How to Accidentally Make a Homeless Man's Day:

By Zane McDaniels. Excellent, excellent story!!!!

How to Accidentally Make A Homeless Man's Day

(a three part tale by zane)

I

A man, somewhat tiresome, lies with his hands hanging loosely off the edge of his loft bed, a half empty glass of lemonade at his side. Placed next to (and parallel with) the glass of lemonade is an illuminated red alarm clock, emitting an irritating screech, starting and stopping every three consecutive seconds. With little enthusiasm, he lifts his head from his pillow. Remaining in a bizarre sort of meditative dream state, he leaves the alarm to continue uninterrupted and walks across the room to his kitchen. Strewn across the room randomly are various garments, all possessing the same similar odor.

As he enters the pantry, he finds several half empty mugs of what once

was coffee. Yes, I realize this is my second reference to an item being nearly empty as opposed to nearly full, but it is necessary to help emphasize why this man is so unoptimistic; this man has just been fired.

This man’s name was Aaron Synis, (pronounced sĭn'ĭs). One might think that you could easily assume this man’s occupation due to his gangly physique. Most people would typically see him as a minimum wage software engineer, his elbow jutted slightly out of his skin, awkwardly. His legs appeared to be close to double than above his waist. But, contrary to popular belief, he was actual an assistant to those with autism, specifically children.

You may be wondering how this occurred, his firing that is. In one of the vaguest forms possible, he simply presented radical ideas to his fellow staff, causing them to believe he was, and I quote, “not right in the head”. They decided to settle upon letting him have a two week sick leave. Though further speaking on Aaron’s part convinced them this simply would not be fit, and that he should be removed from his profession. A temporary “ban” on his teaching license was put into effect.

However, to be more specific, this is what actually occurred:

II

Roughly about half a week ago, Synis entered his classroom. Although occasionally odd, Synis was definitely an intelligent man. He could decipher the finest printed code, all the while running out the clock. So it was obscure for him to notice one of his children behaving stranger than expected, and to simply leave them be. This behavior continued for some time, when Synis finally had a realization.

The child was diagnosed with Asperger’s. Asperger’s disorder is similar to high-functioning Autism, in which the child has an I.Q. equal or greater to 70. It tends to occur later in one’s life than Autism, but there have been a few cases in which a young child is presented with the disorder. In Asperger’s, one’s verbal I.Q. generally tends to be higher than their actual performance I.Q., whereas in Autism, this would be reversed. A human with Asperger’s usually has less severe social and communication deficits (i.e. it is almost just as likely for one to carry on a normal conversation with another person, regardless either’s intelligence). Asperger’s causes you to be clumsier than usual.

The child staggered to his desk, as is his normal behavior. He tripped over the ledge that stood at the front of the door, although when Synis came to his assistance, he was not surprised or worried. This was not because of a lack of caring. He had even tripped in the exact same stop several times before. The child carried on, unharmed. This was no unusual behavior.

This child spoke in the form of shapes. He would describe the exact points and degrees or length of a letter or possibly a word that connected all together. When this was too time consuming, he would simply create a mental picture, then state the degrees and turns and length of certain areas of this word shape.

Although confusing to understand, Synis could often look at a previously made chart of some common phrases he used, generously donated by his parents. The only proper words he knew were START END UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT and combinations of those, as well as all digits, and nearly every form of measurement by name.

The child said, “START UP 5 CM DOWN 2 CM UP 3 CM”

As the child continued, Synis searched on the chart and it appeared that this was a missing a phrase, most likely a picture in his head as opposed to a word, then. Synis had missed a few measurements, but thought he could still make out what the object was. It seemed to resemble a fire, causing Synis to panic.

He was wrong. The few measurements he missed turned out to be some of the most key ones.

Synis called in for the classroom’s educational assistant to head the classroom for “some time”. Synis’ voice was calm, no matter the mood, so the EA did not believe this to be an urgent occasion. They took their time, eventually arriving a good five minutes later. Panicking, Synis rushed frantically through the halls to the HEAD STAFF building, which was nearly isolated.

TANHEISER SCHOOL FOR THE AUTISTIC was three separate buildings, spread out across half a mile. Building the First: home to all classrooms. Only building to allow children. Building the Second: somewhat of a hospital, with all the essentials. Building the Third: for the Head Staff.

Several minutes later, Synis arrived. He awkwardly explained the situation, the result: Forced to leave due to, and I quote, “radical ideas”.

Now you understand what causes Synis to be so unoptimistic right now.

III

Awaiting what he assumed would the death of his students, fellow teachers, and a familiar piece of architecture, Synis simply lied back down in his bed and sighed.

He thought for a few minutes, eventually deciding upon this: he had no idea when this would occur, but he would try and make this the best possible day for any of those who may be affected by the fire. Although cliché, he sent fruit baskets to the families of those attending the school, which merely confused them, so they simply threw them in the trash. A homeless man named Jack would soon find these and be delighted, but that is entirely irrelevant. Well, not entirely irrelevant.

Synis realized that it being a school day today, he could not interfere with the children’s schedule whatsoever. This proved a problem in trying to make it the best day for them. He figured there must be a reason for this, and to just leave it be.

However, Synis had thought that the child’s mental figure was a fire, when in reality fire was simply the tail of the object.

It was no mythical beast. It was nothing that occurred completely unnaturally, either.

The weather had been strange lately, so Synis did not notice the sky darken slightly. The clouds seemed to gradually fade. In a few hours, the sky was blood red, with only a slight spot of yellow-ish light illuminating it until the sky was entirely a blinding orange. Then for exactly 1.873326 seconds, the sky went black. Being the daytime, the streetlights were all off now.

The child did not show up for school that morning. He was busy drawing mental pictures. It appeared to be a fire. It appeared this way, but there was a rock nearly double the size of the fire trailing this. It appeared to be a meteor.

The sky flashed white, suddenly doubling the temperature in the spot where Synis stood, as well as everything surrounding him. He saw a red streak bolting towards him. His head ached and his eyes watered. Finally putting the pieces together, Aaron realized his mistake. He could tell now what the child meant, a little too late for it to matter anyway. And as he reminisced in his own mind, he suddenly discovered all the things he had put off. All the while too busy pondering his thoughts, Aaron failed to notice what was less than half a mile away from him. At last escaping his thoughts, he blinked. His eyes did not open, and were left permanently blinking as he lay motionless on the ground.

EPILOGUE:

It appeared that Aaron Synis had not failed in making someone’s last day, as he supposed he had in his last thoughts.

Just as the asteroid hit, a homeless man was busy finishing a well deserved meal of fresh fruit.