Dalvin Sounders by EJ
You really
never know how lucky you are until you meet someone who isn’t as lucky as you. To see
Dalvin laugh and play with the other kids being in his position made my heart break. To
know that he is one of the many that won’t receive gifts under a lit Christmas tree
that special morning makes my eyes well up with tears. To know that he is in 4th
grade yet he does his own laundry and takes care of himself on his own makes me want to
adopt him into my family and hug him every chance I get.
When I first
met Dalvin I felt like I had known him for years. I had seen a few small pictures of him
but I had never met him. He came into the classroom and to my surprise he was fairly well
groomed and dressed. He doesn’t look very poor, I thought quietly. As the day went on
I discovered his inner self. When constructing a difficult project he would announce,
"No way I can fold that back. It’s too hard. I can’t do that." Still
not moved just thinking he didn’t understand the project, I replied, "You can do
it, it’s easy. Let me show you." I showed him how to do it and he understood.
But when it was Secret Santa time and everyone was passing out their gifts, I noticed that
his desk was empty. He looked hopefully at the passer byers but they placed their gift on
someone else’s desk and his wanting smile turned to a neglected frown. I wanted to
hug him and tell him that it would be okay. But I just stood there as my heart fell to
pieces. For the people that their Secret Santa’s were absent, there was a small
wrapped box of candy for them. When he received one, his mouth said "Thank you"
yet his eyes glanced around the room at everyone else’s prizes as he said, "You
got a Spongebob pillow!" The leftover wrapped boxes of candy were hanging around so
it was time to give them away in a drawing. I carefully chose a few Popsicle sticks out of
the red basket and read the names aloud. Secretly I hoped I had picked Dalvin so he would
have something other then a small box of chocolates. But his name wasn’t one of the
ones I chose. There were more gifts to be given away so I picked a few more. This time, I
glanced into the basket, hoping his Popsicle stick was at the top. I read the names and my
heart was relieved. His name was among them. For a few seconds I stared at the Popsicle
stick, looking at the little heart next to ‘Sounders’ colored in so neatly. I
wished he had a better life. Why did it have to be that sweet, young and innocent kid?
What did he ever do? I gladly took the larger package out of the pile and handed it to him
sending a warm smile. He smiled a little smile back and raced back to his seat to tear off
the purple wrapping paper.
Later that day I found out the heartbreaking truth about Dalvin. The
only reason he had come in with nice-looking clothes was because of the generosity of my
mother and another teacher. My mother told me that quite often he would come in with once
white t-shirts that were tinted yellow, blue or green due to his little knowledge of
laundering. Finding out that a 4th grader needed to do his own
laundry and take care of his drug addicted mother all by himself made me cry. I
wanted to take him home and give him a bed to sleep in and a warm meal to sit down to
every night. I don’t want him to shiver miserably in bed at night, scared and his
stomach growling. I want to have him know that people love and worry about him. I want him
to know that I care.
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