Terreros Hoyos Daniel, The Hidden Sorrow Behind A Bullied Dweeb

THE HIDDEN SORROW BEHIND A BULLIED DWEEB

Written By Daniel Terreros Hoyos

“Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you.” —Randy Pausch

Vindicto was an affable fifteen-year-old boy that lived with his parents in a ginormous mansion in Turin, Italy. Although his personality was charming, he was not graced with beauty. He had a square-shaped face with skin as pale as a ghost, his eyes were as little as two marbles and they had a peculiar amber color that made him look like a mutant. His hair was like a greasy, messy, and red pile of noodles and he had the mouth of a koi fish. Besides, he was a lanky guy and had a pair of round spectacles. Everybody loved Vindicto because he was hilarious, friendly, and liked to help, he was like a ray of sun. He liked to be with his family and he also liked to spend time with his friends a lot. Little did Vindicto know that his future would not be sunshine and rainbows.

One day, Vindicto went to the bakery shop with his father to buy some biscuits and a cheesecake for his mother’s anniversary. They went by bicycle because it was a sunny and vivid day. They were passing by an avenue when abruptly, a red Ferrari crashed with Vindicto’s father’s bicycle. Everyone in the avenue went to see Vindicto’s father’s corpse, then some paramedics came and tried to revive him, but they were too late, Vindicto’s father was already lifeless when they arrived. Since that day, Vindicto’s soul got dark and wicked. It seemed like Vindicto’s essence died the same day his father did, he became a lonely wolf. He stopped hanging about with his friends, stopped picking up his phone and he did not talk to anyone in a year.

His mother, now widow, Naiverta White, did not have anyone to take out all that pain she was feeling, she needed to be strong and powerful for his wreaked little son. Mrs.

White became obsessed about cleaning and whenever she was not feeding or taking care of Vindicto, she was cleaning, polishing, shining, washing, or dusting that enormous house his dead husband left her. It seemed like her only solace was to roam through that big old mansion every day and restore all the memories her and her spouse once lived between those gloomy walls.

A year had passed since the incident happened. Vindicto was still not talking to anyone and Mrs. White had been diagnosed with OCD. His doctor, Mr. Giovanni Bianchi, recommended her to move to another place so that her nerves may calm a little bit and also to stop her anxiety attacks. Impulsively, Mrs. White bought a house in Cupertino, USA, and bought two tickets in first class the next day to fly to their new house in California.

After approximately hours on a plane, Vindicto and his mother were already in Cupertino, California. A driver picked them at the airport and took them to their new house. When they arrived, they saw a vast, spectacular and immaculate white mansion on top of a hill.

Then Mrs. White said to his son in her Italian American accent “Look at that beautiful house I bought for us Vindicto, here we will have a fresh start and we will be happy”.

Vindicto did not answer because he had not spoken in a year.

“I know its hard my dear, but I believe we are going to be strong enough to overpass this vicissitude,” Mrs. White said.

The driver helps them to put their luggage inside the house (their furniture had already been installed by some decorators Mrs. White had hired). The mansion was welcoming from the open door to the extensive hallway. Upon the walls were a lot of Italian paintings that were from the renaissance. The floor was like a marble mirror that reflected every sun ray that entered through the big crystal windows and the walls

were the dark red of good Italian wine. The banisters of the stairs were a twirl of a branch, tamed by the carpenter’s hand, they were like the stairway to heaven. Mrs. White felt pleased about the beauty of the house, Vindicto also liked it a lot but he did not demonstrate an emotion or feeling.

Days passed and Vindicto was beginning to feel bored about being all day home alone. He was laying on his bed when he felt the necessity to socialize and open to people again. Vindicto went to the kitchen and spoke for the first time in fourteen months.

“Mom, I wanna go to school. I want to make new friends” Vindicto said in a low voice.

Naiverta’s soul came out of her body with happiness and she replied with happy tears in her eyes “Oh Lord, you’ve listened to my prayers! My dear Vindicto has come back! Of course, you can go to school, I didn’t think you were ready, but you are my dear. I’ll call the Cupertino Academy right now and you’ll start tomorrow”

As Mrs. White said this, she kissed his son’s cheek and went directly to call the academy. The next day Vindicto was indeed going to school.

The next morning, Vindicto woke up very early. Vindicto’s room filled up with the golden breath of the sun when he opened the curtains. He took a shower and dressed himself up and then he went to take breakfast. After breakfast, Mrs. White drove his son to the academy for his first day at school. The levels of dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin, and serotonin were high in Vindicto’s organism, he was feeling overjoyed. When they arrived at school a woman was waiting for Vindicto in the front door.

“Deary, promise me that you’ll call me if you feel bad or if anything happens to you,” Naiverta said.

“Don’t worry mom, I’ll be, Okay!” Vindicto said.

Vindicto came out from the car and he went towards the woman that was standing in the front door.

“Hello, you must be Vindicto,” the woman in the front door said.

“Yes I am,” Vindicto said.

“I’m professor Holly Ryan, and I will be your homeroom teacher during the rest of the semester. I’ll take you to the classroom to meet your new classmates, please follow me”. The woman said.

Vindicto followed the woman to the classroom. It was an enormous room full of colors. There was a big white-board in the front part of the classroom and on the walls were a lot of posters about biology, physics, and astronomy and also, there was a big map of the USA in the back wall of the classroom. In the back of the classroom, there was a plastic model of the human skeleton that caught Vindicto’s attention because he loves to study the human body.

“Dear students, please welcome our new student Vindicto. He just came from living in Italy and he doesn’t know a lot about our culture, please be kind to him to let him feel comfortable. Vindicto, please tell us about yourself” Miss Holly said.

“Hello everyone, my name is Vindicto Jackson and I’m fifteen years old. I come from Turin which is located in Italy and I live with my mother. I like to play chess and to build things with Lego and I also like to do some research about living organisms because I would like to study biology or medicine. I’m very excited to get to know everyone and I hope we all can be friends”. Vindicto said nervously and anxiously.

When Vindicto finished a voice in the back of the room said “Loser!”

“Please have some respect towards your new classmate Alex,” Miss Holly said. “Go to your seat Vindicto, next to the blond kid named Henry”.

While going to sit, Vindicto was feeling really bad because that guy was bullying him.

“Hello, you must be Vindicto (they both shook hands) my name is Henry Smith and I’m also fifteen years old, I believe we are neighbors, yesterday I saw you walking by my house. If you need anything just tell me”. Henry said amiably.

Vindicto did not answer because he was not feeling like talking at that moment because of the incident that happened during his presentation.

“Oh, you are thinking about what Alex told you… don’t worry about it, he’s just a bad guy keep away from him and you’ll be fine”. Henry said to his new friend.

“Thank you, Henry, you’re very nice” Vindicto answer with a smile on his face.

The rest of the day was great until lunchtime. During lunchtime, Vindicto was eating alone in a table peacefully a sandwich his lovely mother made for him. Suddenly Alex Fox arrived with some other seven guys and began to insult Vindicto.

“What shu’ doin’ wop, are we interrupting your chess game with your imaginary friend or what,” Alex said it laughing trying to ridicule Vindicto in front of the other boys.

“Shut up you scoundrel, leave me alone or I’ll tell Miss Holly you are bothering me,” Vindicto said it trying to look tough.

“Are you going to accuse us, you wop. Let’s see if you can talk after we give you what you deserve” Alex said.

Alex and his gang began to punch Vindicto. They broke his spectacles and left him almost blind. Vindicto was as helpless and a little fox that trapped by five bloodhounds, he did not have any escape. Suddenly Henry came and stopped the fight, Alex gang also punched Henry, but Henry was able to stop them with his words. Vindicto went bleeding and when he arrived his mother did not even notice he was hurt because

she was having one of her anxiety-attacks that happen when she remembers her dead husband. Vindicto was feeling lonesome in this world as he did not have anyone in this world to express his emotions.

The next day, Vindicto was feeling even worse. Last night he needed to call an ambulance because his mother tried to kill herself and now she was under some drugs that make her feel alienated from this world. Vindicto needed to go to school by himself. When he arrived everyone was asking about Alex because he did not come to school and his parents went to school to say he disappeared last night. Everyone was worried about Alex’s disappearance but not by Vindicto’s state of mind.

During the following week, each day, one of the seven members of Alex’s gang disappeared mysteriously and no one knew why. The SPA was really worried because the only boys that were disappearing in the state where the ones from the school, they were speculating that maybe the mysterious kidnapper was Mr. Chessy the art teacher because he was really weird. The next day, the CPD went to the Cupertino’s Academy and told the principal they found the body of one of his students, it was Alex’s body. The police said they found his body down the river that passes through the academy, they said it was clearly a homicide because they found the body without the head. They also said that the forensic doctors found out that the head was chopped with an axe. The SPA went into a panic and they decided to put charges against Mr. Chessy because they did not have anyone else to blame for the crime.

Meanwhile, all of this was happening, Vindicto’s soul became rotten again. Without his mother he felt alone in this world, his essence was faded by the water flow from the river of solitude. He did not have anyone in this world, all the people he trusted were in Italy. One day at school something marvelous happened.

“Hey, Vindicto. You know Miss Holly asked us to do a poster for tomorrow and I was maybe wondering if you would like to be my partner for this project?” Henry said to Vindicto

“Do you mean it for real? Of course, let’s do it this afternoon at my house” Vindicto answered gladly.

Some of Vindicto’s soul reborn from the ashes of his sadness like a Fenix. Vindicto felt he had someone to hold on to, Vindicto felt hope again.

That afternoon Henry went to Vindicto’s house. Mrs. White was still on her medications but now he was able to sustain some conversations but with a little dilution. Henry rang to the front door and Mrs.White answered the door.

“Hello, Mrs. White my name is Henry Smith. I’ve come to do some work with Vindicto” Henry said.

“Oh deary, you’re the famous and unparalleled Henry Smith! I’ve heard a lot about you. Please come in, Henry is in his room, go upstairs and turn left. I’ll get you some food and be upstairs in a blink of an eye” Mrs. White said in a voice that made her look like she was drunk.

Vindicto came running downstairs “It’s okay mom, I’ll take care of Henry. You go to your bed and lay down for a little while” Vindicto said in a nervous and embarrassed tone.

Vindicto took Henry to his room and they laid down on the floor and began to do the poster they were assigned to do. They both had an extremely pleasant time together, they told a lot of jokes and they were becoming best friends. Vindicto’s soul shone with joy, it was the first time he was happy during the past year.

“I’ll bring us some snacks, I’ll be in the pantry,” Vindicto said and went out from the room.

Henry stayed drawing the poster laying on the floor of Vindicto’s room. He was coloring the title when he noticed that the part of the floor where he was drawing on was trembling,

he got scared because he thought it was an earthquake but it was not because at the moment he stopped drawing the floor stopped shaking. He stood up and he removed the poster from the floor and he saw that there was a loose tile on the floor. Henry tried to adjust it again in its original position but he saw there was a concave space under the tile, he lifted the tile and he was able to appreciate that inside the concave space there was a big haversack. Henry’s heart was beating as fast as the heart of bat. He tried to pull out the bag from the hole but it was too heavy so he just opened the haversack in there. At the moment he opened the bag, he almost fainted and he felt disgusted; at that moment Henry lost all hope in humanity. What he found out in the bag were eight human chopped heads including Alex’s, the rest of the heads were the heads of the member of Alex’s gang.

At that moment Henry’s head was chopped off from his body with an ax. Sometimes people do things you would never expect from them. Vindicto closed his eyes and began to see with clarity what he had done.

“This must have been a hallucination, this can not be possible” Vindicto thought to try to calm himself up.

He opened his eyes and saw his room was covered with red sparkles in the four walls of his room. Vindicto went near a wall and touch, smelled, and tasted the red substance. Indeed, it was blood and it was real. At that moment, harsh reality kicked Vindicto in the guts. Vindicto’s face turned yellow, then green and he finally puked on the floor. Vindicto was not able to believe he had killed his only friend in the world, and worst he was not even sure why he did it. Suddenly, Vindicto’s eyes began to melt, it was the first time he had cried since his father died.

“How was I able to do this? ” he thought dismally “I must pay for my actions, he gave me his friendship and I paid him

back by taking his life away...What were you thinking about?” Vindicto said aloud.

Vindicto was not even able to see Henry’s dead body so he closed his eyes and put Henry’s head and body in a big plastic bag only using his sense of touch.

“I’m going to put this plastic bag in the front yard and call the police, I will pay for my actions even if it is the last thing I have to do,” Vindicto said in his life.

Vindicto took the body to the yard and called the police at 5:37 pm. The police arrived immediately and they saw the plastic bag and Vindicto staying beside it.

“This is the Cupertino police department, put your hands where we can see them. You’re being accused of murder, anything you may say could be used against you in the court of law if you have anything to say please say it now.” a policeman shouted.

“I declare I killed Henry Smith. He is… was my best friend and I believe I must pay for what I have done to him. Also…I killed some cretins from my school, but I do not regret it…” Vindicto said in a cold tone.

The policeman handcuffed Vindicto and escorted him to the back seat of a police car. Vindicto had a big smile on his face, he was happy. He was partially happy because he thought he was making justice by giving himself in but also he was distressed about what was going to happen next, he was a confused teenager. Mrs. White came out from the house screaming at the police officers because she did not know what was happening. Then, she saw Vindicto in a police car and run directly to him. When Vindicto saw his mother running towards him, a mixture of conglomerated feelings overwhelmed him and he began to cry. All Vindicto wanted was to control the situation, but at that moment he realized he had lost control of it.