The Selfish Boy

The boy looked into the dark woods, the trees cloaked in the heavy darkness, an eerie silence ensuing from its dinge. He knew he was forbidden to enter, but his parents would not know. The boy debated whether he should disobey his parents or behave like the golden boy they expected him to be. The sky was turning into a blanket of darkness and he was already far from home.

Making up his mind, the boy made a few hesitant steps toward the direction of the woods.

Even this far away from them, the sound of his parents’ voices arguing was like a constant ringing in his mind. That was all they did: argue and work, work and argue. That was entirety of his life, and he could not get away from it.

Jonathan remembered the time when his mother had finally stopped and paid attention to him, but only to tell him about the tale of a greedy man. This, however, was when he was younger. These tales were not told to him anymore. He yearned for his mother’s affection once again; to be able to feel her arms around him, hearing her voice as she clearly spoke every line of the story in his ear.

A cool autumn wind blew caressing his face, giving him a sense of peace. It gave him the confidence he needed to walk deeper into the woods. The walk was not much; it was mostly dark and gloomy, but Jonathan was not steered away. His stride was bold, and it stayed that way until he reached a clearing.

In that clearing, there rested a lake.

The boy was awed by the way the water of the lake twinkled dark blue in the moonlight, rippling the lunar image reflected within it as the wind blew across the surface.

He took a seat on the edge of a big rock a few feet away from the lake. Taking deep breaths, he admired the beautiful lake. The sight of such allure made Jonathan wistfully wish he was able to escape his stressful life.

He began to toss rocks he found by his feet into the lake absently.

One.

Two.

The rock made two skips before splashing audibly in the water, causing circular ripples to spiral out from the area of broken surface.

How did the actors in movies skip the rock up to six times? Jonathan wondered. Two was his best, at most.

“You have to toss flat rocks to be able to make it skip a few times.” A voice answered his mental question.

Quickly jolting up and spinning around, he found himself facing a boy around his age. The newcomer stood in front of the lake, a few feet away from the rock Jonathan had been sitting on. He had hair so dark, it was almost black. His skin was oddly pale, most likely suggesting he did not see much sunlight.

What confused Jonathan, however, was the fact that the stranger had no shoes on his feet, and his shirt and pants were completely torn, with black marking streaking across them. It looked almost as if most of his clothing had been burnt off.

“My name is William.” The stranger introduced himself. “What is your name?” He asked.

With hesitation, Jonathan answered, “My name is Jonathan.”

“Can I ask you a question, Jonathan?” William asked, a small smile adorning his face.

“I guess so; why not?” Jonathan answered.

“What are you doing out here this late at night?” He questioned.

Jonathan just shrugged. “I needed a place to think and this place just seemed to just call to me.” He answered as honestly as he could.

“Problems at home?” William guessed. He had not once moved from his spot in front of the lake.

Jonathan didn’t know why, but he truthfully answered the stranger, and in the process ended up telling him everything about his parents always working, the financial arguments they always had.