It was a rather normal day in the Town of Halloween, well not quite normal for everyone. Especially in the little house where Lock with his wife Shock and their little son, Gregory, this day was a bit different. Shock had given birth to a little boy who was Gregory's little brother, but neither of them knew that Gregory was actually starting to feel jealous...
"Attention there, attention here, little Edward." Gregory muttered to himself. In his fury he grabbed his toy hammer and walked into the room where the baby slept. Luckily, he didn't know that his toy hammer was just a soft toy and wouldn't cause much damage. He raised the hammer just when he heard footsteps coming right behind him.
"And what do you think you are doing, young man?" Lock asked sternly. Gregory swallowed and said nervously:
"N-nothing, dad. I was just going to give my lil' brother a present."
Lock knew he was lying and gently picked him up.
"Hey, let go of me!" Gregory shouted.
After a few minutes of walking, his father entered his room and sat down on a chair, placed his son down onto the floor and looked him seriously in the eye.
"I saw what you were about to do and this was very dangerous." Lock explained.
Gregory remained silent and looked away.
His father, on the other hand, gave him a suspicious look and read his expression. Something was bothering him and Lock knew that Gregory wouldn't do what he did without a reason.
"Why were you trying to hurt your baby brother? I know your hammer is just a soft toy, but it's still a very bad thing to do." Lock said seriously but lovingly.
"Because I was angry and I wanted to!" Gregory snapped, trying to hide his jealousy.
"Hmm. I see. And why were you angry?"
"Uh… because… I just was!" Gregory shouted and turned around so he faced the wall.
Lock shook his head and sighed.
"I know you feel angry but was there something that happened before we got home? I don't think you meant any harm and I definitely don't think you did it 'just because'."
"You think that because you're a lawyer. It's always 'innocent before proven otherwise', right?" Gregory teased. "And I was just bored, that's why. Now you know why!"
"I guess that if you say so, it is so. But I am afraid since you were doing a thing that could have been dangerous, you have to face the consequences."
"So what are you gonna do? Make me do my homework?" Gregory tested.
"Not in this case. If this was a courtroom, and you were guilty of causing harm to someone else, that would be a very serious crime and I know I am a lawyer, but I wouldn't be able to help you as I am not allowed to be a lawyer for a family member." Lock explained. "So for now, you have to sit on the chair facing the corner for 30 minutes so you can think that through."
"30 minutes?! Are you kidding me?" Gregory said, disappointed.
"Well, I suppose this is better than sitting the whole afternoon and evening with 20 new words to learn in Spanish AND writing a sentence each with at least one word included, don't you think?" Lock replied.
"I guess so." Gregory muttered to himself.
Gregory walked over to the chair and slowly lowered himself down. Lock stood up and turned to leave, but stopped shortly and said:
"I am sorry if it's hard, but you can't hurt anyone. And I really don't think you meant anything bad." Lock said. "If something is bothering you I want you to tell me or mom so things like these won't happen. It's not very good to let anger take over if you feel overwhelmed by it. Things can happen and you maybe would regret those, so please think before doing something like this."
He didn't like to punish his son, but he knew there had to be consequences for his behavior.
He left his room and let his son have his privacy to think about what he did and to let off some steam. He knew Gregory was upset about something, but he didn't know why and he decided that he would speak to Shock about it so she understood what was going on.
Five minutes later, when Gregory was thinking, a thought suddenly popped up in his head.
"Don't they love me anymore? Maybe if I didn't do what I was going to do, they would have loved me. Now they probably hate me."
Overwhelmed by this thought, the little devil cried while sitting in the corner. It was unfair but he was more sad that his parents may hate him now.
Later in the afternoon, Shock came into his room to give him some cookies and milk, but when she saw him crying on his bed, she immediately set the food aside and sat down next to him.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" she asked softly.
"Y-you don't like me anymore, do you?" Gregory wailed, loudly. "I didn't mean to! I was just jealous!"
Shock gently picked up her oldest child and put him onto her lap, swaying slowly back and forth while rubbing his back soothingly.
"Shhhh." she soothed. "I know what happened but I always love you no matter what. And thank you so much for telling me, now when I know how you feel, I understand."
Just then Lock entered the room as well. He embraced the little boy as well.
"Don't worry, Gregory," he said softly. "Just because we have to pay more attention to the baby, it doesn't mean we don't love you. We love you just as much as him. Even though what you did today wasn't very nice, we always know that you are a very good guy."
"So… so you still love me?" Gregory sobbed, looking up tearfully.
"Of course we do." Lock said softly, nodding.
Gregory gave his parents a big watery grin.
Gregory couldn't help but smile. It felt so nice to feel loved that he immediately forgot about his jealousy. Now when he knew that his parents loved him, he didn't need to feel upset anymore.
Now everything was back to normal again.
The End.
