Frank liked to sit, but he especially liked to stand. Frank enjoyed the smell of dying flowers; a smell that I never liked, like most people. I brought him flowers 4 months ago, the petals fell and Frank brewed them in his tea. Frank liked running errands for people. He always asked, “can I get you something?” and meant it.
“I’m going out to the store, can I bring you anything?” he would ask me.
I liked to give him something to do.
Frank liked to stand, but he especially liked to walk. He walked 3 miles to the store and back 3 miles holding his groceries on top of mine.
Frank liked to put groceries away almost as much as he liked to buy them. Frank liked to walk back and forth on our kitchen tiles that were hexagonal. He liked to walk back and forth on most tiles.
Frank didn’t like the chairs in our house; he thought they were too soft. He would sit in one and then the other telling me which was worse. I didn’t have enough money to satisfy his chair preferences so I always said, “you’ll have to make do.”
“It’s because you have ADHD,” I said.
Frank said, “I don’t have ADHD.
Frank wore a large papier-mâché head that looked almost exactly like his face, but wasn’t quite his face. I found the head in his room one day and rolled it into the living room for a good display piece.
Frank came home one day after a long walk and saw his head in the living room and rolled it back to his room. He didn’t leave his room the rest of the night. No matter how many knocks were on the door. Frank sat. Frank sat all night. He didn’t lay down. Simply sat. He came out the next morning wearing his big head on his smaller one, refusing to remove it.
I offered Frank his meals, I offered him a better seat, I offered him the hexagonal tiles. Frank didn’t like to sit as much as he liked to stand but he didn’t nearly love to stand as much as he loved to walk.
“Why don’t you take your head off, Frank?” I said.
“I’m worried to start walking in circles again.”
Frank put a hammer to his own head to get the bigger one to fit.
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