Seen But Not Heard

“Little children should be seen, but not heard,” said Kyle’s mother as she tucked him in for the night. Nighttime was the only time Kyle got to see his mother after the messy divorce.

All Kyle had asked for was to spend time with her during the day. He just wanted to play with her. Kyle’s mother was a cashier by day and telemarketer for most of the night. When she was working, she locked herself in her room and conducted business there. She would also tell Kyle the same sentence when he was bothering her, almost as if it were her mantra for dealing with her attention-starved son. Sometimes, she shouted it at him, angrily.

One day while his mother was out getting groceries in a rare moment of free time, Kyle devised a simple plan. Being only ten, he went by the advice of a friend. He got some rope and made a slipknot with it, as he had learned from the same friend.

His plan was to fake hanging himself so that his mother would want to spend more time with him. He would step off the island in the kitchen and land on a stool, making it look like he had hanged himself.

He strung himself up and stood on the counter, waiting to hear his mother pull into the driveway. After a few moments of waiting, he heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway.

Overeager, and excited about the prospect of getting to spend more time with his mother, Kyle jumped off the counter and knocked the stool out from under him. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the car he heard pulling in was only someone turning around in their driveway.

It was too late by the time his mother actually came home. She cried even harder when she thought of what she had always told Kyle.

Jaundice

Johnny was a kid in third grade, as normal as were most children his age. One particular summer afternoon, after getting off the bus and walking down the street toward his house, he stopped to talk to his neighbor who was standing in his yard. After a brief conversation, he went home, so as not to worry his mother.

“And just where have you been?” his mother asked as he walked in the front door.

“Talking to the guy next door,” he said as he set his backpack on a chair at the kitchen table and sat across from his mother. “What’s jaundice mean?” he asked.

“What?” queried his mother, confused as to how he had learned that word. “Where did you hear that?” she asked.

“I was coming down the street and saw the man next door. I asked him why his skin was so yellow!” Johnny stated, proudly.

“Oh. I see,” his mother said. “Go to your room, and do your homework,” she said as she walked to the window and looked over to the house next door. She didn’t want to remind her son that their neighbor had died a week ago, from liver failure.

Inevitable Ticking

Tick. Tick. Tick.
It’s all I can hear now. It’s been a while since I fell. I fell and broken my leg, and I can’t make it to the phone. No one is going to come looking for me, though. I have no friends or family. No job, no pets, no real connection to the outside world.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
This clock. I curse the day I bought it. I used to think its loud ticking sound was soothing. Now, the sound is driving me mad.
I can’t move.
Tick.
I can’t stand the sound. That sound, the inevitable ticking of my life as it slowly slips away
Tick.
Second.
Tick.
By second.
Tick.
A slow death, counting the seconds, hoping that I won’t live long enough to hear the next damned tick of that clock.

Homeless Man

David and John were typical high school miscreants. Destructive youths and members of the high school football team, the pair was a dangerous powder keg of testosterone.

When they were not busy tormenting the chess club or giving wedgies to the slower band members, David and John enjoyed their second favorite—second to football, of course—extra curricular activity: bullying the city’s homeless. They were infamous for it.

In the past, the duo’s efforts were little more than petty. They would tip over the shopping carts or set fire to cardboard boxes, often times with their occupants still inside them.

This particular day, however, the pair decided to take their mischief to the next level. Going into their father’s garage, they found a large gasoline can. After they carefully poured a small amount of gasoline into a bottle, they made their way into town. When they found a homeless man rambling to a wall covered with symbols written in what looked like blood, they knew they had found the perfect mark.

They ran up to him and splashed the man with the liquid and lit him on fire. They ran off as he burned alive, cursing at them as they fled.

That night, when in bed, the two chatted about their deed. They had a good laugh until they heard a noise coming from outside their bedroom.

John, figuring it was his father, opened the door to make a snide comment to him. When he opened the door, however, what he was greeted with was not his father, but the homeless man they had torched earlier in the day.

Before the two could process what was going on, the man splashed them with the remaining gas from the can.

The next thing they knew, they were waking up in the hospital, burnt beyond all recognition. As a result of the fire, the both David and John’s vocal cords were damaged severely. Being unable to talk, and having no relatives to claim them, they were soon set out onto the streets, homeless.

Given Reason

Kent Heister was an average person, living an average life. Recently, he had gotten a divorce from his wife. They just were not ready for that level of commitment. He had also stopped attending church and devoted himself to just working. Being single, now, this wasn’t much of a problem. Though he had been religious before, he no longer saw a reason to keep up the act.

This news upset Richard Carson, his long-time friend and neighbor. Richard, being the spiritual person that he was, was deeply concerned by his friend’s deviation from the path he had been on to God. He was also schizophrenic, a fact of which he was unaware.

Every now and again, Richard would hear voices telling him what he should do or say, and he took those as the words of God. After a few weeks of watching Kent slide into drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes, the voices in his head told him what to do.

Richard took Kent on a nature walk in the forest near their houses. Kent was asked what it would take for him to get back on the path of righteousness and rejoin the church.

Kent told Richard that if he found some smokes while walking, he would join the church. After a few feet, the two came across an unopened pack of cigarettes. Kent picked them up and told Richard that it was just a coincidence and that if he found something to drink, he would rejoin.

After a few minutes, they came across a six pack of beer lying in the middle of the trail. Kent snagged the fresh pack of beers and looked them over. As he put them in his backpack, he told Richard that this was still some strange coincidence. He rationalized that some hiker was not only missing some cigarettes, but some tasty beer as well.

He told Richard, who was now ahead of him, that he needed a reason to pray and turn back to God. He said that was what it would take for him to rejoin the church.

Nodding to himself, having received confirmation from the voice, Richard turned to face Kent. He smiled as he reached into his pocket and gave Kent a reason to pray as he pulled the trigger.