A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Alfonso

Although I had learned not to let what others say get to me, but when people pushed me down, it still hurt.

Whenever there wasn't a teacher around, they would hurt me. Sometimes it wasn't big, maybe a pinch on the arm, but it still had the same toxicity. After I moved to the big apple, it started as soon as we were released to the playground for recess.

I was on the monkey bars, and while I was struggling to gain enough momentum to grab the next bar, someone slapped my waist, tasering me. I fell two whole feet to the gravel below. I scraped my arms and face, and struggled to inhale.

"Hey, Tomcat!" The person said from behind me. "Got a problem? Are too small for the big kid stuff? Can you not see out of your squinty eyes?"

That was another thing they bullied me for: in a school of mostly white people, I was the only kid who was even half Asian. They called me Tomcat because my eyes were different colours, like a lot of tomcats have, a lot of tomcats are also a mixed breed, like me.

"I fell because you hit me, Jonas!" I pointedly yelled at the kid. He was a lot bigger than me and liked to tell me he could eat me whole.

"Did the shrimp just give me attitude?" He asked the now silent onlookers, feigning surprise. He turned back to me, and narrowed his savage, green eyes. "You'll pay for that, Cracker-Jap."

With a shove, he sent me sprawling on the ground. I coughed, the dust having triggered my asthma. Some other kids had come to join in on tormenting me, making so-called cutting remarks about my size, my eyes, and my ethnicity, while Jonas hit me.

I cried out in pain, yelling for help, and somehow, it worked. My knight in shining armour came, pulling Jonas and the other kids away. I could hear him telling them to not be cowards and to beat on someone who wasn't as small as I was. I should have taken offence to the comment about my size, but he had just saved me. He pulled me to my feet, and I got a good look at him for the first time.

I had thought Jonas was the biggest kid in the third grade, but apparently not. This kid must have been four whole feet tall! He had dark brown waves, kind deep brown eyes, and skin the colour of toffee. He wore a bright blue t-shirt and grungy jeans.

"Hi, I'm Alfonso. Are you ok?" He asked, brow furrowing with concern.

"I'm fine, and thanks for saving me! My name's Skye, but if you want, you can call me Tomcat." I informed him.

"You wouldn't mind? Even after they all called you the same thing?" He asked, surprised.

"Well, if you make it a nice name then them calling me Tomcat won't bother me as much." I explained matter-of-factly.

He cracked a smile. "Alright, Tomcat."

Becoming friends with someone had never been this easy before. "Do you think we can go somewhere else to play? I don't like being near the other kids." I whispered, glancing at Jonas and his friends yelling and play-fighting out of the corner of my eye.

Alfonso following my gaze, and nodded. He took me by the hand and led me towards a couple of trees.

We fought through the branches and spiky twigs until we made it to a clearing.

"We'll be okay here." Alfonso said, sitting on the grass. I sat down next to him, still assessing the condition of my braid. It wasn't perfect, but still passable. "I like your dress. Green suits you."

I cocked my head at him, and was about to ask him how he knew about dresses, when he sensed the question formulating in the silence.

"Boys can like dresses too, you know! And also since I don't have a mom, and my dad has to leave early in the morning for work, so I help my sister get ready for preschool. She has a dress that looks like yours." He explained.

I nodded. That was a feasible explanation, but my mind caught on one thing he said. "You know, I don't know what I'd do if I only had a dad, and didn't have a mom." I thought out loud.

"Well, my dad is sort of both. He's good at everything! He helps me with homework when he has time, and he can cook really good croquetas, and he likes to play baseball with me and my sister."

"If you wanna come over to my house after school, I bet my mom would be okay with it. She's making tonkatsu tonight!" I offered.

"I'm not sure what tokantsu is, but I'll try it!" He said enthusiastically.

I rolled my eyes at his ridiculous  mispronunciation of my favourite dish, but didn't correct him. I'd teach him after school.

Hours later, we started the walk home. I led him through all the back alley short cuts I'd found in all the times
I'd gone back and forth between home and school. We talked about everything, from school to our younger siblings to our favourite constellations.

When we made it home I rang the doorbell, and my mother opened the door for us with a phone by her ear and stuff about finances spewing from her mouth. She raised an eyebrow at me for bringing an unexpected guest home, but let it slide.

We took off our shoes and ran upstairs to my room in our sock feet. After a quick show around my cluttered room, I plucked my camera off one of the shelves, and silently offered to take a photo.

We took so many photos together, like a photo booth. My favourite was the one when we sucked in our mouths to make ourselves look like fish, and crossed our eyes.