CPT Butt's 7th Grade English Class - Eighth Entry: Parables

“Parable” – by Cadet Michael S.
One day back in 1947, on the dirty streets of Chicago, Illinois, a young boy was walking down Villanova Avenue with fifty-six cents in his pocket. He had been saving the money for months, to buy his favorite Hershey chocolate bar, in Al’s candy store. The young boy turned a corner and suddenly fell to the ground, smacking his face onto the concrete. He was accidentally tripped by a homeless man that was dead broke, and living on the streets. The brittle old man helped the young boy to his feet, and then the old man held out a plastic Dixie cup with a napkin taped to the front that read Spare Change? The young boy rudely responded to the old man, “I have plenty of spare change, but none for a selfish low-life like you; you gave up on your life and you sit around and do nothing for a living.” The young boy spat into the old man’s cup, and continued walking down the street.
About ten years passed by and the boy was reading the daily newspaper. He saw a familiar looking picture in the obituaries. It was the old man; the article said that the old man lived a hard life in an orphanage and had strived to fulfill his dreams. He got laid off from his job and didn’t have enough money to pay for his home; the bank then kicked him out and put him on the streets.
Now every time the young man sees someone in need, he never hesitates to give. The moral of this story was not to judge someone when you don’t know their story.

“Parable” – by Cadet Shane M.
Joey was playing with his friends on the playground. They were playing freeze-tag, while Moe, a new kid from out of town, angrily walked around the playground. Joey was having so much fun that he didn’t see Moe, and he ran right into him. Moe yelled at Joey, and stormed away. Joey watched Moe walk away and hop on the swing set. Shrugging his shoulders, Joey continued to play with his friends. Something seemed to keep nagging Joey though, and he couldn’t figure out what it was. Again he shrugged and kept playing. He ran by Moe and noticed that Moe wasn’t playing with anyone. Joey remembered what it was like to be the new kid and not have any friends, and decided to include Moe in their game. He stopped running and approached Moe. “Hi,” said Joey, “do you want to come play with my friends and me?” Moe slowly looked up. “Sure,” Moe said. “Well come on then!” said Joey. Moe grinned and walked over.

“Parable” – by Cadet Nathan L.
It was December 7th 1971 at Pearl Harbor, and my grandpa was standing on the deck of the USS. Arizona. He was just saluting the flag when he heard what sounded like thousands of bees. Instead he saw a ton of Japanese bomber planes. They flew in; he saw planes fly low and drop torpedoes into the water; he also saw soldiers trying to man turrets and shoot the planes down. After about 30 minutes he saw a plane come directly at his ship, and the plane dropped something into the water. The bomb exploded on the left side of the ship, killing my grandpa.
Years later, when I was at the Pearl Harbor memorial, I met a Japanese man and asked him why he was here. He said he was here to honor the soldiers that he had killed. I felt mad that the guy had the guts to come all the way across the ocean to say sorry to the people that he killed. When I walked over to where my grandpa’s ship went down, he came over and stood next to me. He then said he remembered bombing a ship in the exact same place. I asked him many questions and finally I came to the conclusion that he probably was the guy who bombed my grandpa’s ship. He said he was sorry for what he had done, and then said that his dad was also killed in WWII.
After many tears and a long talk, I forgave him. We stay in touch by e-mail, and have learned to be friends.

“Parable” – by Cadet Nick K.
There are a lot of rules in my house and one of them is to not play Xbox after school. One day my brother and I got home after a long and boring day at school. My mom was at Wal-Mart, and my dad was at work. After we got home I went to watch TV. When my mom isn’t home, my brother thinks there are no rules. He quickly took his jacket off and ran upstairs to play the Xbox. On the way upstairs I told my brother that we shouldn’t be playing. He said, “I don’t care at all!”
About thirty minutes later my mom got home and my brother ran to his room. My mom came upstairs to get our laundry and noticed that the Xbox was on. She saw his book bag on the couch and walked angrily to his room. She grounded him, which meant no phone, TV, or car. Later that night my mom called me to her room. She said I could go somewhere with my friends the next day. I said “No thanks,” and went back to my room.
A few minutes later, she came to my room and asked why I didn’t want to. I told her a few days before my brother played Xbox, I did. She said I wasn’t grounded because I told the truth, but I didn’t get to go anywhere with my friends the next night. That was the last time I played Xbox after school.

“Parable” – by Cadet Jonathan H.
It was a very cold winter morning as I jogged into the school building. I whipped around the corner, almost dropping my book bag and startled another student. He was picking a lock. “What are you doing?” I asked. “ I…I ..I, well okay you caught me. I was just getting a piece of candy out of Mr. Smith’s locker. He’ll never know, I mean it’s just a piece of candy,” he said. “ It’s stealing and you know it,” I replied. “Yeah, whatever, I guess you are right,” he said. Just then another student dropped something as he hurried to class. I walked over to see what it was. It was the brand new Ipod that I wanted so badly, but then I thought about it. I wanted to take the Ipod, but I had just told another student not to steal and here I was stealing myself. I was tempted to take the Ipod , but I decided to return it to its owner.

“Parable” – by Cadet Landen H.
I was 13 years old when my dad got robbed and killed while driving a taxi. The man who killed my father was sentenced to 16 years in prison. I was extremely upset, so I told him that I hoped he rotted in jail.
Five years later, when I became a man, I decided I couldn’t stay mad at this man when I didn’t know what happened in his life that made him kill my father. So I made my decision; I went to go visit him in prison. “Can I speak to prisoner 302134”? The man at the desk looked him up and said one moment. When my father’s killer came out he looked at me strangely and said, “Who are you?” I said that 5 years ago he had killed my father. He told me how sorry he was, and I actually felt bad for him. He told me that he has 3 kids and they kept moving from place to place looking for food and shelter. “My kids were starving; I just wanted to be a good father.” A week later I came back and visited him. I told him I had a surprise. He looked at me with a smile on his face and said, “What?” His kids are 5, 8, and 11, and they came running up to him like their life depended on it.

“Parable” – by Cadet Micah G.
The ground shook for about the sixth time that day. “TOO MUCH EARF QUACKS!” screamed Lobel, an eight year old autistic child. “Earthquakes, sweetheart,” replied his mother, Sarah, in a voice as smooth as velvet. Sacramento was no stranger to earthquakes, but the 7.6 from a week ago was big even for California. Lobel burst into tears for no apparent reason, but his mother understood, or at least seemed to, anyway. Sarah Kessler’s son had been diagnosed with autism when he was about four years old. He wanted no friends, but his mother did not want him to be normal. She didn’t want him to have to change to adjust to the messed up world around him. Sarah was not like an ordinary mother. She had won the scratch lottery a few years previous, and had become an instant millionaire. She didn’t work because she had plenty of money, so she got to spend all of her time with Lobel.
She homeschooled her son because she didn’t want him to suffer through the mocking and teasing of public school kids. Sarah’s husband had been shot before Lobel was born, and she had been thinking about the anniversary they would have had in about a week. Lobel randomly burst out “Mamma, I need a weasel!” Sweetheart, you have two hamsters and a bunny rabbit, not even sounding as if the last seven years had worn away all of her energy. Despite all the times where she saw disabled men get fired or divorced, she didn’t want Lobel to be normal; he was his own kind of normal. She loved him just the way he was.

“Parable” – by Cadet Dalton F.
There once was a man with a good heart. He had a very shabby apartment and a dead-end job, but the only unsavory thing that crossed his mind had to do with his neighbor’s car. The other expensive things didn’t bother him, but this car was a tricked-out Ferrari. It was complete awesomeness: white glossed rims, custom plates, and a blue flame paint job with a black background. It was tugging at him as much as a leech. He got the money from a loan shark to get the same car, and he ended up buying it.
After 3 months, he couldn’t pay the loan, so some repo guys took everything, including the car, and he had to move out of his apartment. As he was sitting outside of his apartment, his neighbor walked up to him and said, “Hey, I know you’ve been eyeing my Ferrari, and I’m going to give it to you because I’m thinking of buying a new one, and --- Whoa! What happened here?!?”
The man let out a dry chuckle. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing,” he said with a smile on his face. The moral of this story is not to envy.

“Parable” – by Cadet JD B.
It was a rainy night out and I was tired from doing 10 hours of backbreaking work. All I wanted to do was get home, 466 James St., but the traffic wasn’t helping. I finally got across the bridge to Starfish Island off the coast of Florida. It seemed like 4 hours before I got to my neighborhood entrance. As I was turning into the entrance I was rear-ended by another car, but thankfully I wasn’t hurt, and neither was the driver of the other car. I got out and inspected the damage, feeling like cursing the guy. But I stopped myself. The back bumper was completely off, and the muffler was destroyed as well as the lock to my trunk. His car’s front bumper was off, his headlights were on the ground, in pieces, and his engine was smoking. The man offered to pay for everything because he had insurance, but I declined and said, “I make enough money a week to buy 4 cars, so I’ll get it.” He asked about insurance, which I didn’t have, ironic considering I ran an insurance company. He kept insisting, but I told him, “Just pay for the tow truck and I’ll live.” I then went home, walking. Later that week I had to merge our company with a larger one in the area. Apparently, the man who hit me was the boss, and because of this I was promoted to manager and got a years’ worth of insurance.