Tonya Boland
Bio
Trying to find my way through a maze of dark deception and psychotic interlusions. A contradiction of sorts. Yet I remain intrigued. Nice to meet you I think~
Stories (2/0)
His secret stones
He quickly walked home, so quickly that he sometimes skipped steps. He noticed the moon was full and dusk was settling over his sleepy little town. Although she didn’t notice much he did or didn’t do, his mother’s long standing request to be home before dark always replayed in his head at the end of a long day. He respected her, he thought once that desire was mainly fueled by him being almost invincible to her. He shrugged his shoulders as he thought about her, she was probably working anyhow. His hand me down pants always needing pulled up, his trapper keeper safely tucked under his arm hiding his favorite escape, a series of the raddest rat books he’d found yet!! His mind trailing off to the nap he took in English class earlier that day and how he’d dreamt of living in that world, I mean these were no ordinary rats, no mice of men, these were warriors and kings. He smiled at the thought just before hearing the neighbors pit bull barking fiercely, the kind of bark that wakes the neighborhood. He never failed to deliver such a mean greeting, as if he didn’t pass by there every day for more days than he could count. He heard his little sister yell “Moms pissed Lee” as he made his way through their yard to the porch. “Cuz you didn’t take the garbage to the alley this morning”she smirked and slammed the torn and tattered screen door in his face, he sighed as he reached to stop it but missed, letting it slam like always. “The baby” mom’s favorite, too annoying to know when to shut up he thought as he scurried through the door and quickly up the stairs to his room. He noticed his mom making her usual “Salisbury steak” He made a barfing noise then remembered to count the stairs, he had done that in his head since moving into grandpa’s house a few years back. He was mesmerized by the missing and broken steps. “LEE”!! his mother yelled from the stove downstairs. “You forgot again!!” he could almost hear her rolling her eyes. “I guess so” he started to mumble one of his famous excuses but was cut off. “Dinner is on the stove” I have to work another shift at the store tonight. “Don’t stay up all night reading again “ she grabbed the trash on her way out the door, trailing off “ I’ll have to tell your dad” was all he heard before the door slammed behind her. By now he had sat down on the top of the stairs to listen to her leave. Suddenly the bedroom door across from his swung wide open, “I say we toss that junk and make hotdogs his younger brother yelled as he smacked him on the back of his head then rode the rails to the bottom of the stairs crashing into the trash can, dumping garbage in the floor as he landed. He had a split second thought to check on him, but his brother had pulled himself up kicked the trash can, spitting out obscenity’s, then flipped him off and ran out the door, Before he could even think twice. He walked down, counting steps like always. He reached the kitchen just as his younger sister was dumping an entire box of cereal into a rather large bowl followed by every bit of milk they had left. She gave him a sassy look “ tell mom I used all the milk and I’ll clean the toilet with your toothbrush “ he curled his lip at her, a natural reaction to a level of irritation she easily brought him to “ you touch my toothbrush and I’ll put Roscoe’s poop in your yogurt tomorrow “ holding his lip in place to show her he was serious. “Kiss my ass” she bellowed and slammed the door to their parents room. Her place of refuge since as long as he could remember. He pulled up his trousers and grabbed the steaming pile of Salisbury steak left on the stove and dumped it into the dogs bowls. “Salisbury steak it is again Rosco” he reached down petting his only real friend. Watching him lap up the TV dinner style supper his mom prepared, realizing he felt sorry for Rosco. “I know boy” he sighed and rinsed the dishes off, turned the lights out and looked around the kitchen. Noting that no one was near he fetched the black marker he’d taken from shop class several months back. Put it in his pocket and slipped out the back door. It took him no time to find the place under the tree at the end of their long back yard. “X” marks the spot he whispered as he quickly dug up a rusty metal can he’d found full of screws in his grandfather’s garage. Remembering when his father seen the pile of loose screws on the ground and threatened to “whip” them all. He opened the can and reached his hand inside pulling out a stone with written words, fondling through them all as if he was a pirate counting his treasure after a long day of robbing and pilfering. He then leaned and retrieved another stone from a long line of neatly arranged stones he’d kept close by, he quickly glanced around and took the marker from his pocket and wrote a four word sentence across the stone. Then as he placed it inside the metal box, heard his smaller brother’s bicycle wheels screeching up the road. His heart skipped a beat as he rushed his secret back into its hidden place. If his brother knew of them, then so would the world, layed out like a popular news story for everyone to taunt and tease him. He jumped up and started walking back towards the porch just as his brother screeched into the driveway, throwing his bicycle in the path his father always takes to park his car when he’s home, but since mom walked to work he said nothing. He retreated to his bedroom, to escape to his world of sword yielding rats for the night. Content knowing his secret was safe. She had moved across the alley from them almost a year pryor. With red ringlet’s down her back, freckles and a look on her face like she needed to solve the world’s problems. The only thing he’d noticed about her was she was a “fast gum chewer” he described her like that to his cousin once after she’d returned an escaped Rosco back across the alley to him. His cousin teased him about her and he ignored his chauvinistic comments and dismissed him with that statement. After all girls never noticed him so he’d decided he could beat them at their own game and ignore their existence, it worked for awhile, until it didn’t. She was curious about her neighborhood, especially the family across the alley who’s father was never home until he was, then all she heard was yelling until he left. Who’s mother was the most fascinating creature she’d seen, doing the jobs of both parents raising kids and working so hard, a huge difference from her spoiled mother who left them with nannies at times. Whose dog clearly hated them all except the quiet one, the one who walked through her alley every night at the same time, the one she watched bury something underneath his tree in his backyard and go to it every night for 6 months. Now that kept her mind busy, her poetic, romantic, fairytale ridden mind. Watching him intrigued her and that meant a lot to a chronically bored girl with nothing to keep such a masterpiece stimulated. So she watched him, like a private eye on one of those saucy 80’s sitcoms where the investigator solved all his cases, got all the ladies and drove an expensive outdated sports car. She was secretly skilled in such task, a secret she kept to herself. However something about “mute boy” smirking at her clever pet name as she kept all her attention on her case! Something was different. The only label for him she could come up with. She got out her crate of old paper files her mom had given her while cleaning the basement. She scribbled …MUTE BOY - he is different, on the wrinkled label and on the side of the folder… TOP SECRET, then stuffed it back into her crate of past investigations. Like when old Mr. Rice had lost his NO TRESPASS sign last year, and she solved the case when she discovered the older boys in the neighborhood had used it to jump their skateboards off of. She smirked at the new plan she had put in place while in geometry class earlier that day. Tonight was the night, she was going to climb that tree and wait for “mute boy” to visit it like all the nights before. For her curiosity had gotten the best of her, and if it was bones he was hiding, or something much more sinister. Her very active mind creating a storm of what if’s, she grinned as she let her imagination run wild.
By Tonya Boland 2 years ago in Fiction