A Christmas Essay
by Pavel Shepherd
When I was young my sole friend was a small boy named Whistle Billy. We met the day he moved into the house next door.
“Hi,” I said, as the moving van pulled away from the curb. “My name’s Pavel—what’s yours?”
He didn’t answer at first, but I was patient for a five-year-old. I stood there smiling, although it seemed an eternity. I was hoping this new face would become a playmate.
“Ooo-iss-uhl,” he finally stammered. “Ooo-iss-uhl ibb-ul-ly.”
His face remained contorted long after he had forced the sounds from his lips. I’m not sure what was more troubling, the nonsense syllables, or the strained face that had uttered them. I had no idea what he was trying to say.
I decided to imitate his labored utterance.
“Ooo-sull?” I ventured.
The pain in his eyes melted into a grateful grin.
“Wissul ibbly! Wissul ibbly!” He repeated this three times. His belabored stuttering now gushed forth in an excited garble. I still had no idea as to its meaning. It merely registered in my small brain as “whistle billy.”
An intense yearning for companionship outweighed any aversion I might have felt to his incoherent babbling. I decided to ignore his incoherence by accepting it for what it was.
“How ‘bout I call you ‘Billy’?” I asked.
And Whistle Billy he became.
O
Some time later, as we played in a nearby vacant lot, I met Billy’s mother.
“I’m Mrs. Libby,” she introduced herself. “Thanks for playing with my angel. You’re the first friend Louis has ever had.”
Louis?I had known Billy wasn’t actually saying, “Whistle”. But “Louis” wasn’t even on my radar. My bewilderment must have been obvious to Mrs. Libby.
“He has Initial Consonant Aphasia. Has trouble saying his ells,” she explained.
I had no clue what a-faze-ya had to do with hizz-ells.
As if suddenly remembering she was speaking to a 5 year-old, Mrs. Libby elaborated.
“Louis can’t start a word with the “ell” sound. Instead, he adds it at the end. ‘Louis’ comes out ‘Oooissuhl’. The doctor calls this ‘aphasia’. It’s also known as ‘slow ell syndrome’.”
Slow ell syndrome. That’s why “Louis Libby” comes out “Whistle Billy”?I was still puzzled, but I wanted his mother to think I got what she was saying.
“So.” I began. “The first ‘slow ell’ your angel did say was to a certain Pavel Shepherd in a field as they played?”
I got it, all right. Billy’s mom slapped me. The Libbys moved again soon after.
Did I say that Billy was the
one friend I had as a child?
© 2007
Paul Jeffrey White
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