by Daniel DeBrun
The sun was past its highpoint in the afternoon sky, and a cool breeze had started to pull towards the sun as sparrows flew by. Standing in the midst of a fenced in back yard that resembled an overgrown jungle, mosquitoes and no-see-ems were lurking in the shadows hunting their pray. The air was moist and kept a steady bead of sweat rolling. Each time the spade turned the soil in an effort to remove unwanted weeds and dead decay, roaches struggled to outrun the sunlight. In their final struggle, as they squiggled away, little brown lizards frenzied to reach their fortune – another belly-full. This was fascinating to the man and it pleased him to watch this massacre. Branches piled up in the yard acquired from a long morning of rigorous weeding and pruning, trimming and chopping, beautifying the landscape. About four feet long or more, a slithering black snake made way to safety moving too fast to react to. The speedy serpent was too fast to snatch. Leather gloves were worn thin, insufficiently providing protection, and blisters were rubbing through.
The woman was on the other side of the swimming pool, trimming, pulling weeds, and raking, to lively up the appearance of this beautiful tropical setting. Flowers were about, dead ones and alive. The woman was in the opposite corner of the fenced in back yard, helping, lending a generous hand. This was such an exciting and adventurous moment for them.
With his back turned, instantly, the most spine tingling, blood-boiling scream that had ever come across his ears, alarmed the man. The tragedy that this scream reflected had enough emotion in it to send shivers into the man’s spine and his heart shook, making him short of breath.
The man looked at the woman and then in the direction that her horrified gaze led, and that led to the moment he saw his child laying there. Laying there peaceful, with his eyes closed. Floating face up on the surface of the water in the middle of the swimming pool, the child had some white foam-like substance protruding from his nostrils and mouth. More screams followed. The man heard stories about when someone drowned, what the bodies looked like when pulled to safe ground. In real life, to him, it was a deeper shade of purple, a color that reminded him of a painful bruise. The man lifted the body from the swimming pool and the boy was a rag doll. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!”
Not a breath of air remained in this lone child’s sole. Not even a pulse to give hope. More screams followed. Screams that were haunting the man and that made him nervous. “Call nine-one-one,” the man repeated as he kneeled; his son’s head held gently in his hand. The boy’s stomach was bloated and the skin stretched tight. It had been his last inhale.
The man quickly inserted two fingers into the young child’s throat to relieve the white foamy blockage that was preventing the boy’s airflow. He turned the lifeless boy on his side and encouraged the clearing of the boy’s air passage. The man quickly touched the boy’s swollen blue lips with a breath of air, and a prayer.
One, Two, Three… the man pumped the miniature ribcage hoping to spark the heart and wake his boy up from this nightmare. Sirens rang through the neighborhood and tears raced from the mothers eyes. “Please God, please God, please.” Connecting to the boy for the last time, the man shared the most precious breath he had ever exhaled; the boy screamed the most wonderful death defying battle cry that had ever come across his ears.
Daniel DeBrun is the current Web Master of the Elektraphrog web site. Daniel will graduate from State College of Florida with an A.A. and plans to transfer to one of the area’s art schools to pursue a degree in Web Design and Interactive Media. Daniel is father to the most amazing two boys on the planet, Austin and Aiden, and has almost been married for two years. He has been part of a “Three Time State Champion” wrestling team (placing third individually), spent three years working avionics on the B-1b Lancer, B-52 Bomber, and the B-2 Stealth bomber for the United States Air Force, and spent a few years working in casinos in Las Vegas as a Blackjack and Roulette dealer. Daniel has also done Hollywood extra work in a movie called “Race to Space” starring James Woods and Annabeth Gish, and recently took on the leading male role at Lemon Bay Playhouse in the stage performance, “Cheating Cheaters”. He currently works as a student assistant in the remedial reading and writing lab, and in the computer information systems lab for State College of Florida (Venice). Daniel is proud to be part of State College of Florida’s online literary arts magazine!