WHAT 5-MINUTES-LATE MEANS

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE 5 MINUTES LATE

Joe wakes up at 5 AM every day. He is always ready to leave home at 6 A.M. On this day he left five minutes later. He strolled down to the school van and warmed it up in preparation for his daily pick up. There were ten children on his route. He pulled out of the parking lot 10 minutes later. By the time he arrived at his first pick up, he was 10 minutes late. David looked up at him with tears in his eyes and said, "My mom left me to go back home to look after my little sister".  At the second pick up the father glared at him as he said, "have a nice day" to his daughter. Usually Joe got a "have a nice day" from this dad too, but not today.

Three blocks away a discussion was going on in a parked vehicle as the couple decided who was going to wait for the van that takes junior to school. One of them would have to be late for work. When Joe picked up his next victim six blocks away, the cab driver rushed off at such as speed the that Joe decided that he could not be Daisy's father. When all the children were in, Joe drove comfortably to the school lane and dropped off the children five minutes to the bell.  They were not late for school, but they usually arrived in school half an hour earlier.

That day Daisy threw a tantrum in school and would not eat her break. She said she never got to say bye to her dad. Her father missed the ferry and got the next one that comes one hour later and got to work at 10 o'clock. The couple in the car had temporary jobs so when the mother came in late to work, she was fired and had to walk home.  Later that day the school headmaster got phone calls from three angry parents. When the headmaster called Joe into his office to talk about the matter, all Joe could say was, "Boss, I don't see what all the fuss is about. I just woke up five minutes late". That night when David's mother asked him why he hit his little sister, whom he loved very much, he said, "these days she gets too much attention".

Allan