Young Alpha in the Wild ~ by Ransom

I related this story in a comment perhaps two years ago. It has stuck with me and is worth expanding upon.

I recently helped man an outdoor booth at a school function. I was stationed next to the lawn and had a lot of time to look around between waves of wild children trying to smash everything I had so carefully built.

A short while into the event I noticed a sloppy young boy, perhaps eight or nine, lying on the grass. He had that air of complete indifference generally possessed only by those truly bored boys without access to videogames or candy. Sometimes he lolled, sometimes he rolled. He seemed to belong to no adults and everyone rushed passed him.

The boy stayed on the grass through the course of the event. After I while I saw two girls of the same approximate age in the same area, seemingly interacting with him somehow. They were pretty girls, well-dressed, with clear skin and long hair. Solid sevens in another eight years if they took care of themselves.

As time went on I realized they were indeed interacting with him; in fact their attention was almost entirely absorbed with the boy sprawled out on the grass.

At one point he mustered the energy to pull himself up to a frog squat position. The two girls stood a short distance away, staring at him.

The blonde, a little braver than her brunette companion, stood closer. “Chase us!” she implored.

He gave neither chase nor any other indication that he had heard. He squatted like a frog and picked at the grass.

The blonde drew closer in fits and starts, shaking with excitement, until she almost bumped him.

With sudden energy the boy wrapped his arms around her legs. Both girls shrieked and the blonde gave not the slightest struggle.

At this point my attention was diverted by another mob of mini savages and I didn't turn around for quite a while. When I did the event was drawing to a close and the girls had left. The boy had rolled ten feet or so away from where I had last seen him and was laying contentedly on his side with a grin that can only be described as a combination of Donald Trump and Bre'r Bullfrog.

At no point in the evening did I ever see him so much as stand up.

I have thought about that boy several times since then. I wonder what he has done in the intervening two years, and where his future will take him? Based on what I saw I am certain he was the class bad boy, admired for his indifference to the rules as well as his indifference to the admiration. He probably doesn't have the slightest idea why good things happen to him; they just do. Some days he must wonder why girls just won't leave him alone.

But for all that he won't have much of a life unless he harnesses it into something that lasts. Raising a boy like that must be a harrowing challenge. Raising girls around a boy like that must be a nightmare.