Danny Dawson


If Danny Dawson craned his neck just right and kept his tiny body steady against the strong tree branches he could just make out the heads of two school children sitting on the soft grass below.
“-So I said to Robbie that if he was going off and kissing girls like Molly, maybe I wouldn’t want to be his friend anymore,” said one.
“No!” Her friend gasped and Danny saw her small hands latch onto the other girl’s shoulder in anticipation. “And then what?”
He smiled at the antics and imagined briefly jumping from his tree branch and landing lightly in front of the girls, joining in on the conversation and giving his own opinion of this “Molly”. He dismissed the thought quickly however, he didn’t want to scare them off.
Danny Dawson moved his weight from one foot to the other and pulled out his pocket watch. Well it wasn’t exactly his, but he figured the man he nicked it from had the money to buy another one. Danny watched its little hands tick away. He knew it meant time was passing even if he couldn’t read the watch. Soon the girls’ mothers would whisk them away into a warm car and wrap them up in cotton wool. Danny wasn’t exactly sure what that meant but he had once heard a boy complaining about it. Danny decided that if he had a mother, she would wrap him up in cotton wool. It sounded delightful to Danny and he couldn’t understand the exasperated tone in the other child’s voice.
Danny often thought about what his Mother must look like. She would be very soft because of all that cotton wool she carried around and have big owl like glasses that she cleaned with the hem of her shirt. She would often forget where she had put them, the same way she had forgotten where she had put him.
This was how Danny Dawson spent most of his days, watching people, invisible in his hiding place, picking up on all the little things they did and mashing them together to make up pictures of the people missing from his life.
Danny Dawson had pretended this way for so long he could no longer tell the difference between his imaginings and reality.
Sunlight was beginning to be leached out of the sky, taking with it any warmth the sun had provided. The girls began to pack up and walk away.
“Come back,” he pled silently. The girls paid no heed as they climbed into a shiny car.

Danny stretched his stiff legs and began to work his way shakily down the tree trunk. Pins and needles stabbed their way up his legs. Suddenly his sharp eyes spotted something lying forgotten under a sprinkle of pine needles and dirt. He picked it up carefully and ran his thumb over the soft material. It was a scarf.
Danny sat down under his tree. He snuggled his cheek against the scarf and twisted his fingers around the smooth cotton. Maybe tomorrow the girl would come back for the scarf. Maybe tomorrow she would come back for him. These thoughts lulled him to sleep and built up his courage to face another day.


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