Only once can I remember my mother smacking me, and it was after I almost killed my little brother. I must have been about nine or ten, he four or five.
We were holding hands and running, and for some reason I decided to cross the road. Because he was so much smaller, he stumbled and fell. Luckily the car stopped in time, but if it hadn t, God only knows.
My mother was so upset she lost her customary cool and smacked me across the legs just once, but it was enough.
It was the shock as much as the smack itself that made me realise I had done something really wrong. My mother was not someone who used physical violence. And so I understood completely the gravity of what I had done.
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