The Toy (standard:drama, 976 words)
Author: MaryG	Added: Jun 25 2002	Views/Reads: 3681/2335	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A boy learns a lesson that remains with him and lives on in his adulthood.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

was taking me to where she worked. The county hospital bore many tales. 


Climbing the steps without catching our breath, we enter the hospital.
We climbed more steps and reached the floor where my mother worked. 
Several nurses my mother knew greeted us with a Merry Christmas. My 
mother returned the greetings without stopping as we continued down a 
hall. We stopped outside a room and I peeked inside the dim room. There 
in a bed was a small boy who looked very sick. 

"That boy is going to die, Danny," she told me. " Possibly today, maybe
tomorrow. He loves planes. I knew his mother could not afford to buy 
him one. So I did. I count my blessings every night and think of this 
boy and how grateful I am that you are not in that bed." 

The words cut hard and sharp in my heart. The tears rolled down my face
and I was so ashamed. I ran as fast as I could, down the hall and out 
of the hospital. I ran home and into my room where I cried myself to 
sleep. 

Now, 30 years later, I am sitting behind my desk at my law firm, waiting
for my wife. Susie Parker and I married when we graduated from high 
school. On Christmas Eve, Susan and I take toys for the little children 
at the local shelters. We never missed this seasonal tradition. 


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