the school day was over. alex was sitting in marty's classroom waiting for her to be done so they could go home. there were a few other students in the room hanging out (yes, marty's room is a bit of a hangout room as you might guess it would be). a girl commented to another student about a creative writing group she was starting up. after a beat or two alex spoke up from his side of the room, asking about the club. marty's eyes raised looking at her son, surprised. the girl turned and brightly shared the details of the club--what they do, when they meet and the like. she said if he'd be interested he was more than welcome. he said he might be.
as we went to bed marty shared the story with me. we looked at one another a bit perplexed. i asked about the girl, wondering if that was why alex was interested. or perhaps it was the boy the girl was talking to. we didn't know. but we thought it must be one of those two things because we also didn't know our 15-year old alex had an interest in creative writing to the point of joining an after-school club to do it.
a few weeks later alex asked if he could read something to me. it was his first piece for the creative writing club. he read:
The halls were silent, almost seeming empty. The only noise was the heavy breathing of a man. He clutched his bleeding arm as he shivered, sweat pouring down his head. He flinches as a shriek comes from above, echoing through the halls. It is followed by the sound of metal against metal, colliding and grinding. The sound slowly fades into the background near the back of the facility. The man slowly makes his way out from the dark and peaks around the corner. In the adjoining hallway were corpses, their blood making the floor a dark red tint. The man looks away. A single tear runs down his face knowing his fate was as sealed as the bodies on the ground. He moves down the hall towards the flashing emergency light at the other end. A tremble runs through the entire facility. The man is sent into complete darkness. There is a flash of red as the backup generator turns on. There is a faint sound in the distance. It gets louder to the point the man needs to cover his ears. He closes his eyes and clenches his teeth. Tears roll down his face and he screams.
Then it all stops.
so maybe marty and i mis-read this situation and it wasn't the boy or the girl and our aleo would like to take a cut at some story telling. we were bound to be wrong about something one of these days ;-). i'm happy to chalk it up as yet one more happy surprise in our turn at this parenting thing. and this being his first go at this, i'm also eager to see what else might be swimming around the gelatinous folds of aleo's brain.
