Obviously, I Need to Run More

Once upon a time, in a rural, country community there lived two sweet teachers.  These teachers loved their classes very much and always tried to find fun activities for them to do.  One beautiful fall day they took their classes on a short nature walk to a park nearby.  The adventure started out with a great deal of excitement.

Paired with a buddy, each student walked two-by-two with an afternoon of fun awaiting them just down the road.  Upon arriving at the park each child ran with excitement to the activity of their choice: swings, slides, merry-go-rounds, etc..  The teachers rested on a bench and watched with happy hearts as their students' eyes lit up with happiness.

The youngest students were collecting little acorns to count in class later.  A lot of laughter and shouts were to be heard from all.

After a few minutes one boy came up to the teachers and said, "I think I'm bleeding."  The one teacher (yours truly) did not hear him.  She glanced up from her paperwork to see a shirt full of 'berry juice' with 'berry juice' also smeared on the palms of his hands he held out in front of her.  While trying to process where in the world he got into berries (B/c she had Just seen him at the merry-go-round), the other teacher was poking her arm and pointing upward.  As her eyes lifted she saw blood literally dropping from this child's head.  By the time her eyes reached his face she thought she was looking at something from a horror film.  His head was caked with blood - a clump of hair was matted with it, while a river was running down the side of his face.

This child was quite brave.  He had enough composer to come to his teacher and calmly say, "I think I'm bleeding."  Since they had taken a 'nature hike' to the park they did not have a vehicle.  The one teacher (yours truly) turned to the other and said, "I'm going to run and get my car."  After taking 3 steps she realized she would need her keys which were on the park bench.  Starting out again she started to give herself a little pep-talk.  She had been working out for quite a few weeks and knew she could run (even though it wasn't something she enjoyed). About 1/3 of the way there she was ridden w/guilt b/c her legs would not allow her to run.  The sun was incredibly hot, and she had just eaten a heavy lunch, and she felt terrible that in the midst of an extreme emergency she couldn't even run to save the life of her student.

Catching her breath she started at it again.  Almost to the school three cars passed this frantic teacher, yet none stopped.  Upon entering the school she started calling for help while gathering supplies.  Soon w/first aid kit and towels in hand, she and the boy's mom (who happened to teach at the school) climbed into the chariot and raced to land of accidents where her son was waiting.

Almost arriving at their destination the teacher could not believe her eyes.  All the students were lined up two-by-two, except for one brave leader, guiding the followers back to school.  The lone teacher was in the back of the line holding our brave student's head close to her side w/some form of clothing/material pressed to his head to contain the bleeding.

Come to find out those three cars had also passed them - all three drivers looked at the crew with inquisitive stares - yet none stopped!!!

The injury was caused from nothing more than a caring heart.  Our 'broken knight' had been pushing the peasants on the merry-go-round.  He saw one peasant beginning to fall and when he leaned in to help him the bar from the merry-go-round made direct impact with his head.  After cleaning him up there was no major wound to report.  As these teachers learned firsthand - head wounds bleed excessively!!!

The broken knight's teacher (yours truly) commended the other teacher on how organized she was in gathering all the children to line up and begin walking back to school.  She laughed and told the other teacher it was insane.  The young students went to collect their acorns quickly, but then they all fell, not wanting to leave them behind they started picking them up, but then they were rolling around and the kids ended up having to leave them behind anyways.  Then another student thought it would be a great time to tell a story, so he started talking about round-abouts in a far away land - which that story ended abruptly when the teacher cut him off so he would start walking.

The most humorous part of this tale is, the teacher who stayed behind had her cell phone with her the entire time.  She did not even think about it until after the broken knight was back at the Castle of Learning being bandaged.

*As an update:  The teacher who stopped running and felt guilty just recently ran 2 miles without stopping.  Running past the park was part of the route she took.  She knew she could do it ... it must have just been the conditions (extremem heat, and just eating a heavy lunch) that caused her to stop afterall.*

Shortly after the whole ordeal and already back to work.

(*At one point he said, 'Miss Orr, it only hurts when I do this.'  And he totally thumped his bandage incredibly hard.  Sheesh!  I said, 'Don't do that!!  It's trying to heal!'   (oy)  *)