Week 2, Storytelling: 'Tommy's Hope'

“Tommy’s Hope”

(Photo Illustrations) 

Tommy was one of the nicest boys you could ever meet at Thompson Middle School.  You probably wouldn't know this very well, because he didn't talk or socialize much.  Tommy was a bright kid with a bright future; all of his teachers thoroughly enjoyed his schoolwork, especially his language arts teacher.  The only thing that held Tommy back from school was his home life. 

You see Tommy wasn’t as privileged as all the other students at his school.  Most of the kids came from wealthy backgrounds, and all lived in fancy neighborhoods, in huge two-story houses.  Thompson Middle School was a rather small school due to being a private school.  In fact to be able to attend school there you either had to have the money to pay or pass an extremely hard placement test.  Tommy’s family obviously didn't have the money to pay for the tuition, or hardly enough for dinner every night for his family.  This is why he was required to take the placement test; since he passed with flying colors Tommy received a full scholarship and free tuition to attend the middle school. 

To the other kids Tommy seemed like a normal type of student that went to Thompson since he wore the same uniform and attended the same classes.  On the school bus route Tommy was the last stop and this is exactly how he liked it.  Tommy lived in the nearest trailer park that just happened to be past the rich neighborhoods.  The school bus ride was the worst part of Tommy’s day.  Not only did he sit there by himself, but he had to ride through all the neighborhoods and watch the other kids run into their houses which seemed liked mansions to Tommy.  Tommy dreamed of one day having a family and living in one of those neighborhoods, and he knew education was the key to his success; this is why tried Tommy stayed low and only worried about himself. 

The other students didn't talk to Tommy much unless they were informing him that he couldn’t sit because that seat was already taken.   Some of his classmates would call him weird or nerdy, but Tommy always just shrugged it off because he knew that it was because they didn't live in the same type of neighborhood. 

Tommy had two little brothers and they lived with his mom and dad, in the second trailer home in the park.  Most nights he shared a twin size bed with his little brothers while his mom and dad shared the bigger bed in the trailer.  Tommy depended on school for breakfast and lunch, but ate at home the nights his mom could get food.  Tommy’s mom worked at a gas station, and his dad was a deadbeat with no job spending money they didn't have getting drunk all day.  Most nights Tommy and his brothers only had bread to eat for dinner, and sometimes they split some Ramen noodles.  Tommy’s favorite dinners were when his mom got to bring home left over gas station food that didn't sell all day. It might have tasted a little burnt, but it was better than just some bread. 

Every morning Tommy assured his little brothers made it to school before he worked his way towards Thompson by hopping on a city bus instead of the school bus.  He usually arrived on time and could sneak off the bus without the other students seeing him.  One morning the city bus got overheated and broke down causing Tommy to be an hour late to class. When his classmates saw that he got off the city bus they questioned him on why he was riding that filthy public bus, and why his mom or dad didn't drop him off. All he could think to tell them was because his parents' car was in the shop, when in reality they didn’t even own a car.  It wasn’t until Tommy's family had no water to shower with that the other students started to realize that he was different from them.  Tommy started to smell awful; it got so bad that you could smell Tommy from the end of the hall.  Tommy knew he had a problem, but there was nothing he could do about it.  The other students started calling him names and keeping their distance even more than before with him.  Tommy felt more and more lonely and disgusted with himself as the days went on.  Not to mention he was receiving harsher hatred from the other students.

Tommy contemplated running away but he couldn't leave his brothers, and he knew that there was no way that he could take them with him and survive.  So instead of running away, Tommy had to just deal with it like he dealt with the rest of the awful situations in his life. He knew that he had to take the teasing that his classmates gave him because he understood that they were different from each other.    

One day his language arts teacher asked Tommy to stay after class to talk.  Once all the other students left, she asked him how long it had been since he had a shower and washed his clothes.  He explained to her that it been a little over two weeks.  His teacher without any hesitation offered him a safe place to shower and wash his clothes, but Tommy only took the offer if his brothers could join him.  Of course his teacher didn't hesitate and she and Tommy went to pick up his brothers so they could finally shower.  After they had showered they waited on their clothes to dry. While waiting his teacher cooked them some dinner.  This was the first homemade dinner Tommy had ever received in a very long time, so it took him a total of a minute to scarf down the food.  Because his teacher had been so nice to him and his brothers, he knew there was hope for him and his brothers, as long as he stayed on track and didn't let the other students bring him down.    

Author's Note: For my readings this week I read different stories from the Aesop for Children (Illustrated by Winter).  In all of these stories I noticed that they each had their own way of explaining some sort of important life lesson.  I modeled my story of Tommy of “The Boys and the Frogs,"  which explains that we should always think of others before our actions affect them in a worse way.  In the story “The Boys and the Frogs,” the boys were hurting the frogs without noticing, and in Tommy’s world he was having a much harder time than most of the kids around him, and because he was different he got teased and joked about.  The differences between my story and "The Boys and the Frog" is that no one is there to help the frogs. The frogs had to stand up for themselves by confronting the boys, where Tommy only received help from his teacher. We never know what is going on in someone’s life, and it’s important to remember that everyone has his or her own battles.  Hopefully in my story Tommy motivates you, and his hope for a brighter future helps teach you to keep trying and moving on no matter what life throws at you.  Usually someone points out that we are being hurtful, or something serious happens before we really notice that our actions can easily make a difference in someone’s life.  There are two main purposes of this story. The first is to help teach people to watch their own actions before someone points out or we notice that we have hurt another person.  The second is that we should learn to keep going even when we are treated badly.  

      

Bibliography: Tommy’s hope is based of “The Boys and the Frog’ from the Aesop for Children (winter), illustrated by Milo Walker.   The Aesop for Children was published in 1919.