Unspoken Language

A Test of Human Kindness

A little boy stood on the edge of a dock by a long, curvy river. Two boats headed his way. The boy was ready to begin his test of human kindness.

As the first boat approached, he smiled as wide as he could and waved his hand to say hello. Not a single soul on the first boat waved back. Each passenger looked askance at one another. In an unspoken language, they decided not to act, to look at a small boy waving from the dock and do nothing, to continue their conversations as if the boy on the edge of the dock were invisible.

Then a second boat came. Again, the boy smiled from ear to ear and raised his hand up to wave. Multiple people waved back. They waved with broad smiles dawning across their lips. A different spirit coursed through their veins. They spoke a different unspoken language.

A story by Pemba Umoja