Chapter 1: The Day of Christopher

It felt good to get out of kindergarten; there is lots of stuff to do, like playing w/ my cars, getting ready for a youth volley ball tournament. Hi my name is Christopher Jay Wilson, I am 6 years old. I am toned; however I have no muscular or floppy physique. Though, I do have a little baby fat left. I am approximately 2 feet and 7 inches. Yeah, I'm tiny, it's in my human/Chipmunk class, and we tend to be tiny. I'm an odd little kid. My physical features are quite different than regular humans, my toes count up to 6, rather than ten, and my fingers count up to 8, rather than ten. My eyes are slightly bigger and oddly shaped then oval, and are vibrant saturated cobalt blue, almost like superman's from "superman returns". My nose is a rounded triangle, and my hair and skin is a light tan. And my two front teeth are rather lager then a regular person. Yes, I am odd, and I do get picked on because of it, however, Miss Clara says that I look handsome the way I am, she even uses the term "cute," And also she likes me because I'm smart, very smart actually, beyond a 6 year olds' I.Q.

Miss Clara is my guardian, yes she's human. She towers me at about 5'5", she's well-toned from being in the army. She is Caucasian, her eyes are a grassy green, and her hair is at shoulder length and a fiery reddish brown. She is about 35 years old, though, her energy with me kind of like a teenager. It was about 8 am on a Saturday morning in beautiful Tennessee. I just woke up and got dressed in my red waist length tee shirt, blue zipper hoodie, superhero briefs, faded snug blue jeans, white crew socks, and black steel toe work boots, I usually find those comfortable, and my C pendant and chain, my real mom gave that to me when I was a baby, however, I never seen her before, Miss Clara picked me up pretty much. I placed my wire rectangular rim glasses in front of my eyes, cause in all truth, I'm blind without them. I sat in our Victorian kitchen, it had lots of character, and however the wiring and size and appliances had recently been upgraded. There is wood and designs everywhere, and it's not a tiny kitchen either, it can seat a big table and have lots of room to cook and play in. Miss Clara bought it since it was big and beautiful and well, since she's a big time real estate agent, she gets lots of money.

"So big guy…" Clara says, "How many eggs do you want?"

With excitement, "I want two, with two pieces of toast and 5 pieces of bacon."

She chuckles, "Ok big guy."

I can eat quite a bit, Miss Clara says she envy's my metabolism, I kind of agree, she eats about half I do, cause she says if she ate what I eat then she'd be dieting and exercising twice as much as she does now. The bacon sizzling in the pan and the eggs cooking, the fried potatoes, all of it smelled awesome, the potatoes onion flavor sort of beat the other smells to my nose. It wasn't a strong onion, but it was defiantly there. I'm sitting on a bunch of old telephone books; Miss Clara says that I'm too big to be in a booster and too short for the table. Drinking my glass of strawberry milk, which is my favorite, we talk for about ten minutes about the weather and such. As the time passed it isn't long before she sits down with both mine and her plates. I start eating my breakfast, and I'm a fast eater, it pretty much took me about 15-30 minutes to finish it off, then I wiped my mouth of the delicious yellow egg goo.

Once she finishes she stacks the plates and forks and sets them in the sink, I hop down the chair. "I'm gonna watch TV now Miss Clara."

"Ok honey, I'm gonna go shower and get dressed for work."

"Ok Miss Clara" I was already on the couch as I said that, I was turning it on cartoons. Yes, it's completely predictable, however, I like cartoons, course out of a child nature I watch cop and ghost shows, Miss Clara never really lets me watch anything scarier or gorier than such, but, what can I say, a mother's instinct. It was about an hour later when Miss Clara came tip tapping down stairs in red pump heels, black pantyhose, red knee length skirt, matching red formal jacket, white undershirt, red painted nails, red ascot, bold red lipstick, gold dangle diamond earrings, purple eye shadow, Black rectangle glasses, blush, and her hair was up and slightly wavy. "So how do I look Christopher?"

I giggle, "Well Miss Clara, You look like a red crayon."

She laughs, "Well, it's what I have to wear."

"Can't you wear something more, comfortable?"

"This is comfortable to me honey, now, give me a hug and kiss good bye." She smiles.

I hop off the couch then walk up to her, she bends her knees, though, It surprises me every time, Then I hug her and kiss her cheek, and then she kisses me, imprinting her red lips on my cheek, and I blush a little and she giggles. "Ok honey bye bye, she walks out to her new red luxury convertible, as noticed, she really loves how red compliments her. She can trust me to be left alone for 8 hours, which, isn't bad. Only thing I hate is though I really have no one to talk to. So, sometimes I go out for a walk, and when I do, Miss Clara gave me some rules:

1] Take your cell and keys and lock up

2] Don't go with anyone you don't know

3] Call if there is an issue

4] If something occurs, run

5] Call when I leave and come back

Yep, it was just five simple rules, and I always abide by them. Though, crimes aren't exactly normal around here, a boy was murdered about a year or so ago, that is about it. Though, that did create an earthquake amongst the Tennessee community. Other than that, a few small crimes like vandalism or theft. Though, other than my necklace, phone, and wallet, I had nothing of value. Besides, No one has been really that desperate to steal from a child, but then again, children don't exactly carry the big bucks; I carry a ten on me, that's it. It's all I use for the week I go out. I walk typically two miles and two miles back, however, based on mood I could walk half or I could walk double then I normally do. It was about 70 degrees out so it was nice weather. I call and leave Miss Clara a message and lock up. I put my wallet and phone in my front pockets, and my hoodie typically covers just them, the front pockets.

I walk about a mile to the park I like; I always go on the swing or talk to the other kids. There is a lot to do there, swing, climbing/slide set, rocking bikes or what not, the wheel you hold onto and turn, a few big rocks, sand boxes, it was almost like a kid in the candy store, except, it won't rot my teeth. So I was on the swing for half an hour before kids started to come and I let them take turns. Then, I played in the sand box with a couple of seven year olds.

"Hi Christopher." Jeremy says.

"Howdy Jeremy, how goes your family?" That playground was like a small town, everyone knew pretty much everyone.

"Oh their good, mommy finally got her promotion at her place."

"Well that's nice, Miss Clara sold a big house to a family of seven a few days ago." He brought a few trucks and we were playing construction basically as we are talking.

"Wow Christopher that's a lot of people." I giggle at his remark.

"Yeah that's what I said." All of a sudden I end up laughing because the buzzer on my phone is tickling me, so I fish it out of my pocket before long and answer it. "Hello?"

"Hey big guy how are you doing?"

"Hi Miss Clara, I'm at the park now, I'm playing with some kids."

"Ok honey, remember call me if you move somewhere else or get home."

"Ok Miss Clara I will." Then I hear Jeremy snickering.

"Jeremy what is it?"

"Christopher you have your mom's lipstick on you." Then some of the other kids started laughing.

"What's going on honey?"

My cheeks started to get about as red as the lipstick when an elderly woman gave me a tissue to wipe it off.

"I forgot to wash the lipstick off. "I say in an embarrassed tone. Then Miss Clara begins laughing. I wipe off the lipstick, "Thank you Mrs. Johnson."

She says in a gravelly voice, "Your welcome deary."

Miss Clara starts gathering herself back together and says, "Ok honey see you when I get home, bye."

"Bye Miss Clara." Then I hang up. After that little scene I get up from the sand box and brush off the sand. But by then another boy starts grappling me on the ground, he and I start laughing. "Hey Trevor How's it going?" We basically play wrestle, he's a bigger kid, he's like nine, He usually plays a little too rough, but, nothing I couldn't handle. "I'm great Christopher; I just got done lifting weights with my dad."

"Awesome trev, ok then, I think I stayed here enough, it's almost noon now, and I'm hungry."

"Ok Christopher." I stand up and brush off the dirt, pulling up my jeans a little taking care of my exposed waistband. I walk about another half mile or so to my favorite fast food restaurant. I open the door to Teddy's BBQ. The place had lots of wood, wooden floors, wood wall paneling, wooden ceiling trim, but the ceiling itself was drywall with lights hanging and holding stained glass light covers over each of the twelve tables. A woman in waitress uniform came up to me and said, hello little guy, are you here to eat or, are you looking for your mom. I just almost laughed, she didn't know who I was, and she was new. "To eat miss."

Her smile sort of became bewildered. "Oh-Okay let me get you a seat." I began following her into the center of the establishment where the adjustable bar seats were, then I climb up and she used her foot to raise it so I could eat on the table. In front of me was the grills and ovens and Teddy Evanston himself. He is a famous BBQ griller, he won first place in our local fair 5 years in a row, to add to that, Miss Clara sold him a house and knows me pretty well.

Country Music was playing, all various styles and singers and decades. From 50's to now, gospel to rock, anything that has to do with country its playing. Teddy turns to me and happily says, " 'Ey Buddy What's goin' on'?"

"Hi teddy how are you?"

"well I'ma Doin' Jus' Fine. Say You wanna try my new sauce?"

I get excited when he comes up with something new, "Yeah!" I had a big smile on my face.

He laughs and gets a 5 ounce plastic cup and pours an orange lumpy dip and a foot long inch wide bread stick and say, "Ther'ya go buddy try it, I calls it Spisay chili cheese." Then he puts a glass of water by me, it worried me a little, however it looked good, so I rip off a piece of breadstick and dip it in the sauce. When I tasted it, it was a matter of seconds before the spice kicked in and started burning my mouth, my eyes started watering, however, it was very good, I started to drink the water and he giggles, " Too Spisay?"

Once I was able to swallow my water, I responded, "It is very good, however, I would throw in complimentary glass of water."

"Well, I guess I betta do so huh?" Then he ruffles my hair "so what can I getcha'?"

"I want nachos w/ the regular chili cheese." I giggle a bit.

He chuckles and withdraws the sauce dip, "Ok but u can keep te breadstick."

"Ok." I smile. I start pulling out my wallet and he whispers in my ear, "I pay fo' u this time, fo' bein' brave, jus' tip me so it don' look bad."

"Ok." Then I took out five dollars and give it to him. My mouth was still burning some so I gulp down every last drop of the water and eat the soft bread stick. Teddy was about 50 years old and was a typical pudgy cowboy, he had a belly on him, stood about 6 feet and wears clothes like if he was a cowboy. He is defiantly 100% southern, from attire to dialect. The waitress came to me and was holding a coloring page and a crayon, "Hey little guy can I get u anything? Wanna color?"

"Sure miss, and yes I'd like another glass of water please."

"Sure little guy." She carefully places a 6 pack of crayons and a picture of a pig cowboy, it is actually funny on the ironic message on this advertisement. She picks up my glass and two minutes later a full glass was sat by me, "Thank you miss."

"No problem little guy." Then she walks off to her other duties. I start coloring on the pig then nachos were placed by me and teddy said, "Now buddy make so' that I look good and in the lines got it partner?" He and I start laughing "Ok teddy thank you for these nachos."

"No problem."

Then I start eating, these nachos were known to be hot, but it defiantly wasn't the buffalo style dip I was using earlier. The chip themselves has a bit of salt and pepper to it while the chili cheese has spice, just enough to enjoy. The chips were covered in marvelous chili goo and softened a little, just how I like it. Though, Teddy doesn't exactly make the portions fun sized, the bowl with everything in it was an easy five pounds. So between coloring and eating it took me an hour. When I was finished Teddy just filled in an order and looked at my coloring. "Wow Christopher I look mighty nice and slick, thank ye'"

I again laugh at his comment and said, "No problem, ok, well I have to go now, Miss Clara will be making me dinner in about three hours."

"Go on ahead Christopher I got all dis covered." He smiles and nudges me.

"Ok Teddy have a good day now." I was ready to leave when he said, "Wait I fo 'got to give ye this. " Then he hands me some nachos with his new sauce. "Take dat to miss Clara ok buddy? Can ye do that?"

"yes Teddy I can."

"You such a good boy, a real gentleman. You be careful now ye hear?"

"Ok Teddy you two." I walk out of the barbeque place and head home, I was by the park though when a guy was by the street looking down at the playground, I walk up to him and then said, "hello mister how are you?"

I startled him and he turns to me and says, "hey little guy how are you, just watchin' my kid over yonder." He seemed in his early forties, he had a scruffy beard and mustache, his hair was thinning he was slightly chubby, he stood a towering 6'1" and he was rather muscular. He had dull blue eyes, wrinkles and bags, however those didn't stand out too much. He is wearing a red and black plaid button down and blue dirty jeans and dirty work boots, there were kids there I hadn't seen before so, I didn't take it as too out of the ordinary. "Why aren't you down there with your kid then? Rather than standing up here?"

He said firmly, "Cause my kid get embarrass when I go down there."

"Why?"

" Jus' Cuz' he ain't got no sense, he just bein' little brat at the moment, don't know how to obey no rules. Our house got stuffy and so I took 'em out here"

I responded, "Oh ok, well you have a good day now ok?"

"Ok lil' guy, you go on home now." He seems a little nervous or shaking or something I don't know, but I say, "Ok Sir." I walk home and then give Miss Clara a message over the phone that I'm home. I lock our door and stuff the nachos in the fridge and then change clothes since mine were a little dirty. I gently disrobe myself and throw the dirty clothes in my hamper; I am now just in my superhero briefs when I throw on a white crew tee and some sweats. I walk downstairs and relax watching TV on the couch. It wasn't until about 6 pm when I heard Miss Clara pull up and unlock the door and come in. She looked a little different then when she walked out, she was a little sweaty, her hair was let down, and she seemed aggravated, she groans to herself, "Oh The nerve of some people!" She doesn't know I'm there, I say, " Miss Clara, what's wrong?"

She says in aggravated, but calm tone, "Oh nothing Christopher, I just got stuck with some rude and ignorant clients that's all, How's teddy dear?"

"He's great he came up with a spicy chili cheese."

She rubs her stomach, "Mm sounds tasty, save me any?"

I giggle, "yeah he gave you nachos with it, I would get something to drink though to."

"Really? That spicy?"

"Yeah Miss Clara, but it was good." Miss Clara Enjoys Cajun or buffalo style dishes, if its spicy she's happy.

"ooh well, I better go prepare myself then huh?"

"Yeah Miss Clara, just get in your pj's and relax with me." I give her a big smile."

Her tone seemed more happier, "Hehe, ok Christopher." Then she heads up stairs for a quick hot bath, she comes downstairs in sweats and a black turtle neck. Her hair was wet and down then she heads into the kitchen to heat up the nachos. Then she walks in and sits by me, "Want some honey?"

I giggle, "No thank you."

"Ok honey." She begins eating. I lay down feet by Miss Clara and we begin talking about our day. Then she sets her bowl on the coffee table and out of nowhere begins to tickle my feet, I start laughing hard, it lasted for a couple minutes. She knows that when I'm tickled too much things happen. So, she quits and lets me breathe and relax my lungs.

"You were right Christopher this is really spicy whew." She begins drinking her water.

"Told you Miss Clara." Then after that and dinner, it was about 8 pm, which is bath time for me, so I did what I needed to; bathed, brushed my teeth and put on a robe before I went out the bathroom door. I threw the dirty towel in its hamper, my clothes in their hamper, then I disrobe and put on white briefs, baby blue silk pj set with long sleeve button down and snapped pants then Miss Clara tucks me in and reads me a bed time story before I fall asleep.