One day, he put in as many as 11 nails. After a month, a day finally came when he didn't have to put any nails in the fence. The next day, he held his temper even when his sister smeared something on one of his games by accident. He was proud to take out a nail. He continued to take out a single nail every day until they were all gone. He didn't lose his cool once. When he pulled the final nail out, he showed his dad. "Look at the fence," Phillip's dad said. "You see all those holes? The same thing happens to people when you say hurtful things to them. There is no band-aid to fix the holes in the fence and there is nothing you can say or do to take back what you say to someone. When you hurt them deep enough, they always hurt there." Phillip wasn't perfect, but he was more careful. When he grew up and had a family of his own, he taught his son the same lesson. |
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