Red Ship

The skies were clear with no marshmallows in sight. No rumbling fudge either. Aharon liked that. That was a-okay with him! Things were peaceful, for now.

It was smooth sailing from where he sat. A light breeze blew in but the waters were calm and not crazy like a bathtub having the plugged pulled. No liquid spilled over the plastic, neon enclosure.

It was red and Aharon loved red. He loved red flowers and red pens and red pencil crayons. He used to be completely into firefighters and firetrucks and their big, shiny hats. Luckily, after he lost the hat, he had moved onto boats.

The kiddie pool was plopped near the far end of the backyard. Aharon had splashed around for a bit earlier but found it boring quickly; while shallow water was his friend, they had a bit of a tumultuous relationship because of its big sibling, deep. His daddy and Sharon were over by the huge umbrella talking while the BBQ smoked away. Aharon liked the meat and corn and peppers that came from these kind of days, if his dad kept a close enough eye on the grill.

Aharon dug in the dirt with a flat rock, pouring over every clump and mound. He looked up at the sky again, and then continued to move soil, searching for any kind of bugs or, more importantly, treasure chests. Sharon let out her shrieky laugh and he pulled up a giant excavation of black.

“Daddy! Daddy! Dadddddd!” Aharon had his back to them but new that they would hear.

Nothing.

“Dadddddddddddddddddddddddddddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” This time Aharon looked over his shoulder. His dad seemed to look over in his direction, look back at Sharon, and then put his cup down.

“What’s up, Champ? You find some cool gems while digging?!” He had walked a few steps closer but Aharon noticed he hadn’t put on his flip-flops to come over.

“Don’t be silly! Pirates and Ninjas don’t just leave money and jewels in the ground!”

“Oh really? I had heard different growing up. What are you digging for then, sweets?” Sharon slid behind his dad and put the hand not holding onto a lipstick stained wine glass on his shoulder.

“I’m digging for 9d 12 treasure. Geez, you guyssss! You should know that treasure is always kept in a treasure CHEST! That’s what makes it treasure.”

“So if I put this empty can inside a cardboard box, it would be treasure?!” His dad tried to be funny as him but it never worked.

“No dad! Don’t be a dumb dumbo!”

Aharon felt that familiar electricity in his belly. His dad was definitely not going to come over now.

“Hey, Champ.” He was now an authority figure who somehow was two dads taller. “Champ, you know our agreement. We don’t say those words around this house and that means you don’t get to say them either. Do we need to have the talk again about how what you see on TV doesn’t work in real life?”

“I hate real life,” Aharon mumbled into the hole in the ground. Maybe the worms that were hiding so well at least heard that.

“What did you say?” His dad now was standing it the uncomfortable stance of a wannabe authority figure.

“But next door –“

His dad had gone from wannabe to be in the sternness department. “Aharon! I’ve explained too many times that the two next door have… issues with their brains that make their actions not to be copied. They need help. They need to be given pills similar to what daddy takes. Unfortunately,” he looked over at Sharon with that look that he got in the night after waking up from a long nap on the couch. “Very unfortunately they have to make that choice for themselves and go see a doctor?”

“Would a nurse work? Betsy wants to be a nurse just like both her mother and super old sister.”

Sharon turned away with a reddish face. Aharon could hear the giggles. See, he knew how funny worked even if he didn’t complete understand it.

“No, a nurse wouldn’t… it’s a special kind of brain doc… it doesn’t matter, Champ. Remember what we say about Kyle and Stefania?”

“While it’s important to respect everyone on this planet, you still have to understand that there are people that are sick and do not make positive decisions. The best thing to do is to leave people like that alone and ignore what they say.” Aharon new this speech inside and out because it came up so much.

“Well done, sweets!” Sharon said awkwardly shooting him with her finger. Daddy didn’t like guns of any kind which meant Aharon didn’t like guns… except laser guns that were used in space. “Especially ignore them because they say a lot of bad things loudly and angrily.”

His dad took a big sip of his adult juice. “That’s not really helping, Sharon.”

“Ed, I’m just trying to help out. I’m part of this family too.”

“That’s not what I’m getting at.” He now had his thumb and pointing finger on his ear and his dad played with his earlobe.

There was a moment. Aharon could feel the breeze getting stronger. He looked over at the inflatable pool and saw that his boat had moved and you couldn’t see the bottom part of it. He heard that part was called the ‘butt!’

“I need to check on dinner, Champ.” His daddy was looking at him again. “Why did you call my name? Did you have something to show me?”

Aharon thought quickly.

“I just wanted to say that I love you, Daddy!”

His father looked somewhat unimpressed. He looked Aharon right in the eye and titled his head quickly towards Sharon.

“And, urm, you too Sharon!”

“Well that’s very lovely, sweets! You go back to digging to China and I’ll help Ed with the BBQ.”

The real spectacle of slipping into the bush was the hole he had come across a few months ago. He hadn’t really given his noisy, unneighbourly neighbours much thought other than when they came outside and started to throw words back and forth like a bad word game of catch. Usually his dad would’ve heard and brought him into the house before he heard things breaking.

Aharon was afraid at first. They seemed like the monsters in the mazes that he had heard about from somewhere. But seeing them stumble around yelling at each other was kind of mesmerizing. That and he was starting to like things that his dad told him not to for some strange reason.

Kyle and Stephania were the biggest forbidden thing that Aharon could think of.

He never saw them fight in their messy yard; if they ever came out the first thing he would do would be crawl-run out of the bushes. From Aharon’s vantage point, he could see right into their living room. He couldn’t really see their furniture. He was always curious about that. In their yard there was a lot of junk and weird things. There were a few cracked toilets and rusty tub. He didn’t understand why anyone would need that many lamps, especially outside where the sun did all the work. So many things were broken and often when he returned to his peephole, things had been moved and were even more damaged. Aharon suspected that that had been how this new break in the white, wooden fence had come from.

Sometimes it seemed like Kyle and Stephania’s bodies had also been broken. Aharon sometimes saw black marks on their faces and Band-Aids on their necks and arms. He didn’t even think he knew where their bandages were at home since he listened to his dad and was very careful when he played around.

He could see Kyle’s head. The way it bopped up and down indicated that he was not happy at the moment and had too much adult juice.

A few ninja sneaking sessions before, Aharon had noticed a dip under the fence leading to the yard full of junk. He wasn’t sure if a dog had made the passage but he was sure Kyle and Stephania didn’t own one. They looked like they should own one.

Aharon had squeezed himself through during the last time when their house seemed to be empty. It hadn’t been as difficult as he had imagined. There was something that always caught his attention. The two were often arguing and pointing to a number of plants in their backyard. They didn’t look that special; they had no flowers and had these leaves that looked like starfish with two extra arms.

He always wanted to take a closer look. He knew these weed-looking things must be special. He thought of the pirates in the old days stealing not only treasure from other ships, but spices, and tea leaves. He was never sure why they’d steal these things; perhaps they were British and wanted some for the Queen. Or maybe, these herbs were treasure as well!

A tear formed on the front of his shirt and he now had dirt in his hair and everywhere else. The yard was silent. The breeze had picked up a bit and now a fridge door swayed ever so slightly from its broken body. Aharon knew how ninjas walked; this must’ve been why God had invented tippy-toes.

The plants were in scattered and broken pots in a dry area of the grass. One was even in a garbage can. He looked back at the window and noticed that the head was still in view, and nowhere near the door that lead to the yard.

Aharon touched one of the leaves. It was fuzzy and, well, leafy feeling. He smelled his hands after and immediately pulled back his head (along with his nose) back from the ickiness. It was like a mix of basement, the compost, and old flowers in a vase.

He picked a few and had to make sure about the smell. Yes! They were ALL gross! Was it like those stinky cheeses his dad bought but which were worth a lot, like his dad told him when he ate half of one? He didn’t know. He looked up at the weed thingies again; something about them just felt wrong.

There was a sound from behind him, almost like it was coming from the trees. Aharon didn’t have time to think and he did the first thing he could think of. The leaves were gross as he chewed them. His mouth was full and he was grinding like a machine to get rid of the evidence. He swallowed and there was a burning and spiny feeling in his throat.

He looked back to see who had found him. There was no one on the yard. But he saw movement in the trees. But he couldn’t focus that much longer. His stomach was grumbling, buzzing, more than he ever had it do before. There were sharp pains and the electricity and now become a full on lightning storm. He started to spit things up but it was no use. He stumbled not knowing what to do. There was a small ramp leading up to Kyle and Stephania’s door. He somehow found his way up.

The screen door was warped and battered. Aharon’s dad’s voice echoed in his head. Leave people like this alone. They are ill. He was ill! He was maybe dying like all those people in movies. Had he been poisoned?

He put his hand out to knock but half-threw up on the side of the house instead. He thought of his red boat. He thought of the times he had visited there in his mind and the waves had made him seasick. But he was always safe there; here, he was not.