“It’s been years since you told me not to slide down the banister!”, Thomas accused defensively.
“Thomas!”, his mother said in a rising tone of voice that meant she was losing her patience with his impertinence.
“Yes, Mother,” Thomas said quietly as he dismounted from the railing to stand on the third stair step in front of her. The sixteen inch elevation of the step above the floor placed his head at an equal height with his mother’s head and allowed him to look his mother directly in the eye when he added in a small, whiny voice, “I was only trying it out.
She shook her head at how childish her wayward son sounded trying to defend his puerile behavior and said in an exasperated tone, “When you’ve finished your lunch, you’re going to go outside and play at the schoolyard! Honestly! I would have thought that you’d have outgrown such tomfoolery years ago!”