Short Story Weekends

This is loosely based off a dream I just had.


I spent most of my summer at my aunt and uncles house out in the middle of no where. And I don't mean middle of no where like nobody else is around, I mean some no where town where people never leave and everybody knows everybody.

My parents left me there to spend time with my annoying 9 year old cousin, Ben. We used to play together all the time when we were younger, but I'm practically 12 now, that's basically a teenager. I can't hang out with little kids anymore!

Near the end of my summer I remember I was sitting in the basement (because that's where I was sleeping) and my annoying cousin came down.

"Hey, Jacob! Jacob! Hey Jacob!" he called.

I threw a pillow at him as he come down the stairs.

"Ow! Jacob!" he whined.

I laughed at him. "That's what you get for bothering me when I'm busy." I said.

"What're you doing?" He asked as he walked over to me.

"I dunno." I said. I turned and looked out the basement window. I could just barely see the street. "I'm watching stuff."

Ben jumped up on the couch I was standing on and propped his head on the window sill to look out. "Nothing's there."

"Of course nothing's there you idiot." I told him. "That's why I'm watching. I'm watching for something suspicious."

"Like a game?" he asked.

"Yeah, like a detective game, only for real." I said.

"Can I play?"

"It's not a game!" I yelled.

"Can I watch?" he asked.

"Whatever." I gave up and turned to watch the window again.

We watched the street for a few hours. A few dogs ran by, some teenagers wandered down the street laughing. But for the most part it was dead.

"This is boring." Ben groaned. He sat down on the couch. "Let's play video games."

"You can't just give up like that, dork." I said. "You have to be vigilant. Like Batman."

I turned to the window and at that moment I saw a tall man with a length of rope walking slowly down the street. That was suspicious. "Hey, idiot." I hissed. "Check this out." Ben jumped up on the couch. "That's suspicious."

Ben and I snuck upstairs and out the back door. We watched the slow moving man walk up the street to the nearby parkway.

"Come on." I whispered to Ben. We crept up the street, darting between the bushes. We reached the park path, it was dark and I'll admit, I was a bit nervous. The man with the rope wasn't anywhere to be seen. I signaled for Ben to follow. Ben shook his head and turned tail. I rolled my eyes and continued on.

I snuck down the path as quietly as I could. When I reached the park clearing I could see the playground. The jungle gym, swings, and tire fort were all lit up. The man was standing in the centre of the park with his rope dragging behind him. We walked slowly to the hanging bars. He stopped under the tallest bar. I snuck up for a closer look.

He climbed up the jungle gym and now stood at the highest bar. He looked at it for a while. He pulled up the rope and tossed it over. He started to tie it to it and formed a loop at the end. He tugged the rope hard. It didn't move. He put the loop over his head.

And jumped.