Billy Casper
There he was. Billy Casper. Standing in the doorway of the living room to the small two bedroom house I had a perfect view of the young boy with his snow like skin. His trouser and shirt ripped, covered in mud, seemingly stretched to fit his size. As I approached him I noticed several things about his behaviour. He seemed to have an invisible barrier around himself as though he was shielding himself for what was yet to come. Sitting in a corner silently staring deeply in to nothing, he seemed like that isolated kid you’d always hear about in school but would never want to approach in fear of becoming just as isolated. The only thing that was bothering me about this, the only thing I couldn’t figure out was why he seemed so happy in such a situation. Surely no kid likes to be isolated. Why would a young Billy Casper be any different? Sitting there in his corner he looked perfectly content. Almost as though he was at peace with the world. With life.
Making an attempt to start up a conversation with the boy, I smiled and gave him a lame “hello”, only realising what a stupid attempt to start of a conversation it had been once the words had so easily slipped off of my tongue. He looked up at me giving me a questioning yet annoyed look, almost as though to say “if you must come here and attempt to shrink me, then surely you can make a better attempt than that, come on lets see what you’ve got”. Acknowledging this I realised what people meant when they said “Oh that Casper boy has no manners at all, he’s worthless. Useless I tell you” or “Billy Casper? Oh, don’t even get me started on him, the boys as rude as they get he is”. Yes. The first thing I noticed about this boy’s personality, was how right everyone had been about it, and how easily goaded this kid became. However what followed this look surprised me beyond belief. Made me revaluate my harsh, rushed opinion of Billy. His eyes all of a sudden seemed to soften his face giving me an apologetic look almost as though to say…… well, honestly? I’m not quite sure what. How do you figure out the meaning behind such a pained look? That was the moment I realised Billy Casper was a boy misunderstood by one too many people, after all what exactly had he done to get people despising him so much? Yes he had been on the wrong side of the track in the past. Yes I know so wrong he was in trouble with the law. But what kid today had not? Where these people giving these other kids the same treatment they presented Billy Casper with?
