Memory

Chapter 2
Nightmares

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Chapter Description: Little things can cause the greatest reactions.

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“Ok, kids, first we need to learn about using the ball. If you can learn that, the rules will be easy. So lets all take a ball out of this bag that Coach Ross so kindly gave us,” Johnny’s mother handed out the balls orderly and efficiently. It was only a few minutes before each child had a ball.

“Now, spread out a little to give yourselves some room. A little more, more, perfect! Now, first, the most important thing to know about soccer is that for no reason can any player besides the goalie touch the ball,” Vinnie’s hand shot up into the air again.

“How do we move it?”

“You kick it, silly!” Johnny’s mother then effortlessly kicked her soccer ball clear across the field, perfectly hitting the goal. The little boys realized they had hit the learning jackpot.

After the first effortless goal of Coach Memoriaman, she had the undivided attention of every boy in her team She taught them all the basics of soccer, and now she wanted her players to practice kicking the ball. She lined up each boy and his ball, and had them launch a kick at the ball. Most boys were lucky to move their ball three feet, the unlucky ones missing completely and landing on their padded bottoms. Finally, it was Johnny’s turn.

“Alright, Johnny, just put the ball on the ground and kick it as hard as you can,” Johnny placed the ball on the ground and took a step back. Johnny’s mother had told him to kick as hard as he could, but something inside of Johnny disagreed. When Johnny went to hit the ball, he closed his eyes.

“Oh, my goodness, I didn’t know you had it in you, Johnny!” When Johnny opened his eyes, he couldn’t see his ball. Then he heard it. A soft, nearly inaudible CLANK. Johnny squinted, and way off into the afternoon sunlight, at least a mile away, was a metal goalie net.

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“Papa! Papa! I hit the ball!” Johnny roared as he rushed into the den of his home.

“You did! How far?”

“Far away, Papa! It was this far!” Johnny stretched his arms out as far as he could.

“See, I knew you could do it! Come on, lets have dinner, I ordered while you were out,”

“Nick, its only two,”

“Relax Marian, it can be a late lunch then,”

“I’m really hungry?”

“How hungry?” Johnny growled like a ferocious tiger. It was Nick and Johnny’s personal joke.

“Alright then, lets eat,”

“YAY!”

At the table was one of Johnny’s favorite foods, macaroni and cheese. He didn’t wait for his father or mother to sit down, he immediately attacked his food.

“Please, Johnny, use a spoon,”

“Yes mama,” Johnny slowly picked up a spoon, imagining it was a freight train. The train carried lots and lots of TNT, like in the cartoons, straight into Johnny’s mouth. Johnny made appropriate exploding sounds as he swallowed.

“Whats wrong, honey?”

“The train’s delivering bombs, mama,” Johnny held up his spoon to show her how empty it was.

“Well, could the train bring some bombs that don’t explode so loud?” Marian asked sweetly.

“Bombs aren’t quiet mama,”

“What she means, kiddo, is that instead of bombs, your trade is gonna deliver action figures, it needs to be quiet so the little boys don’t know that they’re coming. Their papas want to surprise them,”

“Ok,” And there were no more exploding trains during dinner that night.

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“Hey, buddy, I got you a present!”

“Really? Oh boy! What is it? What is it!”

“Surprise!”

“Wow!” It was a Mega Morpher action figure. The Mega Morphers were the coolest show on television for kids in Johnny’s age level. They were remarkably similar to the old Power Rangers of the early millennium. Nick supposed that what once appealed to children always appealed to children.

“Its Spying Samuel!”

“Look what it can do!” Nick pulled out a remote. It was the wildest thing Johnny had ever seen, Instead of having millions of buttons and levers, it has 1 switch and three microphones, each with a different picture on top of it.

“See, this is how it works, you flip the switch to ’1’ to tell it what kind of animal you want Sam to be, then the gender at ’2’, and finally the age at ’3’. So watch,” Nick showed Johnny how to turn everything on and how to work it. Johnny proceeded to turn Sam into a tiger cub, a bat, and even a grown-up. Johnny was having too much fun.

“Lights out, buddy,”

“Aw, I wanna play with Sam!”

“Johnathan,” Nick said while making a silly impression of his mother, “You must get your sleep. You will be up bright and early for school tomorrow,”

“Awww,”

With sympathy in his eyes, Nick sat next to Johnny, clutching Sam like he was going to be taken away, “Well, how about this, I’ll give you something else that comes with this toy,”

“Really!” Johnny’s eyes lite up again.

“Yup, here you go. Your very own chocolate bar!”

“Yummie! Yay! Can I eat it now?”

“Sure, eat it up real quick,” Nick responded with a dark tone as Johnny inhaled the candy.

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“Hold still, punk, this’ll only hurt for a second,” A man’s voice said. The man was holding Johnny down to the ground. Johnny was wriggling, kicking, and screaming at the top of his lungs.

“Hush, up, dear, this will only hurt for a second,” a soothing female’s voice said. Johnny couldn’t see anything except for black, but then he felt a stabbing, white-hot pain in his arm. He could almost feel his blood escaping through the newly formed hole in his skin.

“That’s it, punk, chill out. Sleep,”

The light abbrutly turned on in Johnny’s room, Deb and Nick rushed in. Johnny could tell that something was wrong. Deb still had on her “face” and Nick was dressed only in his boxers and a tee shirt.

“Whats wrong, sweetie?” Marian asked.

“What do you mean?” Johnny asked innocently.

“You screamed, Johnny, so we came in to make sure you were alright,”

“Did you have a bad dream,” Johnny tried to think

“All I can remember is a lot of black and my arm hurting,”

“Does it hurt now?”

“No,”

“It must have been a dream,” Johnny nodded meekly.

“Alright then, everyone back to bed. Wake-up time is in seven hours,” And with that, they left the room.

 

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