Origins of a Smile - Episode Four
The boy who lived next to the funeral parlour
The boy who lived next to the funeral parlour, he had a
sorry tale. Beaten by his dad, teased by his brother and bullied by near enough
everyone else, yes it was a sad old life for a sad little boy.
Every night the little boy wished and wished and wished. All
he wanted was a friend, just one friend who felt how he felt and liked what he
liked. But no friend ever came.
Until one night, after his father had shouted at him and
left him crying and alone on his bed. That little boy wished harder than he had
in his whole entire life. He used every fibre of his being to project the wish
to where ever wishes went when you really, really, wanted them to happen.
And finally it happened, his wishes were answered. A voice
whispered into his ear.
“You’ll never be alone again” It said “I will protect you”
The little boy was so happy.
“Do you have a name?” he asked.
“I can’t remember if it is my name, but the only name I
remember is Joshua.”
“That’s a nice name” said the little boy, “even if it’s not
yours. I hear my name so often I could never forget it; it’s Victor.”
In that moment a friendship was born, Victor and Joshua. And Joshua was true to his word, he never left Victor alone.
When the playground bullies called Victor names and threw
things, Joshua was there to calm him. When his father was drunk and his fists
were hard, Joshua was there to comfort him. And when everyone was asleep and Victor
was alone, Joshua was there to teach him.
After a time Joshua wanted to be more than just a voice, he
wanted to have a body.
“With a body” Joshua said. “I could hit the bullies. With a
body, I could shout back at your Dad, and he would hear me, and he would be so
scared. They all would. And they’d never hurt you again.”
The Boy reasoned that they couldn’t use a body that had a
person in it and they were not allowed to kill people because that was
disgusting.
Joshua agreed. They needed empty bodies from somewhere.
“The funeral parlour” Victor shouted with glee. “They must
have empty bodies.”
Joshua again agreed.
That night Victor snuck into the funeral parlour next
door. And there, low and behold, lying in a giant freezer was a body.
“Is it too cold?” Victor asked.
“I don’t know, never done it before.” Joshua replied.
“So how do you get in it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe like this”
Suddenly the dead body sat straight up. It turned its head
to look at
the boy and spoke.
“How do I look?” the dead body asked.
“Like a dead man” Victor giggled.
Joshua stood his new body up then slowly tried to step
forward. It was easier then he thought.
“Would you like to see a dead man dance?”
Victor laughed as Joshua danced with his new body around the
room.
“I miss dancing” he laughed. “How do you feel about dancing
with the dead?” Victor nodded his head excitedly. They held hands and danced
like they were in a ballroom, round and round in a circle to the sound of an
imaginary band.
Suddenly Joshua stopped. He looked like he was in pain.
“What’s the matter?”
“That’s the problem with the dead. Even if I climb inside,
their heart has still stopped. And nothing I can do will make it beat again.”
Victor asked if they could get a new heart from somewhere.
The dead man shook his head. “The life has already gone. The
heart won’t ever beat again, and the lungs won’t ever breathe again. The problem
is not how to get new parts but to preserve the parts we’ve got.”
“Wouldn’t it be good if you got your own body for Christmas,
one that lasted forever?”
Suddenly a light came on upstairs, they had awoken the
owner.
“Quickly, go” Joshua called. “I’ll catch up.”
Victor watched the body slump to the floor. A voice just
behind his left ear shouted: “I said Run,” so he ran as fast as his legs could
carry him, out the window and across the street to home.
Victor continued to return at night whenever he got the
chance. Every time the boy managed to get in there, the body had changed. Once
Joshua was a young man named Richard, another time he was a thirteen year old
girl named Beatrice. Victor noticed she was pretty.
Together they read books and studied on the body and ways
that they might be able to prolong the life of one. Victor wanted to have his
friend by his side always, not just whispers that no one can hear or a few
hours in a body that started to smell.
It took a few days until they got everything, but by Christmas
Eve they were ready. They waited until night, then gathered all the stuff they
needed and headed back to the house.
Joshua was in the body of a young boy, and this was the first
time that he had been in a body outside. He loved the feeling of the wind blowing
against his skin and the soft cold snow drops as they gently floated down and
lay on his head and shoulders. He spun around in the snow and looked up at the
night sky. He’d never felt so alive.
“Life is wonderful” he said to Victor. “Snow is wonderful.”
“Do you want to know another reason why snow is so
wonderful?” Victor said, grabbing a big chunk of snow and moulding it into a
perfect snow ball.
“Yes please, I want to know and see everything.”
Victor threw the snowball with all his strength; it sailed
through the air and hit Joshua square in the face. Joshua stood there silently
for a minute, then wiping the snow away started to laugh.
“That is wonderful” he said whilst making a snowball of his
own. “Simply wonderful!”
The two boys threw snowballs back and forth for a little
while. They were completely caked in white powder by the end of it.
“We’d better get in before anyone wakes up” said Victor.
Joshua agreed.
So Victor and Joshua crept into and through the house as
soundlessly as possible. As they ascended the stairs, Joshua put on a silly
exaggerated walk like he was from a comic strip. Victor tried not to laugh.
In Victor’s bedroom, the two boys sat on the bedroom floor
surrounded by all they had obtained.
“I can’t believe after tonight you can stay in a body
forever” said Victor, so happy his friend wouldn’t leave him again. “This is
the best Christmas I could ever ask for.”
“Merry Christmas Victor” Joshua said with a huge grin.
“Merry Christmas Joshua.”
Victor’s bedroom door suddenly flew open. Joshua’s body went
floppy and fell to the floor.
“Don’t worry I’m still here” Joshua whispered in Victor’s
ear.
Victor’s older brother Jacob walked into the room.
“Who you talking to, little brother?” asked Jacob. “It can’t
be a friend; you don’t have any of those.”
But then Jacob saw the body half sitting in front of Victor.
“It’s not what you think” Victor protested. “Please don’t
tell Father.”
But it was too late. Jacob had already left the room. A
second later there was the sound Victor feared more than any other: the stomp
of his father’s feet on the bedroom floor.
Poor Victor tried to explain to his father, though he knew
it would fall on deaf ears.
“It’s not how it looks, Joshua is my friend.”
“Joshua is dead” his father bellowed.
“That isn’t Joshua, that’s the body Joshua is going to
use” Victor said. “It’s okay, the previous owner doesn’t need it anymore.”
“I always knew there was something wrong with you, ever
since you were born.”
“Please father don’t.”
Victor’s father grabbed the boy by his elbow and pulled him
to his feet.
“I lost my wife the day you came into this world, she told
me to love you.” Victor’s father was screaming in his ear. “But I knew.... I knew...”
Victor tried to hold back the tears, but he could not. His
mother died giving birth to him, he’d always known it was his fault from the
moment he was old enough to understand his father’s words.
“It wasn’t your fault” whispered Joshua. “And I’m sick of
hearing it.”
Victor’s Father had both hands on Victor now, shaking him
back and forth.
“What have you done? What have you brought into my home?” He
was screaming louder than Victor had ever heard before. “You are going to hell,
you sick wretched thing. You’re going straight to hell.”
Victor could no longer speak, he couldn’t even see through
the tears in his eyes.
“Please Father, stop” said Jacob from behind his Father.
“Please put him down.”
Victor’s father let go of his son, but with too much force.
Victor fell backwards, hitting his neck against the side of his bed before
landing on the floor motionless, his head at a peculiar angle.
“Victor” the man screamed, grabbing his son’s lifeless body.
“Speak to me.”
But there was no answer. Jacob collapsed onto his knees and
wept.
“I’m sorry son” Victor’s father cried repeatedly as he
rocked back and forth, Victor’s body cradled in his arms.
Suddenly Victor’s body twitched in his father’s arms.
“Victor?”
Victor’s head slowly began to rise, his eyes were open but
they looked different and they were staring directly at his fathers.
“Victor. Son?”
Joshua looked through Victor’s eyes at the man who had
murdered him. The rage that was growing inside him, the hurt and sadness, it
was too much to contain. This man had killed the only boy who had ever cared
for him, the only one who listened, who wanted him.
Joshua’s hands went straight to murderer’s neck.
“You hateful evil man, you murdered a child. But now I’m
back and I hold judgment over you. I made a promise I wouldn’t kill. But in
breaking that promise I make a new one. I will never ever stop hating you,
everything I do will be in the memory of what you did here today, and I will
never ever forget.”
The life was almost gone from Victor’s father, but Joshua
didn’t stop talking.
“You will never find peace. You will be forever alone in the
hell you threatened on your son, because that is all you deserve.” And with a
flick of Victor’s wrist, his father was finally gone.
Jacob sat watching opened mouthed. He had seen his Father
kill his brother, then that same brother kill his father.
Joshua turned to Jacob, the rage inside still not quelled.
“I’m sorry brother” Jacob cried. “I’m sorry for all that
we’ve done to you. I’m sorry I never protected you from father. And it
wasn’t your fault about mother.”
“It’s a bit late to apologise to your brother after he’s
dead” said Joshua.
To Be Concluded
Comments
Post a Comment