Children

The Substitute

by Terry Barlow
04/02/25
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  In the days when students were still "paddled" or otherwise physically disciplined in schools, there was a boy who much admired the girl seated directly across the aisle from him. One might even say he had a "crush" on her and that crush had persisted ever since he had met her many months before. One day the beloved girl was hovering over the teacher's desk with other students while he was out of the room and she accidentally spilled a bottle of ink all over his important gradebook and some other notebooks. He was infuriated when he returned to the room and demanded to know who had committed the outrageous misdeed. After a long and ominous silence had permeated the classroom, the boy, fully aware of who really was responsible, could no longer contain himself and spoke up with quavering voice, "I did it, sir."

 "I might have known it," he snarled,  for he had been secretly hoping to catch the youngster at some wrongdoing and had long suspected him of previous mischief in the classroom.  Even had the boy been innocent of the mischief, the teacher had to admit to himself that he plainly didn't like him anyway.  Now was opportunity to legitimately punish him for a misdeed. He snatched his paddle and gloated as he commanded him to bend over and began to strike him soundly and furiously as the beloved girl as guilty party grimaced 😬 with each swat. The entire class began to cringe as the ghastly paddling went on and on and raged further and further out of contol and out of all proportion to the supposed offense, until the boy now began to scream and sob as the girl winced and closed her eyes tightly. Who knows how much longer this horror would have continued had there not come a merciful knock on the door. 

  Almost needless to say, the young girl would never forget the traumatic events of that day for the rest of her life, nor would all those classmates who witnessed it, and most of all the one who bravely bore the brunt of the punishment that was not due him. Yet in all his days, out of the love he felt for the one "across the aisle from him", he was never heard to say he regretted a single bit of it. In fact he told himself privately more than once, he'd gladly do it all over again. His inner thoughts echo those of the One who many centuries before, out of love for him,  bore every bit of the punishment that was due him, as he had done for his dear classmate,  and passed on the selfless and hallowed example to all generations.