When the woman and the kid were very close, He heard them talk. "Hey mom. Look at that. Looks like a tiny man"
"yes Dylan, don't point at the people, it's not nice to do so". Said the mother
"But he's not even seeing us" replied the boy
Then
John heard the foot steps stop. They were standing right behind.
Although he wasn't seeing them, of course. Because when you wait for the
bus you look in the direction of the bus. But he heard them talking.
And everything suggested they were talking about him.
"Hey mom. Is he waiting for the bus?" Said the kid.
"Yes Dylan, he's waiting for the bus like everyone else" Answered the mother
"But he's very small. How's he going to ride the bus?, mom" asked the boy, curious
"I don't know, sweetheart. That's not our business" Said the young woman
Only a few seconds past until the boy talked again "Mom, can I pick him up?"
At this point, John, who was 90% sure they were talking about him, turned to look at them.
He realized the boy was really close to him.
And that he was huge! well, he was actually a normal sized boy, but the truth is that everybody was huge compared to John.
The mother of the boy was standing behind the boy, and she was like twice his size.
When
he asked this last question the mother suddenly positioned herself
beside the kid and squatted looking at him in the face. And holding the
boy by his upper arms, she said "No. You can't. Listen Dylan. How would
you feel if out of nothing a giant appears and tries to pick you up from
the ground? Would you like that?"
"I don't know mom" replied the kid
"We
are giants compared to him. He must be very scared of us" Said she
giving a quick glance to John, who was in that moment looking at her too
"Well, no Sweetheart, leave that poor little guy alone" said the woman while standing up and kindly caressing her kid's face.
The
boy kept looking at John. Then he went on "Please mom. I'm not gonna
hurt him. I just want to look at him and see how it feels to hold him in
my hand" said the little kid while pulling the sleeve of her mother's
coat.
"Well, ok Sweetie, but only if he wants to be picked up.
Ask him first. ok? And if he says yes. You put your hand in the ground
like this and let him walk into it" And while she said that she squatted
again and looking a John, placed her hand in front of him as if she
wanted him to climb into her own hand.
"But only if he says yes" Added she.
"Hey. Little guy. May i pick you up? please" asked Dylan looking down at John.
The
mother, who was still crouched down and very close to John. She looked
at him too and said "You don't have to if you don't want to, really"
"No, it's ok" replied John "go ahead" said looking at Dylan.
Then Dylan crouched down too and placed is hand right in front of the John.
John walked into the hand of the little boy and then he started to lift it. He took the little man up close to His face.
"Close your hand a little bit so he doesn't fall, sweetie" Said the young woman
"Wow, look how small he is, Mom. I've never seen a person so tiny" said The boy
"Neither
did I" replied the mother. "He's very small indeed" said she looking at
the man with a smile from very close, since she was still Squatted and
her face was at the same height as that of Dylan.
"Well. I guess that's enough my dear. Put him down now. He must be scared" Said the mother
Then John spoke to them "It's ok. I will need help anyways to ride the bus. I can't do it on my own"
"Did
you hear that, Dylan? he needs help to get into the bus! We'll have to
pick him up again when the bus comes, now we can put him down" Said the
mother.
"ok" replied Dylan, and carefully lowered the Little man to
ground level. Then him and her mother stood up full height looking at
john.
The mother took a step back while holding the her son's hand and looked ahead "Hey look. The bus is coming!"
The bus was coming, a few more persons were waiting behind Dylan and her mother, and other 4 persons ahead.
The
bus pulled over and the first person in the line, a 50 years old woman
wearing a dress got on the bus, then two young man and then the
chinese-looking woman.
John had to run a little bit to get to the
bus-riding position on the edge of the sidewalk without delaying
everyone behind too much.
When he got to the position he looked up at dylan.
"Go ahead, sweetie" said the mother
Then
Dylan once again crouched down and let the little man climb into his
hand. He moved his hand just enough to let the man walk into the bus on
his own.
They waited a little bit until John walk deeper into the bus. Then they both got into the bus too.
Regular
sized people had a card to pay for the bus ride. But he had processed a
special permission to ride any public transport without cost. Although
honestly most of the time the drivers didn't care if he payed his ticket
or not. Sometimes they didn't even see him.
While The young
woman and the kid were paying for their tickets. John walked into the
corridor of the bus. what he usually did was walk under one of the sits
and sit there laying his back against the little wall that was the
support of the sit. When he did that he usually did in in a way that the
person who was sitting didn't see him.
The trip was a regular
one, not much to mention about it. About the walk from the bus stop to
the office, there's not much to say either, Except for that group of
high school girls that started to play with him by blocking his path
with their feet and laughing at how easy it was. Poor John spent a few
minutes trying to avoid the girls feet while they just had fun looking
down at him putting their feet in front of him everytime he tried to
pass by until they just decided that he could continue with his life and
left him alone. But believe me, these kind of things, happened to him
more often than you can imagine.
Finally He arrived to the
building where his company was. He walked in, said hi to the security
guard and walked under the tunrstile like every morning. There was
already a man waiting for the elevator so he didn't need the guard to
press the button for him. It was a big building with many different
companies occupying 1 or 2 floors each. So at rush hour the elevator was
usually full. And although it was for only 5 people, they never counted
him as one.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Chapter End Notes: