A Fine

The hands of the two friends were dirty with soaked mud; now they slapped them together and cleaned them up a bit while congratulating one another on the dam they'd just built in the stream. They turned to go. A man (They'd noticed him when they'd slid down the slope to the stream) now stood over their motorcycles which they'd left lying flat by the trees. He was about their age. "Who said you could do that?" he asked. In reply, M. piped up "No-one: what's it to you!" Then he giggled. "Don't be cheeky!" ordered the man. "You don't know how much trouble you're in. You'd better run and fetch me a sixpence. For silence. You better had. Else the park attendant will see this - I'll fetch him. Don't think I won't 'cos I will. You know that. No, you leave your motorcycles here, you (addressing M.) I'll need them as security."

The two friends ran off, hurriedly explaining over their shoulders that it would take them more than half-an-hour to get home and back, and that he should not think they had abandoned their machines to him. On the way home M. worried over what he'd tell his wife; then decided that he'd say nothing, and in fact he'd sneak in and try to get the money without her even noticing. His friend (who lived next door) agreed that it was a good idea. 

On the way back, despite running, M. couldn't stop himself from fingering a butter-knife he'd picked up from the kitchen and stuffed into his pocket. He paid the man first. It was while his friend was handing over his sixpence that M. produced his knife and, away from the man, began to slash at a bush. Straight away the man roared and sent M.'s hand back into his pocket, the weapon dropping on a muddy patch, quite plain for everyone to see. An elderly passer-by stopped on the top of the slope and looked at them. M. began to explain hurriedly and in his own fashion that the man was quite right to fine them for their misdemeanor; that now the two of them, vandals obviously, were aware of their wrongdoing; they could have been treated far more harshly by another. Indeed, M. said, that they were grateful for their fine, in fact they welcomed it.