Bedlam

Chapter one, Bedlam

Although, Arden isn’t a very loquacious boy he loves words, so much in fact that his favorite book is the thesaurus, not the dictionary like you might think.  He found it easier to look up the words, this way you get a single word definition, and “also known as a synonym” he’d add to is often short and mumbled sentences.  He is shy and his hair, a golden brown that has a wild, tiny Charybdis at the top. Curled in a ball on a large couch, his hands, hidden by the long blue sleeves of his t-shirt, he clutches his badly battered thesaurus.  Behind the couch is a window that displays the rising sun.  His mother a small woman with dark hair and warm brown eyes wakes him gently. 

“Come on Arden, time to get up,” she says, her shirt sleeves rolled up to her elbows. 

Arden rubs his eyes, and takes in his surroundings.  Arden’s mom is in the kitchen making breakfast.

“Brush your teeth,” she says, pouring bowl of cereal.

Arden nods and walks the bathroom with his thesaurus in tow.  He looks in the mirror, his reflection that of the twelve year old boy.  Setting the book down, he takes his toothbrush and thinks: brush in circles.  This thought cycles in his mind while brushing his teeth.  Last month he had a cavity which was more than what he knew they could afford to fix.  He was determined not to let it happen again.

Being short for his age, Arden takes a chair and steps on it to reach his clothes; he grabs a yellow shirt with two horizontal stripes on the chest and a pair of denim jeans.  He switches into his cleans clothes, ready to eat breakfast.  His mom watches the Weather Channel.

“They say it’s going to rain,” she says munching on a bowl of cereal; she continues after swallowing, “Your breakfast is on the counter, and oh, take your vitamin.”

Arden takes his bowl of cereal and adds the milk and walks toward his mom, she looks up at him suspiciously, “Take the vitamin.”  Beaten, the twelve year old boy hands his mom his cereal goes back to the kitchen and swallows the pill. 

“Wasn’t so hard now was it,” his mom says handing him his cereal.  We have to catch the bus so hurry and eat.  His mom gathers her purse and stained apron.  After she sits down with him until he finishes his breakfast.

“Put it in the sink this time,” she says giving an indication that he didn’t last time.  He rushes to the door his jacket in hand, “Aren’t you forgetting something,” she says.  Remembering his thesaurus he hurries to the bathroom and snatches it.  “Now we’re ready,” she says with finality.  The two walk into a small hall of the apartment complex they live in, it smells like the cats that the elderly lady that lives next door to them has.  They walk to the elevator that’s down the corridor; Arden’s mom pushes the button labeled one.  The elevator stops and opens slowly; they begin to walk when a black cat crosses their path.

“Bad luck,” his mother says jokingly.  Arden gulps at the thought of something bad happening.  He watches the cat prance happily down the corridor. 

“Come on,” says his mother in a gentle prodding voice.  Arden follows, occasionally looking behind him for the black cat that crossed their path.  They continued on their regular walk to the bus stop, when the sky begins to darken.

“There’s that rain they were talking about, put on your jacket,” says his mom.  The bus came as soon as they walked to the bus stop.  They put in their fees and sat in the first two seats. They listened to the motor of the bus as it began to move forward.  Arden looks up a word in his thesaurus for noisy.  He let his finger move to the word deafening which was under the word.  Deafening was the only word to describe the sound of the engine.

“Here’s our stop,” says Arden’s mom, tugging his sleeve slightly to get his attention.  Arden closed the book and grabbed the pole next to him as the bus came to an abrupt stop.  The bus’s doors opened onto the bustling street of New York, it was more deafening than the sound of the bus’s engine.  “Hold my hand,” said his mother.  Arden grabbed her hand as they wiggled through the crowd that moved like a large wave opposite of them. 

The sky thundered and lightening flashed, behind an airplane that seemed to be descending closer and closer towards them.  The lightning struck a second time and plumes of smoke rose from its fiery wing.  Everyone stopped to look at the sky. 

“What’s in front of it,” someone yells.  “Birds,” was the word that came out of his mother’s mouth, but her mouth didn’t close after she said that one word it remained open and her eyes, grew wide.  Arden tugged his mother’s arm, she looked down at him. 

“RUUUNNNN!” yelled a voice, the word echoes in his ears; his mother held his hand tighter and they began to run.  A flock of birds flew just above their heads, their beaks releasing a huge screech.  Afterwards came the airplane, it hit the ground creating a tremor so strong that the vibrations rippled through the earth and could be felt by the feet.  People scurried every which way, and Arden could feel the grip of his mother’s hand loosen slightly, a car at the intersection across from them runs a red light and causes a car pileup.  Metal meets metal creating a cacophony.

All of this because of a black cat Arden asks himself the innocent question.  Arden no longer feels his mother’s hand, he pants heavily, and the rain has soaked clothes through, no thanks to the jacket he wore.  Where is she he thinks frantically.  He hears her voice despite the noise, her voice calling for him, “Arden, Ardeeennnn! I’ll come get you Arden!” she calls.  He struggles to look for her, only to be carried farther away by the sea of people.    I should wait for her here, he thinks to himself and he snuggles into the small corner.  In his hand he still holds his battered thesaurus.  Slowly he turns the pages and looks up chaos.  Underneath he finds the word bedlam, the only word that could describe what had happened. Tears run like rivers down his face and he says, “Bedlam.”  And the sea of people that had separated him from his mother continues to run in its unruly course.