Hello From Michigan

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June 18, 2008

NaBloPoMo - Day 2

"You help me go home?"

Paul glanced down at the voice and the tug at his pantleg. It was sundown, and his nightly walk had taken him down to the edge of his neighborhood, where the houses and concrete gave way to farmer's fields and gravel roads. In the fading light, he saw a young boy in dark clothes, maybe a track suit, with pale skin and a thin patch of light hair on top of his head.

Paul furrowed his brow as he tried to focus on the boy in the dying light. "Well, what are you doing out here, little fella? You lost?"

The boy tugged again at his pant leg. "Home? You help me?" Paul heard no panic in the boy's voice, just a quiet instance for help. He squatted down to get a closer look at the boy, his grandfatherly instincts overriding any other concerns. "No problem, kiddo, I'll help ya out, I'll get ya home." He squinted in the fading twilight, trying to figure out what wasn't right about the boy's face. "Where do ya need to go?"

The boy released his grip on Paul's pantleg, tilted his face up, and gestured into the sky. He opened his mouth, and made a sound Paul had never heard before, like a goose honking in reverse after breathing helium. As Paul stared in astonishment at the boy, the headlights of a passing car passed over them, and he could see the boy clearly for just a second. He realized what wasn't right about the boy - he had no nose, just slits where you would expect to see nostrils. His eyes were big, dark, and round, bigger than any boy's eyes he'd ever seen. And the clothes he wore weren't a track suit, but a flight suit.

He turned his face back to look at Paul, and blinked. "Home."

Posted by zaren at June 18, 2008 12:06 AM

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Posted by: sn@sannakji.org at June 18, 2008 03:23 AM

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