A Lucky Guy

Henry Lownsby often thought that he was a very lucky guy to have such a great life.

Many people who are given away when they are babies, like Henry was, and raised in a state building did so much worse. Henry had seen them. He'd lived for a while in a foster home with another family, but most of the time he lived with other kids in a state building. Many of the others had problems and yelled, but Henry had mostly enjoyed growing up. Now at the age of 36 years, Henry had a good job taking care of things as a "Caretaker" for the state and he knew he was happy.

He'd finished his school a little bit later than most people because he had trouble learning. He loved going to classes and listening to people explain things, it was just when he tried to call back the things in order, they came back missing pieces and jumbled up. He didn't find that a problem at all. As a matter of fact, he kind of liked remembering things in a jumbled way.

When he was younger he been give a toy "klidoscope" and when you looked through it and turned the cardboard tube at the other end, the picture you saw changed into all new shapes and colors. Henry loved it. He still had it. It was pretty beat up, but he looked through it every evening. He could look through the "klidoscope" for hours and never see the same thing twice. What he saw also changed by where he pointed it. Pointing it at the window looked way different than pointing it at the floor, or at his leg.

The "klidoscope" showed things in a jumbled way, just like the way he remembered things. It was very beautiful that way.

When he looked through it, his mind would take him anywhere he wanted. He sometimes wondered how many people could say that. He felt lucky that way.

He lived by himself, in a room, in the back of the maintenance building. The room was for the "Caretaker", and that was him. It had everything he needed, but he couldn't have a dog, so he put pictures of dogs on his bulletin board.

He had a large bulletin board next to his table that had everything he needed to remember on it. There was a big calendar, where the days were boxes and you could write "things to do". Very good for organizing. He'd cross off the "things to do" after he'd done them.

There were a line of clips along the bottom with a label above each. There was a clip to hold his bus-pass. It was amazing how easy it was to lose that thing. There was a clip to hold his insurance card and identification.

On the wall next to the board was a list with five telephone numbers and names. The telephone was on the table right below it.

But most of the bulletin board held pictures of small dogs, mostly their faces. That was the part he loved to look at the most. Someday he would have a dog for himself and he didn't care what kind it was. Until then, he said "Hi" to every dog he saw, even if they were pretty far away from him. When he said "Hi" to a dog, even the ones that were far away, they always turned to look at his face and eyes, even from far away. Henry tried very hard not to think about what he would name a dog, if he got one. He wanted it to be a surprise for both of them.

Henry worked hard and did things right. Mostly he mowed, but he also raked, and shoveled and picked up stuff that was on the ground. He had to be careful because some things could be dangerous so he had a pair of gloves and an "EZ Grabber" to pick things up without using his hands. He used it whenever the thing was on the list or he wasn't sure.

Mr. Thompson came by on the first Tuesday of every month to check on things and see if Henry was needing anything special. That was on the calendar too. At first, he used to worry that Mr. Thompson would visit and take the job back from him. But that never happened because Henry worked hard and did a good job. He stopped worrying about that after a while and looked forward to Mr. Thompson coming by.

It was now 7:30 am and about time to start work. Henry finished his tea, washed the cup and put it into the dish rack to dry. He pushed his chair back under his table and looked at the calendar to see where he would start today. There were no special notes on the square of "things to do". It was going to be another day of mowing and picking up, and today, he was starting in back of the administration building, where they parked.

He put on his jacket and hat and grabbed his gloves. As he left his room he thought to himself, "What a lucky guy I am. It's going to be a great day."

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