(Click here to read Part I and Part II of this children’s story. And now the conclusion…)

The boy with the board in his eye thought for a moment.  The doctor’s voice was clear and kind.  It made the little boy feel important and comfortable, and so he decided that he would indeed begin the treatment.  So the next day, the boy with the board in his eye went back to the doctor’s office.  And he went the next day and the next day and the day after that.

Each day the boy and the doctor would go out into Normalville and do the things that they boy always did.  They would go to eat hamburgers and to the movies.  They would shoot baskets and play on the playground.  Then the two would have a long talk together.  The little boy would tell the doctor about his life and how he felt each day, and the doctor would tell the boy how he loved being with him.  In fact, they hardly ever talked about the board in the boy’s eye.  Most of the time, the doctor would listen, but then he would always talk about how important the little boy was and how good he was at shooting baskets and how he loved it when he sang in the car.  And everyday, at the end of their meeting, the doctor would say, “I’m proud of you.”  Slowly the little boy forgot why he first went to see the doctor.  He seldom thought about the board in his eye.  And little by little, he even stopped noticing the things in other people that made them not-so-normal.

One day the boy with the board in his eye and the doctor were walking together when up walked another boy.  The new boy seemed to be very normal except for one thing.  He, too, had a board in his eye.  In fact, it was a very large board.  The new boy stopped and pointed at the two.  He laughed and in a mean voice said, “What’s the matter with your eye?  That is so weird!  How can you see with that thing in there?”  Then the boy laughed again and walked away.

The boy with the board in his eye paused for a moment.  Then he lifted his hand up to his left eye and was very surprised at what he found.  He ran his fingers over his left eye, and then again, and then once more.  Finally his fingertips ran across a small, thin nub very close to his eye.  He blinked in disbelief.  The board had shrunk!  In fact, it was hardly a board any more at all!  It was more like a splinter or a speck!  He looked up at the doctor because he was very confused.  The boy had not had any surgery or taken any pills or even used a circular saw.  In fact, all he had done was to spend time with Dr. Josephson and listened to him tell the little boy how special he was.

Dr. Josephson smiled at the boy with the speck in his eye and said, “I know what you are thinking.  But I told you this was a very strange kind of wood.  It cannot be removed with a saw or by pulling on it hard enough.  In fact, it can only be removed when you begin to believe the things that I say about you.”  The boy with the speck in his eye stood still for a moment thinking about what the doctor had said.  Then suddenly he said, “Doctor, I have to find that little boy with the board in his eye!  I have something to tell him!”

“Oh yes,” said Dr. Josephson, “I suppose you do.  Now that you look so much more normal you can very easily tell him how awfully funny the board in his eye looks.”

“But that’s not it at all!” replied the little boy.  “I don’t want to talk to him about his board; I want to tell him all the things that you have told me!  See you later!”  And the boy with the speck in his eye turned to run away.  But then he turned back to the doctor and said, “How do you know so much about wood anyway?”

The doctor smiled and said, “Well, before I went to medical school, I was a carpenter.”  Then the doctor turned to walk away, too, and felt very happy for the boy with the speck in his eye, for he knew that finally his disease had been cured.  He knew too that things in Normalville might actually start to be normal after all.