It was my birthday, the table was full of food and I was playing with my new water pistol in the garden with dad. When we sat down to eat I realised that two more figures had appeared at the table. They were my next door neighbours and they had brought me another present. Naturally I lent straight over and went for the present. Frantically, I ripped off the paper in a flurry of strokes. Inside the box was a gun, a cap gun. With delight I started to take a closer look at the gun. Before I had the chance of putting in the caps, mum took it off me and said, “After you’ve had tea” in a stern and assertive manner. In an effort to get my gun back quicker, I ate my food as quickly as possible, but it didn’t work, I had to sit there quietly while they finished.
Later on in the evening I was playing in the garden with my gun while mum was doing the washing up and dad was watching the television. In an attempt to have a bit more fun I quietly crept into the kitchen and ‘shot my mum’ with the cap gun. In fright mum dropped a very old antique plate we had and started screaming at me. My dad came in and stopped mum just as she was going to smack me and told me to go to my room. When he came in later he said that mum was under a lot of strain from the baby keeping her awake at night. From that moment on I started to hate the baby with all my heart and vowed to get my revenge.
The day finally came when ‘it’ arrived. Mum came home the following morning with the baby sleeping in her arms. From the moment I saw mum kissing it I knew it would cause me great pain and something must be done to give me back my parents. When mum strolled in through the door, I ran up to her to give her a hug she violently pushed me away. I felt alone, alienated from my own family, he was responsible; Michael was going to pay for what he had done.
Michael’s first birthday was on 29th April; he was oblivious to how much effort mum and dad had put into his first birthday that I was almost regretting what I had done. For the past year I tried every way I could think of to change his sweet innocent smile, his loveable face and his ability to keep mum and dad to himself. Whatever I tried it was never enough, I always failed and ended up getting into lots of trouble. For his birthday we got him a small tricycle that he could ride around on in the garden. As usual I got very jealous of his present and wanted to know why I didn’t get one when I was his age. As normal mum set me straight, but I was still not happy with her answer. As the day went on I devised a plan that would get my revenge on him on him.
The day came when my plan was to happen. I had already loosened the wheel so it would fall off when he was riding it. Mum and dad were watching television in the lounge while I watched Michael ride his bike. As usual I lost interest in watching him and went off to play in the front garden, leaving him cycling round on a bomb waiting to explode! It happened, the wheel separated from the rest of the bike and he went flying into the concrete wall on the other side of the garden.
We were all in the hospital; Michael had spent the previous couple of days in the children’s ward at ‘North Staffs Royal Infirmary’. Mum had been at his bedside for the whole two days. Dad and I went to the hospital to persuade her to come home and get some rest. As we were about to go home the doctor came by and said that they wanted to keep him in until the end of the week, just to run a few tests and make sure he was okay. We stayed at the hospital for the rest of the morning and then went home.
Michael came home later on that week just like the doctor said and for the next two weeks he had to rest as much as possible. In those two weeks he got more attention than before and dad and especially mum had hardly any time for me. I didn’t waste the time that they spent with Michael at all as it gave me time to think about all my attempts to attack him and how they all failed. I realised that I had been attacking him directly, harming him physically which was a mistake as I got the blame for it every time. I came up with a plan that would get him into so much trouble that mum and dad wouldn’t want to speak to him.
Michael was four when I realised that the plan must happen soon. Over the past two years I had tried to be as nice as possible to him and my parents but occasionally I had lost my nerve and done something that I regretted. On my tenth birthday I got an excellent microscope that I had wanted for ages. The problem was that Michael wanted to play with it as well. At first I wouldn’t let him go near it at all but I gave in and let him look at it. When I came home from school one day I found that he had smashed my microscope with his hammer and left it lying in the middle of the room in pieces. I was devastated; all my efforts to get one had been wasted in a matter of hours. As a result of what he had done I wanted revenge more than ever, I was determined to make him pay for all the things he had done to me.
Everything was set, mum, Michael and I were going into the city to do some shopping and dad was staying at home. As the day progressed I got more and more anxious about what was to come. We finally set off; the streets were packed with people carrying bags after bags. We went into numerous amounts of shops before I found the right place for my plan; it was the next place we were going to go to. Before we went, we stopped off at the park and sat down for a rest. Michael and I went to play on the swings and the monkey bars while mum went to get us a drink. Whilst playing happily, I left Michael to go and help mum with the drinks, but when we turned around Michael had disappeared…
Ever since that tragic day I have wished that I had not been so horrible to him. Every day I hope that the police will find him or someone might call us and say that he’s okay. For the rest of my life I will always look for him no matter what. Mum and dad were devastated; they took the disappearance even worse than I did and have practically given up all hope of seeing him again. I try to encourage them as much as I can, but I can’t give them back their youngest son. I never told them about what I was going to do that day as it would break their hearts to know that I hated Michael so much. Now, I have to live with that thought, at the back of my mind day in, day out for the rest of my life.
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