Don't Let Jimmy Die

He couldn’t sleep that night. He just kept tossing and turning, his head throbbing still. If he was already asleep, how could he go back to sleep. This really wasn’t a dream; it was some psychotic breakdown he seemed to be having.

A shriek woke him up. His head was in so much pain and this noise wasn’t helping. He looked over to the right of him, where the window was, quite a bit away from the bed. It was morning. Somehow, he must have gotten some sleep. There sat a robin, just perched on the windowsill. Jimmy walked over to it, staring into its dark eyes, as it sat, just singing away to itself. Then came that shriek again. The sudden loud noise made it flinch. Ruffling its feathers, it flew swiftly away.

“Oh! No… come back,” he sighed. He’d better be getting dressed and investigating the shriek, and the voices from below.

They were all gathered around in the kitchen. His ‘father’ with a newspaper in front of his face, his “mother’ grasping at the kitchen table, while his ‘sister’ was in hysterics.

“Erm. What, what’s going on?” He said entering the kitchen gingerly.

“What’s wrong! What’s wrong!” His sister sobbed.

“Everything Jimmy, everything, just look.” She pointed at father who slid the paper from his face, and looking up, pushed it towards him on the table. The article in front of him was in big letters, he read aloud:

MISSING

NINE-YEAR-OLD JOHNNY. LAST SEEN 6:00PM ON SUNDAY NIGHT, AUGUST 5TH, OUTSIDE THE CONVENIENCE STORE. A KIND, THOUGHFUL BOY, WHO DELIVERED NEWSPAPERS EVERY MORNING, WITHOUT FAIL, NOW DISAPPEARED.

“Who’s Johnny again?” He said after finishing the article.

“Please, Jimmy, this is not a time to be messing around, did you see him yesterday on your way back home?” His mother was now dabbing her tears with a handkerchief.

“I .. don’t think so, I’m sure they’ll find him.” He said optimistically.

“Nothing like this has ever happened here Jimmy.” His sister wailed.

The way they were reacting, was as if their grandad had been shot outside on the lawn, cutting him up, leaving entrails and guts. It was just a newspaper boy, it was sad that he was missing, but people had to move on.

“Come on, surely worse things have happened.” He smirked, really wishing it was some sick tradition.

They all just blinked at him, then stared blankly into the distance.

“No theft from the convenient store?”

Seeing their shocked faces Jimmy’s question had been answered. He couldn’t remember much of who he really was, but he knew crime was a usual occurrence, maybe this was just what the town needed.

“I bet you can help Sheriff Hall out with the case.” Mother piped up.

Jimmy didn’t question this too much, but it did seem odd, that a police station reporting no crime, suddenly needing his help, and after he had asked just a few hours ago. Much more strangely, he couldn’t remember speaking to anyone about his trip to the police station last night, he couldn’t even remember the evening.

He grabbed his coat from the stand next to the back door. It was an old brown, vintage one, made from scratchy material, and he heading to the police station.

Mania! That was the only way to describe the inside of the station today. It was as if he had stepped into a different building from yesterday. The décor was still miserable and falling apart, but instead of one fat man sitting at his desk, there were many fat men rushing around.

“Jimmy! Speak of the devil! We were just talking about you.” Hall greeted him. There were others, standing in a half circle, swapping pieces of paper, including the two men he had seen outside yesterday.

“You were…”

“Oh yes, oh boy! We need your help, pronto!” He bellowed, throwing a pile of papers into his arms.

“Take these.”

Jimmy looked down at the papers in his arms and seeing the same story about the missing boy. The exact same words that he had read in the newspaper, only this time there was a large picture of Johnny, sat above the text. He looked like a mousey boy, with dirty blonde hair cut into a neat style, he was carrying a satchel with papers poking out and he wore a red and black checked shirt. He was beaming at the camera with pearly white teeth.

“You want me to put these up around town?”

“I do, you can grab some scissors and tape in the drawer behind my desk.” Hall said, pointing to the desk he was sat at yesterday. “And also, please look out for anything...”

“Anything in particular?”

“Just help them, okay?” Hall turned his back on him which implied the conversation had ended.

Jimmy grabbed an old pair of rusty scissors and some half-used tape and made his way outside. He thought he’d start with the logical thing and stick them on posts in the centre of town, but then walking past the café, he thought it might be useful to call in there, plus he had wanted to stop by yesterday.

The Café was quiet. A typical 1950’s décor. Black and white tiles spread on the floor; aqua stools pushed into counters which were a cream colour. An old man sat drinking a mug of black coffee, at one of them. On the other side of the counters, there was a young girl, maybe a little older than he was, but saying that he had no idea exactly how old he was and not a clue when his birthday was.

“Jimmy,” she smiled, looking up from a cash register. It seemed everyone knew everyone in this town, there was no privacy. Her hair was mousey brown, and was short, but tied into a small ponytail, her face was pale, making her look innocent, she wore a white dress that came just past her knees, with an aqua green pinafore over the top, fitting in with the cafe’s décor.

“Hi” he said nervously. She knew him and he didn’t know a single thing about their relationship, for all he knew, it could have been his girlfriend. “Could you pass these out.” He flicked through the posters grabbing a few from the pile and placing them in front of her.

She read and tutted her head while cleaning out mugs. “I know, terrible, terrible thing.”

“Worst thing to happen to this town!” The old man barked, sipping his coffee.

He didn’t look like the other men Jimmy had seen, he was rougher around the edges, he had a scraggly beard and wore an old brown jacket, he was hunched over.

“You can say that again, Bob.” The girl agreed taking the cup from him.

“Nothing, at all? Really?” Jimmy said still in disbelief from how sheltered this town was.

“Why would there be? It’s always been a nice place to live.”

“But how about outside?’

“Outside? What do you mean?”

“Outside the town…” Jimmy sounded uncertain as he felt all eyes on him.

It seemed the few people in the café were now listening to him, as they all laughed in unison. Jimmy sat there on one of the stools like a useless book end.

“There’s nothing outside of Blossom Springs.”

“You mean... nothing, at all...”

She nodded her head. “I Barbara Davies was born and will die in Blossom Springs!”

It was helpful to know her name, but he couldn’t stay here any longer.

“Right... I need to go.”

Before she could even say goodbye, Jimmy was out the door, piles of posters drifting away in the sky as he stumbled around. They probably thought he was drunk or something, but knowing more and more about this town, it would surprise him if they even knew what an alcoholic beverage was.

He seemed to be stumbling for what felt like miles, only one poster was now in his hand. The town will be shocked with the amount of litter he’d thrown. There were nettles, all around his ankles. Looking up he noticed he’d walked straight into a wood clearing, blocked by an iron fence. There was no gate or holes to climb through but somehow, he’d found a way around. He noticed something strange on the floor. Jimmy clawed into the nettles, even though it pained him every moment and he reached for the unidentified object. He pulled it up from above his ankles, first noticing the lumps appearing on his hands. Flesh colour bumps congregated together.

It felt different, hard like a rock but squishier. He realised it was an arm, held inside his own arm. Not attached to anything, just sitting, limp. He screamed but covered his mouth before he made too much noise. Inside the hand’s fingers, was a crumbled piece of red leather. Little Johnny’s newspaper bag. Jimmy jumped back and shivered. The town had every right to panic now.