When Mrs. Johnson moved into the neighborhood, she kept to herself, always dressed impeccably and never engaging with the neighbors. One day, she asked 12-year-old Ethan to mow her large lawn, promising to pay him twenty dollars. Ethan worked hard for two days under the hot sun, dreaming of using the money to buy a gift for his grandmother. But after finishing the job, Mrs. Johnson refused to pay, telling Ethan that the “lesson of hard work” was payment enough.
Ethan’s mother soon noticed her son’s disappointment and learned about Mrs. Johnson’s refusal to pay. Outraged, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She called her friend who ran a landscaping business and asked him to trim Mrs. Johnson’s prized hedges into funny, uneven shapes. Then, she secretly arranged for several large truckloads of mulch to be dumped on Mrs. Johnson’s driveway, blocking her car in and drawing attention from the whole neighborhood.