The Perfect Son
Authors: Kyion S. Roebuck
The Perfect Son
by Kyion S. Roebuck
Copyright © 2014 by Kyion S. Roebuck
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Dedications
I developed the concept for this story in June 2014. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that my reality would mirror my fiction. I love you, dearly, K.C.Y.
“I’m not fucking crazy! You’re only here to keep up appearances. I’m just a burden to you! I know it, now. I know it, now. I’m not crazy. I’m not crazy. I’m not crazy–”
“Thomas! Christian! I need your assistance in room 106. Bring the restraints!”
Twelve Days Prior
“Cody, you really don’t have to attend school today. You know that I take your studies more seriously than anyone, but I won’t be mad if you return home and get you some more rest. I can’t have you getting sick again.”
“Mother, I told you, I’m fine. I’m a little tired, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. I’ll just make sure I sleep well tonight. I’ll be okay.”
Kelly gazed at her son as he tried to fight back a third yawn in as many minutes. It was clear the night terrors were getting worse because he was starting to avoid sleep like the plague. The last time she saw him sleeping was more than forty-eight hours ago, and judging by the raccoon rings around his eyes, she was sure that had actually been the last.
“Okay, I’ll lay off for now, but I’m going to talk to Dr. Cruson about this. I don’t like this at all. You look like you can fall over any minute, and after everything we’ve been through these past six months, I’m not taking any chances.”
“Mother, I’m fine. The doctors said that this is normal. It’s just a sign that my memories are coming back.”
Kelly bit back the sarcastic remark, but couldn’t stop the snort. The doctors continuously fed her lines about how some amnesiacs fight the return of their memories, which lead to night terrors, but those doctors weren’t the ones that had to deal with a fifteen-year-old boy screaming out pleas for help and begging to not be killed in the middle of the night. The first few times it happened, she had to deal with sirens and several squad cars parked on her lawn. Considering it had been three in the morning, it was quite the spectacle.
Of course, the worst part of all of their troubles was that Cody still didn’t remember anything about his personal life prior to six months ago, including her. He excelled at math and science; was well read about historical and world events, including things even his tutors didn’t know, hence their firings; yet he couldn’t recall one friend or relative’s name or face. All things considered, however, Kelly was more than happy to take him any way he came after almost losing him.
“Okay, okay, I’ll drop it. I don’t want you to feel like I’m nagging you; I’m just worried. After watching you lie in a hospital bed, covered in tubes, practically dead to the world, I can’t help but to worry. For three weeks, I didn’t know whether to plan for a funeral or a homecoming…”
For long moments, Kelly’s face looked haunted, only to relax seconds later.
“But you pulled through. You woke up, healed perfectly, made up all of your final assignments from ninth grade, and now you’re Mr. 4.0, and I’ve never been more proud of you. I just worry; I want you to be okay.”
“I
am
okay. You don’t have to worry about me, even though I know you’re going to anyway.”
Kelly looked at her beaming son, and couldn’t help but to smile back. Her ex-husband may have gotten the eyes, but the wispy, flaxen hair and naturally cheeky grin was all hers.
“Damn right. Now, off with you. I see you constantly glancing at the clock. There was a time that I couldn’t pay you to be on time for school, now I’m the one getting the side-eye,” she said while shaking her head, still smiling. Instantly, Cody grabbed her in a quick hug, before making a run for it.
“Cody, wait! Am I picking up Sean, too?”
Already halfway to the school’s main entrance, Cody quickly turned to reply, “I’m unsure. I’ll find out before the day is over,” and then ran inside.
***
“Okay class, everyone is well aware of who America’s first president was, as well as who our current president is, but there were forty-two others in between, and as citizens of this great country, you should know who they are. So, someone please tell me who was our tenth president?”
Mrs. Walker casually looked around, but it was quite clear that no one wanted any part of her question. Every student, sans one, was looking in every direction besides hers, so she had no choice but to go to her ace-in-the-hole.
“Cody, would you like to answer?”
“Yes, ma’am. The tenth president of the United States was John Tyler.”
“Correct. Now, can someone please give me the name of our thirteenth president?”
Once again, silence reigned, and only ended once Cody informed everyone that it was Millard Fillmore. Happy to receive a correct answer, but still unsatisfied, Mrs. Walker wasn’t ready to give up on her students just yet.
“Okay, I see that a majority of you are having a hard time with this, so I’m going to give you an easy one, and I want someone other than Cody to answer this time. Someone tell me who was our third president. I’ll even give you a hint; he was main author of the Declaration of Independence.”
This time Cody and Mrs. Walker looked around the room to see if anyone would answer, but no one took the bait. If Mrs. Walker was a lesser woman, she would have screamed and threw erasers at them. Instead, she turned to the boy sitting beside Cody. He and Cody rarely spoke, at least in her presence, but she was sure that he had to have siphoned
some
knowledge from his seatmate.
“Sean, who was the third president of the United States?”
“Huh?”
Snickers instantly began, but Mrs. Walker dutifully ignored them.
“The third president, who was it?”
“I don’t know. Frederick Douglas?”
With that, an explosion of laughter returned sound to the room.
“Dude! Frederick Douglas was a black guy, and there was still slavery then,” a boy sitting in the back of the room announced.
“Well, how the hell was I supposed to know that. It’s not like she gave me a time period,” Sean yelled back, scanning for the person that spoke.
“The time period was 1801 to 1809. Try again, Mr. Cooper.”
Slowly, Sean turned around, and stared blankly ahead. Thoroughly concerned, Cody tried to interject.
“The answer is Thomas Jefferson,” he whispered, barely moving his lips so that Mrs. Walker couldn’t see him assisting.
“Who the hell asked you!” Sean yelled, blowing his cover.
“I was only trying to help.”
“Well, fuck off! I don’t need your help.”
“Sean Cooper! Add another detention session to your planner. We can go over our nation’s presidents during the session you already owe me this afternoon.”
***
“Hey babe, sorry I’m late. The presiding judge had a medical emergency, so it pushed all of his cases back an hour. I got lucky, and was only held over by thirty-five minutes. Is Sean coming?” Kelly said while flinging her briefcase and suit jacket off the seat.
“No, he has detention again. He said his mother is driving out,” Cody replied, before a look of utter bewilderment crossed his face. “Mother, are you positive Sean and I were best friends before the accident? I’m failing to see what we have in common. Am I really that different, now?”
Kelly couldn’t help, but to laugh.
“I know that it may seem strange now, but you two were inseparable from the first day you met. All through kindergarten, first and second grade, you were mortal enemies, and got suspended plenty of times for fighting. You two paid so much attention to each other that you were both labelled distractions, and then banned from being in the same class. Then in third grade, something happened that you have always refused to tell me about, and you two were peas in a pod ever since.
Belinda and I have had to deal with you guys’ anime phase, prank wars, skipping school, marathon gaming sessions, stealing our cars, secret parties, you name it. Dealing with one of you alone was bad enough, but the two of you? For a while, my biggest fear was that Sean was going to be my son-in-law. Though I didn’t act like it at the time, I was never happier to find your secret flash-drive filled with porn,
straight
porn.”
Cody didn’t know whether to feel scandalized, disturbed or disgusted, and it showed on his face.
“For the first time, I am happy to not have some of my memories,” he said with his nose turned up. That was then quickly followed by a flash of pain. “However, it makes me sad, too. It sounds like we were indeed close. He hates me, now.”
“Cody, don’t get down on yourself. You can’t help what happened to you, and Sean knows that. He’ll come around, and even if he doesn’t, that’s okay, too. People grow up and grow apart all the time. The accident made it happen faster for you two, but that’s just life.”
Cody nodded, and then turned his gaze to the moving scenes outside the window, leaving Kelly to focus on her driving. She had never been a fan of her son’s greatest bad influence, but she felt sorry for Sean. She remembered how lost and confused she herself felt when she first interacted with Cody after his initial release. Instead of spending all of his money on the latest movie releases, listening to the worst quality rap he could get his hands on, and playing violent video games, he now watched world news channels, listened to classical music and voraciously read nonfiction literature. A person like Sean just didn’t fit into his world anymore, and secretly, Kelly was okay with that.
***
“Cody, how’s the chicken?” Kelly asked as she awkwardly chewed around her mouthful of roasted poultry.
“It’s very good,” Cody said, and then downed a glass of water.
“Is that so? How interesting, we must have two different birds. Mine is dry and tough as hell.”
“…I was being polite.”
With that said, mother and son stared at each other, and then made a quick grab for their beverages, before bursting out laughing.
“Cody, I’m sorry. I’m dead tired, so I figured I’d just heat up some leftovers. Note to self: Bad food only gets worse when it’s cooked a second time.”
“It’s not that bad; it’s still edible. Though, I would prefer it if we didn’t try it for a third day.”
“Don’t worry, I am not a masochist. I will pay for delivery before I subject us to that hell. Even Sandy wouldn’t tolerate that, and she’s obsessed with eating cat shit,” Kelly said flippantly.
“Mother!”
“What? I’m being honest. Let’s test it, right now.”
At the mention of her name and food, the greedy Golden Retriever was already at the edge of the table, waiting. A few scrapes later, the stiff chicken and clumpy mashed potatoes hit the dog’s food dish, and she promptly gulped it down without even chewing.
“Well, I guess that proves that your leftovers are at least as good as cat feces.”
“That dog has no standards. We both tasted that food, yet look at her. She’s actually begging for more.”
Sure enough, Sandy was licking her mouth, and searching her bowl for any missed morsel.
“I’ll give her mine, too,” Cody said, before picking up his plate. Immediately, Sandy penned her ears back, tucked her tail and gave a low growl. It made Cody pause, but going against his better judgment, he approached anyway. As soon as he was in striking distance, Sandy lunged at him, knocking the plate and food onto the floor.
“Sandy!”
At Kelly’s yell, the dog whined, and then bolted to the upstairs level, while Kelly swiftly moved to check her son for injuries.
“Oh my God, Cody are you alright?”
“I’m okay; she didn’t get me. I pulled back in time.”
Not trusting his assessment, Kelly continued to search until she was positive there was no broken skin.
“I swear I don’t know what the hell has gotten into that dog,” she said, while looking up the stairs in anger.
“It’s me. She hates me.”
“No, she doesn’t. She has been your protector since she was a puppy. She’s been on the job for eleven long years, and is still going strong, or rather
was
going strong.”
“Mother that was then, this is now. Like Sean, she hates me. She hasn’t let me pet her once since I’ve gotten out of the hospital. She acts like I’m the boogeyman.”
“I think she’s just getting senile. She can’t possibly hate you that much considering she still climbs into bed with you every night after you fall asleep.”
Hearing that, Cody wondered if perhaps his mother had been right, and he was just being overly negative.
“Really?” he asked with uncertainty in his voice.
“Really,” Kelly confirmed. “I think she thinks it’s her job to keep the night terrors away.”
Imagining the old dog keeping a silent vigil over him brought a smile to the Cody’s face, which brought one to Kelly’s as well. A deep yawn from the boy, however, made Kelly’s leave as quickly as it came.
“Speaking of night terrors, go get my purse so that I can give you a sleeping pill. You’re already starting to resemble a zombie, and I don’t want to wake up to the living dead tomorrow morning.”
“That’s okay, Mother. I’m so tired that I don’t think I’ll have any trouble sleeping tonight. If anything, a sleeping pill will make it impossible for me to be alert tomorrow; then, I really would resemble the dead,” Cody said with a smile. Kelly looked hesitant for a moment, but finally gave in. It indeed did look like he could sleep for weeks.