The Awkward
Moment
by Jack Brown
In the last
year and a half, whenever his classmates talked
about their fathers, Kipling has always said,
“My father works in a state-owned factory.
He has a good job.”
One afternoon
Kipling went to attend a birthday party in a
hotel. When the party was over, it was rather
dark. Worse still, there was no bus stop along
that street, so one had to walk a long way before
one could get to the nearest bus stop. He and his
two classmates stood there for a moment, not
knowing what to do. Suddenly, one of them found a
man-drawn cart in front of the hotel, so they
made their way towards it.
“To the
nearest bus stop!” said Kipling as soon as
they got in. Soon they started to talk and laugh
in the cart.
“I say,
Kipling, didn’t your father work in a state-owned
factory? Why has he changed his job?”
Whenever
people talked about his father, Kipling’s
eyes brightened up and he did his best to
persuade his classmates that his father had a
good job. Anyhow, that day he got a little angry
when he heard they had discussed his father. He
didn’t say a single word, but a few seconds
later, he said to the man, “A little quicker!”
At last they
got to the bus stop and they jumped off the cart.
“This is on me!” said Kipling the
moment they got down, as if he could have lost
the chance to pay the man. “How much is it?”
“3
Dollars, sir!” said a hoarse voice, which
was very familiar to Kipling. The instant the man
looked up Kipling froze so much that he kept
still for quite a time.
“Oh, da...
dad!” he couldn’t help shouting out.
“What’s
the matter?” One of his classmates was very
astonished.
Kipling
realized that his two classmates were standing
beside him, and his face turned bright red. All
of sudden, the notes slipped from his hand down
on the ground.
“You
recognized the wrong man,” said the man as
he bent down to pick up the money. “I am not
your father.” With those words the man
pulled his cart off into the darkness.
“That
surprised us a lot. Why didn’t you recognize
your father?” One of his classmates laughed.
Kipling
glanced at him.
On the bus
Kipling looked out of the window up into the sky.
“Oh, dad! I haven’t seen you for a long
time! You have become much older, with your beard
so long, your hair in such a mess and your eyes
terribly red. I haven't seen you since you
started to work in that state-owned factory.
However, mother often tells me that your factory
is far away from our home. You have had to go to
work before daybreak and return late at night. In
fact, you have hidden from me, and the truth is
that you drag a cart for money.”
Kipling hated
himself, his ignorance and his disgraceful vanity...
He had to accept a father who, in order to
support the family, dragged a cart from morning
till night.
He rose from
his seat, saying to his two classmates, “The
man who took us to the bus stop in a man-drawn
cart is my father.”
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