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Chapter 16 continued...

XL decided not to let Derek use XL's toy gun. His parents had often told him that it was good to share, but also that people need to take responsibility for the things they own. In some societies of the past, people have tired sharing everything, but they get into conflicts if they have nothing at all that is their own.

XL wasn't sure why all of Derek's toys were broken. Maybe his parents forced him to share with his siblings, and his littler brothers or sisters broke them. XL had seen some families who were like that. The little kids didn't know how to handle the older kid's toys, so they were careless and broke them. He didn't like that arrangement at all. An older child cannot take responsibility for his toys if he is forced to share without regard to whether the other child can treat the toy properly.

In Derek's case, however, XL suspected that Derek was simply careless. He had seen how he treats his notebooks, pens, and pencils at school. He would jam the book roughly into his desk, or toss his pencil to his desk after sharpening it at the sharpener near the teacher's desk.

Rather than risk having his own toy damaged, and ruining the fun they could have together, XL decided it would be best to play Frisbee. There were no trees around for it to get caught in, and the Frisbee was almost indestructible, so nothing could go wrong.

"Beeba, I don't think it will be much fun for three of us to play with only two guns," he said. I would rather play Frisbee right now."

"That's fine with me," agreed Derek. "My Frisbee is way better. It flies much farther than those flying disks from your guns. Set that cardboard box you use as a target far back, and I'll show you how far I can shoot and hit it!"

They continued with the Frisbee for a while, doing target practice, and then playing catch. They also played Pig-in-the-middle, where two of them would pass it back and forth while keeping it away from the third person. They would switch who was the "pig" when the Frisbee got intercepted, or after a few minutes, whichever occurred first.

After a while they went into Beeba's house. His mom had baked cookies and they all ate some. Then it was time for Derek to leave, because he had some sports activity to go to that his parents had arranged for him every Sunday.

Beeba and XL stayed together for a while. Beeba said to XL, "Derek is kind of rough, but he can be fun sometimes if you know how to play with him."

Copyright Arthur de Leyssac, 2017. All rights reserved.