James, a lad of 14, was asked by his mother to do something unique one weekend.

After pondering upon that, James came up to his mother, and said: “I can cook something for dinner, as you must be really tired from doing all the chores over the week.”

Hearing this, James’ mother became immensely proud of him and agreed. Since James knew how to cook burgers well, his sister and mother asked him to cook that. He was fine with it, and give a smile before going to the kitchen.

Now James had to take action quick; after taking all the essential things required to make burgers, he began. He was halfway done and everything was going pretty smooth.

Having set all the things in a perfect manner, he let out a huge sigh of relief, although he was not completely done.

Then, he went to the washroom, and completely forgotten about the cooking project he had started earlier on. After coming out of the washroom, he strolled outside his house into the backyard as one of his school’s ‘nature science project’ submission date was reaching soon.

Because he hadn’t decided for the topic yet, he felt uneasy and took a walk outside to get him some ideas.

Just then, he heard his sister making a huge racket in the living room. He entered inside to see what was going on, but he smelt something… something burning.

He then realised that his burger patties, which were in the frying pan cooking, must have burnt. He ran towards the kitchen and saw black clouds of smoke all around. Everyone came to see what was happening in the kitchen. It was a distressing scene. Burnt burger petties, which were now black solid rocks were the least of the worries, because it seemed that a disaster had wreaked havoc in the kitchen; the walls, floor and the ceiling, all were covered in smoke and darkness.

James’ mother turned off the stove and instructed everyone to get out of the kitchen, coughing. She was surely disappointed by James, for his carelessness could have resulted in even a bigger disaster.

However, she didn’t say anything to him, and James deeply regretted it all. But, on a positive note, James was never careless after that incident. He became extra careful ever since.

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 23rd, 2022