Project: "Tord"

Ch. 15 - Little Wonders

2006, London

It was a beautiful spring day, the little birds were singing a merry tune, flying through the sky and playing chase. The deep green leaves danced above my head, creating plays of light and shadow on my face.

''Aaand... finished!!! Do you want to see?''

The Norwegian boy was sitting cross-legged beside me on the hill. He had been working on something on his drawing papers for hours. I had tried to spy several times but he had pushed me away saying it was a surprise.

"Finally! Let's see''

Since last year, when I had met him, he had really changed a lot. At first he had struggled to get familiar, to talk about himself. He had been on the mysterious side for a few months, then he must have realized he could trust and slowly opened up. Now he was like a different person.

Sure, he was still a very introspective and reserved guy, but slowly he was letting me into his world, and boy, what a world. That guy was a genius, a little prodigy.

''A robot? Again? But haven't you already drawn a lot of them?''

''But this one is different! Come on, try to guess what it's for!''

After I had spent months talking about myself in every single detail, he too had begun to tell me about his passions. He was SUPER FIXED on robots, but really really!

He told me that before hanging out with me and having friends here in London, he used to spend his whole days locked in his house drawing blueprint after blueprint of all kinds of small robots and technology. Mini toys he could build himself out of all kinds of materials, every now and then he would bring me a new one to see or test.

I'm not a big fan of technology, I've never been very interested in it, however, listening to him was interesting.

The thing that impressed me most was the change in attitude he had as soon as the topic was mentioned.

''Mhh... to... build huge buildings? To...fight against Godzilla? Oh I know I know! To protect us from a zombie apocalypse!''

''Wrong, think higher''

Every time he told me about his inventions, his face lit up with passion. I loved when that happened, since most of the time, especially in the beginning, he was always a little somber, aloof, excluded.

I was kind of his opposite, loving the company and talking a lot. Seeing that deep down he was also like me when touching on topics he was passionate about, it was a good feeling, I could see him so happy, and I was happy too.

''Higher up? Is it like an airplane? Come on, will you tell me? I give up''

I dropped myself on the grass and I looked at the sky opening and closing above me, jagged with leaves and lemons.

'' ... if you guess I'll tell you my name''

I leapt up very quickly.

''Really???''

It had been a year and I still didn't know his name, I had tried several times to get him to tell me but there was no way, he liked to be mysterious, so at some point I had given up and always called him ''the boy from the hill'', after all, we only ever saw each other there, he wasn't the type to walk around town.
In my head it was like it was merged with that hill, I hardly remembered the feeling of being there alone, every time I came, he was there.

It had become his favorite place to draw and build his inventions, he would bring all the materials from home.

We used to have snacks together when I came back from school, he wouldn't go there, he would tell me that he didn't care, that he already knew everything because his parents were giving him private lessons.