The boy felt as if the weeks flew by in a hurry, and he spent his time reading and filling out workbooks with ease. The man was his teacher.
The boy has never been to school, but he read about it and the man told him of his own experiences in school, including his time in the university, where he studied law and also met the boy's mother, who majored in English literature at the same university.
"I was thinking...” the man said one evening, “maybe tonight I could take you outside and teach you how to play baseball.”
The boy looked up from the book he was reading, a little smile on lips: ”outside?”
"Yes.” the man replied, adjusting his previous unsure expression to the boy's smile.
The minute the boy walked out the front door – walked, not pushed forward on a wheelchair, like before - he froze in his place so that he could get a better feel of the cool breeze against his skin.
Their land was in a middle of a small forest, but the house was built at the edge of a large clearing, at least, large enough to contain a baseball field or two. Most of the trees around them were taller than the two-stories tall, simple yet spacious house.
The boy lost his first game of practice baseball that night, even though the “other team” suffered from the same shortage of players.
But as time passed, the boy began to win in more and more games, including in basketball, tennis, and everything the man could teach him. The boy always thought that the man was in great shape, and was at first a bit puzzled that a boy as young as he still won against him. He had a lot of fun, though.
Except in chess lessons. But the man insisted that he would learn to play a game that required even more strategy.
One evening, they had a barbecue, and the man served the boy a rare steak. Before the plate was even put before him, the boy began to feel dizzy and nearly got sick. For several meals he refused to have any kind of meat on the table, but after a while he agreed to eat meat only when it was very well-done, nearly burnt.
The boy felt that there was something wrong with the weather. For some periods of time it was hot. At other times it was cold, and occasionally it was just warm or cool. As if the summer, or winter, or whatever season it was, was going a bit crazy.
Every once in a while, the man would not take the boy outside to play a game, and would close all of the shutters in the house:” so you wouldn't be tempted to go outside”, he would say. They would usually play chess or advanced in the boy's studies, instead.
One of those times, the boy could have sworn he saw snow through a crack in the shutters, and begged the man to take him outside to play, since he could not have done so when he was sick.
The man dismissed the boy's request, claiming it was only the sun shining so bright that it blinded the boy and made him think it was snow.
But wasn't it night? The boy decided to let the matter go, and wait for the opportunity to play in the snow when winter will truly come.
YOU ARE READING
The Day Killer
VampireA father who's son is dying of a unique and mysterious illness plans to be by his side to his last days in an isolated home. However, the father is tempted to cure his son in, as it first appears, a miraculous way, which only proves to have terrible...
