A Child Hopes
Fiction
Written by -M. Taggart
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A child too young to crawl had no parents. A man placed the child in a crib and walked away while listening to its suffering cries. The infant had no understanding of the fading footsteps, but fully felt the abandonment.
Near the crib, carved into the cold stone wall, was the saying, âThese stones wash my mind.â A smiling face was left as a signature.
A nine-year-old had created the message.
Etched into the wood floor beneath the infant’s crib was another, âMy thoughts are new this morning having never been thought before.â Â Another smiling face was left as a signature.
**
âWhat are you doing?â Nickâs grandfather asked.
âReading.â Nick replied. He held onto a nail. He was helping his grandfather in the garage.
âOddly, I never read much. But, when I did, it changed me.â
Nickâs grandfather was a large man. He wore grey work pants and a white t-shirt with suspenders.
âGrandpa, what does this means? âThese stones wash my mind.â Thatâs what it says in the book.â
Nickâs grandfather stopped fidgeting with the bird feeder he was building. Looking at the rafters, then his boots, he shook his head, âYou might want to find another book.â He reached a window with his eyes, and noticed how the sunlight spilled around the clouds.
Nick didnât want to find another book. This book was too important. And he didnât miss his grandfatherâs face when heâd asked. He saw. He saw fully. Nick looked at the nail in his hand. It was metal. It smelled like metal. It looked like metal. It tasted like metal. But these words didnât taste, or look like anything, but words. Though, he felt them.
âWhy didnât you read much? That doesnât make sense. If it changed you, was it for the better, or worse.â Nick asked.
âThey were fluff. So much fluff. And the eyes reading them never cared. They read because they read. But, a few, changed me because they were meant to be written. And when I read them they made me to see.â
âTo see what?â
âThatâs not really the question. âThese stones wash my mind.â That’s the question. Be careful to not lose focus. If you want an answer to a question, truly want it, never stop until that one question is fully answered. Then, move to the next.â
Nick felt shamed. His cheeks filled red with emotion. He stood to walk from the garage and let the nail drop to the cement floor. It wasnât that he couldnât focus.
âIf you had answered my question the first time I asked it, I wouldnât have had to rework new questions to again come to the first. And if itâs too hard for you to talk about, whyâd you write the book?â
Nick walked out of the garage. Sunlight lit his young shoulders.
***
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