Page 24 - TEARS OF SUFFERING

TEARS OF SUFFERING

“Mention not, please.” Samphel smiled at the boy and
traipsed back to the car. He rolled down the window-
glass and waved to the boy. “Bye.”

But the boy didn’t wave back to him as he anticipated.
He only watched Samphel moving away from his sight.

Samphel sighed deeply and closed his eyes. The awful
sight gave him a strange feeling.

“My dear son,” said Mother, patting his back gently. “I
am proud of you. You have a heart of gold.”

“Thank you, mom,” he said.

“Always be a good boy. Don’t change your mind, dear.”

Samphel carried the image of the hapless urchin into the
classroom; he rested his chin on his palms and said to
himself, “I have never come across such an awful sight
in all my life and when I did, it shattered my heart. Why
does God have to punish him?”

His bench-mate nudged him. “What’s that matter,
Samphel? It’s not for a boy like to get lost in the class.”

He crumpled his nose and said, “Nothing, be attentive to
the lesson. Don’t worry about me.”

Numerous questions haunted him all day long. Evenings,
his mother couldn’t pick him up, so he walked home.
That evening, he deliberately plodded in the street in the

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