Click here for Part 1 to this children’s story.

One day as the boy with the board in his eye was making his daily list of people to find and point out their “unnormalness”, he heard an ad on the radio:  “Have you ever felt out of place?  Have you ever thought that you don’t really fit in?  Have you ever wished that you could be normal?  Then make an appointment with Dr. Josephson – a specialist in the art of the normal.  Also specializing in eye disorders.”  Right then, the boy with the board in his eye made an appointment with Dr. Josephson.

As the little boy walked into the doctor’s office, he noticed the strange pictures on the wall.  The people in the pictures were the most un-normal people he had ever seen, which is saying a lot since he had become an expert by this time at finding the things about everyone that made the un-normal.  The things that made the people so un-normal were easy to see: some were blind, others had diseases, others were in wheelchairs, and others were so poor they wore only rags.  But despite all these un-normal things, they all looked very happy.

About that time, a voice came over the loud-speaker: “The Boy-With-A-Board-In-His-Eye, the doctor will see you now, The-Boy-With-A-Board-In-His-Eye.”

As the little boy waited in the room for Dr. Josephson, he thought more about the pictures.  “There must be some mistake.  I thought this Dr. would make me normal.  I have come to the wrong place.”  Just about the time that he was about to sneak out (with his head turned sideways so as to not attract attention) the doctor came in.

“Allright,” the little boy thought to himself, “I will sit here and listen, but it will only be so that I can find the thing that makes you un-normal.”  So as the doctor began to talk, the boy with the board in his eye scanned him up and down, trying to find something wrong with him.

As the doctor talked about little things, like the weather this time of year and how well the Normalville Rockets were doing in hockey, the boy looked for something un-normal about him.  But he could not find anything.  Everything was absolutely normal about the doctor.  In fact, it was better than normal.  It was just right.  And suddenly the little boy became very ashamed of the board in his eye.  He began to look down and away from the doctor’s eyes.  After all, who better to notice how un-normal his board was than someone who was so perfectly normal?

The doctor noticed the little boy look away and so he asked, “What is the matter, little boy?”  The boy thought long and hard before he answered.  He thought about making something up about having an upset stomach, but somehow he knew that the doctor already knew the truth.  So he simply said, “I am ashamed of my board.  I know how ugly and funny looking it is.  I only want one thing in my life and that is for it to go away.  I thought that you could help me, but now, after seeing the pictures, I am so afraid that I will have this board in my eye for the rest of my life.”  And then the little boy cried.  He cried very much – more than he had ever cried before.  He cried so much in fact that the smell of wet wood filled the room.

Finally, the little boy looked up at the doctor.  He was surprised to see that the doctor’s eyes were big and red, too, because he had also been crying.  The doctor leaned down and put his hands on the sides of the little boy’s face and said, “Brother, it is true that you will always have this eye problem.  It will be with you for the rest of your life.  However, there is something interesting about this sort of wood.  It is not normal wood at all; this type of wood gets bigger and smaller, almost on a daily basis.  Fortunately for you, I am well experienced with this disease and have seen many people in my office with boards in their eyes.  The treatment for this disease is simple and can begin immediately.  You must agree to meet with me every day for the next many months, and I guarantee that the board will decrease in size.”

(Click here for the third and final installment)