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Stories and Essays

   When I was in junior high, the eighth-grade bully
punched me in the stomach. Not only did it hurt and make me
angry, but the embarrassment and humiliation were almost
intolerable. I wanted desperately to even the score ! I
planned to meet him by the bike racks the next day and let
him have it.

   For some reason, I told my plan to Nana, my grandmother
- big mistake. She gave me one of her hour-long lectures
(that woman could really talk). The lecture was a total
drag, but among other things, I vaguely remember her telling
me that I didn't need to worry about him. She said, "Good
deeds beget good results, and evil deeds beget bad results."
I told her, in a nice way, of course, that I thought she was
full of it. I told her that I did good things all the time,
and all I got in return was "baloney!" (I didn't use that
word.) She stuck to her guns, though. She said, "Every good
deed will come back to you someday, and every bad thing you
do will also come back to you."

   It took me 30 years to understand the wisdom of her
words. Nana was living in a board-and-care home in Laguna
Hills, California. Each Tuesday, I came by and took her out
to dinner. I would always find her neatly dressed and
sitting in a chair right by the front door. I vividly
remember our very last dinner together before she went into
the convalescent hospital. We drove to a nearby simple
little family-owned restaurant. I ordered pot roast for Nana
and a hamburger for myself. The food arrived and as I dug
in, I noticed that Nana wasn't eating. She was just staring
at the food on her plate. Moving my plate aside, I took
Nana's plate, placed it in front of me, and cut her meat
into small pieces. I then placed the plate back in front of
her. As she very weakly, and with great difficulty, forked
the meat into her mouth, I was struck with a memory that
brought instant tears to my eyes. Forty years previously, as
a little boy sitting at the table. Nana had always taken the
meat on my plate and cut it into small pieces so I could eat
it.

   It had taken 40 years, but the good deed had been
repaid. Nana was right. We reap exactly what we sow. "Every
good deed you do will someday come back to you."

   What about the eighth-grade bully?
   He ran into the ninth-grade bully.

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