Voices on the Radio

Summary: A four year old Shawn hears voices in the radio static and reports things to Henry that he couldn't possibly know.

Rating: K+

Disclaimer: I don't own, unfortunately.

After a long day of work at the SBPD, Henry Spencer wanted to go home to his wife and son, be greeted lovingly, and then relax on the front porch with a beer or two, then eat dinner, and then go to bed. He didn't often get that, but when he did, he relished it.

Today was not going to be one of those days.

For one thing, as soon as he arrived home, Maddie had to run to the hospital to visit her friend, who'd gotten into a wreck. Nothing too serious - a broken leg. But still, Maddie was a good friend.

Which left Henry home alone with his mischievous four year old.

At the moment, he wasn't being too mischievous, so Henry dared to grab a beer from the fridge and turn on the TV. All the while he kept an eye on Shawn, who was sitting in the recliner with a small radio in his lap.

The volume was quite low, so he held it up to his ear occasionally to listen for a few moments before setting it down again and tuning it. He did this several times before settling on a station and pressing the speaker to his ear.

Henry curiously tuned out the television and listened acutely to the radio. At first he thought Shawn was listening to some form of heavy metal, but then he realized he was listening to static.

"Shawn."

"Yeah?"

"What are you listening to, son?"

Shawn turned the volume up, looking at his father expectantly. As Henry had guessed: just white noise. The child had switched the radio to the a.m. setting.

"Pitt'burgh won! Pitt'burgh won da Stooper Bowl, Dad!" Shawn cheered suddenly.

Henry regarded Shawn for a moment before cracking a small smile. "The sports station, is it? Who'd they win against?"

"Dallas," he answered, putting the radio up to his ear again. "Twen'y-one to seventeen."

Henry chuckled.

"Miss New Yoke is Miss America now, Dad! Wow! Who Tawney Godin?"

Henry stared at Shawn for a moment, but his four year old seemed oblivious to it.

"Dad, what's da Fed'ral Electation Camping Act? How come Ford signed it?"

"How do you know about all that?" Henry demanded.

Shawn looked up in surprise at the angry-ish expression on his father's face, then turned up the radio again. The static grew louder. Henry's heart thudded in his chest.

There was absolutely no way Shawn was getting those 1976 events from the white noise. Shawn hadn't even been born that year, and Henry sure as hell hadn't been talking about the Super Bowl or Miss America or President Ford. There was no way Shawn could have known about those things.

And since Henry thought about what Shawn was saying, he realized that everything he'd said had been right.

Pittsburgh had won twenty-one to seventeen against Dallas in the 1976 Super Bowl. Miss America had been Tawney Godin from New York. And Ford had signed the Federal Election Campaign Act.

But how did Shawn know about it?

Moving automatically, Henry crossed the space between himself and his son and snatched away the radio. He turned it off.

"Shawn, was your mother talking about those things earlier?"

"No." Shawn shrank back a little into the chair cushions, looking small and confused.

"Shawn, you can't have heard those things from the radio. Who did you hear them from?"

"I did!"

"No, Shawn. That was static. There were no voices telling you about those things, right?"

"No."

"No what?"

"No, Dad?"

Henry straightened, exasperated. "Did you read them, Shawn?"

Shawn shook his head solemnly. "I heard dem on da radio. Promise."

"When?"

"Yesterday."

Henry gave him back the radio.