Three View

The best approximation for time placement would put this incident at when I was age 6. Here is the scene.


The house that I grew up in had just such a crawl space access in the back yard. I was sitting on the concrete side, facing the house, with my legs dangled down in the hole. I was watching my bare feet as I bounced by heals off the concrete.

There was a temporary fire pit about 10 feet behind me, made up of fire bricks, the kind that often line the inside of fireplaces for their ability to withstand heat.

I don't know why Clear Morning, a boy of about 14, was in the back yard. He picked up one of the fire bricks and started walking toward me. The reason I knew this was because at that moment I could see through his eyes, as he moved up behind me. Before I saw his shadow in the bottom of the hole, I also saw him from behind. I was seeing from three points of view at the same time. My feet and his shadow, the brick being raised as if by myself, and a view of him as if by someone behind him watching his actions.

I don't remember anything after that. I may have fallen asleep or something.

For years I listened to conversations between my parents, older siblings, any one talking, for any mention of "the time Clear Morning hit ...". But it was never mentioned, as if such a thing never happened.

Sometimes I run my hand over this one particular scar on my head and wonder why the Morning family moved out of town so precipitously.

Sometimes we need to forgive those, that harmed us, to free ourselves from what happened. Knowing what happened isn't all it takes, knowing why it happened is important, too. Sometimes we just can not forgive but need to make sure that these things does not hold us back.

The morning star bears the light of a fallen angel, is what we say here.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

Sometimes we need to forgive those, that harmed us, to free ourselves from what happened.

The secret of the story is that the protagonist really doesn't know what happened. The scars on his head can all be accounted for without a brick being involved.

What if there was something coming up behind Clear Morning that stopped him. In that case, what would he have said to his parents in a convincing enough way to get them to move out of town?

Something truly terrifying may have happened, which the protagonist was protected from knowing.

So he wonders still.

Thank you for responding.
I may not have gotten around to explaining it otherwise.

a reply to: pthena

What if there was something coming up behind Clear Morning that stopped him. In that case, what would he have said to his parents in a convincing enough way to get them to move out of town?

I considered this with the "why it happened" but should have expressed it better. In my case I did know it happened but not why. The answer to this only came recently, although I knew it but did not accept it before.

Since I accepted the why, it is easier, that does not give absolution or forgiveness rather makes it easier for me to live with it. That it could have hit any other one, it wasn't because of me, it was because that person may have had a similar experience. Passing it on is no excuse though!

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

easier for me to live with it.

You are the one you live with.