01 May Eye Contact (A Children’s Story)

There was once a little boy in the land of Bargonia who tied people’s shoes together under tables at restaurants. A clever little fellow, waited until a party was deep in conversation then he crawled unnoticed and began tying. He even tied two different people’s shoes together, 3, 4, more! He would run back behind the walls and watch people fall. He really enjoyed this.

One night, he went to the Allen Rose Pub. He found a couple enthralled in each other’s eyes. Perfect chance, the ultimate distraction, lovers in love. He bolted through the crowd on hands and knees unnoticed. He got to the table and went to work. 

A fight broke out between a bus boy and the floor manager. The bus boy grabbed a knife and threw it. The manager dodged it and as the boy was crawling away from the table, the knife lodged on the boys sweater on the wood. He was stuck. The concerned couple got up from their table and took steps toward him and fell. They looked at their feet and then at the boy. The boy turned white. The couple put two and two together but decided to forgive the boy and dislodged the knife from the floor. 

Overwhelmed with guilt and shock from a near death experience the boy burst into tears. He was ashamed of his cruelty because he saw he was adding to the chaos of the world. The restaurant was silent. The cops came and arrested the bus boy. The couple took the boy home. The next day his story came out in the paper and all the people he had tied up came out of the woodwork and went to the boy’s house to express their relief that he was ok. Wide eyed and pale he never made eye contact and to this day never looks people in the eye.