"Good morning."
He turned at the greeting. The man who spoke to him was familiar. The man had just appeared to him one day, and they had been friends ever since. "Hi. You're out a bit early this morning, aren't you?" He fidgeted with his watch, sliding it around his wrist. He trusted this man, but something in the man's manner this morning made him wary.
"I suppose I'm a bit early," the man said.
"Yes, a bit. Sit down, Jim." He motioned for the man to sit on his couch.
Jim sat down. "Austin," Jim began, "remember when I told you sometime back that you should pay very close attention to those around you? How they acted, what they did and said?" Jim, a big, dark complexioned man, squinted as he spoke.
"Sure, I remember," Austin said. "I've been paying attention." Austin poured Jim a glass of orange juice as he often did when Jim came around in the mornings.
Jim sat back against the couch and took the glass Austin offered him. He took a swallow, then asked, "You like working out at the health club, don't you?"
Austin shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah. Why?"
"Well, you're raising a few eyebrows, Austin. You've been hefting a lot of tonnage in that club."
"That's what you're supposed to do in a health club." Austin felt himself becoming angry. He liked Jim, but sometimes Jim could be unreasonable. He often seemed to find some insignificant detail to ride Austin about.
Jim ran his fingers through his wiry hair. "Well, see, Austin, a man can lift just so much. I know a guy who's built like a refrigerator and he can heft seven-hundred and fifty pounds from a squat. You, on the other hand, weigh barely one-hundred and thirty pounds and are lifting nearly six-hundred pounds according to the health club manager. Now, just how do you think that might look to people?"
Austin sat down in his easy chair. "Well, I suppose people might think I was pretty strong, wouldn't you say?"
Jim leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees. "Austin, stop and think. A person your size with normal strength can't even hope to lift that much."
Austin sensed deep stress in Jim's voice. "I've ticked you off again, haven't I?"
Jim put up his hands in a conciliatory way. "Now, no, you haven't ticked me off. You've just made me a little nervous, that's all. We're trying to blend in with the rest of society. You're not blending when you do impossible things that people can observe."
Austin sighed loudly. "Why am I so different, Jim? What's in me that makes me this way?"
"Nothing, Austin. You're not different. You're just unique. And for your own sake, it would be best to hide your uniqueness. We've been through this dozens of times. I'm just trying to make life a little easier for you."
"I appreciate your concern, Jim. I'll watch myself from now on."
"Good ... good." Jim hesitated, then slowly got up and stretched. "Well, I'd best be on my way. What are your plans today? Staying home?"
"No. I thought I'd drive down to the river and watch the boats go by."
Jim grinned. "You're a lucky man, Austin. I wish I had time to do things like that."
"Going down to the river helps me think -- to kind of put things in perspective."
After Jim left, Austin went into his garage and backed out his car. Then he drove down to the river. He knew that Jim would be following him just out of sight. Jim had been shadowing him for months, but Austin never let Jim know he knew that. He didn't know why Jim tracked him like a dog, but he tried not to let it worry him, either.
Austin pulled into a parking area, got out, locked his car, then took a lawn chair, his e-book, and his lunch out of the trunk and closed it. He put the keys in his pocket and walked down to the same sand bar he always went to. If he was lucky, that same nice girl who he had slowly become friendly with would come by. He could only hope. He unfolded his lawn chair and sat down. After a few minutes of boat watching he switched on his reader and began to read. Austin liked to read novels. He learned so much from them. He knew the stories were fiction, but the descriptions of the characters and settings totally absorbed him. Those parts could be true, he concluded.
"Hey there!" An enthusiastic voice from behind thrilled him. It was her!
He quickly stood up and turned toward the voice. "Hi," he said. He had to be careful not to sound too caring; he didn't want to scare her off. He liked her too much. He offered her his chair. He thought about bringing two chairs with him. One for her. But he knew that, too, might scare her off.
"Well, thank you very much." She flipped her long brown hair from side to side in a way he loved so much, and sat down. Austin sat on his haunches in the sand in front of her. She took off her sunglasses and played with them idly as she smiled at him. "My, you're attentive today," she said.
Austin felt himself blushing.
"That's what I like about you, Austin. You're so damned innocent. I like that about you. Most guys just throw themselves at you, but not Austin. Austin is polite. Austin is proper. You don't find that in a man much anymore, Austin."
"Elyse, you ..."
Elyse quickly put her hand on his shoulder. "I don't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. We're just friends, right? Nothing serious, right?" Elyse looked at him inquiringly.
Dear God, he thought, how he loved it when she looked at him that way. "Uh ... yeah, just friends, I guess."
They talked away the morning. Austin took her down along the shoreline and they skipped stones across the water. He was careful not to show his superior physical strength to her.
He shared his lunch with her. Wisely, he had packed enough for two. In the middle of a bite, Elyse said, "Would you like to come visit me tonight?" She wiped her mouth with a paper napkin as she swallowed.
"Uh, don't even know where you live. You're kind of overwhelming me, here." Suddenly he felt very uncomfortable.
Elyse sat back in the lawn chair. "Are you afraid of me?" she said teasingly. "I'm simply a friend asking another friend to visit me. Of course, if you have other ..."
"No, no," Austin interrupted. "I'd like to come. I'd ... love to come."
Copyright © 1999 by Dick Claassen
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