How People Feel

     “I wish they knew how I felt,” thought Bradley, barely containing his tears. At 4’ 7” Brad was the biggest kid in his class at Guppler Elementary. He was new to the school that year. At first the others had been scared of him, but being the kind-hearted, friendly child he was, Brad had soon assured them that he didn’t like to hurt anyone.
     Unfortunately, this immediately labeled him as a target to all the bullies. They tormented him in class, shooting spit wads, throwing paper balls, and sometimes even tripping him. They isolated him at recess, telling the other children lies to keep them from playing with him. This continued throughout the year, and Brad would just sit and take it. He didn’t care about spit wads and paper balls. He didn’t want to play with them, “Who would want to play with such mean people,” he always thought.
     But now it was different. They had become bored with their paper balls and spit wads. They began to lose interest in his isolation. They needed something new. They found it, in the form of the school dumpster. It took 5 kids to lift Bradley off the ground and another to hold open the dumpster. That was no problem for the bullies though. There were many boys jealous of Bradley’s size and ready to show they were better.
     This was Brad’s sixth time in the dumpster. Covered in the slime from yesterday’s lunch, Bradley sobbed. “Why do they hate me,” he wondered in despair, “I wish they knew knew how this made me feel.”

-      -      -      -      -

     Tyler Jackel was feeling oddly depressed as he trudged home from school that day. He had just had a fantastic time sticking “Big Bum” Bradley in the school dumpster with his friends, and wondered what was bothering him.
     “Oh well,” he thought, as he neared his house, “I'll think about it tomorrow.”

-      -      -      -      -

     Tyler was looking forward to another wonderful after-school session of “Dunk in the Dumpster.” He shot out the back doors only seconds after the bell rang, quickly gathering with his bunch of pals to go dunk Brad.
     They had just spotted the kid and were taking of after him, when Tyler was hit with a pang of horror like someone had punched him in the gut. He was in tears, though he wouldn't let his friends know that. He quickly wiped the tears away and shoved the feeling to the back of his mind.
     They caught up with Bradley and were hoisting him up in the air, when Tyler was once again struck with a sledge hammer of remorse. This time he couldn't ignore it, however. Holding back the tears and summoning up his courage, he said something in a calm, assertive, commanding voice. Something that would change Brad's life.

“Put him Down!”

The point of this story is, I guess, to remind everyone that we all have feelings, and no matter how much we can wish otherwise, can have those feelings hurt. Also, to remind us that if we all do our part to keep from hurting the feelings we all share, the world would be a much nicer place.