Warped Reflection

a man awaken from his son knocking on his door every night. he tells a story of what his son dreams are and then tells a bedtime story that was crafted to tell untold lesson to his son.

i awaken to the scratch of my door. pushing back and forth for my wife to get the door to night. nevertheless, i keep on hearing the endless clawing of my bedroom door. thus me and my wife laid their in bed look up to the opposite side to each other, only wishing the other would get the nightmares too night. then the pounding of the door came and the both of us became more uneven, so i hear the word that i hear every single night for the past 4 years. "its your turn to tuck him to bed" and with that, my i began my procedures.

procedures   

1. i take in a deep breath and begin the mental picture of waking up.

2. feel my blood pulse through my cold flat body.

3. make a fist and pull out my index finger and like a knife i stab my left thigh with that sharp index finger.

4. jolts me out of bed and then get up and find any kind of cloth to cover myself with.

5. unbolt and unlock everything on the door then wait ten seconds to get mentally ready.

i hopefully open the door to see some chance or even a hint to him to be sleeping on the floor but no. he stand at the door staring with a blank expression. and so i began my nightly ritual to give my life to this persistent god that is the center of my life in this house. such nights as these, i grab the open handed child standing right in front of me so he can lead me to his room.

i assume that he wanted me to read the same bed time story as every night but before that he would tell me of his nightmare. always starting in a cubed room with bright wooden wall and only one window over looking the sky but nothing else. no toys, no tv, no bed, and no door. but one desk that sat low off the ground also a chair and had blank white paper with a number 2 pencil. the only light was the sketchy light bulb hanging off the ceiling but all these details would take five or ten minutes for him to explain. i can only remember so many details because he told me this story over the past couple of years. but how this dream turns into a nightmare is what he does to get out of it. almost like an instinct he jumps ups out the window of the room inside the dream. his reason being is that the bulb in the room was flicking and he felt that some one else was in the room hovering over him. so in the end he would fall out the window and then wake up too run to his parents door to awake them.

thus came the story that always read to him. it was a story that my father read to me and as such i'm reading it to my own son. in a leather bound notebook with my grandfathers own handwriting and drawing he made in the early 1950 i read him the story of the first islanders of "water lily". now truly i don't know a thing about my granddad but my father always told me to learn from the book so for one day it might help and so i try to still find what knowledge hides beneath these old forgotten pages through reading the story to my son.

i sit down on his desk and he lays on his bed so to eventually fall to sleep. so i began to read.

"once upon a time there were the smiths that some how gotten to an island filled full of luscious trees and wonders that can only be adventured. an unknown land to which a family could only adapt  through hard work and determination. but would never be broken or alone because of their love to each other."

the drawing, a man and a woman together caring to wrapped babies in each others arm and with their surrounding being of a tropical environment.

"the family consisted of a father, a mother, and twin boys. the mother would named the older twin Michael because of the meaning of it was "resemble god" and the younger twin brother was named by the father that gave him the name Matthew which mean "gift from god". through these parents had favorites that would decide the fates of these boys."

the drawing, showing still a tropical island but four dark shadows on the side of the picture. two were on the far left and two were on the far right of the picture.

" after many years on the island  the children became old enough to help. so Matthew and Michael began to go round the island to fetch any resource that might be beneficial for the family. on one day, the boys came upon a cave while in search for objects. this cave had a bright shine around as such the two brothers went in search for what made this so special.”

the drawing, two boys pointing to the mysterious cave.

“ the brothers went inside the cave where they only found tunnels branching in all directions. so the brothers splits up and one goes right while the other went left. the time flies while adventuring these tunnels and as Michael goes through his tunnel he sees a light ahead and he runs towards it. the tunnel walls surrounding him became greener and when he got to the end of the tunnel he saw a forest full of trees of such he never saw before. with amazement Michael dashes to touch and feel what was all around him. then he hears the sound of foot steps and he turns to view the most beautiful creatures he has ever see. seeing a women wearing a white dress and wearing a uncorrupted smile.”

the drawing, Michael in the light viewing the women who hides in the shadow of the trees.

“ Michael stares blankly while looking at the profound beauty of this women. she takes a step after another step to the point that her and Michael were a hair breath from each other. she says quietly in Michael blank expression “ would you like to be my friend?”. Michael only responds by a head nod and so they became what Michael to believe as friends. but Michael didn't care, like a moth to light he went blindly straight head to be zapped to dust. soon Michael found out the woman's name was eve and that she’s been trapped within the cave alone for centuries. so Michael says in the most naive way “what can i do to help you,eve” and eve looks around, fearing that someone was going to take this opportunity and says “ go to the beach and bring as much water as you can put in this bowl”. eve hands Michael the bowl and he runs as fast as he could to the beach.”

the drawing, a boy runs out a tunnels and bright light shines through the exit of the tunnel.

“ Michael runs out of the cave where he sees that the trees he remembered seemed to have grown bigger than when he walked into the cave.he sees that the trail has faded and then he spots the beach. the wind goes through his hair and almost with glee he laughs at what might come from doing the deed. but he spots at the beach and a man that could be his father age. the strange man stands lonely at the beach just staring at the horizon. so Michael goes forth and he yells out to see what this mans face looked like and when the man reacted he looked at Michael. the man looked at Michael and said “ please go back to your brother before he dies a lonely death trapped on that island.””

the picture, of a man standing in dark clothes staring down while Michael grasps with surprise.

“ “ what do you mean my brothers going to die?” but the man turns his back way from Michael and say “ once you fill the bowl, look at your reflection inside the bowl and ask yourself who your staring at.”. the strange man goes straight into the water never to be seen again. while Michael stand just transfixed by the man final words he thinks of what the man meant but the icy feeling wrapping around his hands makes him forget the man and so he goes off to get the water. he scoops the water from the beach and he glares at his reflection and he sees a boy lying on on the ground while a snakes glistens around the boys hand. Michael drops the bowl and the shine of the gold on the bowl makes Michael rethink of a reason to pick it up but he just think of why and he feels numb. Michael falls to the water and sees himself sinking and seeing two streams of blood flow out of his hands. and the darkness engulfs him and he hears Matthew saying “ now i'm  mothers favorite, brother , now, now……”. Michael fades into a sleep that's bound to be the most restful one he has ever taken.

the picture, a body sinking into darkness with two thin red lines coming from the body's hand.

                THE END

looking at all of the times I've read this story over thousands upon thousands of times to him. the ideas from the book are truly messed up but once he found the book i couldn't deny him with those hollow eyes that haven't seen what lesson was in the book was. but when i was his age, i did the same thing by listening to my father tell me the story while i imagine eve coming through the shadows to talk to me before i went to sleep.

i look back at him before leaving his room and think how quiet and peaceful he sleeps like Michael who was pushed unwillingly into the blissful rest of fate. nevertheless i hope those bad dreams never stop because once i lose that smile that goes across my face i might just also fall in that ocean of never ending darkness.

Author's Note

go for it