There once was a boy who was lost. Fighting to be heard at any cost. He found a voice where none was before. And because of you he found more.
This story goes out to three young ladies who helped me find my path in life. I was just a young lad no older than nine. It was a time in my life when I lived day to day invisible, lost in a crowd wherever I went. Though, I envied the attention received by my siblings, and cousins too. I could count not a friend on one hand. I focused and wondered why this could be and only accepted what I could not see. Invisible was me.
In my home the conversations rang, the music soared and my sister sang. My brothers shined in the light of the sun and spent their hours around my dad and my mom. I felt lost for so very long. I did find solace in the moments alone, and created a quiet world that I could call my own. The sun through the window shone on my bed, but I remembered yesterday instead. What’s a poor lad to do, if it wasn’t me, then perhaps was it you?
Then one day, the car we all filled and the gas tank too. A small town far away we went, maybe an hour drive, not two. I gazed out the window, apart from the passengers inside, filling my mind with what I passed by. When park was the gear of choice, we emptied into a void. Who, what and where were question marks in my mind, as we ascended the stairs and knocked on the door. An opening door did swing and into a home, not house did we.
I sat alone in a crowded room biding my time as I usually do. But to my surprise, young girls three, entered and sat next to me. They spoke despite the conversation already in tune. And directed to me to please respond too. I stuttered, I stumbled, I began to slip. I wanted to abandon this room, abandon this ship. But no, the inquiries still did come. “What do you do? What have you done?”
And like a whisper I began and I spoke. I answered, I queried, I began to cope. They wanted to know more and more. So I replied and my heart began to soar. I started, finally started, to speak on my own. I answered more questions as my spirit no longer felt alone. At last when the questions stopped, I reached into my mind, for a story I shopped. I sorted it into a beginning, a middle, an end. It was a simple anecdote about my last weekend. And when I finished and when I was done, three girls, my cousins laughed and sung.
To this day I am forever grateful and genuine, thanks to my cousins Ester, Nada and Evelyn.
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