The Man with No Friends or Future

 

                                                                                                    "Untitled" by Artist Lisa Rae Winant

                                                                                                        Image used by permission of the Artist

                                                                            8x16/oil on canvas

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The Man with No Friends or Future

            All his life Henry had been an outcast.  Was it because he looked different than everyone?  Was it because he had incredible strength that no one else had?  Henry was born with a disorder.  The day he came out of his mother’s womb, he was much larger than the average child.  

            As an infant this was fine because he could not talk and did not have to worry about making friends, but as he grew older things took a turn for the worse.  Going into grade school Henry was always about a foot taller than everyone else in his class.  The other kids would pick on him and make fun of him calling mean names.  One time a little boy even tried climbing Henry and proclaimed his name was Jack and he just wanted to climb up a bean stalk like in the story.  All through grade school Henry had no friends.  Henry’s life consisted of stocking top shelves in a grocery store, going to school, and then going home to live with his mother—his only true friend—the one person he talked too. 

            As Henry grew older, he was diagnosed with being a hunch back; as if being the biggest and tallest kid in grade school wasn’t enough misery.  Now whenever Henry would walk around his head was down, shoulders up, and neck out in front of his body.  This drew more attention to his abnormalities as he went through college studying to be a nuclear physicist, something he had always dreamed of.

            Henry was practically a genius, but the fact that he always got picked on and made fun of really bothered him.  It bothered him so much that it restrained him from concentrating on his school work.  One day in school the teachers told the students to find a lab partner; Henry was the only person without one.  He looked around and noticed that there was one group of three and the rest were groups of two.  He had enough.  The fact that someone rather work with two other people than him made him feel awful.  He walked out of class, drove home, and sat on his couch.  He didn’t know what to do anymore.

            The next day Henry did not go back to school and decided it was best to move on with his life and try living somewhere else.  He moved to a place where he had not been before, where no one knew him and he could have a fresh start, but nothing changed.  Wherever Henry went he was tormented and picked on.

            Unfortunately Henry’s life never turned around and he became a nomad traveling the world with a bag over his shoulder all alone for the rest of his life.  He was hopping on trains and taking them wherever they would bring him in hopes that he would someday live a normal life.  It never happened.  Henry's mother passed away and that was the last straw for him.  He laid his body down on the tracks and never moved as a train was coming.