Wise Jessica And Her Unwise Parents

By Kaira Kohli

Jessica is a young 9-year-old. She lives in Ohio, USA. But she is not your average 9-year-old, she is a lot mature and wise beyond her years. She performed exceedingly well in school and won a lot of competitions. She was a favourite of her teachers but she was not a bookworm. She was also very popular with other classmates and had a lot of fun with her friends. She never got int trouble and was often asked for her advice.

On the other hand, her parents were the complete opposite and behaved in a very kiddish manner. When they got too excited, they behaved as three- year-olds on a sugar rush!

One sunny Sunday, they all decided to go to the mall together. They were planning to eat Pizza at the food court and do some shopping. Jessica’s Dad was driving the car…and what a disaster that was! His driving was so unsafe that he kept on crashing everything on the road like trash cans and traffic cones. Jessica wondered, how on earth, he even got his Driver’s license at the first place. They somehow managed to reach the mall without hurting someone!

As they were walking past the shops, his father started throwing tantrums like a spoiled child. He was screaming in the top of his lungs, “I want that toy car… I want that toy car!!” Her mother was no better.  Her yelling was shriller as she wanted her hands on the new plushie. Jessica was so embarrassed and tried to hide herself behind the bookshelf. But she had to manage the situation in spite of being annoyed at her parents.

“UHH, THAT IS IT!!” she groaned. “No Pizza for you and no toys either, we are going back home this instant!” She sat behind the wheel and started driving back home. Alas, she was no better at driving than her parents. She was a kid after all. Her feet barely touched the brakes and gas pedal, the steering wheel was too big for her tiny arms and she could barely understand the gears! 

Upon reaching home, she called upon a family meeting and made a long and boring announcement.

“Every day you act like spoilt children and today you have crossed the line! So, from now on, I am the Boss here. Hand over your phones, your wallets, your credit cards and even your driver’s licenses.” Her parents groaned but handed over everything and went back to their room sulking.

The next day, Jessica woke up early and went for the driver’s test. She was not allowed to get int o the car as she was a kid after all. But she was prepared, she lied about being a little person and she was allowed to drive a special car meant for little people. She somehow managed to pass the driving test. 

On returning home, she made her parents ready, packed their bags, made their favourite PBJ sandwiches, filled their water bottles and made them sit into the special car. She got them admitted to a special school for extra- naughty children and prayed for a miracle!

Then, she went to her mother’s workplace and filled in as a substitute. Her mother was not always this childish, she was a smart woman years ago and had become a successful pilot! Jessica thought flying a plane was just like driving a car. But how wrong she was…. She had a hard time understanding all the dials and buttons. With the co- pilot’s help, she somehow managed to take-off but the flight was not smooth at all. The passengers screamed as her flying caused so much turbulence and finally the co-pilot had to take over. Sadly, she got fired from the job and it was her first and last flight ever.

She then went to her father’s shop. He ran an ice-cream and frozen yoghurt shop. She saw all the sweet treats and temptation kicked in! She ate all of the ice-cream, except one Pistachio flavour which she hated.  A small girl entered the shop and asked Jessica to pack ten chocolate ice-creams for her party at home. Jessica offered her the Pistachio ice-cream instead and the girl started weeping. Her cries became louder and louder. Jessica tried her best to comfort her, but it didn’t work. The day was too much for Jessica and she went back home running. 

On the opposite, her parents were having a blast! They pranked the teacher, stole food from others and jumped like monkeys on the trampoline in the school. They enjoyed their liberty without the bossy Jessica sitting on top of their heads!

Jessica told her parents that this had to end and it had to go back to normal. 

“N-uhh, no way..never..ever..ever..” her parents replied. They were having too much fun to it to end so soon. Jessica was so miserable that she wanted to go to sleep right away. But, she remembered, that she was the Boss now and had to do all the chore too. She had to water the plants, fix dinner, do the laundry, take the dog out, clean the house from top to bottom and help her parents with their homework! She realized how much her parents did for her.

She sulkily walked to the basement where the washing machine was. She put all the dirty clothes in it. She thought to herself,” what should I wash them with?” She did not know that you don’t put a soap bar in the washing machine. Since the clothes were very dirty, she put not one, but 2 soap bars. But another obstacle came her way. She did not know which button to press and she pressed them all. Her misjudgment clogged the machine and she had to take out all the clothes. To her horror, the clothes were not at all clean and were soaking wet. She was too tired to try anything else and dumped the clothes there only.

She had no energy to cook, so she decides to order some food. But with the bad day she was having, she forgot to charger her phone and it was off. She put it on charging and lied down on the sofa to relax. Soon, she fell asleep. But ten minutes later, she heard loud noises from her parents’ room, the TV was too loud and they were hungry!! She realized that she could not starver her parents. She decided to cook some eggs, but she did not know how to! She popped some eggs into the microwave and to her horror, they all exploded. She decided to fry some eggs, but she had used the last two eggs…nothing was going her way! She just fed the chips and pickle and ate stale bread herself. Finally, the day was over and decided to tuck her parents in the bed. She wanted to say a small prayer and thank God for the good things in her day and she realized there was nothing good to remember that day. 

She thought of taking a relaxing bath, but troubles were far from over. There was a spider in her bathtub and she ran out screaming out of her house. She stood outside her house for a long time. When she came back inside to check on her parents, she saw them playing with the Tarantula! Her parents asked in excitement, “Can we keep her?” She shrieked, “No, you have made my day very difficult and now you want a Tarantula!!!” She sent them to their room and crashed to bed in a few seconds. 

Next day, she got up an hour late and made her parents ready in a great rush. She gave the money instead of packing lunches and drove them to school. The school gate was shut and she realized, that it was a Sunday! Her parents screamed, “You woke us up on a Sunday, the nerve! You are a horrible mother, Jessica”. 

She took them back home and they soon started playing and listening to loud music. “Stay quiet, you Idiots” she said to which they replied, “N-uh, we are not listening to you if you are not listening to us.”

Jessica was running out of ideas and bribed the, she offered them money to stay quiet.  They agreed to keep quiet after getting $50 each. The next day, her parents flexed in front of their classmates about how much money they had. They spent all the money on junk food and video games. They were very excited when they came back home. They saw Jessica cleaning the mess they had made the last day and there were tears in her eyes. They finally, realized their mistake and hugged her. “ We are so sorry Jessica, all these responsibilities for so many years, made us tired and we wanted to be carefree again. But we are your parents and you are our lovely daughter. It is our duty to take care of you instead of you taking care of us.”

Jessica also apologized and thanked them to take care of the house, the job, the bills…the list was endless. She had also realized how much her parents did for her.

They all promised to be better and help each other out. It was not easy and it did not happen overnight. Her parents still drove her up the wall sometimes, but she did not lose her calm any more…

By Kaira Kohli