JPF Home Page Forums Creative Arts Forums Creative Writing Forum Words---chapter one----Do You Hear Me?

“Honey Did you ever watch the Lone Ranger?”

“Yes.”

“What was his horse’s name?”

“Bullet.”

“So who was Tonto?”

“He was the Lone Ranger’s side kick. Why do you want to know that?” Jared’s undercurrent of doubt and suspicion surfaced again. “Something else your friends on the Internet are talking about?” He pored over the mail at the kitchen table peering over his reading glasses. June recognized the tune he’d been humming as one the King’s Herald’s quartet sang. They’d recently been in town during their latest tour since relocating their headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee.

She remembered the day Jared had taken Max to the concert. She had stayed home with Todd who still hadn’t outgrown the need for a midday nap. It was supposed to be the day of the Pirate Birthday party but when Max handed the treasure map invitations out in Sabbath School, his teacher, Ms. Jewel had warned the date conflicted with the Herald’s concert. She expected most folks would be attending the concert that day. As it turned out Jared said only the pastor and Ms. Jewel’s family had actually showed up from their local church.

June fidgeted over her notebook. How should she answer Jared? No matter what she said, she knew the outcome. He’d made himself perfectly clear. He was like the main character in the movie they’d watched last night but he didn’t see it. He’d watched those scenes where Reeves played a charcter totally out of control and sneered, “That’s you with your song writing,” without taking his eyes off the television screen.

Jared’s sharp tone brought her back to the present, “Well, if you’re not going to answer my questions, I won’t answer anymore of yours.” June sensed his anger brewing all over again. Years ago she would have tried to plead her case. Not anymore. Last night was all the evidence she needed to remind her silence was the best response under the circumstances. She was used to his silence. Almost numb to it, but writing had been waking up dormant desires to be understood. Last night she’d tried to explain how she was feeling. But he had decided she was talking about songwriting again and turned his back to her. For the first time in a long time she didn't hold back the sobs that came from deep within. What was the use? He hated her anyway.

It would be hard to forget his reaction, “We’ve got a child who is going to be waking up in a few hours! What are you going to do about that if you don’t get some sleep?” She’d gotten up and walked to the living room in the dark to sleep on the sofa. There she could cry ‘till sleep carried her away in its comforting arms.

“Hey you want to go to breakfast?” Jared was finished going through the mail and giving instructions for her to call and cancel the appointment she’d forgotten about. If only she’d remembered to ask Shelly to baby-sit on the seventeenth; but, she’d been pre-occupied making arrangements for a long overdue GYN appointment between writing and composing melodies for a couple new songs. “Don’t forget to call and cancel that appointment tomorrow or they will charge us a fee.”

“Daddy, can we go fishing?” Max’ undying enthusiasm sang out in spite of the early April morning chill. He had gotten an apple out of the refrigerator drawer and left the door open as he spied some crayons on the counter. He liked to draw all through the day. He’d lose track of time until his pictures were embellished with intricate details. June had noticed his amazing skill even at the age of two. It scared her but she encouraged his interest by framing some of his best work and archiving the rest in acid free page protectors and notebooks, even the everyday doodles she’d been collecting. There were already four notebooks jam packed.

“Max, close that door!” There is no excuse for walking away leaving the refrigerator door wide open. I have to pay a lot of money for the electricity in this house and this is the kind of stuff you’ve got to stop doing. When are you going to start being more responsible?” Jared’s reprimand spewed out like a geyser.

June broke her silence. “Jared, he didn’t mean to leave it open.” It was one thing for him to continue to nurse his seething anger towards her but when it boiled over to her already nervous, firstborn son, she had to speak up. Forget all those authors who condemned the habit of second-guessing or correcting your spouse in front of a child. It was either interfere or leave. She’d tried many times to leave. But Max always said he’d rather they all stay together as a family.

“Daddy, when can we go fishing?” Max wouldn’t be distracted by Jared’s tirade. “Son, I don’t know when. But you know Daddy doesn’t even like to fish. Maybe your Mama will take you sometime. She used to like to fish when we lived in Pinson. Ask her.” Jared disappeared into the office leaving Todd at the table to finish his yogurt.

June sat on the sofa pondering what Max had said earlier when she helped him poke little starlight holes in his home-made shadow box. “Like I always say, a box isn’t a box unless there’s something in it.” Her instinctive laughter was out of surprise but his response let her know she needed to be careful with laughter. “Well, I guess I need to make up a new saying” he’d added with his eyes lowered. She hoped he believed her when she’d tried to convince him she really did like his saying. It was so true. Wow! Out of the mouths of babes.

“Hey Mom! I want to write a story about my box!” Max climbed up on the sofa watching the pen in his Mother’s hand as she raced to capture the fleeting moments on paper. “What do I need to do Mom?” Max asked with dancing eyes and a toothy grin. “Remember when you used to put my school clothes in a different box every day? We were recycling. Now I’m recycling them again!”

“Yes. Do you wish Mommy still put your clothes in shoe boxes every day?”

“Yes.” Max looked up this time with a hint of longing in his gray blue eyes.

Just then Jared’s voice resounded from Max’ room. “Son get in here and clean this room. I told you yesterday to put all those games back in the closet. Why don’t you listen? Your room looks like a cyclone went through it boy!

Max walked slump shouldered to his room. “But Daddy, Todd pulled most of it out. He always does that.”

June bit her lip. Why had she forgotten to put the childproof fastener on the closet? She’d opened it up to look for some shoes stored in a plastic organizer. Todd had outgrown his other church shoes and they’d been in a hurry trying to make it to Sabbath School on time. She kept all the clothes and shoes Max had outgrown sorted by size. Still, she’d fallen way behind in her usual standard of housekeeping. There was no excuse. She had been too distracted with writing. It had become an escape for her. She finished one last paragraph. Then she would let Max dictate his story.

Todd reached out his arms with his lips puckered like a fish. “Hug and a kiss Mommy?” He was so affectionate.

June wondered where he got that trait as she walked to Max' room. She glanced in the office room door across the hall and saw Jared’s back as he worked on the tax returns due in the next few days.

“Mommy will you read me your story while I finish cleaning?” Max always liked company when he cleaned his room. In fact it was the only way he would ever actually do it. “Then we can write my story, ok?”

June wasn’t quite sure what to do. Would it be right to do that? Then occurred to her he’d already lived through the events so what could it matter? Maybe he’d catch the idea to write through his stress like he’d caught the idea to plead his case to God while lying on his bed when he got angry. He had barely learned to talk when she’d overheard him telling Jesus how unfair Mommy was that day. It had brought a smile of relief to her face that day since she could tell he'd made friends with God.

Max had to be reminded to get back to his job while he listened. He kept stopping to say, “Mommy that’s me you are writing about.” June was careful to leave out the parts that would not have been good for Max to hear.

“Ok, I’m done! Now we get to write my story!” Max acted like he was about to go to a party or something.

“Stars were twinkling in the sky one night. Did you get that Mommy? Ok, While that was happening Schocksers came out."

“Schocksers?”

“Yes.”

“Who is Schocksers?”

“He’s the guy I’m writing the story about.”

“Oh, it’s not going to be about you making your art project from a shoebox?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, go on. I’m listening.”

“And then he got on a plane. And then he landed and all these creatures came out from nowhere and these funny faces were all over town. Then he went into a house. And then he saw all these funny markings. And the creatures came in every room he came in. Then he started running to the back door but he saw another creature.”

Max went on dictating his story, stopping every now and then to clarify a sentence when June didn’t understand his intentions.
“Then he came running to the front door and there was another creature. And soon enough he finally broke out the window but then all the funny creatures came running after him. All those creatures tried to get him but he was too fast. When they were about to get him he climbed up a building. Then this trap was at the top of the building. And he fell in the trap. It was a spider web. It was made of spider webs. And then there was this big trimmer at the bottom of the trap. It could cut you. But he finally got out in time.”

“Ok, read it to me Mommy,” Max took a breath and stood up tall.

June read the story back to him, noticing how many “and then’s” he had used. She would never ever tell him this detracted from his story. She was amazed at how the words so easily tumbled out of him. Story telling came easy for him. She had noticed that when she worked with him taking dictation for him when he was four. If she’d kept it up, no telling what kind of skills he would have developed by now. Dictating and clarifying. Dictating and clarifying. That was all she’d ever done until he’d gone to kindergarten. Maybe he wouldn’t be writing about all the scary creatures coming after him from every direction. He was writing about himself she guessed.

“No, Mommy I didn’t mean to put that part in. I was just telling you that”

“Oh, ok. I’ll take that part out.”

“I’m not through.”

“Ok.” June was enjoying her support role. She imagined if she did more of this, it might relieve some of the tension Max had been venting on a daily basis. Public school kindergarten had been particularly stressful for Max. Yet, he had not cooperated with June when she tried to teach him at home the first semester. Just the other day Max had begged to drop out of school and study at home again. June and Jared had stood their ground. As much as June wanted to do it----she knew she did not have what it took. Not right now. Not with Max’ tendency to test her authority on an almost hourly basis.

“Mommy, I said I’m not through. Were you listening? I said, ‘Then when he almost got away-- there was this helicopter that swooped him up. There was all these bugs inside it.'”

“Bugs? Are they different creatures?” June was confused so she stopped to make sure she was hearing the story right.

“Yes, bugs. They are the same creatures. The same ones that were following him.”

“Ok.”

Max continued, “Then he went in the forest and all these creatures were following him again. And then the king of the creatures came out and he finally caught Shocksers. The end.”

“Did you get that part? ‘The end.’”

Insert for after paragraph 14. I'll need to change part of paragraph 15 too. Later though. Not feeling too well today.

cont'd.

...Jared walked over after tossing out the junk mail and envelopes from the bills. He leaned down trying to peek at what June had been writing. Her knee-jerk reaction was to close the notebook so he couldn’t see. “So, you don’t want me to see, huh? What are you writing about?” Jared was in a better mood and moved well into her personal space.

June thought fast. “Well, what could it hurt? She hadn’t changed the facts so how could he dispute them?” She began to read before Jared lost interest. He was a captive audience so she decided to take full advantage of it before he went on to the next item on his always-full agenda. June started reading.

Jared listened intently through the part about the King’s Herald’s concert. Then getting up from his perch (leaning forward with his knees on the edge of the sofa) he said, “Sweetheart, I really want to hear the rest of this but; I have to go work on our taxes right now. Can we come back to it later?”

June had been called “Sweetheart” for so long in all sorts of circumstances that she hardly noticed anymore. She also realized that the chances of Jared remembering the story later were slim to nil. Still, she was hopeful since already his tone of voice had changed drastically. Maybe he had a strong sense of June’s “camera” on him now, documenting his words...