Static. ( part 1. ) .....spaces added. (415 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 1.1 on 10 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Barnymeinhoff <barnymeinhoff.at.gmail.com> (View user info) at 2005-08-25 13:43:58 EDT
Part one, An immaginary friend
The summer of 1985 was memorable for two reasons. It was the hottest English summer on record and it was during the summer holidays that my first and only friend Tony Green was killed by a pervert.
At the time I didn't know what a pervert was, I had heard the adults talking in the kitchen after Tony's mum had been taken away in an ambulance, The adults thought I was in bed but I wasn't able to sleep after the days excitement, there had been screaming and crying and I had been interviewed by the police.
I was ten years old and had lived in the Grants Meadow Commune all my life. My parents had moved there at the end of the seventies to escape what they called the rat race and to plan the revolution. As far as I could tell though all they and the other adults planned to do was smoke dope and complain about being hasseld by "The Man".
Most evenings the adults would sit around the big kitchen table and smoke, it was on occasions like this I would sneak downstairs and hide in the cupboard in the hall from where I could listen in on their conversations.
On this evening their conversation made little sense to me. I knew Tony was in some trouble and assumed he was at the hospital, after all that was where his mother had gone. I was still in a mood with Tony as we had had an argument that afternoon and I had walked off and left him.
As I sat in the dark listening to the adults I began to realise that Tony wasn't coming back and that he had been taken somewhere by a pervert. I didn't know what a pervert was and assumed that this was another name for "The Man" who I had heard about before. I was just getting ready to go to bed when the phone wrang and I heard my mother get up to answer it. After a while she began to cry and passed the phone to one of the other adults.
The police had found Tony. He was under the roots of the old oak. Not all of Tony had been there when they found him. I sat in the dark for a while listening to the grownups cry and shout befre I crept back upstairs to bed.
Tony and I had been swimming in the river near the old oak. The oak grew out from the bank of the river, Its roots spilling out of the ground and into the water like a giant wooden hand trailing its fingers through the river surface. The Kids from the town would often dare each other to swim up under the roots, Tony and I had watched them do this before. We used to hide from the town kids, They didn't like us and would often chase us and call us commies.
We learnt to avoid them whenever we were out of school and if they were swimming in the river we would wait untill they had left before taking our turn.
On the morning he dissapeared Tony and I had arrived at the river to find it free of the town kids and so we stripped down to our pants and jumped from the bank into the dark cool water. I had been diving under the water looking for stones to skim and when I surfaced I saw that Tony had a wicked look in his eye.
"Dare you to go under the tree" He said.
There was no way this was going to happen. The previous winter I had a bad case of flue and subsequently had suffered from some frightening hallucinations some of which had involved the tree although I would never have told Tony this.
There was no way I would go near the tree and even the thought of it sent shivers down my spine. This was howeer one of thoose defining childhood stailmates and I would have to save face lest I be called a chicken.
"Fuckin dare you!" I retorted, a tried and tested classic.
"well I dared you first and there aint no double dares, Unless youm chicken mind."
There it was, The challenge had been made and there was only one way out.
"Fuck you Tony Green I aint no coward your just a fucking mental like your dad!"
Even as the words left my mouth they tasted of bitterness and regret. Tonys dad had been taken from the commune two years previously suffering from a mental breakdown ( I later learned this was brought on by amphetamin psychosis.)
Prior to his being sectioned he had baracaded himself into a barn on the other side of the town screaming that everyone was conspiring against him. Even after he had left the local loony hospital he was to far gone to ever come back and had spent the last year living in a halfway house in Cornwal. His breakdown was common knowledge in the town and the local children had never missed an opportunity to tell Tony about his nutter dad and now I had done the same.
The look of betrayal quickly dissapeard from Tonys face and was replaced by one of rage. My plan had worked just as I knew it would but in that second I wished I hadnt been such a coward and just swum to the tree no matter how scared I had been.
Tony swam towards the bank and started to get dressed, I could see he was shaking with tears. I started towards the bank and called out his name, It was then that Tony spun round and flung a stone at me with all his might. It wasn't a large one but he struck me clean in the face and I could feel the blood running from the cut even before I felt the sharp stining pain.
That was it, I lunged towards the bank and ran at Tony smacking him in the face twice before he plunged back in the water and swam towards the tree to get away. He dived under the water and surfaced behind the roots from where he hurled a tearfull barrage of insults at me. I turned and got dresed before heading back home, my last glimps of Tony was of him staring out at me from behind the roots like a prisoner mouthing insults as tears ran down his bruised face.
Thinking back I can remember nothing about the walk home, I awoke that night in front of the TV, My mother shaking me awake and asking if I had seen Tony. I told her he was at the river and went back to sleep.
Three days later Tonys father was arrested and charged with his murder. He had been missing from the halfway house at the time and was unable to account for his movements. None of the adults seemed supprised but I was suspicious. Before he had gone mad Tonys dad was one of my favorites and always seemed to have more time for me and Tony than any of the others.
Tonys mum never came back and being the only other child at the commune lonlyness and self pity began to mix with the sense of loss I had for Tony and the regret that we had parted on such bad terms.
I wanted to apologise to Tony and the desire to apologise soon outweighed the fear I had of returning to the river and to the tree. If that was where he died then that was where I would have to go to say goodby.
The two and a half mile walk to the river was uneventfull and I only started to feel afraid as the tree came into view. I sat on the bank and stared into the water. Now I was here I was unsure what to do. Five minuits passed, I watched a draggon fly skimming the still surface of the water.
A fish surfaced, There was no sound other than the slow movement of the river and the occasional bird call. I was startled by a sudden flash and watched as a Kingfisher flashed past and down round the bend towards the rappids. It was than that I heard a voice.
"Andrew."
I turned towards the sorce half expecting it to be one of the kids from the town, It wasn't.
There before me on the other side of the river beneath the roots of the old oak there was a man. He was holding onto the roots like the bars of a cage, Only his head and shoulders were above the surface of the river. Although he was in the shadows I could make out a white beard and he seemed to be wearing a sailors hat.
"Andrew." He softly said again. "Do you miss your friend?"
my legs felt hot and wet as my bladder let go and I slumped back onto the grass unconcious.
End of part one.
User Reviews
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-09-02 14:58:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
decent enough.
Submitted by joedaddy (user info) at 2005-08-26 06:26:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
still got your back, bad mood and all
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2005-08-26 06:07:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
ASSHOLE
Submitted by silent1 (user info) at 2005-08-25 20:45:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Good story. Looking forward to Part 2.
Submitted by sideshow (user info) at 2005-08-25 18:40:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Good work, keep it coming.
Submitted by djgray (user info) at 2005-08-25 17:19:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I really liked the story and cannot wait for part 2. However as previously mentioned, run spellcheck and check your grammar before posting.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-08-25 13:58:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
nice try - do try and spellcheck, though.
Submitted by badassmofo (user info) at 2005-08-25 13:56:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Good story...better layout...still shitty speeling...
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2005-08-25 13:48:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yes, much better - Still creepy
Submitted by DCWoody (user info) at 2005-08-25 13:47:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Much better.