One day I was watching duck tales with daddy in the evening and he suddenly started laughing hysterical for no reason.

“Doesn’t your mother laugh like that?” He said pointing at Donald Duck.

“Mommy doesn’t laugh like that.”

“Oh yes, she doesn’t. I love your mother very much,” he suddenly said to me, “-but I have to say, her laughter sounds closer to a platypus than a duck.” And he started laughing again. I didn’t know what a platypus was. I only knew about Tom and Jerry, and Uncle Scrooge.

“What’s a pootipus, daddy?” I asked and he started through a laughing fit.

“Oh my god, what is she feeding this kid! It’s called Platypus sweetie, not pootipus.” And I don’t know what came over him. Maybe he understood that I didn’t know what a platypus was, so he did an impression of one. He brought his hands together in front of his lips and started clapping, producing duck-like ‘quacks’ during his performance.

It wasn’t funny. I thought a platypus looked like a cat with a ducks beak. The thought scared me out. Daddy had to promise me that he would take me to the zoo to show me what a platypus looked like to stop my screams.

“Mommy doesn’t laugh like that,” I told him and kicked the floor in anger.

‘Daddy is a liar. First, he said I taste like salt and dirt. Then he said I’m still three, not four years old. But I believe mommy because she is the smartest- just like Anna- and she doesn’t laugh like a platypus. She laughs funny but she doesn’t sound like a duck!’

“That’s horrible. I’m going to tell mommy.” I screamed and ran outside, to the garden, where mommy was relaxing in the sun.

“Mommy!” I yelled and she hurriedly stood up.”What happened sweetie?” she said and I told her everything.

“Daddy said, you laugh like a platypus. He even did an impression of one.”  I was angry at daddy, but when I stopped talking to look at mommy, I understood I had made a mistake. Mommy was angry. Poppy had told me to never make fun of mommy’s laughs, but I had forgotten it in my anger.

“She gets really angry when someone does it.” He had told me during one of my trips to his home in the states.

Even daddy knows how bad Mommy’s anger is so he stopped chasing after me when he heard me ratting on him and ran back inside the house. Mommy chased after him. I ran after them both screaming so loud someone called the police thinking we were in trouble.

One time my art teacher Jenny called Mommy to the school because I had refused to share my colors with Stan Luther. I don’t like Stan. He is a mean boy. He used to push me from behind every time others weren’t watching.

When Mommy asked me why I wasn’t sharing, I told her the reason, and she got so angry that even miss jenny started sweating. Stan never pushed me after that.

We both laughed after coming out of school. It was the best day of my life. Miss Jenifer also never asked me to share ever again. All thanks to mommy’s anger.

But this time I had done something wrong. Poppy had once told me, “Although relations founded on a strong base don’t break easily but nobody likes a rat.”

I like Jerry, but I don’t hate Tom the cat. I felt like a kid chasing after them. Mommy didn’t laugh that night and Daddy didn’t kiss me a good night either.