Walking in Another Man's Shoes

A concept brought up in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch states "you never really knew a man until you stood in his shoes and walked around in them"

So to carry on the tale from where I left off, my illustrious sandwich scheme was stopped by none other than my worst enemy, The Pakistani Ambassador's Son. He saw it, told his mother, who told my mother and the rest is history.

Now this guy was someone I used to hate, he was the bad guy, always doing petty things like that. My view of him stayed this way until I was forced to walk around in his shoes. Due to negotiations between our mothers, I had to go to his house for an evening. Neither of us was really looking forward to that, at least that's what I thought.

But when I got there this guy was super enthusiastic. He's like "Come Come! Quickly" as soon as his mother is gone. We run in to the closet under the stairs (sounds dirty I know!) but this is where the house food hoard is kept (stacks of soft drink cans, chocolates etc) was and he quickly offers me a drink.

I'm like that's a bit fast... but ok. He starts gulping down his one like a madman. Once's he's done he grabs another one and hands it to me whilst grabbing another for himself. I'm like "dude what's wrong with you?". He doesn't say anything but quickly pulls the ring with the snap-hiss and starts gulping.

He doesn't get very fast. "MAAAYHAAARRRR.... WHERE ARE YOU?" his mother bellows. He freezes, but says nothing. We stay still in the cupboard. It's very quiet. He quietly keeps drinking. A few seconds later the door of the closet flies open. I can't remember the rest properly, but I'm remember my visit was over and I was swiftly exiled from the premises, never to return again.

I soon realized that while I got to get to my own drink hoard whenever I wanted to, this guy was denied everything by his mother. It became clear that he wasn't the bad guy, his mother was.

Another time we had an assignment where we had to trace our own shadows on to a cardboard sheet. I remember it was a pain in the ass, requiring my brother's assistance, and we got a good silhouette. This guy, Mayhar comes in with some hand drawn cartoon shadow with a super long nose and bald head... which made him the laughing stock of the entire class. He didn't have any brothers or sisters, and probably an absent father, so I guess either he drew it himself, or his mother did to spite him.

Those days I summed up his mother was the bad guy... but really there is no such thing. I'm pretty sure she had her own experiences in life that made her that way... nothing is ever so simple.