The Hero

A couple of days ago I asked Kael what he did at school. He responded with a "I helped my friend today."

That was it. No further explanation, no clarification, no details, no hints. Nothing. Typical guy response where every single little detail had to be pried out of him.

So I probed a little. Apparently (and this is his version of what went down) his friend and classmate Viken was playing with a ball. Another kid from another class tried to take away said ball. There was a fight. Viken started crying. Kael and another classmate Michael walked up, broke up the fight and said "Hey! There's no fighting for the ball."

Kael: "My friend Viken was playing with the ball first."

Michael: "You have to get another ball."

Then someone, I'm not sure who because it took a lot of my concentration to follow along with all the words that were torrentially falling out of Kael's mouth, took the ball and gave it back to Viken.

I was hanging on to every word, astounded. "What did the kid do? What did he say? What did Viken do?"

Kael: "The kid said OK then went away to play with another ball. Viken said 'Thanks guys!' "

Wow.

I was so proud of Kael. I asked him how it felt to help out his friend and he said "Good! It made me feel really good."

Being almost 6 years old, I'm not sure if the action really went down that way. I mean, come on, I ask him what he did in class that day as we walk away from the classroom and he tells me he can't remember. We're in the hallway, and he can't remember!

So the next day, I find Viken's dad and ask him if Viken said anything about the incident. Viken hadn't mentioned it at home but his dad went to ask him about what happened. He came back and reported that Viken told him it was Kael who took the ball away from the other kid to give back to Viken.

Again, WOW! I am such a proud mom!