When a little boy found out that his teacher was ill and needed money urgently, he took matters into his own hands and decided to bake biscuits to raise money for her treatment. He did not yet know what he would receive for his kind gesture.
Twelve-year-old Derek came from a wealthy family. His mother, Linda, owned a million-dollar cosmetics business, but his father, Henry, was a simple office manager, so Derek’s mother soon divorced him.
Linda believed that money meant power. Money could help her rule the world. Well, she wasn’t wrong. After the divorce, it was her money that helped her win the custody case against Derek in court, while her ex-husband had to limit himself to infrequent visits to his son.
Linda was always the one with the power. “You know your salary makes little difference in Derek’s life, Henry, so you have no right to judge what’s best for him,” she once said. “How about staying out of my son’s way?”
“Your son?” asked Henry. “Don’t forget, Linda, he’s my son too, and you know how much he’s like me. He’s considerate, responsive and generous. He’s not like you, and one day you’ll see for yourself!”
Linda grinned. “We’ll see about that, darling! We’ll see about that…”, Linda was sure that Derek would grow up to be just like her – rich, confident and self-sufficient – rather than a silly, good-natured man like Henry. But she was wrong.
Derek was a very kind and hard-working boy, just like his father. A brilliant pupil. Linda was proud of him. At every parent-teacher conference, she came out of class proud. What a wonderful child she had raised, despite her busy schedule! But Linda’s pride was shattered.
One day Derek’s favourite teacher, Mrs Lester, did not come to school. The substitute teacher wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t good either. Mrs Lester had her own way of making the subject fun and interesting and she never stopped teaching. ‘Is she ill? ‘Maybe,’ thought Derek.
But as the days and weeks went by, Derek became more and more worried. No teacher at school was telling the students what had happened to Mrs Lester. “You needn’t worry. She is on extended leave and we hope she will be back soon,” the substitute teacher told them.
Fortunately, Derek’s friends overheard the teachers talking a few days later and discovered that Mrs Lester was in serious trouble. Cancer, they heard the teachers say. Mrs Lester was undergoing chemotherapy but didn’t have enough money to pay for the treatment.
“She has two children – a son and a daughter – and her husband can’t pay the bills because he doesn’t have a good job. He is a lawyer who earns his living through public affairs. They say it doesn’t help him make much money,” a friend told him.
“That’s terrible!” thought Derek. She was his best teacher and his most beloved. Derek wanted to help her, but he couldn’t ask his mother for money because she would never help anyone. She hated giving handouts. And his father was going through difficulties after the divorce.
“What should I do?”, Derek lay in bed at night thinking about how he was going to save the life of his beloved teacher. He hardly had any money with him. But soon a thought struck him…
The next day, as soon as Derek got home from school, he put on his normal clothes and started baking biscuits. His grandmother showed him how to do it. After all, Linda was still busy at work.
“That should be enough for the day!” – he smiled, taking two huge trays of freshly baked biscuits out of the oven. He would put them to cool, then seal them in a jar and sit down in his garden to sell them.
A sign he hung outside his house said: ‘Buy a biscuit, save a life’. Kind neighbours came up to him, asked why he was doing it and bought the biscuits. But his idea didn’t turn out to be very profitable.
After a few weeks, he only had a few hundred dollars. ‘That won’t do much for Mrs Lester,’ he thought sadly. So Derek started baking more biscuits and selling them door to door.
Meanwhile, his grades began to fall and Linda got a call from his teacher, concerned that a student as bright as Derek was about to fail his exams.
Linda came home early that day, furious, and was shocked to see Derek selling biscuits. “What’s wrong with you, Derek? What are you doing?” she asked, stunned.
“Um… well, Mum, I’m just helping out my teacher,” Derek said quietly. “She’s sick and she needs money for treatment and I thought I could help her. Her family is in trouble.”
“You can’t be serious!” she asked. “If you keep this up, one day you’ll start selling biscuits for a living! I got a call from your teacher, well, he had some bad news about your grades at school, Derek. Throw everything in the bin and go back to your room! You won’t get dinner tonight if you don’t do your homework!”
“Mum…”, pleaded Derek, “how can you be so cold? Dad always told me to help those in need!”
“And look, Derek, where he is now. Money is what rules the world! You’re doing this nonsense biscuit business today because your teacher has no money. Well, you have to think of yourself first and then others! It will be sorted in ten minutes,” she added, pointing to the biscuits, and left.
Derek gave up. He could never disobey his mother. Even his father couldn’t. How could he?
The next day was Sunday and Derek slept in his room. His mother, thankfully, allowed him to wake up a little later on weekends. But that morning Derek’s sleep was disturbed by people cheering and exclaiming, “Hip, Hip, Hooray!”
“Er, please stop that. I want to sleep some more,” he grumbled, covering his ears with a pillow. But the sounds continued.
Finally, Derek got up and left his room to see where the noise was coming from. Suddenly the doorbell rang. Derek opened the door and saw a crowd gathered at the entrance.
“What’s all this about? What’s going on?”. The scene woke him up.
Linda was taking a shower at the time. “Who’s at the door, Derek?” – she shouted from the bathroom.
“Um… just a second, Mom!”
A man approached him and gave him his business card. He introduced himself as a journalist and said that he had seen him selling biscuits to help a sick teacher. “I asked around some neighbours and it was through them that I found out where you live. All these people have come to thank you for your kindness.”
“I’m sorry, but I didn’t deserve it…”, said Derek sadly, “I couldn’t help my teacher. The plan failed in a way. I only made a few hundred dollars and I never got to give it back to my teacher.”
“Oh no, you helped your teacher and she’s cured!” said the reporter. He then reported that several people had come forward to donate money for Mrs Lester by setting up a GoFundMe page.
“What is this? Who are you?”. Linda approached Derek from behind and was shocked to see the crowd on her doorstep early in the morning.
“Are you…”
“I’m his mother,” she said.
“I’d like to interview your son, ma’am,” the reporter said. “Derek is an inspiration to many children…”. He then told her how Derek’s humble beginnings had helped Mrs Lester.
Linda wept. For the first time, she realised that good deeds were more important than money.
“I’m sorry, son,” she said, hugging him. “I’m proud of what you’ve done. I’ll do my best to help Mrs Lester too!”.
Thanks to the money donated and Linda’s help, Mrs Lester was able to successfully continue her treatment. After a few months, she felt much better and soon cancer went into remission.
When she returned to school, she thanked Derek in front of the whole class for saving her life. “I will always be eternally grateful to you, Derek,” she said. “You’re a real angel!”
