CHAPTER 3 — GRANDMA RETURNS

About an hour later Grandma came bustling in the door carrying two large grocery bags. “Tammy! Tommy! Come help me with these!”
The twins appeared at the end of the hall. “Oh, Grandma!” Tommy cried, rushing to take her umbrella and one of the heavy bags as Tammy took the other one. “You shouldn’t have carried these home all by yourself. They’re too heavy for you.”
“And just who else would have done it?” Grandma asked pointedly, as she hung her dripping raincoat and umbrella up to dry. “My two helpers were too busy fighting and feeling sorry for themselves to think about anything else.”
The twins looked at each other guiltily and started for the kitchen with the groceries. Grandma gave a little resigned shake of her head and followed them. “Well?” she demanded, hands on her hips, watching them remove cans and boxes from the soggy bags. “Have you decided what you’re going to do this afternoon?”
Tommy shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
“Tammy?” Grandma persisted.
“Nothing,” said Tammy. “There’s nothing to do.”
“Nonsense,” Grandma replied. “There’s always something to do.”
“Like what?” asked Tommy.
“Like reading, like drawing, like studying, or playing games, or making some new decorations for your room. You could even spend some time thinking about how you two can stop fighting with each other.”
“But Grandma,” said Tommy, “all kids fight.”
“And what about when you get to be adults?” Grandma demanded. Tammy and Tommy looked at each other.
“I don’t understand,” Tammy said uncertainly.
“Is this the way you plan to treat each other for the rest of your lives?” Grandma asked.
“Oh," said Tammy with a blank look on her face. “I never really thought about it.”
“Well, you should,” said Grandma firmly. “You should think about that and all your goals with each other.”
“Goals?” Tommy asked with a frown. “You mean like in football?”
“In a way,” Grandma nodded. “The main goal of football is to score enough points to win the game. The players get out there and do everything they can to make that happen.” She paused and thought for a moment, tapping her finger on her chin, then she continued.
“Life is full of goals, too. Everybody needs to decide what goals they want to reach, then do whatever they have to in order to reach them.” She put away the last package of cereal and smiled down at the twins. “Well, that’s enough of a lecture for today. Run along and find something to do. And stay out of trouble, please!”
The twins spent most of the afternoon drawing, every now and then pausing to think about what Grandma had said.
After dinner, as they walked back to their room, Tommy said, “I think I’ll open my new package of clay and make something. How about you?”
“I don’t know. I think I’ll work on some stuff for the birthday bulletin board at school. It’s my turn. Carl Terwilliger, Sue, Ellen, and Ronnie all have birthdays next month, and I want to make something different.”
A few moments later, Tammy reached into the bookcase and pulled out a folder crammed full of construction paper. She pulled several pieces out and spread them on the floor.
Tommy unwrapped a block of yellow clay. He pinched off a piece and rolled it in his hands.
Tammy, humming contentedly to herself, cut a silly-looking, long-necked bird out of purple construction paper. Then, using other brightly-colored scraps, she made four large tail feathers. On each of the feathers, she printed the initials of the birthday kids, S, E, R, and C. Then she decided to make a fifth feather and print T/W on it. It was the only way she could think of to distinguish Carl Terwilliger from Carl Thompson, another boy in their class. “This is going to be the best bulletin board ever,” she thought with satisfaction, as she drew eyes and added eyelashes to the bird’s head.
Unfortunately, things were not going so well for Tommy. The clay simply would not do what his fingers wanted it to, and the elephant he was trying to make looked more like a misshapen steam shovel. He gave it one last poke, then scowled, and looked up. Tammy was sitting in the middle of the floor smiling and looking very pleased with herself.
Feeling frustrated, Tommy pinched off a little piece of clay and tossed it toward Tammy. It landed right in the middle of the paper feathers.
“Hey!” Tammy yelled, looking up angrily. “Cut that out! You’ll ruin it!”
“Aw, don’t be such a crybaby, that’s no great piece of art!” he said, then he tossed two more clay pellets. One of them landed in Tammy’s hair.
“I mean it, Tommy. Stop it! Or I’ll tell Grandma!”
“You’ll tell me what?” asked Grandma as she appeared in the doorway. “Don’t tell me you two are fighting again!” she exclaimed wearily.
“It’s not my fault,” Tammy said indignantly. “He made me. He. . .”
Grandma interrupted Tammy and peered down over her glasses at Tommy who had opened his mouth to speak. Her voice was firm, and she spoke through clenched teeth. “Nobody makes you fight. You choose. You’re always choosing to fight. Now clean up this mess and get to bed. I don’t want to hear another peep out of either of you.”
Ten minutes later, everything hastily put away, the twins were in their bunks.
“Do you think Grandma’s right?” Tammy called down to Tommy. “That we choose to fight?”
“Shhh,” Tommy whispered urgently. “Be quiet, or we’ll get a spanking for sure. You saw how angry she looked — and sounded.”
“Aw, you’re just chicken,” Tammy replied, giggling quietly. “Afraid of a little old spanking?”
“Oh, yeah? Well, you must be afraid too, ‘cause you’re whispering,”
Tommy laughed softly. “I guess we’re both chicken,” he said.
“Yeah,” agreed Tammy. “We’re both chicken and we’re both choosy.”
A gust of wind blew in the open window scattering the paper feathers all over the floor and chilling the room.
The twins fell into a thoughtful silence. Could Grandma be right? Did they really have a choice about fighting?
“Surely not,” each thought

Chapter 3 — THE BIG IDEA

For Chapter 3 the Big Idea is: We have goals for ourselves and for others.

In Chapter 3, at one point Grandma said, “Everybody needs to decide what goals they want to reach, then do whatever they have to in order to reach them.” Think about one or two people who are important to you in your life, and a goal you have with them — a nice friendly or loving relationship, for example. Now, think about your choices with those same people. Are the choices you make helping you reach toward your goals?

Think about this idea and figure out how you can use it to make your life better.

If you want to explore these ideas further, on your own or with others, you can order the print form of In the Land of Choice, and the second novel in the series, The Magic of Choice. Use the ORDER LINK below.

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