[Vicky.]

Another

You live next door to a very sweet 78 year old lady names Mrs Patterson. Her pride and joy is her garden, that she has maintained perfectly for the past 4 years, since her husband died. Every day she is out tending to the various beautiful flowers she has, and cleaning the memorial bench she has in there.

On the other side of you lives a couple with a 11 year old child named Joe. You know for a fact that the father beats the child on a regular basis, whenever he does something 'wrong'. You have reported it to social services and the police several times but they are very good liars, and nothing has ever been done about it. You know the child has a miserable life. The beatings seem worse each time. Last time Joe ended up with a broken nose (explained away as he fell down the stairs)

At 4am this morning, you wake up to the sound of banging. You look out of your bedroom window and see Joe jumping all over Mrs Pattersons garden. All around him lie uprooted flowers too, he has clearly been trashing the garden for quite some time, however the memorial bench remains untouched. He looks up at your window, sees you and runs back into his house. You are extremely tired so you just go back to sleep until the morning.

You are woken at 8am by a knock at your door. It is Mrs Patterson in tears. Someone has trashed her garden. She wants to know if you heard/saw anything.

You pause before answering.

If you tell her it was Joe, she will tell his parents and he will 'earn' another beating..more severe than the last. Flowers can easily be planted again, you think..and he showed a bit of respect by leaving the memorial bench alone.

On the other hand, you have a crying old lady on your doorstep and the child DID do wrong.

What do you say?