In 2013, in a small town in Romania, fourteen-year-old Cristian
Marian Becheanu was heading home from school. Along the way, he saw a crowd
gathered and heard the sound of heavy machinery. Three-year-old Gabriel Ruiu
had fallen into a well in his family’s yard, and most of the town had gathered for
a rescue attempt. Eleven hours passed while men and machinery dug and little
Gabriel wailed. The pipe was impossibly narrow and the child was impossibly
deep. The solution was an elegant one. Thin-as-a-rail Cristian volunteered to
be lowered, head-first into the well with a lamp strapped to his head. When he
reached the toddler, he held on tightly and signaled to be pulled back out. The
town was so grateful they rewarded Cristian’s bravery with a house and a plot
of land. The skinny teenager must be in his twenties by now. If I spoke
Romanian, I might be able to tell you how he’s doing.
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