MY UNUSUAL FRIEND

Derek only wanted one thing in his whole life, and that was a friend. You see Derek wasn’t a normal boy, he had autism and so no one would be his friend, not even the nerdiest of nerds would speak a word to poor Derek. His parents were ashamed of him but they still loved him, it was one of those typical love-hate relationships the only difference is that they are his parents and he is himself.

His character was like that of an autistic child, he liked things in a certain way and preferred predictable outcomes and situations. His social skills were detrimental and the only thing he could rely on was nothing, not even himself.

Derek would always stay in his room and cry, he would stare at his ceiling and wonder, “am I not also a human being?” Loneliness filled his heart and so he felt empty, he felt unwanted and dead.

It was one day, a particularly special day that Derek’s parent had told him to come home by himself because they couldn’t risk one of the rich parents picking up the school’s outcast. So he started his journey home, he took a different route because he wasn’t ready to face his parents as they apologize to him so that they could kill the guilt that was eating them. On his way he met a man that was probably in his mid-fifties, holding a snake. Instead of fright, he was curious perhaps even more curious than he had ever been in his entire life, and he was one heck of curious boy.

“Why are…why are you holding a snake?”, he said as she walked up to the man.

“You could always greet an elder before you start talking to ‘em”, the man said as he watched Derek walk up to him.

“ could you just tell…tell me please?”

“I can’t tell you till you talk right to your elders”

“but, but I said please, my mum said if I say please when I talk people would answer me, so why don’t you answer me, I said please”. The man studied Derek as he rose his voice, he realized that he wasn’t probably okay although he didn’t figure that he was probably autistic.

“It’s a boa constrictor, it’s still very young. Wanna touch it?”

“Isn’t it going to bite me?”

“Nah, it’s one of ‘em good ones”

Derek reached his hand in and carried it carefully, he studied its features and smiled as he saw it, he already felt attached to it. It gave him a little warmth that he always wanted when he hugs his mum or dad. The man looked at his reaction and wondered how strange he was.

“Do you want it?” He asked Derek as a joke but the way his eyes lit up, he considered being serious about it, he already planned on killing it so maybe it wouldn’t hurt if he gave it to him.

“Yes, ill like to have it”, Derek said excitedly.

“Okay then, you can take it with you, just make sure you feed it good and let it have a lot of space to grow, they get really big”. The man said having changed his mind. Derek went home hurriedly as he carried the snake in a big plastic box. “Mama, Papa look at what I got”, he shouted as he ran inside his house.

His mother gasped and called his father, “Johnnie, Johnnie, come down and look at what your son did”.

Johnnie ran downstairs to see his son holding a snake. “What the… Derek where did you get this?”

“I got it from a nice old man on my way home, he said that it's harmless and I could have it. I…I even carried it”.

“Oh Derek, you can’t have the snake, it’s not safe, it takes a lot of hard work and responsibility. You are going to have to spend a lot of time with it, so you got to give me the snake carefully, so I could take it back outside”. Johnnie tried to talk to his son calmly, he knew that if he didn’t pick the right words he was going to have to go through hell to calm Derek down but it was a waste of effort as soon as he said the last word Derek stated his tantrum.

“I want the snake, I want the snake, you can’t have it its mine, the man said it was mine so why do you want to take it from me”. Derek got furious he assumed his parents would be happy he brought a friend home but they wanted to take away his only friend.

“It’s mine, it’s my friend, mine”, he moved his body and became careless with the snake because of his anger.

“You can have the snake, okay you can have the snake Derek”. His mother sad hoping he would calm down, it took a short while but he did. Derek looked down and panted.

“Mariam what are you..?” Johnnie tried to talk sense into her until she gave him a warning look and smiled, “the snake is his friend, Johnnie”.

Johnnie realized how Derek must have felt and apologized, “I’m sorry Derek, I didn’t know he it was your friend”, but Derek ran up to his room and stared at the snake, he thought, “I’m glad you are safe” then continued staring as he rubbed his hands violently.

“What do you want to name it?” Mariam asked as she watched him through the door, the room was quiet for a while then Derek whispered something.

“Alvin”.

Mariam smiled, “How about we take him to a vet tomorrow to see how it’s doing?”

“Okay”.

A few months had passed and now Alvin had his own wooden vivarium enjoying all the delicious mice given to him, Derek’s autism improved, he learnt how to be friendly and a tad bit more confident. There were times he absolutely got annoyed by Alvin and days that he loved him most.

Alvin attracted friends for Derek, the fact that he was a snake made people think he was rather cool than a weird autistic boy. His parents stopped being ashamed and asked for his forgiveness although Mariam have nightmares that the snake might swallow her son alive. She was happy for him but the happiest was Derek. He had gained more love and grew up happily because of Alvin.