“Thank you so much,” said the father, relieved. “Sweetie, this is the police officer. Tell him what you wanted to say.”
The little girl looked closely at the uniformed man, sobbed, and asked:
“Of course,” he smiled. “Look at the uniform, do you see it?”
The girl nodded.
“I… I committed a crime,” she stammered.
“Tell me about it,” the officer replied calmly. “I’m a police officer, you can tell me everything.”
“And will you put me in jail afterwards?” she asked in a trembling voice.
“That depends on what you’ve done,” he answered gently.
The little girl couldn’t take it anymore; she burst into tears and almost immediately blurted out the thing that left everyone around completely stunned:
“I hit my brother on the leg… really hard. Now he has a bruise. And he’s going to die… I didn’t mean to. Please, don’t put me in jail…”
“No, sweetie. Your brother will be fine. Nobody dies from a bruise.”
The girl looked at him with eyes full of tears.
“Really?”
“Really. But you mustn’t do it again, okay?”
“Yes…”
“Do you promise?”
“I promise…”
