Spider diving
When I was 8 and my younger sister was 6 we were playing in my Grans back yard. I was climbing on top of her coal shed (about 2m high) and dropping off.

My sister (who I have never really got on with) was following me round, wanting to join in with me in that annoying little sister way. I tries to get shot of her but mummy dearest told me it would be no choc-dip for me if I didn't let her.

So up on top of the coal shed I climbed followed by my sister and I dropped off. She then panicked and said she was scared and didnt want to jump down - now I was not in the mood for this, after all I didn't want her to play anyway!.. so I decided to tell her there was a big spider behind her and (her phobia) and it was going to get her, in an attempt to get her to shrug her 6yr old reservations about jumping off a 2m high shed... I even assured her that if she dropped of that I would catch her - what a brilliant big brother!

Unfortunately the prank worked a little too well - she Dived head first off the coal shed! All thoughts of catching her disappeared at this 5 year old kamikazie pilot without a plane comes bombing towards me (and the paved yard). I did what every decent older brother would do... jumped out of the way. She smacked the ground head first and then didn't move.

Now, to my 8yr old mind, she was dead and I was partly responsible being that I had told her to jump and I had said I would catch her and not forgetting the child eating spider I told her was there that made her leap in the first place.

So, I ran in to my mam screaming and sobbing "Michelle has just died... she jumped from the shed and 'I tried to catch her but I couldn't... I am so sorry!!!".

My mother rushes out screaming to find my sister unconscious in the yard... bleeding from a substantial head wound, rings for an ambulance... sister still wasn't conscious by the time the ambulance arrived 15 mins later!

Sister ended up having a fractured skull and having to spend a week in hospital, having no memory of the entire day never mind the Spider situation - Hence my little white lie about it not being my fault and that I 'tried' to catch her led to me being treat like a little hero.

I eventually owned up to this one many years later but as far as evil pranks go, nearly killing your sister has to be near the top of the list?

Oh by the way - LOOK OUT THERES A SPIDER BEHIND YOU!!!
(three inches of snarling death, Fri 14 Dec 2007, 10:40, Reply)