An Evening Walk

The fading light of a late summer day cast shadows across the beach. Two figures, a little boy and a young man, walk along the edge of the water. They walked in silence with only the sound of the waves.

The little boy looked up at the man and smiled.

“This is the best birthday ever. I’m five whole years old. I’m a big boy now.”

“Yes Billy, you are growing up fast.”

They walk farther in the fading light.

“Dad, what will I be when I grow all the way up?”

“What do you want to be? A doctor? A lawyer? A teacher? A scientist?”

“A scientist!” Billy said with conviction.

They stopped while Billy picked up a pebble. He spun around and let it fly a few feet before it plopped into the water.

“Dad, what does a scientist do?”

His father thought for a moment. “They do all kinds of things. Mostly they discover things.”

Billy said, “I’m going to make a big discovery!”

He proceeds to hunt for things as they walk along the beach. He finds a small object and runs to his father with it shouting His father congratulates him on his big discovery.]

Billy started hunting for things as they walked along.

Suddenly he stopped and pointed, “Here’s my big discovery!”

Billy and his father picked up Billy’s discovery and they started to walk back.

The Cabin by the Beach

Outside it was dark, but in the cabin, a little oil lamb cast a flickering light throughout the room. Under Billy’s watchful eye, his mother carefully placed his discovery into a box.

She wrote “Billy’s Big Discovery” on the side of the box. Then she carefully tided a string around the box so it would be safe.

“Now its time for our great scientist to go to bed.”

Billy frowned, but then smiled at his mother as she took him to his room.

Sixty Years Later

The nameplate said, “Prof. William Paul Johnson”, but someone had taped a slip of paper above it saying “Dr. Billy”. The old man smiled, then took out the screwdriver he brought from home and took down the nameplate. He hesitated, and then took the slip of paper too.