by Michael Vu
Acoustic Fishes
By Michael Vu
Cover Art By Joseph Hudak
Copyright 2012 Michael Vu
CHAPTER ONE
Noah Spence was a boy who could never sleep.
The lights turned on. The lights turned off. A few moments passed. The bedroom was dark. The insects outside were talking loudly. The lights turned back on.
The young boy has school tomorrow. He looked out his window to see if anyone else in the neighborhood was still awake. The houses outside were in a deep sleep. Noah turned to look at the clock. Only a few more hours until the sun would come and shine. That would wake up other people; time for work, time for school, time to play. And he would not be alone.
Noah rushed to his closet. He threw over a clean t-shirt. He is forced, with much effort, to pull the fabric down over his large tummy. He pulled out a clean pair of khakis. He stood before the mirror hanging on the back of the bedroom door. He brushed his dirty blonde hair to the side. The thick glasses in front of his eyes were crooked. He straightened it. He looked deep into his blue eyes. He pinched his left chubby cheek, and then he pinched his right chubby cheek.
Ready for school he is. Only, school didn’t start for another few hours. A car outside started its engine. The neighbor’s dog Alice, barked.
Noah had an idea.
He tiptoed out his bedroom. He closed his bedroom door very gently. He walked past his parent’s bedroom. As he headed for the stairs, he turned back to have a listen. There was not a sound in the house. Noah could only hear the sound of his breathing.
He was free to go. He started to walk down the stairs towards the front door when his left foot cramped. Noah tumbled and rolled down the stairs. He landed on his belly.
“Stealth mode,” Noah whispered. He listened for any movements. There was not a sound. He picked himself up and brushed his t-shirt. He readjusted his glasses, which were even more crooked from the fall. He tapped his left wrist as if he just touched a button and said, “Stealth mode off.”
Outside, Alice barked as Noah approached. As Noah walked closer to Alice, she stopped barking. Alice licked his face. Noah pulled out a plastic bag from his pants and feed Alice Goldfish Crackers. He sat next to her.
“Alice, do you want to hear a story?”
Alice stretched herself on the grass. She was tied to a pole near her doghouse in the back yard. She listened to Noah’s voice. Noah stayed with her until the light came. He watched the sun rise.
At school he smelled like dog urine. Again.
Elizabeth Little cannot concentrate on her studies. Ms. Appleton talked and talked about history. But all Elizabeth could think about was where the water from the sink came from. And what about the water in the toilet? What about the water from the showerhead? She remembered her teacher saying that earth was mostly water. She felt relieved.
But what would happen if people used up all the water? Elizabeth grew anxious. Surely there wasn’t enough water to last forever. Right? She fidgeted in her desk and shifts her weight. Her friends thought she had to pee again. But she really didn’t have to pee.
That night, in the bathroom, she refused to shower. She looked down the toilet bowl. She closed the lid gently as if a monster sat inside asleep, and was not to be bothered. She decided not to brush her teeth before going to bed as she usually does. Elizabeth’s mother, who was washing the dishes in the kitchen, yelled at her, and threatened that her teeth would all fall out! Elizabeth jerked in terror. In that moment she knew not what to do. But then, Elizabeth had an idea.
Elizabeth walked gingerly to the refrigerator so her mother could not hear her. Elizabeth opened the refrigerator door and felt a quick cold breeze. She reached for a can of soda.
Back in the bathroom, she slowly added toothpaste to her pink toothbrush. She opened up the can of soda and poured it over her toothbrush. When she was done brushing, she rinsed her mouth with soda.
“Elizabeth! What are you doing my baby girl?” cried her mother who was watching from the bathroom door.
“Don’t worry mommy. I didn’t drink any of it. I promise.” Elizabeth opened her small mouth and showed all of her teeth. “No pop. See?”
“My baby girl, why are you using soda pop to brush your teeth?”
“Because you said there’s too much of that junk on this Earth, mommy. Did you not say that, mommy?”
Elizabeth’s mother laughed a bit. She stared at her daughter in admiration. She said:
“Elizabeth, just use water from now on. Okay, baby girl?”
Elizabeth pondered, with seriousness, what her mother had just asked of her. She did not want to disobey her mother, but at the same time, she did not want to deprive the Earth of its water. Her face grew stiff with horror.
Elizabeth’s mother hugged Elizabeth and kissed her round, rosy cheeks.
“Off to bed, my angel. I love your long blonde hair. We need to trim it this week. You’re going to be such a pretty baby girl when you grow up.”
Elizabeth ran to her room. Elizabeth’s mother wanted to use the toilet. She opened the lid, and then suddenly, jumped in the air.
“Oh, dear. Elizabeth! Flush!”
Elizabeth listened as her mother flushed the toilet. She yelled:
“Oh, no!”
Across the street, and only a mile away from Elizabeth’s house, stood Noah in his bedroom still awake. He was twelve years, two months, and two days old. He thought about his school lunch. How awesome were the fries? They were so thick and salty. Noah rubbed his lips together as if a small grain of salt was still on them. He could taste the ketchup on his lips.
Noah had an idea.
He left his bedroom and slipped down the stairs. He made sure this time no cramp would occur in his left foot. He used his butt instead of his feet to get down the stairs. Noah found his bike sitting inside the shed in the backyard. Alice barked. Noah walked his all-chrome BMX bicycle to Alice. He placed his bike down and hopped the fence.
“I’ll be away just for a bit, girl. You be quiet now. Don’t tell anyone where I am going. Okay?” Noah slipped goldfish into her mouth.
The evening was beautiful, with clear skies and bright stars that seemed to line up in the sky for miles. The streets were quiet. The suburban houses, enveloped by tall trees, sat next to each other like deserted cardboard boxes.
The wind rushed through Noah’s blonde hair. The twelve-year-old steered to the middle of the street, all the while keeping a keen eye for traffic. He caught a glimpse of a cop car and jumped into a bush in stealth mode. The cop car was not able to find him. Noah thought the driver in the cop car was a sucker.
Noah arrived at his destination. He loved Checker’s fries. He had always thought the fries had an extra crunch to them. The oil tasted nice too. But the flavor of those fries, combined with ketchup and mayonnaise, was so tasty, so irresistible.
Noah rode his bike along the drive-up area and knocked on the window. A fat blonde woman came to the window. She opened the glass doors.
“Hi, Noah. Sweetheart, it’s two in the morning. Don’t you have school early tomorrow?”
“Hi, Mrs. Casper. You’re getting fatter each night I see you.”
“Yeah. Child is coming soon. I can’t wait. He keeps kicking me. Say sweetheart, does your mother know you are here?”
“No, Mrs. Casper.”
Mrs. Casper paused for a bit. She scratched her thick eyebrows. Noah had always liked Mrs. Casper’s thick eyebrows. He overheard a conversation last Christmas between two skinny women saying that one of their boyfriends had thick eyebrows and that it made him look super smart. Noah liked super smart girls. He wanted to marry a smart girl. So right then and there, when he heard that thing about thick eyebrows, he decided he should only find girls with t
hick eyebrows.
Mrs. Casper said:
“Noah, I don’t feel right about you riding your bicycle around this late at night. Nobody knows you are out?”
“Well,” said Noah, pondering her question. His eyes darted around the area. He looked out towards the street, which was usually extremely busy with cars during the day, but was now subdued.
“Well, yes, you know I am out,” Noah giggled. As he chuckled, the fat on his face vibrated.
“Oh, dear. And what about your school work, Noah?”
“All A’s and B’s. But more A’s, Mrs. Casper! Yes! Ha. Can I have my fries now?”
Mrs. Casper sighed. She walked away. Moments later, she came back with a white bag. Oil stains blotched areas of the bag. She slipped the bag to Noah through the drive-up window. He reached in the bag and took one fry out to eat.
“Hot. Ouch. Thanks, Mrs. Casper. I hope the baby stops kicking you and swims out sooner over later. I’ll see you later.”
“Be safe, Noah Spence.”
Noah started to ride away, with one hand holding his bag of fries and the other steering his bike. He turned back to Mrs. Casper, still watching him.
“I really like your eyebrows, Mrs. Casper!”
When Noah turned his head again to face forward, he saw a small rock in front of him. He tried to avoid it, but instead lost control of the bike. He zigzagged while desperately trying to keep control of the bike and the bag of fries in his arm. Noah lost all speed and fell to the cement hard. Fries spilled out of the bag.
“I’m okay, Mrs. Casper. This happens all the time.” Noah looked at his hands, which he used to catch his fall. His hands were scraped and little pieces of rock were stuck to them. “Ouch,” he said to himself. His foot was tangled in the bike.
“Noah, you have to be careful sweetheart! Maybe you should come in here to eat.”
“It’s okay.” Noah unlocked his tangled foot from the bike. He stood up and brushed himself off. He started to pick up the fries on the ground. He ate one and placed the rest back in the bag. “Bye, Mrs. Casper. Again.”
Noah rode his bike away and faded into the night. When he was out of Mrs. Casper’s sight, he farted.
Noah Spence had no understanding of why he cannot sleep. He had merely accepted this fact, just as one accepted the fact that humans require oxygen to survive. Nobody knew about his condition. He explained this to Alice one night, but he was not sure if she understood what he was talking about.
It was when he was just ten years old when his condition started. At first, he watched a lot of television in his room. He started to read his homework assignments over and over; it helped his grades tremendously. When he was really desperate to sleep, but could not, he would rise from his bed and roam the neighborhood. But no matter what he did, he always retraced his thoughts back to that one night that forever changed everything: the night that took his father away in a freak car accident. It happened like this:
His tenth birthday party was set up at Happy Joe’s Pizza Parlor. Family and friends came out joyfully to welcome the boy into his tenth year. Noah played games in the arcade. He won many tickets in skew ball and basketball games. Noah ate a lot of pizza. And as the evening came to a close, and cousins and grandparents had their fill of fun, family members made their way home. But Noah had craved ice cream treats.
Though his father was reluctant to drive to Whitey’s Ice Cream down Twenty-third Avenue, the man did not want to refuse a wish on his son’s birthday. So the family of three picked up their jackets and scarves, paid the bill, and drove away.
The car came out of nowhere. Noah remembered it happened at a red light their car had stopped at. When the light turned green, his daddy moved the car forward. It was then, at the intersection, that Noah saw the red car crash into his father. It bolted in the driver’s side of the vehicle. Mr. Spence died immediately. Mrs. Spence was taken to the hospital.
Noah, who sat behind the passenger seat, came away without any physical injury. But that night he discovered there was, in fact, one injury: He no longer had the ability to sleep. His body rejuvenated itself each night as if it were in a deep sleep for eight hours, despite him never actually going to sleep. At first, Noah thought it was odd he was never sleepy at night. But he found ways to pass the time.
His poor mother, so lost and hurt, never noticed her child any longer. She was engulfed in the fact that the love of her life was gone. Mrs. Spence did not blame her son. But she felt a pang in her chest, for she did, indeed, feel anger towards the young child. Why couldn’t he just have had ice cream at home? Did he not know it was too late for such a drive? Her thoughts drowned her into despondency. She was like a sailor lost at sea without her captain, without a compass to accompany her home. She was a drifter stuck out in the sea.
Noah was not angry about the extra eight hours. He rationalized his condition as this fact: He was living the extra hours for his father. The thought made him happy; it calmed his nerves each time he thought of his father.
Just a few blocks from where Noah was bicycling, Elizabeth was tossing and turning in her twin bed. Her bed sheets were pink and white, with pictures of smiling princesses. The walls were covered with artwork she painted or drew by hand. Above her head was a large window facing the street. There was a streetlight right in front, which sometimes prevented Elizabeth from sleeping. Elizabeth felt like playing with her princess doll. She ran to the light switch with light footsteps. The lights flickered on.
She played with her dolls for twenty minutes; a proper length of engagement for the princess to have tea with her screaming, yet annoying, fans. Sleep came to Elizabeth’s eyes. She yawned. She forced the princess to bid farewell to the guests. Elizabeth stood and turned the lights down, when outside her window she saw someone riding their bike with a white bag in one arm.
She rushed to the window to see who it was, but the bike rider was gone.
“Odd people,” Elizabeth whispered. She waited for a few moments to see if the rider would turn back. Nobody came. Elizabeth looked out her window and listened to the night. It was a quiet evening. The stars sat next to each other and illuminated the sky. Elizabeth started to count them. When she reached sixteen, her eyes grew heavy. She ducked under the covers, and fell quickly asleep.
Noah did all he could to hold back his tears.
“That freaking fall hurt!” Noah exclaimed to himself. He took a fry, which had dirt on it and brushed it off and chewed it. Noah rode his bike for fifteen minutes without a destination in mind. He rode down Twenty-third Avenue on the sidewalks, in case a cop jumped out and he needed to ride fast and get away.
Then Noah found himself at the site of the accident. He was always surprised to find the street so clean. The lights flickered to green, to yellow, to red, and then back to green. Everything worked. It irked him a bit to see everything functioning so well; it forced him to believe nothing bad had occurred here. But something bad did happen.
Noah turned his bike, and sped towards home. He took the long route back. Avoiding the main streets was key at that hour, because he didn’t want to get into an accident. So he pedaled leisurely through the neighborhood. It fascinated him to think of all the people asleep. He was curious to know what they dreamt about. Noah ate another fry.
He could still remember his last dream. He was running in an open field. He was running so fast his feet left the ground and leapt into the air. Noah was airborne. He flew above the clouds. It was Noah’s last dream. And it was one of his favorites.
Noah was running out of fries. They were cold now. But that’s okay, he didn’t mind. He stopped his bike to open small packets of ketchup.
“Slowly, slowly. Nice. Okay, now your turn, Mr. Mayonnaise.” Noah stuck his tongue out as he gently and slowly released the sauce from the packets. “Good. No stains on the shirt. Hurrah!” Noah threw his arms in the air when opened packets of ketchup slipped through his fingers, floated in the air for a second, and landed on his shirt. “Oh, man.”
Noah started to lick his shirt. He stretched it to his mouth and tried to wash the stain out with his tongue. No luck. There was a dark red stain on his white t-shirt.
Noah looked up. He noticed a light was on in a small brown house. That’s odd. Usually nobody was up at this hour. Noah investigated. He gently placed down his bike in the yard. There was a tall tree in front that blocked most of the house. The yard was filled with healthy green grass. The front of the house had three windows, two medium-sized ones, and one large one in the living room. It was a two-story home. The streetlight in front was bright.
“Stealth mode,” whispered Noah as he tapped his left wrist. He nearly tripped over a small rock as he neared the house.
Noah looked through the glass window on the first floor. He stood on top of rocks, which made his feet uncomfortable. Noah had to keep moving his feet around due to the uneven surface.
“She has pretty hair.”
Noah watched a little girl with pretty blonde hair play with her dolls. She had a mole on her left cheek. She wore pink pajamas.
Noah could not hear what she was saying. He looked at the artwork on the wall. He thought they were stupid looking. The little girl pretended to fill little cups with liquid. She kissed one of her dolls frequently and neglected the rest.
“Boring,” sighed Noah as he took another fry from the bag. “Not fair! The rest of the dolls aren’t even drinking their tea.”
Noah turned off his stealth mode. He quietly walked back towards his bike. He only had a few fries left, so he dipped the rest in ketchup and mayonnaise and ate them. He picked up his bike and rode away from the house while holding the empty white bag.
CHAPTER TWO
Noah rushed through his cereal. He slurped down the milk. Some of it dripped down his mouth to his chin. The light blasted through the untidy kitchen. Dishes were scattered in the sink. Food was left out overnight on the stove. Noah opened the fridge and put the gallon of milk back in.
“Bye mommy. See you later. I love you.”
There was no response from his mother, who sat at the table lifeless. Noah bolted out the front door. He slung his backpack over his back and rode his bike toward Glenview Middle School.