The Gingerskinned Man

Once upon a time, a husband and wife, both dark haired, blue-eyed, and olive skinned, had a child. They gave birth to a small baby boy, but little did they know, both of them were carriers of a recessive gene. A gene known as “The Ginger Gene,” which caused their little boy to have bright red hair and pale skin, in which every square inch of the boy’s body was covered in freckles. The parents did not know many of the different risks which came with having a ginger child, but like most young children, he spent most of his time protected by the sun, either by shade or the indoors. That was true until about the age of three.

It was a hot, but cloudy, mid-July day when the father and mother took the ginger child to the park. As the child played on the swing set, the clouds in the sky began to part and the sun started to show its ugly face. Much like a steel rod in a fire pit, the boy’s skin was glowing red within just minutes of the sun touching his skin. He shot off the swing, like a bullet out of a gun; his little radiantly-illuminated freckled legs scurried as he ran and he ran, and all his parents could hear him say was:

“Run from the sun,

As fast as you can,

You can’t catch me,

I’m the Gingerskinned Man.”

The parents ran after the boy, but didn’t have to run far. The sun stopped the boy abruptly in his tracks. The little Gingerskinned Man fell 20 yards from where he started due to heat exhaustion and third degree sun burn, just a few feet away from shade.

After months at the Mayo Clinic, with numerous skin grafts and rehabilitation, the Gingerskinned man made a full recovery.

The little boy, now a grown man, does not go outside during daylight hours when the sun is present, but if he must, he dresses himself in sweat pants, a long sleeved turtle neck, a duster (cause he’s badass), sunglasses, boots, an umbrella hat, and rubs SPF 120 wherever his freckled skin shows.

As for the parents, they learned a valuable lesson and became more aware of the many problems that ginger people face, mostly with the sun and all its evil.

Today the Gingerskinned Man, now 45 years old, runs a successful internet company, which involves little travel and limited outdoor activities. He still resides in his parent’s basement and has no plans of moving out in the near future.

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I wrote this short story to try to show the difficulties and hardships of gingers and their unforgiving relationship with the sun. I, myself, am not a complete ginger, but I do possess enough ginger DNA to be labeled a "day-walker." For those who do not know what a day-walker is, it basically means that I, unlike full-blown gingers, can take a stroll out in the sun for a small period of time without having to dodge the sun and without the risk of losing my life. Us day-walkers, do however, burn severely and cannot develop a sun tan. Although we can walk outside in the sun, our time is still limited.

I feel that July, with all its heat intensity, should be considered "Ginger Awareness Month." It would be a month to teach young gingers about the struggles ahead of them, and to make people that surround them, their friends and families, aware of what it is that they must go through on a daily basis. It would be a month to teach young gingers that they are no different than anyone else, (except for the whole "can't go out in sunlight" ordeal) and that they too can be successful in life, such as Ron Howard and Raggedy Ann.

With the help of you all, we can grow together by learning to understand one another, and the hardships we all face day to day. So, if you see a ginger walking in the shadows of the day or frantically scurrying from the sun, hand them an umbrella,  maybe some sun screen, possibly a turtleneck, but if you don't have any of those on hand, just give a hug, but be quick, remember their time is limited. Any little bit can help. Together we can make this happen!