Knock knock

“Hurry up! We have to come back in twenty minutes!”

My cousin Tracy running out of the door like an arrow. She rushes to the end of the corridor, and turns around waiting for me.

This is our “big plan”.

I am only nine years old now, and she is eleven. Our parents went to the supermarket which is two blocks away from here, and we do not want to waste the precious time that can be totally controlled by ourselves. We want to do something excited, but in a hotel with hundreds of people what is excited for two young kids? After a bitter argument, the “Knock Knock” game became the winner.

It is really easy; all we need to do is just knocking the every single door in the corridor. However, Tracy says it seems easy, but you should be very careful and fast in order to run away before some furious adults catch you.

It would be extremely fun, I think.

However, trouble comes even before the start.

“Tracy wait!” I shout at her, “ We don’t have the card! How can we get back to room without the card?” I am nervous; I am afraid our cool game would be killed in swaddle.

“uh…”She is pondering; every time Tracy start thinking she would bite her lips.

“Maybe we can just use something to keep the door open,uh…, like a book, or comb.”

“Book! So people would not even notice the door is not closed because they are too thin; you are such a genius!”

“Right, and we can just put it at the bottom of the door, that is not obvious.” She is excited, and run the whole way back to room, and puts her math book between the door and the doorframe.

“ It’s time for the Knock Knock!”

Two arrows rush through the corridor. The first doorbell rings. We hide behind the wall and wait for people to come out.

Ten seconds later, a fat old woman opens the door. She frowns and looks around while Tracy and I are laughing behind the hands.

“So weird.” she murmured, and then turns back inside.

Oh that is great! I can even imagine how the lights reflect form my eyes. It feels so good to tease someone.

Apparently, Tracy also enjoys it, and she even has already started the next door.

For the next fifteen minutes, almost every door on the floor three has been knocked once or more. We are shrewd. We controlled the time for each door, and that means you can not knock the next door until the last person back in, otherwise many people would be in the corridor and look around at the same time , they will find out they were teased by kids.

If we were caught by them, they would definitely take us to our parents.

However, the fact is often much more cruel than the imagination——we are caught by our parents.

It seems like my dad and mom’s faces just came out from the refrigerator, and my aunt, Tracy’s mom does not even look at her.

Tracy said this kind of silence is the “you really got in trouble”signal.

“Do you know what we would lose if someone came in?” Finally, my dad break this terrible silence, “Our passport, cash, phones, and packages. You think you are smart enough to leave the door like that?”

Oh god! I am screaming inside. They found out the book! So it is not because of the Knock Knock!

“No, that was stupid.” I answer. It’s true, we were careless. Maybe it is just because of the limit time, and we did not thought that much. I am not dare to watch my dad’s eyes, because I know what he means; once some thieves came into the room, the loss would be unmeasurable.

“Come here, I’ll beat each of you ten times on your hands for the punishment.”

We do not say anything, just accept our punishment wordlessly.

I swear this is the first time my dad beat me in my life, I think I do learn something form that unforgettable pain.

Never make any decisions easily when you are eager to do something else. It is because you may ignore many important aspects if you are impatient.

And never only think about yourselves——that is what my dad says all the time during the “punishment”. I think our “big plan” is more like a lesson now, and maybe the next time when I plan to do something, the pain of my hands would remind me to be thoughtful and take everything into consideration.