Alina in Hospital
By Zdenek Rotrekl
It is the summer holiday. Alina is at her grandmother’s. She likes it there. Her grandmother has chickens, rabbits, cats, and a dog. Alina feeds the animals every day.
Alina doesn’t like only one thing about her grandmother: she has to pray every day. The prayers seem very long to Alina. One hot afternoon, someone knocks on the door. Alina opens the door. There stands a young man. He is wearing old and dirty clothes. He looks like a homeless person.
“Please, could you give me a glass of water?” the man asks.
“Granny, there is a man, and he wants a glass of water,” Alina shouts. She is afraid. She doesn’t like the man.
Grandmother comes to the door.
“Hello, please come in.”
Alina is not happy. She doesn’t want the man in their house. He looks poor.
“Please, sit down. Can I give you a glass of milk and bread with butter?”
“Yes, please. Thank you,” the man answers happily.
“Do you want to have a shower?” Grandma asks.
“May I?” the man asks.
“Certainly.”
The man has a shower and leaves the house with more bread and some meat. Alina doesn’t like the man.
Twenty-five years later:
Alina is married. She has two children and a nice husband.
But she is not happy. She is ill. She has to stay in hospital. She has cancer.
She gets better, and the doctors are happy. But Alina is worried. Hospitals are expensive in the USA, and she is not rich.
She can go home. She goes to the hospital office.
A nurse smiles at her and gives her an envelope. Alina feels sick. There is the bill she must pay. She opens the envelope:
Dear Mrs Smith,
My name is Dr David Powell. I paid all your bills in the hospital because many years ago you and your grandma gave me a glass of milk and bread.
Thank you,
Dr David Powell
One gives freely, yet grows all the richer (Proverbs 11:24)
