Floodlights

Fighting Egghead: A Prologue #3

The boy shudders viciously in his bed and sharply raises his eyes. He is sweaty and out of breath but alive and in tack. As his body tenses, he lies back down visibly still shaking from his nightmare. Ten minutes elapse before his breathing calms and muscles go soft and he slips back to sleep.

He awoke to another weekend and went out to the park with his brother to play football. His mother meanwhile, relaxed with her old high school friend over lunch at the seafront. She liked getting away for a while.

"Mine is a regular boy. But always mature for his age. He just comes out with random comments on situations being discussed that make so much sense. He shouldn't be saying those things or at least knowing what we are talking about at his age."

His mother always talked at great length to her friends about him and how different he was from the rest of the family.

"He just always seems more open minded and susceptible to these feng shui things. He always talks about how he hates the clutter in my room and how uncomfortable he is in there."

"Some people are just born more open. Perhaps he's an old soul. He does look young, it would mean balance. Look, he must be an old soul. Otherwise why does he play the piano despite absolutely no one in your family having a musical bone in their body?" Her friend enthused. The mother went on.

"I'm a little worried though. I mean he is having these reoccurring dreams. He is not sleeping at all and looks awfully tired. Is it normal for him to have these dreams? Should I take him somewhere to help him sort it out?"

"I suppose he will work it out. It all sounds a little Freudian to me! He has to do it though, even with help. Maybe you should tell him that he has to try and find out how to stop it. " Her friend concluded.

"I'll try. He is always a bit short tempered when he doesn't sleep. Anyways, did you see the news last night?"

The boy was pretty normal for someone his age. He played soccer, his family was together and he did well in school. He liked to be part of school plays, but football was his passion. His brother was five years his senior and played all the time. The boy was always in the garden kicking a ball and never had time for videogames. Why, his family couldn't afford a computer anyway. The boy had many friends at school, mainly due to his football expertise. He even had crushes on girls called Jane and Nicky. There was a solid family background with his parents still married and he loved spending time with his grandparents as well.

As the boy was walking to his grandmother's from school he was quietly singing to himself completely enthused from his day in school. He has progressed past the reading assignments and wins all of the timetables games. He has won the running races in P.E. and even caught Jane in kiss chase. The birds sing on top of large trees of the specialist gardens he walks by. He walks down the hill to his grandmother's quickly, not because he is scared but because he likes to walk fast. He arrives at his Nan and Granddad's semi detached house and stretches onto a step. Normally his mother answers the door waiting to take him home. He reaches as far as he can and rings the doorbell.