Modals and Adjective Clauses - Essay Example

Grammar 300 Modals and Adjective Clauses Writing Assignment I will never forget the time when I discovered what it means to betray the trust of someone I cared about. My cousin Joey, who was only six at the time, is the son of my mother’s sister and he was due to visit us for a few days. I was not very excited about his visit because I anticipated that it would not be much fun having to hang out with him for several days. As it turned out, I ignored the instructions of my adult relatives and managed to lose my younger cousin, leaving him alone in a strange town, with no place to sleep and no way of finding his way back to my parents’ house.

The mistake I made was to think that he was safe in the confines of our yard and to leave him alone while I pursued my own interests elsewhere, not thinking about the vulnerability of young children and their tendency to wander off into dangerous situations. My mother was very happy when Joey and my aunt arrived late in the afternoon, just in time for dinner and she fussed around us, making sure that everyone had enough to eat, and laughing with her sister while Joey and I just looked at each other across the dining table.

He did not say much and everything was fine and until my mother told me to take Joey out into the yard to play. She warned me not to let him run around in the street, and not to let him out of my sight, because he was too young to be left alone. I was not very pleased about this, because I wanted to meet my friends for our usual games in the park, and it was just like a form of torture to act like a nursemaid for this little kid. It was a beautiful, warm, summer’s evening and the last thing I wanted to do was stay cooped up in the yard with a whining six year old.

In the end I could not stand it any longer and so I just slipped out of the yard and headed for the park, while my young cousin seemed content to be shovelling some sand which was lying in the corner. I thought Joey would be fine, because he seemed quite happy messing about in the yard. In fact, however, he must have noticed I had gone. He may have followed me as I sped off to meet my friends, or perhaps he just wanted to explore the area. He simply disappeared without trace and nobody saw him go or knew where to start looking for him.

I was blissfully unaware of what had happened and the next thing I knew was my mother calling me to come home. The minute I saw my mother’s face, I was shocked by her tears and I knew that I had made the most terrible mistake. All of a sudden it became clear to me that that I should have stayed with my little cousin. I could have at least told my mother that I was going to the park, because it was quite wrong to abandon him to his fate when he did not even know his way around the area. Young children can fall into all kinds of dangers if they are not accompanied by someone older, and as I thought about the situation, I imagined all the possibilities for disaster that exist in a small town.

I shall never forget that sinking feeling of guilt and the anguish that my mother and my aunt suffered while they desperately searched for Joey. We all spent two hours worrying about Joey, and calling out his name in vain, until finally a neighbour found him wandering along the road towards the shopping mall and brought him back. I learned from this mistake that even ten year olds ought to act responsibly when they are given an important job to do. I have come to accept that I must think about the consequences of my actions, and I should always take into account the harm that can come to others.

If there is anything good in this event, then it is the fact that I will never do anything like this again. I can truly say that I have learned my lesson. I had to grow up very quickly in these few hours and it has taught me a valuable lesson for my future life.