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Chapter 16 continued...

XL decided that he would let Derek use his toy gun. His parents often told him that it was good to share. "Every child deserves the opportunity to play, to have enough food, clothing and shelter, and to have an education," his mom had said. So it seemed that the best choice would be for him to show some generosity and share his own toy.

"O.K., we can all use these guns, if Derek wants to play disk shooting too," said XL.

"I don't know," said Derek. "I think a Frisbee is better for playing outside. It can be thrown a lot further. But I'll try it once, if you like."

Beeba set up a cardboard box for a target, about 10 meters away. He aimed carefully and shot his gun. The disk spun directly toward it, but dropped to the ground about a meter short of the target.

"My gun will shoot further," said XL. He pointed carefully and fired. The disk flew to the right of the target and landed a few meters further back.

"Hah, it does no good to have a longer shot if you can't aim," exclaimed Beeba.

"I'll show you how to make a disk fly straight and long," said Derek.

"O.K.," said XL, handing his gun to Derek.

Derek took the gun in his hand, raising it above his head. Then with a mighty swing of his arm, he flung the gun at the target, hitting it. "See," he said, "I win. The gun has 20 disks, and I hit the target with all of them."

However, the gun had smashed when it hit the ground. XL ran up to his gun, and he saw that the plastic body of the gun was broken in half. It was not designed for that kind of treatment. That gun was a birthday present. He had been very happy when he received it, and he didn't have enough money saved in his allowance to buy another one.

Derek could see that XL was upset. "Oh, come on," he said to XL. "Don't worry. Your old man will buy you another one. My parents always replace my stuff when I break it."

But XL knew that his own parents wouldn't do that. Under the circumstances they might pay part, but he would certainly have to contribute, and to save up his allowance to do it.

"No wonder Derek gets into fights with other kids," thought XL to himself. "The way he acts, he invites conflict." But XL decided that fighting wouldn't solve the problem. However, he didn't have to play with Derek.

"I don't want to play anymore," he said. XL picked up the pieces. "I'll go home and see if I can glue it together."

"Maybe every child deserves the right to play," thought XL, "but not necessarily the right to have toys and break them. There are some things that are privileges rather than rights. For a privilege, a person has to be worthy."

"Even for a right, a person can lose it," XL realized. "Each person has a right to travel freely, but criminals lose that right when they are put in jail. When one person doesn't respect the rights of other people, he loses some of his own rights."

Beeba was left with Derek, and he didn't know what to do. "I don't think I want to play anymore either" he said to Derek. "It's not fun with only one gun."

"O.K., bye," said Derek, as he headed back to his home. "Darn," he thought to himself, "now I'll be bored. It's no fun to play alone."

Apparently not every child deserves the opportunity to play, at least not that afternoon.

Copyright Arthur de Leyssac, 2017. All rights reserved.