Prologue-II

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Yes, my son had left me talking to myself again. He was just like his father, he hated getting to know people and that was the most worrying thing with him. Reese was good at school work even when I took him out of school for several days but he'd never made a friend in his ten-year-old life. Even from when he was a toddler, he liked to observe other children interacts and if anybody tried to include him, he'd crawl away and grab onto my ankle where he would stay until it was time to head home. He hated me carrying him all the time. He was a quiet child. Today however had been a shock, even for someone who easily made friends what we saw happening would still be strange so you can imagine the shock that my quiet, melancholic child was hugging another child he barely knew. And an older one for that matter and he seemed to be comforting him with a series of grunts and coos I had only heard with animals. I was talking to one of these women from the parent's association about hosting a charity ball for their women society when I heard a screech on the road so turned to find my son.

Like every mother around, I was hoping my son was okay but it was Reese who had almost caused the accident and he had not even turned to look at the car even when it halted. He was still walking briskly across the two-way road towards another boy who was staring at him. I thought my heart would come out through my mouth as I watched him walk step by step and cars suddenly hooting and people cursed while some of my friends screamed but my son didn't seem to have heard any of that. He was still set on his path straight for the other boy. I had welcomed Tyler and his mother when they had first moved in and I was bit unsure if the two had actually met. Reese never liked the outdoors that much, unless he was researching on something that needed him to be outdoor or he took his 'vitamins' dose as he called it when he basked either early in the morning or early evenings.

I wanted to scream at him and shout angrily for endangering himself but I was there walking with my son on that road, with every successful step he took I thanked God for keeping him safe. By the time he was on the other side of the road, I was so grateful and in shock which was only amplified when he just pulled the boy into his arms. I ran up the flyover and across the road so fast than I had ever done before but the scene that greeted me was indescribable.
My son was comforting a boy and he looked like his whole world was at peace. His expression should have been used to describe people who had finally achieved their goal in life. I thought I knew my son but in those few minutes he held the boy, a mixture of emotions ran across his face that I could not describe but I knew he was home yet I didn't want to admit it. It was wrong and I knew Sandra, Tyler's mother and I were intruding on a private moment but I just couldn't move my eyes from them. It was magical but at the same time strange. I wanted to pull them away from each other but before I could move Reese was introducing himself which made me move a step back. Reese never in all his life introduced himself to anybody.

He was rude at his best.

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It was like any other normal day when I saw him for the first time in church. He was sitting at the furthest end of the bench I sat on and a sense of belonging and want pulled my eyes form looking towards the front to my side. He was the only one who laughed when the priest tripped on his sashay. I had thought that it was funny but I couldn't laugh, because my mother would make me do the dishes when we got home if I dared.

"How could you laugh at a man of God and his misfortune? That was very bad manners indeed, Tyler." I could already hear my mother in my imagination if I even smiled.

She was very strict about church business and she didn't care that it took me almost five times longer than any normal teenager.

I knew she loved me with all her heart and I loved her but it wasn't enough for me. There was something always missing even when she smiled. I couldn't feel her soul and I tried. She was the woman who gave birth to me but yet I could not connect. I had tried but she never understood me. She could not hear the voice in my head not the beat in my heart every time I was afraid or excited. She wasn't with me even though she sat there next to me.

The second time I saw him was after school when my mother and his were talking. My classes were on the opposite side of the road so I stood by the gate waiting for my mom to finish gossiping. It was one of her most noble and humanistic qualities that I gathered so far. That's when I called to him, I didn't know his name yet, but I knew the feeling of what he was. I could see the name within him, his soul vibrated like mine and his colours danced in tune with mine.

I knew him yet I didn't and it felt like my brain was going round and round searching for something that could bring him to me. I was dizzy, but I was okay as I closed my eyes and let my soul call him. The first time I tried a car hooted and I jumped before I could fully call him. The second time my eyes were open and looking straight at him, the only person I had ever dared to look at. I held my fists and willed my inner voice with might as I called, he turned and looked at me.

My heart beat faster, my skin felt like it wanted to be peeled off. Yeah, it felt like it didn't belong to me and was an entity of its own. I was shocked that he had actually heard me. Nobody ever heard me before in all the twelve years I was alive. The doctors said I was autistic; the teachers weren't very patient with me most of the time. The kids teased and bullied me with names which were escalating in the magnitude of how much they hurt.

But he heard me, I wanted to laugh, cry as the pain from every instance of abuse, frustration, and defeat flashed before my eyes. I wanted to cry in relief and joy for how much his colours were shinning the more he came closer to me. He wasn't multicoloured but he was many colours, that's the simplest way I could describe what I was seeing. I knew that I belonged the moment he pulled me to him. I knew that I wanted to always belong so it was no surprise when he looked into my eyes and frowned like he understood what I was fighting with.

I knew he wanted to know my core like I knew his but I couldn't. He stretched his hand to me in greeting as he introduced his name.

"I am Ardi of the Baldura and Aldira Mountains." He said in a voice that reached into me.

It felt like he was patting my back in comfort despite the fact that his hands were stretched ready to meet mine. I couldn't stretch mine and do the same as I was shaking inside wishing he could hold me. If there was ever anything in this world, I wanted more was to be able to say something to him and stretch my hands to pull him to me and keep him close to my heart.

But I wasn't normal like all the other children and I was losing him even before I had gotten him, there was nothing to do about it. I ran into my mother's car, curled myself in my seat as I repeated the vows in my head.

"I am going to be better; I am going to be strong; I am going to hold him in my arms, I am going to tell him how many colours he is. I am going to be better."

That was ten years ago.

Thank you for reading my story. Have Fun!!

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