“Tommy’s Hope”
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.
