The Family He Never Had Part 12
After the bullying incident that was inflicted on Kenji, Terk tries her hand at comforting Kenji.
Kala had told Zutho's mother, Hungo's mother and Gozan's mother about the bullying they inflicted on poor Kenji and from the looks of it, three mandrill's got an earful from their mothers. Tarzan, Jane, Professor Archimedes, Kala, Terk and Tantor went to go find Kenji after they dealt with Zutho, Hungo and Gozan.
"Do you think where Kenji is from, he was bullied?" said Tarzan as they were heading back to where the herd of gorillas was.
"Bullying is just like abuse, it's a repetitive cycle." said Kala.
"Bullying can affect people in life if someone is bullied for a long period of time, it can affect someone's self-esteem, their confidence, it can even affect them emotionally, physically, mentally and psychologically." said Jane as she explained how bullying affects people.
"I may only understand most of that but I do know that doesn't sound good." said Terk as she knew it sounded bad for anyone.
Tarzan, Jane, Professor Archimedes, Kala, Terk and Tantor arrived back where the other gorillas were at. Tarzan walked over to one of the gorillas that looked at Tarzan with a look of curiosity, some of them might have seen Kenji upset looked curious about what was going on.
"Moyo, where's Kenji?" asked Tarzan.
"The lake, what just happened, Kenji looks as if someone set him off." said Moyo curiously.
"Bullying incident." answered Tarzan.
Tarzan, Jane, Professor Archimedes, Kala, Terk and Tantor walked towards the lake and Kenji was sitting near the lake, he wasn't too far away from them, he was about twelve feet away. Kala could tell that Kenji was hurting, possibly grieving.
"Should I take it from here?" asked Kala as she remembered she was good with comforting a grieving person.
"Auntie K, may I try my paw at this? I want to see if I can make the kiddo feel better." said Terk as she was volunteering.
"Are you sure you can handle this?" asked Kala.
"If it doesn't work, than you can take it from there." said Terk.
"You got it." said Kala as she agreed.
Terk walked over to Kenji as she could see Kenji was grieving silently, seeing him looking at his reflection in the water. Kenji suddenly seen Terk's reflection in the water with him, Terk had a sympathetic look on her face.
"I can see that your reflection in the water doesn't look too happy." said Terk.
Kenji brushed his hand through the water to make his reflection disappear, he shed a tear and looked away from Terk as if ashamed to be seen grieving.
"Don't look at me Terk, I don't want anyone seeing me this way." said Kenji with a heavy sigh.
"Relax kiddo, I'm not going to judge you for the way you look." said Terk as she placed a paw on his shoulder.
Feeling Terk's paw on Kenji's shoulder made feel a sense of comfort and trust. Terk turned to face the young human face to face, she felt her heart go out to him as she knew he needed a hug.
"Kenji, were you bullied? You look like you've been through this before." said Terk as she made her best guess.
"I have but everytime someone bullied me back in human civilization, I did something about them bullies or someone else did something about the bullies." said Kenji as he didn't look Terk in the face. "But what Zutho and his friends have said to me."
"Kala did something about them, she actually told Zutho's mom on him, even told Gozan and Hungo's mom of them." said Terk as she was letting Kenji know that them mandrills were punished for bullying him. "But I know, what they said to you hurt you."
Kenji reached for Terk's big paw and placed it on his cheek. Terk rubbed her paw on Kenji's cheek and she slowly pulled him in her big and strong arms, hugging him while rubbing his back.
"They know about this power I have, teasing me about it was what hurt the most." said Kenji as he placed his face in her arms.
"I can tell they know, what they said and done to you wasn't right." said Terk as she agreed.
The others could see that Terk was doing alright with comforting Kenji, even Kala could see that. Tarzan, Jane, Professor Archimedes, Kala, Terk and Tantor got closer to them a bit and they could hear what they were saying.
"Do you think I'm a freak for having strange powers?" asked Kenji curiously.
"Your not a freak for having these powers, no one is a freak for having an ability to heal people with one touch, but the rest of them, your not a freak for having that." said Terk showing her support.
"Your just different, even Tarzan was different from us before but he managed to show everyone that even though he was different, the other gorillas accepted him for who he is when he showed them he deserves a chance. Now Tarzan's the leader of the herd." said Kala as she showed her support.
"Even if no one in Japan ever found out about my power, I already left Japan for reasons other than that." said Kenji as he revealed something else about himself.
This was yet another thing that surprised all of them, they grew curious about what he just told them.
"Why did you leave Japan?" asked Professor Archimedes curiously.
Kenji looked up into Terk's face and Terk showed Kenji a look of compassion as she nodded to him, as if she was letting him know that it was alright to tell them. Kenji now kept his face resting in her arms.
"They discovered I had a gift that could give me a brighter future. I showed higher levels of intelligence at a young age. When I was six, I was taken in by some people who wanted to nurture my gifted intelligence, I was smarter than most of the kids my age, sometimes smarter than most of the adults." explained Kenji as he spoke. "They figured that I would be very useful for it, all they had me do was educate myself and keep me schooled to nurture what I had, thinking it could make me very useful in the future. But it wasn't what I wanted."
"What did you really want?" said Jane as she grew curious.
"I just wanted to be the kid, enjoy growing up, have fun, enjoy life, even be part of a loving family that would love me for who I am." said Kenji as he told them what he really wanted out of life. "But I left Japan because there was nothing there for me, they wanted to choose and decide my future for me and what they wanted for me wasn't what I wanted. So I left to find a better future."
They started to understand that Kenji left his country because he was deprived of the life he wanted. But Kala knew that there was a word of comfort and so did Terk.
"Kenji, you do have a family now." said Terk proudly.
Kala came over to Kenji and placed her paw on his shoulder to comfort him which started to make him feel better.
"You have us." said Kala with a smile.
Kenji was starting to feel better and his painful grief was starting to disappear. Kala reached out and rubbed Kenji's head.
"Kenji, if where you lived before wasn't the home for you, than maybe this is the home for you." said Tantor with a word of comfort.
Hearing their comforting and supporting words was making Kenji feel better now, he wasn't shedding a tear afterwards as he looked up into Terk's face than looked back at Kala. Now Kala gave Kenji a one armed hug.
"I wonder how you guys became such a good family with big hearts?" asked Kenji as he showed he was feeling better than before.
"A family sticks together, they love each other no matter what and even if they sometimes don't get along, they love each other always and a loving family does everything they can for family." said Tarzan proudly.
"I'm glad to be a part of this family." said Kenji with a smile.
Terk and Kala hugged Kenji gently so not to squeeze too tight. The love and support they showed for Kenji was healing him of any emotional wounds. They knew that if anyone else bullies Kenji, they will be there for him, they knew that they can be a family to Kenji, a loving one and Kenji was feeling like this was a better home for him. But Kenji did wonder about something, when the day comes to tell them about his biological father, will they understand? Kenji briefly spoke to Terk about his biological father and when he did, he didn't feel comfortable about speaking to anyone about his father but Kenji seemed to hint that his worst fear ever was one thing, his biological father.
To Be Continued