KarMel Scholarship 2005
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“Short Story” By
Joseph Clark |
Desciption of Submission: “Sotry about a straight boy and his gay
bestfriend.” - Joseph
I’ve always wondered how the night
sky became to look the way it did. To appear as black velvet, sprinkled with thousands of tiny
diamonds. I spent many nights
lying out in the field behind my house, staring up at the beautiful night
sky. To this day, many thoughts race
through my mind, as I gaze upwards toward the heavens. I miss him more than there are stars in the
sky, but yet, each one reminds me of the boy he was or the man he was going to
be.
Growing up I was the little boy who
had freckles, muddy hands, and a gap where my baby teeth had fallen out. I found amusement in just about anything
Mother Nature could offer, be it a patch of yellow dandelions, or an old puddle
of water filled with tadpoles. I spent
many afternoons outside stomping around and ripping holes in my knees. I led the same childhood that any boy had led
growing up in a community that left little room for something that was
different.
On the other hand, there was a boy
who seemed different than the rest of us.
He never came out to catch fish in the shallow creek at the west end of
town, or play a game of baseball on a summer’s evening. He mostly kept to himself as he sat on the
front porch of his run down two-story house.
His appearance of being a loner captivated me, and sometime near the end
of middle school, I became determined to befriend him.
Altough we had pretty much grown up
nexct to each other, I met him for the first time durring the summer before
ninth grade. His name was Ty, and he
lived with his mother. Mrs. Somers
offered very little support, and could often be found at the local bar. He was an only child and his father had run
out when he was little. Ty was nothing
like me, I always got the grades and the girls, Ty did not really get much of
anything. He seemed to fit the role of the town outcast. Whereas I had been
class president, Ty sometimes did not show up for class. At first, it was awkward between us. He kept to himself, and I tried my hardest
not to scare him away. He had a hard
time opening up to people, and I had imagined that it was due to the constant
beatings he endured as a boy. Eventually
I got him to drop the walls, and we had grown on each other. He let down his guard,
I had gotten the little boy who no one liked to open up. We started doing
everything and anything together, and became inseperable. No one at school
could see why we were friends, and often questioned me on my choice. I did not think anything of it, Ty was a
great guy to be around and we always had fun together. Ty and I had become best friends; it was as
though we were brothers.
Through out school I had my guy
friends, but I had never felt as close to one as I did with Ty. I told him everything, and if something was
bothering me, he always knew how to fix it. He could make me smile with the drop of a
dime. I could never figure out why he
had always been alone. Often times we
would lie out in the field behind my house and watch the sky. The moon gazed down on us, and the stars
winked in the distance. I would talk,
and Ty would listen. He offered great
advice about anything and I could always count on him. One night, I asked if he had any idea why the
sky looked the way it did. Why were
there so many stars in a vast black sea?
How did they even get there?
That night, Ty gave me an answer I
will never forget. He looked at me with
his crystal blue eyes, and responded, “When someone dies, they go to heaven and
paint the sky with stars.” I thought
about it for a few minutes and stuck it in the back of my head. It was exactly the answer I had been looking
for. As the night passed, we continued
to talk. It was nothing in particular,
just random thoughts that had crossed our minds. Sometime into the early hours of morning, as
the stars faded away, Ty told me a secret that I had never seen coming. He propped himself up in the damp grass and
looked at me with a solemn face. My mind
was instantly flooded with hundreds of thoughts, all of which were jumbled into
one big mess. I had never seen this look
on Ty's face before, and I could not imagine what he could have to say. For a single moment, he looked like a
complete stranger.
Ty mumbled a sentence that hit with
such force, I almost lost my breath.
“Hunter,” he began to say. His
voice had grown small, and he was having a hard time finding the words. "I'm gay." The tears began to pour from the corners of
his eyes, and there didn’t seem to be anything I could do to stop them. He was looking for support, and I was not
sure if I could be the one to lean on. I
knew that I had to be there for him, and I wanted to do whatever I had to. I took his now limp body in my arms and
hugged him, hugged him in fear that if I didn’t, he might blow away in the cool
night breeze. I whispered in his ear, to
let him know it would be all right. I suddenly had the urge to protect
him. I wanted time to stop, and I wanted
to stay in the field with him forever.
This was something that I could deal with, but the outside world was a
different story.
A few hours later, morning had
broken. The golden sun began to shoot
its radiance into the baby blue sky.
Clouds cast off the red and orange hues, as the day began to form. Ty and I were still in the grass that had
long been covered with dew. He had
fallen asleep, but I managed to stay awake.
Although my body was exhausted, my mind could not have been more
alert.
I woke him up, and we set back for
the house. I could tell that he was in
no mood to walk home, and his mother wouldn’t be there anyway, so I took up to
my room. He fell back asleep in my bed,
and all I could do was feel sorry for him.
I wondered how long he had carried this burden with him. I could not begin to imagine what it felt
like to hold a secret of such magnitude, I now held a greater level of respect
for Ty. As he slept, I crept
downstairs. Immediately I was bombarded
with questions from my family to where I had been the night before. I needed to tell my parents, so I forced my
siblings and their friends to leave the room.
I struggled with telling them, as much as he must have struggled to tell
me. This was not my story to tell, but
deep down I felt as though I had to.
At first, they were upset, it was not an anger, but rather a feeling of
surprise. They offered comfort and support to both Ty and me. Back at school however, things were not so
comforting. What I thought had been just my parents and I
turned out to be a herd of kids with their ears to a floor vent. The secret spread through school and town
like wild fire. Ty had instantly become
the butt of jokes, and hatred. Inside,
my heart was torn apart as I watched my best friend endure so much pain. I tried my best to stick up for him, and I
fought many of his battles. With the end
of senior year drawing to a close, and many things coming up, I felt torn
between Ty and the others. If they were
not making fun of the new outcast, they were bidding their time until senior
prom.
It was prom season at Willams High, the girls were picking out dresses,
and the guys could care less. I knew
that Ty did not want to go, so I did my best to convince him to. I had many people lined up to take a spot on
my arm for that night, but without hesitation, I turned them all down. There was only one person I wanted to take,
and I felt like it would be the best thing for him. I wanted Ty to be my date for the senior
prom. It would give the town something
else to talk about.
During one of our many late night
talks, I popped the question. The answer
was met with great enthusiasm. Ty had
wanted to go, but wasn’t sure about a date.
At first, he was pessimistic, but I was able to charm my way to an
acceptance. He made plans for the night
that was soon approaching, for once in a long time he was truly happy. A spark had returned to his eyes, and no matter
how hard he tried, he could not hide is smile.
I wanted Ty to finish high school like the rest of our class; I could
not bear to see him so miserable.
The weeks had flown by, and the spot
light that was once on Ty seemed to have dimmed. Occasionally he got pushed into a locker, but
people began to get bored with it. I had
long since ditched the people that were so eager to ditch me, and I spent much
of my time with Ty. I no longer would
make people into a priority, when they only made me an option. Ty was now my priority. We carried on just as we had before, I
talked, and he listened. Friday nights
we caught a movie, or went for a swim.
Weekend nights we sat out in the field and babbled about nothing. He truly seemed to be a lost brother. Inside my heart, I had developed a love for Ty
Somers.
Finally, prom night had
arrived. By now the whole school had
been made well aware that Ty would be my date, but none of it fazed me one
bit. I could fight Ty's battles as well as
my own, and no one was in the mood to start anything. The plans were for him to meet me at my house
by 7. We would take a limo that my
parents lovingly paid for. I was
sporting a white tuxedo complete with a white vest and tie; Ty would be wearing
the same. Together we had pulled out all
of the stops, and this would be a night I would not soon forget. The clock ticked slowly and the minutes
seemed like hours. I took pictures in
every pose imaginable, and got the flower ready to pin on Ty's collar. As the hour hand slowly crept past the 7 and
chimed its bellowing song, I began to wonder.
Ty was always on time, if not early.
I thought nothing of it at first, and continued to wait with anticipation. Minutes dragged on to what seemed like
forever, and still no sign of my date.
The limo driver was getting
frustrated, so I sent him on his way.
Although he had been paid in advance, I seemed to be wasting his
time. With his mother being the woman
that she was, I could not imagine her taking his picture thousands of times. Considering she could not hold a job, their
phone had been turned off I had no contact with Ty, and no way of making
any. At about 7:30, I had had enough. I was going to walk to Ty’s house and see
what was holding him up. I cut across
the lawn in my freshly polished white shoes, trying not to scuff them. I rounded the corner and headed up the
road.
It was now late evening, and the sun
had begun to set. A musky sense filled
the quiet air, and my stomach became knotted.
I began to walk faster; Ty lived about a mile away from me. I turned another corner and yet another. For the first time, it seemed to take hours
to walk the short distance. I felt as
though I were going in circles. As I cut
across yet another lawn, I had been filled with terror.
In the middle of the street was a
huddle of boys that were in my graduating class. In the remaining sunlight I could see them
looking down to the road while swinging a wooden bat. Sweat began to spill from my forehead and my
heart started to race. I ripped off my
white jacket and threw to the ground. I
forced my legs to take off in a sprint, and I yelled as loud as I could. The gang had noticed me coming, and started
to take off. With the glare from the sun
in my eyes, I could barely make out the faces, and the ringing in my ears
stopped me from hearing their voices.
Where the huddle
had once been laid a mess. It was
Ty. His fresh white tuxedo was now
covered in dirt from the road and blood from his head. At first, I could not believe it was him. His beautiful eyes were half open, and no
longer contained the flame they once had.
He looked nothing like the boy I had spent every day with. As soon as I approached him, I squatted
down. I put his head in my lap and
yelled his name. I screamed as loud as I
could in hopes that someone would hear me.
Ty coughed and his sentences were short and choppy. Once again, I whispered in his ear to let him
know he would be all right. But I knew,
and so did he, that it was not going to be all right. I knew that Ty would not last much longer if
he stayed out on the road. I could not
help but cry. I felt useless, and could
not offer any comfort. My body began to
shake, and my eyes were blurry.
I yelled and screamed for what
seemed like hours. My voice was
beginning to grow hoarse and raspy. I
begged God to let Ty live, I begged and I pleaded. I could not stop the blood from flowing, and
now I too, was covered in the crimson liquid.
This was a nightmare that I could not wake up from. I looked into Ty’s eyes, and I cried
harder. My tears fell to his soiled
face, and washed away bits of dirt and rock.
Ty gazed up at me and with his last
breath, he had found the strength to mumble, “ I am
going to paint the sky with stars just for you.” He closed his eyes, and his chest stood
still. The tears and screams rushed
through me like a waterfall. I could not
stop them, and I had no wish to. The sun
was now struggling to peek over the horizon, and it's last remaining rays made
Ty look more handsome than I had ever seen him before. Through my eyes, his face was no longer
battered and bruised, but instead it glowed and I could once again see his
amazing smile.
A woman walking her dog had stopped
and called the ambulance, but it was too late.
Ty was gone. Ty was pronounced
dead from severe head trauma on May 19th at
I no longer wonder why the sky looks
the way it does. I know why it appears
as black velvet, sprinkled with thousands of tiny diamonds. I still spend many nights in the filed behind
my house, the same field I had once shared with Ty, it was our field, and I had
never taken anyone else there. I miss
him more than there are stars in the sky, and I still think of the boy he was,
and the man he could have been. I now
know that Ty has painted the sky with stars, and he painted it for me.
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