Childhood 2.0

Friendship

I knew that the statue was the key that I could return to the time I belonged. This is something that I wanted. I had problems and worried when I was a middle-aged man, but who did not. The thing was that the good times and bad times made me the person that I was. The gift that I never thought that I had was an unchartered future, and the final stage of my life could be golden years. This was my second childhood, and while there were some good things about it, I did not want to relive my childhood with the problems, challenges, restrictions and routine that I had already gone through once.

I figured the answer was to touch the statue and think of my future life. This would most likely reverse the magic that bought me back to my childhood. I knew that I would have to be alone in the Church. Something in my head was telling me the magic of time travel would not work when others were there. Besides this, It would break my mom's heart or give her a heart attack at seeing her son disappear in a fog. I just had to wait until I could visit the Church by myself and touch the statue.

The priest noticed that we were in the Church. I remembered him as a nice old man that was very saintly. As we were leaving the church, he told me that he was happy to see us in the Church. He thought that boys like me should visit the Church a lot more. It was often that the priest said that what the world needed was more prayers. Then he asked me if I wanted to be an altar boy. I agreed straight away. I always wanted to be one and now was my chance. Besides this, it would give me an excuse to visit the Church and possibly be alone with the statue. Mom was delighted that I agreed and told me it could mean that one day, I would want to be a priest. She was proud that I was now doing something for the Church and lifted my grounding. I was once again a free bird!

Things were getting worse at school. A few days after I was no longer grounded, I was walking to school with Bethany, Adrian (the school bully) appeared out of nowhere. He started teasing me that I was talking with a girl, and then without warning, he started punching me. I was always a pacifist so I found it harder to hit back at Adrian. This seemed to encourage him as he continued to hit me until I collapsed to the ground. He kept yelling things at me and laughing as he pounded me with punches. He ended up giving kicking me, so I found it hard to breathe. The pain was unbearable and despite my best efforts, I was crying. My thoughts were full of hatred and regret. I should have hit him back and done my best to protect myself. Now I was curled into a ball on the ground in pain, agony and humiliation.

Adrian left me there, and Bethany tried to help me as much as she could. She was advising me on how I should breathe and telling me the pain would go away. She was also telling me how much she hated bullies and there was no reason for him to beat me up in the way he did. Bethany joked that Adrian would grow up and be a politician. This made me laugh and I found out that it hurt more when I laughed. The truth was that Adrian would grow up to be a politician. As I always said, the world is run by idiots.

This was a bad day and it was getting worse. We had exams and I was not in the best mood to do them. I did study! However, when I looked at the questions on the paper, it seemed as if they were dancing around. I was confused and did not know where to start. My mind was in turmoil, as I was having flashbacks of Adrian punching me. I was shaking and I was getting an anxiety attack. The teacher must have noticed as she asked me was I sick. This was my chance to tell her about Adrian, but I was no snitch. I tried to concentrate and do one question at a time. I quickly found a rhythm and the only thing that I could think about was getting a good grade. When the exams were done, I was relieved. Now I would have to wait for ages to get the results, which was torture in itself.

Bethany and I walked home. We were talking and laughing like we usually have done. She made me smile and think that things were not so bad. I noticed that Bethany was mature in many ways. When she spoke, it was not childish or rubbish. At times she can be very deep and thoughtful. One thing that I liked about Bethany was her compassion. She loved life and wanted to make the most of it.