The Weepers

There was nothing of interest to Jay, he was only a boy who had had no time for such things. So while the man on the screen before him wept to his country, Jay stood and walked beside his father’s chair. Something had told him that the way his father stared at the screen, so stern and understanding, that his father had once been like him. His father understood.

As if summoned by the look on his father’s face Jay had reached out and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder. A large hand had come up and seized the boy’s small one. For a moment there was a slight squeeze but nothing more. Feeling as if it was his right to say something, Jay spoke.

"Then men are as human as boys." Not much, but what was currently on his mind.

"You could have been one too." His father replied, only slightly looking at him before diverting his eyes back twoards the television.

With that Jay took his hand back and walk out of the apartment, back down into the street. He had no need to tell his father where he was going, no need to be with him in their last hours, for they were all going to the same place and would be together in the end. Be a family once again.

As he stepped out into the evening air, Jay looked up at the massive sky. He though of his mother, but only for a second. Time for thinking of his mother had past and now was the time to not think at all.

He began to walk. His feet knew the direction so his head stayed low watching them. Long ago they had agreed to meet, and watch the end together. Though the men were in charge, and did all that they could, it had been the boys that had known all along that this was how it was to be. So it was he’d come down to the creek, where they had played so many times before. There each of the seven other boys had already gathered, and quietly spoke about their day. When Jay arrive they greeted him, one at a time. Jay smiled at each of them in turn, knowing that they all felt as he did. Not one of these boys had tears in his eyes, and not one of their faced missed a smile. And there they laid, under the stars, staring up at the large beautifully sky, each smiling to himself.

Each talked every so often of times they’d shared, or of dreams they’d miss having. There were things to miss of course, but none of these boys felt a need to hold onto these things. They’d each have in the end what they wanted. They’d each preyed every night for this day, for what others had called the end but they thought of as the new beginning, and none would spoil it with soon forgotten lusts.

As the night wore on, and time vanished, the boys played beneath the bridge. Tonight was not a game of Hide and Seek, as they so often had played, but tonight was a different game of Hide and Seek. Tonight’s Hide and Seek was a dance to a dirge that they had promised to dance before their time. They were in teams, but they were one, and as half hid and half sought, they each said their silent prayer to God. And as they played on, they laughed and giggled, chasing each other around the creek. Other children cried but these children laughed.