The Last Window

I was only about ten or eleven years old. My friend Martha and I were hanging out at my grandpa’s house while my mom helped with some cleaning. Grandpa’s house was bordered by a small pasture where my dad kept his cows. Next to the pasture was an old abandoned house.

For as long as I could remember, the house had been empty. Tall weeds grew in its yard. The front door was weathered and gray. The paint was peeling from the outside of the house, and the roof was in desperate need of repairs. The house had several windows, but they were all broken except for one; a small window leading into the basement.

There is something called “Window Theory.” It states that once one window is broken, vandals will assume that the owners don’t care, and the rest of the windows will soon be broken as well. The theory makes sense to me. I’ve noticed that people don’t litter in areas that are clean, but if they come across an area with lots of garbage strewn on the ground, they are more likely to drop their own trash.

This particular summer day, Martha and I decided to cross the pasture and go over and check out the old, abandoned house. We lay on our stomachs for several minutes watching the house, discussing whether or not it might be haunted. After a bit, we grew tired of the discussion and crept a little closer to the old house. “There’s only one window that isn’t broken,” remarked Martha, pointing to the basement.

“I know,” I said. “I’m surprised someone hasn’t broken it out yet.”

“Maybe we should break it,” suggested Martha.

I was both horrified and intrigued. The wickedness of the plan was exciting and frightening at the same time. “Are you serious?” I gasped.

“I guess not,” she admitted, “unless you think we should…”

The conversation went back and forth like this for several minutes. Finally, we decided to do the unthinkable and break the window. We flipped a coin, and I “won” the toss. I would be the one to break it. I found a rock that fit perfectly in my hand. I crept closer to the window, glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and flung the rock with all my strength toward the last remaining window.

I was positive people all over our small town heard the window shatter. Martha and I stared at each other in open-mouthed horror; then we ran as fast as we could back to my grandpa’s and hid in his backyard. When no one showed up to inspect the old house, we realized that the crash hadn’t been as loud as we thought it was. We were safe.

We tried to play hopscotch after that, but neither of us felt much like playing. We both felt a little bit sick to our stomachs. After a while, Martha went home. I wandered into the house and found myself a snack.

When it was finally time to leave, I was feeling a little bit better. No one knew that we broke the window. In fact, no one even knew that the window was broken. We would be fine. As my mom drove past the old house, she glanced over in its direction and slowed down. “Well!” she said in an outraged voice.

“Will you look at that?”

“What?” I asked.

“Those blasted teenagers broke the last window in that house. They should find whoever broke it, and string them up, and beat them. I can’t believe how disrespectful teenagers are!”

She continued to complain about “those blasted teenagers” the rest of the way home. I slunk down in my seat and listened quietly. I didn’t say a word. I didn’t want to get strung up and beaten. Although, to be fair, my mother had never spanked me. Really, I just didn’t want her to know it was me who broke the window. I didn’t want to disappoint her.

Today, I ask myself if I would have broken that window if all of the other windows in the old house had been intact. The answer is probably not. Most people are aware of “Broken Window Theory,” and you rarely see buildings with windows broken out. That’s because when a window does get broken, it is quickly replaced to prevent vandals from breaking more.

But what if we didn’t have to replace windows at all? What if we could put in windows that are unbreakable? What if we had unbreakable windows in our homes, our businesses, and our schools? Think of the money, the headache, and the heartache it would save if we could all have unbreakable glass! Sadly, this is not the reality we live in, unbreakable windows do exist, but they are cost prohibitive and expensive to retrofit.

The answer to our current fragile glass is the installation of Security Film. This creates an invisible barrier that holds glass in place after a window has been broken. The broken glass obscures the view and buys critical reaction time for occupants inside. If a “blasted teenager” (or a stupid kid like I was) decides to throw a rock at your window, it isn’t going to shatter to the ground, leaving your building exposed.

We can’t control nature or other people, but we can certainly control the safety of our windows.

By Kimberly L.