Cutting Grass and Class

Julian Saunders was bored. He was even bored of waving his fingers through his hair and looking bored—though he was only bored of that because there was no one to see him.

He sat down in his gaming chair and rolled across the room, stopping to look down from his full-length window. The sunlight sparkled attractively on the family pool and cast the shadows of the trees behind it across the manicured lawn. A momentary smile flitted across Julian’s face when he remembered how he’d shocked his mom yesterday by jumping into the pool with a full dress suit. But today wasn’t even hot enough for such pranks.

Julian turned his eyes back inside, searching for something to do. He ran them lazily around the magazine-cover-perfect room, taking in his rack of video games, his shelf of Star Wars LEGO sets, his display case with that World Series fly ball he’d caught. Julian was proud of his room, but pride is not the right sort of sentiment to speed time up, so after a few minutes of self-complacency, he was more bored than ever.

The faint hum of a mower outside caught his attention as he waved his hand through his hair for the twentieth time that hour. He looked out over the lawn and recognized the kid who mowed for the Saunders every two weeks, riding that fun-looking stand-up tractor mower. It struck him that here was a human—someone who might be interesting, at least someone who might think he was interesting. Julian picked up his sunglasses. He’d go lean against a tree and look classy for a bit.

Julian did look classy, from the collar of his ironed shirt to the tips of his leather shoes, leaning against a big oak, thumbs in his pocket, looking far out to space from behind his sunglasses. He broke the look long enough to raise a casual wave when the mower passed. Next time, he figured, he might shout a word.

The kid lifted a hot face, dripping with sweat, and nodded acknowledgement.

“Hold up!” Julian suddenly shouted over the mower, dropping his attitude like a hotcake.

“What?”

Julian stared, and the boy returned the stare. “Who are you?” Julian asked, in awe.

“My name’s David Malone,” he said, a little surprised.

“Look at you!” Julian said, taking off his shades in one smooth motion.

David gasped, and both boys gazed at each other.

“Man, we could have been switched at birth and our mothers would never have known!” Julian exclaimed.

“Yeah!” David found breath to say.

Julian grinned suddenly. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Um… oh… no… No, really… No,” David said.

“Dude! We have to do this.”

“I… don’t think that’s… just to be clear, what are you thinking of?”

“Switching places, duh.”

“That’s not a good idea.”

“Come on, man! Don’t be a stick in the mud. Do it!” Julian grabbed his arm and started pulling him away from the mower.

But David shook his head strenuously. “No—thanks. Really thanks, but no.”

“Aw come on! Hey, look over there. That’s my house. I have a room full of video games, and legos and… there’s a pool, and now that I’m on vacation, there’s nothing to do all day but enjoy yourself!”

David looked like that sounded nice to him, so Julian followed up his advantage.

“Instead of mowing lawns out here in the hot sun, you could be Mayor Saunders’ son for a day. And I’ll be you, and have something to do, and look cool doing it.”

“Well… I mean, if you really wanna mow for me…”

“You bet! And while I mow, you tell me all about your family, so I can play my part tonight.”

“What?!”

“Yeah man, we’ll switch the whole day! Tonight at eleven, just slip out the kitchen window—I do it all the time—and meet me at the next block. I’ll be waiting for you there in your car. No one will ever even know we switched.”

“How’ll you explain to my parents where you’re—where I’m—where you’re going at eleven?”

“Well I’ll just sneak out like you will,” Julian shrugged.

“You can’t do that! I’d be grounded for a month… nah man, this is fun and all, but it’s too crazy. Besides, you don’t know anything about me! You could never pull off being me, and your parents would know I was wrong right off.”

“I bet you I could pull it off. I bet you I could pull it off the whole two weeks until when you’d normally come back to mow. You give me a lowdown on your fam here while you teach me how to run this thing, and I’ll play you so good, no one will ever know.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Dude, no one’s gonna suspect us! Man, this is beautiful! This is the opportunity for the adventure of a lifetime. Hey, just look at my house. I bet you’ve wanted to live there. I bet all this time mowing you wish you were me, sitting up there in my room, surrounded by my baseball collection, and my… what do you like?”

“This is crazy…” David said.

Julian quirked an eyebrow at him. “Do it,” he said. “I’m easy to play. Just… look cool, be stubborn and don’t talk whenever you don’t know what to say. Super easy man.”

David hesitated, but Julian saw that he was already half convinced.

“Get off there and show me how it works, dude,” he winked. “And teach me well, unless you want your clients for the next two weeks to hate you,” he grinned.

That scared David, and he said, “I’ve built myself a really good lawn business by doing a good job. I can’t let someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing mess it up!”

“Tell you what—we’ll switch clothes, then you show me how to finish our lawn and I’ll finish it while you go inside and enjoy yourself. If I don’t do it well enough to suit you, dude, the deal will be off,” Julian said, privately thinking that it couldn’t be too hard.

“That sounds fair, I guess,” David said.

David had way more instructions to give than Julian had bargained for, but he finally stopped and left Julian, in a pair of baggy shorts and a grass-stained t-shirt, standing on the mower and whizzing up and down the lawn—and actually enjoying himself, which was more than David had been doing an hour ago. But Julian was enjoying the spice of mischievousness in the switch a lot more than the mowing per se.

David walked into the house with a bit of hesitation, but a glance at his immaculate dress-casual outfit reassured him, and besides, he passed nobody on his way up the stairs. “Third door on the left,” he recalled. He pushed on the half-opened door and walked inside.

David looked around him breathlessly. This was the room of his dreams—and for two weeks, if he was willing to let his business be run by a total stranger, it could be his. He ran from one corner to the other, gloating over every one of Julian’s treasures. Then he flung himself onto the bed, soaking in its cool comfort and staring at the ceiling. He found himself hoping Julian would do a good job.

At the end of an hour David found Julian strapping the mower into its trailer. He grinned and said, “Go see how I did!”

David went to inspect, and came back less thrilled than Julian had expected. “You missed some corners, your lines aren’t even… but I guess it’s okay for a couple weeks. Just you be mighty careful… are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Sure it is! Dude, two weeks is just the right amount of time to switch. I’ll have a blast, you’ll have a blast, and just when we start to get tired of it, we’ll be switching back. Now you sit down here and explain how to live your life, and then I’ll explain mine.”

David joined him on the tailgate and told him everything he could think of, ending with, “Oh, and you can’t say dude. I never say dude.”

Julian wrinkled his nose. “But I say it all the time, dude—I mean… You’d better say it, anyhow.”
“What else do I need to know?”

So Julian explained what it was like to be the mayor’s son, and by the time he finished, dusk was already falling.

“My mom’ll wonder why you’re—why I’m so late,” David said.

Julian shrugged. “I’ll just tell her the truth, dude—I mean not dude—got to talking with the mayor’s son and lost track of time. He’s a cool dude—I mean not dude.”

“That’s not… exactly… the truth,” David objected.

“What, am I not cool?” Julian shot, in mock offense.

“Not that part,” David laughed.

Julian grinned. “Well, where are your keys?”

“Wait… you’re just gonna drive off in my car?”

Julian laughed and pulled out the fob for his jaguar. “Look dude… I mean—not dude, you know—trust me, my car is way nicer.” He tossed the fob to David, who caught it, saw the jaguar symbol, and had to agree.

Still, he hesitated as he handed over his own keys.

Julian didn’t hesitate. He jumped into the driver’s seat and revved the engine. “You have fun, du… David,” he shouted through the open window.

“Wait!” David suddenly exclaimed, rushing up to it. “What’s your name?”

“Huh? You mean… David?”

“No, your real name. You haven’t told me yet,” he said urgently, wondering what other important details Julian might have forgotten.

“Oh right,” Julian laughed. “I’m Julian—Julian Paul Saunders. You said your middle name was John, right?”

“James,” David corrected.

“Oh yeah, James… John… kinda the same thing. See you! Have fun!”

He drove off before David could do more than wonder whether Julian remembered any of the other details he’d been told.

Well, it was too late now. David felt a sudden nervousness in the pit of his stomach as he turned back to the Saunders’ mansion. But what was the worst that could happen? No, better not go there, he thought, seeing himself in the prisoner’s dock at court on three charges of impersonation.

David slipped in the back door and passed silently through the hall. He heard someone shout for Julian, but it took him a second before he remembered that was him. And another second before he recovered from a momentary panic enough to react.

“Julian! Julian, aren’t you here! Come quickly!”

David heard the urgency in the voice and ran toward its source. “Where are you?!”

“In the dining room!”

He swung into a room that almost took his breath away—but he had no time to admire it. Julian’s father, a heavy man, was sitting at the head of the table, his eyes glazed, looking more dead than alive. The fourteen-year-old girl who had called him was right next to her father, crying, “What do I do? What do I do?”

“He’s having a heart attack,” David gasped. “Did you call 911?”

“Yes!”

David sprang toward them, trying to move Mr. Saunders to a more comfortable position, knees bent, head supported. He heard the siren in the distance with relief. “Listen! They’re almost here.” And to himself he thought, feeling suddenly ashamed, “What a time for a prank like this!” Then aloud, “I’ll go bring them,” referring to the paramedics.

David had a little trouble, because he was so unfamiliar with the house, but he found the front door just as the ambulance pulled up, and retraced his steps to bring the paramedics in with less confusion. Once the situation was in their hands he felt immensely relieved—and then Julian’s sister Ada came over and cried on his shoulder, and he remembered how extremely awkward his situation was. Never mind, he’d just do the best he could.

“It’ll be okay,” he said, rubbing her shoulder. Then he thought of Mr. Saunders dead face and rephrased, “Whatever happens… um… Ada… God will use it for good. Trust him,” David urged.

But Ada pulled away in utter shock, staring at him. “What?” she gaped.

David instantly realized his faux pas, but decided the safest thing was to roll with it. Besides, it was what she needed to hear. “God loves to bring good out of what seems to be bad,” he said earnestly. “Ask him to do that for you.”

“What? How do you know that about God? I didn’t even think you believed God existed,” Ada retorted.

By now Mr. Saunders was on a stretcher, and one of the paramedics stepped toward them.

“He’s unstable,” he said in a low voice as his companions rushed the unconscious man out. “We’ll be getting him to the hospital as fast as we can. Have you contacted your… mother yet?”

“Yes,” Ada said. “She’ll be here any minute.”

The paramedic nodded. “I suggest waiting for her and then following to the hospital. I don’t know what you kids believe,” he added, “but times like these are good times to pray. Look to God for help.” He patted David’s shoulder and then was gone, and they heard him beating a quick run to the ambulance.

Ada looked at David as though she were expecting something.

“Um… what?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Ada shrugged, “just thought you might… pray.”

“Oh. Oh, like, out loud? Okay,” David said in a sudden panic, wondering how the little prayer he’d just made would have sounded to Ada. “Dear father, please help Julian’s family, especially Mr. Saunders…” No, that would never do. “Father… help… us… and M… um, me, and really really, I ask you that this heart attack might not be so bad, that he could survive, please, Lord. Amen.”

He opened his eyes to find that Ada hadn’t closed hers, but had been staring at him the whole time. He colored slightly.

But Ada rushed to the window. “Mom’s here!” she said. “Come on!” She grabbed him by the shoulder and ran him out of the room.

Mrs. Saunders stepped out of the car and gathered both children in a hug. “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed over them. “Here,” catching her breath, “come on, hop in, let’s go.”

They were all three in the car before David could blink, and Mrs. Saunders fired questions at them. David let Ada answer—she had been on the scene long before he had—and tried to find a way to cut the impossibly tight knot he was in just now. He couldn’t let Julian be away from his family at a moment like this! And how could he have stood there and preached to Ada, when she thought he was her brother and he wasn’t?! And even if he could pull it off, somehow rush back home, get Julian back for his family… whatever good he might have done would be erased. David felt hopelessly enmeshed. It seemed to him like he was paying pretty dearly already for his few minutes of bliss lying on Julian’s soft bed.

They were at the hospital long before he had figured out what to do, and Mrs. Saunders brought them in with an arm over each one. She sat them down in a corner of the waiting room, told them to wait for her—as if they were five year olds, David reflected. Busy with his thoughts, he soon lost track of her as she tried to find out what was going on with her husband.

“Poor mom,” Ada said. “Julian, you should talk to her. Be… encouraging. You have a—surprising talent for that.”

David looked at her hopelessly. Then suddenly he realized that the truth was by far the best thing in this situation. “I’m not Julian,” he said.

Ada looked at him, her eyes getting wider and wider. “Ohhh… wait… are you an angel?” she asked, awed.

“What!?!?”

Ada flushed scarlet. “Are you just a… boy? But you look just like Julian! How are you not Julian?! Julian, are you going crazy? —Am I? What do you mean, you’re not Julian?!”

“I’m David. I cut your grass. Julian…” But David suddenly felt like it was unmanly to blame Julian for the situation, so he said boldly, “Julian and I realized earlier today how we look almost identical. So we agreed to switch places. I’m so sorry—I mean, it really was wrong anytime. I shouldn’t have ag… I shouldn’t have done it. I’m really not Julian… see, my license.”

Ada was grinning a little by now, but still looking pretty embarrassed.

“I’m so sorry,” David repeated. “I just… you can imagine, after what happened… I didn’t know what to do. I still don’t. Should I tell your mom…?”

Ada almost laughed as the ridiculous side of the situation hit her, but recollection came just in time and she chastened her amusement. “Right now I think you should sit tight. Mom won’t be mad at you—and trust me, we can all read between the lines that Julian made you do this. Just… roll with it, like you’ve been doing. You’ve kind of handled this situation better than Julian would have,” she smiled. “I’ll text him and let him know what’s going on… You didn’t switch phones, did you?”

“No, no, of course not.” There was a moment’s pause while she used her phone, then David said, “Um… why did you ask if I was an angel?”

Ada crimsoned again. “I mean… it’s just that you look so much like Julian! I still can hardly believe you’re someone else… so… and you talked about God… and… I guessed angels could maybe disguise themselves… I don’t know, it was the only… explanation… that made sense… in my head…” she faltered.

Now it was David’s turn to try not to laugh. “Well that was… sweet of you, but… no, I’m just David Malone—cut grass for a living.”

“More than I do for a living,” Ada grinned. “Hey… what do you think about Dad? I mean, my dad. Is he gonna survive?”

“I don’t know. He’s… unstable, that was what they said.”

Ada was staring at him, her lips parted, as though she wanted to ask something, but couldn’t.

“What is it?” David asked.

“So you’re not an angel, I got that, but… you said you knew God loved to turn bad into good. How do you know that? Do you know God? Do you know what he’s like? Do you know what’s out there, what happens when you die?”

David hesitated, licked his lips. “I wish I knew God better,” he said, “but I do know him a little. I know he made me, and he wants what’s best for his creatures. But… we don’t always want what’s best. God’s given us laws, and a sense of right and wrong, but… but we ignore that. A lot. So—so that’s why bad things happen, like heart attacks. But God is so good, so great—he can take something bad like that, and turn it into good, by using it to change our hearts, make us want what’s good—make us want to know God better, because… that’s the best good we could have.”

“Know God? How can you do that? Isn’t he… really far away?”

“No, he’s not. He was—I mean, God is everywhere, because he’s infinite, but he was far from us, because of what we do, because of the bad things, the times we ignore what’s right. God can’t tolerate wickedness, but he found a way to love us anyways. See, he sent his Son Jesus, to take the punishment for our sins. Jesus actually came to this earth—he came and lived a life and saw the misery and even experienced death himself—for us, so that God could forgive us. When we believe this, God changes us, and we get to know him… which is the most beautiful thing,” David finished.

“You mean… people can know God? Like you might know another person? And then when they die…”

“They go to be with him.”

“What if they don’t know him? If they’ve never… heard about this, or never believed it? What’s gonna happen to my dad?”

David bit his lip a minute before he answered, “If we haven’t believed God and asked him to forgive us, and trusted in what Jesus did for us, then… all the bad things we’ve ever done… they haven’t been forgiven, we’re gonna have to pay. God’s holy, he’s perfect, and he always judges rightly. He can’t let a sinner into heaven. But God is also full of mercy. You remembered what I said before, how he loves to bring good things out of bad things. Let’s pray that that’s what this is for—to help your dad to listen, to help change his heart.”

“You pray,” Ada said. “Pray for my dad.”

David bowed his head. “God… this situation looks pretty bad to us down here, but we know that you see the other side. You know that Mr. Saunders needs to come to know you, trust in you, and repent of his sin. Lord, give him life to do that, give him a new heart that will want that.”

He paused and half lifted his head, but Ada added, “Give me that kind of heart too, God… Thank you for Jesus.”

“Amen,” David finished.

Ada looked up and jumped from her seat. “He’s here!” she said, waving across the room.

For a second David thought that was the quickest answer to prayer ever, then realized that she meant Julian.

Julian sidled over, a comical mix of guilt, worry, and a decided tendency toward going into convulsions of laughter. “Hey… how’s he doing?”

“You mean Dad?” Ada asked. “I’m not sure yet. Mom wouldn’t sit down, she’s somewhere in the halls, so she can get the first news.”

Julian nodded, then grinned a little in David’s direction. “How’d he do?” he asked.

“At being you?” David grinned back. “Pretty bad. Your shoes are… way too classy for me.”

“Yeah, well, you do way too many chores. Either that, or your little brother is deathly clever and figured me out, and gave me all his.”

“That actually sounds like my little brother,” David couldn’t help a slight chuckle.

“Julian! Ada!”

“Mom!” Ada exclaimed.

“He’s alive! He’ll survive!” she said, crying and laughing at the same time, and gathering all three into a hug. “Oh… somebody, I’d better sit down. I’m seeing double,” she said. “But with different clothes,” she added, a slight note of panic in her voice.

“No, there’s really two of them,” Ada grinned, helping her to a seat nonetheless.

Julian thumped David on the back. “It’s a long story Mom, I’ll explain.”

“Wait… wait… which one of you two is Julian? Ada…”

“The one in t-shirt and those shorts Julian would never wear… that one’s actually Julian,” Ada affirmed.

“Hey, let’s just be thankful Dad’s better,” Julian winked. “The explanation of my prank can wait.”

Mrs. Saunders sighed pointedly in his direction, but smiled in agreement.

“Just one thing…” David asked, “How’d you explain this to my parents?”

“Oh… that…” Julian said.

Back at the Malone house, Mr. Malone was stuck in his room and shouting. “David!! Daaviid! You get back here and unlock this door RIGHT NOW!”

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