In this story the narrator is a boy with several good friends, who tries to go for a swim, but is bullied and drowned by a particularly nasty fellow. Through the device of time travel, the drowned boy . . . [ read more ]

In this story the narrator is a boy with several good friends, who tries to go for a swim, but is bullied and drowned by a particularly nasty fellow. Through the device of time travel, the drowned boy is able to return to the day before he was drowned, giving him the opportunity to 'turn the tables' on the fellow who 'killed' him. Here we are confronted with a strange dilemma: while we feel a certain satisfaction with the 'natural justice' dealt to the bully, we find ourselves asking whether it was right to sentence him to the same fate as he dealt to others. Esther 8:5 "And (Esther) said, If it please the king . . . let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king's provinces:" What Haman and his followers planned to do to the Jews, was done instead to them. Matthew 5:44 "But I (Jesus) say to you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;" The main dilemma in the story comes when the main character, the boy who nearly drowns, realizes that he may be even worse in his heart than the bully he gets revenge on. This story is supposed to make the reader examine himself – as Jesus often pointed out, the human heart is really quite black with sin, but most people think they are actually 'quite good', or 'basically good'. Jesus also preached the Law, to cut through the heart's self deception, and expose it for what it really is. I hope this story shows that even a 'good' boy may be a sinner in need of salvation, just as much as an 'obvious' sinner, like Bog the bully. [ close ]