The Weird Kids

I can still picture Janno – a sweet nerdy cross-eyed girl from my school who wore unflattering clothing and oddly-framed glasses. Her grandmother was my unsimiling fifth grade teacher, and later in Junior high, her father was my science teacher. Barklay was the gangly weird boy, the one nobody hung around with. The ugly house he lived on was way up on a hill. It was dark and lonesome looking – this strangely haunted looking house, almost a metaphor for Barklay himself. There were rumors of bad things happening there. I was just in grade school and not totally aware that his parents perhaps were real life monsters, and maybe that’s why Barklay came to school dressed shoddily, with hair uncombed and dirty. I’d walked home from school with both these kids at one time or another (though not with them together at the same time). I have no memory of what I ever talked with each one of them about. Normally I walked with my sisters or friends I came to know. Not that popular myself, I had always had a soft spot for underdogs. And for whatever reason, I just recall walking home with them. Once in a great while, they cross my mind. What became of them? I fear poor Barklay stood little chance for a good future. I don’t recall seeing Janno after grade school. Did she move? I hope she blossomed, and I bet that she became a teacher! Dec. 9, 2020 for L Milton Hankins' Story From Your Childhood Poetry Contest