The AR Story Archive
Stories of Age/Time Transformation
by: little trip | Complete Story | Last updated May 17, 2011
Chapter Description: In which a young man begins his new life.
A third-grader stands at the bay window fronting his house and watches as a gusty snowfall blankets Rhinelander, Wisconsin. His ears are pricked up in reception of a yellow 1990s weather radio. The WHDG deejay has listed several closed schools, but thus far, the boy’s hasn’t been one of them.
From the kitchen, his mother yells at him to brush his teeth.
The boy’s eyes fall shut and he tries to control his breathing. Why bubblegum-flavored toothpaste? Who could possibly want that?
He had just assumed he would get used to his new life. He had been wrong.
The voice on the radio continues listing schools closed for snow days. The third-grader listens intently, his eyes pointed out the window at a dog playing in the snow.
“Brush! Your! Teeth!” shouts his mother.
“I’m GONNA!” howls the boy, his upper lip twitching a bit. He clambers off to the bathroom to finish the rest of his grooming. Why do all the other kids get a day off-- and not him?
Tommy brushes his teeth. A morose version of himself stares back at him from the mirror as pink, bubblegum-flavored toothpaste drips from his lips. Today is going to be basic multiplication, the Native Americans, and how fog is essentially ground-based cloud cover. The most boring, redundant shit of which Tommy could conceive.
With his free hand, Tommy pushes a fingertip against his crotch. His Pull-Ups are soaked. He doesn’t know why he feels like wearing the pink ones all the time-- he just does.
Tommy Díaz is a good kid.
“Tomás Díaz?”
“Here.”
The third-grade teacher sauntered about the room as she took roll. “Jenna Franklin?”
“Here.”
“Peter Gummer?”
The boy gritted his teeth, snapping the sides of his nostrils against the center of his nose. “Here,” he squeaked.
“Peter?”
“Yes, Miss Lambert?”
The teacher looked around, then leaned in to provide her pupil a whisper. “Do you need to go to the nurse to have something taken care of?”
Pete blinked. “Probably,” he sneered.
Tommy smiled as he watched Pete toddle out of the classroom, an obvious load puffing out between the backs of his thighs. Tommy turned back to his ex-girlfriend, whose fingers were around her nose, the remnants of Pete’s accident hanging in their general area.
“Well, ba--” Tommy squeaked before catching himself. “Well, Jenna.”
“Well what?”
“Take two, wouldja say?”
Though school hadn’t been cancelled, the snow had fallen rather heavily over Rhinelander. Its white purity had seemed to excise everything away. This was the thought that accompanied eight-year-old Tommy as he left school that day.
He looked up at the sky and smiled.
It’ll take a while. But I’ll get it right this time.
the end
though i’m booked for a while, i do take commissions. please keep me in mind; this should be a very productive summer. reach me at my mailbox; i’m writing down names. writing for you all is a real honor.
Rhinelander
by: little trip | Complete Story | Last updated May 17, 2011
Stories of Age/Time Transformation