Gilbert's wave

Gilbert waved to me.
It's a precious, very much worked for thing.
I don't know why I did it in my spare time, but I did.
He was always so guarded and suspicious. He was like the worst trouble making kid. He expected to be yelled at and criticized in every moment. I approached him with mere "hello" and let it go, his look one so suspicious. I'd catch him being destructive and simply approach with "Hey, Gilbert, what we doing?" He'd say it. "Think we should try to do something different?". "yeah", he said....and he would. I still said "Hi" every time he walked by. Then one day I saw him do something, a 'trick' and land on his ass. His mom started yelling at him "So stupid! What were you thinking?! You sacred me!". She looked to me; "That's what kids do, you're O.K. Gilbert". She eventually gave me part of their story: she had been 'happily' married for many years when Gilbert's father, her husband, had died. She was a mess. I don't think she was all together before that...did come out that she had spent time with husband homeless before Gilbert....I had met her older son, Gilbert's brother....he wore the mannerisms of one marked by doing drugs, upset due to experiencing prejudice because of the color of his skin (he's part Mexican, living in the wild, very white, west).......
Today Gilbert was not terrorizing other children's toys, he was playing with a remote control vehicle all his own. I was so happy for him. Before I could wave and wait to see if he would wave back, he waved first instead. He told me of this remote control vehicle, it's uniqueness and I told him how cool it was and how happy I was for him.
Spare time shenanigans really can mean something in the end......