They Said

She is odd, they said. She won’t talk to you. She is stuck up. She is mean. He did not believe them. Them who had lied about him also when he was the new kid. He sat with her during lunch. They laughed like hyenas; he found her refreshing and delightful. After school they cornered him. They accused him of being disloyal to the pack. They were angry that he did not take their word about her awfulness. They were incensed that he had a mind of his own. She is depressed, they said. She is a downer. She is bad news. Stay away or we will not be your friends. He saw her sad, and soothed it. He understood her downs, she had reasons for them. So he sat with her at lunch, and he walked her home, and they used their sense of humors and they laughed. Being with her felt wonderful, being with her was cathartic, being with her was love. They were angry now. They surrounded him with baseball bats and bully clubs. If you insist on following your heart and being nice to her, we will hit you, they told him. We will hurt you. We will kill you. She is different, they told him. She is odd. One of them spit on his arm to prove his rightness. He threw back his head and laughed at them and he did not stop laughing. He laughed for hours. Their faces were mad. They were upset. They were so angry. They ran away, because they could not change him. She came out of her house, ready to be walked to school. What was that? She asked him. A bunch of silliness, he told her. They got married, and made friends all around the world. Friends who liked them for having a sense of humor and minds of their own And they lived happily ever after.