3TC #MM59 | A Family

Welcome to the daily Three Things Challenge.
Use your imagination and creativity using one, two or all three words that may or may not be related. There are no restrictions regarding length, style, or genre, though please keep it family friendly.

Tag your responses with 3TC, #threethingschallenge or TTC, and you can add Di’s logo if you wish.

Looking forward to reading your responses.

Your three words today are:
PERHAPS
PETTY
PRIMAL

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Norman was a loner. He was the only child of an only child. His father abandoned him and his mother shortly after Norman was born. His mother had no children before or after Norman.

Norman wasn’t curious about his father and had no desire to search for him. His mother claimed she didn’t know his father’s last name, so even if he wanted to find dear ol’ Dad, he couldn’t.

He grew up in South Dakota in a rural town with a population of 34. They lived on the money his mother’s parents left when they passed away. Their closest neighbor lived about 2 miles away. Out of necessity, Norman learned to make his own fun. His friends were the animals in the area; dogs, cats, horses, cows, snakes and whatever other animals wandered around.

Eventually it was time (way past time) for Norman to start school, and he was ill-prepared at best. For whatever reason, it never occurred to his mother to explain the rest of the world to him. They didn’t have a television, let alone an internet connection. The biggest clue she gave him was that Norman would be starting school and there would be lots of kids there. Oh, and he should mind the teacher. Imagine his shock when the school bus pulled up in front of his house on the first day of school. Through the windows of the bus, Norman could see countless other children.

Where’d they come from? How many more are there out there? Forget it!

Norman didn’t get on the bus that day, nor did he any other day. Perhaps it was a primal response that Norman chose flight over fight. He could think of no reason to fight but found plenty of reasons for flight.

Either way, Norman ran. He ran fast and hard and eventually collapsed under a pine tree. He was out of breath and his legs were cramping. He was getting hungry, but didn’t want to go home. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t want to go home ever again. Not even to see his mom. He felt no connection to her or anything else.

Finally, Norman fell asleep beneath the pine tree. When he awakened, there were a couple of wolves standing maybe six feet away, staring at him. He wasn’t afraid, as the wolves didn’t seem to want to do him harm.

“Hi, guys,” Norman greeted them carefully and didn’t move. “I’m Norman.” One wolf walked in a small circle, sat down & made a kind of whining sound. The other one wagged his tail, sort of. So, Norman and the two wolves stared at each other for quite a while. Finally, they got up to leave but kept turning around and looking at Norman. It was like they wanted him to come with them, but he wasn’t sure.

Norman got up slowly and watched carefully for any sort of reaction. The wolves waited. Norman took a few steps forward and the wolves did the same. They stopped when he stopped.

So, Norman began to follow them in earnest. Every so often they’d turn around to make sure he was still with them.

He was.

Norman stayed right with them.