Memory

Chapter 4
Things Change

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Chapter Description: Whether it be subtle or rapid, things change and you cannot stop them.

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Johnny woke up in time for school. That never happened, ever. Marian took Johnny’s temperature and checked him for illness, but nothing could be found. So went to lay his clothes out for him.

“I can do it, Mom. I’m not a little kid ya know!” Marian was practically in shock. Her little boy never talked to her like that before. She rushed downstairs to consult her husband.

“There’s nothing cool to wear!” Johnny complained. He torn his dresser and closet apart looking for something that wouldn’t get him mad fun of, but all he could find was dorky kid clothes.

“Aha,” Johnny said happily.

Marian and Nick were talking quickly and quietly when Johnny walked downstairs.

“Are you sure that something’s wrong?” Nick cautiously asked his wife. Then Johnny walked into the room. He wore a long sleeve white shirt with an oversized Jersey that Marian bought by accident, but never returned. The jersey was red and black with a large number ’9’ on it. His pants looked like they had been through a lawn mower, they wear black jeans transformed into jean shorts, and Johnny had cut them up everywhere. To finish his look, Johnny had on a pair of Nick’s sunglasses and one of Nick’s gold chains. He looked like a tiny teen gangster.

“Yeah, something’s wrong.” Nick agreed.

“Pops, can I have some cha ching for lunch today?” Johnny asked Nick.

“Come again?”

“Pops, can I have some cha ching for lunch today?” Johnny asked Nick again.

“Um, honey? Do we have any ’cha ching’ snacks to give Johnny for lunch?”

“He means money Nick.”

“Now why couldn’t you have said that, Johnny?” Nick angerly asked Johnny.

“I did Pops, and can you not call me Johnny, Pops? It sounds so childish.”

“You’re nine, Johnny.”

“So you can’t call me J-Dog or J-ster or . . .”

“Fine, fine, we can stick to John. Now go before you miss your bus.”

“But you always drive me to school, pops.”

“I said go!” Nick roared!

“Yessir!!” John was out of the house quickly.

“Ugh, J-Dog! Its really wearing off, isn’t it.” Nick said.

“Yes, we’d better give him a new dose soon. Make sure to do it right this time. Johnny keeps having bad nightmares.” Marian said as she folded clothes.

“I’ll get on it right away. Hey, where did my $20go?”

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“Now class, can anyone tell me what four minus five is?” Ms Mer asked. She scanned the room for volenteers., and she was about to call on one of the class brains, when her eyes caught Johnny Memoriaman’s hand slowly climb into the air. She quickly took her chance.

“Yes Johnny?”

“Um, three with a little minus sign next to it?” The entire class burst into laughter at Johnny’s obscure answer. He sank into his chair.

“Class, class. Settle down, now!” Ms. Mer motioned to the class, pretending to push the noise down herself with her hands. The class slowly leveled.

“Johnny isn’t wrong class.” Children murmured to each other in confusion.

“You see, when you’re older you’ll learn about these things called “negative numbers” that are created when you try to take away more then what you have. Its like owing a number.” Ms. Mer knew she was wasting her time, but she felt like she needed to advert the children’s attention from Johnny, whose hair and hands were all you could see of him as he hid under his desk.

“But like I said, you’ll learn that when you’re older. For now, just don’t do the problem, alright class?”

“Yes Ms. Mer.” The class echoed with their programed response. However, the lunch bell rang and the students rushed out of the room.

“Johnny, come out from your desk, I want to talk to you.” Ms. Mer was crouched down, looking at John. He shook his head ’no’.

“Please Johnny, I’m not mad at you.” John looked into Ms. Mer’s eyes, and his cheeks burst like lava and he turned away. Ms. Mer got the signal, though.

“Come on, buddy.” She wrapped her arms skillfully around John, weaving her arms in and out of the desk’s steel cage. She had him in her arms at her desk in less then a minute.

“So what’s wrong, buddy?”

“None of the kids like me.” John sulkingly said.

“Yesterday you said you didn’t care.” Ms. Mer said as she stroked John’s hair comfortingly.

“But I do care. I want to have friends to hang out with and tell secrets to and call on the phone.” John whinnied.

“Well, what about those boys you came in with this morning? Back when you still had your big shirt and sunglasses on?”

“They’re not friends, they wouldn’t help me. Not like you are.” John said, still sobbing occasionally.

“It seems like you want real friends then. People who will help you and care about you.” Ms. Mer said.

“Yeah, but no one here is like that.” The sobbing had completely ceased.

“Well, real friendship is a hard concept for younger children to grasp. Most children are selfish, you see.”

“So I can’t have any good friends?” John looked down at the floor sullenly.

“Well,” Ms. Mer said as she lifted John off of her lap and back onto his feet, “We can be friends, but only outside of this room. Deal?”

“Deal!” Johnny said happily. He looked into her eyes.They were swirling like gray clouds on a calm day at the beach. He blushed again.

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For the rest of the week, John and Ms. Mer, who asked to be called by her first name on line, E-mailed each other back and forth. And each night John had strange dreams. The all revolved around a girl. One who got older every night, but always filled John with helium whenever he thought of the previous night’s version. His parents were also slowly becoming more strict with him. Their voices, even his happy-go-lucky father’s, slowly felt like they’d been left in the refrigerator while John was at school. John also kept his promise to Ms. Mer, they’d never mentioned their e-mails during school, but she often left allusions to their e-mails in class which made John snicker whenever he caught them. HE rapidly began excelling in school, and soon he and his parents were called into the Principal’s office one Saturday afternoon.

“There is no reason to be worried, Mister and Misses Memoriaman, I’ve called you in for a happy reason. Your son (he pointed directly at John, who was sitting between his parents) has mad tremendous progress in the classroom of late, so we gave him an IQ test. It seems that he is currently on par with your average high school senior.

“What!” Nick yelled while Marian held her head in her hand, as if trying to rub off a mark on her forehead. John didn’t understand why they weren’t happy with his results. Neither did the teacher.

“Great! Frickin’ great!” Nick audibly muttered “What are we going to do?”

“Celebrate, silly!” Marian said, catching herself and her husband and nullifying the Principal’s confused stare.

“Yes! Its not every day that our school produces a genius!” The Principal happily exclaimed, “Which is exactly why I’d like to invite you to our special party for your son! The entire student body, ages Kindergarten through fifth and their parents will be joining us!”

“All those people!” Nick and Marian had identical gleams in their eyes.

“Yes, and you and your husband will be expected to lead a toast to your son.”

“Perfect.” John looked around, but he was the one out of two possible people that shuddered from the cold tone in his mother’s voice.

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“Kid, stop fighting it! It’s already done and over with. The straps aren’t breaking any time soon, so just accept it.” The man said with an unnerving calmness in his voice.

“Ooh, here’s an idea! Let’s let him watch!” The woman said with icy pouring from her mouth The man left, and when he came back, a full-sized mirror was reflecting John’s image in the moonlight. However, John screamed as he watched years melt from his teenaged face, it was nothing less then the slide show from hell. A teenager’s face was swallowed by pre-puberty roundness, his five o’clock shadow disappearing as if it really were a shadow, and the sun was rising on his childhood. He couldn’t see it, but he felt the straps’ iron hold weakening, so John knew the same thing must be happening to the rest of his body, his strength giving way for energy. Soon his face showed only the signs of boyhood, and that was also melting away.

“Keep smiling for the camera, science needs proof after all!” The woman snickered as John peered over to see the blinking red dot of a video recorder. When he looked back into the mirror, an even smaller, younger face greeted him. This one was borderline ready for Training Pants. His vision and hearing were blurring fast, and John was having trouble remembering anything.

“And with that let’s say goodbye to . . . “ But after that, there was only darkness.

 

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