p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It's a nice day out. Of course it is, Tim's only allowed to go to the park on nice days. His therapist won't allow it on drab or rainy days. Says its not good for him to get caught up in not-so-cheerful things./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Mom, can I go pet that dog?" Little Timothy asks as he points to a near by couple playing with their little dog./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Only if the owners say you can." With a nod and half smile, Tim goes over to the people and, with their permission, starts petting the dog. Although the dog is kind of put off by Tim, he's able to pet it for a few seconds before the dog starts barking and somewhat growling at him. The owners apologize for the dogs weird behavior and Tim slightly frowns as he says thank you and goes back to his mother./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She's talking to a friend of hers when Tim tugs on her skirt to get her attention. "Mom, I want to go home. I don't want to be here. There's nothing to do."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm talking to someone, Tim. Don't be rude." She turns her attention away from him. Tim looks back at the dog but its owners have taken it away and left. He decides to go and sit down on the near by bench where he watches as others go about their business, having fun. He wonders why he can never have this much fun. Why is it so hard for him to make friends? Then again who would want to be friends with a freak? The kid that animals hate being around. A crazy kid who isn't able to speak one word to anyone casually without fear of saying something that would scare them away. He's learned now to not mention the faceless man that follows him. That always pushes people away or angers his parents when they have to explain to their friends what's "wrong" with him. Sometimes he just can't keep quiet. Its hard for a kid his age to have to keep such big secrets from everyone. Other times, it feels like he's not the one talking./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It gets pretty lonely but Tim usually finds something to keep him busy. He likes to build things with legoes or building blocks and sometimes build the train set in the doctor's office waiting room. He also likes to watch movies but he can only watch ones that his doctor approves of. There can't be violence or anything scary. Protect his mind at all cost. Keep him sheltered. Keep him isolated at all times. Give him Veggie Tales, those will do him good! No. Not at all. He merely listens to those ones, like theyre just back ground noise. He likes watching movies with real people. Sadly, he only gets those on rare occasions./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tim looks over at his mom, hoping that she's finishing up but it doesn't look like it. He gives a big sigh and stares down at his shoe. Untied like always. He doesn't bother to get it though. What's the point when he's not going to be moving any time soon? Instead he just gets lost in his thoughts, like always. Its all he can do, its a habit really. A bad one at times when he should be paying more attention. He doesn't really care though. He sometimes likes to get lost in his own thoughts and imagination. Its normal for him. Besides, not like he gets to do much in the world of reality anyways. Its normal for him to be so alone and by himself. Its normal for him to make up different worlds in hopes to escape from the one he lives in./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Suddenly, Tim's thoughts are interrupted as he gets hit in the head by something. While cupping the side of his head, he looks around confused and sees there's a frisbee on the ground./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Oh man! Sorry about that!" A kid with light brown hair comes running over and picks up the toy. "I'm really sorry. Are you hurt?" Tims frozen in surprise and can't speak, but is able to give a small head shake. His face turns red from being embarassed. The light brown haired kid only frowns. "uh... are you sure? I can take a look at it if you want me to! My moms a nurse and she showed me some cool things about the skull!" Tim doesn't really know how to respond./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Uh...n-no thank you uh I'm fine." He softly speaks and looks down to his feet. The other kid nods and looks around./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""So uh, are you waiting on anyone to come and play with?" The boy asks. Tim glances at his mom and shifts uncomfortably on the bench. He shakes his head but keeps his stare down. "Oh. Would you like to play frisbee with me? My friends had to leave so I've just been trying to see how far I could throw it. I think I might have hit like five miles if it werent for the wind that carried it over here and hit you. Again, sorry about that." Tim slowly looks up at the kid while he talked. This kid sure did talk a lot. Tim had already forgotten the question at hand and just looked at the kid, not knowing what to do./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Uh...that's okay" he said quietly. They just look at each other for a moment, the other one waiting for an answer./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Sooooooooo? Do you have anyone to play with?" Tims eyes widen a little bit and gives another small head shake. "Well would you like to play around with me? If you're allowed that is." Was this kid for real? They don't even know who each other are and he wants to play with him? Tim looks over at his mom who is, of course, still talking. He's not sure what to do. "Come ooooonnn, we don't have to play with this thing I have chalk and some snacks and other things too!" Tim is astounded by how this kid behaves. So friendly and nice and just over all welcoming./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tim thinks about it a few more seconds and nods. He gets off the bench and walks over to his mom, but suddenly falls to the ground. He winces as he lands on his hands, luckily hes wearing pants so his knees aren't scraped up. Brian quickly helps him back up and says, "Are you alright? Man, it's not your day is it?" Tim looks down at his shoe and his face becomes red again. He quickly bends down and ties it back up./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm fine. Hold on." Tim quickly walks over to his mother and tugs on her skirt again./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""What is it Tim?" She asks./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Can I go play?" He looks up at her and only glances at her friend./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yes, you may, but make sure to be careful and don't get too excited, you'll be tired before dinner." With a nod, Tim leaves his mothers side and slowly, but hesitantly, walks back over./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Did she say yes?" He asks. Tim nods and the other one smiles wide. "Cool! My names Brian by the way! What's your name?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Tim." He gives Brian a small smile./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Come on Tim! I've also got cool cars we can play with!" Tim follows the boy as he heads to a spot under the tree. Brian takes off his backpack and opens it up. He pulls out a bunch of different toys, Tim's actually amazed at how much this kid could fit in his back pack. "So what do you want to play with first?" Tim looked at all the different toys but just shrugged in response. Brian looked at them and picked up red and yellow cars, along with the chalk. He quickly heads to the nearby black top./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""We can draw a race car track!" He hands Tim the red car and starts drawing curves and lines, eventually switching the colors to make it more interesting. Tim is captivated and watches as the other boy's design is sketched onto the surface. "If you want you can start drawing the trees and stuff around the track!"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tim nods, grabs random chalk and starts drawing trees and bushes around the track. Soon enough, he's losing himself in thought. Why is he playing with this kid? He doesn't know anything about him. Nor does he know anything about Tim. Is this how other kids play and meet each other? Its weird. Its not like Tim to just start playing with a kid he doesn't know. There's just something about Brian that makes him want to hang around and get to know him. Usually, if Tim was playing with the toys at the doctor's office he'd just get up and leave the area if other kids had showed up. This isn't normal for him. All of this is not what normal Tim would be doing. Normal Tim would be keeping to himself and making sure to keep his distance from others. Or at least that's what he thought he should do since he's crazy./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Hey what's that you're drawing?" Brian asks as he looks over Tims shoulder and sees what he's drawing./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Uh oh./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Hm?" Tim isn't fully out of his trance yet. "It's the thing that follows me. If you look for it you'll never find it, but it always finds me." He quits drawing but continues to look at the white spot that is the faceless creature./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""The...what? Do you still have imaginary friends? My mom made mine move out. We sent them to a special home for imaginary friends. I still have an imaginary pet hamster though. I'm not allowed to have any pets because my dad has allergies."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""It's not imaginary!... It's real and he follows me around. It's always in the trees and no one believes me because they all think I'm crazy. My parents do, my family does, my therapist does too...they all do. Nobody ever wants to be my friend, who would want to be friends with a crazy person like me?" Tim's gripping the toy car tightly and tears start falling down his cheeks. Slowly, he starts realizing what he just said and snaps back to reality. His eyes widen and his head whips to face Brian."Uh! Wait uh! I-i-i was just joking! I'm not crazy!" Tim drops the car, stands up quickly, and tightly grips onto the hem of his shirt./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Brian is speechless for the first time that day. He stares at Tim with little, wide eyes and a shocked expression. "So...that thing is real? Does he hurt you?" He points to the drawing and glances around. Tim freezes where he stands now. Tim responds with a small nod and Brian looks like he had ants crawling all over his body./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm not lying." He says softly./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Brian only frowns and looks around. After a while of looking for trouble, he takes a deep breath, steps towards Tim, and grabs his hand. He turns around, takes a deep breath and shouts, "If anyone ever hurts my friend Tim they'll have to go through me!" A bunch of kids looked at them like they just grew horns or something. Tim's face was bright red and he looked at the boy in shock. Brian, on the other hand, looked satisfied. He had a brave smile on his face and seemed to not care what others thought. "I don't think you're lying Tim. Sometimes I can see monsters in my closet or under my bed." Tim is still trying to process what just happened./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Wait...I'm... I'm your friend?!" Tim questions. Brian looks at him kind of surprised but still holds that smile in place./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yeah! I like having friends! And my mom always told me if I liked something I should protect it and stand for what I believe is right! I don't think whatever is chasing you is very friendly so I want to protect my friend!" Brian drops Tim's hand and grabs a piece of chalk. He continues to draw over and cover up the drawing of the monster. He picks up the red car and hands it back to Tim. "Still wanna play?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"This is no where near normal for Tim, but he nods anyways and takes the car. They start racing until eventually their cars become rocketships. Brian starts talking about how his uncle works for NASA and builds cool rocket ships. Tim continues to listen as they went back to the tree to eat some snacks. They exchange basic things about themselves like their favorite color and favorite things to eat./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"After another fifteen minutes pass, Tim hears his mom shout his name and waves him over to go home. Tim frowns and looks at Brian, "I think I have to go now..." he gets up and brushes his pants off./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Wait do you come here very much?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm only allowed here on nice days."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'll do my best to be here on nice days then! Under this same tree, okay? I'll try and bring other toys to play with too!"Brian smiles his big goofy grin./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tim half smiles back, "Thanks for letting me be your friend, even though I'm strange."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You're not strange! My aunt once told me that there's no such thing as being normal or weird. There's only you!" Tim contemplates this for a moment. Its only when his mom calls his name again that he snaps back to reality and he notices he's smiling the biggest smile he's made in a while. Tim thanks Brian again and waves good bye./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""See ya later, Tim!"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"-/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"On the car ride home, Tim told his mom about his new friend, but ,of course, left out the faceless man part. She said she was very glad he made a friend and would gladly bring him on nice days like this. So, for the first time in a long time, Tim was excited about something that he thought would never be part of /his/ normal everyday. Then again, maybe he should stay away from the thought of something normal. It doesn't exactly exist, you know./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Mom, can I go pet that dog?" Little Timothy asks as he points to a near by couple playing with their little dog./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Only if the owners say you can." With a nod and half smile, Tim goes over to the people and, with their permission, starts petting the dog. Although the dog is kind of put off by Tim, he's able to pet it for a few seconds before the dog starts barking and somewhat growling at him. The owners apologize for the dogs weird behavior and Tim slightly frowns as he says thank you and goes back to his mother./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She's talking to a friend of hers when Tim tugs on her skirt to get her attention. "Mom, I want to go home. I don't want to be here. There's nothing to do."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm talking to someone, Tim. Don't be rude." She turns her attention away from him. Tim looks back at the dog but its owners have taken it away and left. He decides to go and sit down on the near by bench where he watches as others go about their business, having fun. He wonders why he can never have this much fun. Why is it so hard for him to make friends? Then again who would want to be friends with a freak? The kid that animals hate being around. A crazy kid who isn't able to speak one word to anyone casually without fear of saying something that would scare them away. He's learned now to not mention the faceless man that follows him. That always pushes people away or angers his parents when they have to explain to their friends what's "wrong" with him. Sometimes he just can't keep quiet. Its hard for a kid his age to have to keep such big secrets from everyone. Other times, it feels like he's not the one talking./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"It gets pretty lonely but Tim usually finds something to keep him busy. He likes to build things with legoes or building blocks and sometimes build the train set in the doctor's office waiting room. He also likes to watch movies but he can only watch ones that his doctor approves of. There can't be violence or anything scary. Protect his mind at all cost. Keep him sheltered. Keep him isolated at all times. Give him Veggie Tales, those will do him good! No. Not at all. He merely listens to those ones, like theyre just back ground noise. He likes watching movies with real people. Sadly, he only gets those on rare occasions./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tim looks over at his mom, hoping that she's finishing up but it doesn't look like it. He gives a big sigh and stares down at his shoe. Untied like always. He doesn't bother to get it though. What's the point when he's not going to be moving any time soon? Instead he just gets lost in his thoughts, like always. Its all he can do, its a habit really. A bad one at times when he should be paying more attention. He doesn't really care though. He sometimes likes to get lost in his own thoughts and imagination. Its normal for him. Besides, not like he gets to do much in the world of reality anyways. Its normal for him to be so alone and by himself. Its normal for him to make up different worlds in hopes to escape from the one he lives in./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Suddenly, Tim's thoughts are interrupted as he gets hit in the head by something. While cupping the side of his head, he looks around confused and sees there's a frisbee on the ground./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Oh man! Sorry about that!" A kid with light brown hair comes running over and picks up the toy. "I'm really sorry. Are you hurt?" Tims frozen in surprise and can't speak, but is able to give a small head shake. His face turns red from being embarassed. The light brown haired kid only frowns. "uh... are you sure? I can take a look at it if you want me to! My moms a nurse and she showed me some cool things about the skull!" Tim doesn't really know how to respond./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Uh...n-no thank you uh I'm fine." He softly speaks and looks down to his feet. The other kid nods and looks around./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""So uh, are you waiting on anyone to come and play with?" The boy asks. Tim glances at his mom and shifts uncomfortably on the bench. He shakes his head but keeps his stare down. "Oh. Would you like to play frisbee with me? My friends had to leave so I've just been trying to see how far I could throw it. I think I might have hit like five miles if it werent for the wind that carried it over here and hit you. Again, sorry about that." Tim slowly looks up at the kid while he talked. This kid sure did talk a lot. Tim had already forgotten the question at hand and just looked at the kid, not knowing what to do./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Uh...that's okay" he said quietly. They just look at each other for a moment, the other one waiting for an answer./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Sooooooooo? Do you have anyone to play with?" Tims eyes widen a little bit and gives another small head shake. "Well would you like to play around with me? If you're allowed that is." Was this kid for real? They don't even know who each other are and he wants to play with him? Tim looks over at his mom who is, of course, still talking. He's not sure what to do. "Come ooooonnn, we don't have to play with this thing I have chalk and some snacks and other things too!" Tim is astounded by how this kid behaves. So friendly and nice and just over all welcoming./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tim thinks about it a few more seconds and nods. He gets off the bench and walks over to his mom, but suddenly falls to the ground. He winces as he lands on his hands, luckily hes wearing pants so his knees aren't scraped up. Brian quickly helps him back up and says, "Are you alright? Man, it's not your day is it?" Tim looks down at his shoe and his face becomes red again. He quickly bends down and ties it back up./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm fine. Hold on." Tim quickly walks over to his mother and tugs on her skirt again./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""What is it Tim?" She asks./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Can I go play?" He looks up at her and only glances at her friend./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yes, you may, but make sure to be careful and don't get too excited, you'll be tired before dinner." With a nod, Tim leaves his mothers side and slowly, but hesitantly, walks back over./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Did she say yes?" He asks. Tim nods and the other one smiles wide. "Cool! My names Brian by the way! What's your name?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Tim." He gives Brian a small smile./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Come on Tim! I've also got cool cars we can play with!" Tim follows the boy as he heads to a spot under the tree. Brian takes off his backpack and opens it up. He pulls out a bunch of different toys, Tim's actually amazed at how much this kid could fit in his back pack. "So what do you want to play with first?" Tim looked at all the different toys but just shrugged in response. Brian looked at them and picked up red and yellow cars, along with the chalk. He quickly heads to the nearby black top./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""We can draw a race car track!" He hands Tim the red car and starts drawing curves and lines, eventually switching the colors to make it more interesting. Tim is captivated and watches as the other boy's design is sketched onto the surface. "If you want you can start drawing the trees and stuff around the track!"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tim nods, grabs random chalk and starts drawing trees and bushes around the track. Soon enough, he's losing himself in thought. Why is he playing with this kid? He doesn't know anything about him. Nor does he know anything about Tim. Is this how other kids play and meet each other? Its weird. Its not like Tim to just start playing with a kid he doesn't know. There's just something about Brian that makes him want to hang around and get to know him. Usually, if Tim was playing with the toys at the doctor's office he'd just get up and leave the area if other kids had showed up. This isn't normal for him. All of this is not what normal Tim would be doing. Normal Tim would be keeping to himself and making sure to keep his distance from others. Or at least that's what he thought he should do since he's crazy./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Hey what's that you're drawing?" Brian asks as he looks over Tims shoulder and sees what he's drawing./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Uh oh./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Hm?" Tim isn't fully out of his trance yet. "It's the thing that follows me. If you look for it you'll never find it, but it always finds me." He quits drawing but continues to look at the white spot that is the faceless creature./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""The...what? Do you still have imaginary friends? My mom made mine move out. We sent them to a special home for imaginary friends. I still have an imaginary pet hamster though. I'm not allowed to have any pets because my dad has allergies."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""It's not imaginary!... It's real and he follows me around. It's always in the trees and no one believes me because they all think I'm crazy. My parents do, my family does, my therapist does too...they all do. Nobody ever wants to be my friend, who would want to be friends with a crazy person like me?" Tim's gripping the toy car tightly and tears start falling down his cheeks. Slowly, he starts realizing what he just said and snaps back to reality. His eyes widen and his head whips to face Brian."Uh! Wait uh! I-i-i was just joking! I'm not crazy!" Tim drops the car, stands up quickly, and tightly grips onto the hem of his shirt./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Brian is speechless for the first time that day. He stares at Tim with little, wide eyes and a shocked expression. "So...that thing is real? Does he hurt you?" He points to the drawing and glances around. Tim freezes where he stands now. Tim responds with a small nod and Brian looks like he had ants crawling all over his body./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm not lying." He says softly./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Brian only frowns and looks around. After a while of looking for trouble, he takes a deep breath, steps towards Tim, and grabs his hand. He turns around, takes a deep breath and shouts, "If anyone ever hurts my friend Tim they'll have to go through me!" A bunch of kids looked at them like they just grew horns or something. Tim's face was bright red and he looked at the boy in shock. Brian, on the other hand, looked satisfied. He had a brave smile on his face and seemed to not care what others thought. "I don't think you're lying Tim. Sometimes I can see monsters in my closet or under my bed." Tim is still trying to process what just happened./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Wait...I'm... I'm your friend?!" Tim questions. Brian looks at him kind of surprised but still holds that smile in place./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Yeah! I like having friends! And my mom always told me if I liked something I should protect it and stand for what I believe is right! I don't think whatever is chasing you is very friendly so I want to protect my friend!" Brian drops Tim's hand and grabs a piece of chalk. He continues to draw over and cover up the drawing of the monster. He picks up the red car and hands it back to Tim. "Still wanna play?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"This is no where near normal for Tim, but he nods anyways and takes the car. They start racing until eventually their cars become rocketships. Brian starts talking about how his uncle works for NASA and builds cool rocket ships. Tim continues to listen as they went back to the tree to eat some snacks. They exchange basic things about themselves like their favorite color and favorite things to eat./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"After another fifteen minutes pass, Tim hears his mom shout his name and waves him over to go home. Tim frowns and looks at Brian, "I think I have to go now..." he gets up and brushes his pants off./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""Wait do you come here very much?"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'm only allowed here on nice days."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""I'll do my best to be here on nice days then! Under this same tree, okay? I'll try and bring other toys to play with too!"Brian smiles his big goofy grin./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Tim half smiles back, "Thanks for letting me be your friend, even though I'm strange."/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""You're not strange! My aunt once told me that there's no such thing as being normal or weird. There's only you!" Tim contemplates this for a moment. Its only when his mom calls his name again that he snaps back to reality and he notices he's smiling the biggest smile he's made in a while. Tim thanks Brian again and waves good bye./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;""See ya later, Tim!"/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"-/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"On the car ride home, Tim told his mom about his new friend, but ,of course, left out the faceless man part. She said she was very glad he made a friend and would gladly bring him on nice days like this. So, for the first time in a long time, Tim was excited about something that he thought would never be part of /his/ normal everyday. Then again, maybe he should stay away from the thought of something normal. It doesn't exactly exist, you know./p