Weird Childhood

A bit of time had passed since the grandfather and renewed grandson meet-up.

As of now, Sullivan has already accepted the somewhat mature version of his grandson.

Anyways, his memory of Alexander was actually quite quaint with him visiting the child during the holidays.

It was only when he became the only remaining guardian that he fully lived and looked after his grandson.

Alexander was terribly grieving in the long three months he has moved but now he was spry and curious as to how people should be.

As far as he was concerned, the boy was cocooned in grief and emerged as a better man for it.

Sullivan felt that he had a little comrade to share his story with. Leading to Alexander repeatedly hearing what he has already known about the old patriarch's endeavors.

The old did have the tendency to be storytelling and recounting their glory days.

---------

5:30 AM. In the neighborhood where the Creed household is in, young Alexander could be seen jogging in street areas that could be considered safe.

This was a relatively rich neighborhood so it had ample enough security but the boy felt it was necessary to be cautious.

He did not want someone harvesting his organs or being kidnapped and sold to a rich, homophobic, pedophile.

"I've become an aberration of time, however, I have not become Superman." Alexander muttered as he jogged and enveloped himself in the cool morning air. He was keeping through to his goal of being fit and healthy.

He was used to this early morning routine after a week of discipline but apparently, so were his neighbors.

"Morning, kid! Win an Olympic for our country. I'm sure you can do it." This was something a beer-bellied neighbor hollered while throwing out his trash.

"You've got potential, kid! I'm sure you'll be the school jock and have the pretty gals hounding at you. Just like how I was back in the day." This was what an old man said when he went out for a morning walk and saw the diligent boy.

"Take this card, boy! I'm a local baseball coach and you're the ace player we need." A man jogged beside Alexander. Stuffed the card into his tiny hands and ran away without stopping to convey his mysteriousness.

Even Alexander felt that this scenario was familiar with all the sports anime he had binged through his pirate streaming sites.

"I won't be fooled, though!" He muttered while running until he reached his daily quota.

Apart from these streetside encounters, there would also be discussions centered around the weird jogging child from afar.

An example would be a married couple who notices his day-to-day routine from afar.

"The boy is amazing, isn't he?" The wife asked. "Whose kid is he, anyway?"

"He's old Creed grandson. The poor kid just lost his parents from an unfortunate accident." The husband answered. "He must be running to forget his loss.

"Don't you think you should push our boys to do these manly kinds of things? Our boys seem lazy compared to that Creed kid. They are all Atari this and Atari that." The wife grumbled and nagged. "Those games are poisoning them. We better do something."

The husband sighed in frustration. "What can we do? It'll probably be when they'll be orphans before they could be like old Creed's grandson."

"Don't say such nasty things, Richard!" The wife yelped from her husband's ominous words. She'd rather have his boys be poisoned by games than be dead.

Their couple banter stopped there and Alexander didn't care much for it.

---------

When the clock struck six, Alexander already headed home. He showered and readied himself for the day.

It was a school day, so he proceeded just as how he had for the previous days.

Eat breakfast with grandpa, take the school bus, go through the boring repetition of school, take the school bus again to home, and have the rest of the day to himself.

School was just as how he remembered it to be. The familiar and unfamiliar classmates. He also got to remember the teachers he had long put into perspective.

Alexander's days passed to be quite dull and boring than what he remembered them to be.

At first, it was fun to learn that he was quite superior to his struggling classmates. Slowly, it got tedious when he knows he could do greater things and be incredibly productive than multiplying and dividing the basics.

The weekends and being at home were even duller than mingling with angst bombs of classmates.

Pre-enlightened him would probably not care but enlightened him had so much insight and a greater perspective on what could be.

Alexander finally got to realize what a weird childhood he had or rather, what a weird child he was.

"I know I am a bit introverted, quite cautious, and a bit calculative with doing things. Which is fine but... now..."

He couldn't quite pinpoint the anomaly but he was sure it has something to do with those binaries.

In those moments of living those 44 years of his life, he felt contented and accepted that everything should go with the flow.

Losing his parents and his grandfather was a part of his life. Meeting girls, having girlfriends, and when you're dissatisfied with each other, just break up. Going to college, getting a job, getting good at it, and when you are being alienated, instead of fighting back, you find another.

When he could've been a hot hunk, he wasted it and became a skinny man and eventually grew a beer belly.

When he was set to inherit his grandfather's business, he sold it to the one who convinced him that he wasn't good enough for it. Even though he could have tried to continue Sullivan's legacy, at that time, he felt it was a sensible decision and let it go.

When he could've done this, he didn't. When he could have chosen this, he chose that instead. When he could have spoken for himself, he chose to stay quiet.

Regular Alexander, who was supposedly okay with all that...

Now felt dissatisfied...

It was three weeks or so since the binary incident and Alexander finally realized the true advantage of it.