What I've Written Today, Part 2 (Three Stories Smashed Together)

The grainy waves waft in under the open blue sky. A boy plays in the yard while his mother hangs clothes, and a man crests the hill on their land. He carries his space helmet under his arm, but is wearing blue jeans and a button down.

The tall black trees reach into the dingy gray sky. A boy stands at the edge of the wood, parents nowhere in sight. He wears suspenders but no shoes, and waits at the edge of the winding trail that leads into the twilight and parallel lines.

The bare bulb hangs from a nicotine stained ceiling. A boy hides under his bed, while his mother feels her husband's fist across her tear-streamed face. Her cries and her husband’s shouts echo up the wooden stairs and into the dark.

She drops her laundry as she sees his face. Hiking up her skirts, she sprints down the front porch steps shouting, "Danny boy, look over the field, your daddy's come home!" he lifts his eyes and squints, barely making out his shape in the distance.

His courage comes as he takes the first steps into the tall, dark wood. The twigs and the stones don't hurt his feet so much, because he's never worn shoes so his soles are tough like leather. The sounds of woodland animals scurry all around.

She raises her arm against his next blow, but his strength is too much to fend off, and his hand catches her in the side of her head. She knows he’s going to kill her this time. As their filthy house spins around her, she shouts, "Baby, I’ve always loved you"

Like a cliché scene from a movie, the astronaut smiles and begins running to meet her. The warm, bulbous sun grins down with oppressive heat, but a swift, cool wind sweeps across their farm. The little boy is trying to keep up, peddling his little legs as fast as he can.

The woods were even darker than he could imagine. The shadows fell like a theater curtain, and swallowed up the little boy whole. He couldn’t see the trail, and he could feel his small heart trying to escape from its cage. Strange noises fill the air, and he can't place any of them.

Her husband stops mid swing. "You what?" his yells down at her. "You love me? I can't believe you would say that after all the things you’ve done." he hits her again. And again, and again. Upstairs, the little boy knows who she meant that for, and his tears burn his eyes and throat.

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