In The Forest

In the small village of Zacacoyuca, Mexico, there was once a tall man that wore a thick sombrero on his head. It covered his eyes that which held his expression. A short cigarette flew out of his mouth as he spit it out onto the tall grass that reached up to his knees. The man looked up to see his nagging wife, dressed in a red traditional Mexican dress that flowed down beneath her ankles, lining up to her bare feet that pushed down onto the soft soil. She held two of their younger children in each arm as they screamed in her ears. The rest of their eight kids hovered around her like a magnet and stuck closer to her with every step she took to move forward towards him.

“What are you doing?” She scolded her husband, who had just come from a long day from working in the fields, “Help me!”

He lifted his hat to reveal his bored expression and a hint of annoyance that bore deep into his eyes as he stood and stared at her silently with his dull brown eyes and arched eyebrows. His wife leaned in closer to him and whispered to her husband’s ear, low enough, so their children were unable to listen.

“There are already too many kids, you know what to do…!”

The husband nodded and whispered back, with the same secretive tone, “Which one?”

The wife looked around quickly and began to deicide which one qualified to be the next victim. The women’s heart had become harden and empty over the years that were filled with nothing but poverty and sadness. After having to choose which one of her kids had to die for about the fifth time, she no longer felt the pain she had once felt when she had made that first cruel decision of survival. Therefore, the decision was now caste upon the one who could not bring any good fortune to the family. In other words, it was to be the stupid kids who only brought shame to her family. In a hush tone, she whispered in her husband’s ear, “Take your fifth son, he has a bad memory….”

The husband nodded again and looked over his wife, whistling towards his young son, “Let’s take a walk…”

The young boy nodded excitedly with a huge grin, happy enough that he was able to hang out with his workaholic father that never seemed to be home. The father on the other hand, rolled his eyes, sighing on how much of a dumb ass his kid was with that stupid grin pasted on his face. Taking the lead, his son followed behind as they walked up to the trial-less forest. The sun shined brightly down on the world as the rocky forest bore small streams and huge tree trunks that covered the entire endless area. The green forest chirped of the birds and howled of other unknown creatures that lurked in the mysterious forest that was only known to the small pueblo of Zacacoyuca, whose people knew better then to enter the dark pathless woods.

“Where are we going dad?” asked his son again for the fifth time.

The man ignored his son as he continued to stay silent, roaming around freely until they finally reached the deeper ends of the woods. Where the tall trees covered the sky with their long thin leaves that brushed against each other, softly. Causing a slight whisper that echoed.

“Your mother can’t handle you all anymore and frankly, I can’t support you all with what little money I have and receive from working in the fields,” The father explained. His son looked at him confused but with a blink of his brown eyes, he quickly understood.

“No! Don’t kill me, please!” He begged, “I promise, I can go two days without eating and I can start working too! I might be young but I can find something to do!”

The father looked over his young son sorrowfully and yet he held a black handgun in his dark hand, aiming towards the son’s terrified face. His gaze upon his son lower as his fingers slipped onto the trigger but he quickly pulled the gun down, shooting into the soft grass.

“I can’t do it!” He admitted. Even though he had done so countless times before, he was unable to do such a cruel thing again.

His son thanked him in tears and the father warned him, “Your suppose to be dead, so don’t follow me home!”

His son nodded, watching through blur vision as his father looked around puzzled meanwhile he wiped his tears away from his puffy eyes. The father had forgotten his way back. Turning to ask his son for directions, he cursed, remembering he had brought his stupid son. The father’s gaze fell upon nothing but tall trees and green leaves that filled both the area and his blank state of mind. His eyes never averted back to his son, whose eyes lay on the black metal gun that had been tossed on the high knee grass. Cursing again, the father rambled on about how he doubted that the son was even his son because he was so stupid and hopeless. Knowing it would be useless to ask his son for directions back home, he took a step towards the pervious invisible trail that he had once lead.

After hours and hours had passed by, the wife gazed up at the kitchen window of her small, shack like grey stoned house that was built out of dry mud. The sun began to set, and with that, it caste a dark shadow down the small village. She noticed a figure in the distance as it walked down the tall hill.

“So you finally got rid of him?” She asked with a smirk that quickly faded in screams and heavy sobs.

Raising his huge sombrero up to reveal his face. The son smiled brightly with his toothy grin that only idiots could ever inherit and simply said, ”Yup!”