Christopher
There once was a boy, his name was Christopher. He was about eight years old, but unlike the rest of the kids at school, he didn’t talk all the time, or even play. Why would he? No one ever invited him. And when that seldom time came when he was asked to play, he always seemed to screw things up, he would get yelled at every time, either by the teacher or by the students. But how was he supposed to know the rules? Why couldn’t the bad guy win once or twice? Yes, Christopher was always forced to be the bad guy, but he didn’t think it was a bad thing at all! He got to play with the other kids, freely!
But this only happened about once each month. There were lots of days when he wasn’t allowed to play, and what did he do then? Well, he would sit in the bushes at the far end of the school yard, wishing and wondering, only wishing that one day he could play every day with the others and wondering why he couldn’t. He would watch the other kids play as he did this, sometimes he would cry a little bit. Only when the bell rang was he sometimes praised, for he was very fast. But this too was seldom, yes, it is true; the teachers would also ignore him. They would never talk to him, never gave him the honor award of the week and worst of all they didn’t refer to him by his name, no, they called him the Loner, even to his face. They didn’t know it but these things very much weighed down on his heart, making it hard not to feel like he was alone.
One day in the middle of May he was again sitting in his bush, though today seemed as though it were going to be a normal day, it wasn’t. No, not at all was it going to be normal! How was it not going to be normal? Well, today he wasn’t going to be alone, but he also wasn’t going to be forced to play the bad guy, infact he wasn’t even going to be asked to play with the others at all. Today the other kids would ask to play his game. It started when he saw a beautiful butterfly dance around as though it was in a mystical world, he saw this and decided to join in on the butterfly’s play. He slowly came out of his bush and began to dance in the corner of the old school yard, but then his eyes were opened to the amazing world of the imagination! This was a splendid world! Many people in this world danced with him and the butterfly, and when it came time, they all gathered around him to hear his adventurous stories and tell of their own. He was having the time of his life hunting trolls and overcoming the impossible, when a girl who was slightly older than himself asked if she could play. He thought for only a second and agreed, both of them were now enjoying the splendors of this mysterious world when more and more kids asked to join in on the play! Soon the whole yard was a wonder land! But the founder of this marvelous place was the most joyful, for he had now won his own real victory; being only himself. He didn’t need to worry about being the perfect bad guy anymore! No, today and for many days to come, he was himself!
