Glimpse by Steven Whibley

Author:Steven Whibley [Whibley, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-07T23:00:00+00:00

***

After dinner, my parents made us watch a movie about a kid who never grew up, a Peter-Pan-type story, only without the green unitard and pixie dust. I’m sure I would have hated it if I had paid any attention. But my mind was on Mr. Utlet. What if he was already dying? What if he had mixed up his medications and it was already too late for me to help him? No… something told me the incident we’d be trying to stop would be sudden. No one screams like that unless there’s some major trauma.

“What did you think?” my mom asked.

The movie was over, and I hadn’t even noticed. I snapped back to reality, watching the credits roll across the screen. “It was great, Mom. Thanks.” I stood and moved to the base of the stairs. “It must have been hard to find a movie that Colin hasn’t seen.”

Colin winced. “Yeah, I actually hadn’t seen that one. It was really… er… good?”

“Did you guys see the symbolism in the story?” my dad asked. “How the boy’s teacher died, and he coped and became stronger because of it?”

So that’s why he had insisted we watch this film. I should have expected it: who but my dad would turn movie night into an opportunity to talk about Mrs. Farnsworthy’s death? His bringing it up again only made me feel worse, though. And since my dad made his living reading people, he didn’t miss my reaction.

“Son, there’s nothing wrong with having confusing feelings about death. If you’d like to talk to me about this—about anything at all—I’m here for you.” He placed his hand in my mom’s and added, “We’re both here for you.”

“I know, Dad. Thanks.”

“I think we’re just tired, Mr. Curse,” Lisa said, standing up suddenly. “It’s been a really long day.”

Colin did the worst fake stretch I’d ever seen and added, “Yeah, I’m beat.”

“Where did you kids want to sleep?”

“Outside,” I said, sounding a bit too eager.

My mom winced. She wasn’t a fan of anything outdoors—especially sleeping in it. “Really? I didn’t think you liked the outdoors.”

“What? I love it,” I said.

“Yeah, right!” Becky said from over my shoulder. “You practically cried when we went camping last summer. You hate sleeping outdoors.”

“Actually I just hate sleeping outdoors with you,” I said. She was right, though. I took after my mom in that regard. Becky put her hand on her hip and cocked an eyebrow. I sneered back. “It’s tough to enjoy the great outdoors when you have a giant ball of hair blocking your view of the stars.”

“Argh!” She marched forward, kicked me in the shins, and then stomped up the stairs to her room. I hopped back to the couch and rubbed where my sister had kicked me. Brat.

“I told you not to tease her about her hair, Dean,” Mom scolded.

“She gave you fair warning, champ,” my dad added, patting me on the shoulder. “Okay, kids, Dean knows where the sleeping bags are. If you need anything, just holler.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.