Story of Insanity

Childhood Part 1

Harry Tervald was born in a hospital somewhere in the state of Idaho. It never occurred to him to ask exactly where they came from since it had no importance to his conscious existence. He was born to two loving parents though, and an older sister who begged to hold him the second she laid eyes on him. She had been wanting a younger brother since before she could remember, and although she was only five, she dubbed that as being forever.

He came out into this world without so much as a sound. The doctors assured his worried parents that some kids just don't cry, but he was very much alive and healthy. Although, his mother found herself years later replaying the sound of that silence in her head. She would eventually wonder if that was the first sign, something her and her husband should have picked up on. It was a useless thought though, there was no way to tell what Harry would turn into.

His sister Aubrey doted over him when they brought him home. She introduced the limp baby, Harry, to her cat, Yosemite, but made sure he knew they usually only called him Yosie. The baby simply stared into the space around her, bright eyed and stupid as all babies are. Aubrey spent the next three months in that home trying to get the newborn to say simple words. She had yet to understand it would take a few years before he could actually speak, but she didn't mind feeling smarter than him.

When those three months passed, the Tervald family moved to Los Angeles for a job opportunity. Harry's father, Gregory Tervald, had gotten hired as an actuary for an insurance company. The money had been too much to turn down, but neither parent liked the idea of raising their kids in a city. They had heard too many horror stories about drugs and sex in populated areas to be comfortable with it. However, they had no choice in the matter. So Harry's and Aubrey's mother, Emily Tervald, decided to be a stay at home mother to have a more hands on say in what her kids did on a daily basis.

Within six months of living in Los Angeles, Emily was pregnant again. With their third child on the way, and more money from her husband's job, her nesting instinct kicked into overdrive. She bought child proof everything, and decorated their townhome with abandon. Harry and Aubrey watched on, and Aubrey got a twinge in her stomach thinking about another sibling joining them. Sure, she loved her brother, but she didn't think she needed another one. Aubrey started complaining to Harry, telling him he couldn't love his new sibling more than he loved her. She gave him lectures every day, explaining to him that he was allowed to hate their new brother or sister, it was okay to hate people. She hated people every day, like Callie Anderson from her third grade class. Callie had taken her milk at lunch the other day, and Aubrey wasn't apt to forgive her for it any time soon. So she would understand if Harry hated their new sibling, she would love Harry either way.

When their parents brought the baby home, Harry was four and a half. He remembered watching them carry a small child through their front door, and he remembered not liking it. He didn't like Aubrey much either, but he liked that she liked him so much. He liked being liked, but he didn't like being upstaged by this new kid on his doorstep.

Harry would watch his younger brother Evan from a distance. He would stare as his mother breast fed him in her lazy boy recliner. He would watch his parents change him, and coo at him as they cleaned him up. Harry would watch them smile and laugh and be in love with each other as they took care of this new life form. Harry didn't like it. Sometimes he would watch Evan sleep. He would crawl out of his twin sized bed, and over the bumpers his parents had set up so he wouldn't fall out in his sleep. He would stand in the doorway of his brother's nursery, watching the sleeping baby through the bars of his crib. The farm animals hung above the crib would continually circle above Evan's sleeping body, on a continual loop that drove Harry insane. The cow would follow the pig, the chicken would follow the cow, the dog would follow the chicken, the horse would follow the dog, and the cat would follow the horse. Harry would watch them make this circular trek every night, and when he couldn't stand it anymore he would crawl back over his bumpers and into his bed.