The Boy She Left Behind | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: The Boy She Left Behind | Previous Challenge Entry
By Adele Butler
01/10/11
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Once in a blue moon Allison thinks about the boy she left behind over twenty years ago. It was in late October when she and her mother were flying to New York where they were planning to start a new life. Allison remembered seeing Roger that morning as she stood on the verandah for the last time. He rode past on his ten-speed bike. The night before he told her that he would ride up to the airport to see her off. She couldn’t imagine him riding that far just to say goodbye to her. The airport is about 27 miles from Georgetown. Yet, it didn’t seem unlikely since Roger was used to riding long distances. Most of the time he and his bike were inseparable.

Allison remembered the first time she saw Roger. He was walking to school. As her father drove past him, she looked out of the window and their eyes met and held until he was no longer within her view. That morning led to a strange relationship. She and Roger never spoke face to face. They spoke a few times on the phone. He rode past her home many times, sometimes without a shirt on. Her mother nicknamed him “Tarzan” One evening as Allison sat on the verandah, she was surprised to see Roger walk past her house, shirtless and barefeet and seemingly oblivious to the pouring rain.

She remembered the first time, she worked up the courage to call him. She could barely hear his voice above the pounding of her heart. "His voice is deep" was her first thought. It was a pleasant surprise. They spoke for a little while. The next time, he was the one who called.

The morning Allison was leaving, as she saw him ride past her home, she knew that it would be the last time she saw him. When she went to New York, she was caught up in the fast pace lifestyle of the city life—a far cry from the laid back atmosphere in Georgetown. She focused on her education and after a while life in Guyana became a distant memory. Allison had no plans to return. She wanted to visit other places and be exposed to other cultures. For the moment, however, she was satisfied with life in the big apple.

Then one day, for no reason at all, she thought of Roger. She decided to send him a Christmas card. She didn’t receive a reply until the following year. Nothing happened after that. She forgot about Roger until she picked up the phone one day and heard a strange voice on the other end. It was him. He sounded so different. His Guyanese accent was so pronounced. Allison had never noticed it when they spoke on the phone back in Guyana but, now that she was in New York and used to the american accent, Roger’s accent was very strong. They had a nice chat. Allison wrote him a letter and sent him pictures of her in her high school prom dress.

The next time she heard from Roger he was in Germany. He had gotten engaged to the daughter of one of her father’s friends. Allison doesn’t know if Roger ever got married to this girl. Allison moved on. Roger became a closed chapter in her life. He was the boy she left behind.

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