The Lesson(John Cone) The crunch of my cereal echoed within the depths of the large and cavernous dining room. The sound would most likely echo off the marble of the entire mansion. I had the whole mansion to myself. My dad, Jericho Mirardo, was running his oil shipping business today, as the CEO of OSI (Oil Shipping Industires) and my mom, Julie Mirardo, was running a toy company. I was thinking of what to do.

"Richard!" I ordered. My call for the mansion's butler echoed through every crevice. Richard walked in.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" I demanded menacingly.
"You didn't tell me I had to." Richard replied.
"You should just know to do that."
"I am so sorry, sir."
"And why did I have to make my own breakfast?"
"I didn't know you were awake."
"You're useless." I said and then threw the bowl of cereal into his face.
"I'm going to my room."
"Okay, sir." Richard calmly replied in lieu of my antics.

I left Richard wiping his face of sugary flakes and milk with a handkerchief as I walked up to my rather large room. Our house was positioned overlooking the ocean and my room was facing the soothing waves. I listened to my iPod Shuffle while playing my PSP. I got bored and turned on my room's plasma screen TV. I tuned into my favorite channel, but I wasn't paying attention to the screen. I was now plugging in my laptop so I could surf the play games. I played for hours while I heard Richard cleaning in the rooms below.

I heard the door open near 10:00 at night and went down to investigate. The sound came from my dad coming in through the door.
"Son!" My father called.
"Father!"
"How was your day?"
"Richard was annoying me."
"Yes, well, guess what I got you!"
"A boat!?!"
"Better, a trip into space!"
"Awesome! I want to go NOW!"
"You actually leave tomorrow for Chicago where the first shuttle to take tourists into space will take you along for the ride!"
"Can we take the helicopter?"
"Of course."
"Good."
"I will not be coming with you, though."
"That's okay."

I ran back upstairs to my room, ecstatic. Space. The final frontier. Woohoo! I closed my eyes and fell into a deep slumber. I was floating around in my dreams. Two figures appeared.
"Who are you?" I asked the two tall, gray figures.
"We are, as you humans say, your conscience." The strange lifeforms replied.
"My conscience? You don't look like a cricket."
"You human fool! Forget about that, you are in danger!"
"Why?"
"You need to give more, cherish each moment you are alive, love the people around you."
"Why would I do that? Why are you here? Why me?"
"You can do so much with your money. You can build people's lives instead of putting them down. We are part of a race that looks down on humans to prevent them from plundering the Earth with the power they have in their hands, such as money. We guard the Earth from being completely ruined, though some things we can not stop."
"I don't need your help. Everyone loves me."
"You are lying to yourself."

Just then the dream was cut off and I woke up. Weird dream. Who cares? I am going into space. I ran downstairs. My dad greeted me while he was eating scrambled eggs. He had today off because it was a Saturday.
"Get ready to go." He told me.
"Okay."

I got a breakfast of bacon and the scrampbled eggs my dad had prepared. I went up and got dressed in my room with a piece of bacon dangling from my mouth. I hurried back downstairs and jumped up and down once I finished my meal and was waiting for him.
"Okay, okay, I'm ready."
"Yay!!!"
We went to the mansion's helipad on the top of the building. I sat in the seat next to the driver and he slowly stepped in.
"Let's not wait for the grass to grow!"

I looked out my window and saw a homeless person at our gate. He was always the same person. He had lost his house and family to a hurricane. He often pestered my family for money. I stuck out my tongue at him and made faces. We then lifted off the pad and headed for Chicago. A thirty minute journey by helicopter. The trip was short, and before I knew it, we were there. We landed on a flat open area and I jumped out. I saw the shuttle waiting for its passengers. There were other rich people there, having arrived in fancy cars and other methods of transportation rich people use. I said goodbye to my father and got my ticket from him that he was holding for me until we got here. I turned around as the aircraft lifted off and headed back home. I stepped up to the stairs leading into the passengers' seating room. I showed the guard my ticket and stepped in. I stayed in the room until the other passengers slowly filed in. The pilot gave us the emergency instructions and various rules of the space flight. I didn't pay attention. I just looked out my window. The pilot stopped yammering and turned around and disappeared into the pilot's driving place. Whatever it was called. I am not a space shuttle language know-it-all.

We jerked upwards and took off in a fiery burst. We went through all the layers of air until we reached space. I was looking out the window all the while, so I was now viewing Saturn. The intercom came up and told us the tour facts. Suddenly, the two figures from my dream appeared next to me.
"AGH!"
They covered my face and muffled my yell. The other passengers looked at me like I was crazy. They took their hands off of me.
"Stop following me!" I ordered in an angry whisper.
"We need to teach you the lesson."
"What would that lesson be?"
"Treat others with respect; humble yourself."
"I am humble, whatever that means. And I respect people."
"Just your parents."

One of the aliens put a hand on my forehead. I began to see images of my past. Me kicking Richard several times. Me throwing a quarter at the homeless person outside of our gate. I once put a wet cat in Richard's bed. I was doing all these cruel things. I started crying when I saw myself like this.
"I didn't realize... I'm sorry."
"Don't tell us, tell them."
"I will. I will apologize. I will do anything to get their forgiveness."
"Then do it."
"I need to get home."
"We can do that." They said.

The two snapped their fingers and I appeared at the front gates of the mansion. The homeless person hid from me inside his box and closed the flaps.
"I'm sorry."
He peered out without a word. I left him with the money from my ticket's refund the aliens gave me to give to him. I walked away without another word. I heard him yelling and crying for joy.
"I can buy a house! Oh, God, thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I opened the doors to the house and the first thing I did was go to Richard and give him a hug while he was resting in a chair, reading the newspaper left there.

"Thank you, Richard. You do so much."

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