"You two need to look
out for each other you know? No matter what happens. I have high hopes for you
two kids."....
Restless chatter filled the large conference hall, rambling
about various mundane things slurred together that ended up making little to no
sense. A young boy sat in one of many seats, the adults near him talking up a
storm, and quite literally too. According to some folk, a storm would be
approaching, and not just a little rain storm, but a hurricane level storm.
While the thought of a storm was scary and all, but this young boy had his
attention elsewhere, in imagination land. Trying to flee from the boring
desires of adults.
A sudden hush came across the audience, quieting things down
by quite a bit, it made people appreciate their ears for a bit. Especially the
boy, as it was allowing him to make the
distant journey to save…to slay a dragon or something.
Unfortunately, the young boy, named Leon, would find that a
painfully piercing voice would soon interrupt his journeys into the ever more.
It was so annoying! He looked up at the fiend, a rather smart looking man
presenting on a screen with some map and
statistics , god knows what else he had lined up in his stockpile of lectures.
School was one thing, but this was another. As the man spoke, Leon had his own
interpreter in his brain working at full speed to try and numb the voice. “and
looking here we have the state of minkeroony,the point of evac----- blah blah
blah storms coming this way help us all --- blah blah blah” . Leon
could only try to imagine the man’s voice as some sort of evil character from a
movie, and portray him as the boring sidekick who was going on an evil
monologue…that nobody wanted to hear.
It was then a brief lapse of the mind made Leon forget
reality and Imagination land.
“Booooriiing” Leon sighed, dragging his voice out to try and
drown the other out. And you know what? For some reason it worked!... But
for ...other reasons, the attention had all turned on him.Leon looked up in slight confusion, his mouth slightly open contemplating what had actually happened. Suddenly, as if the umpire called
out STRIKE, Leon covered his mouth as quickly as he could….
"Ooops."
But it was
too late, everyone was staring, and the
nice people in the rows ahead all managed to shuffle aside just so the
presenter could see the perpetrator nice and clearly. Not quite nightmare fuel,
but it certainly did remind him of a lot of cartoons he watched.
“Young man” the man screeched…well, not screeched but it may
as well of sounded like it because of his voice. “I know it was you, would you
be so kind to stand up for everyone so they can see you?”
Leon looked away,
uncovering his mouth with an awkward smile.
“Now.”
His name may as well
of been Sternly. But the 7 year old couldn’t refuse the authority of this man’s
voice…. Something just lulled him to stand up, like he was a prisoner lining up
to take his mug shot or something. But Leon wasn’t exactly, well suited
to the task, as he stood up on his chair, then and there. It was quite nice
looking down at all the adults actually, he stood with such honesty, knowing he
did something wrong, he couldn’t help but fidget a little. The presenter
contorted his face disapprovingly at the restless child.
“Boy, where did you learn your manners? You don’t put your
feet on the chair, let alone stand on it! You could fall or get hurt, people
sit on chairs, don’t you know?” The main nagged on,
Leon however, look at the man with a confused look.
“I just uhmm… I just wanted everyone to see me like you
said.” He politely responded. Leon's tone sounded so innocent that the audience
of adults couldn’t help but chuckle, to which Leon only looked down, guilty of his actions, rubbing his hands together with a fidget.
The now annoyed spokesperson tucked his shirt in, was this
boy being snarky or did he actually mean it? It was clear to himself that the
boy was just being a smart alek, his past experiences with kids told him so, this kid - to him - was no different. But he spilled a ten dollar coffee earlier
that day, so he was particularly frustrated.
“Very smart, kid, you’ve clearly become the towns clown, did
your mother forget to teach you how snooty little kids like you should behave? Or did she
just fall between the gaps like you did? I pity the poor woman.” The man
straightened up his tie. “Now that you’ve done embarrassing yourself. Get off
the chair “
Leon felt this crushing weight of fear of an angry adult
trying to crush him through sheer guilt alone. However, he was particularly
hurt when he mentioned his mother. He wanted to shrink away at that moment. The feelings residing in him were throwing junk
at each other trying to enthuse a response, a polite response and shy away. But
the left wing crowd in his brain couldn’t stand it for some reason, why did he have to
insult his mother? What did she do to him? As far as Leon was concerned, only
he should be insulted for this and not his mother. Having won the war of
replies, now it was up to his brain to quickly scramble for words to make a
comeback at the mean man. But the milliseconds ticked by, seconds even, Leon
tried his best, but when he looked down at no particular person, then his inner
typewriter spat out a response for his mouth to read.
“W-why? Why ask me to stand up then sit down again? Y-You
afraid I’m taller than you or something?”Leon retorted.
A for effort Leon. A
for…affecting the situation quite dramatically. For you see, the man was the son of
a onetime horse rider who won the big bucks in their first and only race. Of course, that meant he was a
jockey’s son. After inheriting the genes he was particularly not fond of being
raised up to be a jockey, even ending up just a little shorter than his father
at 4’11’’, making him, 4’10’’. It just so happened that day, being put through
vertically challenging comments tipped him over the edge. Even when he could of ended
the conversation right then and there....
“Adults, don’t do favours little kid, Besides, if you needed
a chair for people to see you, you grabbed the short end of the stick yourself. I’m
obviously taller. Now sit down.” The irascible guy retaliated. But Leon started
to gain a little bit of confidence, scrunching up his fists, then gently
relaxing them, with a minor fidget or three, he looked at the presenter with a
leap of faith.
“B-…Bet you ten bucks that you’re shorter than me..."
The man went a little-, err, a bit hysterical. Now the boy wants to be
money on our height? The infuriated speech maker (named Douglas by the way) was
fuming, but also had an arrow strike his heart. Not only did this kid strike
his height, he shouldn’t of humoured the kid, but on a bad day like today…
“Ten dollars is chump change kid. Make that…One Hundred
dollars. And if you don’t have the money, you have lick my shoes clean till
their spick and spam.” The man compromised, unable to sublimate his feelings.
Victory was all but the smug expression that was stuck to
the man's face like glitter all over the floor.