A few days went by and honestly, I could not look past that boy and how he had completely ignored me that afternoon. On Christmas day, I was the first one to get out of bed. I tried waking my cousins, but they brushed me off and rolled over. After a couple failed attempts to wake them, I went on the verandah to check out the view. The view was amazing. It was a rainy Christmas season. The foliage was thick and over grown, depicting all shades of green. The black birds were up early also. They were raiding the naseberries and banana trees in search of an early breakfast. I spotted another early riser, the boy I met when I first arrived.
Feeling bored, I decided to go talk to him. I ran down the stairs and bellowed at him about four times before he acknowledged me. I knew he heard me from the first time, but guess he was ignoring me, but how could I blame him after the way I acted on our first meeting? Anyway I was not going to let that deter me so I went on my way and caught up with him. It was my intention to greet him with a hand shake, but after recognizing his condition I thought a hello and a merry Christmas would be just fine. With a big smile on my face I introduced myself. He barely glanced at me. Determined to find out what this kid was about, I continued the conversation first by apologizing, and then asking for his forgiveness. He was still ignoring me. The more I looked at the kid, the worst I felt. I then pleaded with him to forgive me and just speak to me.
“Wh..Wha…What…yooo….what…you waaa….want.” I told him how sorry I was and again I asked him for his forgiveness. After a little begging and pleading, he realized how sorry I was and began warming up to me. We sat on a rock together and we spoke and spoke and spoke for hours and hours. I completely lost track of time. Even though it was difficult to understand him, I tried my best and made do with the words that I could actually hear. He told me while his mother was pregnant, she went picking breadfruits in a grave yard and one of them fell on a grave and that’s how he ended up with a speech defect. He also told me that his mother died giving birth. He had spent most of his childhood with his father. The first day of school was the worst for him. The kids laughed and made fun of him and he was so hurt that he did not even complete the day. Instead he spent most of his time helping his father with farming. Sadly, one day while his father was carrying home the produce which he had reaped that morning, he was attacked and killed by robbers. Ever since then, he had been living in this little shed which he once shared with his father.
At this point, I was in tears, but he rested his hand on my shoulder, surprisingly I did not cringe. He told me that he was tired of crying because it got him nowhere. He was tired of feeling sorry for himself because then who would carry on his father’s farm. He was tired of cursing God over his disability, because if he made God angry who would he call on for help? Instead, He laughs at every dull moment, ignores the ignorance of people, learns to accept himself and praise God for his every blessing.
For the remaining couple of days while I was there, I spent it with Christopher. I was disappointed in myself. I realized how judgmental I had been towards him. His personality did not represent the clothes he wore, where he lived and how dirty he looked. I had an excellent new friend who had lots of will power. How dare me, seriously how could I have been so wrapped up in appearances? I had been very narrow-minded, I was caught up in what I thought was acceptable and almost missed out on such a great experience.
However, sadly my story does not end there. Five years later, I heard Christopher had been hit by a car. He never recovered from his injuries. I thought I had lost all my inspiration. However a couple years later in my life I realized that my strength and inspiration came from within; he just helped me bring it out. Admittedly, even though we only knew each other for a couple of days, I found it very hard to let go of him. Christopher had now become a piece of me. With all that I had learnt from him, I proved to myself that I can overcome adversity by myself. The knowledge and understanding which I gained from him are invaluable. I now know that nothing in life is guaranteed. It took lots of strength and courage to get past his death. Now I realize that I have been drawing on this strength and courage everyday. Of course, different aspects of my life have been touched, not only by his death, but the will he taught me while he was alive. However, I am happy to say that honestly my life has changed for the better.