"You don't want me to come upstairs and straighten you out again, believe me," sounded the gruff voice of my dad.

My brother Oto sighed and shrugged, looking at me in complete resignation. I shrugged back. Being an eight-year-old full of fire and energy, it was hard for me to just lay down and go to sleep. The same went for my four-year-old brother- last thing he wanted to do was sleep.

"I don't wanna go to bed," said Oto. "It sucks," he added. Yes, that was true, but we had already got spanked once that same night for running around the house with bed sheets over our heads, playing like we were ghosts. We didn't understand that my dad had to get up early in the morning to go to work and my mom had to rush off to her language classes.

My parents moved to Iraq when I was seven, when my dad took a prestigious position as the chief designer of a hydroelectric plant. However, for us kids it didn't offer much intrigue. We had our school, our play and way too much energy and free time to heed the warnings of our busy parents. Now we sat downhearted on our beds in our bedroom, bored and not tired at all.

"I think if we just played quietly, they wouldn't hear us," said my brother.

"Hmpf," was my response, as quiet play didn't offer much excitement. "What fun is it if you can't holler and run around?" I told him, picking up randomly one of his stuffed toys. I was about to fling it across the room when a thought occurred to me. There was a good quiet way to stay up and still get to play and have fun, even if it was at my brother's expense.

"Why do you keep these outdated, old-fashioned toys?" I asked my brother with a playful twinkle in my eye. "You see, if you just threw them away, mom and dad would buy you new ones."

"No, they wouldn't, no way," said Oto.

"Oh, sure they would, don't you know how much dad makes?"

"Really?" said my gullible brother, and I knew then that I had him hooked. "Well, I could use some new toys…"

"Tell you what," I told him, "the best thing to do is to open the window and throw all your toys out."

"All of them?" he asked, perplexed.

I nodded sagely, glad that my evil plan was working out. Oto opened our bedroom window and started throwing out his plush toys first. They landed on the grass in the neighbor's yard. He hesitated when it came to throwing out his car models and trucks. But, upon my persuasion, he did it anyway.

I watched out the window as the toys landed in the grass and giggled to myself silently. So what if I'm mean, I thought to myself. Tomorrow, I’ll just simply apologize to my brother and then we’ll go together to the neighbor's yard and collect all his toys. Easy, and it was worth the fun. My smile, however, froze on my lips when the light downstairs in my parents’ bedroom came on. I heard voices and then a creak of the bed as one of them was getting up.

I began wildly gesturing to my brother, telling him as silently as I could to stop throwing stuff out, but he wasn't listening. It was too late, anyway. Steps sounded on the stairs and my parents bounded into the room. I’ll never forget what came next. My brother was just in the process of stuffing a huge toy truck through the window, when my mom swiftly jumped up and took it out of his hands. Then, looking out the window, she demanded in a stern voice to know what has happened. To my despair, Oto started crying and totally spilled the beans to mom.

My dad, weary-eyed because he didn't get enough sleep that night, gave us both a very hard and serious spanking, one that we have never forgotten. Our behinds hurt for several days afterward, but I'm sure my dad's hand did, too. We were grounded for several days and furthermore, Oto didn't get his toys back either. My parents decided that since we don't appreciate them, the kids next door could keep them.

Sure enough, the next morning the four children in the house next to ours had the best waking moment in their lives when they discovered their lawn littered with a multitude of toys. Well, at least something good came out of my prank. Of course, I must add that Oto wasn't so gullible anymore, and didn't trust me all that much after that. Well, at least until that time when I persuaded him to shave his eyebrows off. But that's another story for another time.