Hope

'Strange; that was always the word used to
describe me.

My teachers knew me as the strangely quiet kid in the back. The
other children knew me as the strange kid who was always reading. Their parents
knew me as the strange child who was always alone, even on the school’s annual
‘Family Day’. It was something I had come to terms with ever since I was a
little boy. Of course, being known as ‘that strange little boy’ did have
consequences.

I was always alone; always so transparent. People would look at
me, but it was always as if they were staring right through me, and at the
person behind me; almost as if I was never really there. I never blamed them
though; I had it in my mind that they were right to treat me that way.
Everything I did was strange to them, but even so, I was still just a child,
and a child can only take so much loneliness. '

'And then,' he thought to himself, as he recalled those vivid seven days. 'Then the universe decided to give me Hope.'

Times were different then. She was just a ditzy young girl who had found someone on the same wavelength, and he was just an orphan who had found a home.