Listening

Tomás had small ears. Well, they were less than small. They were minute. He used to be self conscious about them. When he stepped into a classroom for the first time his glasses slipped off one of those ears and hung crooked across his face. His ears weren't big enough to hold his glasses.

"We come from a family with little ears but big hearts," said his abuelo one day as Tomás was moping down a row of tomatoes, thinking about the laughter of his classmates. "Good thing you don't talk. You can use your brain for listening. Your ears sure won't help you out much.

As he grew older and fell in love with whales, though, he discovered that blue whales, which are the biggest animals to have ever lived on earth, have ears the size of the point of a pencil. "The blue whales know how I feel," he thought. And that made him feel better.

Tomás really did have a big heart. Literally. One day, when he was a toddler, he fell at the end of a row of tomatoes in his abuelo's garden and bruised his ribs on a jagged rock. His abuelo mami took him to the free medical clinic. His abuelo wrapped his arms around him and placed his giant calloused hand on his chest to keep him still. He took quick, shallow breaths because if he breathed slowly and deeply his whole body hurt. 

When they looked at the x-ray the doctor exclaimed, "His ribs are bruised but, my God, look at the size of his heart! I've never seen a heart so big in a child so small." An echocardiogram confirmed it, "It's rare in children, "said the doctor, "But his heart in enlarged because his heart muscle isn't squeezing well and his heart grew bigger to compensate. The good news is, we can treat him. He can lead a nearly normal life. He'll just have to use his heart in different ways than other folks."

Later, with a book by his bedside, his abuelo said, "I want you to have a listening ears and a big heart, my grandson, so it seems like nature is helping my wishes come true. Don't you worry. I'll always love you just the way you are. You're perfect to me and for the world."

His abuelo kissed him on the forehead.

It comforted him again when he learned that a blue whale has the largest heart on earth. It's as big as a Volkswagen Beetle.

"I have a heart like a blue whale," he thought.

And that made him smile.