The Boy with the Dancing Eyes

And this is why I can't write for my life...

The Boy with the Dancing Eyes

There was a boy that lived down my street. Nobody knew the kids name. He was a quiet one for sure, and never came outside to play with the other children. He didn't go to a normal school either. In fact everyone knew he was homeschooled. He had siblings that played with us kids, but they never talked about him. Was that because he was weird? Or maybe an alien or even adopted? Nobody knew.

I can remember the day we finally met him. I remember that day, ten years ago. It was pouring rain, and the sky wasn't visible under the gray clouds. I was outside with my friend Haven, playing in the mud and splashing in puddles. None of the other kids liked to come outside on days like that, so we were alone. Rainy days were just our thing, and we made sure it stayed our thing.

Until he showed up.

Haven had just fallen in a puddle, and had cried a little bit, but toughened up and jumped back to her feet. She had been covered in mud, but she loved it. I had finished making a track down the hill to mudslide down, and was climbing back up the hill just to go back down, this time for fun.

I saw him as I reached the top of the hill. He was wearing his rain gear, just like me and Haven, but he was smaller than I thought he was. He'd approached us and just stared. He stared like he wanted us to talk to him first, but we were at a loss of words. He looked over my shoulder and at the track I'd made. A smile broke onto his face, and that's when I realized his eyes, a lovely shade of blue, were just dancing! I hadn't thought it was possible, but his eyes showed no signs of anything but pure energy and happiness.

Haven hadn't noticed them of course. She instead had grabbed his hands and slid down the hill, laughing and screaming the whole way down. I had looked at him with shock on my face as he made his way after Haven. I thought he was trying something, like stealing my friends. I was seven at the time, so I didn't know any better.

His mother had called him in not to long after that, and me and Haven had wondered why. We figured that his mother didn't want him to catch a cold or some other virus, so we let it go.

He disappeared after that, and we didn't see him again for a while. His siblings still made no mention of him, and we began to wonder if he was a ghost or not. Haven had asked if we could visit him, but his siblings got angry and left us to play by ourselves that day.

The next time we saw him, we were both thirteen, six years after we'd first met him. I remember Haven asking me if he ever came outside of the house. We'd both wondered that for awhile.

We were hanging out on a grassy piece of land in the neighborhood, since none of the other kids wanted to play games anymore. We were talking about our classes that year, and how I got into the honors program with a B average in seventh grade, and how she had no honors classes even though she'd maintained perfect A's that whole year. We were absolutely sure it had been a fluke in the system.
He came out in the middle of our conversation, this time wearing a black hoodie and some jeans. We weren't sure if that was him, until he came over to us, and just plopped right in front of us, looking at us. I could tell it was him instantly with his dancing blue cheery eyes. I was in awe as I stared into them. Haven, again, did not notice. She began talking to him, asking him how he was doing.

I was surprised when he answered. His voice was a little bit deeper than I'd expected. He looked like a cute small child, but taller. He had a nice voice that probably could carry quite well. I didn't talk, I just listened. I listened for the first time in my life with engrossment, not being able to pull myself away. He was telling us about his homeschooling, his family and how he was pretty good at doing stupid stunts like they did on TV. I remember Haven smiling, nodding and looking into his dancing eyes. He had used his hands to talk.

His mother called him in about an hour later this time around, and he waved goodbye to us, telling us that he'd see us soon. We didn't know what this meant, but Haven couldn't stop talking about him after that. She was all over this kid, and she didn't even know his name. She probably had a crush on him, but thirteen year old girls were always hard to figure out.

We soon figured out what he meant when he told us, see you soon. It was a Wednesday morning at school, and we were in instructional focus. We'd graduated from Middle school and we were in High school at the time. Haven and I were inseparable too. We didn't have any other friends. It was just Jacob and Haven, the duo, who had the same classes for once in their lives.

The boy had walked into our room, and me and Haven were the only people surprised. There he was standing there, his eyes dancing as usual, his hair perfectly brown and straight across his eyes wearing a purple long sleeved t-shirt that made his skinny body look muscular and a pair of grey jeans. His voice was a little bit deeper, but not much. The teacher had told us that he had been fighting cancer since he was a small toddler, and had been healthy for three years, which was why he was attending a real high school.

He had a lot of classes Haven and I had, and would always sit with us. He sat with us at lunch and stayed quiet as me and Haven talked about our next stunt we were going to set up. He would just sit there and smile… to be a part of a healthy lifestyle. I had no idea why he chose us, but I thought maybe we were the first people to actually meet him.

Haven decided that he should start hanging out with us after school, even if he was a third wheel. She'd promised me a pack of Oreos every week, so of course I'd accepted. He would talk occasionally, but only because Haven would ask him about his day.

"We need to get him to talk," I remember looking at Haven as if she was crazy. "What?" I'd asked, raising an eyebrow and giving her an awkward look.

Haven shook her head in response. "Listen," She sighed and rolled her eyes. "If he's going to hang out with us, he needs to talk. We, as a duo, aren't quiet. It's just plain weird to have a quiet boy in our group. It's just wrong in fact!" She exclaimed, crossing her arms and giving me a look.

I rolled my eyes and then stared at her. "Alright, alright. We'll get him to talk. If he doesn't, you give me two packs of Oreos. Deal?" I raised an eyebrow. She rolled her eyes once more, and we shook on it. At that point in time, I really didn't want him to talk at all, though for my own selfish reasons.

The next few weeks at lunch, Haven had chickened out. How did you start a conversation with a kid you knew nothing about anyway? We'd just stare at each other at lunch, and all our conversations had pretty much come to a halt. It was getting awkward for all of us. Until one day, Devon, of all people, broke the silence.
"So you guys," He'd started out, awkwardly glancing at the linoleum floor in the cafeteria. "You guys like to do crazy stunts right?" He looked back at us, and straight into Haven's eyes. She was almost taken aback. She'd had the first real encounter with the boys dancing eyes.

I nodded in response and cleared my throat. I'd hardly talked all day, or week for that matter, and it was starting to get to me. "Yeah, we do," I smirked and crossed my arms. He looked at me almost like he didn't know I even owned a voice. "Got any ideas?"

That one day at lunch had sprung years of stupid stunts. The first one we'd done together was a tape of all of us jumping on a trampoline, wearing sheets on our head so he couldn't see each other. We'd gotten so many injuries, excluding falling through the net covering the areas perimeter that is. All of us had fallen on top of each other, bumped into each other and even scratched each other. Our parents and siblings thought we were the stupidest people they'd ever known.

We had many more after that, but our favorite occurred about two years later. We were all juniors and it was in the winter. We'd just gotten off for Holiday break and we were bored out of our minds. We all got together and just sat in the snow, looking out into the distance. Haven nearly jumped out of her seat with excitement.

"I've got it!" She exclaimed, her normally dull eyes full of cheer. "We can go sledding down the hill!" Devon and I gave her a look, and shook our heads, telling her that her suggestion wasn't fun enough. She huffed and stamped her foot into the ground. "No, we go sledding down the hill," She smirked and we stared at each other. "Wearing our swimsuits and landing in a kiddie pool." Her smirk was a full grin now. "Our sleds will be pool floats," she finished, crossing her arms, satisfied.

Devon and I grinned, approving of this. We'd practically sprinted home and got all our stuff ready. Devon had to borrow my stuff because he'd never been swimming before. He told us it was the mom thinking he was still infected with cancer thing. After we were finished we'd grinned as we'd looked down the hill and bumped our fists, as Haven jogged back up after filling the baby pool. We were all shivering, and we knew we'd be colder.

I decided to go first, and jumped onto the sled, going down head first and laughing as hard as I could. About halfway down I fell off the float and rolled down the hill with only my skin touching the snow. I landed right next to the pool and groaned in pain as I held a thumb down, telling the other two that the idea didn't work.
Haven refused to believe and tried for herself. She slid down, using the float as a surfboard, but feel off almost immediately. She actually landed in the pool, but screamed at how cold it was, jumping out immediately, also holding a thumb down.

Devon shook his head. He was going to try, and we thought he was insane. He got on the float like a normal person gets on a sled and pushed off. He was screaming the whole way down the hill (neither me nor Haven blamed him) and pushed his body off of it at the perfect moment and landed straight in the pool. We stared at him, almost… proud. He began shivering and held a thumb up. We all high fived and grinned. We got busted right after it though, and I was grounded for being the 'brains' of the plan.

We'd gone to school after break, bragging about the idea and we were all grinning like mad as people told us we were the most retarded people they'd ever known. The truth was, they were all laughing and enjoying the story. They might've denied it, but it was painfully obvious, and Devon's dancing eyes had made everyone's eyes fill with delight. He was the sunshine in our group, and we didn't know what we'd do without him.

The kids at school, and even our teachers, called us the three musketeers, three stooges, or the terrible trio. We'd preferred the last one, just because it made us seem awesome. Or at least it made us feel awesome.

The year ended, and we'd continued our stunts. The next year came, and we went to Haven's house because she was grounded and we weren't allowed to do stunts with her bedroom ridden. We were joking around about how we'd end up after graduation (it was the beginning of our Senior year) and we made Haven embarrassed saying she'd end up being a religious house wife (about the opposite of her eccentric self).

I'd looked over to Devon and his face almost went blank, and he looked paler than he normally did, though he tried to make himself look alright.

"Are you alright?" I asked, tilting my head slightly to the side. My question made Haven look him over.

"Maybe you should leave," She suggested worriedly. He nodded and stood up, though was stumbling around. We'd jumped up and helped him out, though he passed out in our arms. Haven screamed for her mom, in tears and we helped him into the car.

After that, everything was a blur, but at the same time… it was all to clear.

"We're sorry," The Doctor started, looking at the group in front of him. There was Haven and I, Devon's Mom and Dad, Haven's Mom and Devon's older brother and sister All of us just stared at the doctor, hoping for good news, but our hearts dropping when he apologized. "His cancer has come back stronger, and more mutated than it was before. He won't live to see graduation." Haven, his mom and dad, and his little sister burst into tears and the rest of us just stared at him.

The doctor had been right. Every month, from August to May, his health gradually declined, and by May, he was hardly functioning. We'd held him an early graduation ceremony, and given him what he deserved. I was left alone with him by my request and his parents, though more than just hesitant to leave agreed anyway.
I grinned and sat down in the chair next to the bed, playing ruffling his hair. "Well Dev, how are you feeling?" He shook his head; his eyes closed, and made a small noise. I nodded and shrugged. "Well, you're getting better right?"

"No," He responded so quietly that I could hardly hear it. I felt bad for him, but my heart told me that he was going to get better. I knew he was. I couldn't bear to lose him so soon.

"Jacob," He started quietly. "I know I'm leaving soon," I stared at him, shocked, but he interrupted me before I could say anything. "And I want you to know," He opened his eyes and looked at me. His eyes were still full of life, and were dancing like they always did. "That you and Haven are the best friends I could have ever asked for," He coughed and gave me a weak smile. "I never knew… it could be so fun to be a kid… I'd never done that. Thank you." His eyes closed quickly and he collapsed into his pillow. I stared only for a moment before crying.

His eyes were so full of life at the time! How could he have died? It didn't make any sense… I couldn't lose him… I just couldn't.

I was stricken with shock, and became depressed. Nobody took it well, and we all cried whenever we mentioned our stupid stunts, or even his name. It was the worst time in our lives, but we tried our best to stay cheering, knowing he'd want us to forget him. It was hard, but we'd managed.

Haven and I attended his funeral about two weeks later. The preacher, his parents and his siblings had finished their speeches, and Haven and I stepped up to the podium, looking at each other sorrowfully. We cleared our throats and looked at the crowed, all upset. I managed a small smile and began my speech

"Devon was a friend of mine I will always cherish. I never knew how to truly be happy, but whenever I looked into his dancing eyes, I'd now I couldn't be upset. And even in his time of death, they were just as cheerful, and I knew he wouldn't want me to be sad." Haven wiped the tears out of my eyes and hers and I continued. "This speech is dedicated to him."

The crowd watch me for a moment. I had started bawling, but calmed myself down, which took a minute. I sucked in a breath of air, closed my eyes and started.

"There was once a boy that lived on my street…"