It is going to happen. He felt so good that he is going to make water in his pants. Something happened in the town of Letty when he knew that they knew. It is going to happen for the people that are held down by the greater powers that be. They found out about something of themselves after something happened in the town of Letty that they didn’t want to talk about. When they unburied it, they spoke about it to no one. All of them had seen the shows and they knew that the government will get involved in the affair of the thing that is buried. What is buried is something they dared not to talk about.
Some of them thought about selling it online and they were silenced. Some of them thought about writing a paper to congress and they were silenced as well. What about a fictional piece – like story to get people to come here. They were silenced – they all were.
Paul sat in one of the seats on a quiet June afternoon, not eating the food that is on his plate. He knew of the thing that is unburied and what came out of it. He found out about its power when he knew three weeks ago. Paul smiled with something dark under his sleeve when Dewey bent over to ask him something.
“When are we going to do it?” Dewey asked with that Red Sox cap screwed on his head. His hair is too long. He knew that when Paul told him to get a damn haircut.
“We will do it soon. I like to keep one of them around for the show.” Paul smiled like his face is going to turn into butter.
He spotted the mild sized guy that is in the school cafeteria. The guy’s name is Mason Gifford with his father buying up the entire town so people can live in high rent prices that is fattening up his father’s pocket. Mason turned for the worst when that started to happen, telling everyone to bow to him in being the king of Letty; the abuse and the bullying gotten worse after that. The last happening is when he almost killed a boy by the name of Barney Grilles, beating him so bad that Barney wound up in the hospital for more than two months. No one confessed to that crime. That is before the thing that was unburied and before Paul knew that the rest of them knew. He felt like jumping for joy when they brought about a plan to bring rebellion into the town of Letty, giving it back to the people that worked the hardest.
We will become the Superman and Superwoman that saved the town of Letty. We will become the flames that dance around the pillar of justice burning the injustice. We will become anew on this day.
Paul felt it in his grasp when he raised his hand over the table, hoping for no one to see when he felt the feeling that was queer at first but growing like a third hand fast. The spoon that is on the table rose from the table to his hand like a magic trick. It happened so quick with his hand only raised two inches from the table. No one saw it when they only had ten minutes left in the cafeteria. They need to move fast.
“Hey pipsqueak, were you supposed to give me twenty dollars? I don’t see it in my hand.” Mason’s voice choired over the crowd of many voices. Paul couldn’t see this when he stood up. Mason and the boy are too small.
“I don’t have it.” The boy replied with his voice quivering.
“You don’t have it?” What happened to that twenty last week?”
“I had a date with Carly Verne.”
“Carly Verne, the one that gives blowjobs in the back of my daddy’s car; Yeah, she is so sweet. She knows how to suck a good cock too.”
“What are you doing?”
“Don’t talk to the king that way.” A deeper voice proclaimed when Paul could hear nothing else after that.
Paul sat down with no smile. Eight minutes until the bell rings to be returned to the next classroom. When will it happen? He had to think. Will someone do it for him? He didn’t know when he closed his eyes. By the time he opened them, he is looking into the face of Gina Arliss with her black hair that is wrapped up in pony tails.
“What are you going to do, Paul? We can’t wait anymore.” She whispered over the table.
Paul only looked at her in the eyes.
“I don’t think I can do this. What if these bad people get hurt or die? We will go to hell for this.”
Gina moved her hand over on the table and touched his.
“We’ve been living in that hell for as long as we can remember. You know me and my father have been living on bacon for the last three months just because Mason and his father wants to eat steak every evening? Change has to be today, there is no stopping it.”
Paul felt like a tide is about to take him away. He is the rock that is in the sand. How long will it become so? He didn’t know.
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“They do. They’ve been pushed by the people to the point that they are about to break.” Gina pointed at the rest of them that are sitting in their seats.
“Do you know what happened to Jack Sours?”
Paul didn’t know, he only shook his head.
“Jack Sours’s father had to sell their two acre homestead to live in those places. It doesn’t seem right for them to do this. The government cannot know about this or this day.”
Gina turned her attention to Norman Benson that is sitting by himself in the far seat of the cafeteria.
“Norman is the poorest person that this school has ever seen. He wears the same clothes year after year. His father can’t take them out to eat anymore. Does that make him a bad person for him to continue and suffer? What are you going to do about it Paul, wait for it to happen?”
Paul shook his head when he lean against his hands and felt like the world is going to fall off of its axis. What will become of us?
Paul waited when he came up with the answer that they all wanted to hear.
***
Principal Henley peddled down the hallways of the school. He is allergic to everything godly that is in the world around them. Sneezing seems to help but his eyes are running the Niagara Marathon. He couldn’t seem to corral it. He wiped the goop from his nose when somewhere he heard the sound of a boom erupt from somewhere.
The kids again; this is a day before summer vacation and they have to start on something now?
Principal Henley shook his head when he continued to saunter down the halls of Coloma High School. He has only a half a day before he is led away from these little bastards. It is only a matter of time before he will spend just two weeks basking in the hot sun away from these…rats…These vicious rats that scurry the halls. His wife will ever be so pleased. The last month has been unbearable for him. He did a lot in the last month with the senior prom, getting ready for the senior graduation, and getting the plans around for the senior graduation so it will run smooth from the events of horror that are happening in the world.
Why so much tragedy? Why?
His feet stopped when he heard another boom outside the halls, sounding like a cannon going off on the floor below him. He wondered what that was. He scurried to the nearest stairwell to investigate.
By the time he got to the lower floor he saw Flannigan running towards him with sweat pouring down his face. His shirt is covered in sweat and forming his torso that is underneath it. That is probably the most that Flannigan has ever run in his life.
“Henley, sir; something is going on in the cafeteria. I tried calling the police but I couldn’t get a signal in there?”
“The police; what are you talking about the police?”
“It’s horrible sir. I see things flying through the air. I saw some students burst into flames. Why in the hell is the fire alarm not set?”
Henley placed an arm around Flannigan’s fat shoulder.
“Why don’t you just come down to the office and sit there.” Henley spoke in a calm manner.
“NO! I won’t! I’m getting out of here!” Flannigan shook off his arm and ran to the nearest exit.
Henley didn’t follow suit. He ran straight to the doors of the cafeteria.
***
Henley stopped in front of the double doors of the cafeteria when another booming rattled the doors in their frame. He opened them and revealed the un-imagining that is happening in there. What lay on the floor of the cafeteria is the smoldering ruins of a dead body that is sprawled out. Upon the wall is what looks to be silverware that is snaked in the concrete blocks. Henley looked around the room in total chaos when he felt like all of his sanity is washed away, never to return. Some students are pushed through the wall in such a force that instantly killed them. When he looked at some of the students that are below, he knew that they are doing something with their hands like a dance. What is it that they are doing?
“What in the name is going on here?” Henley screamed into the crowd of children that ceased their dance rather timidly.
“What in the name?” Henley asked when a chair flew from the grace of the heavens as in the same instance, Henley knew no more.
That night, Coloma High School burned to the ground in front of the sight of so many children. It is the beginning of summer vacation after all.
Short Stories
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Surrealist fiction is always a lot of fun to read, it leaves me with so many questions. I want answers but I also know that sometimes more explanation just ruins a lot of the spectacle. The physical chaos in the cafeteria is definitely how I felt in high school towards the end of the year as well. As much as I liked the principle’s foreign and outside perspective of the chaos, I think that staying with one point of view character will solidify the meaning of the story.
The repetition of “the thing unburied” reminded me of a piece by Gertrude Stein that I just read. She’s very well known for her experimental writing style, though she is a part of the Moderns and less the Surrealists. The repetition and the call to action also reminded me of the Surrealist podcast -Welcome to Nightvale- which is about the highest compliment I can think to give a piece like this.
I would have liked to stay with the students during the chaos that ensued rather than have an unreliable report to the principal. I’d have liked to see how the powers manifested to cause a fire.