In that flash of seconds I missed those people.
I missed him.
I missedme.
What was I going to do?
-Flynn-
Many years ago…
She’s so pretty.
I really like to look at her.
Her name is Ellie McCallum. That’s what the teacher calls her when he says the names every morning.
Her hair is blue today. Not purple like the first time I saw her.
I don’t like the blue. But I still like looking at her face. Even with the hoop in her lip and the piece of metal in her nose.
But she doesn’t like it when I look at her. She frowns at me a lot and calls me names. Her friends say nasty things to me when I leave class.
Last week a guy with a big nose took my lunch. I was really hungry. My mom made me my favorite chicken salad sandwich. It was my lunch, not theirs. I hate it when they’re mean to me.
It makes me really angry.
I yelled and told him to give it back. He laughed, though I didn’t think it was funny.
But he didn’t give it back.
And I was really hungry.
I ate a whole bag of potato chips when I got home.
“Stop looking at me,freak!”
Ellie is talking to me again. I was looking at the new ring in her nose. Why did she put it there? Her nose is pretty without it.
I point at the ring. “That’s ugly. You should take it out.”
Ellie touches her nose. I want to touch her nose. But I can’t.
I don’t like touching people.
But I want to touch her.
Ellie didn’t call me any more names. She turns around so I can’t look at her face anymore.
Her hair is all over my desk again. It upsets me.
I push it off with my pencil and then start to draw. I had been reading a book about the history of the Eiffel Tower last night. I can draw things after seeing them.
I would count the lines. I would measure the spaces. And then I would draw it.
I could draw anything.
I am drawing now. I will draw something for Ellie.
