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This is a Story of
Alice Smith. It is a true story but the names have been
changed to protect the innocent.
I went to Junior high school with Alice. I knew her for
several years before that, but we had never talked. Alice
was from a very poor family. I didn't know at the time
that she was living with her mother and that her father
had left some time before. Back during those years, it
was not common to see a woman alone raising children.
Divorce was still a dirty word.
Alice always wore little more than rags to school. Her
dresses were obviously hand-me-downs. They were faded and
in very poor repair. She had shoulder length stringy,
unkept brown hair. When she came to school, she would get
off of the bus and walk directly to her locker always
looking down at the ground. She said nothing to anyone
and no one said anything to her.
Many times you would hear one of the children call out
her name like a curse. They would say things like
"eugh, it's Alice Smith" in a very unkind way.
Like when they used to say "you have koodies".
As far as I could tell, that was the extent of
conversation this child would have all day long.
To my shame, I didn't think anything of it. I never gave
a thought to the fact that this little girl must be
feeling such sadness and pain and no one knew except her.
One day we were in Mrs. Thompson's English class and it
was time for her to teach us how to introduce ourselves
to each other. This is when good manners were important
and one had to know how to introduce one person to
another.
Mrs. Thompson paired us all up by row the first two in
the row would be introduced to each other by Mrs.
Thompson and it would go to the end of the row and
finally through out the whole class until everyone had
been introduced. This must have been a frightening thing
for Alice Smith, because it meant she would have to stand
up during the class and everyone would be looking at her.
I was seated in the seat in front of Alice so we were
paired up. The snickers came almost immediately. "Ha
ha you have to be introduced to Alice Smith," the
others said. Mrs. Thompson objected to the unkind words
and made it known. I found my self getting angry. Not at
Alice Smith or even the fact that we had been paired up,
but at the other kids. I was getting angry because they
were being so unkind to this little girl who had done
them no wrong and certainly didn't deserve this
treatment.
I made up my mind that when Mrs. Thompson introduced me
to her, I would be very polite and would say something
nice to her.
I have to believe that Alice Smith was expecting me to
say something that would hurt her and would be unkind.
Finally our turn came. Mrs. Thompson asked us to stand
up. We stood up and I turned around to look at Alice. She
was standing there obviously uneasy and looking directly
down at the ground.
Mrs. Thompson was standing between us and she said
"Alice, I would like to introduce John Simpson to
you". Then she looked at me and said "John, I
would like to introduce Alice Smith to you". I took
Alice's hand and gave it a gentle little squeeze. I said,
"I am very pleased to meet you Alice".
With this, Alice looked up at me with wide eyes and burst
into tears. She pulled her hand out of mine and started
weeping in a way that I cannot describe to you. The
weeping came from so far down deep inside her, that it
was like she was convulsing. She wept and the tears were
pouring down off of her face in a volume I have never
witnessed before or since. She wept so hard that she
could hardly stand. No child should be capable of crying
like this. It should be impossible for them to.
Mrs. Thompson grabbed her and held her very gently. She
said "it's ok honey, it's ok". She stroked her
hair and tried to comfort her.
The sadness and pain that came from this little girl was
so intense that it almost had a physical feeling about
it. It overwhelmed me as it washed over me. I will never
forget the profound sadness and pain coming from this
little girl. As the whole process was taking place, her
pain made me tear up as if to cry.
Of course I didn't have any idea what was going on, I
only knew that I had done something that had caused this
pain and sadness.
I
tried to take her hand again and tell her I was sorry,
but she hid behind Mrs. Thompson. I told Mrs. Thompson
"I'm sorry, what have I done? I'm so sorry, I didn't
mean to make her cry". Mrs. Thompson said "It's
ok John, you didn't do anything wrong. Leave her alone
for a while. She'll be ok in a minute." I knew that
this was not true. She would never be ok. All I wanted to
do was to "make it ok".
Finally Mrs. Thompson helped Alice to bring her weeping
under control. I said to Alice "I'm sorry Alice, I
didn't mean to make you cry". Alice said something
to me that I will never forget. She said "It's ok,
you didn't do anything wrong, it's just that that's the
nicest thing anyone ever said to me before."
I stood there speechless. I couldn't believe the nicest
thing that anyone had ever said to this little girl was
"I'm pleased to meet you."
My mother never let me out of the house without saying I
love you. I couldn't believe that this little girl
thought that what I had said was the nicest thing anyone
had ever said to her.
After the class I resolved to myself that from this point
on no matter what the other kids thought, I would always
be kind to Alice and would go out of my way to let her
know that I cared about her.
The next day we all arrived at the front door of the
school and I saw Alice getting off of the bus. She was
walking toward her locker with her head down looking at
the ground. This is the way she always walked. When I saw
her, I said "hi Alice. I'm glad to see you".
She didn't answer but kept walking to her locker. She
went to her class and I to mine. When we met again in
English class I said "hi Alice". She just kept
looking down and didn't say anything.
I wondered why she wouldn't even answer me and then I
tried to put myself in her place. She would be thinking
"what if I said hi back, would he say something mean
then? Would he say something like see I got you to talk?
Better not take the chance. He might just be trying to
trick me and then would say something to make fun of
me."
I thought, Ok, I'll just keep trying.
We went through the same process each and every day for a
couple weeks. Then one day I saw her at the bus again and
said "hi Alice" as I had everyday prior to that
day. She still looking down at the ground, hurried by and
said "hi". Well you could have knocked me over
with a feather. I said "I'll see you at
English". She didn't say anything but hurried off to
her locker.
Each day after that, went about the same. One day at the
school entrance, I said hi to Alice again and this time a
couple others said hi to her too. She just hurried by
without saying anything. She got to her locker got her
books and went to her class. From that day on, more kids
than me said hi to Alice.
Several of us always met for lunch at one of the tables
in the lunchroom. Never a particular table, just one that
was free. Alice always ate alone at another table. I told
my friends that I thought we should have Alice come over
with us. To my surprise, several agreed that it would be
a good idea.
I went over to where Alice was seated and asked her to
come over with us to our table. She got upset and said
that she just couldn't. I said that no one wanted to hurt
her and that we just wanted her to have her lunch with
us. I told her that if she didn't come over to our table
that we would come over to hers. I motioned for the
others to come over to her table. I sat down by her. She
was obviously very uncomfortable but I nudged her with my
elbow smiled and told her to relax. I told her that I
would watch out for her. She seemed to relax. As everyone
arrived at the table, they each said hi to her. She
replied to them in like manner. She didn't have a thing
to say during the lunch, mainly because everyone else was
busy talking. At the end of lunch, I asked her "same
time same place tomorrow?" She said "ok".
As time went on we all met at the same time and place.
During the next few weeks, she opened up more and more.
The girls that usually sat with us started taking an
interest in Alice. They started helping her with her
hair. Some would bring clothing from home and in time,
they started having her over to their PJ parties.
After Alice finally saw that these people were not going
to hurt her she relaxed with them. In time, the other
girl's mothers became involved and started putting
clothing aside for Alice. It wasn't long before Alice
would start running around with them. At this point, you
couldn't shut Alice up with tape. She talked like she had
it bottled up in her for years. Which I guess she
probably did.
The transformation was something that had to be seen to
be believed. Alice wasn't even the same little girl. Now
when she walked down the halls, she kept her head up.
When she passed someone, she said "hi". She
wasn't afraid that someone might say something mean to
her because she knew she always had us to depend on.
On the last day of school we were all moving on to
another school. I was moving on to another town because
my Mom was going to work there. We were all sad as all
kids are when they have to leave each other. Alice came
up to me in the hall at the end of the school day her
eyes all teared up and she said "You know, I had a
dream about you last night". I was kind of shocked
by that comment and said " was it a dream or a
nightmare?". She said "no, I dreamed you were
Superman". She hugged me and kissed me on the cheek.
She turned around and left me standing in the hall
completely speechless.
I don't know what ever happened to Alice. I hope she has
had a wonderful life and all her dreams were answered.
I'll just believe they were and that will make me happy.
When I look back on this little part of my life, I am
still amazed at what a couple little words can do.
"Hi Alice."
Well Hi Alice. I love you where ever you are. I hope you
have found your life's mate, had all the children you
wanted, and most important, found your God. May God bless
you and all those you love forever.
Your old school mate,
John
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