St. Jimmy

The next morning came far too soon. The sun peeked in thru the weak curtains in the room I slept in. The golden light filled the room with warmth and a sense of good feeling. Anyone looking in on this scene wouldn’t think that in only a matter of hours, we would be preparing to fight a shadow beast.


I stood on the training grounds, watching as my people worked effortlessly on what I knew as fighting techniques. If any normal person was to see what we in the Land of MakeBelieve thought of as training for battle, they would think we were insane. Drum kits, amps, mics, and guitar stands cluttered the grass land. People stood about tuning their instruments and warming up their vocals. In the Land of MakeBelieve, we fight with music, not weapons.
I couldn’t help laugh at the thought of all of us walking up to Whatsername and play her something like “Mary had a Little Lamb”. The idea of it was ridiculous. All I could think of to combat this was the saying, music soothes the savage beast.

The training lasted from dawn to dusk. We ran thru song after song. None of which I had ever heard of till then. Each was vastly different in both style and idea. It took me the longest to get a hang of each one. Brother Gregen tried to explain the meaning of the songs to me, but none of it truly sank in.
As the sun set in the Land of MakeBelieve, I looked thru the door to the other side, my side. I watched as time ticked off only another few minutes since I’d left. Time moved far faster in the Land of MakeBelieve than in my world. I sighed and got ready for the next feast in the town square.

I was lying awake in the unfamiliar bed I had slept in the night before without any concerns, wondering. Had my mom realized I’d left our world? Was she okay out there on sea while Whatsername sucked all the music and happiness out of the world? Had Brad finally been done in? And most importantly, where was Mary Jane and did she maybe like me back?
I watched the ceiling, searching for some kind of an answer. Nothing. The universe was leaving me hanging without anything to hang on to. A bone. Something, anything, I just needed to know that someone out there wanted me and was looking for me. At this point, I would have been happy if it had been the police looking for me.
The silence in the tiny room was suffocating. I could feel it pressing in on me like a living being. No birds, no music, nothing but the dead quiet that comes with the darkness of the night. I hadn’t noticed the night before. I was far too worried about the future instead of the present.
It was this same worry that had kept me from thinking of my friends or family until it was too late to see if they were all right. At this moment they could be hurt and dying. Or worse. They could already be dead and I’d never get to see them again. To tell they how much they meant to me, or how I loved them, or how I was sorry.
I lay very still in the dark. I wished it would come and suck me up whole. The world meant nothing to me without mom, the guys, or Mary Jane. I wanted to die. I should have died. I was a bad person. A bad son, a bad friend, and bad to the only girl I had ever loved.