STRANGE AND UNSEEN

Chapter 46

Chris walks into the living room. He sees Adam and Avi sitting on the couch with bored looks on their faces as they stare at the t.v. set. Austin was lying on the floor staring mindlessly at the ceiling. Tim was sitting next to the window, there was a book laying in his lap but he was gazing out the window.

"Yall look a little bored." Chris chuckles.

"Oh, you think?" Austin giggles.

"It's a beautiful day. We could always go to the park." Chris suggests.

"That's better than sitting here watching a movie that we've seen at least a million times." Avi laughs.

"Can we have a picnic?" Adam asks.

"Sure. That sounds good." Chris says.

They head to the kitchen to make sandwiches. Chris had bought some containers of potato salad, macaroni salad and slaw. Austin grabs the paper plates, cups and plastic utensils.

Everything was being handed to Tim, who packed it neatly into a box. Avi fixed a cooler of water, soft drinks and a gallon jug of sweet tea.

Soon, everything and everybody was loaded into the van and headed to the park.

Once they arrived at the park, they found an unoccupied picnic table and unload the food from the van. No one was actually hunger right then so they decided to play around a bit before they ate.

Austin had brought a frisbee so he, Adam, Chris and Avi went to a clearing to throw the frisbee around.

The more Tim watched them run and play, the more depressed he got. His eyes burned as he glances around the park and sees other families running and playing.

He had been a cripple since birth. He would have thought the hurt would eventually stop. But it hasn't. Cause at the moment, he felt like such an outcast. He wished he had just stayed at home.

He quickly turns his chair around so the others wouldn't see him wipe his eyes. He sees a beautiful lake not far away. Several ducks were swimming and playing around in the water.

He begins to roll himself down to the lake.

"Look mommy! A cripple." A little girl says.

"I know, honey. Don't point." The mom says, pulling down her daughter's arm.

Tim lets go of a sob as he rolls out on the pier. Tears roll down his cheeks as he looks between the boards of the railings at the ducks playing around in the water.

~~

Adam runs over to the table to get him and Avi some water from the cooler.

"Hey, guys?" Adam calls out to the others. "Where's Tim?"

"How could I have been so thoughtless." Chris says as he glances around for his fiance'. "We came here to have fun, and what did I do? I left him."

"There he is." Austin says, pointing toward the pier.

"Why would he wonder off like that without telling anyone?" Austin asks as they make their way to the lake.

"Tim suffers from depression quite often. Anything can trigger it." Chris explains. "And I guess him sitting there watching everyone run and have fun, triggered it."

Tim hears footsteps on the wooden pier and quickly wipes his eyes.

"Sweetheart? You alright?" Chris asks as he squatted down next to Tim's chair.

Tim looks away as Chris squats down but nods his answer.

"Tim, you had us worried." Chris says.