A story about loneliness
Lonny and the Longest Playtime
Everybody else seems to have somebody. Lonny stands by the fence and waits to be asked. A story about loneliness and the question that changes it.
3 minutes to read aloud · 😢 Sad
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Playtime is the longest part of Lonny's day.
Everybody else seems to arrive already in a pair. Zippy and Squirmy go tearing off. Buddy has about nine friends. Even Peeky, who hardly says anything, has Newby now.
So Lonny stands by the fence and waits to be asked.
Lonny is very good at waiting. Lonny has waited through a hundred playtimes, looking busy, doing up a shoelace that is already done up, in case anybody is watching and thinks Lonny minds.
Lonny minds.
On Thursday, the game by the wall was the best one yet, and Lonny watched it from the fence and thought the thought Lonny always thinks: they have not asked me, so they must not want me.
Buddy came past with a ball.
"Why are you all the way over here?"
"Nobody asked me," said Lonny.
Buddy looked genuinely puzzled. "Did you ask them?"
And Lonny opened his mouth and found that he had not. Not once. Not in a hundred playtimes.
"What if they say no?" said Lonny.
"Then you'd know," said Buddy, "and you could ask somebody else. Right now you don't know anything. You're just standing by a fence being sad about a thing that hasn't happened."
Lonny walked over to the game. It took about nine years to get there.
"Can I join?"
Three words. That was it.
And Humdy looked up and said, "Yeah! We need another one, we keep having to be two teams of one and a half."
Lonny played until the bell went.
Walking home, Lonny worked something out, and it was a big enough thought that he had to stop walking to have it properly.
They were not leaving me out. They just had not noticed me yet.
The next day Lonny asked again. And the day after that, Lonny saw a small fluff standing by the fence, doing up a shoelace that was already done up.
Lonny knew exactly what to do.
"Want to play with me?"
