After school the next day, Henry took Punky back up to the hospital to visit Mike. When Punky placed her hand on the door knob, she suddenly turned and looked at Henry.

"I don't know if I can do this." Punky fought back the tears.

Her foster father knelt down beside her, gently putting his hands on her shoulders. "Why not, Punky? The Mike lying behind this door is the same Mike we've always known."

"No, Henry, it's not. The Mike I know wouldn't let anybody hurt him. I don't understand why he'd let this happen."

"Then you need to go in there and ask him why, sweetheart."

The child bit her lip and nodded tearfully. She turned the handle and entered the room.

Mike was sitting up in bed, talking to a man that Punky didn't recognize. At first they didn't see her, and they continued with their conversation.

"Can you give me a description of the guy that attacked you, Mr. Fulton?"

"Sure," Mike replied, "and I can do even better than that. I can give you his name--Keith Jamison. His son is in my class, and I'd asked Mr. Jamison to come in for a parent-teacher conference. However--"

Punky couldn't help herself. She had to say something. "It was Todd's dad that did this to you?"

Mike turned his head in surprise. "Punky?"

"Hi, Mike. Dr. Elliott said to come back today to visit you. Who's your friend?"

"This is Officer Mitchell. This is one of my students, Punky Brewster. Would you mind giving me a minute to talk to her?"

The policeman left the room, and Mike beckoned to Punky with his hand to take Officer Mitchell's chair.

"How are you feeling, Mike?" Punky wanted to know when she was sitting down.

"Don't worry, Punky; I'll be fine. Dr. Elliott told me earlier that I'll be able to go home tomorrow morning. Right now, I want to talk about you. Henry stopped by around noon, and told me that you've been very upset over the things that Todd has said in class."

"What bothers me the most is the fact that he's hurting my friends. He made Cherie cry yesterday, and you're laying in a hospital bed, all because of things Todd said. Mike, I don't understand. Why'd you let Mr. Jamison do this to you? Why didn't you stop him?"

Mike took a slow, deep breath before answering. "Punky, I'm not sure attacking me was Mr. Jamison's intention when he agreed to meet with me. I have no proof that he meant me any harm. We don't know that Todd said anything to his father about the color of my skin. In the part of the country that Todd is from, there are people that don't have a problem with showing cruel behavior to African-Americans. But, no matter how much hurt Todd's words cause us, we need to forgive him, and not try to get back at him. When you get revenge, you're only hurting yourself."

"That doesn't make any sense. If I get back at Todd for hurting me and my friends, then Todd's the one getting hurt, not me."

"You see, Punky, every time you get back at somebody, they're going to want to get revenge on you, and you both continue going back and forth, until someone gets seriously hurt, or worse."

Punky thought for a moment. "But you weren't hurting anybody, and look at what happened to you. You didn't do anything wrong. And besides, forgiving Todd is hard. Revenge would be a whole lot easier."

"But which one is going to make you a better person? I love you, Punky, and you're a sweet little girl. I want you to do what's right, even if the right thing is making the harder decision. Promise me you'll think about it."

Punky nodded. "I will."

There was a knock at the door, and it opened just enough for Officer Mitchell to poke his head in. "Mr. Fulton, how soon can we wrap this up?"

"Right now, Officer. I'm not going to press charges." Mike looked at his student. "I forgive Mr. Jamison."

The child sat on the edge of her teacher's hospital bed and wrapped her arms around Mike's neck. "I'll try, Mike. I love you, too."

Punky exited the room and started to cross the hall to join Henry. She happened to glance in the direction of the elevators, and stopped in her tracks.