I told you guys sometime ago about my friend that runs an NGO called Helping Hand Initiative, if you did not read that post then click here. Below is a write-up written by one of his students, a !5 year-old. Read and reach out by dropping your email, if you would like to assist this initiative in any way.

THE GIFT

John Adeyemo

“No, you need one more dollar to buy this one.” I heard a voice say to the right of where I was standing on the beach. It was foggy so I couldn’t see the person talking. But to the ear, it was a man’s voice.

“Please my mom said my sister will die tomorrow and I don’t have an extra dollar,” a boy’s voice said as he began to cry. What! I said to myself. My heart sank.

“My mom said she will travel to a faraway land and that she will not come back to us. We are the ones who would go to her where she is,” the boy said through his tears.

I moved towards the direction the voices were coming from then I saw the boy talking. He looked like he was five years old. The man he had been talking with was a teddy bear seller. He was overweight and was heavy-bearded. His face showed that he had no sympathy for the small kid begging him.

“You know I will miss her so much. Please, I want to give this to her as a gift…please…please.” The boy said again. His voice seemed to wrench at my soul and without my noticing, tears began to drop from my eyes.

I moved towards him, dipped my hand in my pocket and brought out 10 dollars and gave the boy.

“Wow!” the boy exclaimed and jumped on me with joy. “Thank you, thank you sir!” he said repeatedly. Then he pointed at another teddy bear which was far bigger than what he had intended to buy before. It was a big white teddy. He tried to return the change from his purchase to me but I told him to keep it as I tenderly touched his chubby cheek. Then he left the beach.

I sighed and thought, “So this is why my heart told me to come to the beach this balmy morning.” Hmmm.

A week later I saw the boy on the beach, which was actually across the road from the hospital, and he couldn’t contain his joy at seeing me. Jumping up and down, his words spilled over one another. “My sister is not travelling anymore! As I gave her the big white teddy bear, she gasped and her eyes lighted up and then she slept a deep sleep. The doctors say she is fine now and we are going home tomorrow.”

He kept on talking but I was no longer hearing him. The question that kept ringing in my heart was, “What in that teddy healed the girl?” and the answer that kept coming back was, “It was not the teddy, it was the love of the boy.”

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John Adeyemo is a 15 year old Creative Writing mentee of the HelpingHand Mentoring programme. He is presently being mentored on writing his first novel.