"Leave him alone" I yelled as I walked out of the orphanage gate
and saw several of the Spring Park School bullies pushing the deaf
kid around.
I did not know the boy at all but I knew that we were about the
same age, because of his size. He lived in the old white house
across the street from the orphanage where I lived. I had seen him
on his front porch several times doing absolutely nothing, except
just sitting there making funny like hand movements.
In the summer time we didn't get much to eat for Sunday supper,
except watermelon and then we had to eat it outside behind the
dining room so we would not make a mess on the tables inside. About
the only time that I would see him was through the high chain-link
fence that surrounded the orphanage when we ate our watermelon
outside.
The deaf kid started making all kind of hand signals, real fast
like. "You are a stupid idiot" said the bigger of the two bullies
as he pushed the boy down on the ground. The other bully ran around
behind the boy and kicked him as hard as he could in the back. The
deaf boy's body started shaking all over and he curled up in a ball
trying to shield and hide his face. He looked like he was trying to
cry, or something but he just couldn't make any sounds, I don't
think.
I ran as fast as I could back through the orphanage gate and into
the thick azalea bushes. I uncovered my home-made bow which I had
constructed out of bamboo and string. I grabbed four arrows that
were also made of bamboo and they had coca cola tops bent around
the ends to make real sharp tips. Then I ran back out the gate with
an arrow cocked in the bow and I just stood there quiet like,
breathing real hard just daring either one of them to kick or touch
the boy again.
"You're a dumb freak just like him you big eared creep" said one of
the boys as he grabbed his friend and backed off far enough so that
the arrow would not hit them. "If you're so brave kick him again
now" I said, shaking like a leaf. The bigger of the two bullies ran
up and kicked the deaf boy in the middle of his back as hard as he
could and then he ran out of arrow range again.
The boy jerked about and then made a sound that I will never forget
for as long as I live. It was the sound like a whale makes when it
has been harpooned and knows that it is about to die. I fired all
four of my arrows at the two bullies as they ran away laughing
about what they had done.
I pulled the boy up off the ground and helped him back to his house
which was about two blocks down the street from the school
building. When we reached his home his sister told me that her
brother was deaf but that he was not dumb like the two bullies
said. That he was very smart but could not say or hear anything. I
told her that he did make a sound when the bully kicked him in the
back. She told me that I must be mistaken because all her brother's
vocal cords had been removed during an experimental surgery, which
had failed.
The boy made one of those hand signs at me as I was about to leave.
I asked his sister "if your brother is so smart then why is he
doing things like that with his hands?" She told me that he was
saying that he loved me with his hands. I didn't say anything back
to her at all because I didn't believe her. People can't talk with
their hands and everybody knows that. People can only talk with
their mouth.
Almost every Sunday for the next year or two I could see the boy
through the chain-link fence as we ate watermelon outside behind
the dining room, during the summer time. He always made that same
funny hand sign at me and I would just wave back at him, not
knowing what else to do.
On my very last day in the orphanage I was being chased by the
police. They told me that I was being sent off to the Florida
School for Boys Reform School, at Marianna so I ran to get away
from them. They chased me around the dining room building several
times and finally I made a dash for the chain-link fence and tried
to climb over in order to escape. I saw the deaf boy sitting there
on his porch just looking at me as they pulled me down from the
fence and handcuffed me. The boy, now about twelve jumped up and
ran across San Diego Road, placed his fingers through the
chain-link fence and just stood there looking at us.
They drug me by my legs, screaming and yelling for more than
several hundred yards through the dirt and pine-straw to the
waiting police car. All I could hear the entire time was the high
pitched sound of that whale being harpooned again. As we pulled
away in the police car I saw the deaf boy loosen his grip on the
fence and slide very slowly to the ground and lower his head into
the leaves and pine straw. That is when I realized that he probably
really did love me and he wanted to save me because he thought that
I too was making the whale sound.
Roger Dean Kiser, Sr.
"The Sad Orphan"
http:www.geocities.com/trampolineone
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Roger Dean Kiser, Sr.