Teancom Attends a Party

Teancom was invited to a class mate's Halloween party tonight.  You should have seen how excited he's been all week.  Tonight came and he nearly jumped into his costume and ran out the door.  He was chatty and happy the whole way there.

Then we arrived.

It was a huge party.  It must have been a family party, because there were older kids there, too.  Like, Miciah's age.  There were swarms of people.  Probably about 10 just standing in the kitchen when we walked in.  There were more outside and downstairs and everywhere else.

Teancom froze.  He clung to me as I put my arms gingerly around his front.  I was reminded of the Teancom I knew a few years back.  You know, the monkey child who never left my side.  Ever.  I thought it was kind of cute until he twisted my finger so hard that I thought he was going to sprain it!

I gave a little yelp and said, "Teancom, why did you do that?"  He said, "I don't know."  I could tell that he really didn't know.

He grabbed his Halloween mask and wrung it around his hands, tighter, tighter, tighter.  "Teancom, you're going to break it."  He stopped for a moment before resuming.

The crowd started closing in.  By now, his friend from class had found him.  There must have been 20 kids, all staring at him, inches from him.  His friend said hello.  Teancom said nothing.  His friend said 4 sentences to him.  Teancom said nothing.

I turned Teancom so he would look at me and said I was going to leave and that he'd have fun.  He said a terse, "Stop!" and walked away.  He didn't walk away with his friend.  He just walked away.  Like he was in a daze.

I shrugged, assumed that he'd find something fun to do, and I left.

When Rob came to pick him up 3 hours later, the hostess said that Teancom stood by a tree for a good part of the party, quietly crying.  They finally did an activity he wanted to do, and he was fine after that.

Also, a swarm of girls followed him around all night.  He was the only boy his age at the party.  Poor Teancom.  Cursed with the horrible combination of his father's cosmic pull on girls (Rob repeatedly had his shirts ripped by girls who chased him in elementary school), along with epic levels of shyness.  Heaven help him.