Max was sitting at the dock, he knew it was late but he didn’t want to be in his tent now. He was shaking with tears running down his face, the nightmare that woke him up still lingered in the back of his mind. He hated it. “F-fuck…” was all he could muster out as he stared into the lake.
(( I’m not good at writig starters yet but I’m working on it 🙂
Max turned to look back into the lake, he was crying now. “I-I had a n-nightmare…”
“Oh no,” Carlos murmured. His heart clenched in sympathy. “Oh,
Max… I’m so sorry to hear that. Are… do you want to talk about it?” Was this a common thing? Did David know about it? Carlos supposed not, if he wasn’t here.Max shook his head and pulled his knees to his chest. “I hate it..” was all he could get out, resting his head in his knees.
Having nightmares? Or talking about them? Carlos wasn’t
sure.“I’m sure you do, Max,” Carlos said gently. “I’m sorry.”
Max looked up, staring straight forward towards spooky island. “I hate them.” His voice was cold and shakey, he still had tears in his eyes.
Carlos was a little surprised Max went on. “Who… or, I
mean, what is ‘them’, Max?” he asked the boy.His own voice sounded really
strange next to Max’s emotion-filled one. To Carlos, it almost sounded condescending,
which wasn’t what he was going for at all—he wanted to sound open and
comforting. He desperately hoped it wasn’t annoying Max.“W-who do you think?”
Max rested his chin into his knees, hugging them closer to his chest.
Carlos wasn’t sure, actually, but he hazarded a guess. “Your
parents? Max, did you have a dream about them?”Max nodded, he wiped his face with his arm.
Carlos’ heart reached out to Max. He started to search his
pockets, trying to find a handkerchief or a tissue or something…
He found a pack of hand wipes. That might help Max feel cleaner,
at least. Carlos peeled back the sticky plastic cover and pulled out a wipe
before offering it to the boy.
“I’m sorry, Max,” he said. “I know I said that a lot already…
but dreams do leave you with emotions you don’t want to deal with sometimes,
and it kind of sucks.”
The Perfect Scientist 