EYES

NINE

A month after my dad visited, i wanted to overcome it...my fear. I've fought really hard and now I guess in at the edge of breakthrough. My grades are balanced now, Andre, Nick and Joe no longer bullied me.

My mother has suspended her preparations in marrying Harry so she could look after my developments. I am really happy. Who wouldn't? Mom cuddles me like a pillow, she reads bedtime stories to me and now drives me to school and collects me after school. Things are just coming back to normal!

"Tommy guess what?" My mom had come into my room to ask.

"What Mom?"

"We have been given tickets to go to the opening ceremony of the Flintstone Fun Park (Callaway Park) at spring back, Alberta" my mom says as she tickles me.

"Really mom!" I say in surprise after I caught my breath from laughing so hard. "Wow that's good news...you bought tickets?"

"Uhm, Tom....Harry bought these for us...trust me he just wanted to help" she says almost apologetically.

"Do you love him Ma?.... Harry..." I asked.

My mom heaved a heavy sigh and says "I don't know or I'm not sure...why doyya ask sweetie?"

"I just want you to be happy mom, Harry or not. I mean all I've known you to do is sacrifice your own happiness for ours...maybe it's time we return the favor" I smile with one corner of my lips

My mom kissed me, the she hugs me.

....

I woke up and sat in bed, rubbing my sleepy eyes. Everything seem quiet, too quiet.

"Mom, Abby.......Trip?" I called, they couldn't have gone to the park without me...could they?

I went to Trip's room, he wasn't in bed. I checked Abby's, the bed looks rumpled but she wasn't on it. Then I opened the door to my mom's room....."where are you guys?!"...she wasn't in her room as well. My heartbeat increases in speed, I must have been getting scared. Wait that wasn't supposed to sound like an assumption....I'm actually scared.

     The smooth breeze that slapped my face was freezing...It made me think of our neigboring state Alaska. My family's no where to be found outside the house and as I looked around, I noticed the neighborhood was still and quiet. Where'd everyone go?!

     I went back inside, myfear was returning! I tried to stay calm....I should just go to my room, go under my sheets and mommy would knock on my door, come in and hug me. As I went about to mount the stairs, I heard a door open..." Mom is that you...?" I asked to no one in particular. I walk towards the sound.

It was the door to the basement! It had opened! All by itself! I walked closer, my hands were shaky. Maybe it's just a prank and that everyone including my dad were hiding in the basement, probably putting my courage to test.

"Hello?" I pushed the door wide open so that the light from the kitchen's small window would peer in. Then I searched for the switch and pushed it, but the bulb did not light up. All of a sudden I heard my name in a faint whisper.... Tommy.  

     I went slowly down the stairs...it squeaked and I whimpered in fear. Then something crashed.
I know I am scared but could not understand how I did not run up the stairs and hid under the cover of my bed shouting "mommy!" Like I used to.

     Just then, everything became still....... Then a swooshing sound of something being dragged across the basement's dusty floor startled me. I look ahead and I saw two green lights like eyes, staring firmly at me...

.....

.....
.....

.......Maybe I would not have been scared if I had known from the begining that the creaking sound from my window at 1:55am, was from a branch scratching against the wall outside, or that the bang sound like a closed door was actually my mom shutting her bathroom door that night. That the legend Andre, Nick and Joe told me about was not real. That the thing that got stucked in my hair as we....Harry, Trip and myself went down the basement was a spider's web and that the "I AM WATCHING" inscription was from an action figure toy box that had said in full: I AM THE HERO OF THE GALAXY AND....... I AM WATCHING". If only, I'd known that the thing that looked like someone peeped through the window down at us on the driveway was actually the gentle breeze from the fan we had forgotten to turn off and that my school bag that was mysteriously moved from the floor to the bed was actually Abby's way of helping me organize my messed up room.

     If I had known, just a tiny little bit that at the time of the black out I had held onto a plate instead of my glass of milk, adjusted the position of my hand and dropped the ceramic ware. That the note under my bed was forgotten the day some of our neighbors had visited- someone had written it as a poem! That the green eyes, those that stared and I'd assumed too be ghost eyes were two small headlights of an electric toy car hanging and dangling with the support of a wool from the ceiling.

     If I had known, I would not have been so scared to have lost consciousness and banged my head so hard that I would lose my memory.......

     Later, I would discover that a grave accident had occurred across the street- one that was caused by a landslide- and that my whole family had gone to check it out.

By this time, I would not be aware, that I would be admitted to a psychiatric home for therapies and I would not be in my right senses when my mom tells Harry that their relationship cannot work out because she couldn't trust him with her kids and their welfare and that she might still be in love with my Dad. I would be totally darkened as my family re-shapens, my dad, mom, Trip and Abby... Everything would emerge back in place.

And then they would keep watch with their, Eyes.... Waiting, waiting patiently for me to join them. I hope I do.

But for now, all I can just do is stare, saying nothing, not moving a muscle...... But thinking of the last thing I had seen........ The EYES.