Time Warp: Take My Hand (Zeke)

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New York City, Spring 2006

The bell had long since sounded, marking the end of the day at the elementary school, but Zeke wasn't at their regular meeting spot, at the old statue at the park across the street. Every day they didn't have any after school activities, they would meet there and walk to Danny's house together. Zeke's family didn't live in the same neighborhood, but since Danny's was closer to the school, he would wait there until his mother came to pick him up after work.

But Zeke wasn't there today. Danny waited and waited, but he didn't see the younger boy anywhere. After 20 minutes, Danny left the park to head back to the school and ask around. Maybe one of the teachers kept him after? "Zeke!" he called as he ran down the halls of the school building. "Where are you?" He called out for his best friend over and over until someone stuck their head out from one of the classrooms and told him to stop running around and yelling like a maniac.

Danny instantly slowed down and apologized real quick...but not five seconds later was right back to his search. Where could the other boy be?

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Zeke had actually found himself in a rather traumatizing situation, as he somehow seemed to have a knack for doing… but then again, maybe it was just the child’s severe sensitivities that were to blame for how he felt about the situations he ended up in. He wasn’t being bullied… exactly. But he’d managed to find himself cornered by a couple of bigger guys in the hall outside his classroom, and they had successfully gotten him into an awkward position that he couldn’t quite figure out how to escape.

Mostly they were asking him about why he was so shy, why he never spoke in class, why he always seemed to be clinging onto that older friend of his… That sort of stuff. Typical things that children would question about someone that was a little different than his peers. Zeke kept trying to get himself away, knowing that Danny would be waiting for him across the street, but the more questions the boys asked, the more flustered Zeke grew, until it was all he could do not to hold back tears. Why did they have to bother him this much? He’d never done anything to them…

After some time, he heard a familiar voice calling his name down the hall, and turned his head eagerly in that direction. “Danny!” he called back, though his voice was softer and meeker than what it should have been to help the boy find him. Hopefully his friend would find him soon, Zeke didn’t want to have to deal with this any longer. He just wanted to curl up next to his friend somewhere quiet where they wouldn’t be bothered by anyone.

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In Danny’s opinion, bullying was bullying, no matter what you tried to dress it up as. If the person wasn’t happy with the situation, and other people kept putting him there without apology, then it was bullying. Kids were cruel sometimes. Danny had seen it over and over in other students, as well as in his best friend, whom he’d taken charge of to care for since as long as he could remember. The two boys may as well have been brothers, for how close they were. The only evidence that they weren’t was the fact that they each had their own mother.

Danny cared for Zeke more than a brother, however. He wasn’t sure how one could be closer than family, but that’s just how he felt. He’d do anything for the younger boy, even chase off a crowd of bullies. Which happened a little more often than Danny would have liked. Hence why he always became worried whenever Zeke suddenly disappeared without a trace and no word left as to where he had gone. Like today.

“Zeke!” he called again, spinning around as he now explored the second floor of the school building. He didn’t hear the cry out to him, but Danny did see a small cluster of kids halfway down the hall. Instinct and previous experience told the ten year old that that was exactly where he needed to be. “Hey!” he shouted, running as fast as he could towards the kids, most of them bigger than Danny too! “Get away from him!” Danny sped up as much as he can as he raced to go save his friend. The boys looked up to see the death glare in Danny’s eyes, and promptly backed away from the smaller boy. They were already racing down the hall by the time Danny finally reached his best friend. He sent them one last glare then turned his attentions to the younger boy. “Hey, Zeke. You okay?” he asked, bending down slightly, his face filled with worry. “What happened? What were those boy’s saying?” Nothing good, no doubt.

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Unfortunately, as shy as Zeke was, no matter how much other students made him feel uncomfortable, he was never bold enough to tell any of the teachers about it, and so nothing was really done. He depended more than he probably should on his best friend, so that when Danny wasn’t around, Zeke became even more helpless than he was to begin with. He wished he was at least taller, because he felt like that might help keep people away from him… But he was stuck being a runt, and wondered if he would be like that forever.

Danny was a good size for his age, even if he was still shorter than some of the older boys that picked on Zeke. And somehow they always seemed to back off when he told them to. The younger boy didn’t know how he did it, but he was incredibly grateful.

Like now, seeing the familiar figure of his friend approaching quickly towards the group around him. It was like magic, he thought, how Danny made the boys disappear like that, and soon enough he was stumbling forward to clutch onto his older friend’s shirt, burying his face in the fabric. He wasn’t crying, not quite, but his eyes were damp. “I… I’m okay now…” he whispered in a quiet, halting voice. It took a moment for him to regain his composure enough to straighten and look up at the taller boy. “They… they just came around me after I left class… They said that I’m weird, and too quiet, and… and other stuff…” Zeke shook his head and sighed, then tried to muster up a smile at Danny. “C… Can we go get something to eat?” he asked. “Like… Pizza?” He wasn’t sure how they would get some, but pizza always made him feel better. Without even realizing what he was doing, Zeke's hand found Danny's to hold onto.