Babysitting my niece for a day made me realize a lot of things about life. Who thought such a small child could hold such wisdom?

That morning, I woke up to the feeling of something warm and damp against my face. It was a dog, but it wasn’t my dog. Where was I? And then it hit me, I spent the night with that random girl from the bar and I ended in her place.

Before long, I was fighting with the dog for one of my shoes, trying not to wake up the lady.

“Henry!” she yelled. “Where are you going?”

“I got things to do,” I answered, still struggling to get my shoe back. “But I’ll call you when I can,” I said, trying to sound polite.

“But do you know my number?” she asked me, “or even my name?”

The truth was I didn’t. I was a kind of guy who always ran away from whatever responsibility.

“Nancy?” I whispered, hoping I would get her name right.

“Go to hell, Henry,” she yelled as she threw a slipper towards me.

As I got in my car and started driving, the name of my sister popped on my phone screen.

She hadn’t call me in a long time. When I picked up, I had no idea what to expect.

“Hey, sis?” I said, trying to sound as casual as ever, “what’s going on?”

“Riley, I need you to get to my place as soon as possible to babysit your niece for the day,” she said.

“Babysit my niece? Me?” I asked, totally confused. The truth was that I hadn’t seen my niece in a while; a couple of years to be exact, and now I was supposed to babysit her?

“Okay, sis, I’m on my way.”

My sister welcomed me with an angry expression on her face. “Riley, you are late,” she said. “Look, I am about to close the deal of my life. I need to get to this meeting, and there is no one who could take care of Mira today. If there was anyone else, I wouldn’t call you.”

“It’s fine, sis, I got this,” I said.

“Don’t get her any junk food, Riley. And remembers, she’s not allowed to go outside.”

My niece was reading an encyclopedia and didn’t even look at me.

Once my sister was gone, I approached the girl.

“Hey, Mira, what are you reading?”

It was then that she gave me a look and asked, “So, you are my uncle, right?”

“Of course, I am. But I haven’t been able to visit you for quite some time, work and stuff, you know,” I said, a bit embarrassed that my own niece wouldn’t recognize me.

“Mum says you are not married because you run away from your responsibilities,” she said nonchalantly, and I though those were some big words coming from a child of nearly seven years.

I tried to change the subject and asked her things about school. But I realized that talking to children was harder than I imagined.

“Pizza?” I suggested, although my sis warned me about junk food. “Yes,” Mira said in excitement.

“You know uncle,” she said, “you should be more responsible about your life, and that includes visiting your niece more often.”

Thinking about it, I knew she was right. But that’s how I was, a man longing for freedom.

The day dragged slowly. Every now and then, Mira would glance at me as though she was looking at a failed science experiment. Her raised eyebrows screamed judgement and I felt so uncomfortable around my niece that I couldn’t wait my sister to return home.

Somehow, I fell asleep on the couch, yet another proof of my lack of responsibility.

My sister’s message woke me up. “I’ll be home in an hour, hope everything is fine,” she wrote, and I replied, “Yep, don’t worry.” But when I looked around, I realized Mira was nowhere to be seen.

I rushed upstairs but there was no trace of my little niece.

I started yelling her name, but there was no answer.

In the next moment, I found myself running around the neighborhood like crazy. My heart bounced and my chest was tight. How could I lose my niece. My sister was going to kill me if anything happened to Mira.

Wandering around and calling her name, I finally spotted inside the tree house at the neighbor’s garden. She wasn’t alone, a boy was there with her.

“Mira, what are you doing there?” I asked, “Get down right away, your mom would be here any minute.”

She seemed like she didn’t care. “Sam, this is my uncle,” told the boy who was playing with some tiny figures with her. “Hello, Mira’s uncle,” the boy said.

“Mira, I thought you didn’t have any friends. Your mom said you weren’t allowed outside,” I said.

“Of course I have,” she said, “but mom doesn’t let me hang out with the neighbor’s kids because she thinks I’m gonna pick up bad habits.”

“Come down, Mira,” I said.

In the meantime, my sister returned home and was scared to see the house was empty.

After some time, Mira and I entered the place, laughing at some of her jokes.

“Where have you been?” my sister asked.

“Having some fun time,” I answered.

My sister wasn’t mad, she just smiled, happy that my niece and I got along.

“Sis, you need to trust your daughter more,” I said as I gave Mira a goodbye kiss.

This sweet little girl taught me more about the importance of being responsible more than anyone else.

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