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The Curtis was supposed to be the normal, happy family. Mr. Curtis was an ex-soldier, participated in Iraq War, winning several medals. Mrs. Curtis was an ex- insurance saleswoman, but she quit the job when her sons were born. The two boys, Bryan and Benedict, were O.K. Bryan, who played soccer in his high school, was tall and healthy, easy-go-happy young man who got several As with some Bs, attending a decent college to become a science teacher. Except for a fact that he had no will to go to WestPoint which was Mr. Curtis’ lifelong dream, Bryan was a proud son of the family. Benedict’s case, the younger of the boys, was a little different. Benedict was smart, really smart. The thing was that Benedict just didn’t care for the things he wasn’t interested.
Benedict’s knowledge of the world was enormous, diverse and deep in every field of study. Yet at school, Benedict didn’t care about the human relationship, never understood why he should be in time or study for tests. Benedict would know all about the things taught in the school and more, but his scores were all Ds and Fs mostly because he would skip classes reading books or not answer to the questions on the tests, thinking it’s a waste of a time.
“The school’s supposed to teach! I learn nothing in that class.”
Benedict would complain at home, and despite Bryan’s effort to explain about all the human relationships he can get at school, how school can be a fun place and how with Benedict’s intelligence will lead him to be a valedictorian within a day if he’d just try, Benedict never understood, and finally dropped out before his freshman year ended. He got bored of everything too soon. More he learned, faster he got bored. His only permanent interest was poetry, and Benedict spent time at home reading all the poetries he could find from the libraries and internet, driving Mr. Curtis mad.
Except for a few troubles, Curtis’ was a happy home, and Eva was heading to their home to see Bryan. Bryan was coming home that day, and being Bryan, he was in charge of listening to everybody’s trouble and happiness. He had a good relationship with Scotts, their next-door neighbor. In fact, he had a good relationship with everyone. Eva needed someone to listen to her, and it wasn’t definitely someone at home or school. With her human relationship, Bryan was the only man.
“He’d better be home by now.”
Eva mumbled, afraid that Bryan may not be home yet. Eva heard about Bryan’s little brother, a psycho who got kicked out of school two years ago because he was too crazy. If he had not been, he would have been in the same grade with Eva. Emily would go on about the probably exaggerated episodes about how Benedict was the world’s weirdest freak, all the episodes about how he had put eyeballs into Microwaves and would inject medicines to his own body in order to test them, and so on and so on.
“Maybe he’s weirder than you,” Emily would say.
Eva never cared for the stories back then, but the sudden fear of meeting a supposedly crazy guy seemed undesirable.
