A Boy's Tale

A Boy's Tale

A Story by Geoff Travagline
"

This is the tale of a Boy who is a lot like many of us, faces decisions that many people face, and never deviates from his ability to be relate to anyone.

"
The door opened again to the classroom and with it came a girl by which The Boy had never seen before. She came into the classroom with her hair waving due to a slight breeze accompanied by the scent of fresh flowers. The Boy was playing with his belt buckle"the one thing that people actually complimented him on. 
That belt buckle was passed down from his father, and his father before him and the father before him all the way back… or at least that’s the story. His father wore it during the Civil War, and his father wore it during the Mexican-American War, and his father wore it during the War of 1812, and his father before him wore it during the Rev’. The Boy knew it had history, it had seen its share of battle, and had saved lives by going around limbs, over eyes, or under broken legs. But his momma knew better than to let the buckle define the man and she told her son always to make the belt a part of his history that he was writing, not the history that those before it had written. The Boy’s mother was smart, and although she never went to college, she could hold a conversation with the best of them. Needless to say the boy always wore his belt buckle proud, but it wasn’t enough to save him from the other boys and girls in his classes.
---
She sat down at the table that The Boy was sitting at. He looked up and she smiled at him. His face turned red and he quickly went back to realigning his pencils and his pad of paper. She was the only girl at the table and he felt like telling her that she was at the wrong table"that this table was for the outcasts, people without popularity, or without something to make them liked, hence why he was sitting there with some of the other picked-on kids. She said “hi” and it sounded to him like the angels had come down and trumpeted the word itself. 
---
The bullying had always been around. He was never the type of kid that attracted many friends. He had his group of close pals, but they never went to the barn dances, never went out to the boating events, never did anything the popular kids did. They played lots of Johnny and Yanks, played in the tree forts they built, and went hunting and fishing often"activities which were becoming synonymous with backwards people. But he didn’t care. The Boy had been bullied all his life. He was husky, he wasn’t the best looking, and he always believed things which made him appear much older than the other boys.

---
At the end of the day he wanted to say something to The Girl. He wanted to walk up to her and say hello my name is…… but he simply couldn’t. He ran it through his mind three-hundred twenty-five thousand, six-hundred and fifty-five times and each time it ended up with him getting laughed by The Girl followed by a bully beat down by Donovan and his dark little followers. He never got laughed at, he never said hello, but he did get beat down once class let out. Nothing new.

---
The Boy’s father took him hunting every weekend and his shooting was becoming deadly for any animal that crossed him. He and his father began bringing in enough food for weeks at a time and even made money selling the leftovers. His father even let him spend half of his day hunting instead of working the farm with the rest of the family, giving The Boy his first real sense of freedom.
Then one day The Boy rode his own horse to the schoolhouse. He had been working hard, and selling the game he had been getting from his hunts and finally had something of his own to be proud of. It wasn’t the biggest horse, wasn’t the prettiest, wasn’t the fastest, but Abracadabra was his and that was more than most of the other boys could say. The Girl noticed his horse, noticed his belt buckle, and noticed his quirky smile. His smile was messed up from an accident when he fell off of a horse and smashed his face into a tree, and he wore those scars proudly. But there were few people who could make him smile and she always did. He never did tell her his name but they laughed and talked during school and he dreamt up a million more scenarios in his head. They never did turn out right, but during the dream they felt so real.
He wished he could build up the courage to ask her out sometime, to take her out on Abracadabra and take her down to the spring that he and his dad had scouted out. It was so pristine and untouched that it always made him forget about the troubles of his life. But he didn’t and as winter began to inch closer he was losing his chance. She was moving out west this winter and was probably not coming back. 
One day after school The Boy went out to the spring and hitched Abracadabra to a tree. The Boy walked the spring for a while until he came to a tiny waterfall with water so clear that he could see the tears streak down his dirty face. He slapped the water and looked up at the light penetrating the tree cover and hitting a tiny little waterfall making a glowing image appear from the water. The Boy knelt down to the ground and prayed. He didn't pray for the love of the girl, for her to notice him more, for her to like him, or for everything to work out between them. He didn't pray for all the bullies to die, didn’t pray for his family to be rich or for his life to be perfect. The Boy simply prayed for the courage to know how to lead his life. Courage that is all. A simple request The Boy thought. 
---

He met her at the train station. He helped get her luggage onto the train and started to walk away. He couldn’t say anything, his throat was in knots and his heart was in his stomach. He was out of place. Dirty, sweaty, and dressed down at a train station with all of these proper people and these moneybags. He sat down on a bench and held his head in his hands as he cried. The tears tasted salty and dirty and he again prayed quickly. He couldn’t understand why God had not given him the courage to hop on the train with her right away. He couldn’t understand why he had to suffer so much, why he had to work so hard, why he had to struggle everyday when he saw people live their lives from big fancy mansions with hundreds of sharecroppers. He just didn’t understand.

The train’s conductor walked up to The Boy as he exited the station. He placed his hand on The Boy’s shoulder and asked him if he was getting on the train. The Boy shook his head but never took his face from his crossed hands. The conductor said to The Boy “Sometimes son, you need to take a leap of faith in order to get the things you have always wished for.” The Boy looked up and saw the conductor looking at the train; large free-flowing white beard, enormous smile, shiny black boots, and a blue train conductor uniform. The conductor patted The Boy on the shoulder and walked onto the train calling out the last calls for boarding.

The Boy stood up and walked toward the train door. He could smell it, always could. He looked up and felt the rain droplets hit his face. The Boy took a sigh and looked to his right. The rain made it blurry but he saw The Girl sitting in the window of the train looking out at him. Her eyes were like two perfect waves, and he was a small ship stranded on the open ocean. He felt the waves of her sight wash over his body leaving him standing there helpless. He smiled. He looked at his belt buckle. The gold shine coming off of the holder. The carved images of ancient warriors. The indent where a buck shot had been stopped saving his father’s life. The Boy turned around and looked at Abracadabra standing at the hitch looking back at him. He sighed again. He looked to his left and saw a puddle forming. The image was not of a boy. It was of a man. Scared he quickly turned to his right and saw not a girl but a woman in the train looking over at him. Abracadabra was no longer a young strutting horse but an older worn-down friend. He looked up in a frenzy and saw the clock and noticed that the conductor was a minute late. The trains never run late. He sighed. The door finally closed.   

© 2012 Geoff Travagline


Author's Note

Geoff Travagline
The Boy and The Girl are meant to be capitalized. Seperations with "---" are meant to show changes in the flow of the story. They are exactly where they need to be in-between paragraphs.

My Review

Would you like to review this Story?
Login | Register




Featured Review

Well that was an interesting story. The part I really liked was your simile of the waves of the ocean and the boat. Wish there was more of that in there. I think there is no need for the dashes to be replaced with three stars, and theres too many seperations- it makes the story slow and lack movement. Other than that, you have good ideas keep rolling with it. You'll get better the more you read and write. :P keep scribbling!

Ryzo.

Posted 11 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Geoff Travagline

11 Years Ago

Thanks for the review. I'm always looking for things I could have done better, did well, and failed .. read more
Ryzo

11 Years Ago

Don't mention it. I'm always on the look-out for a good read. :)



Reviews

I understood perfectly what you were trying to do. The story played itself out very well.

Posted 11 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Geoff Travagline

11 Years Ago

I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Well that was an interesting story. The part I really liked was your simile of the waves of the ocean and the boat. Wish there was more of that in there. I think there is no need for the dashes to be replaced with three stars, and theres too many seperations- it makes the story slow and lack movement. Other than that, you have good ideas keep rolling with it. You'll get better the more you read and write. :P keep scribbling!

Ryzo.

Posted 11 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Geoff Travagline

11 Years Ago

Thanks for the review. I'm always looking for things I could have done better, did well, and failed .. read more
Ryzo

11 Years Ago

Don't mention it. I'm always on the look-out for a good read. :)

Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Request Read Request
Add to Library My Library
Subscribe Subscribe


Stats

608 Views
2 Reviews
Added on July 3, 2012
Last Updated on July 3, 2012
Tags: The Boy, The Girl, Prayer, Courage, Leap of Faith




Advertise Here
Want to advertise here? Get started for as little as $5
Compartment 114
Compartment 114