365 DAYS 365 TALES

Present and Resolution

"This is unbelievable. Mom is this my Christmas present? Just great!," he bawled out in the waiting room, in front of all the spectators who had a repulsive look plastered on their faces.

"This is important and you know that. I can't afford a present and also this. Choose wise," She said sternly.

"You are lying. This is not important as you say... I don't need this... You want my friends to...to tease...me and...and... bully me, like I bully the freaks... You... want me...to be a freak," he shouted, despite the audiences odd look.

"You need this of course," saying so, she dragged him roughly by his hands into the reception.

"Mom please...," he started to beg but she was firm again, in her stance.

"This is the worst Christmas present ever," he mumbled, his chubby cheeks, flushed in anger.

"My friends will LAUGH at me. How could you do this to me? This is what you want from the start. Now you have it. Are you HAPPY now?," He shouted, failing to consider the excruciating pain caused by the new braces, scratching on the inner side of the lips.

She gave a satisfied smile when his head turned around the corner, to the steps.

"I HATE this Christmas!," he shouted, sitting behind the closed door of his room, frustrated being in the room for all day long.

"Get out of there... Now," his mother ordered and he couldn't deny but came down for the Christmas morning.

"How could he get presents when I don't?," he launched on his younger brother, literally, rounding his angry swept eyes.

"Stop fussing around, Brian, its a warning!," His mother shouted, with the hands on her hips and pointed him to the couch.

Taking the couch, he crossed his arms over his chest with a grudging pout on his face, watching his favorite show, occasionally, watching his brother and his new Christmas present.

"Brian... Brian...," Sam called him from the door, craning his neck to take a peek through the glass above.

"Hello Mrs. Adams... Is Brian here?," Sam greeted Brian's mother when she opened the door for him.

"He is in the living room dear," she said, allowing him inside and closed the door behind him.

"Brian... What...?," Sam stood rooted to the ground, eyes wide as saucers when he saw the braces on his teeth, deluding that it was somehow protruding the lips out from its original shape.

Next minute, Sam burst out laughing while Brian broke out into a wail.

"That's mean, Sam. You should know better than to tease your own friend," Mrs. Adams denounced him.

"Sorry Mrs. Adams," Sam hung his head and making a quick apology to Brian, he ran off.

"Great! Now he'll tell all my friends what you did to him and...and forget it...," he yelled at high while storming out of the house.

"Sorry there is no place for tooth fairies in our gang!," Sam imparted, straight in Brian's face.

"Toothless... Oh sorry I forgot you got extra set...," David said and they bursted into an uproar of laughter.

Sam went one step ahead, clutching his stomach he rolled down, in the dirt while laughing his head out.

"That's mean Sam. You should know better," someone supplied and the roar was beyond words.

Hanging his head in dismay, Brian returned home with tormented heart. Eyes leaking the salty drops, he remembered the good times he had with his once friends, teasing around fatty, skinny, nerdy children, selecting the innocent shy one so that they could make more fun out of them without getting caught.

Weeping into his hands harder and wiping his running nose, frequently, he curled into a ball on the couch and decided to take off the braces all by himself. A soft hand ruffled his hair and he did not have to look up, to know who was that. He knew the touch, the smell of freshness and the sense of love, it was his mother, sitting beside him, caressing his clobbered head by the repeated bullying of his own friends.

"Mom..."

"Mmm..."

"For the first two days I thought it was all your fault that my friends keep on teasing and taunting me," he said, sitting up from his curled position and laying his head on her lap.

"Mm..hmmm," she dint utter a word except for acknowledging with the syllable.

"Then I began to think... Um...may be its all my fault..." She ruffled his hair, listening intently what her son had to say.

"I learnt who are my true friends in the past week I had my braces on... I don't know if I would have learnt this ever if not for my... deformity like they said," he talked out his heart while a couple of tear drops rolled down his sides, drenching in to his mother's skirt.

Maintaining her silence, she continued her handy works on her son's curly mane but listening carefully for his next words, her eyes searching for something, curiously, on the visible side of his face.

"And now I realize...."

'Now he is getting there!' She thought and grinned widely which Brian couldn't see.

"...that how it hurts to be bullied and even more by the same people I thought were friends. I realized its been my fault all along to bully Sarah, Nathan, Jackson and everyone in school"

Reaching to his visible cheek, she planted a heavy kiss and immediately, he sprang to the sitting position, hugging her tight.

"I know you'll figure it out one day. You make me proud," she smiled with tears pricking at the sides of her eyes, burning her nose and painted it red.

"Why, mom?," he asked, releasing her from his hold and sat straight, searching her face.

"I hate bullying. It hurts and makes one loose all the self confidence," she said, wiping away the tear stains on the side of his face.

"How will you stop it? David, Sam... And possibly every other kid in the world is a bully," he asked perplexed, knitting his eyebrows.

"I just don't want my son to be a bully," she smiled sweetly, "and now that he is not one, we are celebrating the New year with a New life and New hope. After all, it is New year's eve," she said squealing and jumping in joy.

"This'll be my resolution for the New Year, mom. NO MORE BULLYING!," he stood up head held high.

She kissed his forehead in pride.

Soon, an inexplicable fear clutched his heart which spread its wings in his face.

"What is it?"

"Without friends, the new dawned realization and New year's resolution," he searched for the apt words, "what'll this make me?" He seemed to be lost.

"This makes you a man!," she imparted, spreading happiness before the snow melted away.

____________________________________

So what do you think about bullying? Have you been bullied on some part of your life? I was!

Hit the little star if you like the work :-)

Thank you for reading!

Akiprabagar (02/03)