Neighbours Stick Family

Mother went outside to warm up the car. It was a cool autumn morning and she had to drive Stacey, her teenage daughter, to school.

“Oh look,” pointed Mother at their neighbours vehicle which was in their driveway. “The Harris’ have stick family stickers on their car.”

“Yes,” said Stacey, putting her backpack in the back seat of the car. “I saw Mrs. Harris putting them on their car yesterday.”

“Okay,” said Mother. “What is the story with that stick family?”

“Well,” said Stacey. “Mrs. Harris put the stickers quite close to one another. That tells me that they are a close-knit family.”

“Good observation,” said Mother. “What else?”

“Mr. Harris seems to be wearing a golf outfit,” said Stacey. “Mrs. Harris has a tennis outfit on. I would say they are a very active family. Their son, Billy, has a baseball cap on. I see they have one dog and two cats. All in all, I would say they are a very happy family, just like us.”

“They do appear to be very happy whenever I have seen them,” said Mother.

“One other thing,” said Stacey, laughing.

“What?” asked Mother. “What is so funny?”

“They do seem to be a very busy family,” said Stacey, still laughing.

“How can you tell that?” asked Mother.

“It appears they forgot to add Megan, their daughter to their stick family,” said Stacey.

“Oh my!” exclaimed Mother. “You are right.”

Just as Mother was pulling out of the driveway, Stacey saw Mrs. Harris coming out of her house.

“Wait Mom,” said Stacey, opening up the car door. “I have to go tell her.”

Stacey went over to Mrs. Harris and told her that she noticed Megan was missing from her stick family.

“Are you serious?” asked Mrs. Harris, with a mortified look on her face.

Mrs. Harris walked to the back of the car and sure enough, Megan was missing from the stick family stickers.

“Megan is going to shoot me,” said Mrs. Harris. “She helped me pick them out.”

“Here comes Megan now,” said Stacey, watching Megan walk up the walkway to the car.

Mrs. Harris got Megan into the car quickly before she noticed anything. That evening when Mrs. Harris got home from work, Stacey saw Mrs. Harris put Megan’s stick family sticker on the back of their car.

“How could someone forget to add their child to their stick family stickers?” asked Stacey that night at the dinner table.

“It probably happens more often than you think,” said Mother.

“How would you know about that?” asked Stacey’s brother, Paul.

“I forgot to add your sticker when I was putting the stickers on the car,” said Mother.

“You did,” laughed Paul. “You should have just left it off.”