19 of 29

Write now Article Tools

BOXED FOOD FOR JUNE

So, let me ask you little Billy ... yeah you on that stool...

What happened at school?

What happened that now you sit in a bar...with a glass...and a stare?

Was it the bully's in the 3rd grade Billy? Is that what took you there?

Don't look away from me! Its okay, they are gone. 6th grade is long over, Billy. They won, move on. They made you feel small. We all know it.

Kids are cruel Billy-Willy those silly names they called you...but you remember them all...those names they would call you at school. Mr. Weiss became Weiss-a-Woni, his smile was so phony. Eventually he got lonely so he hired a girl and paid for some lovin'.

Then he shot a man who called her a name like the boy who named him when he was seven.

A word.

A simple word.

It reminded him too much and it opened a door...A word that came too close to Mr. Weiss, and touched the memories that were painted...

Tainted...

With the name of a food... and a whore...

He remembered her, a little girl named June from the bus. That day was special when he was running down the hall, chased by the name calling bully named Russell. Then June broke his fall.

She was nice to him like nobody else. Billy and June became friends in September, until she got shot with a gun. Bullet stuck in her head, left her in a coma til November.

Wice a Woni got no San Fransisco treat that day. His only friend was left in a coma at his feet. The kids never forgot that day when she bled. Painted their memories only one color on that yellow bus... painted their morning ride to school crimson red.

Nobody knew that the shooter was "double dog dared" to pull the trigger. "In 4th grade he should've known better than to play with the gun!" ...is what her grieving Mama said. BAM BAN June's dead. It was a stupid game that nobody won.

June's Mama questioned God, but she got no answers. Her Sunday school taught her to believe as June struggled for her life. God never replied. Still she fought and prayed for June not to die. Mama never understood the reasons why the bullethole over June's right eye took away her concept of time.

Her hands would never move again. Her body would not come back to life. June was fed through a tube and her rice-hating friend Billy would come to visit June.

Until the day she died. The day Mama pulled the plug.

The end. Thanks to the name calling bullies, a slippery hallway, a double-dog dare, Billy lost his only friend.

Never understanding the shot that gave him that scar. Now Weiss shoots himself these days... fully loaded cheeva heroin...he's a junky for black tar.

Colored by memories of a young girl slain, he wasted his life because of the pain.
That was just part of a wall that that kept everything out. It was a wall he built at school, with roll call, a name, a bullet to the head, and lost faith.

In God he doubts.

Now memories are colored black and red. His friendship with June took his innocence the day she accepted death.

Weiss will struggle for the rest of his life. He will fight himself and his ever-changing mood; as he wishes he was someone else... so he could forget and peacefully prepare something so simple ...

Boxed food.

(while part of this story may be based on real life incidents, this is a fictional story and any names/references are not real people but fictional characters; any similarities to real people are simply coincidental)

Learn more about this author, Molly Murphy.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Short stories: Bullies?
We want to hear your view. Write now!