with a heart condition. Back in 1952, in a small town lost somewhere in the state of Connecticut, there was only one surgeon, Mr. Walter Wallis. Mr. Wallis had decided that the only option for baby Tom was a heart transplant. Since no heart transplant was ever performed on humans, the Nicholson puppy, Gerard, was to become the donor. Astonishingly, the operation was a success, and Mr.Wallis became famous and travelled to New York to work in a big medical centre.
Tom was around six, when Mr. and Ms. Nicholson noticed that he wasn`t an ordinary child. Don`t get me wrong – he was quite smart, ahead of his class, even. It`s just that he had “urges” to do things compulsively. Once, Ms. Samantha Sullivan, one of the school kids` mom, arrived at the Nicholson doorstep, holding Tom by the hand. She looked petrified:
“I don`t know what got into that child of yours, Ms. Nicholson, but he ain`t alright. He jus` followed us home and was beggin` for dinner. I`ve never seen a kid so hungry in my life, I`m tellin` ya! He jus` sat there and stared and drooled!”
“There there, Ms.Sullivan, let me offer you some peppermint tea, that will calm you down”
The strange occurrences continued. Mr. and Ms. Nicholson would come home to ripped-open feather pillows, wrecked snack-drawer, and emptied fridge. They would have to repair chewed-up table-legs and repay parents for their children`s destroyed toys. But they could never be mad at Tom – there wasn’t a more loving, devoted kid in the world.
When Tom was fifteen years old, he met Judy, the new neighbor’s daughter. She was looking through the hole in the fence, studying their garden.
“I`m Judy, I`m new here.”- she said with a soft voice. They were inseparable ever since.
They climbed trees together, and raced each other on bikes all over town, and listened to the radio. The smell of the freshly cut grass they laid on still stands out in Toms mind as a summer memory. She had beautiful blond hair had a scent like honey and her skin was soft like a feather. She was fragile, like a little bird. Sometimes he could feel her heart pound when they stood close to each other. Tom loved her as soon as he saw her. He waited for her every day so they could walk to school together. Sometimes, her mother would come out and scold him for being so intrusive. But around her, he always felt naïvely calm. He didn`t have to feel normal now, he could feel extraordinary: for her, he would do anything in the world. Once, he brought her a dead rabbit and laid it down carefully on her porch. An urge he was strangely proud of. Judy`s mother came out. In a second, she became as pale as her white apron and gave out a piercing scream. When Judy came out, she bellowed hysterically:
“You know who did this, don`t you?! You are never to see this strange boy again!”
It has been years of reminiscing about how he needs to pull himself together, to start behaving like a proper person. But something inside of him knew that it was because of his nature that he can love somebody with so much devotion. His whole universe revolved around this girl. He decided to go back to that porch and wait for Judy.
“You better leave, Tom, - Judy`s mother hissed. Her eyes squinted with loathing and revulsion, - “I don`t want you ruining her wedding day”.
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