A Bedtime Story

Jimmy was awakened from the afterschool nap by the excitement in the house.  He crept out of the bedroom and crouched in a corner of the family room in anticipation of his brother’s big day.  He wondered if an allowance would be made by either his mom or dad to come out from the dark place and stand beside them, but then figured their little boy was just too scared to come out because of the threatening wave in the distance.

 

Every time Jimmy would leave the house the enormous swell would be there reaching high into the sky and spanning the horizon.  And while it was always viewed from a distance, he realized that at any time it could very well reach the village and kill every single soul in its path. 

 

As he observed his brother twiddling his thumbs within a circle of candles, just the thought of the tidal wave increased the beat of his little heart.  Visions turned into reality at the detection of a little rumbling on the wooden floor.  The runaway wave had crested halfway up into the sky and just crashed onto the land with the roar of a thousand lions.  In an instant Jimmy felt the grip of fear holding him in the corner.  Too scared to scream and too scared to run all he could do was whimper. 

 

His little heart skipped a beat at the sound of something pounding the wooden floor.  He looked and expected to see the water rushing in, but relief came on faster than that of the initial fear as the priest entered the family room.  Then curiosity over how his position was not revealed by the draught of wind blowing on the flames of the flickering candles came to mind.  It was as if Mom and Dad did not see him, had forgotten about their little boy, forgotten that he even existed.  But Mommy wouldn’t just forget about me, he thought, and leave me all alone. 

 

The curiosity swiftly left the thoughts as the Coming of Age ceremony began.  Jimmy thought it was sort of funny to see his never happy about anything dad smile as the priest mentioned something about an ancient oath and whispered many words within the circle of candles.  Soon after the words ended the priest reached out and gave his brother a rolled up piece of crinkled paper.  “Huh?” he whispered then giggled as the ear to ear grin all over his mean, old brother’s face was noticed.  A hand over the mouth kept the giggles inside as his brother reached out and took hold of a rolled up yellowish and crinkly piece of paper held neat and tight by a blue bow.

 

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: James Gerard Burch
Bildmaterialien: Right to use purchased from lg0rZh-Fotolia.com
Lektorat: James Gerard Burch
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 06.02.2014
ISBN: 978-3-7309-8108-5

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