Days of Our Lives on TV was havin a commercial break by their sponsors. âTide Detergent: Look how it removes those unwanted stains and leaves everything smelling like spring.â
Jimmy T came an sat down right nex to me. I dint look at him cause I was fraid of his sadness gettin inside of me. I knowed it was a long time ago that I was eight, but I still membered feelin that way â where yer good thoughts start slipin away an you can hardly member if you was ever happy. Me an Jimmy T sat side by side for a long time. Yup, sat together till the uniform came to check on him.
âHowâs it going Jimmy T?â said Uniform Roy. âJust give yourself time, little buddy. Youâll get used to the place.â I wondered how much time Jimmy T was gunna need, cause Iâd been round for a long while an I still wasnât use to the place. The uniform patted him on the head an said, âYou should come and meet some of the other little guys, Jimmy.â He meant the ones who was huddled on the floor together, suckin their thumbs an wearin diapers. Gramma taught me how to use a toilet when I was liddle. But after Mom an Harold left me in Woodlands the uniforms made me wear diapers too. Thatâs cause itâs hard not to mess yerself when yer jus liddle ⦠an lonely ⦠an scared all the time.
After a few days Jimmy T got back some of his old self. An priddy soon he was kickin an bittin an messin in his pants jus like the rest of us. Only he was better at gettin those uniforms mad â yup, thatâs cause he was more like fireworks esplodin in the sky. But if he made too much trouble the uniforms called the Boys on him. Guess thatâs why he hardly got to go outside with the rest of us kids.
There was one time when Jimmy T did get to go outside with us. It was the day some kids went by â not kids like us â jus reglar ones. They was walkin by at the end of the garden. We could only see their heads on account of the stone-an-meddal wall bein so high. They was lookin at us an we was lookin at them. A couple of em ran away when some of us starded to walk over to em â maybe cause they was scared. But there was this one kid â he wasnât scared. Nope, not aâtall. He crawled up on the fence soâs we could see him real good.
âWatch this,â he said to his friends an then he put his thumbs in his ears an wagged his hands. âHey, you bunch of flat-faced cauliflower ears â listen up.
Two, four, six, eight,
Keep the retards behind the gate.
Watch them shuffle, burp and fart,
Making smells right off the chart.
Crazy, dirty, stinking bunch,
Makes me want to lose my lunch.â
Then the boy started laughin so hard he fell right off the wall. Some of us was laughin too cause he was priddy funny. Cept Jimmy T dint think so. Maybe cause he dint like bein called cauliflower ears. He was bout to run down to the bottom of the garden when a uniform yanked him by the shirt an put him in a headlock.
The other uniform yelled at them kids, âGet out of here before I come down there and knock your block off.â
They all ran off, laughin an screechin like a bunch of old crows. I watched till their heads turned into liddle dots. When Jimmy T couldnât stop bein mad the uniforms had to drag him inside. Poor Jimmy T â he dint knowed lotsa people passed by like that jus soâs they could stare an call us names. Canât say why they did that â they jus did.
One time I heard the uniforms callin Jimmy T a nutso. Maybe he was a crazy liddle boy, but I liked him that way. Yup, liked him a awful lot. An sides he made things interestin round Ward 33. If it werenât for him I wouldnât have had nothin else to do cept watch Maggie slap Lilly for kissin her boyfriend, Dr. Hughes, on As the World Turns . Nurse Millie said Woodlandsâ doctors dint never get priddy ladies tryin to kiss em cause they was all âa bunch of old