February 15th – The God Boy
February 15, 2012 § 1 Comment
So, Valentine’s was a busy day for me – I didn’t quite finish my story for yesterday. Don’t worry, it’ll go up. It’ll just be on a little bit of delay.The other participant’s stories can be found here: Allie, Tara, Pinky, Olivia.
Prompt: A person obtains (or obtained) limited omniscience, within a range of about 20 yards. What happens?
The bullies didn’t try to hit him anymore, after the last time – when they grabbed his shoulder and found a tack upturned beneath his coat. Or maybe it was how whenever they tried to sneak up on him, he’d tap the back of their heads and walk away. Or maybe it was how sometimes, when he wasn’t careful, he’d answer a question in class before Miss Montgomery asked. They had their reasons to be wary, so they let him be.
Derek was lonelier, without the bullies. When they started avoiding him, others did too, even the teachers. He still walked into school with a smile, though, a special little smile that whispered “I know you” to the rest of the world. Sometimes, after a dance, girls would see him walking away from their lockers only to find a pregnancy test inside. After the third time, they knew what it meant, and didn’t bother with the test. He started turning in his tests, entirely hand-written, a few weeks before the teacher’d written them. They’d avert their eyes, and just look at their desks until he left them there and went away.
He started changing after the spring -fire, when he calmly evacuated the building by himself before the boiler exploded. That’s when the offerings started coming, students bringing a little extra food in their lunchbox, or slipping a comic, or a card, or some cash into his locker. Or trying to, he usually met them in the hall, hand extended.
After a while, they stopped thinking about it, but they didn’t stop bringing him their gifts. He was the god boy, after all. Derek.
Tagged: Allie, boy, changing, February Fiction Fight to the Death, god boy, gods, high school, Olivia, omniscience, Pinky, Tara Barnett, teachers
I think this was a really good one. I was curious where you’d go with this one! I wonder if it’s possible to do omniscience without god-language, or if those two concepts are so inextricably linked in our culture that we just can’t really pull off mortal omniscience.