A Father's Decision

Today was the first day of the school's story telling contest. We kicked off we Grade 3 students and ended with fifth graders. Tomorrow we'll have the fourth and six graders present their stories. These are like speech competitions where you are obligated to memorize your story and present to the English co-teachers as a preliminary round. Each student provides the teachers with a copy of their story to follow along while they present it. To be frank, most of them are Korean Folktales that pull out very interesting morals. Some were traditional, others were opinionated and then there stories I had never heard of before. Which brings we to "A Father's Decision" typed verbatim: (try to imagine a child reading this to you)

A Father's Decision

Some random school

A grade 5 student

After a day long tour in Switzerland, we were on our way back to hotel on a tour bus. 

Everybody was tired, but glad to be on a vacation like this. 

The bus driver was a nice, gentleman, too. Soon, many of us started to fall asleep because we were tired from touring.

I wasn't sure if we were going downhill, but the bus seems to be gaining speed. 

The sleeping passengers began to wake up one by one.

Everyone panicked.

The bus was going too fast!

"Ladies and gentlemen, please stay calm and remain seated! The brakes are out of order, but we will be all right. Please, don't panic. Hold on to the handrails," the bus driver told us calmly. 

Then, the anxious passengers calmed down and were seated. They held tightly onto handrails. 

"Five curves from here we have to go uphill. Then, we can stop the bus, and we will be safe."

The bus driver continued to calm the passengers down. But, we could not breathe easily, yet.

"Oh, no! Look out!" people shouted each time the bus driver made a curve. 

After the last curve, people were overwhelmed with joy.

"Thank you, you saved us all!"

Just then, we saw children playing soccer in the street in front of us.

The bus driver was distraught.

He honked repeatedly at the children.

The children started to run off the road quickly, one by one.  

But, there was a child left in the street.
He didn't know where to go.
Then, it was too late.

Our bus driver had to choose between our lives and the life of that small child.
"Oh my God!" We heard a thud. Then, the bus began moving uphill and came to a stop.
Everybody on the bus was safe.

The bus driver hurried out of the bus.
The people on the bus heaved a sign of relief, then, began to wonder if the child was okay.
"The boy is dead!"
"Oh, God! No! The child was hit by our bus!" one of the passengers shouted.

The bus driver had saved our lives instead of that child's.
"Quiet everyone! Look! The dead child is the bus driver's son!" someone yelled out.
We were speechless.
It became very quiet.
The bus driver had sacrificed the life of his own son to save us all from certain death.

The bus driver valued the lives of his passengers.
He thought that we were special and important people to our own families, just as his son was a special and important to him and to his family.

I can't imagine how terrible the driver felt  when he had to hit his own son to save the passengers on the bus.
But, his son probably understood the choice his father made.

Don't you agree?

Digest that.

This sent chills up my spine listening to it and retyping it just now. Maybe it's the format its written in reminds me of A Million Little Pieces which was a very raw and direct book. Sign should have been written sigh, but I didn't want to take away this boy's poetic licence. There are lots of things you can say about this story and where it was presented but all I could say after was a soft, "'the fuck?"