Innocence

When I looked up the definition of innocence, I found the following:

in·no·cence

.

1. The state, quality, or virtue of being innocent, as:

a. Freedom from sin, moral wrong, or guilt through lack of knowledge of evil.

b. Guiltlessness of a specific legal crime or offense.

c. Freedom from guile, cunning, or deceit; simplicity or artlessness.

d. Lack of worldliness or sophistication; naiveté.

e. Lack of knowledge or understanding; ignorance.

f. Freedom from harmfulness; inoffensiveness.

2. One that is innocent.

I think of my childhood.

I was born and raised in Montreal Quebec, with 2 sisters; however I hung around my younger sister Kelly because we were close in age, there was only 18 months between us.

We were pretty little girls with big brown eyes, cocoa colored skin and long ringlets pigtails.  Every Sunday, my mother would bring us to the Baptist Church where we attended Sunday school and played in the junior choir, mother  loved to dress my sister and I as if we were twins in matching fluffy pink hooded coats, with pom-poms hanging from the draw strings, white leotards and white paten leather shoes.

If you didn’t know any better; we could pass as poster kids on how children should behave and look. In fact we were able to fool everyone for many years.  It wasn’t hard, we were so tiny and cute, always the favorite.  I was so petite that although I was in grade five, most thought that I was in kindergarten.

Little did everyone know ; we would jump out of bedroom windows late in the night, and terrorized the neighborhood by throwing fruits at windows and garage doors, raid of well maintained gardens and steal clothes of the lines, for no particular reason, just because we could.

One evening, when the gang was sitting in a cherry tree, enjoying the cherries, a bright light flashed in our faces.  It was the women in the neighborhood standing with rollers and hair ties in their heads.  They surprised the hell out of us; we stood there with big eyes like deer looking at incoming traffic, and then flew out of the tree.

When most kids play cowboys and Indians, you’d imagine kids running in the back yard chasing each other with plastic toy guns, cowboy hats and toy bows and arrows, not us.  Our idea of cowboys and Indians was a little more imaginative, more twisted, more true to the idea of capturing the enemy.  We’d take turns tying each other up with the tightest knots with shipping ropes.  Not only did we master the knots but we‘d tie the victim to the swing set in our back yard.  To make things more interesting we would combine cowboys and Indians with hide and seek.  Yes that’s right… we would take turns and tying each other up, leaving the victim alone while the rest of the group and took off and hide all around the block.  Then the unfortunate victim was left helplessly bound to the swing set struggling to undo the triple knots and twisted rope until free from the restrains. 

My sister didn’t mind when it was her turn as she was pretty good at untying the knots, so I would take extra care in making the knots extra hard.  Out of all the kids playing I would tie the knots as if each knot was a matter of survival. 

I would tie her so tight it was if I was in the navy my entire life.  Her little wrist were bound so tightly they were red and swollen.  The pink skipping rope was stretched to the limits, so much so that the color became white.    All that missing was the gag.   I would tie hands tied to the swing, with her feet hog- tied.  Usually the tied child would struggle with the ropes and within a few minutes would be free to go running after the group of friends.  Because I was always looking to be rid of the monkey on my back, my sister.  There were times she would hog tie her behind the garden shed, this way no one knew she was in the yard, and then take off for the rest of the day…

Unfortunately Kelly wasn’t always a victim, she too had her days when she would tie me so tight that my hands were two shades of purple long after everyone had left… pay back was so sweet!  

Where were the adults to prevent this cruel game?  Well that was a good question, I suppose they thought we were all outside happily playing innocently together and out of trouble, and we were for the most part.  We didn’t figure anything bad would happen; we knew it was all in good fun.

Ah the innocent!

One morning, Kelly reminded me that it was mother’s day. Oh crap! What were we going to give the woman that gave life to these little tyrants? It had to be perfect…beautiful. We decided to go out for our afternoon walk, we thought that we would go to the store up the road, with $0.50 in our pocket to pick out a gift, we jumped the fence as usual, and turned left around the corner, there they could see from a distance several people enjoying the morning sunshine sipping coffee or tea.  There were about 4-5 adults, having casual conversation sitting on the front veranda. Just beneath them, were the most colorful, bright long stemmed tulips…just waiting to be cut and placed in a tall vase. As I  got closer, I had an epiphany, without letting my sister  in on my plan I ran as fast as I could, like a bird sweeping down on her pray,  I ran up under the unsuspected bystanders and snatched every single tulip. And I did it with the biggest grin on my face!! Yes!!! My sister finally caught on and began running as she did not want to get caught, nor did t want to be held accountable for my actions.  I ran with Tulips in hand, I could hear the yelling and screaming of angry adults. 

We did this several years straight( cause it was easy and fun), mother  never catching on, for in her eyes, we were pretty little girls with big brown eyes, cocoa colored skin and long ringlets pigtails  that could do no wrong.

Pure Innocence!