"I jumped," Lalin replied, trying very, very hard not to sound as though she had added a 'duh' to the end of the sentence. She wasn't entirely sure she had succeed. She hoped that, that wouldn't stop him from helping her out anyway.
"But then I didn't realize that it was too far down to jump again. There used to be boxes down there," she said, with an exasperated pout. The old woman bellow them continued to rant at Lalin. The little girl wondered if maybe she had chosen the wrong target. She should have been throwing rocks at her.
"Can you just... help me up? My grandmother won't beat me, but that lady down there will pinch my ear and drag me away and then Grandma will have to give me a lecture, even though she hasn't been feeling well and I didn't mean to get in trouble."