HER WET PILLOW

THE OLD BEGGAR

CHAPTER 5
THE OLD BEGGAR
As we settled down, the teacher came in and everybody stood up to greet her.
“Good morning ma.”
“Good morning students. You can all sit down.” She said and everybody sat down and faced her as she addressed us.
“I am Amina Salis. I am your social studies teacher. I welcome you all once again to this noble institution. You all have heard the various advice given to you for the betterment of your future. I hope you will put the advice into practice because there is no difference between advice and noise when it is not used. Let’s first introduce the subject. Who can tell me what social studies means?” A fat and chubby boy then stood up confidently. From the look on his face, you could see how much courage he had and you would expect a very intelligent answer. Guess what he said.
“Social studies is the subject that shows us how social a study can be.” As he said so, everybody except the teacher busted into laughter. We were all laughing very hard as if we had all inhaled laughing gas but the teacher seemed resistant to the laugh. From the look on her face, you would know she wasn’t happy with what he said.
“Silence! Silence!” she shouted. She was very mad at him but she had to endure that as a teacher being the first time she met us. I could remember what happened in my primary school. There, if any student misbehaved in the class; he would be sent home or the teacher would leave. We were never scolded, students would purposely misbehave so that they would go and play. In the other case where the teacher leaves, it was an opportunity for gist, play and useless talks. It was kind of strange when I saw the teacher not leaving or sending the student away.
“Why did you do that? What is your name?”
“My na..me.. i..s Yus..s..uf” He said stammering.
“Okay Yusuf. No need to be scared. Why did you do that?” She asked calmly.
“I am sorry ma. I just wanted to make my classmates laugh.” He said with his bent head.
“It’s ok dear. I understand you just wanted to have fun but you can’t just catch fun with everything. Sometimes it hurt people when their serious matters are being taken for granted resulting to sadness or anger. Believe me, if it was someone else; you would be punish. Words are so strong that they have the power to change a person’s thinking and even his or her life in general .  Words have a lot of impact on the people we use them on. Let me tell you a story. Story story….”
“Story!” We all shouted in joy.
“This is the story of the old beggar. Once upon a time, there lived a little boy. He was very honest and truthful. He was born in a poor home and lived in a village. Other children are driven to school in their parents’ cars because the school was a bit far from the village but the boy’s parents didn’t have a car so he usually treks to school. He would leave the house as early as possible to prevent getting late. He was a very contented boy; he was satisfied with everything his parents gave him despite the hard situation. Other students take a lot of snacks, drinks and even large amount of money to school but he took food in his lunch box and zobo. He was a very bright and intelligent boy, all his teachers liked him.
With his poverty and intelligence, bullying was attracted. Other rich kids would bully him of the little he had. They would call him names and insult him.  He would be sad about it and weep his eyes out. To him, nothing could be done to stop the bullying. He just managed to continue living like that without informing anyone what he was going through. Sometimes they would pour his food on the floor and mock him until one very day…
One day, the little boy was going home from school. He still had a loaf of bread with him from what his parents gave him. He usually hides in school to eat peacefully and avoid troubles of the bullies. On his way, he saw a beggar who was struggling to collect money from some children. The children were many; they were making fun of him and laughing. They were passing the money around to prevent the beggar from taking it from them. The beggar finally left them and sat down as hot tears dropped from his eyes. You can see from his face that he hasn’t eaten for days. The boy was standing and watching what was happening, he could relate to that because it was the same thing he was going through.
Suddenly, the beggar stood up again and approached the little children. They were still making fun of him. He then said:
“I wasn’t the one who created myself nor am I the one that placed myself in this condition. Fear the maker of the heavens and earth as there would be a day you will also lack something. There will be a day you will be in a tough situation, there will be a day you will need help urgently, there will be a day you will ask yourself if you worth what is really happening to you and you won’t be able to do anything. I am poor, I am old, I am homeless, I have no one and that is why I am here on the street begging. Do you think it is my wish to be begging? Despite my situation, I still thank my maker for what he has done for me. I have two eyes I can see with, I have two ears I can hear with, I have two hands, two legs, I have a nose, I have a complete human body and I am happy with that. Some people have wealth
but lack health, others have both wealth and health, and I have health but no wealth. It's all from the mercy of our maker, we all have different fate. Then why can’t you be thankful and mind your business? Why are you oppressing the depressed? Fear your lord! Fear your maker!” He said and tears rolled down his eyes.
The children became calm, they felt helpless and ashamed. Their heads were all bent as they approached the old beggar. They apologized to him, gave him the money and left. The young boy was shocked at what he saw. He was also calm and he pitied the old beggar. He approached him and gave him his bread. The old beggar looked up and saw the young boy smiling at him and giving him the bread. He hurriedly collected the break and started eating as fast as possible. He was eating quickly, very fast that he choked. The boy opened his bag and brought out water, he then gave the old beggar to drink from it. The beggar collected it and drank all the water in the bottle.
“Thank you my son.” The old beggar said.
“No need to thank me sir. I must say sir; I was impressed by your bravery and shaken by your powerful words. I am also a victim of bully; my classmates bully me because I am poor and brighter than they are. They would take my things, called me names and insult me. I have been suffering from that for a very long time sir. But today, I see the need to stand up for myself even if I don’t have as much as they do. Being richer than me doesn’t make them in anyway better than me.”
“You are indeed a very bright boy my son. There shouldn’t be a reason why a person will bully another over what they have over them. Nature doesn’t approve that, we are all different from each other. We are blessed in different ways, some are bright, some are rich, some are wise and a lot more. And despite the differences, we are all equal. People bully others because they feel insecure; they feel others are a step ahead of them. That is why they cause them harm to also oppress them and make others with benefit feel unhappy as they are feeling. It's more than just oppression my son, within them is strong feeling of fear, intimidation and incompetence. But there is something people don’t know about bullying. As you bully others, you are making them stronger….”
“But how will the feeling of sadness and pain make someone strong sir?” The boy cut in with a surprising look.
“A very nice question my son. When we feel pain, grief, oppression and depression; we tend to feel lifeless as we don’t know the way out of our problems. The problems and the pain begin to increase day by day. But we won’t just stay in the ciaos like that; we are humans who always find solutions to our problems. The way we solve them is what makes us different from each other. After we overcome such pain and depression by solving it, we become stronger than we can imagine. Our heart becomes tougher,  preparing us to solve other problems that might come our way. Problems don’t make you weak, they make you strong my dear.”
“Thank you so much sir. I can’t thank you enough as I have learnt a lot from you.”
“My pleasure.” The old beggar smiled at the young boy.
They boy then stood up and pack his things to leave. He thanked the old beggar once again and waved at him as he left. The boy went home and told his mother what he experienced that day. She was happy and proud of him. The next day, the boy returned to school and faced his bullies. Ever since, they never disturbed him again. It also gave other students the courage to fight for themselves. The boy continued his life encounters and till his last day on earth, he remembered the old beggar. He even told people about his experience and they learnt from it. I hope you will also learn from his story. It’s a story that showed the power of words. See how the words of the sage helped the boy’s life. You all should learn to use your words wisely. That’s the end of the story.” She ended.
Everybody was happy to listen to the story. It was a bit emotional as it shut our mouths and communicated with our souls.
“Back to the lesson, someone should tell us what he understands by social studies.” She requested. Yusuf stood up again to answer.
“Social studies is a subject that explains how man relates with his physical and social environment.” He said.
“Excellent! That’s very nice of you Yusuf. Clap for him.” She said excitedly.
We all clapped and the lessons continued. When the period was over, the next teacher came in and that was how it continued till the closing time. It was a very wonderful day I had on my first day at school but the troubles were not over for the day.
Everything continued smoothly till the closing hour. It happened that I and Fatima lived close by so we decided to go home together. We left the class and we were on our way to the school gate. I decided to take my transport fare and Pov! I couldn’t find it. That moment was so disastrous that I thought the ground was going to swallow me. “How will I go back home? What am I going to do? Oh My God! What is happening to me? I thought the problems were enough for the day, what is this?” I was in a deep thought as hot burning tears rolled down my eyes. I didn’t say a word so Fatima didn’t know what was going on. She was so bothered when she saw me crying.
“What is wrong? What happened to you? Who hurt you?” she was so confused that she didn’t notice she asked a lot and I couldn’t answer her in such state. She then held me, sat me down and wiped my tears.
“What happened? Tell me.”
“I can’t find my transport fare. How will I get home? Where will I get money for transport from? This place is too far and it has been a long day. I can’t even think of trekking such distance. I don’t even know what to do.”
“Take a deep breath. Don’t worry, everything will be fine, ok?” She hugged me and path my back. I felt calm a bit but the thought of how to get home started to disturb me. Fatima and I checked the entire school looking for the money; but all our efforts were in vain. We couldn’t find the money. I was dumbfounded; I didn’t know what to do. Fatima on the other hand had a lot of things running through her mind.
“What are you thinking about?” I tabbed her and asked.
“I am thinking of how we can get out of this mess. I have an idea!” She said reacting like someone whose bulb was lighted.
“What is it?”
“Since my money can’t take us both. We should both trek half of the way, then we will take a tricycle home. What do you think?” She said smiling at me.
“What?? You have done a lot for me already. Isn’t this too much for someone you just met?”
“What are you even saying? Have you forgotten we are friends? Always and forever?”
“Oh I am sorry and at the same time thank you so much. I don’t know how to even thank you. I really appreciate what you have done for me today. Only Allah can pay you for what you have done for me…”
“Okay, Okay, enough of the thanking. Let’s be on our way so we don’t get home late.” We held unto each other and begin to trek joyfully.
As we were trekking home, we were chatting and laughing. As we were walking, a girl bumped into me and my bag fell.  I bent to pick up my things then I saw something. What was that? It was my transport fare. I stared at it in amazement.
“Guess what I found; my transport fare.”
“I thought you said you didn’t see it.”
“Yes I didn’t. I guess confusion got over me that I didn’t check well. We ended up trekking.”
“No issues, at least we can take a tricycle now.”
“Now our money is a bit over, let’s by an ice cream to calm the trekking stress.”
“That’s a nice idea.”
We bought ice cream, took a tricycle and we went home. It was such a very nice experience. It actually thought me to calm down in terms of looking. I had lot of negative thoughts as the result of what I had been experiencing. It was time for Fatima to alight; I waved at her as she left. I was at rest; things were not that bad as I thought.
I dropped and rushed home. I was so excited; I wanted to give my mom full details of what happened to me. My happiness wasn’t that long as I entered and saw my mom worried. Her eyes were full of tears although she couldn’t cry. She looked back when she heard the noise from the opening door as I came in. I wasn’t ready for another trouble but I guess I had no option…