Conga Line of the Dead

Chapter 1 : The Boy at the Bus stop or How I decided to start my story

The rain was coming down in sheets, making it impossible for anyone to see anything past their own nose, still for some reason there was a small boy walking along the sidewalk in the middle of it all. His clothes and the backpack strapped to his back were drenched, his shoes full of water but he didn't care in the least bit, either because of the fact that he was a boy or the simple fact that he was eight years old. Either way, the boy loved the rain, the way it felt on his face and the way it made puddles he could jump into as he stood by the bus stop waiting for his mother to get him.

She, on the other hand hated the rain, especially when it got like this, and especially on a day like today. She was trying to get home from the funeral, a simple enough task except for the fact that God had decided to punish her with this storm, even the soft sounds of Barry Manilow coming over her radio were drowned out by the heavy pounding of the rain against her car.

Barry sang about 'Mandy' and this kept the tears flowing down her tear streaked cheeks. A quick use of her sleeve to dry them didn't seem to help since they continued to flow with no end in sight.

The rain was coming down hard, she should have pulled over and waited for it to clear up, but she only lived one block away and she'd be home and out of this weather soon enough and attempt to make sense of the past few days and what her life was now going to be now that her joy was gone forever.

She laid a hand on the rain drenched American flag folded in a neat triangle in the passenger seat for a moment, then returned her gaze to the road ahead, shaking her head and trying to keep from breaking down again. She needed to be strong for her son, he was so small and had no idea what was happening around him, so she needed to be his rock for when he did understand.

It was this 'mission' that she gave herself that made her continue on, struggling to see through her fogged up windshield, whipping it with the sleeve of her drenched black blouse, trying to see through the tears, trying her best to see the water drenched road before her.

With the weather around him the way it was, the boy wasn't paying any attention to anything else going on around him he was caught in the moment, just the splashing sounds it made and the fresh smell in the air from the heavy shower.

He paused for a moment and noticed his house was across the street; it was lucky the bright yellow of the house faded through the heavy downpour or he would have passed it by without another thought. He wasn't sure why the grownups inside were all sad and crying and speaking in hushed tones around him. He didn't understand why everyone kept asking if he was ok, he just wanted to play. So he snuck out, which was easier to do than he thought it would be since everyone had other problems to deal with, and went about his way.

He was about to cross the road when the small voice in the back of his head which sounded a lot like his mother told him to stop look both ways before crossing the road, and it stopped him in his small wet tracks. He glanced both ways to see if anyone was coming, as heavy as the rain was it was hard to tell. He paused a second, listened, as far as he could tell nothing was coming, so he started to cross the street still caught up in the storm around him.

She strained to see farther through the fogged up windshield, that was a chore, and with the rain getting heavier by the second it was becoming impossible. But she continued on with Barry softly singing about writing songs, determined to make it home so she would be safe with her son, safe from the rain that seemed to constantly remind her visually of how she felt inside; when suddenly she noticed a small child in the middle of the road in front of her, literally out of nowhere. Her fear took over and she slammed on the brakes, screaming as she swerved to the right in an attempt to miss the boy.

The boy suddenly noticed the headlights of the oncoming car appear out of nowhere and he froze where he was, literally looking like a small dear caught in the headlights. Fear took hold of his small body as he was paralyzed with fear, but in the seconds it took for that to happen, a pale looking man appeared on the opposite side of the street from him and took off towards the boy in a full sprint.