Sammy looked up at Derek, and nodded slowly. He turned over his picture and wrote: I thot if he got calld an no name, he wood go away an not com bak.
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Sammy looked up at Derek, and nodded slowly. He turned over his picture and wrote: I thot if he got calld an no name, he wood go away an not com bak.
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"So, you tried to keep anyone from being hurt. Isn't that right?" Derek asks in a friendly voice.
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Alicia's coloring is not going as well as she would like. She can't seem to stay in the lines. She scowls at the paper, and crunches it into a tiny ball, and starts again.
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Derek puts a supportive hand on Samuel's shoulder. "And I'm guessing that he got really mad and probably made threats and tried to scare you into naming a name. Am I right about that?"
He notices Alicia's consternation and feels bad about his part in that, but stays focused on Samuel.
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Sam shakes his head no.
He wrote: I think he only nos 4 words.
Sammy drew a thought bubble like in the comics, and wrote in it: Giv me a name.
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Derek stops himself from laughing at Samuel's comment about the Bag Man's lack of conversational ability. "The important thing is, you didn't do that. You did the right thing instead, and by doing that, you kept him from hurting someone else. That's a brave thing to do."
Looking again at what Samuel has written, Derek has some questions. "How did you know about him in the first place, and know how to call him?"
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Samuel looked at Derek. He was sharp at picking things up, and he could tell Derek was amused about something. He looked again at his words. Maybe his spelling was bad? It was hard to tell with grown-ups. He certainly hadn't meant for anything to be funny.
Sam took up his pencil again, and laboriously wrote:
Streeet kids sed a girl wuz talkin abowt her sister gitting rid of probelems by callin the bag man. They told me how she said to call him. I thot it was jest a storee to scaar me, but then lots of kids wer missin and my mom wodnt let me play outsid. An I thot maybee the bag man did it.
The strain of writing so much was starting to wear on the child. Derek noticed that his writing hand had started to develop a tremor.
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Noticing Samuel getting tired, Derek says "So, you wanted to stop the Bag Man from taking more kids. That's very brave, Sam.
"I'd lke to hear more about this girl and her sister some time. We want to make sure the Bag Man can't keep taking people, and you can help us with that, but telling us those things. But that can wait for later."
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Sam nodded, and put away his paper and crayons. Mr. Derek thinks I'm brave! He felt very proud, and was definitely tired.
He also felt vaguely unsettled, in a way that his eight-year-old's mind was not able to comprehend. Sam took his pajamas to the bathroom, and emerged dressed for sleep. Taking the cue, Alicia turned off her Ipod and cleared away her crayons.
I made you a present! she said, handing a colorful drawing to Derek. It was a picture of three figures. One was a brown-eyed man whose clothing seemed to be covered with green spots, one looked an awfully lot like Chewbacca, and one looked witch-like, with claws instead of hands. I'm going to get ready for bed now! she said happily, and left the room.
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