Alfie was a fairly quiet boy. He only ever spoke when spoken to, and even then he tended to keep it short. This was not because he disliked people or the situations he was in but rather because he found himself to be quite content wherever he was. Alfie, and those around Alfie, appreciated this quality very much.
On this particular day, however Alfie was anything but quiet. Today was Alfie's first day of school. Well, that is to say real school. He had already been to preschool. He did not particularly like it. It was mostly just playing with toys all day. Something he could have done just as well in the comfort of his own home. Alfie did not really understand what was happening at this very moment, but he did know that he was being forced to leave his bed and his home. Both of which were important to him.
Alfie's school stated at 8:25. It was now 8:15. This would not be a very big problem for Alfie's mother, except at this time, Alfie was running around in his underwear shouting protest against school. Alfie's mother was growing desperate as she had tried just about every persuasion trick that she had known to work on her son. In her desperation she began just yelling whatever might come to mind, hoping that something would catch Alfie's attention. "Alfie, if you listen to me and put some clothes on, I will give you a toy" Alfie looked up at her "What kind of toy?" His mother took a second to enjoy the silence of the house. She smiled at her boy, who was currently in the process of removing the only article of clothing he had left. "I can't tell you, it's a surprise. Alfie did enjoy surprises. He began to timidly pull his underwear back up "Is it a good toy?" His mother, who didn't think that this tactic would work, didn't actually have a toy. She maintained eye contact with Alfie "It's a very good toy" she said, praying that he wouldn't somehow figure out she was lying to him, and then return on his rampage. Alfie looked at her skeptically "Where is it?" his mother smiled again "Get dressed and I will show you".
And so Alfie complied with all of his mother's demands with the promise of a good toy. Alfie was quickly dressed into a red shirt with darker red horizontal stripes. His mother had looked forward to taking his picture, but there was no time for that anymore. The time was 8:20.
His mother rushed around the house gathering food for his lunch. Throwing anything that looked healthy into a brown paper bag, she shouted reminders at her son.
"Don't talk to any stangers outside of the school"
"Mom"
"There are going to be lots of strangers inside of the school, but you can talk to them, they are supposed to be there."
"Mom"
"Don't be afraid to talk to kids your age. Make some friends. Friends are important"
"Mom"
"Don't talk too much though. Listen to the teacher, she knows a lot of things and you need to learn from her"
"Mom"
"Stop interrupting, this is important. Be nice to the other boys and girls. I won't lie to you, some kids are going to be mean but you have to promise me that even if someone is mean that you will be nice back"
"Mom"
"Oh, make sure you remember what your homework is"
"Mom"
She quickly scribbled her sons name on the bag with a black marker. She shoved the bag into his backpack. "Eat this, but only when they tell you to. Alfie, who had grown slightly irritated with his mother, now sat quietly waiting for his mother to finish her speech. "You are a smart boy Alfie; don't let anyone tell you that you aren't. You can do anything you want to if you put your mind to it." She took a pause. She knew that what she was saying was cliché but every kid deserved to hear it. "I think that's it, now what did you want?"Alfie took his own slight pause out of annoyance for his mother. "Yes, you said that I could have a toy" His mother who was taken aback by the boy's maturity felt as if he deserved the toy that he was promised. She had made a deal after all. "Of course" she sighed "the toy"
She ran to her closet and began rustling through old things from her childhood. All of her clothes were pilled inside. It made her search much more difficult than it had to be. She was in no position to fix the mess now. She began tossing the clothes out over her shoulder. After clearing half of her closet she found a small chest.
It was the size of a shoe box, only a little bigger. It was made of wood which seemed to be of good quality. It was worn at the sides and the hinges were rusted. She forced open the box. She was disappointed to find nothing but old paper work and a blanket. She tossed the box aside and began searching through some more dirty clothes.
"What about this one?" Alfie asked from behind her. She turned to find Alfie clutching a stuffed bear. "Where did you find that?" Alfie pointed at the discarded box. In her rush she didn't see the stuffed toy that was crushed into the bottom. "Oh... yes, that was my bear, as a child." She smiled to herself. She had a lot of memories with that bear "When I was young that was pretty much my best friend." She stopped smiling with the sudden realization that she and Alfie were running very late on the first day of school. "Come on, we have to go"
Alfie was still looking at the bear in stunned amazement. Something about the bear infatuated the boy. The bear was brown. Most of its hair was either matted or stained. The bear's left ear had a piece missing from the top. It looked like an animal had taken a bite out of it, perhaps a dog. Both of the bear's eyes were there, but one was milky and looked as if it were made of pearl and the other was a glossy black. Alfie could see his reflection in the eye. He smiled at himself. Then he looked at the bear's nose, which was twisted slightly to the side. Its mouth was set in a straight line; it made the bear look as if he were very content. This made Alfie giggle. Most stuffed bears had a big smile on their face. This bear didn't really care for all of that smiling business. Alfie pointed at, perhaps the bears most distinguishing feature, a small grey patch on his chest "What's this?" His mother looked at the bear. "It's a long story, now come on, we are already late." Alfie looked at the bear. "Can I take him with me?" His mother sighed deeply "I suppose, put him in your backpack and don't take him out until you get home. And with that she took the bear from Alfie and zipped it up in his bag.
Off they went. It was a monumental day for Alfie. The first day of the first grade is an important day. It is a day to make friends, develop social skills as well as many other skills Alfie would use for the rest of his life. But reader you must understand that this day was also the most important day in Alfie's life because today was the day in which Alfie met Fred. Fred would come to show Alfie an entirely different world. The two would become great friends until the day Alfie died. Even in their old age they would sit on a park bench and talk about stories they had thought of the day before. From this day forward Alfie and Fred would spend the rest of their lives with each other.
Alfie and his mother made it to the school 10 minutes late. They got out of the car and walked to the entrance of the school. They walked down the empty hall ways, their footsteps ringing quietly behind them. Alfie couldn't help but feel as if he was not supposed to be here. He drew close to his mother, clutching on the bottom half of her shirt. He felt as if he were walking through a jungle clearing and the shiny eyes of his predators shone from both sides of the hallway. Just when it seemed a tiger would pounce from one of the doors and eat Alfie alive, his mother turned to him "Room 416, this is your room" she turned and looked at Alfie. He looked scared, she couldn't blame him. It was after all, a very scary day. She gave him an encouraging smile, reached over and opened the door.
Alfie was surprised to see so many different colors. The walls were an off white but they were plastered with posters and pictures, at the front of the room stood an old woman with grey and white hair. She was very old, so old in fact that it seemed to Alfie that her skin had already given up. It matched the color of her hair and hung off of her like a melting crayon. She gave Alfie a kind smile. He turned to see the rest of the class. Again, Alfie was impressed by the amount of colors. It looked like an entire rainbow had been splashed across the children. Alfie looked closer at his classmates 'Yes' he thought 'every color'. Alfie looked away from the children's clothing for a moment. This was a very unfortunate mistake because Alfie realized that everyone was looking at him the same way he looked at them. Alfie was startled to say the least. A hand seemed to grab his heart and squeeze with all of its might. He took a step back and reached behind him for his mother's sleeve. Nothing filled his hand; he spun around to find that she was no longer there. Again, panic clutched his heart and refused to let go. He looked back to the front of the classroom. The panic resided as he saw his mother speaking quietly with the old woman. Alfie rushed to her side. The two stopped speaking. The old woman smiled kindly at him "You will be sitting over there, Alfie" she pointed to an empty desk near the back of the room. He looked to his mother, she nodded her approval "Go on Alfie, I will see you after school" she whispered. Alfie walked to the back of the class and sat at his desk while his mother made her way to the door. He smiled at her, she smiled back and left.
As the door closed a couple of things occurred to Alfie. The first was that this was the most alone he had ever been. He was in a classroom filled with strangers and his mother was gone. The second realization was that he loved his mother. He had never thought about it before. Sure, she could be annoying at times but she was always very kind. At the end of every day she would kiss him goodnight. And when Alfie thought about her, he smiled and Alfie supposed that if someone could make you smile just by the thinking about them, you must love them. The third was a new feeling. It felt a little bit like fear except instead of a hand grabbing his heart, it was as if his heart had grew its own hands and was trying to pull his chest apart so it could run back to his mother.
The old lady began to speak. She went on and on about rules and how Alfie should behave. Alfie already knew all of this information seeing as his mother had given him a similar speech 3 times on the way to the school. Eventually, she moved on to facts about herself. Alfie knew none of this information, nor did he care to. Why should Alfie care that she had a dog named Bill? And soon she moved on to discuss what they would be learning this year. Again, Alfie didn't really care about what she was saying. It wasn't like she was giving him a choice in the matter.
She kept rambling on and on, and just when it seemed to Alfie that it would never end, she looked at the clock, smiled, and told them that it was time for lunch. And just after she finished her sentence a bell sounded, shattering the silence of the room. It startled Alfie. He did not appreciate the loud sound. He felt as if he had been scared enough for one day.
After the bell, the new sound of children gathering their things followed. Alfie had no idea what was happening, so he followed the example set by the boy in front of him and grabbed his bag and pencils. The teacher raised her voice so that it would be heard over the sound of the students. She ordered them to follow her out of the classroom and they each did as they were told.
The students flowed into the hallway to find that many other classes had done the same thing. The children were murmured excitedly.
Alfie looked around at all of the hyper children. Again, he felt very alone. None of them spoke to him and he was fairly certain that they didn't like him. So he did what he normally did and kept quiet. He missed his mother. After walking through the crowded hallway the students entered a large room.
The ceiling and the floors were white, while the floor was constructed of shiny blue tile. The tables were a matte white and placed neatly in rows. Everything was cleaned with precision. Alfie would feel comfortable performing surgery in this room.
'There are no windows here' Alfie thought to himself. It was quite a sad thing to see, a room without windows.
Alfie watched as the children filed into the room behind him. They all spoke to each other and they all became friends. He watched as they bartered and traded lunch items. He watched as the talked and laughed at each other's jokes. Then he sighed and sat at the end of a table by himself.
He reached down into his backpack and heard a strange sound; almost as if it were a gasp for breath. He looked down into his bag to investigate. The investigation didn't last long though; he began laughing at his first discovery. The brown paper bag his mother had packed for him had a massive hole in the bottom of it. When his mother shoved the bag down inside she must have torn the bottom on a notebook. He tossed the bag aside, as it no longer served a purpose. He moved his books aside in search of the food. He giggled to himself again when he saw what his mother had packed for him; an apple, a banana, a single slice of bread, and half of a chocolate bar.
He checked his bag once more, secretly hoping to find the other half of the chocolate bar. He tossed a few more books aside when his hand came across something soft. He was startled for a second before remembering the bear from this morning. He smiled; it was the closest thing he had to home. Alfie took comfort in the bear.
Eating all of his food did not take long seeing as there wasn't very much of it. The low quality of food was actually very fortunate in this case. Alfie had sort of lost his appetite after all of the scares he experienced.
Just as Alfie was beginning to grow bored of his new environment another bell rang through the room. All of the children were still for a second. Alfie did not understand what was going on. Everything stopped moving. The children were waiting with bated breath. Some of them could hardly stand the newly found tension. They remained as patient as they could, which for many of them meant half sitting and half standing, with their butts hanging over their seats. Everyone watched the teachers in the room. It was reminiscent of an old western standoff. No one blinked, well except for Alfie, who of course still had no clue as to what was happening. The teachers looked at their students and then back at each other. It seemed to Alfie that they had reached an unspoken agreement. Two teachers walked to the double doors on one side of the room. They swung them open and chaos ensued.
Children poured on all sides of Alfie, sprinting towards the door. He was trapped in a stampede of wildebeest. They all began screaming about something called "recess". Some of them even made it into a chant. Alfie began to grow excited himself. He wasn't the only one who wanted to leave. He was witnessing the victory of a rebellion against school, the rebellion that apparently went by the name "Recess". Is this the end of the war? Has the white flag been raised? Has the fight against boredom been won? Alfie had an overwhelming feeling of relief and happiness. The feeling of victory started in his stomach and boiled up and out of his ears. This was his chance at freedom. He grabbed his bag and joined the wildebeest. They pushed, shoved and screamed. For a moment it grew dark and the air around him disappeared as students surged together. He couldn't breathe or see. He began sinking into the pile of bodies like quicksand. He was able to get a few breaths but the air was heavy and hot. Just when he started to think he would never make it out, he shot through the heavy doors.
The students left the not so white room anymore behind them. The tables were crooked and stained with chocolate milk. Crumbs were scattered heavily throughout the room. It was like a crazy old blind man was feeding pigeons that didn't exist. The walls were also stained. Bits of food surrounded massive chocolate milk stains. It was almost a work of art.
Freedom, Alfie thought. He squinted in an attempt to get the sun to stop burning his unadjusted eyes. He looked to the beautiful blue sky. There were bright white clouds of all different shapes and sizes. Alfie looked at them and saw a crocodile and a monkey. He laughed and the clouds seemed to laugh with him. The sun hung from the top of the sky, shining down on the soldiers of fun, it congratulated them with its rays of light.
He looked to the horizon and there it was the great divide between man and freedom. A metal barrier between him and the rest of the world. He ran up to it, not believing in the horrible truth that it would entail. But there it was. It loomed high above him. He stood on the wrong side. Alfie was still a prisoner of boredom.
With great disappointment Alfie sat down with his back against the chain link fence. Alfie hated school. He looked around at the kids. All of them had made friends and were playing fun games with them. Alfie on the other hand had to sit alone. His heart hurt again. He desperately wanted a friend. Alfie placed his head between his legs and started to cry.
But just as the first tear started to fall he heard a violent rustling sound coming from his backpack which had sat down next to him. Alfie looked up and sniffled. The rustling was gone. He sat and watched it closely, waiting for it to happen again. He tried not to blink so that he wouldn't miss anything. His eyes began to burn but he resisted the urge to close his eyes. He knew that if he did, something would probably happen, and he would miss it. And sure enough once he decided that it was safe to blink another sound came from the bag. Then something quite remarkable happened.
The top of his bag began to writhe back and forth. Something was trying to get out. The bag twisted and turned and suddenly a paw shot towards the sky, freeing itself from its prison. This arm was quickly followed by another arm. The two arms pulled the zipper apart and out popped the head of a bear. The bear took a massive breath for air. So massive, in fact that he lost his balance. He tried clutching onto the cloth sides of the bag for support but he quickly found that they were not as stable as he had hoped. The bear toppled out of the bag landing face first onto the gravel below.
The bear and Alfie were silent. Neither one of them moved. Alfie looked at the bear lying face down on the ground. For a second he was afraid that this endeavor had killed the bear but Alfie watched as his belly swelled and shrunk. And with the assurance that the bear was okay he began to giggle. Soon his giggling morphed into laughter and the bear, who had obviously heard the laughter, as it was quite hard to miss, turned himself over and began to laugh with the boy. The two laughed for quite a while.
The bear had a sort of quite laugh, almost like he wasn't trying not to laugh at all. It had a lot of charm to it.
After the laughter died down the bear said "What is your name?" The bear sounded very old. He had a very deep voice which was very surprising for a bear his size. It reminded Alfie of his grandfather. Alfie would have liked to hear a bed time story from the bear. He made a mental note to request one. The boy cleared his throat. He was nervous; he had never spoken to a bear before. "My name is Alfie" he said. The bear smiled at Alfie "Hello Alfie, my name is Fred. You and I will go on a lot of adventure together; some big, some small, and some in-between. Alfie smiled back at the bear. He liked the idea of going on an adventure. But what he liked more right now was that he had found a friend.
The two smiled at each other for quite a while.
And so began a very long and wonderful friendship filled with adventures.
