Excerpt from "Home"

Excerpt from "Home"
Brandon Figliolino
2012

Scene: Kyle Jackson, a young man, glances out his kitchen window down at children playing in the snow. His cat, Electra, is beside him, pining for attention. He's home alone--at least he thinks so. It's some time in December.

             Through the windows, Kyle spots two children playing in the snow. He stands up and gets a closer look. Snow descends from the heavens. The sky is pallid. There’s no sun. The two boys are building a snowman on the golf course. They’ve assembled everything but the head, which both boys secure atop it together. They decorate the head with black rocks for eyes and a mouth, and a carrot for a nose. They’ve brought two hefty branches with them on a red vintage sled. They use them as the snowman’s arms. One of the branches curves in a 90-degree angle. From a backpack on the sled, one of the boys takes out a light brown wig and sticks it atop the snowman, now a smowwoman. Then, both boys remove a jacket from the same backpack. It’s a white ski jacket with a purple stripe running along the bottom. It reminds Kyle of his mother’s coat.

            The boys carefully insert the snowwoman’s arms into the sleeves of the coat. On boy zips the coat while the other one lifts the angled branch of the snowwoman’s arm up as if she’s
waving. The end of the branch has a long stem that touches the snowwoman’s head. The only other stem on the branch points upward, perpendicular to the long stem. The boys finish the snowwoman’s ensemble with a pair of black gloves. They give up fitting one on the angled branch. A boy stuffs it in his pocket.

            It’s then that they notice Kyle watching him. One starts pointing and screaming, though Kyle can’t hear him do so. The other stares up at Kyle, smiling. He raises his tiny arm and waves. Behind him, Kyle can feel icy breath breathe on his neck and a low whirling in his ear, like the cogs of a machine. His eyes remain focused on the little boys. The screaming boy goes to his comrade and drags him to the sled. Much bigger than him, he picks up the boy and sets him down onto the sled before pulling the sled away, mouth still open in a scream. The boy on the sled continues to watch Kyle until he is out of sight. The snowwoman’s head tilts in the opposite direction of her waving hand. It’s neck cranes at an impossible position, falls and splatters against the nearby snow. Her wig blows in the wind. Her waving arm goes limp.

          There is a crash from somewhere in the house. Electra growls. Kyle turns to see what it is, thinking his family has come home. They haven't. His father has long been dead; his brother, far away; and his mother still missing. He stands alone. He turns back to the window. The boys are gone, but Kyle waves goodbye anyway.