Jonathan, a deaf and mute eleven-year-old, was just taking his regular evening stroll around the serene park in the green town of Saratoga. He trailed his hand across the fence separating the basketball court from the park and felt something vibrate his hand. He looked at the fence and saw a group of boys playing basketball. Fascinated by their game, he found a spot near the court and sat on the bench to watch the game.

“Yo Dave, pass the ball here!”, said one of the boys. The boy had an eager and confident look on his face, as though he was sure he would make it into the hoop.
The kid with the ball replied, “Comin’ right to you, Jordan,” throwing the ball high up in the air so that the opponents could not catch the ball.
Unfortunately, one of the opponents intercepted the ball, but as he did so, the ball slipped and flew out of the court towards Jonathan. Jonathan covered his head, afraid that the ball was going to fall on him. The ball fell one foot in front of him and Jonathan slowly opened his eyes to check if the ball had landed without hurting him.
He picked up the ball and examined it for a few seconds. As he turned the ball he noticed something written with white ink on top of the bolded word “Spalding”. He scrutinized the white ink for a good thirty seconds, and he recognized his favorite basketball player’s signature! It was the signature of the LeBron James! Jonathan was overcome with joy and could not take his eyes off the signature on the ball.
Suddenly, a thought came across his mind. I had always wanted a basketball signed by LeBron James, and now it has fallen right into my hands! Why lose this opportunity to own such a special ball and give it back to those boys?
Jonathan took the ball and silently walked away from the basketball court. He cut across the grass in the direction of his house. Meanwhile the boys rushed out of the court to look for their ball. As they look around the park, they notice Jonathan dribbling a basketball on the sidewalk on the other side of the grass field. Suspecting that he had their ball, they ran towards him and shout out at Jonathan for the ball.

“ Hey dude, is that your ball you’re dribblin’ there?”
Jonathan had not heard a single thing. Dave shouted again.
“Hey can we have a look at that ball for a second?”

There was still no response.
Now Dave got irritated and came in front of Jonathan. He snapped his fingers across Jonathan’s face and pointed at the ball. Jonathan started to panic as he knew he stole the ball from the boys. His face turned red and he turned his back towards the boys and started walking in the other direction. He was then stopped by another one of the boys. Jonathan closed his eyes and thought about what he needed to do next.
This ball means a lot to me and them, but I want to keep it. I am just going to have to escape with the ball.
Jonathan opened his eyes and found a path in front of him to get away from these boys. He takes a deep breath and started walking fast, avoiding eye contact with the boys and anyone else around him. As he picked up pace and began to run. As he reached the bushes near the entrance of the park, his hands were suddenly grabbed from behind.
Jordan ran angrily towards him and tackled him to the ground. Jonathan fell onto the ground with a thud and wailed in pain. Jordan grabbed the ball from him and flung it across the field to the boys. He pinned Jonathan to the ground and started to strangle him.

“Get him hard bro!” his friends encouraged.
“Yea, he deserves it all!”
“Punch him with all the force you’ve got!”

He punched Jonathan on his face really hard until his eyes turned black and swollen. Another boy ran over and kicked Jonathan in the stomach. Before Jonathan could get up and find help, the boys held him tight and covered his mouth. They thought he would shout out loudly and catch the attention of other people in the park, as they had no idea he was mute and deaf. The boys then came back to reality, and became aware of the fact that if anybody saw Jonathan all beaten up and bruised, they will get into really big trouble. The last thing they wanted was to be sentenced to juvenile hall for this horrendous act. Jordan told all his friends to help him push Jonathan behind the bushes.

“You get the legs, and I’ll get the hands. Hide him behind the bushes,” he ordered.
“Aye Aye Captain!” replied Dave.

Jonathan could not even attempt to pry free of their grips, as his body compared to those of the boys was as frail and weak as a deer to a lion.

The boys moved him just in time, and when Jonathan was out of sight behind the bushes, a lady came and asked them, “Hey boys! Just what are you doing there?”
Dave quickly retorted, “None of your business!”
Then Jordan told the boy to calm down, and nicely told the lady, “Oh, we were just … looking for our basketball we lost somewhere here.”
“Okay,” said the lady, “but tell your little brat of a friend there not be disrespectful to his elders!”
“Phew! That was a close one!” exclaimed one of the boys.
“You fool! Why were you so disrespectful to that lady? If you had insulted her more, she would have become suspicious, and she would have looked behind the bushes! You know that if anybody comes to see us next the bush, and if they also see this boy all beaten up, then they are going to know that we beat him up.”
“I am sorry. I just got a little agitated because I thought she was going to look behind the bushes, so I just tried to shoo her away,” replied the boy who had disrespected the lady.
“Anyways,” said Jordan, “we need to get out of here before anybody else comes and suspects us. Let’s just go back to our homes, and I’ll take the ball home. And everybody remember, do not tell a soul about what happened.”

After several minutes, Jonathan felt something wet and moist brush across his bruised cheek. He faintly opened his eyes and saw a cute chocolate lab panting over him and licking his face. Jonathan looked around to see who owned this dog. He saw a man walking over to him.

“Hey little guy, are you okay?” Jonathan tried to move and get up but he had absolutely energy and strength to even budge an inch. “Ahhh”, he grunte in pain. The man helped Jonathan get up, seeing how serious his condition was. He saw the Jonathan’s bruised face, and wanted to make sure he got back home safely.

“Roger, come here buddy,”  he calls to his dog. “Here’s a treat for finding this kid.” The dog happily jumped up for his treat and wagged his tail. “Good boy! Now go fetch the water bottle!”

Roger raced to the man’s bag, fished out the water bottle, and brought it to the man. The man took some water in his hands and sprinkled it on Jonathan. He shook him up a little bit and checked if he was breathing normally.
“What’s your name, kid?”
Jonathan tried to show some signs in his hands and made some small sounds to tell the man his name.

“What? I didn’t get that. Can you tell me again?” By now Jonathan was extremely weak and unable to move any part of his body. The man realized the boy was not in a state to speak or explain anything.
  “Oh never mind,” he said. “Let’s first get you home and also find some first aid help.”
The man held onto to Jonathan and noticed that there was a number written on his wristband. It read “I love Mom: (408) - 755 - 3892”.
He took out his phone and quickly dialed the number.

A female voice picked up the phone. “Hello, who is this?” she asked.
“Hello this is Bryan, and I found this boy in the park and he looks really hurt. I found this number on his wristband.  It also says… uh… ‘I love Mom’?”

“That’s my son’s wristband! What happened to him!?” Jonathan’s mom sounded worried.
“I don’t know what happened. We need to get him to the hospital first.”
“Okay, can I text my address to this number?”
“Yes, absolutely. Please hurry! I don’t think your son is in a very good condition.”

Once the man came his house, he placed Roger in the trunk of his car, carefully helped Jonathan into the backseat, and buckled him up. The man got into the car, and rushed his way to the address Jonathan’s mother had texted him. After a full three minutes they reached Jonathan’s house. His mother was waiting at the door, with nothing but anxiety on her face.

“Hey, I forgot to ask. What is your name?”
“Charlotte Smith. What’s yours again?”
“I’m Bryan Hanson.” 
“Thank you so much, Bryan! Now I know that there are still good samaritans in the world.”
“No problem. Should I call your husband and tell him to come to the hospital?”
“Um, actually my husband died in a fire three years ago. Jonathan is deaf and mute so he was never able express his emotions as clearly. So ever since then, he has been really attached to me and he has been trying to divert his mind by playing basketball. ”
“Oh…I am very sorry to hear that. My wife passed away in a major car accident. She was driving properly, and a man was trying to rush before the red light came on the traffic signal, but he was too late, and my wife's car rammed into the other car’s gas tank, setting fire to both her car and the other car.
“Wow. Both of us have faced such great losses.” Charlotte began to feel more connected and safe to be with Bryan.
“Yeah, I better take your son to the hospital now, Charlotte. I will call you when I have the results.”
“Okay, Thank you again,” Charlotte said smiling.

Bryan drove Jonathan quickly to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. He put him on a wheelchair and rushed him near  the emergency room and saw a group of nurses walking by.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” Bryan called out to one of the nurses. “We have an emergency here. This child has been badly crippled by someone. We need to take care of him right away.”
The nurse took Jonathan into the emergency room and asked Bryan to wait outside. He sat for two hours and waited patiently for the doctor to tell him the results. The door creaked open and Bryan got up when he saw the doctor coming out with his examination papers.
“Hello Doctor, so how is Jonathan doing?” Bryan’s face was concerned.
“Mr. Hanson, I extremely sorry to say this, but Jonathan will not live too long. His liver and kidney have been completely damaged. Some of his bones have been broken, and … he is not breathing regularly anymore. ”
Bryan was struck with shock. An image of the boy’s crippled body came across his mind. How am I going to tell Charlotte this, he thought to himself. He dialed the number from before, and Charlotte picked up and with a hint of tension in her voice, she asked, “Hey Bryan. Is he okay? He will get better, right?”
As Charlotte was talking, all that was going on in Bryan’s head was the echoing voice of the doctor saying, “Jonathan will not live too long. Jonathan will not live too long. Jonathan will not live too long.”
When Bryan snapped out of his trance, with tears in eyes, he told Charlotte, “The doctor said…Jonathan is not going to live for long.”
Charlotte came into the hospital and found Bryan on the seat outside the emergency room. She ran over to him and asked him where the room was. Bryan pointed to his right, where there was a room half open. She went inside the room and saw her son covered in tubes and his mouth covered with an oxygen mask. Charlotte could no longer hold back her tears.

“Why did this have to happen to my son,” she cried. “What did he do to deserve this?”

She came closer to Jonathan and brushed her fingers across his hair. Jonathan opened his eyes slightly and saw his mother. His eyes welled up with water and he slowly lifted his hand. Charlotte knew he was trying to say something.
“ Jon, my baby!”
Bryan entered the room and stood by Charlotte and watched Jonathan tell something in sign language.
“ He says ‘I love you mom’.” Charlotte held on tightly to Jonathan’s hand.
Jonathan looked at Bryan, and smiled slightly. He made another sign with his hands. Charlotte understood what Jonathan was telling Bryan.
“ He is thanking you for taking care of him and comforting me in the process.”
Bryan was overcome with emotion for this child and came closer to him. “Don’t worry Jonathan, I will always be there for you and your mother.”
Jonathan smiled again and closed his eyes again. He and he held on to his mother, took two deep breaths... and took his last breath.