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THE GOLD FISH POND The school bell rang and everyone was going inside. I think it was Bill Smith and I - we were in Grade 3 and had decided to skip school. We planned to go over to this man's yard and eat some of his fruit. There were big trees in his yard with lots of oranges, pears and grapefruit and we’d never had pears or oranges before. We traveled down a long fence, went into his back yard and hid in the large bushes. We sat there for about an hour, just watching to make sure no one was home. Then we went into his yard and started eating the pears and oranges. They were delicious. As we ate, we noticed there was something moving in this pond. We walked over to it and noticed that there were very large fish swimming around. We had never seen anything like that before. These fish were a golden color. They were not big enough to eat, but they were sure big enough to catch. However, they were too fast for us and the pond was too deep to get in. We looked around the yard and found an old cane fishing pole. Then we went into the flowerbed, dug up several worms and placed one on the hook. Within several seconds, we had caught our first fish; the first fish we had ever seen up close. It was alive and shaking all over the place, so we put it back into the water 'cause we did not want to hurt it. The next thing we knew, a man came walking out the back door. He was walking very slowly toward us. He just looked at us and asked, "Do you boys like to fish?" We were so scared that we could not run. We told him that we did, but we had never been fishing because we were from the orphanage. He told us that the fish we were catching were not for fishing, they were for decoration. He called them "goldfish" and said that they could not be eaten. Then he took us into his house and gave us something to drink. Next, he got a large paper bag and took us back out into the yard. He told us to help him fill the bag with oranges and pears. After the bag was full, he handed it to us and told us we could take it back to the orphanage. Then he put us in his car and took us back to the Children's Home Society. We did not get any of those oranges or pears. I remember the man telling Bill and me that he would come back one day and take us fishing. However, he never came back. Bill and I got our little asses beat and were then sent to our rooms without any supper. The next day, I was in the downstairs bathroom sitting on the toilet. After I finished, I reached up and grabbed the toilet paper. As I unwound it, something bit me on the finger. When I looked down, I saw a scorpion lying on the floor. I jumped off the toilet, pulled my pants up and stomped on the scorpion, until it was dead and flat. I picked it up very slowly with some toilet paper and ran to get the houseparent. I was yelling and crying, because I was scared. I had heard that scorpions were poisonous and that people die from scorpion bites. I found the houseparent sitting on the front porch. I told him what had happened and showed him the scorpion. I asked him to help me, please, because I was going to die if he did not get me to a doctor. He told me to get my little ass up to my bedroom. Furthermore, he said that if I died, it was punishment for having fished in that guy's fishpond and for having stolen his fruit. I will never forgive that houseparent for making me wait in my room to die. Waiting in my room all night to die was scary and far worse than getting no supper.