Wickedness

The other day a friend told me things about her family. One of her sisters is married. She's always telling bad stuff about her husband. She's not happy about her husband, obviously. One day, she told everybody that her mother-in-law was really sick. Since this family come from Batak and the mother was quite old, and has got all her children married, the family knows that they would have to hold a big party (!) when the mother died (the father has long gone). The daughters and the daughter-in-laws would have to make identical black kebaya (to wear at the party) then.
So, this friend's sister told her family that her sister-in-laws said that all of them would have to make the kebaya in Medan (where the mother-in-law and some of her sister-in-laws live)! At first, my friend's family believed her. Because she stuck to her story. But after a while, it really didn't make any sense. My friend thought that it just couldn't be true. She suspected that her sister just made this up so that her husband's family looked foolish and ridiculous. Now, that was wicked! That was deceit.
My friend told me that she could stand mistakes or even stupidity. But wickedness? She's angry and sad at the same time that her sister could do such things.

Children

I was in Prapat, North Sumatera on a vacation. My family and I were staying at a hotel. My daughter and I were sitting at the lounge. She needed to finish her college applications and I was helping her (not too much). Next to us, there was a pool table with a man playing, while some kids watched him. We first didn't pay any attention to them.
We could hear the kids chattering and clapping their hands and my daughter (probably tired of doing the applications and needed a reprieve) looked up from her laptop and stared at them. After some time, she nudged me and told me to look at the kids.
I noticed that the kids are cheering at the man. Whenever the guy didn't put any balls out, they symphatize with him. And any time he put a ball down the hole, they cheered. I asked my daughter if they were related. And my daughter was convinced that they didn't.
We kept looking at the kids. It is true. The guy left, and then some young people played. We knew that they are not related to the kids, because the kids' parents were walking around discussing a tour plan and they didn't communicate at all with the young people. The same thing happened. Then the parents called the kids up and told them to go somewhere. Now, another set of kids came and watched the young people. And you know what? Now, we were just amazed because these kids did just the same!!
Whenever somebody played good, they cheered and even said "Yes!". And whenever the opposite thing happened, they said "Uh..oh..".
My daughter said, "This is amazing. These kids don't know the people playing. Yet, they cheered on them like some fans. And they symphatize when people played bad. It's incredible." I'm not sure. The kids are around 5 to 8. So, maybe they still have their innocence. They don't really care who play. They are happy when people play well. They are happy for them! Or maybe the air of holiday and vacation help. I know for sure that when we are older we definitely don't do the same things. We tend to look at and think of things when they affect us beneficially, or more if negatively.