SHIMMER/DADDY'S GAME

  “I’m sorry Dad.  We were just playing.”

  “I know you were, don’t worry about it, get washed up and let’s have a bite to eat.  Your hairs wet you two been up to that old pond swimming?”

  “Yeah, it was hot we should have asked first.”

  “That’s okay, make sure you tell your mother next time.”

  David and Tommy washed their hands walked back inside and sat down at the table with David’s father.  Susan paused serving the food and they all bowed their heads while John offered the mealtime prayer.  Tommy and David bowed their heads and closed their eye’s it was a common tradition in both their homes and they knew the prayer by heart as John recited it.  As John started speaking David suddenly felt very cold.  So cold he actually shivered, David glanced at his mother to be greeted by her looking directly at him.  She had felt the coldness also.  She was rubbing her arms, trying to warm the goose bumps that had formed there.  His dad hadn’t felt it and neither had Tommy just his mother and himself.  David closed his eye’s listening to his dad’s prayer wandering why his mother and him self were the only ones getting the chills. 

“Thank you Lord for this food we are about to eat.  Thank you for our family.  Thank you for our friends and neighbors.  Thank you Lord for all the blessings you have given us.  Thank you Lord for seeing us through our times of trouble and we pray dear Lord you would allow us to see another day.  AMEN.”

  The thank you prayer was recited at every meal in practically every house or event David had been to.  The wording was always the same with only slightly different variations being offered from time to time.  The important thing to remember was never to touch the food before the prayer had been offered.  His hand had received more than one hard slap for this infraction.  With the prayer out of the way, and the chill forgotten, Tommy and David dove into their plates of food cleaning them quickly so they could get to the cake.  Both boy’s had their mouths full when David’s dad started to speak, the boys found it extremely hard to swallow when David’s dad mentioned Zeke’s name.

 “Guess who I passed on my way home Susan.”

 “I really have no idea, the Chandlers and we are the only ones that live up this way.”

  “Zeke Morrison!  You know--the guy everyone says is queer.”

  “Please John not in front of the boy’s!!!”

  “They’ve heard the stories; everybody around her has heard the stories.  Except the other day I heard several kids have come up missing and Zeke was taken in for questioning but no evidence was found linking him to the kids.    Anyway Zeke came bounding out of the trees.  Damn near ran me over.  Somebody had really laid one on the ole boy, he was missing a couple of teeth and I could tell he had been bleeding from his mouth.   I offered to help him but he mumbled for me to go fuck myself and headed on down the road.”

  “John!!!  I will not have that kind of language in this house and in front of these children!!!

  “They’ve heard worse, besides.  I was just repeating what I was told!”

  “I suppose that makes it okay.  I don’t think so!”

  “You sure do get pretty when you get angry!”

  “Don’t try to smooth things over by acting all nice, you better get on out of here before you’re late for work.”

  “Yes Mam!  I did not mean to anger the lady of the house Mam.”

  David and Tommy left the table with David’s dad, quickly scooting around him to gain the freedom of outside.  David had seen this movie played out before.  His dad saying something to shock and anger his mother.  His mother pretending to be mad and scolding his father.  It always ended the same, his dad would come home to his mother they would kiss a little longer than normal a little more often.  They would touch when they thought he wasn’t watching setting the stage for later.  David would excuse himself and go to bed and when the two of them thought he was fast asleep he would listen to the barely audible moans of pleasure soon to be followed by the squeaking springs of his parent’s old bed.  David had made the mistake of going to his parents room when he was younger, concerned that his dad was hurting his mom, only to be yelled at and hustled back off to bed.

  Listening to them make love never bothered David when he was little but it,  sure bothered him now. He had gotten older and fully understood what was taking place in the room beside his own.  Tonight would be like a lot of others in the past.  He would lie very still in his bed not wanting to listen to his parents love making but unable to ignore it because of the proximity of the bedrooms and the thinness of the old walls.  He would hear the soft moaning begin, soon to be followed by the squeak, squeak, squeaking of the bedsprings.  His anger would build as the squeaking grew faster and faster until the guttural moans signaled his parents had finished.  Guilt would wash over David because he couldn’t understand his feelings.  He hated himself for listening and in a way hated his dad; it was his mother he was doing this to!   David could have left his room, gone outside away from the noise but it was like a car wreck where you knew you were going to see something horrible and you just couldn’t look away.  He couldn’t stop eavesdropping and wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to; the guilt trips hadn’t been as bad now as they use to be.  A sharp stab of pain from Tommy’s elbow brought David back to reality.  They were walking through the field behind David’s home heading for their tree house at the far end. 

  “Earth to David. . .You in there David?”

  “Yeah, what do you want?”

  “Jesus’ you were spaced out, you going to answer me or not?”

  “What was the question?”

  “I s-a-i-d was your mom really mad?”

  “No, Dad does that stuff all the time.  It’s kind of like a game to them.  Can you believe Dad saw Zeke?  I thought we were dead meat when Dad started telling Mom about that old queer!”

  “I almost pissed my pants!  I nailed him really good with that rock; your dad said he was missing a couple of teeth.”

  “Serves him right.  I can still feel the ass-holes sweaty hands on me.  Lets go back to the hole and finish our swim.”

  “I don’t know David, what if Zeke’s hanging around there?  You heard what your dad said about kids missing.”

  “The hell with Zeke!  He’s not going to be hanging around.  He’s probably looking for a good dentist.”

  Laughing the boys changed direction and headed for the woods.  Their pace never slowed following a road only they seemed able to see.  David needed to go back to the hole, he needed to jump into that cool water and reclaim what was theirs.  He needed to face up to his fears, nothing to fear but fear itself, is what his dad would have said.  Then again his dad hadn’t been hanging nude under Zeke’s arm struggling to get free, it was the first time David had truly been frightened, except for that damn dog.  He needed to erase this new feeling something Tommy probably wouldn’t be able to understand.  He needed to go back, start the day over.  One nightmare was enough to endure he didn’t need another one.  

  They were standing on the rim looking at the water, before David had realized it.  Tommy pulled off his shirt; David placed his hand on Tommy’s shoulder before he had a chance to go any further.  Slowly David walked around the knoll surrounding the pond surveying the forest and grassy area making sure they were alone. 

  “Tommy, come here and look at this!”

  Tommy pulled his shirt back over his head running around the pond to where David was standing looking to where he was pointing.  In the grass he could see the clear outline where someone had been laying, along with cigarette butts neatly snubbed out, lined up one beside the other.  Tommy couldn’t maintain his silence any longer.

  “Zeke was laying here watching us David!”

  “I knew someone was around earlier, I can’t explain it, I just knew!  I thought I smelled cigarette smoke to!  Damn queer, come on Tommy lets swim!”

 “I’m not going back in that water!  No way man!”

  “Don’t be a baby Tommy come on!”

  David turned toward the pond and walked to the water’s edge where he removed his clothes placing them on top of his sneakers and dove into the cold water.  He surfaced to see Tommy still standing on the rim where they had made their discovery.  David treaded water for a while staring at his friend, Tommy wasn’t going to move unless he was prodded. 

  “Come on Tommy, don’t be a chicken, the waters great!”

  “I’m not a chicken.  I don’t want that pervert catching me out here again!”

  “He didn’t catch you he caught me, remember!”

  “No difference, he might come back, you don’t know!”

  “Come on Tommy, if you don’t that asshole’s going to ruin our whole summer!  This place is all we’ve got.  Don’t let him ruin it for us!”

  Slowly Tommy approached the water’s edge and started removing his clothing.  His eye’s surveying the surrounding knoll for any sign of an intruder.  Suddenly aware of his nudity and vulnerability he turned and dove into the water swimming to where his friend was waiting. 

  They played the same games they had played that morning but with less enthusiasm.  Both occasionally would stop to check the area looking for Zeke, tiring they swam to the shore.  David walked onto the grass and lay down to dry while Tommy hurriedly dressed before sitting down beside his friend.  David opened his eyes to see his friend dressed and gazing at his exposed body.  Suddenly becoming embarrassed, David pulled his clothes on sitting down beside his friend.  The two sat in silence for a while; David voiced what they were thinking.

  “It’s never going to be the same again is it Tommy?”

  “I don’t think so David, I feel funny inside, you know what I mean?”

  “Yeah. . . I know exactly what you mean.  I want to go home, let’s get out of here, maybe things will be different tomorrow.”

  “Sounds good to me and I’m. . .well you know. . .sorry.”

  “What are you sorry for?  You saved me Tommy, who knows what Zeke had in mind.  I might tell Dad later, when the time is right, doesn’t make much difference now anyway.”

  The two rose from where they were sitting as if on command and walked up the bank intending to head back into the forest and home when David suddenly froze.  He had caught movement at the forest’s edge; instinctively he pulled Tommy down behind the knoll leaving only the tops of their heads protruding above the rim.  David could feel the air suddenly getting colder; it was much colder now than when he had felt it earlier.  Tommy only stared at his shivering friend his mouth falling open in disbelief as ice started forming in David’s wet hair.  Tommy placed his arms around David trying to warm him the best he could, remaining silent, staring in the same direction as his friend.  A small dark square appeared in the field about halfway between the forest and the pond.  The square slowly expanded until it was approximately the size of a doorway.  Lights started flickering within the doorway as the day started to fade.   The lights were small, falling like rain.  It was like seeing Christmas tensile being suspended in mid air allowing the breeze to move them, to make them shimmer!  The Shimmer, as David would name it to his father for lack of a better word, was six feet tall by three feet wide and it held the boys transfixed.  A soft crackling noise was starting to emit from the Shimmer they were too frightened to move.  Slowly the boys watched as a hand protruded through the Shimmer followed by another hand and then by a foot, it was as if someone was trying to pull himself through this thing.  Finally the head started to emerge, it was the boy’s worse fear, Zeke was the one coming through.  They both pulled their heads below the knoll out of sight, and remained there until the crackling noise was gone, and the remaining daylight gave way to darkness.  David propped himself up on his elbows, the Shimmer was gone, as was Zeke.

  “Did you see that thing Tommy?”

  “I saw Zeke!  Coming out of thin air!  I knew we shouldn’t have come back here!”

  “The Shimmer, it was like. . .like. . .a door way!”

  “The what?  I just want to go home!  I’m going to get it when I get home now!  Dad will use his belt on me if I tell him some stupid story about a Shimmer. . .or whatever the hell you called it!  Let’s go home David, I don’t want to be here any longer!”

  “Yeah. . . okay . . .let’s go on three, and we don’t stop running till we hit the road.  Ready, one…two…three!”

  The two boys raced over the knoll and through the woods.  The path was no longer visible in the night their instincts led the way.  Crashing out of the woods and onto the roadway the two split up yelling goodbye as Tommy headed for his home and David to his. David was not surprised to see the shadowy outline of his father sitting on the front porch waiting for his return.  Hoping everything would be okay; he casually tried to walk past his dad and into the house.  His father’s stern voice halted him in his tracks.