The Lines

This just poured out of me one day. I value it because I've seen people take so many different meanings from it. I hope you like it.

The Lines

D.C. SAYLOR

His eyes were glued to the ground as he walked behind his father. He tried to match his footsteps. Right foot left foot right foot left foot. Onlookers passed by and saw the boy with his ridiculous, long strides, never considering his motives but only his age. 

Despite his best efforts, he struggled to keep up with his father. 

“Alex, keep up,” his mother urged in a lofty tone.  Alex reverted to his short strides and raced to meet his mother’s outstretched hand.

“We’re almost there, honey,” she informed him, aware of his childlike anxiety and short attention. Alex disliked the pace of his parents, but they also disliked his. His pace oscillated in short intervals, slowing down to a natural speed then accelerating in small bursts to keep up with his mother’s deliberate, cogent steps. The family of three relaxed their pace once the line to the theatre was in sight and they could recognize no one in close proximity that might compete with them for the next spot.

Alex peered around the line, leaning left and then right to see what kind of sights both sides had to offer. They were the same; fifty percent black suits and trimmed heads, fifty percent a variety of long, colored dresses and long, wavy hair. He could only make out a few children, whom he would’ve liked to talk to but kept their eyes straight ahead and their hands locked in their mothers’. He bounced on his toes as his eyes darted around the crowded sidewalk in an attempt to find something to look and dream upon.

A familiar sight held his attention for a few moments after he whipped his head to the right to observe a sound that penetrated above the soft, indiscernible murmurs of the crowd.

“God bless you!” a raspy voice exalted, “God bless your soul! Thank you ma’am. Thank you sir. God bless you!” The phrases were repeated again and again, like one of Alex’s action figures that repeated a cycle of phrases at random when he pressed on its chest. Alex observed the man, sitting on the ground with his back against the brick wall, up and down and up again. He noted the tears in his jacket, the yellowness of his teeth, his mismatched shoes, the blackness of his skin. 

He looked elsewhere"keen to the nature of the man"conditioned by his parents not to pay too much attention. He wasn’t sure where they came from, those begging people. They sounded so genuinely nice, but Alex knew they just weren’t. He looked across to the movie theater where an even longer line of people extended from its entrance.

“Mommy, why would they put two theaters right next to each other like that?” He asked as he tugged on his mother’s arm.

“Sweetie, that’s a movie theater. This is a theatre, where they have plays, and musicals, and operas. Do you remember what we’re here to see?”

“Label Helen!” He replied with glee.

“La belle Hélène,” his father corrected in an extremely poor, yet confident French accent.

Alex dismissed his father’s correction and reverted back to his observation of the movie theater line that paralleled his own. It stood only a block away, on the same sidewalk, yet was comprised of scores of interesting people with loud behaviors and unrestrained personalities. There were far more children over there, on the other side, and Alex wished they had instead gotten into that line. But they were almost to the door, and he knew is was pointless to ask. 

Suddenly, a large group of movie-goers exited the theatre, laughing and tossing their empty drinks and popcorn bins in the trash. Alex was delighted at a whole new group of people to observe. His eyes skipped around person to person, only mildly intrigued by each, until finally he became fixed on a boy about his age who was walking beside his mother and father. She lets him walk without holding her hand? he thought. He watched the boy tug on his dad’s jeans and look up at him. He said something that Alex couldn’t quite make out over the noise of the rambunctious movie theater crowd. The boy’s father smiled back at him and reached into his pocket. The mother smiled behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder while her husband fished a bill from his wallet.

The parents stood still with their smiles and observed their son as he walked away from them, towards Alex. Alex looked into the boys eyes and prepared himself to say hi to the boy and tell him his name, but the boy never reciprocated his stare and instead approached the man on the ground, still cycling through a select list of phrases directed at anyone that passed him by. The boy, his hand in a tight fist, unfurled his fingers over the can that lay in the man’s lap and released his father’s cash.

“God bless you, child!” said the man, glancing at the boy’s parents and nodding in thanks. They widened their grins that beamed with sincerity. Alex imagined the couples thoughts. God bless you, too.

“Dad,” Alex said in a hurry, furiously tugging on his father’s pants, “can I have a dollar, please?”

Perfect timing. His father already had his wallet out, preparing his cash for the theatre attendant.

“No, Alex,” his mother kindly answered, “Now hush, we’re about to be inside.”

“But I want to give some money to that man!” Alex pleaded, pointing in the man’s general direction and giving a desperate look to his mother.

“Sweetie, no,” she said in gentle dismay, “You know better. Now come on, follow us.”

Alex gave one final, curious look at the man before he entered the theatre with his parents. He kicked the snow off his shiny, black shoes as was custom. He tried to forget about the man and the boy as the darkness of the theatre engulfed him.

Author's Note

I want to know what you think!

Reviews

[ElizabethKing]

I really love how you tell the story through the child. Your use of third person limited is perfect. You could play around with the diction a little more; experiment with what might work better and ring truer... I would love to see some really concise, poignant moments. This is a beautiful piece of interpretation of human nature, in my opinion.

[Rana]

Felt this to be rich in satire and it delivers a nice little lesson. Well, I liked everything about it. The description of the strides and cadence, the smoothly flowing narration, the description of the lines and scene, the characterizations. You did specially well on child psychology and Alex has turned out to be a real wonderful character. A thought provoking piece.

[D. C. Saylor]

Thanks Rana! Can't wait to read some of your work as well

[Rana]

Welcome and wow :)