Growing up in the 1950s, I was a 10-year-old risk-taker who caused his mom lots of stress. Once I got into my aunt's car so I could pretend to be a race car driver and accidentally knocked the parking gear stick   off. The car rolled down the driveway as fast as it could go, crossed the road and finally stopped up against my neighbor's curb  . I thought it was fun, but Mom didn't think so. Normally I would see a spanking   coming, but this time I lucked out. I guess she was glad I was all right. I enjoyed watching The Adventures of Superman on television so much that I wanted to fly just like him. One day I got into the closet and picked one of Mom's best pillowcases  . I went out onto the front yard and tied the case around my neck, pretending it was a cape. Then, standing on the side of the porch  , which was about 7 feet high, I jumped. The spanking my mother gave me didn't hurt as much as my scraped knees. But the worst thing I ever did happened when I tried to impress the new girl across the street. She was incredibly cute, so I went over and introduced myself. After I told her my name, she said she wanted to show me something she had found. We went into her backyard, and in the knot of the biggest and oldest tree was a beehive. She said she liked honey and asked me how to get it out. "We could stand watch, and when they leave the hive, we can reach in and take the honey," I suggested. A large group of the bees flew away, so I moved closer to the hive. I was brave and maybe just a little crazy. I managed to take a little bit of honey when a bee rested on my arm. I killed the bee, and then it seemed like thousands of bees flew toward me. My new friend screamed and ran. I ran as fast as I could across her yard and up the long hill to my front door. I never looked back. The sound of the bees behind me told me the coast wasn't clear. When the group of bees attacked, I screamed for my mom. As I reached my front door I saw her swinging a broom around me to get the bees off me. I didn't care that she landed a few hard hits on my head, I just wanted them off. Finally I made it inside, sore from the stings   and red from the broom, but I was alive thanks to my mom. My superhero. All she needed was a cape. I knew where to get her one of those. When the author jumped with the self-made cape,   _  .
he knew his mother would save him he knew he would receive a spanking he didn't plan to hurt himself he promised not to do it again