Tobias
This is a virtual Astro Boy story, in the manor of Tezuka's Atom Cat. It's an experiment of mine, and I am not going to guarantee a complete story so much as a train of thoughts based on a fantasy.
The idea for this short was inspired by a young man who is so infatuated with the Astro Boy character that he has made the cosplay of Astro part of his daily routine. A bit of the memory from my youth might sneak in as well.
Chapter 1
Tobias Levine looked behind him as he exited school. The seventh grader didn't see the usual bunch of bullies following him and he hoped he was in the clear. As soon as he turned the corner he heard the voices of the crowd that always tormented him at school.
"Hey girly hair! Four eyes! Jew Boy!" The older black kids had found him.
"Run away, freak!" they yelled.
Tobias ducked between two parked cars and quickly J-walked across the street barely avoiding the on coming traffic. They were right about him though. His hair was dirty blond, actually a mix of both dark and blond hair, probably due to a strange mix of genes. Both of Tobias's grandmothers had been blond before they had turned gray. His mother and father were both dark haired.
His eyes were of a blue-green mixture, again probably due to the witch's brew of a gene pool that he had inherited. He was also short. While most of his class was nearing five feet or more in height, Tobias Levine was inches above four feet tall. And he wore glasses. Ugly plastic framed with thick lenses. He made a good target. Being a minority only added to his torment. Besides having to make it home in one piece, he had his Bar Mitzvah studies to worry about. While that was still a ways off, not till the fall anyway, he had just started studying with the Rabbi to learn his Torah portion. He wasn't enjoying that either.
The only thing that he did find pleasant in middle school was the pretty little Asian girl that he met in his homeroom class. At first he thought she was Chinese or Korean. He was uneducated about that part of the world. When he had finally found the courage to ask the girl her name and to introduce himself he stupidly asked if she was Korean.
Sakiko Yamasaki wasn't offended. She found Tobias somewhat quite cute actually.
"My parents are from Japan," she told him. "I was born in America after they arrived here."
"Oh," he said. "I guess I can't tell the difference between people from that part of the world."
"Don't worry about it," she said. "You didn't mean any insult."
"What is your name?" Sakiko asked.
"It's Tobias, but you can call me Toby," he smiled.
When it was time to sign up for the open class choices, Tobias was dismayed at the fact that he'd have to take a foreign language. He'd wanted to keep out of classes that he knew the bullies would be in, that way he might avoid their torment. Most of them would take Spanish or French. It seemed that if he wanted to avoid the goon squad, he'd need to do something out of the ordinary. There was a class being offered in Japanese, but only if enough students signed up. When Tobias entered his name on the sign up sheet he found Sakiko Yamasaki had already put hers on it a few lines up. He confronted her about it at lunch time.
"Hey Sakiko, why did you sign up for the Japanese class, don't you already speak it?"
She laughed. "Hardly. My parents rarely spoke Japanese in front of me, they didn't give me much chance to learn their native tongue. I guess they figured that way they could keep secrets from me or something."
Tobias found that funny. "So now you'll get even with them I suppose?"
"Yeah, I guess so. I wonder what our teacher will think of me taking a class in my native language?"
Once again on his way home Tobias had to evade the bullies. He was getting tired of the 'girl hair' and 'four eyes' insults and it occurred t him what he needed to do.
That night at the dinner table he brought the subject up to his parents.
"I think I'd like to get contact lenses, I'm tired of my glasses."
His mother looked up at him.
"I guess you're old enough for them. We can make you an appointment with the eye doctor and get you fitted for them".
His father nodded with approval.
"Actually, you'll see a lot better with contact lenses than with your glasses, and it will take a weight off your nose."
Well that part went well. He might as well go for broke.
"Mom, can I color my hair black?"
"What?", his mother asked. "Why would you want to do that?"
"Well, why do you color your's blond?" he shot back at her.
"That's different, I'm a woman. Men don't color their hair."
"Dad does!", he said.
It was true. His father had started touching up some of his gray hair back to his 'normal' dark color.
"I'm halfway blond and halfway black. The kid's tease me, calling me 'girl hair'. I want to have dark hair like dad!"
"Let the kid do it," his father answered.
"OK, I'm going to the hairdresser tomorrow. Meet me there after school and I'll have them do you," his mother said.
Tobias felt better. Maybe if he made himself over with a new hair color and got rid of his glasses they'd stop teasing him.
The next day Tobias couldn't wait for the end of school. He ran home faster than he ever had, barely keeping away from the usual bullies. His mother used a hairdresser not far from their home, just a block and a half away, right next door to the supermarket. He ran into the shop and saw his mother already sitting on one of the chairs, getting her hair styled.
"Mary, this is my son Toby. I told him you'd dye his hair black for him. He'll probably need it shampooed first, the kid never washes his head and it probably reeks."
"MOM!" Tobias cried.
When Mary was finished with Mrs. Levine, she took Tobias over to the sink. She asked him to remove his shirt so it wouldn't get wet, and then put a plastic smock on over his head for some water protection.
Mary had him lean over the sink, and she wet his hair with the shower spray, and rubbed a good amount of shampoo in. It lathered up quickly and some of the soap got into his eyes.
"AHHH that burns!" he yelled.
"Keep your eyes closed!" she laughed. "I guess your mom's right, you don't wash your hair very often, do you?"
Mary rinsed out the soap and towel dried his hair and then combed it straight.
"You have nice hair, young man. I could style it anyway you'd like, and it would be very easy to do. I wish my hair would behave as well as your's does."
Mary then rubbed in the hair dye with her gloved hands.
"Now we need to let that set for a while, and then rinse out the excess. I can style it for you later, If you know what you'd want."
"Not now." Tobias said. "Just leave it as it is for now. I'll get it cut later."
"Suit yourself, Toby. But if you'd like me to give you any special look, let me know. I've done lots of party hair, some of it was rather weird too."