Conquering Evil

I wasn't sure what my Mom meant when she said that we should conquer evil. My older brother said that it meant not being selfish and that meant sharing my ice cream cone with him after he had already gulped his down.

He surely loved chocolate ice cream and had his eyes on mine. I liked to savor mine, which in this case was probably not too smart. He was bigger and stronger than me. What he could not wheedle out of me he could just grab. But I wasn't giving up that easy.

"Eddy, maybe evil is casting greedy eyes on someone else's ice cream cone. You know," I said. "Thou shalt not covet."

Eddy really hated it when I quoted scriptures to him, but it did make him pause. And that's all I needed to make my escape.

I was shorter than him but much faster so I lit out with him hot on my trail. I bobbed and weaved and ran like a scared jack-rabbit, which I was pretty close to being in this case.

Heavy Eddy lumbered after me, getting madder, but more winded, by the minute.

Finally, he stopped, gasping and blowing like a horse that had got fat grazing too long in rich pasture. "Well, Nate. (gasp) Maybe (gasp) you're right," he said, looking up at me in the tree I had climbed with one hand.

"Oh-oh," I thought. "Here it comes. Gotta save face with a good excuse 'cause he can't catch me. Try to get me close enough to snatch my cone."

"Let's face it;" he continued. "We need to co-operate and conquer evil as a team, you and me. Come over here and we'll shake on it."

"Okay, Eddy," I say. "As soon as I finish this DELICIOUS, SCRUMPTIOUS CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM CONE!" And with a gulp I swallowed the melting remains of Eddy's passionate desire and hopped down.

Eddy just looked at me. "How can I conquer evil without chocolate ice cream?"