Adrian was home alone with his younger sister when he decided to play with the radio, even though he knew it wasn't a toy.
He turned the dial too hard, and it snapped off in his hand.
He stood there for a moment, holding the broken dial, the radio silent now.
He thought about putting the dial back and saying nothing. Nobody had seen. His sister was too young to tell anyone what happened.
When his mother got home that evening, Adrian brought her the broken dial before she even asked about the radio.
"I broke it," he said. "I was playing with it when I shouldn't have been."
His mother turned the dial over in her hand, looking at it.
"Thank you for telling me," she said. "Let's see if it can be fixed."
They looked at it together. The dial had come off cleanly; it could be glued back on.
Adrian held the radio steady while his mother worked, and by the end of the evening, it worked again, mostly.