Edward Giron

The voices in the room returned at the same hour. I knew to expect them, to invite them, to welcome them. When they ceased, followed by a steady rhythmic coda, I would be led away. Again.

This particular night was only slightly different. Led away, yes. Surrounded by darkness, yes.

This time, however, I felt a warm night breeze on my cheek, and the accusatory implorations of a night owl filled my ears. If I could trace the source of the breeze, if I could glimpse the stars in the endless night, there was a chance for freedom.

A paralysis overtook my lower limbs. I could not rise. I was on my back, my arms barely able to elevate my hands to my brow to wipe away the sweat from the fever. After a while, the entirety of my self grew heavy, from the head to the barely palpable lower extremities. I fought away sleep, and then I succumbed to it.

Light. My eyelids fluttered awake.

I had not found the moment of awakened independence I could seize upon.  I had instead fallen into subconsciousness and imprisoned myself again upon awakening to the devil known, to the monotony of mundane wakefulness.

I would once again be deposited in a place where dreams were shuttered away, where inventiveness was suffocated, where inattention to the conventions of rote was failure.

And there I was. Once again. At the façade of mediocrity. Standing by the gates of endless repetition, forced to enter them alone. Forced up the stairs of retribution, to the room of endless banality.

In the distance the seemingly ceaseless constancy of a bell, louder and louder as it engulfed me. I wanted to put my hands to my head to silence the sound.

And then a weak voice presided. It signaled the beginning of another endless day.

Monday morning. 8:30 AM. The second week of my third-grade year had just begun.

Edward Giron is a previous contributor to The Satirist (“The Dying Roar of the Lions,” in honor of the passing of his friend, long-time contributing editor, Elaine Kendall). Ed is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and a member of Actors Equity Association and is a frequent theatre and voice actor. He has written several produced one act plays as well as a produced full-length work.