The Roommate

"Welcome to St. Johns!"

The car drove up the driveway to the big house in the end of it. Jake looked at Gary and saw he was smiling, so he tried to put up a happy face. The truth was, that it all made him sad. He had the felling, that he somehow had tried something like this before, but he just couldn't specify it.

The car stopped by the house and was greeted by a group of people. Gary introduced him to the group.

"This is Mrs. Williams"

Gary pointed at an elderly woman in an apron.

"She rules the kitchen, so you better be on guard, when you are in her kingdom."

Mrs. Williams clapped Gary lightly on the cheek and smiled.

"Well, young man, just because you think you're all grown up doesn't it mean I letting you steal all my cookies."

"I wasn't thinking on that."

He turned to Jake and whispered.

"Later I will show you a way to come around her. I found it almost 25 years ago, but it still works."

"25…, but then…"

Gary nodded.

"Yeah, I was once a orphan too, but then I came here and got a family."

He nodded over to the group of kids.

"Well, I better introduced you."

Jake said hello to all the kids, who tried to welcome him as much as they could. Mrs. Williams show him up to his room afterwards. Gary wanted to do it, but a problem with Sam, one of the other kids, kept him occupied. She hadn't been down to greet Jake, because Mrs. Williams had sent her to her room due to some pranks she had done. They came to a door. Mrs. Williams knocked shortly before opened it.

"Hi, Elmer, this is Jake. He is going to be you roommate for a while. Jake, this is Elmer."

A skinny boy with long legs came over to them and tried to give Jake the hand, but he felt over his legs and felt down. He cried like a baby. Mrs. Williams dropped Jake's trunk and comforted him like a little baby. Elmer stopped crying after some minutes, and Mrs. Williams wiped his eyes.

"That was better."

She helped him up.

"So are you ready to say hello to your new friend?"

The boy nodded eagerly and said hello to Jake, who couldn't believe what he just had seen. Elmer was a least the same age as himself, if he wasn't older, but that didn't say much since Jake couldn't remember how old he was. Then he saw Mrs. Williams pleading eyes. He smiled and said hello.

Elmer, who had looked sad, now lighted up and eagerly showed Jake around in his end of the room. There wasn't much, but it was Elmer's. Jake could feel the boy's happiness over having some one to share the room with.

Mrs. Williams and Elmer helped Jake unpack, but it wasn't much so they where quickly finish. Suddenly Mrs. Williams shook her head in despair.

"I'm getting old. I have completely forgot all about your bedding. Oh, Elmer, could you run down to the washing line and get it."

Elmer nodded and eagerly ran out after it. Mrs. Williams sat down on the bed.

"Thanks!"

"What…"

She glanced out at the window and saw Elmer running over to the washing line.

"As you have seen are Elmer not like other kids. Many would just have looked down on him, but you made him feel normal."

"But what is wrong with him?"

"We don't know. He is a mystery like you. Nobody knows him and he haven't told us anything. The doctors think he has some kin of brain damage, but I feel there are much more to him, that we can see."

She glanced out of the window once more and saw Elmer, who still was trying to get the bedding down from the washing line.

"Did you know that it was Elmer, who first found you?"

Jake shook his head.

"Gary hat just pick him up the same day from the social services. He wanted Elmer to calm down; so he took him to the beach, but Elmer ran away just as they arrived. Gary search after him for hours, and just as he was about to give up did he found him. Elmer was sitting in the edge of the water holding you head just above the water."

Jake wanted to ask her, if she knew more, but then he heard Elmer coming up of the stairs.