Polo's World

Polo lived in a world with walls. They were created by people who did not understand him, or who only thought they did. When Polo said something intelligent or displayed knowledge of anything, his carers would laugh in an embarassed kind of way. Polo did not like his carers. He did not like the way they said one thing and did something else. He did not like how his attempts to talk to them often ended with them getting bored of the conversation and refusing to talk anymore. In Polo's dreams he was as huge and mighty as a God. He had the power to make everyone everywhere stop hurting each other. And then his father would praise Polo for bringing peace to the world, and the hole in Polo's stomach would close and be replaced by love.

Polo was 27. He looked a lot younger. Nobody expected anything of Polo. He was managed, accommodated. Polo often felt like he was living in an alternate universe. His only real friend from school wouldn't speak to him anymore. It was as if someone had overlaid an almost identical reality to the one Polo had grown up in onto the real world. People were different here. There was a vast silence to the universe. Polo had attempted to explain this to his carers, who had suggested in a rather unfunny way that he take his meds.

Polo went to a board games night every Tuesday. The people there didn't care that Polo struggled to understand the games' rules. They just accepted him. When Polo was there he went through the motions of socialising and having fun. But the hurt inside remained sacrosanct. It was like a temple of pain in Polo's heart that remained inviolate despite the kindness and laughter he shared with the others. Sometimes the temple shrank very small until it was the size of a dot. But it still remained. Polo was sure that somewhere someone could take this pain away from him. He just had to find them.

Polo had once created an imaginary older sister in his mind. She was called Juliette and she was a successful entrepreneur. She stood up to Polo's parents for him when they were unkind and she always made Polo feel like the most special person in the world. Polo knew this was just a fantasy. He was never quite able to imagine the wisdom of his imaginary sister; of the things she said that made everything OK. But somehow it was all right. Polo accepted that things were bleak yet he continued with hope.