Wisdom Wealth, and Waves.

A Story by smarvin45

The sun was descending and its gaze met the face of a slender, tan 13 year old boy, sprinting towards the horizon. Police officers hurry toward, as the scene gets darker and darker. The boy has cramps running up and down his body, and is on the verge of giving up the chase and being taken by the police for theft, but his body collides with a fragile old man, instantly toppling back onto the wet, frigid sand. The old man hobbles up as the winded police officers approach them. "Is this your child?" asked the police officers.

Seeing that the boy is in trouble, the old man assumes the position as the boys grandfather and the police officers let the boy off with a warning. " Thank you, sir" as the boy says finally getting up ready to leave. The old man grip his shoulder, turns him around and says " A debt unpaid is a nail in your cross. You must come back here every day to work on my decrepit home, for 1 days and I will consider it paid back,". The boy agrees, and leaves in the direction of his home and soon falls asleep on his bed.

The next morning the boy walks to the old man's home, and is met with a paintbrush and a bucket of aging paint with a note that reads, " Hurry up, you have more to do,". The boy paints drastically and misses quite a few areas, coming back in to tell the old man he is done. "Cutting corners old will lead you in circles on the road of life, finish it correctly," barks the old man. The boy finishes with precision is asked to weed. The boy weeds the garden poorly and only picks off the top off the roots, and as the old man inspects he says " You can not fix a problem just by scratching the surface and hiding it, you must get its core, its root." The boy does the job over and is now asked to read to the old man at the end of the day. After reading for a lengthy 20 minute the old man asked the boy a question " Do you know how much value is in your words, or in mine?" The boy shook his head, perplexed, and the old man answered " The person who speaks less, his words are waited upon, but the babbling fool is never listened too, speak with meaning my friend. You are free to go,". The boy walks out of the house with a wealth of knowledge he didn't have before, knowing wisdom is derived from old age, standing in the crashing waves, he decides the old man has helped him more than he helped the old man.