Page 24 - Digital Cornice Grade 9

NARRATIVE STORY

My Neighbour's Kids

By: Aayana Raj Adhikari

My neighbors were quite the family.

I didn’t know much about them, except that they had two kids- a son and a daughter but had
respectable jobs that often cost them time. So, when I overheard them complaining about this
problem to my parents, I asked if I could babysit the children. After all, I loved kids. I loved
their energy, their freedom, and their lack of care in the world.

Of course, I hadn’t exactly expected just how they were like. The day I was introduced to them,
I quickly realized that these eight-year old children were going to be a handful. Not only were
they noisy and chaotic, but they didn’t know how to sit still. They constantly moved around,
from room to room, and I often found them almost injuring themselves. I put up with it for a
while, but it was starting to become really tiresome especially after I started Grade 9, and
would come home only to find out that I needed to take care of them as well.

This particular night, however, the kids had been surprisingly calm. They had gone to daycare,

so I assumed they were tired. Of course, I was glad about this. My mother had given me some
artwork earlier that included scissors and cutting, so I just put them to bed and decided to get
on with my work without having to worry about them accidentally picking up the scissors and
stabbing themselves with it.
Everything was perfect at that moment. I put the kids to bed and went down to the living room
to start cutting up paper to make paper flowers. However, there is only so much enjoyment you
get from cutting and folding papers. After a while, my eyes began to flutter to a close as well.
I decided to take a nap. It wouldn’t hurt.