Slice Of Life: A Daily Story

Day Eight

Friday, June 29th
based on the movie Little Man Tate.

Undeveloped

The little boy was brilliant but emotionally exhausting. I wept for him. Being brilliant is not a gift, it is a curse. There are those who want to take advantage of the brilliance, those who don’t understand the brilliance, those who shun the brilliance, those who ridicule and taunt and persecute the brilliance. And I wept for the plight of the brilliant little boy who was enduring all of those and so much more. And adult trapped in the body of a seven year old body. Life, at times, seems so unfair. Genius in a child is no different than retardation in an adult. Both are the subject of awkwardness.

Fred was unpretentious. He was a quiet child and incapable of harm but harm was very capable of finding him. He was lost though he didn’t know it. During the moments of childishness he was quite adorable though. The way he smiled, his laughter, his wide eyed curiosity for the world, Fred was a very contagious soul and a sheer joy to be around. I found myself mesmerized by him yet unsure if I like that or not. I like the kid but I was afraid, so terribly terribly afraid – both of him and for him. He just wasn’t ready for the cruelty that would/ could befall him. If only he had been better supervised; life would have been for Fred if only he hadn’t of been so undeveloped. But instead he was misled and misguided and wounded … battered, beaten, and left behind. The conditions coupled with his injuries proved too much for him. He was found alive but his little heart stopped beating on the way to the hospital. Such a waste, such brilliance, and he was gone in one thoughtless, careless moment.