William and his bag of corn

It was Sunday afternoon, which of course means swimming with someone, somewhere. This past week Lis and I went to swim with children of a dear family of mine, Astrid, David, Jessy and William. As we are walking to their house, we pass William. “Where are you going? Hurry! Let’s go swim!” I say. His face lights up, he says he has to run an errand but will be right there. We continue walking and William starts to run the opposite direction to get what he needed. We arrive at the kids house, where Jessy is taking care of the kids by herself. Astrid is full of giggles and little David can’t stop smiling. At first he was a bit shy but as soon as we got to the river he starts playing crocodile and jumping right in. We spend time with the kids waiting for William thinking he is going to arrive any second. He never came. We head back to drop the kids off. William wasn’t at the house. Lis and I say goodbye to the kids and go on our way. Just a few houses down we run into William. His is crouched over in the middle of corn kernels that had spilled on the ground. His bag ripped and everything fell onto the dirt road. “How long have you been here?” I asked. “About an hour.” There was William, all my himself, picking up every last kernel that had fallen. Lis and I begin to help. Soon neighborhood kids come out and help us as well. William didn’t say a word. Not a single complaint. He had been there, the whole time we were swimming, picking up the fallen kernels. He is ten. A very humble ten year old. He could have been swimming with us, but instead he knew what he had to do. He didn’t stop until the last kernel was picked up. There Lis and I were helping him and our legs were hurting from bending over. He had been there the entire time and not a single word or complaint came from his mouth. My heart ached. I knew how bad he wanted to go swimming. We finished picking it all up and he finally spoke with a smile on his face… “Gracias”