"Mom!"
My sister was worked up. "Take it away!"
"No!"
"Throw it out!"
"I don't want to see it!"
"Gross!"
"Mom!"
"Hurry!"
My sister's voice was on the verge of cracking.
"I know, I know."
Mom reached out and picked up the turtle.
She threw it straight out the window.
She didn't give the turtle a chance to react.
"There."
Mom smiled at my sister.
"It's gone."
"It's okay now."
My sister looked around, still shaken. "Really?"
"It's not here anymore?"
"Really."
Mom nodded. "You won't see it again."
My sister finally let out the breath she'd been holding.
"...Where did that turtle come from?"
My sister was furious.
"Right."
Mom furrowed her brows.
"We'll have to ask your little brother."
"Who told you to go into your brother's room?"
"You got scared, didn't you?"
"I was just getting a tissue."
My sister held up the tissue in her hand, sounding rather aggrieved.
"That little jerk..."
My sister grumbled indignantly.
"Who told him to keep a turtle in the house?"
"Mom, look at him..."
"Okay."
Mom nodded. "When he gets back, I'll talk to him."
"How did it crawl out?"
The little boy was surprised.
"It couldn't climb out of the bowl."
"Because I knocked the bowl over."
My sister sounded almost self-righteous.
She had no intention of hiding it.
Why would she hide it?
It wasn't her fault.
It was her little brother's fault for secretly keeping a turtle in the house.
"Who told you to keep a turtle in the house?"
Before the little boy could respond to what she'd just said, my sister got in first with her accusation.
The little boy's train of thought was scattered.
Who told him to...
Nobody had told him to...
He'd