Jared’s Friend

The big yellow school bus dropped off its most valuable cargo. The mom watched as her son Danny ran up the sidewalk and through the front door.  She greeted him and asked him how his day was.  “Fine,” was about all she ever got. So she started asking him some other questions.  This was the time a day when she tried to teach the kid a few morals.

“So what have you learned from the dog?” the mom looked down at her son.

“To pee in your shoe when you make me mad?” the blond-haired, blue-eyed, seven-year-old imp said back.

“I was hoping you’d find a little deeper life lesson like say, ‘greet people with a wagging tail to make a friend.'”

The boy looked suspiciously at his mother. “Mom, that sounds like a fortune cookie had a love child with Oprah.”

“You’re a smart-alec like your father.  And how do you know about the term ‘love-child?'”

“At least I’m smart,” the little boy grinned, avoiding the second question..

Yes, he was smart. Much to the bedevilment of his parents.  He got good grades but not as good as he was capable of — he managed to do just what he had to get by. And since he was nothing short of brilliant, that wasn’t very much.  What he could do (and did well) was read people. He knew how to charm everyone.  His parents feared he would end up either in Parchman or the Governor’s Mansion.  They didn’t know what was worse.

“My teacher sent home a note today.”

His mother’s blood ran cold.

“Now what?” she sighed.  She unfolded it and read it silently.

Dear Mrs. Rankin,

Danny had to go to the principal’s office today for starting a fight.

When the mom read that first sentence, she felt her temperature boil. But then as she read on, her heart began to beat harder. She continued to read the note:

Danny beat up three little boys on the playground and will have to be punished for it. I know you understand and support that. But I also feel you need to know the circumstances behind the fight. We have a little boy named Jared in our class who is a special needs child. Three of the boys were throwing rocks at him and teasing him near the swing sets.  Then one of them pushed Jared down.  I observed this and was heading rapidly across the playground to stop it. What I saw next took my breath away. Danny dove off the top of slide and tackled two of the boys.  He then tripped the third with his foot, causing him to hit the ground hard. Danny climbed on the lead boy and began punching him. He said over and over, “YOU WILL NOT BE MEAN TO MY FRIEND JARED.”  Yes, your son will have to be punished. But he was really good to Jared today.

The mother sat the note down and began to cry.  There in front of her was her biggest challenge: The little boy who had the God-given gift of pushing every one of her buttons and getting on her very last nerve.  But also there was a little boy who had the heart of a lion.  A child, who at the age of seven, recognized injustice in the World and acted on it.  The little boy who took up for a boy who could not defend himself against bullies.

“No video games for a week and you can’t go out and play.”

“Aw mom!” Danny protested.

The mom then hugged Danny tight and said, “Jared is lucky to have a friend like you. Just like I’m lucky you’re my son.”

And at that moment, she knew her little boy would grow up to be a fine man.