Misery Loves Company

Track 10: Bound for the Floor

Misery Loves Company

By: theinkslingerr

Track 10: Bound for the Floor

When I was ten years old, I hated recess.

Just mentioning it caused me to break out in hives.

But the day before Josh moved to California something felt...off.

It was the end of a four-day spring shower and every 5th grader at Beechmill Elementary was bouncing off the walls because they'd finally get to go outside.

Everyone but me.

During those inside recesses, Josh and his friends couldn't torture me as much, because our teacher Miss Reese paid attention. The problem was when we got outside that attention shifted from bullies to the gym teacher with the short-shorts and the hairy arms.

For four beautiful days I'd gotten a break, so on the fifth day when Josh found me by the big tree on the edge of the playground, I knew what was coming. I knew he had to make up for lost time.

There were puddles everywhere, some deep, some shallow, and the ground was soft and wet, droplets of leftover rain sparkling as they fell from twisted tree branches. The playground equipment was a slippery death trap and the teachers would've probably kept us in for another day if we hadn't exhausted them with our pent up energy and whines of needing fresh air.

Josh stepped into a deep puddle as he approached me, one leg swallowed up to his ankle, the other firmly set on dry ground. He was wearing what had to be his favorite Godzilla t-shirt, and a strange look.

I let out shallow breaths, expecting his evil minions to come and line up behind him. When they didn't, I got a weird feeling in my stomach and inched back further under the giant tree.

"I'm moving to California," Josh said suddenly. His leg was still in the puddle and even though it had to be uncomfortable, he didn't move or flinch. He just kept staring at me with those blank blue eyes.

My fear intensified. If he wasn't going to say anything mean or hurt me then why was he here? What did he want?

"Today's my last day," he added.

I blinked, the words soaring above my head like the clouds in the gray sky. This had to be some sort of trick, so I didn't react, didn't even breathe. Just stood there motionless, waiting for the fallout.

After a few seconds, Josh opened his mouth and said something I'd wonder about for years. "Maybe...maybe she thought you would be bad."

"What?" I whispered, confused.

"Maybe you were bad in your Mommy's tummy, so she thought you'd be bad when you came out," he said. "But you came out...good, and now...now she can't change your name."

I tilted my head, wondering if he'd actually sat around and thought about this or if it was just leading somewhere cruel. "How can little babies be bad?"

He shrugged. "My Mommy told me I made her sick."

But his Mommy hadn't named him Sick, she'd named him Joshua!

Something else was bothering me about what he said, one word that stood out among the rest. "I'm...good?"

Now it was Josh's turn to look surprised. His forehead crinkled, and he stared into the puddle, moving his sneaker around slowly. "Miss Reese likes you," he shrugged again. "And...I guess you do your homework and stuff. And when Bigfoot got sick you brought her medicine."