She lived across the street behind the chain-link fence. She had shoulder length brown hair and hazel eyes. She wore a plain white dress that went to her knees. She timidly climbed to the top bunk and asks if the boy is fine. He said that he was fine and propped himself up on his elbows as casually as possible. She sat cross-legged near his feet on the small twin-sized bed and put her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands.
She told him amusing stories about what happened in class after he had left and all the fun things they had painted. She asked if he had gotten into big trouble for the sugar cubes in the paint. He shrugged it off valiantly and declared that he was able to dodge any punishment by getting a boo-boo on his leg. She laughed gaily at the childish word. She asked to see underneath the poultice. He eagerly lifted it up to show her the disgusting pustule.
She wrinkled her nose and he put the poultice back on. They decided to play doctor, which is a game the adults don’t seem to like and which vaguely seemed wrong to play. But the bedroom door was open and they could hear the adult voices from the living room. She played the doctor first and pushed at his stomach, looking for ailments. He dutifully pulled up his shirt to his shoulders and awaited her analysis.
She pressed the ribs of his chest and he held his breath so she can listen better with her imaginary stethoscope. The boy asked her to check his flippers and extended his hands. Without blinking at the strange request, the dolphin doctor checked his flippers, turning them this way and that to examine them.
She announced finally that he had fishyitis, a common ailment involving bulging eyes, soy sauce breath, and a growling stomach. He agrees and they sit quietly for a while, unsure how to continue. He wants to be the doctor to examine her but can’t move his leg with the poultice.
Mia announced that she has to leave. Her mother was waiting for her and she had just come by to drop off the homework that was due the next day which he had not received. He thanked her and she climbed down just as the two children’s mothers showed up at the door. The boy quickly pulled his shirt down to cover his stomach, hoping nobody had noticed.
The boy’s mother put his homework and a plate and glass of milk on the roll-top desk in the room. His mother took the poultice off and wrapped his knee in an old shirt. She told him to do his homework and that she would be back before dark. She left and he climbed down to do his homework. The sandwich was bologna and mustard on white bread. The sandwich was cut diagonally, which is the best way to cut a sandwich as anyone will attest.
The boy was secretly thankful after the first bite that the sandwich did not contain actual sand. Words had a powerful effect on the boy and he never shook the feeling that a sandwich might shift sand out of the middle when he picked it up.
He did not like milk particularly. After a few sips he made a face with curled lips and pulled open one of the drawers on the top of the desk. He placed the bread parts of the rest of his uneaten sandwich on the bottom of the drawer. He placed leftover bologna along the top of the bread and pressed it down so it was squishy and flat. Then he poured the milk into the drawer and watched as pieces of meat floated to the top. He also squished some of the bread before it started to dissolve on the bottom.
He closed the drawer, took his plate and cup, and closed the roll-cover on the desk with some effort. He turned and went out to the living room to find the house quiet and empty. He went out the front door and sat on the porch, which the locals called a lanai. He played intricate games with two smooth pebbles on the stairs.
His brother came home and it started to rain. The two brothers sat in silence for a long time waiting for the rain to stop. A car drove past the house slowly and then, out of sight, turned and drove back, parking in front of the driveway. A woman got out of the car and it started rolling down the hill. She managed to jump back in and the car stopped with a violent jerk as the woman set the parking brake and the car idled.
The woman came up the stairs and asked for the boys’ mother. They responded she was out and shrugged their shoulders mutely when asked where she was. The woman gave them a small vial with a rubber stopper and told them to hold it for their mother. The woman turned to leave then turned back and admonished them not to eat it.
The boys waited dutifully until the woman and her car left before they quickly ripped the rubber stopper out and poured out the contents into their hands. The small vial was filled with tiny almost perfectly round seeds. The boys put the seeds back one by one. They knew there was something illicit about the seeds as they had seen them before. The plants that grew from these seeds were known by many strange names and even by two letters.
They boy repeated some of the words as they put each seed away: grass, herb, jay, emjay, weed, zigzag, Maryjane, joint, reef, and bud. The boy is a good listener. He speaks these words to teach his brother. His brother is younger and doesn’t speak much, but they know how to communicate to each other and the boy knows that his brother can understand him.
As the last seed was put away, the boy had a sudden inspiration and pours one seed out. He motions his brother over and they poke a hole in the mud near the bottom of the stairs and plant a seed. The boy holds his brothers hands in a prayer position and repeats a string of incantations for his new plant.
The rain stopped a while later and the brothers played in the wet yard for a while. Then they retreated inside the house. A while later they put themselves to bed and slept soundly.
That boy is a brat.
He’s not a boy. He’s a dolphin.
I don’t like it.
Keep listening.
Chapter 2
In the middle of the dark night the boy woke up as he does occasionally. Dolphins are nocturnal, and so it is not surprising that they boy would wake up late in the night. Strange noises arrive in his ears and the sounds take on shape in his imagination. A dripping sound from an eave sounds like the irregular bouncing of a basketball. The burbling and gurgling of water in the neighbour’s tanks becomes the babble of a stream rolling over rocks.
Another noise that was unidentifiable and terrifying was a waxy grinding sound. The noise came from underneath the boy’s bed, in the lower bunk where his brother lay. The noise started and stopped several times in between his brother’s heavy breathing. A chomping noise followed the grinding and it sounds like wolves chewing flesh. The boy stayed perfectly still and tensed until his whole body shivers and shakes the bunk.
The noises continued from his brother for seemingly hours. Each sound became increasingly horrifying and culminated in a brief string of strange utterances in a deep demonic voice. The boy was terrified and sweat stood out on his forehead. He peered hopelessly into the dark surrounding the bed for a glimpse of the demon below him. His brother turned over in his sleep and the noises stopped.
There was only one logical interpretation of the noises that could be deduced from the noises his brother made. His brother must have been visited by a vampire. The grinding noise was the vampire’s sharp teeth. The chewing sounds were clearly the sound of the vampire biting his brother’s neck. The strange language was the vampire speaking an incantation and then disappearing to fly away as a bat.
The boy knew that the incantation would create magic that would hide the wound on his brother’s neck and that his brother would appear normal the next morning. However, the damage had been done. His brother was surely a vampire. And the vampire was sure to return to attack the fresh meat on the top bunk, namely himself. The boy fell into a troubled sleep and had trouble waking up in the morning.
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