Raised By Wolves

People often talk about all of their favorite TV shows growing up, but I can't really relate. I only watched television up until I was old enough to go outside by myself. Even then I only watched original Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and The Twilight Zone. Shows most kids hadn't even heard of yet. Unless of course it was the weekend, in which case I watched morning cartoons like any normal child.

But once I was allowed to go outside on my own (read: without adult supervision) that pretty much ended my relationship with TV. I spent, quite literally, every waking moment outside. To the point where my poor mother would have to hand me my meals from the doorway because I refused to go inside and eat at the dining table. I'd take whatever hand-held food she offered and immediately run back off into the wilderness like some sort of child raised by wolves or something.

At first, I only came in to sleep. However after a week without a bath, I realized going to school looking like a dirty hobo would damage my reputation. Having crazy hair and dirt on your face meant you sat alone at lunch because the other kids didn't know what to make of you. Luckily I was also a clever child and this only lasted a week. I saw the error of my ways and decided to go indoors to sleep and bathe. This cleared up any hesitation I met from my peers.

I had nothing against our house. In fact it was easily the coolest house on the block. A historical Victorian era two story with a spooky basement and doors you unlocked with a skeleton key. All in all, it was a pretty magical house to grow up in.

I just didn't have time for all that mundane bullshit. I was too busy traveling the universe (city) in my spaceship (bicycle) which also served as a time machine. Sometimes my spaceship was also a chocobo. I can't explain the science behind that one, you wouldn't understand.

This sort of behavior lasted all the way up to seventh grade. Normally kids who cling so dearly to their imagination at that age wind up cast into unpopularity. Only I wasn't alone. I had stirred the embers of every child's imagination within eight city blocks, none of us were in a rush to grow up. This permitted us to have fantastic adventures which spanned months, and nobody was exempt. In my world you could be whoever or whatever you wanted to be, and that was somehow fine. In fact, encouraged.

I wonder how long after I moved away all those people held onto their imaginations?