Nobody

  He thought the kid was just kidding at first. It was another fucking joke; like in the old Popeye cartoons. But she pulled out some little recorder thing and clicked it around a bit until a light flashed, some pieces of paper and a pen; and just stared at him. Like he had the whole world in his eyes.

    “You ain‘ fuckin‘ jokin‘, huh?” His voice is raspy, and he couldn’t remember the last time he spoke to someone who was listening. He used to talk to God, until he woke up one day and realized God hadn’t answered in quite a bit. And he felt silly holding one sided conversations.

    “No, sir.” Her voice is clear and open and far, far away. She was far, far away. Worlds away. Like the sky. Like Heaven. All he wanted was to go to Heaven. But God don’t answer no more. Nope. She glanced uncertainly at the box of Frosted Flakes that had been empty for months but he couldn’t bear to throw out, then knelt in front of him delicately. "It's for an English assignment, sir. Characterizations. We're supposed to be bringing our characters to life." She's gotten excited, and he blinks, momentarily blinded by the light in her eyes."-I just thought- you know, how could I bring someone to life if I didn't see the different sides of it? So I thought I'd research a life radically different from my own, so I cou-" She halts. "Is something funny?"

    Was he laughing?. He'd forgotten what it felt like. "Kid, I got a list o' reasons why nobody should be puttin' me on paper. A list o' reasons. And I ain' got no life. I died. Cain't you see I'm dead?"

    She stared, and he laughed harder because she looked so cute and he had nothing better to do, anyway.  “Mister, you’re… you’re not dead. I hear you breathing. You cant be dead.” She grazed his wrist with the tips of her fingers, but it doesn’t bother him as much as those blue eyes clouding over with pity. Pity. She’s far away, far away, and God don’t even talk back no more. Why should she? Who the hell do she think she is?

  She jumped, and he realized too late that he said that last part out loud. He pushes through anyway. “Who the hell do you think you are, kid, huh? Who’re you to tell me whether or not I’m dead? Maybe I want to be dead.”

“Why would you want to be dead?” She asks quietly, and he watches her blue eyes darken, from the color of the sky to the color of the ocean, and he feels bad. He never meant to knock her off cloud nine, bring her back to earth. It was just the truth. He was just dead. Why’d she have to push it?

“Why do you want to be alive? You’re family? You’re friends? I ain’ got none of that. I already did what I was supposed to do in this life. I ain’ got nothing more to do. So I died. It’s jus’ the way the world works, kid. When you ain’ got nothing more to do, you die.”

He felt the sun hit his face and he chuckled, again stunned by the force of her eyes and the strength of her frown. “Listen, kid, you don’ got to worry about that. You got plenty more to do in your life, okay? I know you do. Don’ waste your time with me. Go.”

She blinked, and he laughed again, wondering why she was so interested in him. She had her whole life to live. Her eyes were blue like the sky, blue like the ocean, blue like the Frosted Flakes box her couldn’t make himself through away, because it was all he had left. Like the whole world. She had the whole world in her eyes. And when she left, the whole world left with her. But that was alright. He leant back in his little corner of the city, smilingly slightly, breathing deeply, ignoring the crunch of discarded boxes and his old dirty corduroy jacket. The world is best appreciated by the living, and he was dead anyway.