TWO DIAMONDS
"Oh, just get away from me," Sydney yells at her brother, "and leave me alone!" She stomps her way up the stairs, slams the door to her room, and crashes hard onto her bed pounding her fist into her pillow. Drained and exhausted Sydney begins to sob.
Then… Silence…
Suddenly she wakes up with a shiver, "Why is it so dark? And so cold?" She says to herself.
"You’re in a cave," replies a familiar but unexpected voice. "You are deep inside a dark and lonely cave."
Though startled Sydney doesn’t move, "Who said that? I can’t see anything. Why do I know that voice?"
"I am your conscience," says the voice.
"My what?" Starting to turnover. "Why do you sound like me?"
"I am the part of you that knows right from wrong," the voice continues.
"What do you want?" Sydney asks sharply, already irritated. "I’m trying to sleep." She sits up in the total darkness and the shivering cold of her cave. "Am I asleep? Is this a dream or, should I say, a nightmare? Where am I really?"
"You haven’t been very nice to your brother recently. You have been lashing out at him for the smallest things." Her voice says firmly but with an eerie calmness.
"I? haven’t been nice to HIM? You’re kidding me, right? What about the way he treats me?" Standing up quickly she bumps her head on what feels like a rock ceiling, "Ow! Hey, conscience can you turn on some lights or something? This place is really creeping me out."
"You’re right he hasn’t been nice to you, but you can’t control that, can you?"
Now, from just a few feet away in the darkness of her cave she hears her own voice again.
"But, Daddy, he does this to me all the time!" Her voice echoes into the distant darkness.
"That’s weird. Why do I keep hearing my own voice, but I’m not talking?" Sydney says to the darkness starting to feel very uncomfortable.
"Do you remember this talk you had with your dad a couple weeks ago, the
evening that Bryan had teased you about your outfit at school in front of all your friends and you made him look pretty stupid in front of his? Listen."
"I know he does, Syd, and I’m gonna talk to him, too," her Dad’s voice echoes into the darkness, "but let me tell you something, sweetheart. It is often easier to lash out at someone when they hurt you than it is to hold your tongue and to not say what you’re thinking. It is hard to walk away; sometimes it’s very hard. But if you do keep quiet you will more than likely have nothing to apologize for later."
"But, Daddy, it felt so good to bring him down. To make him feel like I feel when he makes fun of me was a total rush."
"Was it a rush when you were in a constant battle with him all the way home from school today? Was it a rush when I told you that you couldn’t go to your friend’s house this weekend and when I told you that you couldn’t watch TV for 3 days?"
"No."
"If you had kept quiet Bryan would be the only
one in trouble tonight. Choose your battles carefully, Sydney. Not every fight is worth fighting. I have learned that lesson the hard way. There are countless times that I could have saved myself a lot of pain and sadness if I had just kept my mouth shut, especially with your mother. Fortunately for me your mom is a forgiving person and that, Syd, is what you need to be for your brother, forgiving." The voices of her and her father drift away into the darkness of her cave.
"So that was pretty clear in your head, wasn’t it? ‘Cause if you hadn’t heard it two weeks ago then you wouldn’t have been able to recall it now in this cave." Now her conscience voice sounds just like her mother.
"Yeah, I remember that talk." Sydney plops down on a wooden chair that has seemly appeared out of nowhere. "I try so hard to ‘hold my tongue’ but… but… ooooOOOO," she clinches her fists and screws up her face, "he makes me so mad all the time."
"All the time?" asks this mysterious voice.
"Well, no, not all the time. I guess it just seems like it." She smiles then lets out short laugh. "Now that I think about it he can be a lot of fun to be around… sometimes. Nobody makes me laugh like he does and most of the time he won’t let anyone else pick on me. I guess he thinks that’s his job and nobody else can have it."
Sydney notices two lights sparkling a few feet away giving her cave a soft warm glow. Cautiously she walks over to the lights, "What are these?" She asks her voice. "They look like diamonds."
"They are diamonds. One is the diamond called ‘self-control’ the other is the diamond called ‘forgiveness’. Pick them up and take them with you. Keep them with you all the time. They will remind you of the great value of the things they stand for."
"Thanks, Mom, or my conscience or whoever you are." Sydney smiles. A short distance from her Sydney notices a light coming in from what appears to be the opening of her cave and hears the sound of her brother’s voice. She grabs her diamonds and walks out of her cave.
"Wake up Syd. It’s time for dinner." Bryan gently shakes her shoulder.
Sydney rolls over on her bed, rubs her eyes, and sits up feeling half asleep.
Bryan sits on the edge of her bed, "And hey, I’m sorry for all of what I said before. You are not dumb as a rock."
"You’re forgiven, and I’m sorry for everything I said, too. Your face really doesn’t look like a dog that has chased too many parked cars."
"Thanks. You know, Sydney? I just had the strangest dream."
