Nobody Ned A Children's Story

At school, Ned Nelson of Nowhere, Nebraska, ignored his nickname: Nobody Ned. His schoolmates called him that because he avoided things that they considered absolutely essential. Clothes, for instance. They wore flashy, expensive clothing and sported jewelry around their necks, ears, wrists and ankles. They even had tattoos. Ned had no jewelry, not even a ring, he hated tattoos, and he wore the plainest clothes imaginable. Always, his pants were ordinary blue jeans, and in warm weather, he never wore anything but a plain white T-shirt, while in winter, he donned a warm gray jersey.

One day, the best-dressed girl in the school, “Natty” Nancy Navarro, said to Ned, “You are a good-looking guy, but you dress terribly. Girls pay no attention to you — certainly not me.” Ned responded by asking her, “Why are you always so dressed up?” Caught off guard, the girl snapped, “I like to be called natty. I want to dress better than everyone else, and when I do, the other girls stare at me and are jealous because they know that I am more attractive to guys than they are. Ned just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Not to me.”

Furious, Nancy stormed off but could not stop thinking about Ned. While she disliked his clothes, she admired his plainspoken ways. Unlike other boys, he was courteous and seemed to speak from his heart, with no intention of saying what he did not feel. Then, on a warm spring day, she took a walk in the park, and when she came to a little stream, she was pleased to see Ned sitting on the bank, munching a sandwich and fishing. Hoping that he would invite her to join him, she walked by, but Ned just waved and said nothing.

When Nancy joined him, he did not object. Then she asked him, “Ned, why aren’t you like other guys who dress sharply and do things to attract girls’ attention?” Ned replied that two words governed his ways: Be yourself. Curious, she asked him to explain. Ned said he believed most guys and girls seemed to build prison cells for themselves, and the bars of those cells were what they strived to make others think of them. In other words, he explained, their focus is constantly on drawing attention to themselves, but his focus was not to draw attention to himself.

Suddenly, he pulled in a nice fish. Nancy was so thrilled that he gave her the pole and promised she would also catch one. When she did, peace and happiness swept over her, and she realized that much of her stress in life was due to what Ned had described. She always focused so much on drawing attention to herself that she could never be just plain old Nancy, as Ned was just plain old Ned. She resolved to change, and when she did, she found true happiness, thanks to the guy who said, “Be yourself”: Nobody Ned.

NOTE: Jimmy Reed is a retired college professor and author of several books. This story is from his latest, a children’s book entitled FROM A TO Z, TO YOU FROM ME. Each story in the book maximizes the use of an alphabetical letter, enhanced by alliteration and assonance. The book is available on Amazon, or can be purchased directly from the author. His email address is jimmycecilreedjr@gmail.com