His world

His world(Emma Langley) His name is Grandpa, Dad, or Dale depending on the person. He wears glasses suspenders and slacks. Maybe he has Alzheimer's which is degrading his brain, or maybe he has schizophrenia so he talks to himself or sees things that no one else can see.

No one minds what he calls them whether it’s “Son” or “Honey” or “Chap”. No one cares where he lives, whether it’s in a house or on the street. His family has abandoned him and left him for dead. They don’t care enough to get him to a home or to buy him medicine. In fact, even his own wife won’t talk or sit next to him.

He knows that he is unloved, hated, and despised. He tells himself the reason why they don’t care if they can’t afford to pay for treatment. The truth is that they don’t want to pay for it. He talks himself to another world to help his mind make sense of it all.

Instead he thinks about the pet dog he had when he was little. He misses ice-cream, cake, and his fish, cat and dog. On the other hand he is glad to be rid of the nurses, doctors, and needles. Most of all, he misses his only son Sean and his daughters Kara, Erin, and Lori, his wife Cathy. And his grand-kids, Emma, Corbett, Olivia, Elinor, Evelyn, Johanna, Johnnie, Cora, and Kasen. He also misses his sons and daughters in law, Lindsay, Pete, Daniel, and J.J.

He hates himself for constantly thinking that Emma is in 4th grade when she is really in 6th. “Will I do this even when she is in high school?” he wonders to himself. He regrets forgetting what his dad looked like. He regrets not getting to know his son and daughters, sons and daughters in law, and grandkids better. He misses himself and the way he used to be.

Due to these disabilities he had a tendency to have more child friends than adult friends. Dale felt that the children around him understood what he was thinking and or doing. The other adults in his life, well, they were a little more skeptical and involved in the real world as opposed to his child like whimsical world.

Dale's favorite child friend was Alice Little a small girl who was seven years old. Alice had a sort of fairy like demeanor. “Like the people that live in my imaginary world,” Dale would always tell her. Though in another way Alice was a sort of guardian and caretaker for Dale. She would always stand up for and take care of him when no one else would.

In order to further understand the story you must know how Dale’s little mind world's worked. In these various worlds that Dale would create he had one favorite, one filled with all his favorite flowers, people, and various pets and animals.

In this story I am going to take you inside that world. Shall we begin? As we walk through this main field I would like you to notice how happy and lively the young Dale is. This is how he pictures himself in all of his worlds. Except for one, but we will visit that later. I would also like you to take notice of the large amount of bluebells and daisies. These are Dale’s favorite flowers among others.

Also in this world Alice is a main focal point. As you can see off to your right we have a large housing area that is filled with the little “fairy” people that Dale describes Alice as. If you were to see these people from afar you would think that they were normal people. When you get up close to them you will notice that they have tiny wings and small pointed ears. Now if you would look off to your right we have more of those fairy houses i mentioned earlier. The only difference is that these are the homes of the very few people that live in Dale’s world. Such as some of his family that don’t mind the little fairy people. We’ll get to the ones that mind later.

Now off to our left we will see the old unhappy Dale i mentioned earlier. He lives in a ramshackle house on the edge of the fairy tale land. This Dale is the exact opposite of the Dale we saw earlier, he is old and crippled. He spends all of his time sitting in front of the T.V with the volume turned up to 100. This is a sad Dale that you should forget about now.

Now as we come to end of our tour I would like to point out the homes that the few family members that absolutely hate the fairy people. Please take notice to the quality of the homes. How run down and lice infested they are. Would you like to live there? I think not, so as our tour is ending please remember how negligent Dale’s family was and think, “Would I want to end up like this?”