A Lesson About Life

Herbert laid quiet in his dark room. His hands clasped over his stomach.

He glanced at his wristwatch and then went back to laying still.

Herbert's watch ticked loudly against the gravely silent night. Herbert could hear every breath he took.

He glanced at his watch again and adjusted the beanie hat on his head.

He let out a big yawn that was interrupted by a sudden bone chilling scream that tore through the quiet night.

Herbert sat bolt right up from his bed.

The scream came again, and he ran straight out the door and down the hallway, slamming into the bedroom by his left.

The room still had all the lights on and across the door, atop the bed was Herbert's mother, jerking violently under the sheets, mumbling and screaming.

"No! Watch out, Matthew! Stop!" she mumbled in repeat before screaming.

"It's okay, mum. It's only a dream," Herbert called as he shook the woman.

She kept on mumbling and Jerking, and then suddenly went stiff for a second.

"Matthew?" she called in a whisper.

"No, mum. It's Herbert," he answered.

"Oh! Okay. Turn the TV back on, I was watching the news," she said, her voice getting louder.

"You're in bed, mum. There's no TV in here," Herbert responded softly.

"Herbert?! Is that you?" she questioned with a tone of surprise.

"Yes, mum," Herbert replied with his soft tone.

"What...happened. Where...why're you here?" she questioned further, still with a tone of surprise.

"You had a nightmare, mum," Herbert answered.

"Oh," the woman stated sitting upright.

She was a beautiful, fairly young woman in her late twenties. But her tousled hair and perplexed look made her seem older.

"You need to go back to sleep," Herbert stated as he headed over to the cabinet on the other side of the bed.

He took off his handgloves before retrieving two medicine bottles from inside the cabinet and a bottle of water on top of it.

He handed the opened bottle of water and three tablets from the medicine bottles over to woman.

She threw the tablets in her mouth before gulping them down with water.

Herbert returned the medicine bottles and the water to their original positions before coming over to tuck the woman back in to bed.

"Go back to sleep, mum," Herbert said softly as he tucked her in.

"Matthew!" she called suddenly, grasping Herbert's hand softly.

"Yes, mum," Herbert answered placing his free hand softly over hers.

"Stay with me, please," she begged.

Herbert sat down beside her.

"Come on, Matthew," she called shifting side ways and patting the bed.

Herbert climbed into the bed, not bothering to take his shoes off.

She covered him up with the sheets and cuddled him, her breasts pressed hard against his back, her hands crossed over to his chest, and her legs intertwined with his.

"Do you still love me, Matthew?" she asked, her lips touching his ear.

Herbert stiffened his body and shut his eyes tight.

"Say you still love me, Matthew," she requested kissing Herbert's neck.

Herbert remained quiet.

"I still love you, Matthew," she said as she slipped her hands into Herbert's underpants.

Herbert let out a quick sigh.

Soon her hand went limp and her snores filled the room. Herbert slowly untangled himself, tucked her in and walked out of the room, taking care to shut the door quietly.

He glanced at his wristwatch as he crept down the stairs and headed quietly towards the backdoor. But the floor boards creaked loudly every step he took.

"Herbert!" his father called from the living room.

Herbert froze in his track.

"Sonny! Don't you dare pretend you didn't hear me call. Get in here now!" his father called sternly.

He let out a resigned sigh as he walked quietly to the living room.

Herbert was dazzled by the brightness of the living room. His father sat in front of a static television, a cigarette in one hand and a bottle of vodka in the other. The ashtray beside him was full of ash and had ten cigarette butts sticking out. Five empty bottles of beer sat at his feet.

"Your mother is back to sleep?" the man asked letting out a smoke.

The smoke rose to ceiling and clung to it like a cloud.

"Yes, sir," Herbert nodded in reply.

"Oh! What's this?" the man questioned once he saw Herbert's face.

He stood up slowly, flailing like a leaf in the wind. He took Herbert's face in his hand, inspecting it from left to right.

Herbert had a puffed lip with a cut, a very bruised left cheek and a half shut left black eye.

"Someone's been getting into a lotta fights huh, sonny," the man slurred falling back into his chair.

"No, sir. It was an accide—

"DON'T LIE TO ME, BOY!" the man screamed at Herbert.

Herbert took two steps back.

"You were in a fight, weren't you, boy?" the man asked again.

"Yes, sir," Herbert blurted.

The man nodded continuously before taking a big gulp of his drink, "If you look like this, then the other kid must be in the hospital," he commented with a chuckle and a belch.

Herbert didn't reply.

"Come on, sonny. Tell me you got the bastard," the man slurred.

"I didn't...I was ambushed. There were many of them,"

The man sat still for a second staring at Herbert in wonder, his gaze wavering. Then, he let out an audible sigh, took a drag of his cigarette and blew out slowly.

"Come'ere, sonny. Come," the man called, gesturing for Herbert to sit on his lap.

Herbert sat on his laps.

"Gimme your hand, son," the man requested.

Herbert stretched his left hand back at the man. The man gripped it tight and pressed the lit end of his cigarette into Herbert's hand to put it out.

Herbert winced and struggled to get away from the man at once. But his grip was too strong.

The man let Herbert go once he had put the cigarette out and Herbert fell.

"Pathetic," the man  scoffed, "Get up, boy!" he commanded.

Herbert got up, clutching his left hand and heaving.

"You're a disgrace. You're weak, just like your mother," the man continued.

"I'm not!" Herbert called back.

"You sure about that, sonny? You let a bunch of kids rough you up and your excuse is you – were ambushed.  Oh yes, son, you're weak," the man concluded before taking big gulp of his drink.

"You need to grow up, sonny. YOU NEED TO BE A MAN!," he continued, "Otherwise...you'll end up relying on drugs: to stay alive, to eat, to sleep. Life is tough and you have to be tough to survive. NO EXCUSES!" he stated before getting up slowly, still flailing like a leaf in the wind.

"This is a kill or be killed world, Herbert," the man spoke on, poking Herbert in the chest with his index finger. His breath smelled strongly of alcohol.

"You have to choose to be the killer or you will be killed," he finished and staggered out of the room with his vodka.

Herbert stood in silence for a few seconds examining the burn on his left hand. Then he glanced at his watch again – it was 12:30am. He walked out of the room and crept to the garage as quietly as he could with the floorboards still creaking.

He retrieved the keys to the red SUV parked in the middle of the garage once he entered. He rolled up the garage door, entered the SUV and drove out the house.

***

Hair

The door groaned open and Herbert slid in quietly.

The hallway was dim and everything blended into a silhouette. But Herbert knew his way through. He walked with precision through the hallway and up the stairs, the floorboards in this house didn't creak noisily while he stepped.

He stopped once he got to Laura's door. He held the doorknob — clutched it tightly, took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

He swallowed hard and turned the knob slowly, the door creaked quietly as it swung open.

The room was darker than the hallway, the only light in the room came from the streetlight outside.

Laura was tucked in, asleep. Her breath soft and rhythmic.

Herbert stood at the foot of the bed listening to her breathe with a smile on his face.

After ten minutes, he walked up to her, crouched down, took her black hair in his gloved hand and sniffed it deeply — it smelled of strawberries.

He got out a pair of scissors from his pocket and cut a lock of her and sniffed again, letting out a satisfied exhale. Then he brushed his fingers gently across her forehead.

He put the lock of hair in his pocket and made his way out of the house as quietly as he came in.

***

Leather Jacket

Herbert pushed open the window and squeezed himself quietly through the tight opening head-first.

He was almost completely in the room when the window pane came down suddenly, pinning his left leg.

He tugged, trying to get his leg free, mumbling angrily under his breath.

Tim stirred under sheets, his snoring stopped and the room went completely quiet, except for Herbert's mumblings.

Herbert went quiet quickly and froze, slipping back into the shadows.

The room was oppressive dark, shrouded in thick shadows. The lone bedside lamp barely prevailed. It tore a weak horizontal line through the darkness.

Tim turned again and went still. Soon after, his snores continued.

Herbert carefully liberated his leg from the window pane, got to his feet, walked up to the bed and sat at the edge, listening to Tim snore and staring into the darkness. The darkness shrouded him too.

The faint horizontal ray of light caught Herbert's attention, illuminating a leather sequined jacket on a hanger suspended from the door of the wardrobe.
He walked over to it, brushed his fingers across the Jacket feeling the sequin pattern.

He grabbed the jacket off the hanger and put it on and went back to his seat at the edge of the bed. He ran his fingers absent-mindedly over the sequins.

He sat there for thirty minutes, feeling the sequins and listening to Tim snore, then he got up and crawled out through the window still wearing the jacket.

***

Burn

The red SUV sped through the half empty street with the windows wound all the way up. Herbert clutched the steering wheel tightly in his gloved hands, with 'Hold On Tight' by the Electric Light Ochestra playing on radio as he drove.

He turned into a dark, narrow alley and brought the car to a halt. He reached over turning the music off before opening the glove compartment, the pinging car engine replaced the music.

He rummaged through the compartment till he found a lighter. He sat back up, flickering the lighter on and off a few times. Then he got out the car.

The alley smelled strongly of urine, the walls around were heavily graffitied and the dumpster up in the corner was filled to the brim, garbage spilling out.

He strolled over to the fuel tank flap of the SUV and flipped it open.

He pulled off the sequined jacket, folded it and squeezed most of it through the small hole into the fuel tank.

When he dragged the jacket out, it was dripping with gasoline.

He set the jacket on fire and threw it to the ground to burn.

Herbert stood watching the jacket burn with a smile on his face. The yellow flames brought light and warmth to the dark alley.