On your Six

A/N In short, a simple story that sparked from a scene I created in my head. For those of you who are curious about the title, it's derived from Rhino's line from the movie, "I'm on your six." In the sense of, I've got your back.


The autumn sun slowly descended into the horizon, taking most of its warmth with it, spreading its final rays of light for the day across the small town of Silverlake. The temperature began its own descent as well, calling most of the close-knit town's citizens inside to their houses. Many saying their good-evenings to their multitude of neighbors, some including additional plans for meeting soon, others simply knowing they would meet again the following day. Silverlake was one of those types of towns, in which nearly everyone knew everyone else, from the next door neighbor, to the bagging employees at the grocery store. Everyone knew something about everyone else, whether it was a characteristic, or simply a first name. There were no unfamiliar faces, rivalries, or town rogues, and the town had no criminal record of any sort. The country community was, simply put, a large neighborhood in which all were neighbors, all were acquaintances, and all were friends.

This was nearly the opposite case for Henry Doffen, who watched over the town from his desk in his room.

Henry knew virtually nothing about many, if not most, of the people of his town beyond his small neighborhood. And that was a very small amount of knowledge. He knew of his next door neighbors, a young married couple, the Karans, with a two year-old daughter who had recently learned the basics of walking, and on the other side, an older couple, the Nashes both children of whom had left for college. Across the street, there was a sweet middle aged woman, Miss Mae, who always seemed content with what she had. When half of her back porch burned down, she smiled that she had more room for her garden, remaining ever-optimistic. It almost seemed there were two main things that mattered to her, her yard, and her neighbors. She was kind to all, including Henry, and she was one of the few of the town who Henry actually socialized with. Henry would accompany his mother when visiting, and she would greet him warmly, often ask how school was going, and Henry would communicate back normally as he would to a friend-as she was a friend-which was a rare sight.

The entire town knew a little something about everyone, and while Henry knew little about them, they all knew the one thing about Henry. He was the opposite of social. Whether it was at school, or simply running an errand, Henry kept to himself. He had virtually no friends (with the exception of Miss Mae), and he showed no interest in having any. While there were other kids who would greet him and attempt to socialize, he would simply nod and move on. This was the case with anyone, and everyone he came across. Some of the kids at his school simply rested upon the conclusion that he had mental issues. Many others thought he was only shy, or it was just a phase he was going through. Some even thought he chose not to socialize a long time ago. Any one of these could be interpreted as correct, but the true reason was he had lost all faith in friendship, all faith in people in general. He had grown up in a far shadier city, in which his parents told him to stick close whenever outside and not speak to or trust anyone. But this was not his reason for being bias against trust. He had attempted to make a couple friends in his school when starting the third grade, but something seemed to go wrong with every friend, usually some sort of personal matter or accident (which was frequent in the area), and the first few of them seemed to place the blame of his shoulders, and cease to talk to or help him with anything, some even acted bitter towards him. Unfortunately, this continued for the next few friends he attempted to make, and with each one, his level of trust for others slowly decreased. Even when he moved to Silverlake, when his parents assured him things would be better, he still kept to himself both in school, and anywhere else, for fear his past would repeat itself. His parents could only look on and hope he would gradually re-accept trust in others. It was a fading hope.

As for the neighborhood, there was just one other neighbor who Henry knew anything about. The house only a few doors up the road, lived Mr. Forrester, an elderly man, who, to Henry's knowledge, was once a scientist. Henry himself hardly ever saw him, he seemed to remain in his house most days, what he was doing, remained a mystery. He thought he once saw his family on a holiday or two, but old man Forrester never ventured beyond his doorstep. Henry could only ponder about his background, what he did during the day, what he was like in his earlier days, or his present days, and why he would remain so cooped up in his house. Having never spoken to any of the other people of the town, he had no idea what the strange, and slightly creepy, man was like before his time. Again, he could only wonder.

Henry decided to dismiss his current thought train and head to the dinner table before his parents began to worry again. As he slowly exited his room, he wondered as he had done multiple times before if the tendency to keep to himself was the one quality he shared with that strange, isolated man on his block.


A/N. I'll be publishing one more chapter after this one sometime during the holiday season, then I'll return my focus to Calico Returns.