The One That Stays With You

4

The following morning came with the contagion of panic among every resident not living under a rock. It was a ghost town aside from the local army in blue on the streets in both car and foot. A few unlucky badges were posted to the slums around Brooks and Co., which was being collectively discussed as The Murder Circus. It was funny to the few thinkers who thought it took the gruesome killings of a few kids to motivate around here. Interviews of the parents strummed the heartstrings and produced untold sorrow you couldn't help but allow to penetrate.

Willis Merl, at 81, wasn't about to let it stop him from his usual rounds while the newscasters regurgitated histories he remembered not too fondly and without influence. Bad things happened in the world every day, and it didn't stop spinning when a maniac went on with it. He was old and needed a routine that his good-for-nothing children squabbled about until one folded to do the deed. So, he would rely on himself until he could no longer do so. When you were healthy at this age, you didn't take it for granted.

He would begin with his walk to Gaffney's, an all-night diner for the seniors to gather and have coffee in the hours of six to eleven AM. As expected, no one showed. John Crown did but didn't count as he lived next door and didn't seem to register like everyone else the events of yesterday. John was surly as usual in the absence of his Alzheimers. No better reason for Willis to finish off his cup and take off to leave him to it.

"If those kids had been in school, that lunatic would have had to find someone else to butcher!" John said in a blur between victims and the crime itself.

Willis headed out. A mile to the bus stop where he would rest until it came a quarter after to run him over to Wally World. The third part of his walk was spent gathering the little he needed, and then the fourth would end at the same bus stop to take him home.

He wouldn't make it that far.

He took his seat on the bench, looking up the street to find it vacant. If the world toughened itself the way you get when you reach his age, people might not be so afraid when the boogeyman reared his ugly mug. He wouldn't bother with blaming anyone, and it was scary stuff. Maybe different if he had looked further into it aside from a headline and a brief go-over from the tube. Even then, he served in WW2. War was a different kind of hell, and once you got a good look at it up close, not much really seemed to bother you after.

It was a minute when he turned to find a young man coming to sit beside him. The first thought was if they had dismissed school from the ugly of yesterday? Then the second came as he saw his shoes. They were the same punk style he knew from his grandkids with a boldened star on the side. Nothing special, and not really even on the bold red color. The bother came as they appeared to be huge on the fronts. Bulging up and around.

Willis observed, "Those are some funny-looking shoes."

The young man turned to him and politely replied, "Custom made. Cost about a hundred bucks more, but I got a deal online."

Willis took this in. Seemed a waste of good coin to him, but who was he to judge?

"They let school out?"

The young man smiled. There was nothing particular about him, and he dressed no different than most of the kids around his age. About as ordinary as you could get, really. He could see this kid being a friend of at least a few of his grandkids. The friendly sort, polite, and soft-spoken.

"Oh, I wouldn't know. I graduated years ago."

Willis nodded and checked his watch. There would be no lack of conversation. This young man seemed curious in a lonely way as he asked about Willis' family and grandchildren. The latter names were unknown, and the interest was genuine as the patriarch got to pull out the old-timey wallet with the accordion style picture holder. It wasn't often you found a gentle heart in the younger generations. It made the day much warmer, having met someone who lent an honest ear. Kids and young adults typically ignored what they thought of as senior citizens. Age 60 and up qualified. It was a nice reinforcement of the world in such terrible times.