The Price of a Dream

I grew up in a poor family with six brothers, three sisters--a group of foster kids, my father and my wonderful mother. My parents worked day and night to keep a roof over our heads and food on our table. It's true that we had little money and few goods, but we got plenty of love and attention. I was very happy and energetic. I understood that no matter how poor a person was, he could still afford a dream.

My dream was athletics. I fell in love with baseball at an early age, a love so deep that I almost gave it my all. I practiced hard every day and that made me a little closer to my dream. By the time I was sixteen, I had made great progress: I could throw a ninety-mile-per-hour fast ball and hit anything that moved on the field. I was also lucky: my high school coach was Ollie Jarvis, who not only believed in me, but also taught me how to believe in myself. One particular incident (事件) with my coach Ollie Jarvis changed my life forever.

It was the summer holiday in Senior 2 and one of my friends recommended me for a summer job. This meant a chance for money in my pocket — certainly, money for a new bike and new clothes, and I could also begin to save money for a house for my mother, which was what I had always dreamed of. The prospect (前景) of this summer job was attractive and I wanted to jump at this chance. Then it hit me that I would have to give up summer baseball training to deal with the work schedule. I was afraid of telling my coach, who would certainly be against my plan. I hesitated for several days. At last, I spurred (给……打气) myself with the advice my mother often gave us, "If you make your bed, you have to lie in it." I made up my mind.

When I told my coach Ollie Jarvis, he was as angry as I expected him to be.

“Well,” he asked, “is $3.5 an hour from the summer job the price of a dream?”

You can always believe patience and perseverance (毅力) are always rewarded whatever you do. This was a lesson Eli learned. Eli is my seven-year-old grandson. I always teach him things I think he should know, and he tries to teach me to play some of the games that I have for him on my iPad. He is very patient and persistent, but so far no success with that. It’s all just foreign to me.

The other day, Eli and his dad came for a visit. I could tell something was bothering him and asked him what was wrong. At first, he just shrugged and said nothing was wrong. But his body language told me a different story.

I asked again—pushing a little. Eli said that he was having a problem. He was trying to learn how to blow bubble-gum bubbles (口香糖泡泡). It seemed like all of his friends could blow bubble-gum bubbles, but he just couldn’t do it. I tried to explain how to do it, but aside from making funny faces and sticking out my tongue, nothing got accomplished. He tried to do what I said. His cheeks puffed out (鼓起). His face got red. He made funny noises. But no bubbles.

Then I had an idea. I asked Eli if he had another piece of gum—and not the ABC kind. He did. He gave it to me. Now, I hadn’t chewed a piece of bubble gum for years. Wow, it’s sweet. And one piece is huge. It filled my entire mouth. I don’t remember a piece of bubble gum being that big. I chewed and chewed and chewed. Finally, that piece of gum became more manageable.

I worked that piece of gum around in my mouth and wrapped it around my tongue, and then I slowly blew a bubble. Nice! I guess it’s like riding a bicycle. Even though I hadn’t tried blowing bubbles with bubble gum for years, I completely remembered how to do it at the first attempt.

After the bubble burst, I began to show Eli how to blow bubbles, but still nothing worked.

Just when we were both about to give up, he got that knowing kind of look on his face.

“I blew a bubble.” Eli shouted excitedly.

That afternoon, I had a lot of work to do. The first stop I needed to make was my mobile phone store because I didn’t know how to download apps or find music. Luckily, Carlos stood behind the counter (柜台), helping a gentleman. Carlos was quick, so I knew the wait wouldn’t be long.

Within seconds, an elderly lady hoisted (提升) her walker onto the sidewalk out front. Without saying anything, Carlos jumped over the counter, opened the door, and helped her inside. The lady sat next to me as Carlos returned to his first customer. The poor guy had missed a lot of work because his wife had been hospitalized with cancer ( 癌症). I don’t know how he did it, but Carlos made a call and got his late fees dropped and a forty-five-day extension (延长) on his payment. A few seconds later, that poor guy walked out of the store excitedly.

Carlos started my download and then went about talking with the lady in the walker. Surprisingly, she was there to bring Carlos some cookies for being so nice to her.

I was in the store for only ten minutes. And in that small amount of time, I’d seen so much consideration and kindness. That night, I kept thinking about Carlos, how he called each customer by name, and how he made everyone feel like family.

The next day, I wrote a nice letter to Carlos’s boss. I thought his boss would be interested to know how Carlos treats people. Since I took my time and did a pretty good job, I decided to mail copies to their local headquarters, their state headquarters, and the CEO.

A couple of months later, I tried to open my music app and deleted (删除) it instead. I was mad at myself. No worry, though. I realized that I could go to the phone store and see if kind Carlos would help me.

When I entered the store, there was a mile-long line and no Carlos but an overworked woman behind the counter.

The woman said: “Carlos doesn’t work here anymore. Some woman wrote a letter and ...”