Buddy Pederson

“Buddy Pederson! Buddy Pederson! Buddy Pederson! Where are you?”
“I’m here, I’m here, why can’t you hear me!”


He was disappearing in front of everyone’s eyes. First he was there and then he wasn’t. His mother would cry herself to sleep making her seem older then what she was, she refused to leave the house, just so no one would ask questions and so she didn’t have to hear the reasons where as his father, forced to look after her on her good days and usually bad days. He rarely left her side and everyone knows why, he was scared he’d lose her to. But everyone knew it wouldn’t be in the same way Buddy Pederson disappeared.
It was dark outside. The streets were empty. Every house on the block was unlit, not even a car on the road but from a distance on Anderson Ave, flashes of light appeared, flashes of light coming from the only white house on the street and aiming for the house opposite.
When the morning came, the empty streets became full of people shoving stuff in their cars trying to get there day started and avoid traffic but the white house on Anderson Ave always woke up the latest, if you were having a bad day then just maybe you’d see Mr and Mrs Fair-field getting into there old rusty blue vaults wagon which took ages to start up in the morning just like them or maybe you see Buddy Pederson strolling behind them late for school as usual.
That White House which stood all on its own and the family that lived inside it, just as lonesome as the house were the talk of the town. Everyone had something to say about the strange family, some of it true but most of it false but everyone just as curious as the next. Fix sated by the difference and the mystery.
Not even the neighbours of the Fair-fields knew a thing about them but Mrs Convert was always purposely snooping about trying to find something new to tell to her girly friends down at the best salon that our little town called Oakwood had. She was as nosy as they came but you can’t find a street in Oakwood or in any small town that doesn’t have one of her. She was a collectable you didn’t really want but had to have but that was before Buddy Pederson disappeared because when he disappeared so did her voice and her snooping, so when she is down at the best salon in Oakwood she’s only there now a days for a quick trim, some of the town may say it’s a good thing others like her don’t say a word.
At school Buddy Pederson always sat on his own and never said a word to anyone but everyone knew who he was and when he walked passed them they always stared. If they had a lesson with him they were always curious of whether he’d speak and the way he looked never concentrating on what the teacher was saying or the lesson only on him and if his teachers were truly honest I think they’d say they did too. Some girls in school had an obsession with him, found him to be the most amazing and stunning boy they’d ever laid eyes on, those girls are secretly wishing he came back because other guys couldn’t compare to him and those girls will never find any better and will always wish they knew him and he had never disappeared.
He didn’t have any friends at school; it wasn’t because he didn’t want any, which is what everyone knows but why he never had any will always be an unanswered question to the people that live in Oakwood, maybe even a few who live outside.
Every evening of every night Buddy Pederson’s white house would have flashes of light coming out the window on the top of his house aiming for the house opposite; in which I live in.
They say every small town, has it’s secrets, and that saying is absolutely correct our town looked like every other town, it also smelt like every other town but the things that went on in our town were completely abnormal and the term ‘abnormal’ always seemed the right word to use even more so after Buddy Pederson disappeared. As the things that happen in our town no one could seem to get there head around them not even Mr Wiltshire who has always been known to be the smartest man in town.
Mr Wiltshire lives in a small hut like house, which is a dingy brown on the end of Anderson Ave, stinking out our street with fumes and toxications. He was always trying to make a difference but always failing as his love for science and inventing things always got in the way to the point that many neighbours weren’t to happy with him but most just found him funny or felt sorry for him but soon after Buddy Pederson’s disappearance no one spoke to him, everyone despised him and he is constantly around the Fair-fields house, making sure Mrs Fair-field is alright.
Buddy Pederson use to go to Mr Wiltshire’s house everyday after school and help him with his projects, he used to get paid to clean up all his jugs and sweep his floor as his parents felt sorry for Mr Wiltshire and thought Buddy Pederson would benefit from being around him, so everyday after school he’d go there and help Mr Wiltshire with what was needed to be done and he wouldn’t say a word, he just do what was needed to be done then leave, everyday from 4 till 5, never later, never earlier.
Everyday at five o clock you would see Buddy Pederson running down Anderson Ave to his big white house with puddles outside the front door, as the Fair-fields had a leaky pipe on the top of their front door. It’s surprising there wasn’t a lake outside their house, as the pipe above their front door had been dripping constantly for five years and nothing had been done to stop it. It was as if they liked it there and it liked being there. Most people who saw Buddy Pederson running down the street would assume he’d slip on these puddles outside his house, as he always ran so fast but the surprising thing is he never did slip, there wasn’t even a skid, which made the neighbours even more intrigue by him and his family.
Every house on Anderson Ave was clean cut and well presented, and many of the neighbours took great pride in the way their house looked and their front gardens and every year these neighbours had a chance to compete against each other at the street party that was held every summer. Everyone did their bit to make the street party even better then the last years one as well as the best in town. It was the only time you really got to speak to your neighbours properly. That was the time I actually spoke to Buddy Pederson and realised there was something special and amazing about him but that was also the summer that no one ever forgot because it was the strangest and it was when Buddy Pederson disappeared, in front everyone at the biggest event of the year, that everyone tried to make sure was so perfect but perfect they didn’t succeed in, eventful I think so.
There are so many stories about after that street party that no one can keep up with them. Every one who was there has a different view on it, as well as has a different story to tell but each story that every one tells always ends up having the same conclusion, there are very few people in our town who has a different ending to the event that took place and there is only four people who actually know the full story and every little fact but what every one does know is that Buddy Pederson’s disappearance was an accident whether they like to admit it or not, what only few people know is Buddy Pederson isn’t dead and is still around, living in our town not really suspecting that he isn’t really there.
Every day the town wakes up as normal, rushing around shoving stuff into their cars, trying to get there day started, not knowing whether it will be normal or completely abnormal and every day that old rusty blue vaults wagon stays parked right outside the white house, that every neighbour, every person is so curious about but so scared about the truth that if they knew, they’d keep the secret from themselves but I mean some one has to tell the story, the truth; other wise they just might grow like balloon, fly high in the sky and burst with guilt, shock and self-pity because they weren’t brave enough to allow themselves to believe the fact that our little town isn’t as perfect or as normal as every one makes it out to be.
Greg Mc-Given was one of those boys who could eat huge amounts but stay as slim as a pencil. He was known around town for being a bit of a rebel and a bit of a player. He knew how to have fun and looked good at the same time, he didn’t care for rules this was probably why most girls liked him. His parents had given up worrying about him, not that they were his real parents. Adopted at birth and finding out at the age of 10 really screws up a guys head, so no wonder he was so rebellious but his adopted parents still loved him and his real mother still thought about him every night when she went to bed and every morning that she woke up.
Greg Mc-Given was the only person that Buddy Pederson would allow to sit next to him at lunch. Greg would talk for hours to him, Buddy would never say a word, only the occasional nod but the way Greg talked to him was as if Buddy was actually responding to everything he said and there was actually a conversation going on between them. Every one could see that Greg had a special connection with Buddy whether they understood it or not; either way Greg and Buddy were friends even if the whole town didn’t know it and only a few did. That’s why it wasn’t too hard to believe when Greg’s skinny body grew to the size of a balloon an flew high into the sky and burst in front of everyone doing there weekly shopping just a week after Buddy Pederson’s disappearance and just as every one was getting back into things.
Now right on top of Greg’s grave stone, is lots of letters from his adopted parents saying how much they loved him and cared for him, letters from his real mother explaining why she gave him away and that she has never stopped thinking of him as well as all the girls obsessed by his rebellious charms and one other letter, tucked under all those letters as that person didn’t want anyone else to see it let alone find it, that letter is now in my room under my mattress. Only read by my eyes and Greg’s from a boy that disappeared not so long ago.





Buddy Pederson disappearing into thin air, that was a year ago from today, July 14th and the town is still as abnormal as ever, and the people still more curious and confused by the goings on that occur ever so often in our little town called Oakwood.
Everything seems so normal from the outside that was what everyone thought of Julie and Roger the most perfect couple there was in school. Every girl so jealous, wishing they could find some one like Roger. They seemed to always be laughing together whenever you saw them but when Buddy Pederson disappeared that was when people saw the inside and the inside was definitely not as pretty as the outside. As on the outside the couple were so good-looking and happy together that the inside seemed unreal. The girls in school were now not jealous of Julie but felt sorry for her. Roger was beyond bad. The saying “never hit a girl” never stuck fully in Roger’s head, Julie never could speak up, she liked to make out everything was so perfect with them but after Buddy Pederson disappeared Julie did in fact lose her voice, Roger scared her so badly that it disappeared along side Buddy Pederson.
People say Buddy stole Julie’s voice, hoping it would reveal the truth about Roger Whether or not that’s true, the fact still stands that after Buddy Pederson disappeared, Rogers fists appeared, right in the middle of lunchtime. Every ones faces so shocked by what he had done to Julie and realising that wasn’t even the first time too. Roger has left town now, nobody really knows where too apart from the few, most people suspect its somewhere, where he can control his anger but at the same time everyone knows he wont be bullying a poor, helpless girl any longer and that his fist will be kept in his pockets firmly where ever he is.
What also became clearer during the summer of Buddy’s Disappearance was that Peggy Sue the class geek, who nobody really cared for, who lived pretty much a boring life, sucking up to teachers and studying all though out the night. Now she wasn’t ugly but she wasn’t exactly pretty so when people found out she was with some one, people were quite shocked, as no one expected it. It was something that really made her noticed and not just because it was her with a guy but because of whom she was with.
Peter Shaw was the starter back in my high schools football team, he was amazing at what he did an so therefore worshipped because of it, so when he turned up at school with Peggy Sue, hand in hand, people didn’t quite know what to think but then again people never did in Oak wood esp. after mister boy wonder himself, Buddy Pederson decided to just not be there any longer but I know he is because everything that happens in our town of Oakwood is down to him and that’s why this town love him and treasure him but it’s a pity it’s not openly and only random thoughts because just maybe, just maybe he might be here, seen living amongst us rather then what he is doing now.
Mr and Mrs Cult, my parents, who decided about 20 years ago to move into the house opposite the white house on Anderson Ave. 3 years later I was born. They thought I was the best thing that had ever happen to them and still do today as about a year an a half after they moved into our house they were told they couldn’t have a child, although they were upset still loved each other so much they just didn’t care and my guess is that it was through all there loving because 9months after they were told my mum became pregnant wit me, Jackie Cult.