A Soldier




The witching hour had come and gone, yet the boy was still awake. The boy looked about his room and sighed. It was bare and simple. A single bed with simple white sheets and a grey comforter lay facing towards the door. A wooden dresser and a lamp were the only other furtniture. A close inspection of the walls would find tiny holes where pictures and posters used to hang. The boy was restless, he needed to get out. Dressing quietly and and efficiently, he was ready to leave. He moved silently about the house, not wanting to wake anyone and stepped out into the cold night.

The snow began to fall as the boy slipped into the barn. The clouds had covered the moon, leaving only a faint light for the boy to find his way. But he didn't need it, he had come through this doorway millions of times. Even his five year absence did not fault his memory.

Stepping in out of the bitter air, he was engulfed in black. The familiar smell of hay and manure hung in the stale air. He thought it was heavenly.

As he reached above his head, he found the cord he knew would be there. The light filtered through the old barn. The place hadn't changed at all. Everything was where he had left it. The hay was loaded up in the loft. His dad's gloves hung up on a nail on the third post. They were the same pair he had always worn. The hay hooks were hanging up in a row next to window. The floorboards still creaked in the same places. And the old basketball hoop, rusted after so many years, still stood above the door.

The silence of the barn disturbed him, yet it comforted him just the same. Silence is what had been missing in his life. Long ago it was replaced with the booming sounds of destruction.

His old ball rested in the corner. The boy marched over, looming over the ball. Picking it up, he cradled it in his arms realizing how soft it had become. For a moment, he stood there, remembering lost days and lost friends.

A small boy ran across the barn, trailing after his father. The red-orange sun was just beginning to rise and the farmer was up for morning chores....Four brothers, young and alive, face off two on two. The orange ball banks off the backboard, tying the score. The game of barnball lasts well into the night.... A group of children play hide-and-go-seek in the golden hay bales. A stolen first kiss. A young boy smiles at the pretty redhead, his neighbor's daughter. He presses on for another....

The boy launched the ball at the backboard in anger. Instead of bouncing off, it flattened and fell right through the hoop meeting the floor with a loud thud. The sound was horrifying.

The man jerked back, and walked stiffly out of the barn.



by me

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