Life Return Receipts

“I am not doing that!” Laria informs her friends while on vacation at their favorite resort in the Bahamas. “I don’t like how you want me to do it!”

“Everything we suggested for the group to do, you don’t like it or want to do it,” Jessie, one of the five females in the group, threw back.

“My father was an alcoholic, and I saw what it did to him, my mother, our entire family. I am not drinking anything!” She strongly defends her decision.

“Ok,” Alana, one of the females in the group, said. “We understand if you don’t want to come and enjoy yourself.”

“Well, we are going to Toby’s Fire-Pit, Grill and Bar tonight,” Jessie informed the group. “Last night there was this really cute guy admiring and winking at me. I hope he is there tonight.”

Four pairs of eyes swayed to Laria, who said, “Bars are the worst place to meet guys.” Turning to Jessie, she asked, “Don’t you have a boyfriend? You can’t be picking up guys!”

“We are on vacation. No one will know what we did unless……?”

“I will know,” Laria fired back, cutting her off.

“And if you tell anyone, you are dead!” Jesse threatened.

“I was raised to believe that he who keeps his tongue keeps his life,” she responded quickly.

“But you don’t have a boyfriend,” Alana said.

“I don’t do one-night stands!” Laria threw back.

“I told you we shouldn’t have chosen her!” Carliza, another group member, said.

“We need five people to get the deal, and she was the only one whose vacation was due with ours,” Jesse reminded her.

“Well, I am here to have fun, and no one is going to take that away from me,” Xena, the fifth member of the group, said.

“What is wrong with you?” Alana cried out in anger. “Don’t you want to have fun?”

“Of course I do,” Laria said, wrapping a towel around the lower part of her body. Then said, “But life doesn’t give a return receipt for any stupid mistakes I make. So anywhere I go, I remain focused and make sensible life decisions!”

“You are on vacation!” Carliza screams at her. “You are supposed to be enjoying yourself!”

“Your idea of fun is different from mine. Focus is key for me when I am in a strange country where I have no family and know no one!” Laria explained.

“You are focused anywhere you are?” Jesse asked.

“All of the time?” Alana question in furrowed brows and popped eyes.

Laria eased closer, sat between them, then shared, “My father killed my mother by accident when I was twelve years old because he was drunk. He couldn’t stop drinking. My fourteen-year-old sister was injured in the fire. My mom went in to save her and died in the process. That was almost twenty years ago, and neither of them recovered. My father had to be institutionalized because, even though he stopped drinking, he can’t get over the fact that he killed the only woman he ever loved. If life gave return receipts so we could return our mistakes, stupid decisions, or actions and change the hell we already caused in the lives of the people we loved, what a wonderful world that would be. Being stupid would be fine. I would love a return receipt for what my father did to bring my mother back. So, for the time being, while I am sane and thinking, I intend to make sensible decisions.”

They stared at her in shock, mouths agape. She reached over and pushed chins up, closing mouths. Then counsels, “I can’t keep paying Life for unnecessary mistakes I make. Life hurts even when you are honest and mindful. But with smart decisions, the pain is less.”

Several blinks later, Carliza said, “But no one can live and not make mistakes.”

“I didn’t say I don’t make mistakes, because they are lessons for me. But I am not an irresponsible child, so I can’t act like one. We pay for being smart or stupid. We just pay more for our stupidity. So, I decide what I pay for and who I pay.”

“Wow,” they gasp in unison, followed by silence.

Moments later, Alana said, after several sighs, “You are making us afraid. Afraid to live and enjoy life.”

“I am making you aware. Because being aware means you can make sensible decisions that affect your life the way you want them to. Because life doesn’t hand out return-mistake receipts.”

“Sorry about that, we didn’t know,” Jesse apologized.

“Well, that’s why I must be sensible. I am just aware of what can happen if I am not,” Laria divulged.

“And life doesn’t hand out return receipts for mistakes,” they sang like a chorus.

Sense spoke as four females gained a painful and new understanding of real life. Then Xena wondered aloud, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if life gave all of us a return receipt for the mistake we made so we could go back and change them for the better?’

Laria burst out in laughter, while four females stared at her in anger.

“Sorry,” she said amid her laughter. “But if life does that, chaos will reign, because mistakes are lessons.”

Yes, every human on the planet would love a return receipt for the mistakes they make. But life doesn’t issue return receipts, so you are left with your mistakes. Do you learn from them, or do you repeat them? Annelise Lords

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