SOMEONE OUT THERE IS MOVING
Footsteps heavy and uneven murmured above, a devils melody forewarning his
decided fate. He prayed for quiet affinity, to be left here, contained within
these walls he’d grown so dependent on. Pressed and grooved into this
institution. Darkness was essential, but the thin slats of his cage ran buckled
and warped, the puzzles of light intruded on his refuge. Particles of dust
shifted slowly through the tilted beams like fine dirt blown over stagnant
water. What savage misfortune had tortured his mother and father? Such fresh misery
these sadistic intruders had delivered.
A gruesome satire had surely landed his parents with venomed hook. The
boy throttled his breath; his ears pinged in the sudden, maddening silence. A shadow
disturbed the hazed columns of light. Crude luminous patterns twisted slightly
as the figure moved. A grey tone transformed his face in a hollow eclipse as
the figure stood fixed. The boy stifled a whimper as he felt the blood in his
veins stop and discourse in a regressive current. The doors shuddered open in fragile jolts. The boy shielded
his face. The man stood across him, a near empty roll of thick graphite tape in
his hand. From above, stairs
announced the presence of another with groans and wooden clicks.
“You’ve been keeping us from important business”, the man said calmly as
he reached for the white-faced boy in the closet.
The Boy bleated faintly, offering his only possession, a frivolous
attempt to bargain. Big hands clasped the stuffed monkey and the man grinned as
he tore a lengthy strip of tape with his teeth.
He placed the toy in a dull brown box marked ‘Henrys room’ in thick red
strokes. A woman stepped out from behind the man as he taped the flaps of the
package.
“I don’t want to go” the boy sobbed through wobbly wet lips.
The woman cradled a pink-faced baby and smiled, kindly. The house was
bare floorboards and vacant walls. Outside the street was still save two plump
men in white overalls leaning against a large white van, smoking.
No comments:
Post a Comment