Stranger

• Samantha Norris, Grade 8, St Margaret Mary's Catholic College
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

Alec sat completely still on his twin sized bed, gazing out the window that gave him an uninteresting view of the quiet, little neighbourhood. Nothing eventful ever happened in this town, until word spread like wildfire that the psychotic boy Alec Kennedy was returning home from his lovely time at Australia’s world renowned mental help hospital. Alec’s mother – Janice – was infuriated when she found out that people were desperate to gossip about such a serious thing. It was a small town, and when finally something interesting happened it was worth talking about but nothing could be done to prevent it.
A tap on his shoulder made him leap up from his place on his bed, almost bellowing out in fear until he realised the culprit was his mother. She slightly smiled at her boy but he didn’t return the gesture instead he stared back at her, waiting for her to speak. The woman cleared her throat.
“You’ve been sitting up here for weeks. I…I think it’s t…ti-“ She stuttered out her last sentence, unable to even finish it, knowing the reaction she received would definitely not be pleasant.
Once again she cleared her throat before speaking, this time with more confidence.
“I think it’s time you returned to school, to show everyone you’re not a coward and that you’re physically and mentally stable, Alec.”
She lowered her gaze to the floor so she was unable to see the look of fury and misery and anxiety on her boy’s face. Nothing was heard from Alec, not a groan of irritation or a scream of frustration. Janice knew that he was trying his hardest to keep calm by holding his breath and looking anywhere else but her, though she knew he wanted to scream. “I’m sorry.” She whispered to him before backing out of his room and closing the door, leaving him alone in his misery. She felt a pang of guilt hit her, but she knew this was for the best, but the best for him…or for her?
For Alec, walking into school after what happened two years ago was torture. By the stares and whispers, he knew they remembered him and the incident that took place in this hall. It was two-thirty in the afternoon and everything seemed to be going fine with Alec. No bad voices in his head, just silence, even the looks thrown his way. He continued on his was to his next class.
A pounding in his head suddenly made him halt. Fear shot through his body as incomprehensible words started flowing through his head until they became clear. Bad thoughts lead to bad things, although he could not help it. Alec tried to keep calm, perhaps make it outside rather than have another episode in the hall but all failed. The voices grew louder and louder, drowning his own positive thoughts in their negativity. ‘They’ yelled horrific things at him, belittling him. This is exactly what he feared and what he hoped would never recur. As he fell down, pulling at his hear trying to stop the madness, stares were thrown his way. No-one wanted to help him, they were frightened of him.
Minutes later a crowd began to form and the light Alec once saw, slowly faded to darkness.
Alec was in his room gazing out the window again, this time not at the neighbourhood but the new neighbours. The family appeared happy, carrying boxed that seemed too heavy for their arms. Laughing as the other almost drops the box. A happy family is what he desired but instead he had a single-mother who wished she didn’t have him, at least that’s what he thought. The thing that stood out most to him was not actually a thing but a person. She seemed familiar and after raking his jumbled mind for any memories of her, it clicked.
“Until one day, you meet
The stranger sliding down your street,
Realise you know the face
Simplified to the bone,
Look into its outcast eyes.