The Large Swirl Lollipop: Day 761: 5 Minute Freewrite: Wednesday - Prompt: red light

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@Zeldacroft

@freewritehouse

Day 761: 5 Minute Freewrite: Wednesday - Prompt: red light

As Ireena passed by the candy isle at the grocers, she grabbed several sticks she hadn't seen in a while, then headed towards the checkout. Waiting in line, she counted her items, then paused when she looked at the candy.

Finished checking out, she placed her groceries in the van and headed home. A red light forced her to stop at the intersection. Having a bit of a sweet tooth, she reached over and pulled out one of the candies she'd purchased. Licking it a few times, she smiled as it brought back memories of an incident long ago.

But just as she was about to pull out into the intersection, a car drove past her. She had to take a minute to realize what happened. That person ran the red light. After she determined it was safe to go, she continued home.

She thought to herself that, in our society, we're taught that red means "STOP". Period. It's like knowing when not to step off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic. You have a signal called the "RED LIGHT" to warn you. It's meant to keep us safe. And if you don't stop, then you may suffer consequences. Sometimes those consequences may be mild; others, serious; still others, fatal.

A Red Light can also be a mental warning. When you're about to do something in which you know is wrong, a warning or "red light" should go off in your mind. You should stop for a moment and think of the consequences of your actions. The red light mental warning is used to help keep us safe. It also gives us guidance, such as opening a box and seeing "Stop and Read these directions before continuing."

This train of thought took her back to the funny situation she was thinking of earlier.

None of the kids from our block on 6th Street had a lot of money to buy expensive items. It was a well-known fact, at least in our neighborhood. But what we did have was enough money to buy some penny candy every once in a while.

At 10 years old, we shared with each other and helped each other out. So it came as quite a shock to learn that one of the boys on our block had caused the most unbelievable stir one day. The news spread quickly that something terrible had happened.

As we huddled together on our block trying to sort it out, one kid gave voice to what we all were thinking. Go find Blair. We knew we could always count on her. In fact, she was our trusted source, and the only "go to" kid on our block for all the gossip. And she always lived up to her reputation as "Blair, the blabber mouth". It was all right until she told on you, though. Then, the fight was on.

But that day, we needed Blair's inside scoop, because this time, the stir was all about her older brother, Zach.

So with eyes wide and mouths open, we hung on every word freely flowing from Blair's mouth. And Blair was meticulous. She started from the moment she and Zach woke up, ending with that fateful moment he got caught walking out their friendly, neighborhood corner store with some penny candy in his pocket that he didn't pay for.

But, what we couldn't quite figure out was if she was a witness to the event. One thing we found out about Blair...she knew when to omit certain details.

"Blair," another friend said impatiently, "is he in trouble with the store owner? What did your parents do? I'll bet he got a spanking."

"Yes, he's in big trouble", Blair said, as she stressed the word "big". "The store owner called my parents, and we all marched Zach back to the store. My parents made him apologize to the owner and pay for the 10cent Large Swirl Lollipop."

Talking faster now, she continued, "then when we got home, he got a spanking, and they put him on punishment for a whole month. He can't go outside or have any friends over. And after his punishment is over, he has to go work after school at that store for another month, and for free, all the while looking at those Large Swirl Lollipops."

"He said he learned his lesson. But to get all that punishment over a lollipop. That was stupid! and I told him so," she said, trying to sound indignant as she crossed her arms over her chest. Then she continued, "he begged me not to tell all his friends, so I said I wouldn't."

Then Blair gave the widest grin. We all just looked at her in shock because we knew that if Zack's parents gave him that harsh punishment, we would certainly get the same. Our parents shared with each other ideas of what a proper punishment should be in any situation.

A red light should have flashed before Zach's eyes the moment he reached for the Large Swirl Lollipop knowing he didn't have any money. And, the rest of us, knowing our parents shared the same rules of punishment was our "red light".

Needless to say, the store owner never reported another incident from the block of 6th Street.

Thanks,
@justclickindiva

Happy rest of the week everyone with whatever you are working on.

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SOURCES:
a) JustClickin logo created at CoolText.Com
b) Unless otherwise noted, all photos taken by me with my (i) Samsung Galaxy 10" Tablet, (ii) Samsung Phone, & (iii) FUJI FinePix S3380 - 14 Mega Pixels Digital Camera
c) Purple Butterfly part of purchased set of Spiritual Clip Art for my Personal Use
d) Separator Lines Free ClipArt Belt from Public Domain Vectors & ShadedLine from ClipArt-Library
e) All Tribe logos used with permission of Tribe Discord Channel admins.

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