By Scott Reddoch
This one might be sort of embarrassing. You can decide for yourself.
My girlfriend got invited to this kid’s birthday party. She didn’t really know the kid, but was good friends with his father. He said that it would be fun for all ages, so we went.
It was a warm spring afternoon. About 30 people were in attendance. The party was being held on the big front lawn of their house. I think there were as many adults as kids. The adults were pretty boring and just kinda stood around. It didn’t really phase Emily or me. I don’t remember what but we had been joking about something all day.
We get there and the party wasn’t all that fun. There were a few kids in a bounce house and more on this inflatable waterslide. There was a group forming a line to dunk the birthday boy’s grandpa in a tank. Now this party is starting to get good.
I wait my turn and the birthday boy is directly ahead of me. He was six or seven, (haha, see what I did?) small for his age, part frustrated and part embarrassed that he couldn’t hit the target on the tank. Children and adults were teasing him, calling him a runt. He tried to hide his tears with his sandy blonde hair but the more they teased him the more he cried.
I couldn’t watch that happen to him on his birthday, so I tapped him on the shoulder.
I told him one of my favorite life stories. A farmer and his donkey were working the land. When walking to the next field the donkey fell into a well. The animal cried for hours. The farmer figured that the well no longer worked and the donkey was old so he would just fill it in. The farmer got all of his neighbors to help. They each grabbed a shovel and began throwing dirt into the well. When the donkey realized what they were doing it cried even louder than before. Suddenly after a few minutes it stopped. After a while the farmer looked in the well and was surprised at what he saw. When the donkey was covered in dirt, it would shake it off and take a step up. The neighbors kept shoveling. Eventually the donkey reached the top and trotted off.
It used the dirt as a ladder.
Then I told him that standing behind a line and throwing softballs at the target is for suckers. I was shocked when he said “not me” and ran up and slapped the target.
His mom saw the whole thing and I had gotten on her nerves. She tells me “he told me what you told him to do, I am going to have to ask you to leave.”
I had to go find Emily and tell her I was getting thrown out. She just grinned, shook her head and said “I can’t take you anywhere.”
I had to go. A lot of eyes were on me. It was mainly a few moms that wanted me gone. I could see the look of gratitude for my heroism on a couple of faces as I left.
If I had to do it again I wouldn’t change a thing.
Life had dealt him a bad hand but it is up to him on how he plays it. I wasn’t telling him to break the rules but play a different game that he can win.
I never thought that I would be paralyzed one day and need every bit of that experience.
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