Rupturewort

Anton had recently moved into town to live with his grandparents and desperately wanted companionship. He had a tendency to make impulsive and reckless decisions to prove his bravery and impress others. This led to him regularly putting himself in precarious situations and making poor choices. For example, he attempted to row his grandparents’ dinghy, which he had taken from the creek next to their house, nearly a mile all the way to the harbor. Unfortunately, the boat capsized right before he reached his destination. The children of the town were often nervous about his stunts and tried to intervene, but Anton would never listen.

One day, he was walking to school with his classmates using the path that wound along the edge of the cliffs surrounding the harbor. He walked slightly in front of the other kids and listened to their conversation. Not looking where he was walking, he stepped on a patch of rupturewort and suddenly felt it give way beneath his feet. Falling through the plants, he frantically tried to grab onto the stems covering the hole, but they were wet and slippery with rain from the night before, and couldn’t stop his fall.

The kids hadn’t noticed that Anton had fallen at first, but hearing his strangled yelp as he fell into the hole, they realized something was wrong and rushed forward to see. When they got to the spot where he had disappeared, they saw the crushed rupturewort and the hole in its center. The plants, once filled with life and vitality, now lay limp and crushed. The children peered into the hole and saw him, lying at the bottom, looking up at them with a dazed expression. The hole seemed to be a dry well that had been covered by plants and moss over time.

Anton’s face flushed red with embarrassment when he saw them peering at him. He quickly got up and, turning to hide his humiliation, tried to pretend that he had intended to fall in. He grasped the large, irregularly shaped stones that made up the wall, determined to climb his way out, but they were slick with mud and wet moss and his fingers couldn’t get a grip. With frustration at his inability to rescue himself, he called up to his classmates and asked them to help him. A boy named John found a rope and lowered it into the hole, instructing Anton to grab it, wrap it around his waist, and hold on while they pulled him out.

Mortified, he thanked his classmates, now friends, for saving him. They assured him it was no problem and that they would do it anytime. That year Anton grew to be more mature and stopped doing stunts to impress others as he found friendship doesn’t come from impressing others but rather from being humble and honest with one another.