FRIEND OF MY CHILDHOOD. by Eva Bell: Part of SOON Online Magazine

SOON Online Magazine

Stories

Friend Of My Childhood
He walked into our house one day, uninvited, a Goliath encased in several layers of clothing. His hair was tied back in a pony-tail, and his wispy beard quivered as he muttered to himself. His pockets were stuffed with assorted bric-a-brac, like a magpie's untidy nest. He fished into one of them for a scrap of paper, and scribbled innumerable figures on it. Then he patiently waited until tea and snacks were served, gulped them down, and was gone as silently as he had arrived.
He was "King John", an ex-lecturer in mathematics, who has been diddled out of his inheritance and also his sanity. But where mathematics was concerned, he was as lucid as any savant. This gentle giant who looked more like Henry VIII than King John, became a dear friend over the years, and my sibling and I owed much of our success in mathematics and algebra, to him. He also informed us that we had no cause to sniff at him, as he had a daily bath in the temple tank ( though the layers of clothing were never laundered but peeled off for the ritual, and worn again) and slept under the watchful eyes of the resident God of the temple.
When I came home after several years in the city, I was told that an over-diligent police officer had picked "King John" off the roads, and incarcerated him in some Remand Home. I had to see him for old times sake. He was digging and hoeing in the garden, and I was appalled to see how very thin he was, without his padding. His head and face had been shaved clean, and my heart went out to this docile creature.
"John," I called, "Come here." I had taken a box of biscuits for him He stared at me for a while. Then recognition dawned. He came to the hedge with a pink rose for me.
"Run away," he said, "Or they'll catch you too."
He died a few months later in captivity, like a bird whose wings had been broken.

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Friend Of My Childhood	He walked into our house one day, uninvited, a Goliath encased in several layers of clothing. His hair was tied back in a pony-tail, and his wispy beard quivered as he muttered to himself. His pockets were stuffed with assorted bric-a-brac, like a magpie's untidy nest. He fished into one of them for a scrap of paper, and scribbled innumerable figures on it. Then he patiently waited until tea and snacks were served, gulped them down, and was gone as silently as he had arrived.
He was "King John", an ex-lecturer in mathematics, who has been diddled out of his inheritance and also his sanity. But where mathematics was concerned, he was as lucid as any savant. This gentle giant who looked more like Henry VIII than King John, became a dear friend over the years, and my sibling and I owed much of our success in mathematics and algebra, to him. He also informed us that we had no cause to sniff at him, as he had a daily bath in the temple tank ( though the layers of clothing were never laundered but peeled off for the ritual, and worn again) and slept under the watchful eyes of the resident God of the temple.
When I came home after several years in the city, I was told that an over-diligent police officer had picked "King John" off the roads, and incarcerated him in some Remand Home. I had to see him for old times sake. He was digging and hoeing in the garden, and I was appalled to see how very thin he was, without his padding. His head and face had been shaved clean, and my heart went out to this docile creature.
"John," I called, "Come here." I had taken a box of biscuits for him He stared at me for a while. Then recognition dawned. He came to the hedge with a pink rose for me.
"Run away," he said, "Or they'll catch you too."
He died a few months later in captivity, like a bird whose wings had been broken.

If you have any sort of concern or worry, please look at our Problem Page. or If you want more information on the answers to life - please look at the following pages
The Short Story Library Contents Page	SOON Online Magazine homepage The international Ezine with a difference. Problem page, true stories, interviews, "life and how to survive it" section, religion, science, news, your language and country pages, and much more.
Other real stories of people who found true happiness.	VISITOR PAGE