Wife checked out (2)

[2ltl2lt]

Just to take my mind off of this crap I started thinking about some of the other adventures I had as a teenager. The way I was before my W came into the picture. So the following memory popped up:

We lived in a rundown drug ridden trailer park when I was in the first two years of high school. I rode the bus when I had to and I always noticed this kid that got on at the third stop from me. This bus went to my school, high school, as in 9th-12th grade. That would put most every student at least 14 years old. Well this kid looked about 9 or 10 in my opinion. He was so pale and thin that I thought he must be neglected or malnourished or something. He was very quiet and always sat alone. I was fairly well respected in our school and began feeling kinda sorry for the little guy after a while.

One day I decided to sit with him on the bus and try to talk to him . When I moved to his seat he recoiled a little and scooted all the way in towards the window of the bus. I asked him what his name is and he whispered back " my name is Charlie". I introduced myself and started to try and make small talk. He wouldn't say much but answered any question that I asked. I did this for a few days in a row before he told me that he was diabetic and had a blood sugar imbalance that left him small and pale. He was in fact 14 years old. He said his folks didn't have the money to properly care for his illness.

After that I told him that I would look after him if anyone was picking on him or giving him a hard time. That started a chain reaction of events that began with him following me and my friends around a lot and trying to keep up with us when we were doing our thing. Our thing at the time was riding dirt bikes and swimming in the creek behind our trailer park. It was getting to be spring time and the rain had the creek up out of it's banks. Now, around here we have fire ants. They are a particularly nasty little creature that delivers a painful sting. They tend to build their mounds near water and they love the soft sandy soil in our region.

Being near the water, these little buggers have developed a way to survive when the rains come and swell the creeks. They all crawl out of the Earth and surround the queen in a basketball sized mass of writhing ants. The way they hang on to one another allows the entire colony to float on top of the water. The ants constantly climb up and around each other so as not to be under the water for too long. It is quite a sight to see. During this particular flood my friends and I decided to try and swim across the swift water. My frail new buddy Charlie was there and against my warning he jumped in and started to panic. The water was rather cold and it sent him into shock. He was completely helpless and moving quickly downstream. I immediately jumped in after him and start flailing my arms as fast as I could. I could see him going under and resurfacing further away every time.

I kept swimming as hard as I could and finally caught up with him. I grabbed his arm and started toward the bank. When I got him into shallow enough water to where I could touch bottom, I saw that he had crossed paths with one of the many fire ant balls floating along in the current. He was absolutely covered with them. As I pulled him out my buddies were running to help and started swiping wildly trying to get the ants off of the kid. We finally get all the ants off of him and he is just polka dotted with bites still incoherent from the shock. I wrapped him up in towels and carried him to my ATV and took him home.

His mother rushed out of the dilapidated trailer they lived in and glared at me like a demon. I had never seen such a mixture of emotions on a human beings face. She carried him inside and called 911. An ambulance came and took him about 20 minutes later. I didn't see him on the bus or at school for months and no one was ever at his house when I would try to find out how he was doing. Right at the end of the year he was back on the bus. I asked how he was doing and what all had happened. He said that his parents had forbade him from coming anywhere near me or any of my friends. I never spoke to him again and his mother never thanked me for saving his life. I'm still not sure if they just blamed me for the whole deal or what.