Kyle Awakens
Pile on Kyle
By
Michael Courtney Woodard
A digital alarm clock roars to life with the sound of a rock band playing loud music. The room is a mess, posters on the walls, clothes and various debris all over the floor. Something stirs in the bed beneath the covers.
“Dammit, shut up!” says the thing as it emerges from the covers and swats at a button on the top of the alarm clock. A teenage boy on the cusp of being thirteen has awakened in the chaos of the morning.
“Kyle!” shouts a woman from beyond a bedroom wall. “You woke your father up again! He isn”t happy.” There is noise from the other side of the wall. “You know he doesn”t have to go to work until a half hour after you have that alarm clock of yours set!”
Kyle gets out of bed and looks at his room. It as always a disaster. His mom would say it looked like a bomb hit the place.
“CHANGE THE DAMN TIME ON YOURS!” roars another voice. This would be dad.
Kyle hopes they aren”t fighting in there but there”s nothing he can do. “Sorry!” yells Kyle.
“I”ll make you sorry, boy!” answers his father. “I was just trying to get back to sleep.”
Kyle isn”t sure he should apologize again. He elects not to.
There”s a slight tapping on his bedroom door. Kyle crawls out of bed and opens the door.
There stands his mother. She looks haggard. “I asked you to clean your room, remember?” she whispers. “It”s Saturday.”
Kyle doesn”t answer at first. “Can you help me? It”s kinda overwhelming.”
“So is being married to your father,” his mom says. Despite how tired she is, she smiles.
“So then what happened?” asks a girl.
