Differences Make Us Beautiful

When Life Gives You Lemons

Rami sits on the bus on his way home. He is now 10 years old, and has been at this school for two years. he feels safe enough to ride on the bus, even with all the people on it. He's been able to keep calm when around unfamiliar people. This was a big step for him, and he was quite proud of himself.

Pulling up to his house, he saw his dad outside waiting for him. His dad, James DaGoata, looked just like him, except the fur was a little darker, and he had barely any markings on him a part from his ears being completely maroon in color. Rami got off the bus and ran over to his dad, and gave him a hug.

"Hi dad!" he said happily.

He returned the hug and grabbed Rami's paw. He spoke in a soft, calm voice. "Hey son, we gotta go over to the hospital. Your mom had a little accident and got hurt. She's ok though, so don't worry. We just gotta go see her, ok?"

Rami was still concerned though. He didn't want to see his mom hurt. They got into his dad's car, and drove to the hospital. Luckily, they didn't live too far from it, only about 10 minutes. He left his backpack in the car and they walked inside. They stopped by the front desk to say why they were there and who they were visiting. they were told that his mom is on the second floor, in room 221.

Finally coming up to the room, Rami ran inside the already open door. He stopped when he saw Grace laying in the bed. She was awake. She didn't seem too hurt, except for the cast on her leg that was propped up by straps hanging from the ceiling above her.

"Mom!" Rami called out, before running over to her.

He hugged her tightly. She hugged back the best she could with how she was positioned.

"Hey, sweetie. How was your day?" she asked.

"It was ok. Are YOU ok? What happened?" Rami looked at his mom's leg.

She chuckled. "Ohhh I just tripped at work. I'll be ok." she ruffled the hair on the little goat's head.

She looked at Rami's dad, who seemed defeated. "What's wrong, hun?" she asked him.

"I'm glad you're ok. That's first priority. I just ... it's gonna be quite a bill, but I'm sure it'll be fine. We have that emergency money saved up." he walked over and kissed Grace on the forehead.

"We'll be fine. Don't worry about that." she looked at Rami. "Hmm .. hey sweetie. Why don't you go sit over here with your dad?"

Rami nodded and walked to the other side of the room and sat down. James sat with him, and held Rami against him. He pet his ears and tried to keep him calm. This seemed to work, as Rami slowly relaxed. He kept his eyes on his mom until the weight of his eyelids became too much. He quickly fell asleep in his dad's arms.

* * * * *

A couple days later, it was the weekend. He was sitting on the couch with his mom. She was able to come home, but was tied to a wheelchair for the time being. Him and his dad would help her stand and move to the couch or the bed.

He thought back to the conversation his parents had about paying for the hospital visit. He didn't want his family to have no money so he started thinking about what he could do to help. As if by a miracle, he looked at the tv, and it was showing a commercial for lemonade. That was it. This was how he could help his parents.

He stood up from the couch. "Do we have lemons?" he asked his mom.

"Um, I think so. Check the fridge." she said.

Rami went to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Inside he saw a fresh bag full of lemons. A big smile spread across his face, as he grabbed the bag and set them on the counter. He grabbed a large bowl and a knife.

Opening the bag, he pulled out a lemon. He cut it in half, and squeezed the juice out into the bowl. He repeated this with lemon after lemon. Eventually using almost the whole bag. He took the bowl of juice, and moved it to the sink where he filled it up with water.

Once that was done, he grabbed the container of sugar and added that to the mix as well. He gave it a taste, and it was heaven. He tried lemonade when he was younger, but it was too sour. This, however, was sweet and luxurious. He threw in some ice cubes and the lemonade was done.

He walked into his room, and took a small, folding table from under his bed. With that under his arm, he took the bowl of lemonade and walked outside. He saw that his mom was asleep on the couch as he passed by.

He set up the table outside on the sidewalk and placed the bowl on top. He gasped. Cups! He forgot cups! He ran back inside and searched for plastic cups. There was a bag of them under the counter from when they had his birthday party a couple weeks ago.

While in the kitchen, he grabbed a ladle, a sheet of paper, and a marker. He ran back outside to his table. Thankfully, it was untouched. He set out the cups and ladle, and uncapped the marker. On the sheet of paper, he wrote:

LEMON-AID!
Help my mom pay the hospital
1 cup = $1.00

Now he just has to sit and wait for the money to roll in.

Inside the house, James looked through the window in the door. He had a slight smile on his face as he watched Rami set everything up.

"Hm? Whatcha looking at, hun?" came the groggy voice of Grace on the couch.

"Rami. He's outside with a lemonade stand." he chuckled a bit.

"What? Why?" she asked.

James shrugged. "My guess, is he's trying to help us pay for the hospital bills."

She sat up and peeked through the window. "I guess he doesn't know it's already paid for?" she giggled.

"Nahh, we'll just let him be. If it makes him happy to be able to help, then that's all that matters."

After about 2 hours of sitting outside, Rami came back in. He was a bit sweaty, but he seemed happy. He looked over to Grace and smiled.

"Mom! Look!" he held out his paw. "I made 28 dollars!"

Grace put on a surprised face. "Really?! That's wonderful!"

"It's to help pay the doctors! Here, you can have it" he grinned.

Grace took the money and counted it. "Hmm ... well, good news. We were only 8 dollars short of paying the doctor. So with this here, everything is paid for!"

Rami's face lit up.

"Now ... with this other 20 dollars." she gives it back. "You can keep it for working so hard. I'm proud of you, sweetie." she gives the goat a big hug.

Rami was happy, and his parents just let him enjoy his moment of joy. What he doesn't know, definitely will not hurt him.