(Bad example. Too long, too preachy, too many non sequiturs, boring, hits on too many subjects, gets going to slowly.)
This is Freddie.
Freddie is five years old,
and he lives in Washington, D.C.,
where the President lives.
He lives with his Mommy
and Daddy, his sisters,
Megan, who is six,
and Allison, who is nine,
and John, his brother, who is twelve.
They have a dog named Bubblegum,
a cat named Mouse,
and a hamster named Harry.
Freddie's Daddy is an airline pilot,
and his Mommy is a kindergarten teacher.
Freddie has a little yard behind his house, and his Mommy grows flowers there. She likes to work in the garden, and sometimes Freddie likes to help her.
He also likes the basketball hoop his Dad put up for John in the very back corner of the backyard, away from Mommy's garden. He likes to play with Bubblegum out there too. And sometimes Allison and Megan come out and play jump rope.
One afternoon, when his sisters and some of their friends were playing in the backyard, Freddie decided he had had enough of girls.
He went to play in front of the house, instead of in the backyard, like he was supposed to. He was kicking one of John's old soccer balls around, and Bubblegum was chasing it and barking.
Suddenly, Freddie kicked the ball right out into the street. Without looking left or right to check for traffic, he ran into the street to get the ball. He knew John would be mad if he lost it. Freddie ran right after the ball without ever looking to see if there were any cars coming, and suddenly, there was a terrible screech. Someone was shouting at him, he could hear a car horn right near his ears, and just as he heard it, he felt something very big knock him down and hit him very hard on the shoulder.
For a minute, it took his breath away, and as Freddie lay on the street, holding his arm, he wondered where John's ball had gone. And then he realized he'd been hit by a car, and he saw a man looking down at him. The man looked very worried.
"Don't move, son," he said very kindly. He was an older man, like Freddie's Grampa. When Freddie did try to move, even a little bit, his whole arm hurt. There were other people around by then, and they were all looking down at Freddie. There was a lady, on her knees next to him, running a hand over his hair and telling him that he'd be all right soon, and they were going to get his Mommy.
Another lady ran to ring Freddie's doorbell and get his Mommy right then. She came running out to him with a blanket, and she looked very worried as she knelt down beside him and covered him with it. Freddie was very happy to see her.
A few minutes later, an ambulance came. Freddie was very scared, and his arm hurt very badly. The ambulance took him and his Mommy to the hospital, where a doctor looked him over very carefully, and Freddie had an X ray. An X ray is a picture of your bones, just like a photograph, except that it sees inside you. It doesn't hurt at all. It's just like having your picture taken.
The X ray showed that Freddie's arm was broken.
"You were very lucky, young man." The doctor frowned at him. "That car could have killed you. Cars can't stop as fast as people can, even if the driver wants to. Never, ever run into the street after a ball," the doctor said. "Stop. Wait. Let the ball go. Look around. Be sure that no one is coming. And only go after it when you know it's safe. Better yet, ask a grown-up to go after it for you, or even just forget about the ball, if you have to."
"But John would have been really mad if I lost his ball," Freddie said. He was still scared and unhappy, and his arm hurt a lot.
"He'd have been a lot sadder if we'd lost you," the doctor said, as Freddie's Mommy nodded.
The doctor set Freddie's arm in a fiberglass cast, and his arm didn't hurt as much once it was in a cast. He said Freddie had to wear the cast for six weeks. That seemed like a long time to Freddie.
"Remember," the doctor said, "never run into the street after a ball. Never cross a street without looking, or without a grown-up. Never play in the street. And never, ever go anywhere with a stranger (non sequitur)." Those were all good rules to remember. Freddie nodded and promised he would be more careful next time.
Mommy drove him home from the hospital, and everyone was excited and happy to see him. They wanted to know what had happened to his arm, how the cast felt, how the car had hit him. He explained it all, and John looked really angry at him for a minute.
"You should have let hte ball go, Freddie. I can always get a new one."
Freddie looked surprised. Taht was what the doctor had said to him. John didn't care about the ball. Everyone had told him that he was more important than a ball. As Freddie looked at his cast, he knew that very well now.
Freddie's Mommy made him some soup that night. When he came into the kitchen, she told him to sit down at the kitchen table. And when Megan and Allison came in and started chasing each other aroundt he room, she told them to sit down too. "It's very dangerous to run around in the kitchen. Stay away from the stove. There are hot pots here, and you could get burned if you touch them, or spill them." One trip to the hospital in one day was more than enough, she said, and Freddie agreed with her. He knew many of the other kitchen rules: Don't use sharp knives; don't play with kitchen equipment; and don't use any of the machines without a grown-up. And, of course, don't use the oven or the stove, and dokn't ever play with matches. (Way to preachy. Way too much stuff.)
That night, before he went to bed, Freddie's Mommy gave him the medicine the doctor had given him for the pain in his arm. It didn't hurt too much, but it kind of ached, and his Mommy said the medicine would help him. When she gave him the medicine, she put the top back on and put the bottle away where he couldn't reach it.
She knew that it wasn't safe to leave medicine around, and Freddie knew that you should never, ever play with medicine or take it unless your Mommy or Daddy gives it to you. And he knew that you should never open your Mommy and Daddy's bathroom cabinets and take anything from them. Freddie knew that medicine can be very dangerous if you're not careful with it, even though it can also be very good for you sometimes, if you're supposed to take it.
Freddie knew a lot about safety, but he had learned an important lesson that afternoon. He knew that he had to be careful and safe all the time, not just some of the time or when he felt like it. He had been very lucky, and he was very glad hish arm was going to be as good as new. And it didn't even hurt as he drifted off to sleep, thinking about hitting a home run in baseball...
Six weeks after the accident, the cast came off, and Freddie's arm was all better, just the way the doctor had promised. But Freddie never forgot what he'd learned about safety.