A Simple Gesture

     One fine day, Mark was walking home from school  when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder.”I wonder what was the boy trying to do with all his stuffs in this late evening? Oh, well..” Mark knelt down and helped the boy picked up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked Mark discovered the boy’s name was Bill, that he loved video games,

baseball and history, and that he was having lots of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend. They arrived at Bill’s home first and Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some television. The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both of them graduated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school where they had brief contacts over the years. Then, they also finished their studies together at the same university. Finally the long awaited senior year came and Bill turned out to be the best student among the seniors.

   With all his courage, Bill himself couldn’t believe that he was actually standing in front of the whole university students, to deliver his speech. He begin his speech by clearing his throat, but actually he wanted to hide his nervousnees. “You all want to hear a story? Which had bring me up to here today?”Bill stopped. “On one fine day, I was carrying so many things home, way from school. You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn’t want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother’s sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But someone coincidently stopped me from actually doing that most idiot and such stupid decision, and that is you, Mark .We have some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up those books that day, you did a lot more, you saved my life.” Mark was touched, and without realising himself, the tears dropped slowly from his eyes, and Bill absolutely recognised that looked of his,the same old look where he saw from that very guy at that very moment....

for us,we will never realise..how that very day.. the day of a helping hand..worth them that much..

but for them,we will never know...