Senses

Panic

The young boy gazes across the schoolyard, searching in pure fear for the bane of his existence. Suddenly, like rampaging ogres through a village, comes the terror of the second grade, and to the boy’s shock, two giants posing as the ogre’s friends. Like a tropical bird soaring among the jungle trees, the little boy runs through the crowded yard toward the only safe haven for miles around-the teacher’s classroom. The three bullies spot their fleeing prey and give chase like ravenous wolves. The boy unleashes the north wind in a huge breath as he arrives at the door, then his blood turns to glacial ice as he finds the door locked. He turns around to see the grinning predators start to close in.

Procrastination

Tom watches the clock tick away like a small, clockwork woodpecker. He meanders into the kitchen and forages the fridge for sustenance. His mother, like a terrible harpy, caws “Read your book! It must be finished tomorrow!” Tom wanders through the living room to the computer and starts to lose himself in a game. Like a bird at the beach going to the bathroom on one’s head, so does his sister drop the cursed book on him. She cackles as she flies out of the room, and Tom is left with the loathed book. Refusing to accept defeat, Tom wanders outside and goes on a trek toward the store, on a mission to buy a soda.

Jealousy

Billy Bob grinned, his smile putting the sun to shame as he showed off his new truck. Cledus frowned and stormed into his house as the crowd grew outside. He looked at his beat-up station wagon and cursed it for not having four-wheel drive, a trailer hitch and winch. Billy Bob ambled over to Cledus’s house and put his giant knuckled fist to the door in a “rap…rap” sound. Cledus stood right by the door, staring at it in a rage that beat down strongly and fiercely upon him like torrential rain. When the large man opened the slab of oak, Cledus stood on the other side, screaming at him like a banshee. “Why do you get a new truck! I work just as hard in the lumberyard as you! Why do you gots new wheels!” Cledus stomped outside and threw rocks at his station wagon because it had not been a truck.

Paranoia

He gazes out at the crowded marketplace in suspicion. They sent a shooter for me! I know it! He stands on a building, THERE! The man dashes into a building just as the woman hanging her laundry lifts up the basket. The man sits in a corner of the restaurant, in view of all doors and none of the windows. He glares at the chefs in the kitchen. I know they are poisoning the food. The second they lift up the vile subsidence, I will scream the alarm and escape before it they can silence me! Just as chef Bob picks up the garlic powder, a man in the corner screams something and jumps out a window, spraying glass like water crashing on rocks underneath a waterfall. The man looks and sees an attractive woman, who asks if he hurt himself. The man looks up at her and says, “I know what you are planning. You will say I am cute, then ask to go out with me, but you will really use me as a cover for your bad-boy lover! Then you will marry me and have kids. Then you will leave me and demand alimony from me while I take care of our many children! I CAN SEE YOUR VILE GAME!” he yells and runs down the sidewalk screaming. He looks at the crosswalk sign, which reads, “don’t cross” and a look of fear appears in his eyes. He yells, “You won’t trap me here!” He then runs into the busy intersection, screaming.

Independence

The young man gazes over his new domain. He peers into the bathroom and only spies the items which he brought with him on his final sojourn from home. He stalks the hall of the little apartment and notices no toys, makeup, nor books belonging to another. He observes the bedroom in fascination, as no lock is needed and neither foreign objects nor people lounge on his bed. He approaches the front door and turns. He produces a smile large enough to warm the sun as he has this epiphany: all this belongs to me, and me alone.