Henry’s Story

Eighth grade were given an assignment to create a story featuring either a hero or a villain.  The story could take place in any time period, has as many characters as the author wanted, the only stipulation attached was that it must highlight a hero or a villain who underwent a series of complications, battling self doubt, discover a purpose and finally accomplishing a task. Students were excited about this assignment yet were disappointed to find out that they were to randomly pull from the teacher’s bag either a hero or villain. So, one by one, the students went to the front of the room, each pulling their slip of paper. Sighs were heard as were acclamations of awesomeness. Students tried to trade their villains for heroes and visa versa but the teacher quickly squashed such trades say, “You I’ll create the character around your slip of paper, if you chose a hero then a hero you will create, if you chose a villain then a villain will be your main character.  

After the chatter, students began hitting down ideas for their stories: names, settings, times periods; everything from dinosaurs to futuristic explorations were penned.  One student, Henry, was particularly focused on the task at hand, to the point that he almost missed the dismissal bell. As Henry walked him, all he could think about was his story, we he got home, he threw his backpack on the floor and rushed into the kitchen ready to finish his paper.  Frantically he wrote, creating, what he claimed, his masterpiece. The next day they were to read the stories out loud to the class and the class was to vote on the best hero and best villain story. So excited to present his paper, Henry jumped out of his seat volunteering to read his story first. But the teacher already had generated a lost so poor Henry had to wait his turn. He listened intently to all the presentations ahead of him and carefully wrote notes on the paper his teacher gave to the students so that they could vote for their two favorites. Finally, it was Henry’s turn to read:

“The Keeper of the Heart” by Henry Eisman

There was a small town built into the side of a mountain.  Though the town was small it operated as a huge town, people were wealthy, they held high positions in the city just about 20 miles north.  Their purpose, which was passed down the generations, was to advance the to the top rung of the social ladder all the while accumulating wealth, riches and envy of others. In this small town lives a little boy named Thomas.  Thomas’ parents were like most who left early in the morning for their jobs in the city and returned late at night only to find their children already in bed, taken care of by the nanny. Thomas went to preparatory school with his friends where he studied and goofed around like any other student. Thomas always volunteered in class and in his church. Not many days passed when Thomas wasn’t offering his assistance to someone in the community. One day, Father Gabriel stopped Thomas to congratulate him on his devotion to his faith, his devotion to generosity and compassion.  (Before He fb could continue students began yelling hero, this is a hero story to which Henry smiled and continued.). Thomas looked at Father Gabriel like he had five heads, “Ahh, thanks Father but what are you talking about?”

“Well, Thomas, I always see you after school belong your teacher clean her room and I see you downtown carrying bags for some of the elderly, and just yesterday I saw you in church praying well after everyone else had gone home. I would say that you are living your faith, my son.”

“Well you see, Father, faith sounds pretty cool on paper but faith doesn’t get you anywhere, I mean look at the crucifix.”

“Wait, Thomas, what are you saying?  Do you not want to follow in your Father’s footsteps?”

“Oh I do, Father, and I am. See I stay after school each day cleaning that stupid classroom because my teacher’s husband is on the council for the arts and I really want a chance to get into that world, there are so many famous people and I figure if my teacher likes me enough, I could get a couple of free tickets to see some incredible bands!”

Father Gabriel was dumbfounded. 

“As for the bags that I take to the cars of the old people, well, they are so hooked up. The one has box seats at every profession football and hockey stadium in the state, another personally knows the created of google so I am hoping that if I am nice long enough they will throw me some tickets, maybe even to the super bowl or introduce me to the creator of google so I could get a job there someday, I hear it is amazing!”

“Thomas, I am shocked, I really don’t know what to say. Wait, I saw you praying, on bended knee, you were so very reverent.  There must be a deep faith there, right?”

“Oh Father, that day I was so very tired. See, I didn’t get much sleep the night before because I was up texting my girlfriend and playing video games. We went to church and, well, I fell asleep on the kneeler. And yes, I woke up, but when I did I heard voices so I pretended to be praying because you never know who is watching. It is is important to look pious, makes for a great character...Yada, yada, yada.”

“Thomas, I am deeply saddened by this news.  Here I thought you were helping people out of the goodness of your heart and to hear this...well. You are not acting like our Father at all. Our Father is loving, kind, generous, and selfless.”

“What do you mean OUR father?  We have different fathers, Father. And I am following in my father’s footsteps. How do you think we live in the house we do and have the awesome things we do?  Reading and manipulating people, finding their weaknesses as exploiting them for our personal benefit. Yes, Father, I am becoming ore like my father everyday!”

With that Father Gabriel walked away dismayed and tears in his eyes for this young child knew nothing of faith and even less of our Father. 

The students were shocked at the ending of Henry’s story for they thought, for sure, a story of faith would have a hero. The rest of the students finished their presentations and then the teacher asked for their tallies.  During lunch, the teacher tallied the votes and while the hero was split with vote, the villain was unanimous: Henry’s villain of Thomas.  As the class gathered, they saw in the board, the hero’s who received votes and Henry’s villain. Since there was a tie between the hero’s, the student had the opportunity to plead their case and then the teacher asked Henry to off a statement about his villain. Henry stood in front of the class and said that he has been thinking about a hero, someone filed with faith doing the right thing but then he was assigned villain but thought many villains are disguised as hero at first glance, that it was the heart which knew the different for the reason for the actions makes the hero/villain. That which we do for others need be selfless in action for as Christ was humble, so must we be.  Faith is our gift to use, not for selfish reasons but rather for the good of all and a closeness with our Father. The teacher was so impressed with Henry’s thinking that he nominated him for a locate writing competition sponsored by and ecumenical council governing faith in youth to which Henry won. Which leaves us with a thought: will we win today?  Will our actions be selfless as Christ has shown?  Are our thoughts and actions compelled by faith?  Are we masquerading as a hero but secretly acting as a villain?  Let us check our actions, let us love with purpose, our Father’s message, our implementation. Are we acting as our Father would act: peace-filled, humble, generous, loving, and selfless asking for nothing in return?