Forgotten Dreams of Eternity: Lost Odyssey: Thousand Years of Dreams
Copyright © 2011 Sky_Knight
(Short Story -V.)
*A Mother Comes Home*
The boy has lost his smile, though he denies it.
"Don't be silly, Kaim. Look! I'm smiling, aren't I?"
He draws his cheeks back and lets his teeth show white against his brown skin.
"If this isn't a smile, what is?"
Kaim nods but says nothing. He pats the boy on the shoulder as if to say, "Sure, sure."
"Come on, really look at me. I'm smiling, right?"
"Right. You're smiling."
"Anyway, forget about me. Hurry, let's go."
The boy has a sweet, open nature.
He made instant friends with Kaim while the other townspeople kept their distance from the "strange traveler."
Not that the boy chose the much older Kaim as a playmate.
He leads Kaim to the tavern, which still hasn't opened its doors for the day.
"I hate to ask you to do this, but... would you, please?"
The boy's voice seems to have carried inside.
A man in the tavern peals off a drunken howl. He sounds especially bad today. Kaim fights back a sigh and enters the tavern.
The man on the barstool is the boy's father, drunk again at midday.
The boy is here to take him home. He looks at his father with sad eyes.
Kaim puts his arm around the father's shoulder and discreetly moves the whiskey bottle away from him.
"Let's call it a day," he says. The man shoves Kaim's arm off and slumps down on the bar.
"I hate guys like you," he says.
"Yes, I know," says Kaim. "It's time to go home, though. You've had enough."
"You heard me, Kaim. Drifter! I hate you guys.
I really really hate you guys."
The father is always like this when he is drunk-hurling curses at all "drifters," picking fights with any man dressed for the road, and finally slumping to the ground to sleep it off. His son is too small to drag him home.
With a sigh, Kaim finds himself again today supporting the drunken father's weight to keep him from toppling off the barstool.
The boy stares at his father, his eyes a jumble of sadness, anger, and pity.
When his eyes meet Kaim's he shrugs as if to say "Sorry to keep putting you through this."
But Kaim is used to it. He has seen the father dead-drunk almost every day for the past year, ever since the boy and his father were left to live alone.
"Oh, well ..." the boy says with a strained smile as if trying to resign himself to the situation.
"Poor Papa...
...poor me."
Supporting the father's weight on his shoulder, Kaim gives the boy a smile and says, "Yes, but you don't go out and get drunk the way he does."
"Ahem," the boy says, puffing his chest out.
"Sometimes kids are tougher than grownups."
Kaim broadens his smile to signal to him "You're right."
YOU ARE READING
Forgotten Dreams of Eternity: Lost Odyssey: Thousand Years of Dreams
Science FictionA science fiction novel with 33 short stories foretelling the forgotten dreams of Kaim, A immortal who has lived over more than a thousand years. This novel is based on the hit video game Lost Odyssey. Short Story XV, Short Story -XXI, and Short Sto...
