Killing Two Birds with One Stone

“Mommy, why kill birds with stones?” I asked my mother.

She looked at me weirdly.

“I mean what did brother mean when he said, ‘I killed two birds with a single stone’?”

“Oh!” she smiled. “No birds are being killed. It’s just a way of saying that two tasks can be accomplished with a single action.”

“How does that happen?” I asked.

“By thinking creatively and innovatively.”

I didn’t quite understand it then until some days later.

I love to talk to my grandmom, but I’m unable to. She lives in India. India time is about nine to ten and a half hours ahead. It is night in Mankato and morning in India. When she calls it is my bedtime or I am trying to wake up to get ready for school.

I just can’t wake up early, but I want to! I want to wake up early, but I fall asleep again as soon as my mother turns to go ahead with her morning chores. She needs to make sure that our breakfast is ready, that my brothers are all ready to go. By the time she gets back to me I am already back in bed again!

Well, I finally do manage to get up and ready on time. I do want to get up early so I can take time out in the morning to talk to my grandmom. I tried the alarm clock with the sweetest, and the worst, sounding alarms. But alarm clocks have the ‘snooze’ and the ‘stop’ buttons and  I am just not able to get up. I am scared to tell my older brothers to wake me up because that will give them an excuse to pour water on me or play some other silly prank!

I thought about it long and hard. I wish there was an alarm clock that would keep ringing on and on like a phone! Then it struck me. I could ask my grandma to call me every morning, which would be evening for her. Then it would neither be her morning medicine time nor her bedtime. Wow! What an idea!

I spoke to my granny and also asked Mommy if I could keep the handphone in my room. Now I wake up to her phone call and talk to her every day, just like she would like me to! My problem of not being able to wake up early in the morning is also solved. Granny doesn’t stop ringing until I pick up the phone and speak to her. Isn’t that great?

Now I understand the meaning of “killing two birds with a single stone!”