By: Enoch Yeo

Bob Lyiad veered around. His mother stared at his clothes. She looked down at her bedraggled son.

“What?” he asked angrily.

“What in the world did you do to your clothes, and why are you home so early?”

“I’ll tell you later!”

He went to his room and slammed the door. He sat there lonely, depressed, ignored. He thought about what happened that day.

Tears dropped onto the cold wooden floor.

After composing himself, he sat up and went up to his mother.

“Sorry. I was very rude, and I hurt your feelings,” Bob said.

His mother looked at him with surprise.

“So, several kids from school laughed at me and threw mud at me,” he started. “So I ran.”

The widow peered at her muddy son.

“Go take a bath first. Then we will talk,” she said.

Exhausted, Bob dragged himself to the bathroom. Moments later, he came out, fully refreshed from his bath.

“Tell me the whole situation,” his mother said.

“So it was like this:

“Everybody knew I was the son of a widow, and because of that, everybody despised me. I don’t know why, because they do not have fathers either. Of course, when I said I had a Father, they just laughed at me and scorned me. When we were eating lunch, several kids grabbed my lunch bag and passed it around so I could not get it.

“I ignored them, as usual, but they started throwing sand at me, and called me a liar, which I obviously wasn’t. ‘Hey guys, lets throw mud on him instead of sand,’ one older kid said. And so that’s how I got so muddy and dirty. To add to that, the principal came out, and before I could protest, the older kid said I was a liar and threw more mud at me. The principal looked sternly at me, praised the bullies, and suspended me until next month. When I started to protest and say what actually happened, the principal knocked me down onto the floor and said I was a very disrespectful and rude child. Then, when the principal left, the bullies started hitting me with their sticks and tried to make me eat mud.

“I got up and scrambled for the door. The guard saw me and knocked me down again. I grew extremely angry, but I didn’t do anything. I said the principal told me I was suspended from school. The guard only answered ‘Yeah, right’ and knocked me down again. Then the bullies came again and beat me like they were beating a dog. That’s when I saw that the guard was distracted and ran home.”

Bob sighed.

“Living for Him is hard. Anyway, did you eat any lunch at all?” his mother asked.

“No, but I’m not hungry.”

Then his mother smiled.

“Well son, I have good news! We are moving somewhere more peaceful, where I can, through the savings of your earthly father, and the provision of Him, homeschool you.”