Sometimes All You Need Is A Little Sit In The Garden

My two sons just had a big quarrel with each other. I don’t know the details, but they have been all fire and brimstone with each other. It’s gone on for a week now, which has made family dinners very awkward, as they can’t be in the same room without a shouting match occurring within five minutes.

Eventually, I lose my patience with those two and throw both of them out of the house with an order to never return until they’ve made up. So, two grumbling teenagers sit themselves at the bench in the garden, pointedly not looking at each other and practically oozing rage.

They’re like that for pretty much an entire hour, doing nothing but sitting beside each other and saying absolutely nothing.

Then, suddenly, they both get up at the same time and come back in.

Me: “Have the two of you stopped quarrelling?”

Son #1: “Yup, Mum.”

Son #2: “Uh-huh.”

Me: “You’ve made up?”

Son #1: “Yeah. I realised it was just childish.”

Son #2: “I don’t even remember why we were arguing.”

Son #1: “Yeah, me, too.”

Me: “Did either of you apologise to each other?”

Son #1: “No point.”

Son #2: “Nothing to forgive.”

Indeed, they were best of friends once again after that hour in the garden — all without saying a word to the other. I still don’t know why they were quarrelling in the first place.