Kid Needing Help

A Long Time Ago

Front of Apartment Complex, Drawing by Matt Murray

The first place I lived was an apartment complex in Melbourne Beach when I moved to Florida. It wasn’t like the apartment complexes you see today. This was an older place with only 16 apartments. There were four apartments in each section. And then there were two that were upstairs near each other and then one upstairs by itself.

In the apartments that were side-by-side, resided a boy and his grandmother. They moved in a few years after I had been there. I was only 13 or 14 at the time. He was near me in age.

We used to play hide and seek and different things like that. There was a large pool in the middle of the apartments that I would frequent. Every once in a while, he would be at the pool too.

I can’t remember his name so I’ll just call him Aaron. Aaron had problems. I just didn’t know it until a couple of scary incidents happened.

On one particular day, we were in the pool together playing Marco Polo. Marco Polo was a game we played all the time. If you don’t know what it is, I’ll explain it. One person is “Marco” and the other is “Polo”. It is Marco’s job to catch the other person and tag them while their eyes are closed. Marco counts to 10 before trying to search for Polo. More people can be Polo if you’re playing with multiple people. Then Marco shouts “Marco” while the other player shouts “Polo”. When they shout, you can figure out their location. But with your eyes closed, this can be hard. Marco will follow the sounds and try to tag them. Polo is constantly moving away from Marco, so they don’t get caught. It can be frustrating finding the person, especially if you say it and they don’t say anything. Usually this is caused by the person being underwater and not hearing you say Marco in the first place.

One woman that I knew from the complex told us to stop playing one time because she was tired of hearing Marco, Polo constantly. It can get rather lengthy if you can’t find the other person. So saying those two words constantly can drive someone nuts.

I was in the shallow end and he swam near me and then it happened. He pushed my head down under the water and wouldn’t let go. A number of things ran through my mind like I have to get my head above water and fast. All I knew was I had to get his hand off my head and do it immediately. I fought hard and was able to resurface. I pushed his arm and hand away from me. That was so long ago, I don’t remember exactly what I said to him. You don’t push someone’s head underwater like that and not say something. I’m sure I said what are you doing?! I do remember getting out of the pool and not going back in. I think I went back to my apartment. I know I was pretty upset.

I discussed it with my Mom. She was at work at the time. We decided that it was best to stay away from him.

The next incident was the final straw. Like I said, he lived in an apartment that was on the second floor. But these second floor apartments were unique in that they had a walkway behind the apartments. So you could walk from his apartment all the way down to the end passing back doors on two other apartments. Then you could go down the stairs to get to the pool and the garages. There were two areas to come down the stairs. The garages were situated underneath the three apartments. There were only 8 garages. The other units parked out front. The garages led out into another street.

I was walking around, minding my own business and staying away from him. All of the sudden, I saw him up on that walkway and he said something to me. I don’t remember what it was. The next thing I know he is running down that walkway with a knife in the air like he wants to stab me. I found him very threatening. I wasn’t sure if he was headed for the stairs or not. I ran down the street westbound as fast and as far as I could. I was scared to death and I wasn’t sure if I should go to someone’s house for them to call the police or what. I made it two houses away from the apartments. I was huffing and puffing out of breath from running. My heart was racing so much you could feel it through my chest. I stood in the street for a few minutes. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get back into my apartment without running into him.

Once I got enough courage, I walked back. I looked up on the second floor and he wasn’t up there. There was a tunnel-like walkway that I would have to walk back through and I would have a blind corner where he could leap out at me. I didn’t want to take any chances, so I walked down to the end of the street where it joined the main highway. I walked around to the front of the complex and ran to my door. I was in apartment #1. I had to be careful though because there were stairs going up to the second floor in my section and he could have been up there waiting for me. I quickly got the door unlocked and closed the door.

After my Mom got home from work, she went to talk with his grandmother. She told me that his grandmother told her that she knew she had to get him some help and she was taking him back to Illinois. Apparently, she had been experiencing the issues too.

Conclusion

Every once in a while I think about him. I wonder if he got help. If he didn’t get help, did he turn into a criminal? I wish I knew his full name. It could have provided me a way to look his name up. I wonder what happened to him.

So many people these days don’t appear to get the help they need. People fall through the cracks. Or they can’t afford the help they need.

This topic keeps coming up in the news these days. We learn after the fact that people who do unimaginable things and cause havoc, have mental issues. Why do we have to wait until after something happens to get these people help. Let’s try to get them the help they need before something happens. Too many lives are affected by another person’s actions.

If you know someone who needs help, please contact the appropriate authorities and try to get them help.

Until next time, happy reading!

-Matt