I put Sharla, Tony, and Lee together to make a volcano (火山). I knew they weren’t good friends, and I encouraged all my students to learn to work together.

Something blew up! One looked mad, one looked sad, and one was nearly in tears. They didn’t agree with each other. Oh, dear!

I calmed them down. But they couldn’t agree on even the base for the volcano, and Tony didn’t want to touch the paste (浆糊).

I wondered if I had made a big mistake. Maybe this was one group who couldn’t work together.

Yesterday, Mrs. Holt made us stay behind so we could finish planning our volcano. Anyway, we finally moved ahead with our project.

I was making my side smooth. Tony just watched (unfair). I told Lee to smooth out her side, too. “No, Sharla, it should look like a real mountain,” she said just as if she were the boss. As a result of the whole thing going downhill, we ended up making no progress the whole day.

The last workday for the project came.

“Is there a problem?” Mrs. Holt knew well there was a problem. She wanted them to put it in their own words, though.

“Well, I think the volcano should be smooth.” Sharla began.

“And,” jumped in Lee, “it should look rocky, like a real mountain.”

“I see. What do you think, Tony?” Mrs. Holt waited.

“Well, I think it would have lava (岩浆) running down.”

“Hey, a great idea!” cut in Sharla, “The lava would be smooth. Right Mrs. Holt?”

Sharla continued. “The other side without lava would look rocky. Right?”

Tony caught on. “So one side can be smooth, and the other rocky. Come on, you guys, let’s go finish!”

It was the show time._______________

It was the last day of the month-long summer camp. All the camp leaders and volunteers were preparing for the grand wrap-up event that evening. Some were setting up chairs and tables outside; some were preparing water balloons for games we would play later; and some were cutting fruits and veggies for snacks.

One of the leaders, George, came to me, handed me a small broom and a dustpan, and asked me to sweep the gym. Alone. While the others were chatting and laughing outside. While the gym was dusty and stuffy (不通风的) after weeks of camp and crafts.

I didn’t have a choice. I was sixteen, and George was my elder. I was a staff member at camp, and George was my employer. I put on as cheerful a face as I could and began to sweep the floor of the gymnasium.

Every time I made a decent (合宜的) pile of dust and scraps (残羹剩饭) to push into the dustpan, I had a nice little part of the gym cleared. But I would look up and see the rest of the gym and realize how big the job was. The whole situation felt so unfair.

I wasn’t really happy then. I’m not proud of it, but I was angry as well. I could hear the sounds of people talking, laughing, and generally having a great time outside. There was silence in the gym, except for my sweep, sweep, sweep.

During a break between sweeps, I looked up. George was quietly and matter-of-factly moving the speakers and cleaning the stage at the front of the gym. I noticed he worked alone as well. He didn’t seem particularly excited about what he was doing, but I noted the calmness and joy in his eyes as he went about his work, doing what had to be done because he was there and he was able to do it.

I watched him silently for the next ten minutes.

“Thanks, Laura.” he said and nodded as if acknowledging the small sacrifice I had made.