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Topic: Insulted (11/01/04)
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TITLE: Etymology of the Sampson Bard By Erwin Robledo 11/08/04 |
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Then one Talent’s Night Mrs. Floppings’ proudly displayed her most favorite pupil wearing a toga and a wreath of laurel on his head. She introduced him though it was not the custom to introduce anyone after the emcee did the job, and introduce him she did for ten minutes. Some claimed it to be the performance of the Third Graders Section A class; others claimed the teacher to be jittery that night and lost control. But horror to Mrs. Floppings, for Tom, Her most favorite pupil, star student of the class, forgot his lines.
Legend has it that Mrs. Floppings became quiet and unapproachable after the incident, showing Tom neither contempt nor praise for the latter’s performance then or the achievements he did after. In fact, Mrs. Floppings rarely reacted to the students’ actions after that. And Tom lived like any normal kid, unknown and ordinary, just a statistic. Grade school passed, and so did high school, and college, work, marriage, a family, and now a small, used car sales company. Tom then lived happily ever after; at least until his son William came home from school and retold the story as an urban legend from the streets.
It began when Tom (last name Sampson) mumbled an apology to his son for not being able to take him and his mother to the movies after making a promise that week. Work, he explained, needed his attention.
“Aw, dad. You’re being a Sampson Bard,” William said.
Tom frowned. “Exactly what does that mean?” William then told the story he’d heard from a friend of a friend of a friend of a teacher who claimed it happened thousands of years ago. Of course, Tom knew better. “What? Now they’ve turned me into a curse?”
“What does that mean, dad?”
‘Dad’ never quite explained that to dear William, but the word worked, for ‘dad’ took the day off and brought the family to the movies. They actually watched two that day, which mystified William very much. That word, ‘Sampson Bard’, seemed to hold a kind of magic, like some spell to get what you wanted from someone. It was more mysterious that it only worked on ‘dad’ and not on anyone else.
Ever since that incident Ted changed. Not that he started howling every full moon or changed into a bat every night (though there was this one time that Ted pretended to be a zombie and carried ‘mom’ in his arms to their room after eating an aphrodisiaced chocolate that got William on his knees praying to God that the spell wear off soon before something bad happened). He became more, ‘dad-like’. As if he was able to do everything that was expected of him suddenly. Was it that word that did it? What power did that word hold that changed how a man behaved?
That question was never answered. But William had an idea when one Talent’s Night, he and Ted and mom attended to see his little sister perform. There was a special number, and aged Mrs. Floppings telling the tale of the Sampson Bard. With different names, of course, for legends often did not keep an accurate track of names. After the story, Mrs. Floppings asked, "Are you a Sampson Bard?"
Ted stood up and said, “Not anymore.”