TAL Vox Assignment: The Ten Commandments

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee

A moment of sudden self-realisation: I am ten or eleven years old and am in the kitchen making toast. My mother comes in, she's been on the phone. Who was that on the phone? I demand, with the cocky self-assurance of a pre-teen who still believes that there is no such thing as none of her business and assumes that every question that pops into her head deserves an answer.

B-B-B-B-Barbara. My mother stammers. Oh really, who's B-B-B-B-Barbara? I crow. And then, in that instant, as the words tumble out of my mouth, I realise that I am being nasty. I realise that it is not okay to say that, to make fun of my mother like that. I understand that I am being mean, and more than that, I understand suddenly that I have the power to be mean, to hurt my parents.

Looking back to that cocky, mean little girl, I want to give her a slap; tell her not to be such a little bitch. But I don't need to, because she knows it.

My mother didn't tell me not to be rude, she didn't ask me why I was mocking her. She just looked at me with her big sad eyes and patiently explained to me who Barbara was and what she was calling about. It was boring; I didn't care about the answer to my question. I was thinking about how much I wished I could go back in time two minutes to the moment before I broke that Commandment.