Meeting Cameron

So I have been watching this guy on the bus.  I saw him a few times a few months ago but I had not seen him for a while.  I swore that the next time I saw him I was going to try to talk to him.  He seems like he is in his 20s and he has a mullet cut that he may have given himself. The other times I saw him my heart ached because after watching him I am sure he has some type of mental disability and people seem to be so rude to him.  He is probably one of the friendliest people I have ever seen and he smiles, waves and says hi to everyone in close proximity and one by one, I watch as everyone around him seems to act like there is something wrong with him.  They may say hi, but they usually seem annoyed that someone is interrupting their reading or they can't tell that he has special needs and they think that he is strange.  I am sure that he is probably just lonely and is trying to make connections and in the end I don't know how he can leave that experience on the bus not feeling more ignored and alone.

I don't know what it is about a lot of special needs people but it seems like they aren't all bogged down with the same fears that seem to keep so many of us trapped in our own prisons that we make for ourselves.  I remember when my sister Marie, who has Down's Syndrome,was in gymnastics or out on the dance floor looking for a guy to dance with.  I am trying to remember when she ever showed any level of social fear.  I can't think of a time. 

Well I saw this bus routine happening for the third time today and I just couldn't take it anymore.  I have never been one of the people he has talked to because he usually sits towards the front and I am up in the back of the bus, I have always tried to make eye contact with him and smile at him but he rarely looked back as far as I was.  I wasn't sure what I was going to say but I had to say something so I picked up my bags and I went and sat behind him at the next stop.  I said, "I have seen you on the bus before, and you seem very friendly, are you looking for someone to talk to?"  He said, "Yes, I am very friendly."

He asked me if I was going to work and I said that I was going home from work.  I was surprised that he didn't even know where Temple Square was but he knew what Welfare Square was.  I asked him if he had a job and he said that he didn't but he wanted to work at Salt Lake Archery.  I asked if he liked to shoot bows and arrows and he said he didn't but it just seemed like it would be a nice place to work. I asked him if they were hiring and he said that he didn't know.  I told him I had been there before and he didn't even know where it was.  I tried to give him directions because it was close to where he was getting off.  Hopefully he found it okay.  He was first going to check out a new skateboard park nearby.  He said that he did like to skateboard.

Hopefully I will run into him on the bus again soon.  Hopefully he doesn't think I am hitting on him but that is just the price you pay to be nice sometimes.  I just wish Marie was here in Utah and I would take those two out for a good time.  I would just have to keep my eye on Marie.  She is in need of a good chaperone when she is in the company a man.  She has been boy crazy about as long as I can remember.