We are Friends

We are Friends

"Look, Martin. Those two grown-ups are fighting." Kiev pointed across the grassy lawn to where two men were hitting each other with fists. They could hear the two men yelling at each other.

Kiev looked at Martin. Martin was staring at the fighting grown-ups about 50 yards away.

Kiev said, "I thought grownups never got into fights. Why are they fighting?"

Martin shrugged. "I don't know. I know that I won't ever fight with you."

Kiev smiled and nodded his head. Martin was his friend, and friends never fought.

Kiev always had fun when he and Martin played together every day after school. School was out for the summer, Kiev had completed 3rd grade, but Martin had completed 5th grade.

It was now the season for firecrackers. They bought firecrackers before and after July 4th.
Kiev and Martin were playing with the small penny firecrackers. They were called penny firecrackers because they cost one penny apiece.

Martin threw a lit firecracker. It went out. As Martin started to walk over to pick it up to relight it, Kiev yelled, "Wait!"

Kiev walked over and prodded the firecracker with his right foot. He saw that the fuse had gone out halfway down. Kiev picked up the firecracker. "It is safe now. I wonder how dangerous these small firecrackers are."

Kiev held the small firecracker he had just picked up at the end opposite the fuse. "I bet if I held it at the tip end it wouldn't hurt me."

Martin said, "You're crazy. It'll blow your hand off!"

Kiev lit the firecracker. As the fuse was burning, he shifted the firecracker to hold the tip end of it between his fingernail and thumbnail.

Boom! An instant of sharp pain, and Kiev's right-hand thumbnail was gone.

Kiev yelled and looked at where his thumbnail had been. Martin ran over to see how badly Kiev was hurt.
“Look, my thumbnail is gone. But it’s ok. It’s only bleeding a little bit. I didn’t know I had skin underneath my thumbnails. And it doesn’t hurt except at the sides where it was bleeding. Look, it's stopped bleeding now.”

"Kiev, you need to go home to get your hand fixed. Don't let anybody know I let you hurt it,"

On another day, Kiev and Martin played on the hillside above the junkyard. The only trees they could see were pine trees.

Kiev leaned against a small pine tree, feeling the force of gravity tugging at him, trying to pull him down the hill. He leaned slightly sideways to see how far he could lean without falling.

"Kiev, what are you doing?” Martin yelled.

"Don't worry. I won't fall,” Kiev assured him."

Suddenly, Kiev lost his balance, and Martin reached out to catch him.

Too late! Martin only pushed him.

Kiev tumbled down the hill and stopped after scraping his side against a large pine tree. Ouch! But what hurt more was knowing that Martin had pushed him. Friends don't push friends downhill. Martin was no longer his friend.

Ignoring Martin's pleas that he had tried to catch him, not push him, Kiev ran home.

"How did you skin yourself like this?" exclaimed his mother when she saw how badly he was hurt.

"I fell down the hill and scraped my side on the side of a tree," Kiev said nothing about Martin.

Days passed. One day, Kiev's mother said to Kiev. "Why don't you go play with Martin?"

Kiev looked toward the floor. He mumbled, "I don't feel like it." Then he looked up at his mother. Seeing her look of concern, he shrugged his shoulders and went to look for a toy to play with.

More days passed. Again, his mother suggested that he should go play with Martin. Kiev said nothing, but decided to go to Martin's house. If Martin was not home, he could tell his mother that he tried to go play with Martin, but he was not home.

Martin was home. Martin was playing in his yard. Martin ran out to the road to greet him. Kiev felt confused. Was Martin still his friend?

Suddenly, Kiev realized that Martin was indeed his friend. Martin, his friend, could never have intended to hurt him. There had never been a reason for Martin to hurt him. He had been wrong in thinking that Martin had tried to hurt him.

Kiev enjoyed playing games with Martin again.