Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25155011-20140728180852

Good day people, this is a story I wrote some years ago as an attempt to create a tale for children. I found it as I was reviewing some old files and I thought of sharing it with you, I hope you enjoy it.

                                                  - BoogeyBoy -

   The BoogeyMan, a story told by everyone. Different in details, times and place but with one thing in common. The BoogeyMan will come at night for boys who do not behave. Should you not eat your vegetables, brush your teeth or sleep at night, he will find you and take you away to a place of fear and pain...

   Yet no one knows the truth about the BoogeyMan, which is what I will tell you now... He was a boy, much like you, shiny eyed and with a big smile, almost as big as his imagination. He always knew what to do, always found something new to play with, a new game to enjoy. Often bruised and skinned, he never stopped... But he also liked to disobey...

   BoogeyBoy had parents, just like you do. But his parents were not like yours... They were tall and scary, with black rings around their eyes and thin lips that never smiled. Their voices rumbled like thunder and made the earth tremble. Unlike their son, they lived in the real world, their imagination had withered along with their skin and they seemed to be always in a hurry, for they had no time to share with BoogeyBoy. They saw him from up above, so small and bright eyed and always moving... Like an insect... He got on their nerves, but they still knew he was their own, so they tried to teach him right, they talked to him in their thunderous voices about rules and respect and curfews... Years went by and for years they tried... Until he played dead...

   He thought it would be funny, he thought they would smile, so he devised a childish plan... It was late at night, when they were woken up by a sudden ruckus in his room. They were ready to scold him, ready to scream and yell, but they were frozen in place as they opened the door...

   They saw him lying on the floor, with a bookshelf fallen over him and a red stain on his head and the bone colored carpet... They rushed to him, lifted the bookshelf off of him and held him in their arms, like they had not done in years. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and yelled "Boo!" then burst in laughter...

   But his laughter did not last... A sudden shot of pain made his face turn hot and red as Mother had slapped him with a hand full of fury while Father yelled at him with a voice so powerful the windows broke...

   BoogeyBoy could not understand... He had seen how people rejoiced when they saw that a loved one was fine after an accident or an illness, how they shared hugs and kisses and smiles and walked back home hand in hand... Oh, how he wished for at least a pat on the head, like the one they gave him so many years ago after coming home as top of the class at school...

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   He had done something to make them happy and they in turn made him sad. So, in his childish mind he thought, if he made them sad, they would make him happy! With that thought, he gathered toys and clothes and snacks and left home. Surely, they would be sad... He went to all the places he wanted to and played for hours on end. He slept under a tree and woke up when the cold was worst, then played again to regain heat.

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   So it went for a few days until his snacks ran out, then he headed back home. He saw a strange car, with red and blue lights, outside and two or three men dressed in uniform talking with his parents. He raced to them as fast as his legs would carry him, with the biggest smile his face had ever drawn. He realized he had missed them so.

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   They saw him, dirty and sweaty, and smiled for a moment. He enjoyed a hug so tight it hurt a kind of good pain. He was carried back home and fed the best meal he ever had... Until they asked him if he had been kidnapped or gotten lost... He confessed, in his innocence, his plan. He was never in any danger; he just wanted them to miss him a bit...

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   He cried himself to sleep. Tears of fear and pain and confusion made his eyes red and swollen and his throat sore. He had been punished to stay in his room and only go out to school. All his toys and drawings and books and games were taken away from him and was only left with his work and study books. What could he do now? Were they not happy? Did they not love him...?

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   His questions were answered one night... He needed to go to the bathroom, but was not at school... But now he knew, if he made a mess in his room he would probably be punished further... He was afraid to disobey and afraid to obey as well... But maybe if he explained to them he needed to go in order to be a good boy, they would understand...

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   He crept out of his room quietly, careful not to let the door make a noise and stole to the bathroom as silently as he could...He did what he had to do, trembling with fear, and headed back to his room... But he stopped when he heard a sudden weeping. He backed into a corner and tried to find the source of the noise with his eyes closed, almost expecting the worst... But nothing came for him, no hands raised him up off the floor and shook him dizzy, no yelling pierced his ears... He could only hear the weeping...

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   He soon realized it was Mother, crying because she did not want to punish him, she did not want to scream and yell at him. Father tried to comfort her, telling her it was for his own good, that someday he would realize they only tried to turn him into a good man when he grew up, that they loved him even when he hurt them with his disobedience...

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   He heard it all and thought of everything he had done. All the things he had told them when they screamed, how he ignored them and did the opposite of what they wanted, no matter how they asked for it. How he hawed and moaned at their presents when he did not like them and how he threw tantrums that lasted for days when he did not get what he wanted...

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   He remembered and realized he had never been a good boy... For years he had hurt his parents in ways they did not deserve. For years he had been ungrateful to them when they only loved him... He had not been a good boy, but he would be one from now on. He burst into his parents' room and hugged them tightly, while apologizing with teary eyes for all he had done wrong...

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   BoogeyBoy turned from day to night into a model son. Never disobeying anymore, he enjoyed love and smiles from the parents he loved and he in turn grew up happy and became an even better man than what his parents wanted... Or at least that's what they thought...

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   Just as he hated himself for hurting his parents so, he saw how every other boy and girl did the same and grew to hate them. His bright eyes turned dark and his smile grew twisted and distorted. Black rings just like his parents' eventually appeared around him and he also grew tall and scary, so tall he could see every boy and girl and what they did and the ways in which they disobeyed...

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   And so, one night, tired and hateful, he went out of his room, quietly creeping to avoid making noise and went to the neighbor's house... Their son was awake, jumping on the bed and he had not brushed his teeth... He had disobeyed... BoogeyBoy, now a man, snatched him and kept him in a flea ridden sack, then took him back home and into the basement... He was never seen again...

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">   That is how the BoogeyMan came to be, how he became a story to scare the little kids... But can it be true...?

<p class="Standard"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"BookAntiqua","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"BookAntiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family:"BookAntiqua"">Now, close your eyes, be a good boy and sleep... <ac_metadata title="2nd story to publish, Boogie Boy, I would love to know if you like it."> </ac_metadata>