Unexpected Hero

Day 360

Sometimes it’s nice to be the hero.   

I order seven large pizzas for lunch for F.’s second grade class expecting each child to eat two slices.  Some do but many don’t.  Everyone finishes lunch and I still have one large pizza left over. 

“Take it home,” suggests the teacher.  She knows I have three boys and three bottomless stomachs. 

“How about the custodial staff?  Do you think they’d like pizza?” 

She agrees they would and I box up the remaining pie and head downstairs. 

To get to the custodial office, I cut through the cafeteria.  My timing couldn’t be more perfect.  I’s class enters as I do and he waves hello. 

“You brought me pizza?” his eyes light up in surprise.  We’ve been having a rough few days.  Life is hard when you’re ten and your mom keeps telling you what to do. 

“Would you like pizza?” I ask.  I think of the packed lunch in his hand of sliced oranges and a turkey sandwich. 

“Yeah!” he grins. 

Luckily, along with the pizza box, I also carry a stack of plates.  I pile two large slices and hand them to my child. 

“Lucky!” shouts a friend from the other side of a lunch table.  No, I think.  I’m lucky.  I have this great kid and I happen to walk through the lunchroom during his assigned time with a large cheese pizza.  What are the chances?    

“Hey,” I mock whisper to I. and he steps closer.  “Have a great day, okay?”

My friend and I continue our trek to the custodians to deliver the pizza. 

“You are a hero!” she jokes. 

For parents, our status of cool to drool drops faster than a lead balloon.  

Hero?  Hardly.  But if he wants to believe it for the next five minutes, I'll happily let him.