The 15-Coin Ball, the 100-Coin Price
One day at the park, Boons spent 30 coins to buy an inflatable watermelon ball.
Well, actually, he only paid 15 coins himself.
The other 15 coins he borrowed from his best friend, Bơ.
So the two investors each owned 50% of the watermelon ball, with a total capital of 30 coins.
I have to admit, this was a pretty good investment.
The ball was cheap, light, good for kicking or throwing. The two of them took it to the sand court, and on swimming days, they brought it to the pool to play catch.
A multi-purpose product, with a very high return on investment.
It only had one downside.
Because it was so handy, Boons wanted to take it everywhere.
Throwing it in the elevator.
Throwing it in the car.
Throwing it in the house.
Mom and Dad had reminded him a few times that balls should be played with in the right place, but he just kept doing it. Maybe in his mind, a ball this light couldn’t possibly cause any real trouble.
Until this afternoon.
Mom and Dad were chilling in the living room watching a movie.
Boons and Bơ were playing in their room when:
CRASH!
Noises like bangs and crashes coming from their room weren’t anything new. Whenever those two got together, they always dumped out Legos, threw toys, dragged things around, so I just kept watching my movie.
A few minutes later, Boons ran out.
In a small voice:
— Mom… I broke the glass on the picture frame.
Mom was confused:
— Which picture?
I couldn’t even remember if we had any pictures with glass in the house.
— The horse picture.
Oh.
I remembered.
The horse picture I painted a long time ago.
And I pretty much guessed who did it.
— So you were playing ball in the room, right?
Boons nodded.
Dad, always handling things lightly, said:
— Then you just pay Mom back with coins. If you play, you have to take responsibility. 200 coins.
To me, 200 coins sounded like some kind of city fine, so I corrected him:
— No, just pay me however much a new frame costs. Probably about 100 coins. But for now, you two need to clean up. There’s broken glass, so be really careful.
Boons didn’t argue about 100 coins or 200 coins.
He didn’t even try to bargain it down to 80.
He just said, “Okay,” and ran off to find cleaning tools.
A little while later, he asked:
— Mom, where’s the tape?
I pointed to the cabinet.
But before he could get the tape, he found the lint roller.
He ran out to show me:
— Mom, I think this one works better.
Then he dashed back into the room.
I peeked in, curious.
The room was scattered with all kinds of rescue tools: broom, dustpan, lint roller.
Boons was holding a phone with the flashlight on, bending down close to the floor to spot the tiny glass pieces.
Bơ followed the light, carefully rolling the lint roller over each part of the floor.
When they finished, they even pulled out the vacuum cleaner and gave it a few more passes just to be sure.
Nice and tidy.
Clean.
Safe.
At the end of the day, Boons’s HeoCoin account had two transactions:
–100 coins: to pay Mom for the new frame.
+5 coins: for cooperating to clean up and taking responsibility for what he did.
I didn’t give him 5 coins for breaking the glass.
I gave him the points for what he did after the glass was already broken.
If you make a mistake, fix it.
If you break something, pay for it.
If you cause a problem, stay and clean it up so it’s safe and tidy.
That’s how it should be.
And maybe from today, Boons understands better than anyone why Mom and Dad keep reminding him not to throw balls everywhere.
Some reminders sound a bit annoying at first.
Until one day, there’s a big crash.
That’s when the lesson really sticks.
Especially when the tuition is 100 coins.