Tommy's Gift

Little Tommy Thompson lived alone with his mother in an old duplex on the outskirts of an old, poor town. Once off-white walls and light blue curtains were darkened with nicotine stains from the earlier inhabitants and lead-based paint cracked and flaked around the windows and doors. The floor in the living room and bedrooms was made of creaky stained hardwood, scuffed and worn from decades of use. The kitchen floor was covered with aged yellow and brown linoleum, and the layout of the small space was such that the oven sat between the washer and dryer, making it nearly impossible to run the laundry and cook at the same time.

His mother went to work cleaning rooms at the motel in town every morning and as a waitress at the diner while his father worked construction jobs out of town. Tommy had been diagnosed with a degenerative illness and it took everything they had to pay medical bills and keep afloat. His grandmother retired to help take care of him to cut childcare costs. Grandma Thompson gave warm hugs and always made sure he never went hungry.

Still, Little Tommy was full of life and even from a young age had an interest in science. He loved looking up at the stars and often dreamed of going to space as an astronaut. Like many other little boys his age, he also liked catching frogs and pretending sticks were swords or laser guns made to vanquish his evil foes. Unfortunately, his affliction caused him to have to stay inside most of the time so he had a hard time making friends.

One rainy day in early summer, a small moving van pulled up to the other side of the duplex. As two men got out of the van to start moving boxes and furniture, an old green station wagon with wood paneling pulled up. Tommy was both excited and unsure of himself when he saw a little boy his age get out of the car with his mother and go inside the neighboring front door. He really wanted a friend, but he found himself wondering if the other boy would like someone like him who could barely even go outside.

A few days later, Tommy was looking out the window waiting to see if the other little boy would return next door. He had left the day after he had moved in with his mother, and Tommy's grandma had told him she believed he went to his father's house some days but expected he would be back. The sun set, and before Tommy knew where the time had gone he was looking up at the stars. As he imagined himself up among those stars, flying in a big starship he got a weird sensation that someone was looking at him. The little boy next door stood just in front of the small front stoop light next door and he waved when Tommy moved his gaze down from the night sky. Little Tommy waved back and smiled, becoming more hopeful that he could make a friend.

The next day, Tommy woke up with a cough. His grandma felt his forehead, then took his temperature with a thermometer and tried to hide the concern in her kind face. She called his mother, who returned home quickly, and they took him to the hospital. As the small hospital was in a small town, he was quickly seen through triage and taken to a room where his mother and grandmother prayed while they waited for the doctor. Thankfully, Little Tommy would be alright with medication, the doctor assured them, but they would keep him overnight on fluids to be safe.

When they returned home the following afternoon, they were surprised to see a large box wrapped in brown paper on their doorstep. They took the box inside, wondering who it could be from as his mother carefully opened it. Inside was telescope wrapped in an old blanket and a short note in blue crayon that read:

"Deer naybor,

i hope u feel beter soon.

now u can look at the stars beter

ur naybor,

Alex

p.s. dont wory this waz from the good will stor"

Tommy was so excited he could hardly wait to look at the stars through his new telescope, but most of all he could hardly wait to go thank his new friend.

The next few days, his neighbor Alex was at his dad's again, so little Tommy set to work with a plan to repay the kindness of his new friend the best way he knew how. He took his box of crayons and started drawing on the brown paper box, spending nearly all day on it to make sure it looked just right. Once he finished, he smiled and thought, surely he'll like it since I like it so much myself. His mother and grandmother were overjoyed to see Tommy so happy and suggested inviting his new friend over to play when he returned, and Tommy could hardly contain his glee.

When Alex returned it had already been arranged for him to hang out a while with Tommy, so he excitedly ran next door. Tommy smiled and waved.

"Thank you for the present!" Tommy said. "I wanted to get you something back, so... well, I have something cool to show you!"

When they got to Tommy's room, Alex's eyes went wide and Tommy beamed with pride.

"Whoa!" Alex said. "That really is cool! It must have took forever to make this!"

Tommy had taken the big brown paper box and turned it into a magical creation for any child's imagination - he had transformed it into a space shuttle. They played in it for hours, from blasting off and leaving the Earth they visited the moon and beyond. Tommy and Alex became best friends, and as the days went by they even took that decorated brown box shuttle to new worlds in other solar systems, sometimes meeting kind aliens and other times having to do battle in space.

As time went on, Alex had to spend more time in school while Tommy was homeschooled. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only thing to change a the nature of Tommy's illness made it necessary for him to use a wheelchair. For a time little Tommy mourned the loss of use of his legs the way the other kids could still use them, but he still found happiness in his family and his friend, Alex, when he was able to come over. Luckily, there was something else the two boys were able to enjoy and bond over - video games. And Tommy was very good at them.

Before long the two boys were teenagers, and even though school and a new interest in girls was taking more of Alex's attention, he still made sure to make time for his best friend Tommy. They would play games, starting on the first Playstation and Nintendo 64, taking them to even more places as they immersed themselves just as they had in that brown box space shuttle. When they could they played together, and on other games they took turns until they took out a boss or their character lost a life. No matter how long they played, though, Alex could never best Tommy. After all, Alex learned most of what he knew about games from Tommy.

Years passed by and other friends came in and out of their lives, as often happens in life. Tommy's illness continued to take more from him, but he still pushed forward. High school had finished for Alex and he started to take college classes at the local community college. Tommy persevered in his own way, reading more of the sciences online, even theoretical physics, as he dreamt of the stars. Tommy and Alex still remained the best of friends, and when Alex couldn't come over, they still managed to play together online.

One day, Alex met a girl and was almost immediately smitten. She was a beautiful girl from far out in the country, but she had the bad habit of smoking, and as smitten as he was, Alex started smoking, too. Tommy was not very happy with his friend about this new development.

"You have a choice and you ruin your good lungs." Tommy chided him. "My illness took my choice from me. You're my best friend and I want better for you."

"You're right." replied Alex, now ashamed. "Thank you for always giving me advice, even if it isn't always what I want to hear."

Later that year, Alex and the girl got married then had their first child, a daughter, soon after. Adult life became real for Alex now, as a husband and father, but even as he worked to pay bills and did the best he could, he still loved and cared for his best friend Tommy and tried to make time for him. Tommy was there for him for all those years, and sometimes Alex would joke with him that anyone else would have run away a long time ago.

One day while he was at work, Alex got a call from Tommy's mother. Tommy was on his way to the hospital and things weren't looking good at all. Alex ran out of work and sped down to the hospital. That was the night they said goodbye to his best friend.

Years later, Alex and his wife welcomed a new baby boy into the world.

"So, daddy, do you have a name for our new son and your daughter's new little brother?" she smiled, already knowing the answer to the question they had discussed many times before.

"Of course, I want to name him Tommy." Alex replied, returning the smile.

"I know he was your best friend and he still means a lot to you." she said.

"He was, and he does." Alex said. "He was like a brother to me, and for what little I gave, he taught me how to live. That was Tommy's gift."

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Dedicated to my late best friend and his family. I still love and think about you all the time.