Submitted by Kolawole Abdul
TREMBLING, nine-year-old Eric gazed fearfully across his third-grade classroom. His hands shook. So did his knees. He dared not speak, or even move.
Nothing good could happen next, he thought. Only the worst kind of humiliation awaited him.
When sitting innocently at his desk and trying to concentrate on the teacher’s arithmetic lesson, Eric had felt a horrifying wetness. Looking down, he’d seen a dark, soggy streak staining the crotch of his pants. A small puddle pooled at his feet.
How could this have happened? Mortified, he wondered if his heart might stop. He’d never done this before. But once his teacher and classmates noticed, he’d never hear the end of it. The boys would make him a target of cruel jokes. As for the girls, they might never speak to him again.
Helplessly, Eric bowed his head and silently prayed: “Dear God, it’s an emergency! Code Red. I need help now. Within seconds, I’ll be like dead meat.”
Glancing up from his prayer, Eric stared directly at the teacher, and she stared back. Here she came, walking toward him. The moment of discovery had arrived.
As the teacher approached, so did a classmate named Susie. Maybe she’d be the one to expose his dilemma.
Susie carried a goldfish bowl full of water. Inexplicably, she tripped in front of the teacher. Although she hung onto the bowl, its contents poured unceremoniously onto Eric’s lap.
“Susie, what the blazes?” Eric yelled. He leaped to his feet and waved his arms, feigning anger.
“I’m sorry,” Susie apologized. “Usually, I’m not so clumsy.”
“Look how wet you’ve made me,” Eric retorted. “I’m soaked.”
To himself, he thought, “Thank you, Lord.”
Instead of facing ridicule, Eric suddenly garnered sympathy. The teacher rushed him downstairs and found gym shorts for him to wear while his pants dried. Several students used paper towels to clean up around his desk.
As often happens, the trouble that one person ducks hits someone else – this time Susie. The teacher scolded her for “making a mess” and “being so careless”. When Susie tried to help towel up the spillage, other children scorned her: “Get away, you klutz. You’ve done enough damage.”
For several hours, Eric marveled at his almost-miraculous luck. Then he realized something.
After school, Eric waited outside until Susie appeared. Humbly, he approached the fishbowl fumbler and whispered, “You did it on purpose, didn’t you?”
Nodding, Susie whispered back. “You know, I wet my pants once too. People laughed at me, and it wasn’t nice.”
“Thank you, Susie,” Eric said. “I know you’re no klutz.”
Eric didn’t learn much arithmetic that day. Instead, he realized that opportunities to do good surround people all the time. They need only reach out to grasp those chances.
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