True Tales; The Unfortunate Boy and Society's Trash

Let me tell you a true story about two friends who also happens to be students of mine...

X (real name cannot be disclosed for secrecy sake) is a shy and quiet boy who rarely expressed an opinion in my Physics class. He is also very clever, but alas, like a smashed mirror, all brilliance but still, a broken item (I will tell you why in a moment).

Y is an extrovert kind of person, who'll bug you everywhere, at anytime of the day. He's not really bright, but he can be quite helpful if he puts his mind into the job.

Both X and Y, in my professional opinion, are not really 'right' in the head, but not in a bad way.

So anyway, one morning, a few days ago, X and Y decided to visit me during the weekend, by bus. My esteemed mother asked me the same morning to buy a notebook computer for my handicapped brother, and gave me a lot of money for the purchase. So I called up the boys and told them to stay put at the bus stand, so I could pick them up to accompany me to the city. This they did.

So the three of us went to a computer store where I bought an Acer notebook computer immediately (because it's not mine and I was a bit annoyed to be woken very early just to do shopping for others). "What you want to do next?" I asked my students because I don't have the afternoon planned.

"Let's go to the movies," they said. I agreed because it's a hobby of mine anyway.

So we drove to the nearest cinema and I bought 3 tickets for the 4.00 pm show (because we missed the 2.00 pm show for 'FarCry'). Then I let the boys roam the mall, as long as they didn't do anything stupid that require my attendance.

I received a call soon after, from an unknown number;

"Is this Mr Ramzu?"

"Yes."

"Where are you?"

"I am somewhere near a cinema?"

"You are going to watch a movie?"

"Maybe. Who is this?"

"I am X's mother."

I will not continue the dialogue , but will tell the gist of it. She is ANNOYED that I brought her son to an INAPPROPRIATE place (cinema/mall). She said I was IRRESPONSIBLE and SELFISH. She said her brilliant son would be scarred for life, being somewhere near places with BAD INFLUENCE. She went on and on and on. I was quiet because 1. My parents never teach me to talk back to older people and 2. She has all the right to be angry for her son and 3. I am not that stupid to start an argument.

And when knowing her son is going out with Y, she commented thus;

"Isn't Y the Trash of Society?" ('Trash of Society' refers to people who contributed zero, useless individuals, e.g. drug addicts, snatch thieves etc). Y is not an excellent boy in study or behavior, yet a mother calling another's child such is completely unacceptable for me.

So, after she hung up, I rounded up her son and Y and immediately started the journey to send them back home, thus abandoning the cinematic activity. X was very adamant about my decision, because he really wanted to watch a movie. He told me that he has NEVER been in an outing with friends (that was his FIRST), and also never been to a cinema (unlike most of his peer, 17 yrs olds). X was never good at expressing his feeling, and after talking to his parent, now I understood why my student behaves oddly. Something is wrong at home.

When I was his age, even younger, my parents would persuade me to go outside and 'get a life'. They even gave me money to go to the cinema or anywhere I like as long as I got back home in the evening. They knew I am bright enough not to be caught in any sticky situation.

So I pity X because from what I witnessed and information from his friends, plus from himself, this unfortunate boy has 'no life' (normal social life). I can predict the outcome in the far future, but I would not be too specific here. Let's say when you fenced a young one, he'll fly away and never return when the opportunity comes. I told X to prepare for this future, but never get into an argument with his parents. Sometimes people do hard things for love.

As for Y, he said he was used to it. I told him to buck up and change his way, or the infamous tittle would be truly his, years to come.

For the first time in my 7 years career as a teacher, a parent had called me IRRESPONSIBLE. I wish I can sit down with this particular woman and tell her that sometimes, an accusation like that can be harmful to people's state of mind.

I will remember this.