The Little men by victor castleton

The Little Men
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Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 5:22pm | Edit Note | Delete
The Little Men
By 11 years old Jimmy (Victor James Castleton)
It was 04:00 p.m. on a gray afternoon.
I was pensive, sitting by the stove with my stare resting on the small weather house above the mantel. The shadowy little girl watched me from the inside unperturbed, while the little boy struggled to become visible; I could see his yellowish, blue eyed face and shinny lacquered black hair appearing by the minute door frame.
My cat in the mean time was chasing behind his tail like going after some ‘enemy’ of his own body in a futile, useless turning and turning.
Through a slid between the curtains I could see the temperamental blue sky dissembling the coming of winter.
I fought my sleepiness disregarding the signs of these weather harbingers. Why should I believe in static wooden dolls and an irritable mischievous cat? “I am hard to convinced” I muttered to myself, and resting my head I stretched out comfortably to read my book. “Little weather house, with Lilliputian children, hopeless cat after his tail…Hmm” I whispered.
I closed the book in a unison clap, like trying to release the frolicsome words out of it and I voiced: “I won’t let the day change without my consent; I will do anything to stop it” so I talked myself into a wise prognostication and resolutely picked up the book again, but I fell asleep in the interim.
I woke up book in hand in the same position that I drifted in, but the curtains were drawn opened and I saw a bunch of little people scurrying away tippy toeing behind the mantel knickknacks; still eyed blurred I believe that I caught a sight of the little German boy from the weather house giggling devilishly, peeking from behind the domed glass clock, and then disappearing without a sound, as the four spinning golden balls distracted me enough to miss this sudden display.
I said to myself
“Hmm, I am still dreaming”
“Oh gosh! Where am I?
Slowly I woke up to a faint bird chirping as my sight regained clearness.
“Oh wow!” I said looking incredulously through the window pane.
I thought for a second that these little people had something to do with this, while I couldn’t believe my own eyes. Bewildered I sat there wide eyed looking at this marvelous white planet.
“No, no, I fell asleep and the world changed on me!”
“What am I going do?”
Then, I heard my mother calling my name from behind the door
“Knock-knock Jimmy may I come in?”
“Is that you mom? Oh yes, come on in…”
“It snowed last night, lucky you my little man, no school today…” she said leaving a buttered scone with milk.
I stood up and I rushed across the room to the weather house. I stared at the little boy with his trousers suspenders and beady eyes, now fully out of the house, and after a few seconds I said to him:
“You are not bigger than my thumb!” and walking back to the arm chair I grubbed the scone and I took a mouthful of milk, when I heard the front door bell and my mother’s steps walking towards it.
“Hi! Is Jimmy up yet”
"Yes c’mon in, he is in his room"
I recognized the voice. It was Willy from next door; I heard him dropping something off on the porch before he rushed in.
Seconds later he showed up all bundled up and rosy cheeked hollering:
“Jimmy you won’t believe what I saw last night by my window!”
I held up my breath while he was catching on his own.
“You won’t believe this, what I saw last night”
“My mother says that it was a dream”
“Jimmy, why are you looking at me like that, huh?
“You don’t believe me, do ya?”
“Well that’s OK if you don’t, it must have been a dream anyway, c’mon let’s go, I have my sled on the front”
“Willy I saw it too”
“Really?
“Do you mean the little men?”
“Yes, I did see them running up and down spreading mounts of snow all over, right?”
“Jimmy you did too, but who’s is going to believe us?”
“Let’s keep it a secret then”
The park and the slopes saw twenty two more winters gone by. I finished school, went to college and after that I got married to a girl that I met in my senior year. My job moved us out of state. and one day my mother asked us to come and spend Christmas with them. We flew in with my wife and my 10 years old son Jeremy. I have been back there a few times, but never during the winter. We arrived into town, and I asked the taxi cab to drop us off by the park; Jeremy wanted to see the slopes and the snow. As we walked through it, I spotted a familiar face coming towards us. I wasn’t sure at first because time has a way of changing people but without touching the souls. It was Willy with a woman and two boys. He recognized me first, and when we got to a few yards distance we ran to each other to greet in an embrace; I saw in his eyes the same Willy of always. After we introduced our wives we started walking back to our parents homes while our kids needed no help to get acquainted. We got to the slopes where Willy and I played with our sleds so many times. Then as we continue walking, one of Willy’s kids whispered to Jeremy “and this is where we see the little men play in the snow”
Our two wives oblivious to the boy’s comments continued chatting. Then Willy looked at me and said:
“It is still a secret right?”
“You bet” I answered. "It will stay among us kids for ever"

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