Little Boys and Train Sets

He was only a little boy, a darling chubby thing with rosy cheeks that were meant to be squeezed. And how he hated his cheeks being squeezed. All he really wanted was to play with his train set, and imagine he was big and important, but no, here he was, being sat on some grubby old lady’s fat thighs being squuezed every ten minutes while she made faces that could scare a kid his size and age and probably give him nightmares. But no, he wasn’t scared, he was brave, like his Mama always told him to be. But this lady wasn’t like his Mama, and didn’t smell like her either. No the fragrant fruity smell her hair always had, but something musty and quite unbearable come to think of it.

She was his father’s oldest brother’s wife. And she had bad breath. If there was something that he couldn’t handle was smells that were bad and they always gave him a headache, especially when he pictured it doing things to his body. Those fumes going up his nasal canal and up to his brain making it go mushy. Yes, he did have an overactive imagination, but a boy his age, you’d expect it.  He tried to get away from the old lady, but he knew that wriggling off him would cause her to latch on to him tighter, like a snake does to his prey. He had seen it on the Discovery Channel.

‘How do I get off of her and into my room, without upsetting anyone‘  he thought to himself.

‘Maybe I could start sneezing on her and excuse myself’, or maybe if I start crying. No, I must not cry, it will only upset Mama. Alright, I’ll try coughing and sneezing on her‘ he finally thought. ‘At-chooo, atchooo, atchooo, atchooo‘ and on went the sneezing fit and before you knew it, he was off her fat thighs and in his Mama’s arms as she checked his temperature.

‘What wrong, sweetheart?‘ she asked but I couldn’t say anything in case I my plan was foiled.

‘Mama I think something funny went up my nose, I can feel it Mama!‘ making sure I let the old Aunt hear what I was saying, just so she could hear all the grimy details of my nose and send her off in a spiraling out of control into a pit of mental imagery. ‘Mama, I’ll go up to my room and wash myself off, and lie in bed, if you don’t mind. I’m awfully sorry, Mama, but I don’t feel well enough to be here, something is making me sneeze…  atchooo‘ he said while sneezing for effect.

‘Oh of course, my dear. Just run along, my darling‘.

As he retreated back to base camp, he could hear Mama relaying her apologies to their guests. he was out of harm way or rather the old Aunt’ grubby hands and distasteful odor and back in his room. ‘Aaah Room Sweet Room’ he thought, while he first went to wash his face with cold water and soap, just to get her skin off him. And then, soon enough he was back in his room with his train set, diving right in, and thinking about traversing the land on a fast train jetting of to every corner of the land. While he  daydreamed, he stepped right into nap and was fast asleep with his dreams of trains and travels.

I don’t really know why I wrote this. I decided I needed to write more, at least something small everyday. And this is what my fingers were told to type. Oh brain, you silly old fool.

September 9, 2011 | Categories: Short Stories | 1 Comment