There was a chance, nay not a chance but a great probability, that life would not turn out the way Dennis had planned. In fact, using the word planned is an insult not only to the word and its specific meaning, but also to those who make planning an art. It is to those people that Dennis owes an apology.

Dennis bounced through life, beginning when he was the age where bouncing was deemed to be cute, right through to the time when bouncing was deemed as annoying. His parents marvelled at his sense of rhythm when he was in his crib bouncing to the music on the radio. However, when he began kindergarten, the teacher felt he needed to stay seated in the classroom instead of leading a conga line around the room all by himself. The other children felt that it would be inappropriate to join in because Dennis didn’t have a sense of time or place. School to him was another giant platform upon which he could display his ability to annoy those around him.

When Dennis reached teenage years, he was the only boy in his class not to have a girlfriend. Simply put, Dennis wasn’t the sort of person they could bring home to mummy and say “this is a boy I would like to spend my waking hours with.” The horror of it! And so instead of going out on dates or holding hands with a person of the opposite sex, Dennis amused himself in the chemistry lab where he excelled in nearly blowing up the room and sending not only himself but the teacher and the other students to a premature death. And thus he was banned from the chemistry lab, which was the beginning of him being banned from many different institutions which eventually left him only two institutions where he would be welcome, and they were a mental institution and prison.

However, Dennis did his best to stay out of those places. He was threatened with that by the local magistrate after he decided to move his love of playing bumper cars in his room onto the road once he had his driving license. Needless to say, once the first episode had resulted in a number of cheap and some expensive cars being badly dented, his licence was revoked. He was not allowed to drive again until, as the magistrate put it, he grew up. That was an open-ended question, never sufficiently answered.

And so, when it came to real life after he bombed out of school, there was only one thing he could do and that was be a bum. His parents who had high hopes for their son, which ranged from being an inventor to a writer, when he scribbled on all the walls in his house at the age of 12 and 13, now resigned themselves to the possibility that their decision to limit their prodigy to one, was a great blessing. The world would be saved from having to deal with two such individuals at the same time. To be fair, there was one person who when she met him in elementary school liked Dennis but had laid down a challenge to him.

If Dennis in the next ten years or so, could demonstrate the ability to become a valuable member of society, she would go out with him on a date. Jennifer was the most beautiful girl in school, and Jennifer would not go out on a date with any boy, even though they were lined up around the corner in the hope she would say yes to one of them.

But all through school, Jennifer continued her refusal. She was the only one who saw something no one else could see in Dennis. To her, Dennis was the only one who could steal her heart. However, Dennis failed badly at each milestone she had set down for him. And so, it was on the last day of school when the entire faculty, parents and students attended the class graduation ceremony, there was one set of parents and one student who were not present. Dennis had failed every class not barely, but badly. Jennifer was heartbroken that she was unable to turn Dennis’ life around and she made a note to herself that she would keep in touch with his parents, to see if life changed for the better, even though she was afraid it wouldn’t.

And so, while his classmates lined up in glee to receive their diplomas, Dennis wished his parents goodbye and with all his belongings packed in one battered suitcase, he headed out to the local railway yard where he decided to hop on a train and see where it would lead him. The days and weeks passed without any news from him. And true to her word, Jennifer kept in touch with his parents all through university and then medical school where Jennifer excelled. But there was never any news of his whereabouts.

One day, Jennifer who was an emergency room doctor at a prestigious private hospital was about to leave to grab something to eat before heading home, was stopped on her way out by the head nurse. She was informed that there had been a major car accident and the occupants from one of the vehicles were in bad shape and were on their way to the emergency room. Jennifer decided to stay instead of leaving, much to the disappointment of a fellow doctor who had hoped the lunch would be the start of a relationship with Jennifer.

When the badly injured passengers and driver were brought in, they were covered in blood and for one horrifying moment, Jennifer felt a shiver go down her spine. She thought that the driver of the car was Dennis and she panicked. She worked hard to save the driver, but he was too badly injured and succumbed to his wounds. Jennifer looked at the young man as he lay on the stretcher as he reminded her so much of Dennis. It was probably the first time in her life she sat down on the chair in the young man’s room and allowed tears to flow freely down her face. All those suppressed memories she had of Dennis filled her mind, and she wondered whatever happened to him. She knew he was a good man and only hoped he had found his way.

Once she had composed herself, Jennifer got up when she was told the other injured parties were on their way in. She stood waiting for them. As they came in for some inexplicable reason every injured man reminded her of Dennis, and she couldn’t understand why. After the final injured person was brought in, Jennifer began her job of evaluating and treating their injuries. A police officer walked into the emergency room and talked to the head nurse. His back was to Jennifer. While he was standing there Jennifer came out of one of the rooms to catch her breath when she saw the police officer. Her heart soared. She couldn’t believe her own eyes.

“Dennis?” she whispered but not loud enough for anyone in the room to hear her. So she repeated the name a few times, each time a little louder until the police officer looked up from writing his notes and smiled at the doctor.

“No ma’am,” he said, “my name is Jay.”

The day Dennis wished his family goodbye, was the last day they had ever heard from him again. Oh, there were stories made up about his life, but nobody ever knew what happened to Dennis. No one knows if life turned out well for him, or where he eventually ended up in the world. His parents never saw their son again. They lived the rest of their lives in solitude in their little home in the village they had been born and worked in.

The moral of this story is for parents to provide boundaries for their children and not just be their best friends.