A Punishment Too Far

around 42 years ago, my little brother was playing with matches and set the woods on fire, burned about 10 acres.

everyone assumed that it was me smoking in the woods so he and I just let it be me.

I took the blame (and the a-- whooping) because Dad was kinda rough on the whoopings when he was mad. and I didn't want my little brother to have to take it.

Being that Dad got a little carried away this time (broke my arm) we've just never told anyone the truth.

Wrong_Answer_Willie

The Tiniest Of Errors Leads To The Biggest Changes

Recently found out my big buff uncle who goes on hunting trips and is redneck as f-ck went to college to be a teacher. He was an assistant at a school and a little girl fell off the monkey bars, age was crying so he picked her up to calm her down. He was fired for this and couldn't teach in that area (this was back early 2000s). He told my grandmas friend who was helping him find a job that he wanted to help kids. He was hired to work in a juvenile detention center as a security guard, quit 6 weeks in and now works in a warehouse, already he gets better pay so he can provide for his family.

But jeez

AHetalianTiredOfLife

Deep Intuition

It happened a long time ago. I have two younger brothers, one was 11 and the other 7. We were watching tv as the my youngest brother suddenly looked confused and looked everywhere like he was searching for something. I asked him what's wrong and he said "someone's doing something wrong, something bad, he hurts someone".

About an hour later, police shows up to arrest a neighbour of ours who apparently abused his kid and stole lots of money an hour before. I never really knew how I felt about it so I just asked my other brother (the one that was 11) to not say anything bc it would freak out out parents. My youngest brother doesnt remember this

soph-00

...Teenagers.

When I was 17ish my dad had moved me into this 100 year old cabin in our back yard. (Small mountain town) I was.... difficult to say the least and it got me out of everyone's hair. It only has electric. Heat is a stove almost in the middle of the cabin.

Fast forward a couple months and it's winter. F-cking cold. I get home from work and it's freezing. I start a fire. Takes a few min but that thing really worked. I'm bored by myself. Look down at a 12 pack of mountain dew. Get stupid idea.

My brilliant brain thinks " put a soda in the fire it will be awesome". .... So I did. I'm sitting there watching TV and after like 20 min the can has still yet to explode. So.... without hesitation....I get down on my knees....open the door to see what the f-ck....in flows oxygen....can just HAPPENS to be facing with the top looking directly at me. My face at this point is about 2 feet from the can.

BOOM. Can cuts loose and hot pressurized liquid diabetes smashes into my face. I'm gripping onto my face and rolling around with nothing but the thought that I was blind.....f-ck what a stupid story about how to go f-cking blind. I scrambled around till I found something to clean off my face... I was fine.....never told a soul.

rehdditt

It's A Kitten. You Don't Need A Reason.

One day at work, my mom FaceTimed me and showed me a small kitten on her shoulder. The official story is that she saw some awful person throw it out the window and she rescued it. She had to pull over on the freeway on-ramp after she saw this small fuzzball fly out the window of the car in front of her and searched the grassy area until she found it.

The first clue that something was off was the speed of the vehicles. The second was that she used to be a dispatcher and apparently didn't remember the make, model, color of the car, or the license plate.

A couple of days later I was told the real story. She was at the dentist and apparently a stray cat had given birth to kittens in one of the gardens of that lot. She lured one toward her and decided to take it home and rescue it. She told me that I'm not allowed to tell anyone that story until she dies and then I can tell it at her funeral. Every once in a while she checks in about that story and asks if I told anyone yet.

meg_rose

A Beautiful Moment Only You Witnessed

I used to work at a supermarket. One day I saw the most normal looking middle aged man come in pushing his cart, and then the child inside him took over.

He did a little hop and a skip, and then jumped up in air, putting all his weight on the handle. He then face planted VERY hard, and the cart went flying up into the air.

The store was fairly busy at this point, and amazingly NOBODY saw it. I remember looking around frantically trying to find someone to share my amusement with, but I was the only person to witness this fantastic display.

The poor man scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could, looking around sheepishly to see who had seen what had happened. As he turned in my direction, I turned away in awkwardness and also to save him the embarrassment.

I then watched him continue his shopping, looking very happy with himself that he'd gotten away with it. He didn't get away with it. He probably never told anyone, but I saw it.

complexlonelysoul

Such. Tangible. Awkwardness.

This will probably get buried, I'm a bit late to the party but here goes. Format, mobile etc.

Years ago me and my first long term boyfriend broke up. We had been living together in a large house with another girl my age (around 18/19) at the time.

We had been broken up for a couple of months but we all stayed living together as it made sense until we had separated our finances totally. So I was moving out of the house, I had packed up all my stuff and my parents came to help me move. My step dad came down to the kitchen after going upstairs to take my bed apart. He's usually a man of few words but he had gone pretty quiet even for him.

Turns out he had made his way into the wrong room, taken my female house mates bed apart, after removing the bed sheets himself and uncovering 2 giant pink dildos, which he moved to the other side of the room without a word.

My house mate went up stairs and was like "who took my bed apart?" And we all burst out laughing and went to see, and there were the 2 dildos that he had moved, on her dresser awkwardly.

It was pretty cringe for everyone involved but its hilarious looking back now.

hanniyas

Even Rainbow Road??

One of the first times I invited my girlfriend to spend the night at my college apartment - I went to bed early. We're both gamers, but I'm an early bird and she's a night owl.

She reassured me I could go to sleep without her because, little did I know, she had plans to unlock Toad, Toadette, and the Special Cup in Mario Kart: DD for the GameCube.

My apartment complex had very strict parking. There were only 2 parking passes for me and my roommate, but I encouraged my girlfriend to park in the lot anyway because I'd never seen a friend get towed in the couple of years I lived there. She really didn't want to get towed though, so I promised to pay if she got her car impounded.

So I go to bed while she plays Mario Kart all night. Little did I realize she's an absolute freak at the game.

I wake up early in the morning to find her passed out from a night of gaming. I fire up the Gamecube to play some Mario Kart with breakfast.

Not aware she unlocked almost EVERYTHING in the game. I proudly proclaim,

"You got Toad!"

Barely awake she responds, "I got... TOWED??"

"Yeah! You got Toad last night while I was sleeping, I can't believe it!"

"I GOT TOWED?!"

"YEAH! Don't you remember?"

She frantically checks behind the blinds to look outside at the parking lot.

"I didn't get towed."

"Yeah, you got Toad and Toadette last night..?"

One of our best moments for sure.

pillowpaladin

...That's Not Your Name.

I started doing one of those 5k running apps. On this app, the trainer is named Erin. She coaches you through each "training" session. I've never been a runner and now can do a solid 5k! But anyway Erin told me that I've got to have a mantra. Something i can repeat to myself when I want to give up. Her mantra is "you're strong Erin, be strong" I could never come up with anything better so now my mantra is "you're strong Erin, be strong"

my name isn't even close to Erin but it doesn't feel right using my own name at this point.

I'm surprised how often I want to give up on things and automatically think "you're strong Erin, be strong".

Edit: guys I am so overwhelmed and touched by these replies! Gold and silver and wholesome? oh my! We are all strong Erins!!

theWildBore

A 10-Second Change

The time my mum needed to go back into the house to get a scarf. Because of this we were held back and missed a bus by 10 seconds. That bus then crashed into a bridge at very high speed because the bus driver had mental health problems. It is the closest I have ever been to death. I will never complain about my mum going back to get a scarf in my life again.

zebbojojo

A Very Good Boy

It is not mind-blowing or anything of the sort, which is why I never told it, but when I first started getting sick and couldn't move around the house like usual, my cat would yell at me for two minutes until I sat down. He would proceed to purr furiously over my stomach, which was hurting, for about ten minutes at a time. He would chirp at me if I tried to get up beforehand and keep bumping my leg as I walked past if I never sat down.

Little did I know that he was trying to heal my cancer, that was growing into the muscle by that point. He's a little Siamese mix and he is very vocal, and I appreciate his little squeaks of support.

He is a very good boy.

panoramicambitions

Always Carry Vaseline With You

I moved to the UK from zimbabwe when I was 4. The first few years my parents spent their whole time trying to settle down, by the time I was 8 they realised we had never been to london. So on a hot june day we went into london. We went to the aquarium, Covent garden to see all the performers, on the london eye, it was a good day. To end the day we went to buckingham palace, I was tired so I was resting my head against the bars asking all the questions youd expect from an 8 year old.

After a while my parents said it was time to go, i pushed away from the bars and then felt the cold steel against the back of my ears. I hadn't noticed my head has slipped through. I panicked, a crowd gathered (I'm probably in many a family photo album) even a horse guard came to see what the commission was about.

Bet he wasnt expecting a child with his head stuck. By then I had accepted this as my new home, but I couldn't figure out how I'd go to sleep with a spike on the floor. Luckily an old lady had a tub of vaseline in her handbag and my dad was able to pull me out with my head smothered in vaseline.

JGT420

A Little Sweetness In The World

I've told this on reddit before but never in person.

so i was at a water park with a girl I had a huge crush on and some of our mutual friends. i'm not a big fan of rides, she had been trying to talk me into going on one all day, and i finally agreed to try out this one really intense looking slide. basically you go down the slide while sitting on this big inflatable thing, and it was for two people so naturally i got paired up with the girl i had a crush on.

we both climbed into the inflatable, which had these little handles on it for you to hold onto when you went down. when we went down the slide, it was WAY faster than I thought it would be. I accidentally let go of one of the handles, tried to grab it again, and ended up grabbing her hand instead by accident.

i was really embarrassed but she put her other hand on top of mine until we reached the bottom. i guess she thought i was scared, which is also kinda embarrassing, but it was a nice moment. She later went on to be my first kiss about 6 months later, and we're still close friends today

AV8ORboi

"So Long Story Short, Don't Do That."

In 6th grade one night I was like, I really don't feel like going to school tomorrow, so I looked up how to get a fever... I found a tutorial that said to take a bath at the hottest temperature your bathtub will go, and then stay up all night. I decided to try it and I started the water for a steaming hot bath. It stung to get in it, and I somehow survived it for 30 minutes, when I was getting out I felt dizzy and then...

I fell on the floor and had a seizure...

I woke up and saw the blinding ceiling lights of the bathroom and the first thing I thought was ,"Am I dead?" And then I threw up in the toilet next to me and had a migraine for the night. And later found out I got 1st degree burns.

So long story short, don't do that.

UnderTails63

Did you go to school the next day?

chekov26

No. Not for a week.

UnderTails63

What A TWIST

When I was 17, I worked at a grocery store with a guy named Brian. Normal guy, mid 20s, lil chub. Didn't really think much of him.

One day he tells me about how he lives in an apartment by himself and that his neighbours are absolutely crazy. Like they would yell at him to be quiet, pound against the wall to get him to shut up, even though he wouldn't be doing anything. He would sneeze, and his neighbours would scream at the top of their lungs from next door. It was that bad.

Tbh, I didn't really care much when he was telling me this. I just wanted to go home and not work anymore.

Couple days go by and I noticed that Brian wasn't showing up anymore. Whatever. Didn't think much of that either. A month or two goes by and he finally shows back up to work. So, being the nice friend I am, I asked him where he's been. He tells me he was actually fired because he was in the hospital. I didn't think that was a valid reason to fire someone, but what do I know. I didn't comment on that. I asked him why he was in the hospital and he told me it was for "personal reasons". I tell him it was good having him back, and carried on with my day.

Fast forward a couple days to me talking to another coworker who was good friends with Brian. He says "Did you hear what happened to Brian?"

"Yeah he was in the hospital and was fired or something"

"Do you know why though?"

"No, he said it was personal"

So this is what happened a couple months ago before Brian disappeared. He was at home by himself, when his neighbours (surprise) start yelling at him through the walls for being too loud. Brian telling himself "I've had enough" decides to call the police and have them deal with it. The police arrived and started talking to the neighbours for quite some time. Hours go by with the police and neighbours. So he calls the police again to ask what's taking so long. The police respond with "..um.. We left like an hour and a half ago."

Turns out that the neighbours were never yelling at him. In fact, they were never there. Brian was schizophrenic and was hearing voices in his head. He had to go to a mental hospital for a month.

theprinterdoesntwerk