From: seawasp+@pitt.edu (Ryk E Spoor)
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
Subject: Re: Bear's story
Date: 15 Apr 92 02:56:51 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh



	The Sea Wasp also listens to Bear speaking.

	"My childhood, too, was very much like that. Though not including the
size. I was a pariah because I was an asthmatic, incapable of participating in
any sports, kept indoors, practically blind, and exceedingly intelligent
without the FAINTEST idea of how to hide it, or even why I should. I had
no social graces at all. My asthma had kept me from interacting with anyone
else, and once I was thrown into the school system, I had no idea what was
going on.

	"You see, by the time I hit first grade (when they started teaching
reading) I had already been reading constantly for almost two years. I
had also, somehow, gotten a certain idea of what a school was supposed 
to be like: a lot of people (probably in robes, like graduation) talking
about interesting things, and exploring them as fast as they could.
	"So from MY point of view, I was instead dropped into what seemed
to be a hospital for the mentally incompetent. When you are reading things
at the level of _The Wizard of Oz_ and walk into a room to find that people
your own age are having trouble making the connection between L O O K and
the word "look", it's a pretty horrifying feeling.
	
	"Obviously, it wasn't really possible for me to hide that attitude,
though I tried to understand. But that, coupled with my other differences, 
made me a helluva target. I was weak, intellectual, and unable to fight.

	"The ONLY thing that I did, physically, that impressed anyone 
at all (aside from one unique sprint) was that NOTHING intimidated me.
I would be beaten constantly. I might cry, but I would never give up, I
would never retract a single thing I said, and I would never, ever 
forget. I got to be utterly isolated. I associated only with a couple
young ladies (girls, really, of course) because they were kind enough to
want to talk. Associating with young ladies, of course, just made things
worse...

	"Weak?" the Wasp grins ruefully. "At 14, I could, by straining
MIGHTILY, bench press (on one of those little machines) 30 pounds. ALL
the other people could do much more. However, my legs were hellishly 
strong for some reason; I could do the whole rack of weights with them
(500+ pounds...).

	"I, too, had a rage that built up... from the time I was 
5-6 until I was 18. It emerged in very odd ways, and to this day some of
the memories are very foggy.

	"When I was 18, two things happened. First, I was put on 
a new form of medication called Theodur -- time release theophylline."
The Wasp gestures and an image appears. It shows a slender young man,
light blond hair flying in the wind as he dashes recklessly through rain,
sprinting at demonic speed down a shady boulevard. He stumbles into a
kitchen, brightly lit, breathing fast but not having trouble drawing 
breath. The water that flows down his face is not from the rain. 
	
	The patrons of Callahan's can see another, echoing tear in the
Wasp's eye as he thinks on that day... the day he ran a MILE. "No one
who has not had asthma, or something like it, can EVER understand what
it means to just BREATHE."

	"The other thing that happened was that I went to college. I
didn't succeed there, not right away... but it did start to show me a
wider world."

	The Wasp raises his glass. "To... To growing up... while keeping
childhood within."

		*CRASH!*

                                 Sea Wasp
                                   /^\
                                   ;;;
Newsgroups: alt.callahans