John walks through the park. He don´t often use this way home from school, and he don´t know why he took it this time. Maybe because he needs some time to relax after this hard exame?
Maybe.
He didn´t even noticed that he had choosen this way, he just realised his location as he was already surrounded by trees.
He walks a few minutes and forget about the world around him. There are just the trees and the birds and himself. He enjoys the little piece of silence in the overcrowded London. John closes the eyes and takes a deep breath, then he feels the sun on his skin. He opens his eyes again and notices that he let the trees behind him. Now he stands on the meadow. It´s a big area. Just some lonely trees stands on the grass.
It isn´t as empty as the track in the small forest of the park.
Lots of playing childs, people walking their dogs, joggers...
A young couple lies on a blanket on the grass, some meters ahead a desperate man trys to comfort a crying baby and next to him some little boys seems to have a thrilling football match.
And in the middle of this chaos John can see him.
This young man.
18 years old like him? No, a little bit younger. Maybe 16.
He lies on the green gras.
Dark curls surrounding his significant face. John notices the conspicuous cheekbones. And these eyes. Like a thounderstorm. Are they grey? Or blue? Or maybe black? John isn´t sure
And these eyes are following everyone in the park.
For some minutes they focuse on the man, who´s still shaking some toys in front of his child. Then the boys face becomes a happy expression and in the next moment the eyes runs to the young couple. Again just for a few seconds. Then the happy smile again, and the young man focuses the little football players.
He continues this ´game´ again and again. And his eyes are running around focusing everybody around him. Till they come to John. He didn´t noticed that he stoped. He just stand there watching this young man.
And the young man is watching him.
It feels like they are staring at each other for years. Then John finally feels brave enough to move again. He bridges over the distance between him and the young man.
"Hello." he says in front of him.
No responds.
"I´m John Watson"
The boy nodds.
"And you are?" John asks confused.
"Sherlock Holmes." they other boy answers. Still not looking at John, who just sits down next to this weird boy, with the strange name.
"Well...Hello Sherlock Holmes."
And finally Sherlock looks to John.
"You really want to sit next to me?" he asks confused.
"Yeah, why not?"
"Because...ehm...nobody ever wanted to sit next to me. They just call me Freak." Sherlock answers simply. He don´t sound sad about this.
"Oh... that´s... rude..." John responds quietly.
"Who cares. They are idiots."
John turns his head, to look at Sherlock, who still focuses different people. "What are you doing?"
"What do you mean?" Sherlock turns his head in Johns directoion as well.
"You are... I don´t know... focusing all those peoples and...ehm... I don´t know... you know?" he responds.
"Oh! Nothing. Just practicing."
"Practacing...! Practacing what?"
"The sience of deduction." Sherlock Holmes answers proudly.
"The sience of...what?"
"Deduction. The sience of deduction. My brother taught me."
"And what´s that?" John asks.
For some minutes none of them says anything and it doesn´t seems like John will get an answer, then Sherlock points at the guy with the child next to the two teenagers.
"What can you say about this man?" he asks John curious.
The older boy looks even more confused.
"Ehm...Why should I...-" he starts but then he noticed Sherlocks face. First he was happy about Johns interest, but now he looks disappointed and sad.
"He...He tries to comfort his baby!" John says fast, before he could hurt Sherlock somehow... he don´t know how he could hurt this strange boy. But it seems like Sherlock will be really sad about a negativ reaction from John.
Sherlock smiles again.
"Wrong." he replies.
"How could you know?"
"It isn´t his own child. Maybe he´s the uncle or a friend of the parents."
"How..-" John wants to start asking, but Sherlock was faster.
"He can´t handle the kid. He don´t know how to comfort this little girl. She´s something like a year now. If he would be her father, he would know what to do when his own daughter starts crying. But he don´t have an idea how to make her smile again. So he can´t be alone with this child so often. But he must know the girl, or her parents, very good. Because nobody would give his one year old kid to a stanger. So you see, he´s the uncle, or a good friend of the family." He says this so fast that his voice nearly skips some words.
John stares at the boy. Open-mounded and with big eyes.
For some seconds Sherlock smile. Yes for some seconds he looks really happy. Till he notices Johns face. Now the black-haird teenager looks at the grass under his fingers.
"Now you´ll call me a Freak too. Like the other kids do."
"NO! THAT WAS BRILLIANT!" John says impressed.
"Would you still be impressed if I would ask you about your exame? It must be really difficult!" Sherlock says, still sad. Still playing with the grass under his long, thin fingers.
"It was the hell! But how can you know about this?" John asks, still with big eyes.
"Your hair."
"My...hair?"
"Yes. You ruffeled it a lot. People normaly just ruffle their hair, when they are stressed. And you still have your bag with you, so you was at school, befor you came to the park. And honestly what´s the most stressing thing at school? An exame. And you looks like you walked through an horrible storm, or you just had an really difficult exame. And the weather is really good today, so it must be the exame." Sherlock speaks as fast as at his first deduction.
"Sherlock Holmes?" John says with a serious voice.
"Yes?" Sherlock asks afraid.
"You are... really clever!" John says with a bright smile and both of them starts giggeling. And Sherlock Holmes really enjoys giggeling with his new friend John Watons.