Story Of Steve

Just a memory

 

THE STORY OF STEVE

Have ya ever had someone come into your world and you just new that it was for some special purpose, Whenever you think back on this time ya get all fuzzy feeling and smiley faced,and you really have no clue why?..

I new this fella once, His name was Steve. Steve never went to school a day in his life,He didn't have many friends growing up, he just lived in his own little world.. I do remember that Steve was always smiling, I think at times he was the Happiest Kid on earth. I often find myself wondering whatever happened to Steve?.. I wish I would have been wise enough at the time to see the many Valuable life lessons that he taught me.But most of all, I just wish I could say THANKS! So folks, grab a fresh cup, and I'll tell ya the story of Steve.

Hey Coach! Who Let That Kid out here?.... Y'all just ignore him and he'll go away!!!!!! It was the summer of 77, We were in the middle of what we called two a days... That was when we had to show up early in the morning for practice. We would get a two hour break around noon, then have to come back for another practice.. MAN I USE TO HATE THIS!.. For reason's I have yet to figure out to this day? I did it anyway........

Well for about a week strait, we noticed this boy standing on the opposite end of the field watching us practice...That fella was in his own little world... He was hooping and hollering out cheers. We would run a play and ya could hear him scream .You would have thought he just won a million dollars from a Super Bowl bet....But for the life of us, we couldn't understand a word he said.. Some of the players were really being bothered by this... Some of us just didn't really care one way or another...

Steve showed up every single day that summer.. We were practicing one morning and it was pouring down rain. Sure enough, we looked up, and there was Steve. Standing at the opposite end of the field looking like a wet puppy... Cheering his a*s off. My curiosity was beginning to get the best of me, so I made up my mind then and there that I was going to talk to this dude. So when practice was over I started jogging over to where he was....He turned and ran away......THIS PISSED ME OFF!... The next day after practice, I started walking slowly over to where Steve was..........HE TURNED AND RAN AWAY!.... HELL NO!..I WAS SCREAMING THAT I JUST WANTED TO TALK TO HIM.....He ran anyway.............

Well after a couple of days of this same Ole same Ole, I gave up.......We finished out our summer two a days with Steve cheering us on like we was playing for the championship........I never got to talk to him...To be honest we still had a few weeks until school started back, so I forgot totally about him. Until Our first day back in school............

It was the first day back after the summer. Me and my girlfriend at the time was down at the Baseball field, doing what normal teenagers do. When I noticed over at a house next to the school, there was this kid playing in the backyard.. He was running around tossing a football up in the air and trying to catch it... He wasn't very good at it because that ball kept going strait through his hands..... All the while he was yelling cheers to himself....... My girlfriend started laughing at him... For reasons unknown to me this pissed me off...."HEY! THAT'S THE DUDE FROM PRACTICE"...."I'm GOING TO GO TALK TO HIM"....My girlfriend said"Why, He's RETARDED" I remember looking her dead in her eyes and kinda growling.."NO HE'S NOT, HE'S SPECIAL!" at least that's what my momma told me about folks I was curious about when I was little..

I walked over to the fence separating His backyard from the school grounds. I guess he didn't see me coming because He didn't run away?. Now folks I do Remember word for word what was said....So I will write it here as so:

"HEY BUDDY!"... "WHY DON'T CHA TOSS THAT BALL OVER HERE AND I'LL THROW IT BACK TO YOU?"...He let out this shrill scream like he was the most excited kid on earth at that moment... He screamed "FUUUUBALLLLLLLLLLLL" as he let go of that ball. It dropped about 10 feet before it got to me on his side of the fence.......In his eyes I think he just made the winning touchdown pass with 5 seconds to go in the super bowl.( WAIT!!!!! SORRY! I JUST MADE MYSELF CRY!!!!!la la la la la la la la la... OK.. I'm BETTER NOW!~)Folks, I'm loving this memory!....DAMN!....lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalal

"OK! ALL COMPOSED AND S**T! I'LL TRY AGAIN!"

I will never ever in my life forget what that boy said to me when he ran over to that fence......Remember? These are HIS words:

"HELLO, MMMM TEEEVE, WELL U BE MU MU FRIEND?"

Now folks this kid appeared to be somewhere around my age..We sat there on opposite sides of that fence. We tossed that football back and forth for over an hour... There wasn't very many words said, and probably actually caught that ball maybe once or twice, but when he did. I would do a cheer for him......His face would light up the sky.

I also met Steve's Mom that day.. I only talked to her for a few minutes but I found out that Steve had lived with his Grandparents for a while and had just moved here to live with her... She had tried to put him in a school but the kids made fun of him all the time and this hurt him......He had what they called Downs Syndrome.. At the time I didn't have a clue what this was.

Anyway, I went out to the baseball fields pretty much everyday during my study hall. I would toss the ball with Steve... He was always there waiting.....And you could always count on Steve being at football practice cheering us on... Now when he started yelling my name and cheering for me, I would catch Hell from the other guys... But I really didn't mind.....After a while Steve got to where he was less and less afraid of us.. We noticed he wouldn't always stand at the opposite end of the field... He was kinda inching his way closer and closer........We looked up one day and he was sitting on the sidelines right by our water coolers.........Out of the Blue our Coach (RILEY MYERS.. HE PLAYED WITH ARCHIE MANNING IN COLLEGE BY THE WAY), he blew his whistle and yelled..

"HEY STEVE.. WHY DON'T YOU BRING THIS GUYS SOME WATER?"

Steve picked up that cooler and he was so excited he made it about halfway, tripped and spilled every drop... He didn't miss a lick though. He scooped up that cooler, and brought it to us anyway.....EMPTY!.. Y'all want to know, to this day I think that was the best water I NEVER DRANK!.... From that day on. Steve was our official water dude...Coach gave him a game jersey with 00 on it...STEVE WAS NOW OFFICIALLY A WAR EAGLE! or as he would put it..(."immmma or legal").... But we understood every word he said.....

Folks I could write a book on the things I learned from Steve... Don't know what ever became of him? So I'll just leave ya with this one final thought........

IF YA SEE SOMEONE THAT MAY FRIGHTEN YA JUST A LITTLE BECAUSE THEY MAY ACT A LITTLE DIFFERENT,LOOK A LITTLE DIFFERENT.. TAKE JUST A MINUTE AND TOSS UM THE BALL.

BECAUSE YOU VERY WELL COULD MISS OUT ON YOUR CHANCE TO BEFRIEND AN ANGEL!

Y'ALL WEAR YOUR WARM AND FUZZY SMILES TODAY!....kuntry

 

Reviews

[Sara Muschweck]

Kuntry, you brought a tear to my eye. This story has so much meaning, the friendship you made, and the way after time the whole team took him to heart. My grandma always said we earn our stars in heaven, Kuntry, you earned a galaxy that time.