Pass on a Dream

“Jeez, Theo, I know you’ve had a hard one, but don’t lay your head on the bar. I don’t remember what exactly makes it sticky, but I don’t think you’d want it on your forehead,” said Jim the bartender to the patron.

Theo slowly raises his head from the bar and takes another swig of his beer. The bar was pretty empty except for a couple guys playing darts in the corner, a man drinking alone at a table, along with Jim and Theo at the bar.

“Sorry, Jim, we just got news that they are making cuts again and it is the third one this year,” he said frustratingly.

“The kids will survive, won’t they? They have in the past.” Jim said as he cleaned a glass behind the bar.

“Yeah, but I am tired of the kids just surviving, I want to see them thrive,” Theo said as he takes another drink from his glass.

Right as he puts the glass back on the top, the door to the bar opens and a well dressed man walks in. Well tailored suit, swept back brown hair, and shoes so shiny that they lit up the room a little wherever they were pointed. He walks in with a smile on his face and plops down right next to Theo at the bar.

“Jim! My good man! Give me your best beer and bring out another with it! I am celebrating today!” said the man cheerily to Jim.

“Right, of course, Mr. Jackson. Give me a second,” Jim said as he set down the glass and headed to the back to find the beer.

As Mr. Jackson sat there, he took a look at Theo next to him.

“Hey there, young man, you look a little down, mind if I ask what is on your mind?”

“Sorry, I don’t even know you, don’t think it would be appropriate to talk to a stranger in a bar,” Theo said while taking another sip.

Jackson outstretched his hand to him.

“Raymond Jackson, Entrepreneur, and you?”

Theo put down the glass and looked at his hand. A little rough and callused, possibly from a lot of outdoor work, and very unexpected of the executive looking man before him. He put out his own hand and shook it.

“Theodore Ridley. Schoolteacher.” he said frankly, while shaking the man’s hand.

“Good, now we aren’t strangers, so Theo, what is on your mind?”

Theo takes a long look at the man and takes a deep breath.

“You want to know what’s wrong with me? What is on my mind? The way these kids are being taught, that is what is on my mind. They keep taking money away from the school and the kids keep paying the price.”

Jim comes back with two beers in hand, he pops the first and pours it into a fresh glass he places near Mr. Jackson, while he sets the other next to it. He motions toward Theo to see if he wants another one as well. Theo chugs the one in his hand, hands over the glass and nods to signal another.

“The thing is that these kids are smart, like really smart. I got a student who can code like you’ve never seen, but is stuck with computer that can barely boot without restarting itself in the process, so they just pull pranks using whatever is around. I got another who creates beautiful art, but they don’t have any art supplies to speak of, so all they do is doodle in their notebook and rarely pays attention in their classes. There are kids like this all over the school and they all have so much going for them and I want them to reach those heights,” Theo said, feeling like he just used one breath.

Jackson slowly sips on his drink, but listens intently to Theo and hangs on his every word.

“Why care though? These aren’t your kids, once they move on to the next grade or graduate, they become someone else’s problem. Why care about them so much?”

Jim puts another drink in front of Theo. He grabs and chugs it halfway down and turns back toward Jackson.

“Wrong. If I don’t care now, they become the world’s problem. These kids are supposed to be the ones that surpass us, make the world better, carry on better things into the future and discover new and amazing feats. The road they are on now, I barely see them keeping a job at all. Without a proper education of some kind, they will wind up on the streets or won’t be able to take care of themselves. They’ll let their dreams die and never actually try, take risks, or to better themselves in any way. I want to start that here, so by the time they are our age, they can do a lot better.”

Jackson continues to sip on his beer and looks at Theo.

“Do you know what I do for a living?”

“I don’t know? Spend money to make money?”

Jackson laughs.

“Sort of. When I was younger I had a dream to eradicate hunger from the world. I started growing food in my backyard, but saw it wasn’t enough. I started a community garden, sold the food, kept growing more food, built a company, expand into technology, and just today we finished a prototype of a 3-D printer that could be sold to people commercially, so that they can print edible food with the push of a button.”

Theo cocked his head a bit and gave a bit of smirk in a sarcastic manner.

“Wow, congrats, must feel great to accomplish something so exceptional.”

Jackson laughed again.

“Yeah, kind of, but I know it still isn’t enough. I plan to find a way to make the desert lands of Africa able to grow food, so there will be less people hungry there as well. I started all this about forty years ago and I am not even sure I will live to see the day when no one goes hungry, but that won’t stop me. Not till the day I leave this planet.”

Surprised at the statement, Theo really takes a good look at the man. He had heavy dark rings under his eyes, his skin was a bit wrinkled and he had a few strands of gray in his hair. The years really showed on the guy, in the way he looked and the way he spoke.

“So tell me, how would you improve education for these kids?”

Theo chugged the rest of his beer and went into it.

“Well first I would renovate the school, they need a proper place to study and learn. Stock the library, books they would need for their classes and far beyond so they could have more than they could ever need for classes, college, and job interviews. New textbooks, maybe tablets, for them all, new computers, supplies for the students and teachers...”

Theo went on like this for hours, drinking and talking with the man about all he would do to help the kids. The night marched on and the memory of it became a swirl of drinks, laughing, and talking as the next thing Theo knew he was in his bed the next day with a throbbing headache. Theo clutched his head trying to remember all that had happened and turned over toward the nightstand, hoping maybe to find a glass of water, but found something else. He found that there was a small black book on it, one he had no memory of having before. Curious, he reached over and began reading it to see where it might have come from or even the owner. It was filled with names and different little sentences next them. The earliest name was hard to read, but the writing next to it said:

Feed my family

he saw another name with a sentence that said

Get a good job

and another that said

Grow a good harvest

he continued to read and saw different little sentences as time went on. As he continued to read, he noticed how these proposed goals continued to grow in the kinds of things the people were asking for. Everything from getting a car to owning a house to owning a company. He continued reading until he reached one of the last written pages with two names and goals on it. The first read:

Raymond Jackson – Eradicate Hunger

Before Theo could read the next one, there was a knock on the door to his apartment. He put the book down and went to go see who it is. As he opened the door, he found a package on the ground with a note attached to it. He picked it up and found it pretty hefty. He read the note attached as he walked back to his room and it said:

Theo,

After last night, I think your dream is really worth pursuing. It seems like you have a pretty good plan of where you want to go and how you want to help. Putting it down on paper was the first step, the next is this.

Use it well and when it is time, and if it is the right dream, pass the book on.

Good Luck,

Jackson

Confused, Theo opens the package and in his hand was bunch of bills of money. Theo was awestruck at this site and began hurriedly counting each bundle. By the end, he had counted out twenty thousand dollars, more money than he had seen in his life. As he looked around at this large amount he had just received, his eyes darted back to the small black book that had been on his bed side. He placed the money on his bed and turned to the last page with Jackson’s and the other’s goal written it. He smiled as tears ran down his face as he read it:

Theodore Ridley – Better Education