Arthur Shipkin “Shippy” Pennfield

 

A child prodigy, Shippy Pennfield had mastered French, Geometry and Algebra by the second grade.  He was widely regarded as one of the most gifted prodigies ever of the prestigious Pennfield family, though at 7 years old, Shippy was as vulnerable and meek as he was prodigious.

Playing in the backyard with his older cousins during the annual Pennfield family Christmas party,  Shippy wanders out to a rickety old dock after he can’t compete with his older, bigger cousins in a snowball fight.

While sitting by himself out on that dock in the cold brisk night, Shippy is both in awe and fear of his surroundings. The universe beckoned brightly, the stars twinkling in their profundity,  yet the surrounding darkness left him vulnerable and afraid.

Then he saw something. It started as a fuzzy glow of brightness over the water.

By the time his older cousins ran over to him, he was naked, shivering and non-responsive at the end of that rickety old dock.