Swen

When I was in first class elementary school in Germany, I used to know a boy. His name was Swen. Swen used to be a lonely kid. Nobody would talk to him, and because of that he was very aggressive and would always talk bad to the other children and hit them, then run away. Nobody liked him.

We were around 6. I didn't like him either. Until he talked to me. We became friends. I think I was his only friend. But nobody else knew about it; I didn't want the other kids to find out that I was hanging out with Swen, since everybody hated him so much.

We used to go to the woods together and spend some time alone there. We would talk about various matters -- whatever a child around 6 can think of.

Then we used to go the super market, get in, take a walk around, steal some chocolates by putting them under our shirts, and then leave slowly and sneaky as if we hadn't bought anything.

We used to go back to the woods. There, we would eat the chocolate we had stolen, and talk about stuff.

One day, a staff guy from the super market asked us what we were doing. Swen said we were just checking out the prices. The guy responded that it wasn't allowed and that we should leave. We never stole chocolates again.

The same summer, I came back to Greece, and I never saw Swen again. Another friend of mine from school wrote me a letter saying how things were, and he mentioned Swen, saying he was worse than any other time. I didn't respond.