Asher and his mom were always joking around. They would improvise little tunes for everything—a "Take the Garbage Out" blues song, a "Finished My Homework" rap. And Asher's mom was always pulling pranks, like picking him up at school wearing a fake beard. She was the funniest person Asher knew. One day, Asher decided to pull a prank on her. He had heard about this trick from a friend and wanted to try it.
Late that night, he wrapped a rubber band around the trigger of the kitchen sink sprayer. That way, when his mom turned on the faucet to fill the coffee pot tomorrow morning, she would get sprayed with water! He laughed to himself just thinking about it.
The next morning, he overheard his mom's startled scream as she got sprayed by water. But to his surprise, it turned out that she was angry. When she picked him up after school, she explained why.
"I had an important presentation at work that morning, but I was late to my meeting because I needed to change clothes," his mom said. "It added a lot of extra stress."
Asher realized he'd been so wrapped up in thinking of how hilarious his prank would be that he didn't consider how it might affect his mom's work day. He thought of how upset he would have been if someone soaked his clothes the morning before a class presentation.
"I'm sorry, Mom," he said. "I didn't think that one through."