Kayla Smith
1/22/09
Short Story Assignment .
I felt a rough pain in my shoulder like a large smooth rock was pressing deep against my skin. There was something scratchy against my neck and was sticky around the edges. The air around me felt stagnant and heavy, like humid air during a heat wave in Florida. My mouth was dry and my face felt wet.
"what's a guy gatta do to get some water around here?" I thought to myself.
I began to sit up and stretch like I always do in the morning
BAM!
I had smacked my head against something hard and smooth. When I finally opened my eyes everything was pitch black. I moved my arms around feeling over the walls and ceiling of the box I was apparently trapped in. I felt along the clean perfect walls. No latches no levers no knobs no hooks no anything. The ceiling was just as empty. Obviously there was no way out.
"how did I even get IN here?" I thought anxiously trying to raise my arms to pull on my raven black bangs the way I always did when I got nervous. My leg started to shake as I got more and more aware of my problems at the moment. When my arm wouldn't go up to my hair I started to yank on my cuffs.
"cuffs? Wait…what? I don't sleep in dress shirts" it was then I decided to feel around some more. My clothes were soft and seemed made out of some fancy fabric. My shirt was a button down and my pants were some sort of loose fitting slacks. My feet were clad in some sort of tight shoe that was not comfortable at all. At least that's what it felt like from the inside of the shoe. It was far to dark to see anything and the small box didn't allow a lot of movement.
"who gets buried alive in a box dressed in clothes people where in…funerals." a new question arose.
"what goes into a box and is nicely dressed?" a riddle from my childhood came to mind.
"the man using me doesn't know he's using it." my mothers annoyed sighs answered the question in my mind unwillingly.
"a COFFIN Aaron, it's a dead man in a coffin. Thank you for the joke" insert shot of tequila there. Insert yells from my father after.
But that was the least of my problems at the moment. Somehow, somebody thought I was dead and buried me. I mean I know this is what I've asked for but…im still alive. Why was I in a coffin? DEAD guys belong in coffins right? I'm not dead. Nope. Not yet. Somebody somewhere made a mistake. A HUGE mistake, a mistake I obviously had to pay for.
I mean look at me! Dead guys don't shake when there nervous. They don't need glasses of water. They don't feel warm blood on there temple from when they smack there heads on coffins. The heavy air started to feel crushing. The heat began to feel suffocating. My body started to stop listening to me. And wouldn't move when I told it to.
My voice was stuck in my throat. I sounded more like a croaking frog then a 16 year old boy who was calling for help. It was then when I started to hear the music. The slow piano coming from somewhere outside the box. Muffled footsteps started to parade around me. I heard a small tap on the top of the box. Like someone placed a hand on it. I pressed my ear to the top of the box and heard muffled voices.
"Aaron was a beautiful boy. Inside and out. Although he struggled from constant depression we tried to help him through it. Please pray for his soul. His suicide was not completely his fault. The demons had overturned his body to Satan." a deep voice I hadn't recognized boomed over the box/coffin.
"what does he mean SUICIDE?" I thought. I heard some clamping noises as the top of the coffin opened. No time to think. Light and cold air swooshed in as faces crowded around me. There was no surprise or shock present. Just morn even as I rose out of the coffin and stood next to my own already tipsy mother. They all just stared into the coffin. When I looked apparently I was the only shocked one. There surrounded by pillows and wood was my body. My black hair was neatly placed over my forehead. My blue eyes were shut allowing my long eyelashes to touch my cheek bones. Colored lights danced across my face from the sunlit patterned windows. Which was sort of odd because I was standing in front of those windows. When I raised my hand I almost screamed. The light was passing right through me. No one could see me.
Maybe I was suppose to feel lucky. doesn't everybody always say they want to be invisible? I looked around. No one seemed to notice the translucent figure standing in front of the window. I scanned the pews searching for people I knew. Mostly just family members who all thought I was freaky. A couple kids from school who maybe had a class or two with me. No one I liked. Not even Sugar. Her sister Meg was there though. Sitting alone in the back. Clad in a tight purple dress. Who wears purple to funerals? I looked at her a little longer. Hoping that she would explode and Sugar would appear.
As if she had overheard my thoughts exactly, in waltzed Sugar. Wearing a long white dress that swept the ground behind her. Her long strawberry blonde hair was pulled into tight pony tail at the top of her head. A large blood red flower rested next to the top of the hair tie. Sugar was beautiful. As always. The girl knew how to make an entrance. Meg rolled her eyes and said something under her breath as Sugar sat down next to her. They started to talk amongst themselves and I so desperately wanted to be in on the conversation.
"dude…your INVISIBLE." my conscious reminded me. For once I could intrude without REALLY intruding. As I got closer the conversation became more clear.
"I don't understand why were here." Sugar said coldly to Meg.
"Shug, he was OBVIOUSLY in love with you. The least you could do is show up at his funeral."
"if he loved me so much then why did he kill himself? That wasn't very considerate. Aaron never had any manners." her voice drifted away as her head tilted to side.
"what are you thinking about?" the words slipped from my mouth like they always did when I was with her. Meg called it uncontrollable word vomit.
Sugar's head snapped to attention as soon as the words escaped my lips.
"what is it?" Meg asked looking concerned.
"I…I don't know I think…I think I heard Aaron…talking to me…asking what I was thinking like he always did when I stopped talking!" her deep green eyes lit up with a spark like they always did when she got excited.
"Sugar? Meg? GUYS?" I asked loudly now even closer to the pew walking down the aisle almost right next to where they were seated. They both looked in my direction.
"A-Aaron?" Sugar struggled to choke out my name.
"No friggin way…LOOK!" she pointed at the floor where my shadow was. They couldn't see my body but they knew I was there.
"oh my god…Aaron WHAT is wrong with you? Scaring everybody the way you did? Are you insane?" Sugar hissed. As if I had just purposely fallen down the stairs.
"SUGAR! MEG! So good to see you girls!" both girls whipped there heads around to face the person calling them. It was my mother. Quite grim for her only sons funeral eh?
"I swear the contrast between you girls gets me every time" she shook her head and twirled on her almost drunken feet and left. Although I hated that women she was right.
Meg and Sugar were complete opposites.
Meg had short choppy platinum flat hair with blue streaks placed randomly hidden by all the blonde. She had pale skin that neither tanned nor burned. A slight body that was so thin you would think she had an eating disorder. Her eyes were a pale grey that never strayed far. Her thick black rimmed glasses rested on her nose and constantly needed to pushed up with her index finger. She seemed more like someone who would recommend you a book more then anything.
While Sugar was far more amazing. Her strawberry blonde hair flowed down to the small of her back. Her green eyes seemed to jump at you and followed every motion. Her perfect body that wasn't to small or to chubby moved gracefully with every step as she seemed to flow and dance more then she did walk. Thinking about Sugar made me think about suicide.
Not because she made me want to kill myself but because she was the one who put the idea into my head.
"I mean really if you think about it…you'd be better off dead anyway. Screw those pills you have to take and all that therapy. Just off yourself…"
She wasn't being serious but I still took it all into serious consideration.
Suddenly I remembered the morning I woke up so depressed I cut myself at least twenty times in multiple places. I remembered all the times I would come home from school and just cut off my air supply until I was unconscious. I remembered the suicide I had forgotten.
"come down NOW!" my drunk mother yelled from the lawn. Her words horrible slurn at only 10 in the morning. I shook my head as I approached the top of the roof. Disappointed I reached the edge and let my toes hang off into the air. The lush green lawn beneath me looked more like an Astroturf sea.
" wonder if blood stains grass." I thought.
"Aaron im going to say this one more time GET OF THE ROOF!" my mom walked around in angry circles for awhile until my dad pulled into the driveway.
"AARON??! WHAT IN THE WORLD? GET DOWN FROM THERE." his face was starting to turn red while his fist clenched by his side. I let a few tears roll down my face and onto my neck. My parents yelled some more from the lawn.
"HEY GUYS!" I screamed down to them.
"I love you ok?"
Then I flew forward and waited for the impact the ground would deliver.
Thinking back on it all now, maybe that was a mistake.
I loved my parents. My alcoholic mom was still caring. My over anger filled dad still paid for my car right?
But…what did Sugar ever do but make me want to die?
that's not healthy.
I wanted my life back. I wanted another chance to try again and make things right.
I wanted to be able to talk to Meg the way I knew she wanted. I wanted to start over. But sugar stole that from me. She took away any chance I had at being NORMAL with her beautiful ways and her perfect manipulation. WHY DID I LET HER TAKE OVER? She didn't even like me. Let alone care about me. This funeral was HER FAULT. She should be the one in the coffin not ME.
Just then one of Megs books fell onto the floor. As she reached down to pick it up I saw a black and white checkered wristband on her arm. The one I gave her at least two years ago back when I was healthy. Before Sugar got involved. I guess she saw it to because she burst into tears. Sometime ago I guess Sugar had left because it was only me and Meg on the pew now.
"you still have it? After everything?" I whispered sitting down next to her.
"I never take it off." she sniffed through her tears.
At this point I was crying to. Who knew ghost could cry? Some manly man I was. But then again this WAS a funeral.
I guess it had taken me awhile and a lot of thinking. But now I understand. it's the people who you least expect that love you the most.