“Stop! You can’t go to that side of the house, you know that.”

“We’ve stayed on the right wing of this small building our whole lives, I think it would be alright if we finally have a look at what mom and dad have been hiding all these years.”

“You know they aren’t bad parents, they aren’t strict. They let us do what we want, when we want, and they they love us, they do. They’ve only ever given us this one rule—that under no circumstance are we to go to left side of the house.”

“Think about what you just said, we’ve grown up in this house and lived here for the past eighteen years of our lives. And we aren’t allowed to go to the left side. That’s ridiculous. You know what I think? I think mom and dad feel guilty about never being around to really parent us, so they gave us this one dumb rule to make them feel better about themselves.”

“How about you think about what you just said. Mom and dad haven’t been around much, yes, but they’ve never purposely been difficult with us. They’ve always put food in our stomachs and given us money to buy everything we need. And don’t say they don’t parent us, remember when we snuck out all those years ago? Dad found us and brought us home to the tear stained face of mom who had been nervously chewing the inside of mouth—waiting for us to come home. He put us both in his lap and talked to us for an hour about the importance of family and staying together.”

“Alright, I take it back—but if they really are such good parents, then what could they possibly be hiding on the left side of the house, that’s so secretive that their own children can’t see whatever’s there?”

“Well I trust them, and you should too. There isn’t any use in talking about it now, because the more we talk, the more you’ll want to sneak off.”

“You don’t have to come.”

“I’m older, your my responsibility, I can’t let you leave.”

“I’ll take all the blame, don’t you worry. Plus, they won’t ever know—because neither of us will tell them…right?”

“All I know is, if mom and dad don’t want us on the left side of the house then they have a good resson. I can live with that.”

“Well I can’t live with that, it’s just so weird not being able to walk around freely in my own house.”

“Just please, whatever you do, don’t go over there. I’m scared of what will happen if you do.”

“Yeah that’s it, your scared. How embarrassing. The oldest too, what a shame. Well I’m not scared at all, not one bit.”

“Please, promise me you won’t go over there, say it, say it please.”

“Hmmm fine.”

“Say it.”

“I wont go to the left side of the house.”

“Thank you—I mean, good. Well goodnight, and don’t bring this conversation up with mom or dad.”

“It’s not like we’ll see them tomorrow anyways. There probably gambling, or maybe there at a club.”

“Don’t you talk about mom and dad that way. We’re barely scraping by and there working as hard as they can—both of them. We’re lucky to have have them.”

“All I’m saying is who works a day shift, and a night shift? And seriously who doesn’t let there kids on the left side of there already to small house?”

“Stop talking and go to bed.”

“I bet there’s more bedrooms on the left side of the house, and there keeping them all to themsleves. Mom probably has a salon and dad probably has a study. All while you and I have to share this small room.”

“Just stop! I don’t like this.”

“Yeah cause you don’t want to face the reality that are parents aren’t role models, there just weird, old, plain people who are confused in the brain.”

“I’m leaving now. And do not sneak around.”

“Goodnight scaredy-cat.”

“Goodnight.”

Three years later

“Daddy, who’s the boy standing next to you in this photo? And who are the older people behind you?”

“That’s my brother to my right, and behind me, those are my parents.”

“Where are they now daddy? Why haven’t I met them?”

“My brother questioned the goodness of our parents, and it cost him his life.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m going to tell you a story. When my parents got married my mother wanted children very badly. My father had a well paying job and he inherited loads of cash from his fathers will. He used this money to buy my mother a beautiful, big house to raise the children she was so excited to have. Little did my father know that he had been taken advantage of. Unbeknownst to him, the beautiful, big house experienced earthquakes regularly. One day, a high level earthquake shook the house and collapsed the ground beneath its left wing. The house, having been built on a clif, was now balancing carefully over the edge of a deathly drop. All out of money, my father was determined to fix that beautiful, big house for his wife and future children. After my mother gave birth to my brother and I, my father quit his work to rebuild the mound of dirt which had slide off the cliff during the earthquake. My mother went with him because it was a dangerous job. They worked all day and all night. They loved us so much that they sacrificed eighteen years of there lives to reconstructing the dirt under our house to make it safe. They only ever gave us one rule, not to go on the left wing of the house. The side that was dangling over the cliff. They never told us why because they didn’t want to scare us, they didn’t want us to be afraid. But my brother didn’t trust them, he didnt believe that they had a good reason to keeping us on the left side of the house. He made fun of them, and talked about them with as much respect as you would use to talk about barn animals. He got tired of trusting—and one night he suck away while I was asleep, to the left wing of the house. But there was no ground underneath, the house tipped and cracked straight through the middle. He fell to his death that night, In the left wing of the house, the wing he had always dreamed of exploring. I hope he lost consciousness before he felt the fear and the pain. When the house came crashing down it landed directly upon my mother and father. I hope it happened so fast for them that they didn’t feel it either. They loved us, and they only ever gave us one rule—do not go in the left side of the house.”