JOEY'S LITTLE FRIEND SAM
Joey and Sam were friends. Joey was eight years ago old and Sam was four. Everyday Joey walked to school with Sam and then the two of them walked home together. Sam was a little bit different from most of the boys Joey knew. Sam didn't like to play sports or wrestle like a lot of other boys but he was really smart. He liked dinosaurs and insects and knew all sorts of things about them. Sam and Joey had fun pretending they were back in prehistoric times living with dinosaurs.
It was Thursday and school was finished for the day. Joey picked up his schoolbag and ran outside to meet Sam to walk home. As soon as he was outside though, Joey remembered, Sam wasn't in school today. Then Joey got this terrible feeling inside of him. Whenever Joey had thought about Sam today, he had felt the same uncomfortable feeling.
It had all started yesterday after school. After getting a snack at home, they agreed to go to the playground to pretend that they were palaeontologists and dig in the sand for dinosaur bones. When they got to the playground, Joey saw some older boys there getting ready to play ball. They came over to Joey.
“Hey Joey!” one of them called. “We need another person to play ball. You can be on my team.” Joey was really excited. These boys were cool and they had never asked Joey to play with them before. Joey wanted to play ball with them.
“Joey and Iare going to dig for bones in the sand,” said Sam. All the boys laughed when Sam said that. For the first time, Joey was embarrassed to be there with Sam.
“Come on Joey. Are you going to play ball with us or play in the sandbox with the baby?”
“Go ahead,” said Joey. “I'll be over in a minute.” When the boys walked away, Joey told Sam that he was going to play ball and would be back over in a few minutes.
Sam said, “Okay.” Joey could tell that he was almost ready to cry. Joey went and played ball with the other boys and he forgot all about Sam. When the game was finished, Joey went back over to the sand, but Sam was gone. That was the first time Joey felt that awful feeling inside himself.
The next morning Joey waited for Sam to walk to school with him, but Sam never came. Joey felt that sick feeling again. Every time he thought about Sam he felt uncomfortable. He was sure that Sam wasn't in school because of him. When Joey got home his mother made him a snack, but Joey didn't feel like eating. “I think I'm sick,” said Joey.
“What's wrong?” asked his mum. “Did something happen at school?”
“Sam wasn't at school. I think it's because of me,” said Joey.
“Tell me about it,” said his mother. So, Joey told his mother what had happened at the playground and about the sick feeling he had had all day.
His mother listened and then said, “I think you're feeling guilty.”
“Guilty?” asked Joey.
“Yes,” his mother said. “Guilty is the feeling you get when you think that you did something that you shouldn't have done. What do you think you did that you don't think was right?” Joey thought about it for a minute.
“I think that Ishouldn't have left Sam to play ball.”
“Why?” asked his mother.
Joey thought some more.”I made him feel upset and unwanted,” he said.
“What do you think you could do to make Sam feel better?” asked his mother. Joey thought about this for a long time. Then he decided that he knew just what to do. He asked if he could go to Sam's house. His mother smiled and told him she thought that was a good idea.
Sam came to the door when Joey knocked. “Hi,” said Joey, “were you sick today?”
“No, I had to go to the dentist,” said Sam.
“I'm sorry,” said Joey.
“Why?” asked Sam.
“I'm sorry that I left you to play ball, instead of hunting for dinosaur bones with you. Do you want to go dig for bones now?” asked Joey.
“No, I'm going to watch TV and have some popcorn. Do you want to watch with me?” asked Sam.
“Sure!” said Joey. They watched TV, ate popcorn and had a good time together. Joey felt better because he could tell Sam had accepted his apology and he didn't need to feel guilty anymore.
© 2008 Carol A. Kusché, Ph.D. and MarkT. Greenberg, Ph.D. These materials are a cultural adaptation by Barnardo's of the PATHS· curriculum which is published distributed under licence from Mark Greenberg, Carol Kusché and Channing Bete Company, Inc.