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FIRST PLACE
Loss
by Colin D., Age 12
Homeschool
Once upon a time, there was a man named Alfred Buckner. He used to live in a big house in a wonderful neighborhood with his wife and two children. Then one day, his boss called him into his office and said “Alfred, we’ve had to make some cuts lately due to the economy. We’ve really given this a lot of thought and we’ve reached a decision. "We’re going to have to let you go.”
Months of job hunting later, Alfred’s car was repossessed; his house was foreclosed; and his wife left him, taking his two kids with her. Soon after, he was just a wandering homeless man on the streets. He rarely ate and when he did eat it was something he could salvage in the nearby trash cans. Most nights, he cried himself to sleep missing his wife and children.
One day as Alfred was sitting glumly on the side of the road, a man wearing a pin stripe suit approached him and said, “How would you like to go back to your old life, Alfred?”
Alfred was so distracted by the stranger’s offer that he didn’t even bother to wonder how the man knew his name, nor did Alfred notice that the stranger was slightly transparent.
“What, you got a job for me?” Alfred mumbled sarcastically.
“No, I have this.” The stranger whispered as he pulled out an old wine bottle, “All you have to do is drink this potion. If you drink it, everything will get better.” Alfred noticed the bottle was filled with a strange liquid; it was a swirl of brown, green, and maybe some pink. The stranger cracked open the bottle and offered it to Alfred. The liquid inside smelled repulsive, but it was a smell Alfred recognized; it smelled of rotten milk.
“Beware,” the stranger warned, “it comes with a price.”
“What are you trying to sell stuff to homeless people? We have no money.” Alfred retorted, shoving the bottle away.
“No, not money,” the stranger emphasized, “But, you will lose something very important to you.”
“Well, what do I lose?” asked Alfred curiously.
“Oh, it’s different for everybody. You might lose your favorite watch, or your suit, or maybe even the family pet, but you will lose something.” said the man.
Alfred looked down at himself and chuckled. “I could lose my dirty clothes or my ratty shoes,” he thought, “I mean I already lost everything.” Then he thought more seriously, “What if I lose a leg or a hand…”
Just then the stranger noticed Alfred’s hesitation. He waved his hand over the bottle and suddenly the liquid in the bottle started to bubble violently and just as suddenly as it began, the violent bubbling ceased. Alfred saw a vision of himself sitting in a beautiful mansion with his wife and kids watching a gigantic TV. Alfred couldn’t believe his eyes as he stared at the liquid in amazement; it was like a dream.
Alfred asked the man “Is this real?”
“Could be,” the strange man said as he once again offered the bottle, “all you have to do is drink it.”
Alfred snatched the bottle from the stranger’s hand and looked down into its swirly abyss.
“Man, I really shouldn’t drink this,” Alfred hesitated. Then Alfred realized that he hadn’t had anything at all to drink in days. “Well” he decided, “even if it kills me, it would be better than living as a homeless man.”
With that, he started to drink the potion. It burned his throat as it went down. It seemed like the bottle was bottomless. As the last few drops of the potion went down Alfred’s throat, the stranger vanished into thin air.
Just then everything changed. Alfred was not on the streets anymore, nor was he wearing his ragged shorts or his dirty shirt. He was now in an office, wearing a very expensive, but comfortable, suit. The potion had worked! Alfred was wealthy again and things were even better than before. Everything in the office was labeled “Buckner’, which meant he was running his own business. In one minute, Alfred had transformed from a homeless man to a millionaire with his own company.
The only downside of this new life was that the building next door was a mental hospital. The only thing separating the two buildings from one another was a very narrow alleyway. Every day Alfred came to work, he could clearly see into the window right across from his office. It was a room that contained one chair and in that chair was always a mental patient who would look out the window at him and stare at him all day. Alfred kept trying to get his secretary, Mrs. Barrett, to put some blinds or curtains in his office window, but every day he’d come in to work, there would be no curtains of blinds – just a man staring at him from the other building.
It went on like this for months. Then one day, Alfred’s secretary came into his office. Before she could even speak, he barked at her “WHERE ARE THOSE BLINDS I ORDERED, WOMAN?!”
She barked back, “Alfred, for the last time, that’s Nurse Barrett to you. The doctor says you should come out for group today. You need to stop staring at your reflection in the window; it’s not good for you.”
THE END
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