"You could have heard a pin drop" is a worn-out cliche, but after Dante confessed to his parents, you could have
heard a pin drop. Wait. That's an understatement. You could have heard an eyelash drop onto a pile of fresh, soft snow.
Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.
Finally Joe choked out, "Dante, that wasn't like you. Why did you do it?"
"Well," Dante said, "I did it to get in a club with some big kids."
"Some club," Paulina said.
"After I did it," Dante went on, "they laughed and told me there wasn't any club. They made me," he finished bitterly, "turn in a false alarm for nothing!"
"No, Dante," Joe said sternly, "they did not make you turn in that alarm. You chose to do it, even though you knew it was wrong."
Paulina touched Joe's arm as if to say, "Don't be too hard on him. He's only a little boy."
"I guess you're right, Dad. I knew it was bad, but I really wanted to get into that club."
"I know what that feels like," Joe admitted.
"And then today I heard those kids tell the same thing to a first-grade kid named Sammy. So I told him there isn't any club.""
"Did he listen to you?" Joe asked.
"No, but it didn't matter because the big kids just laughed at us and walked away. But then Sammy blamed me because he didn't get a chance
to be in the club."
"The club," Paulina said, "that doesn't really exist."
"Dad, what happens now?" Dante asked. "What does the law say? Do I have to go to jail for turning in a false alarm?"