Uninvited Guests: HARRIS BURDICK SHORT STORY

        It’s just another day; the month is June in the year of 2060. My grandchildren, Chloe and Sky, are over for another weekend stay. Ever since my daughter, Sarah, has got a new job that requires her to leave town every other weekend, I get to watch them on her leave.

            Chloe is a sweet girl. She is 15 years old, but acts as if she takes on the most responsibility any one person may possess. She does extremely well in school, does all of her chores, and still is the captain of the cheerleading, basketball, and swim team. She carries herself up to the stars and does everything she can to be the best, and she definitely gets that from me.

            Chloe isn’t your ordinary teenager, though. She has a special, distinct quality about her that you can only tell if you have a deep conversation with her. She can put herself into other people’s shoes as if they were her own. She longs to feel what she can’t, which is pain. She is too exuberant, busy, and even too positive to think about it or feel it for herself.

            Sky, on the other hand, is dark and mysterious. You don’t hear him talk much nor do you see much of him. He wears only close to the same outfits every day. His every day wear consists of band t-shirts, gray and black striped (horizontal) sweatshirts, with those ridiculous skin pants that kids wear now-a-days in either black, red, or midnight blue.

            Whenever you try to speak to Sky, he most likely won’t answer. He is too busy listening to his music. I’ve heard it before, on many occasions, it sounded like a Satan himself was going into every one in the room, doing the dirtiest deed that has never failed to stop, trust me.

           

Nobody really knows what was going on with Sky, not even Chloe. All she can pull out is that he hates being at home. Sky would rather spend all of his time hanging out with his friends and coming home drenched in the smell of booze and cigarettes. At only 17, he is already ruining his life by abusing himself.

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“Grandfather, can you tell us another bedtime story?”

“Chloe, you know I don’t like telling the same old love story,” I stated.

“Then tell us a scary one,” Sky said, rather quickly.

“Yeah! Tell us a scary one,” seconded Chloe.

“Okay, okay,” I said, giving in.

“It was sometime in November, the year 1989. It was the two years the boy could never forget because it changed his life forever. The boy was twelve years old at this time and a very intelligent and happy young man. He had a lot going for him. He had the best grades in his class and got invited into an honors private school a few miles out of his town. It was a lot to take in compared to his perfunctory schedule at his old school, but he desired a flawless life.

Within a few months, he became the most popular boy in his school by maintaining the highest grades. He then got invited to another private honors school, which was the best in the state of Kentucky. Most of the students that attended were aged around 16-18, the boy was 13 when he started going to the school. Even then, he exceeded far beyond his level.

The boy finished the year with the title, “2nd Best” due to the fact he had the second highest grades in the school of upperclassmen.  

Just the summer after that, his father, Roy, had got a job transfer to Duck, North Carolina, right on the beach. He wasn’t upset, though. He found it as more of an opportunity. He always dreamed of doing what he loves on the beach, studying; therefore, he had an excellent opportunity.