BENJI. (a guide to being normal)

Take Care, Benji Dore

According to urbandictionary.com, a loser means: – n. A person who has fallen off the social ladder, climbed down the social ladder, jumped off the social ladder, or just never bothered to climb the social ladder in the first place. Upon arrival on the ground, losers begin to befriend fellow groundlings and realize how much fun a person can have when gravity isn’t an issue. It is perfectly acceptable to insult losers, because they have nowhere to fall to and it won’t hurt much. They will end up laughing about it later, anyways. Every now and then, a loser will glance at the top of the social ladder, but it is never long before they realize how pointless and stupid the top of the ladder is.

My life in a nutshell. Brilliant. I don't mean to be, honest, I don't. My mum used to say it was the curse that balanced the gift. And when I asked her what "gift" weighed the other side, her mind drew blank and I was left to realise even my own mother thought I was an idiot. I asked my dad and said, "Dad, why did God make me dumb?" His response was, "Benjamin, God didn't make you dumb. You're very, very smart. Don't tell yourself that." My then six-year-old response was, "Did God make me dumb so that smarter people feel good about themselves?" I know now that blaming God for my poor intelligence isn't the correct answer. Instead, I should consider putting whatever brains I've got left to what I'm good at. Writing my book on the history and study of zombies. The title to my non-fiction story is, The Unwanted.

To keep myself from remembering Copper's expression when I asked him if I was a loser, I began thinking of how the preface to my book should begin. I haven't showed anyone my work before, until now. You're one of the first to see what I've been up to. As of now, I have this excerpt:

The Unwanted hid mostly in dark caves, warehouses, tunnels, gutters, anywhere that was dark, moist, and silent. The Unwanted ventured out at any time of the day to look for food or water. The Unwanted could not reproduce with anyone because the drug damaged not only their minds, but their reproductive systems.  The only way to produce more Unwanted victims was to bite people who had not been infected. The Unwanted also had no sense of evil or good, they acted only on their animal-like instincts.  Some of the Unwanted were savage on how they attacked their prey while others were quick and caused the victim no pain.  The way they treated their victims depended on their personality as a person before they became an Unwanted. The Unwanted went after the elderly and weak people first and saved the young and strong for producing more Unwanted. The humans that hadn’t been bitten were held captives until the Unwanted were hungry.  The Unwanted were surprisingly smart enough to feed their prisoners and keep them alive until feasting time. However, unlike humans, the Unwanted didn’t eat daily because one bite of a living human could last them for eight months if not a year. 

I know I shouldn't be too hard on Copper, he has been a fine friend and the best I've ever had. He saved me from a group of nutters in freshman year of highshool. What happened was that the football players (soccer, if you're in the States) jumped me in the locker room. Their goalie, with his sticky, sweaty hands, pinned me against the metal lockers and took off all my clothes. I remember I was paralised with fear and could only think of being bummed by all eight players. Thankfully, though it was almost as equally dreadful, they took out heavy-duty tape from a gym bag (I was horrified to think that they had been planning this) and taped my hands to my bare bum. They then ran the tape around my lower body several times and then left me there. It was then did Copper stumble in and find me haplessly on the floor

Copper, whose real name is Franklin Weir, helped me into the shower and washed me down with warm water to calm the stinging. He then got the school nurse and principal and, though it was very embarrassing for everyone to see me dressed down, they tenderly proceeded to remove the adhesive from my body. I suffered from a horrible rash and missing skin, but I was alive and Copper was the one to thank. I nicknamed him Copper after my favourite Disney animal from The Fox and the Hound. He called me Benji, as he said that since I survived the horrible attack, I should sport a new name. I was expecting something fantastic like, "Jackal" or "Falcon", but then he just said, 'Your name's Benji now.'

Of course, now that name is how I identify myself. Benji reminds most people of a shaggy brown dog, but to me, it reminds me how my best friend will constantly save my life. Even if he did admit I was loser.

Take care,

Benji Dore