Charlie

by A.Z. Mohd

Different, that’s what he was compared to most children. I knew it from the first moment I met the kid. People find it hard to understand. Find it hard to try to understand. Not everyone is born normal. Some people just had to be born different. Some kids just had to be born with disabilities, or handicapped. They can’t read right, some can never speak or hear you. Missing a leg, or having an extra arm. Not everyone gets to be born lucky. It’s hard to live when you're different.

As she sets up a pile of deadwood on a corner in stacks. I think this would be enough to last us for a week. She looks up on the sun, then down to her shadow. Its past noon. She walked back to the car, a red off-road wagon, opens the hatch and takes a tent among the cluttered mess and back to their campsite. She spots Charlie sitting on a log near the campsite, staring at the river on the other side. She stops to look at him from a distance.

She approaches. “Hey Champ! What are you up to?” She said; as she sets up the tent. “Lighting fires again, huh? You know you have to be careful with that okay?” Charlie just stares at the flame. He doesn’t seem to care. The flames, It reminds him of something. “Let me set this upright here real quick, and we'll have a nice dinner in an hour or so. All right?” She hammers the last nail on the ground to hold the tent together.

He never speaks. I’ve tried. I’ve been looking out for him since he was ten. Now his twelve. Some people say he could. He just doesn’t want to. Not really sure what to believe. He was with his Dad when it happened. They said it was an accident; they said it was his fault. He had always been a troublemaker; they said. He was riding in the car with his dad after picking him up from school. Then the car just went up in flames hitting other cars off the road. Killed three pedestrians and four more injured when the car went running wild like a ghost rider on four wheels. Poor kid lost an arm, his dad on the other hand--lost his life. Only Charlie survived.

It all happened when he was six. His mom handed him to an orphanage. She said she doesn’t want to deal with him anymore. The world is cruel, or maybe it’s the people who live in it that makes it so damn hard for everyone else.

She took pieces of dried wood from a pile near the tent, sat them up on the ground on top of each other like a mountain built with little twigs. “Charles. Can you help me out real quick and light this for me, please?” Charlie goes along with her request and lights up the pile of woods. “Finally, a fire!” She gives him a smile. “I’ll have to get us some food. Something nice for a change. I need you to watch the camp for us for a while, you can do that right?”

He taps his right finger on his right leg twice. That’s his way of saying yes. If he taps once, it’s a no. It sure was a struggle back then. Ever since the accident. Good thing he cooperates from time to time. Makes my life a bit easier. I know he’s bored with having fish all the time. We both could use some real meat.

Back at the car parked near the mountain trail, She walks to the front to grab a baseball cap, spins her blonde hair into a ponytail and puts the cap on. She walks to the back and opens the hatch. “Ok, now where did I put that thing?” Trying to find her gear. Oh, there you are. She grabs her bow. A professional grade hunting bow with fifteen jagged titanium-point arrows with a red feather fletching on each end.

I prefer a hunting bow than a gun. Guns make too much noise and once you make a mistake. It's harder to kill a pray a second time. Every animal goes wild and runs away. Bows are better. Keeps things peaceful and keeps everything else close.

I think the woods is a good place for a change. Keeps his mind off of things. A lot better than the city, and everyone else for that matter. Peace and quiet, that’s what he needs right now. Hunting isn’t always easy, but the more you do it, the more you get better at it. Not that I have much of a choice that is. We are way too far from civilization.

Walking away from the camp, she turn to check on him. Charlie stares back. She waves a hand and gives off a smile. Charlie just stares at her. She puts her hand down, turns around and starts walking deeper into the forest. She goes on to check the nearest animal trap to see if it caught anything. Empty. “Great! Another nothing! Well, that’s why I brought the bow with me in the first place. Might as well use it. ”

The scent of fresh moss and the mint of green earth from dead leaves linger through the air. Pockets of sunlight made their way down to the ground through the tree tops. The forest floor is littered with dead leaves and foliage. Not too thick I guess. She spots a burrow on the ground, wide enough to put her foot inside. Must be rabbits. It should be nearby. She looks around, turning her head ever so slightly to the right.

Startled! A bird flies in front of her, barely hitting her on the head. “Whoa! What was that about?” She look around to see what’s happening.

Silence. Nothing but silence. She stop to take in the atmosphere.

His not a bad kid. Not that I know of. He needs to learn to socialize with other people. I certainly can’t keep watching him forever. She sighed. We all wish we can forget the things that are not worth remembering. Stupid memories.

While navigating the forest, she spots tiny little paw prints. Must be the rabbit. Getting warmer I guess. Careful not to make too much noise, she followed the disturbed track patterns on the forest floor. Hoping to spot it, something white moving, gets closer to have a better look. There it was; small, delicate, and meaty. She slowly crouches into position, ready with intent. Drawing the arrow onto the bow and slowly pulling at the bowstring with the arrow in place. Gets into position. Sights ready. Lowers her breathing as much as possible. Trying to keep a steady hand. Holds her breath. The only sound she could hear is the beating of her heartbeat. Closes one eye. Dead focus. Aims. Release! Whuff! It barely made a sound.

She approached the dead animal, white, meaty and still breathing. She takes her knife, and slices the head off. Quick and easy. Takes the arrow out and cleans the tip with a mosh cloth. Puts it back on her saddle and grabs the dead rabbit by its back legs and places it on her shoulder.

Thump! She hears. Hooves. A deer is nearby. Trying to determine where it came from. Keeping an eye for animal tracks on the ground and spots a disturbance in the foliage as if a small tornado has just turned up. Follows it. Spots a clearing at the edge of the woods. Must be an open field she says. Until she gets closer and finds out that it’s a cliff, The edge of the mountain.

“Woah! Would you look at that! Never thought we were so close to the edge.” She drops her kill and the bow and arrow. “Great view I must say, you can pretty much see the river from here extending all the way to the horizon.” She approaches the edge to take a look below. “And that’s one hell of a free fall. Yikes! Maybe I should bring him here. He might like the view.”

She turns to head back when she spots thick smoke visible from a distance. Must be coming from the camp. But a lot bigger than usual.

“Oh, no! not again!” She grabs her things and immediately runs back to the camp. Back through the woods. Through the dark forest, and thick foliage. She reaches the camp. A stack of deadwoods got caught on fire, a few feet away from the tent. Pieces of burnt wood scattered on the floor and spots of burnt marks on the ground. “Darn it! Not again!” She saves the remaining unburnt deadwood away from the flame and shoves the burning pile of woods away from the tent then doused everything else with water. Looks around to find Charlie, but he was nowhere near the camp. She puts down her bow and arrow besides the tent, and sets down the dead rabbit near the campfire, and runs towards the lake. She thought she might find him there.

Charlie was sitting next to the lake staring at the fish trap she set up a few days since they got there, watching the fish trapped inside, struggling and crowded. She approach the boy.

“Hey Charles! That was quite a commotion back there at the camp. Almost caught our tent on fire. If it did, we might actually be sleeping outside. ”

Charlie looks back and just stares at her with his darkly yellow eyes. His black curly, unkempt hair covering his forehead to his eyes. His face, looks like as if he feels nothing anymore. He doesn’t care about anything anymore. Troubled. Desperate. Confused. She sigh. ”Is there something bothering you?” Looks at him for a moment and stares at the fish trap and the struggling fishes inside. “You should look at what I found. I got us some real meat! Will have a nice little dinner tonight, you like that? Come on, why don’t you help me set it up. I’ll teach you how to cook it”.

At the campfire. She grabs the rabbit and makes a sharp vertical cut from the neck down to each leg. Then she does a horizontal cut around each leg near the foot. “All right, so this is how you take the skin off”. Watch. She pulls the skin off of the rabbit from one side of the leg down to its waist. Then she hands the pocketknife and the rabbit to Charlie. See? “It’s easy, you can do it. I know you can. Ok? It’s your turn now. ”

“I want you to take off its skin. You can pull the skin off from the leg down to the neck if that’s too hard for you. You can use the knife to separate the skin from the meat. Do it lightly, we don’t wanna cut off the meat as well. ”

Charlie stares at the headless partially skinned rabbit, with blood still dripping off of its neck. He pulls and tugs and stretch the skin from one of its legs. It won’t come off. So he uses the knife to finish the job. She watches him closely, patiently, giving him control.

After taking off the skin. He hands the rabbit back to her. and she cleans the insides of the rabbit. Throwing away everything unnecessary and chops the rabbit into pieces. Puts it into a pan over the flame until it’s cooked.

“So you mind telling me what you were up to while I was gone?” What a stupid question, she tells herself. As if he’s going to respond with a whole sentence. You get lucky if you get him to say at least one word.

“Hey listen. I found this amazing cliff nearby, off the woods, it had this amazing view of the river. If my guess is right. The sunset would rise from there. Definitely an amazing view. We should go there tomorrow morning.” He stares at her for a while and then taps his knee twice. He wants to go. “Well, I guess it's settled then. It’s gonna be one hell of a sunset.” She gives him a smile.

Morning came. She wakes up and looks around at the empty tent. She gets up and heads out of the tent. No sight of the sun. It was still dark. She spots Charlie already awake, putting his green camo jacket on. “Well, look who’s excited. Let me just get some stuff and will head right out. ”

Grabbing a few supplies, foods, snacks, some water, a camera. Puts it on her backpack before heading back toward Charlie. “ You’re up early again I guess. Let's go.” He always gets up early, he hates sleeping through the night. He sleeps for a while and wakes up a couple of times. He really needs to learn to let it go. Though I doubt that will happen anytime soon.

“If we can get there fast enough, we should see the tip of the sun barely making its way out behind those mountains. I reckon it would be awesome. I figure we could take photos there too.”

She gives him the usual smile. He gives her the usual stare. They head into the woods, through the foliage, through the darkness, through the thick mud, towards the end of the woods. The end of the woods that gave you the impression that an open field was behind it rather than a cliff. The end of the mountain. The edge.

“Well, would you look at that? Just on time.” Yellow, orange and red shining behind the mountains from the horizon. The tip of the sun barely making its way out of the mountain.

Charlie stares at the horizon. At the colors coming out of the darkness hidden away by the night. At the tip of the sun hidden behind the mountains. The sun, the symbol, a sign of the opening of the day, and the end of the twilight. They sat and watch, as the sun ascended from behind the mountains, while taking photos of everything candidly. He doesn’t mind. As the sun finally departs, leaving the mountain below it, rising up toward the skies. The warmth felt everywhere. Charlie moves closer to the cliff's edge. Closer and closer as she stares at him while taking pictures. “Woah, nice angle! This would look great on a frame.” Charles standing close to the edge as the sun glowed behind him “You look good right there Charles. Would be nice if you could face me instead. ”

Charlie ignores her and continues to move farther, and closer. Six steps away from the edge. She watched closely, her heart pounding. Five steps. Now clasping the camera with both hands as she leans closer toward him. Four steps. “Charlie… Careful now buddy.” Her fingers twitching, blood rushing through her veins. Three steps. From the rocks and trees hundreds of feet beneath over the edge. “Charlie!” The camera falls from her grasp as she start rushing toward him. Two steps. She dashes madly, trying to catch up before...

The she stopped. One foot away. Charlie stood there frozen like a statue on the very edge, staring at the view. Staring at the sun over the mountains where the river lengthens toward it. She stood there, catching her breath, with a pained stare at Charlie. Charlie slowly raised his arm, his good arm that is, and extends it toward the horizon, toward the sun beyond the cliff. as if, trying to reach for something far away.

Then fire began to bloom. He’s playing with fire again. Turning the flames on and off. On and off. Then he lets the flames stay on longer. Letting it burn longer.

Charlie opens his clenched fist, palms wide open. His entire arm, now on fire. Bright and yellow with a flare of red. He stares at his burning hand over the horizon as the flames danced through his fingertips. Tears falling from his cheeks. Crying, like the child that he is. He knows what happened that day. He remembers. He never forgets.

She takes a knee, trying to calm down. Her heart still pounding in her chest while keeping her hand as far away from her firearm. His getting more and more used to it. I just hope he doesn’t turn into a psycho, like all those other children. I really don’t want to put down another child. I’m tired of that.

“I think I need a new job.”

- END -