comfortably numb // marree

“let’s get these teen hearts beating faster”

moses tieford - sixteen - district two

My favourite time is the end of the week, when the trucks come up from the quarries in a long parade, laden with large white stone. The dust that they cough into the air makes it easy to walk around town unseen, and the booming hum of their engines makes talking impossible. It's an environment in which I thrive completely. Today, the sun shines, even though the air is still sharp with frost, and I pull my scarf up over my face. The road from quarry to factory is not residential, but is full of people nonetheless, and I delight in being able to slip past them unassaulted. I'm a ghost. Sometimes, I dream that it's like this all the time. For many people, that might be a nightmare, but for me it's a fantasy I wish would never end. I've craved invisibility since the power of proper speech abandoned me helpless.

Ahead of me, a girl walks alone. She's around my age, and usually my classmates stop me to ask what I'm doing out here. Although I myself might be nothing special, I come from a prestigious enough family that my peers' parents are always urging them to get on my good side. I increase my pace, ready to stride right past her without any interaction.

Suddenly, there's a crack and a shout that doesn't match the familiar rhythmic churning of the engines. I glance left, but look again and stare wide eyed as the truck beside us begins to rock and shudder. It's going to tip! The first pebbles bounce onto the ground, and I can see the girl ahead of me has stopped completely and is gawping at the truck, too. I break into a sprint and hurtle towards her, no longer clutching my scarf but stretching out my hands towards her. I try to scream "watch out!" but combination of scarf and scarred tongue turns it into more of a gargling screech. Knocking her backwards, I cover us both, and as I feel the ground shake and the dust rise up behind us, I know I've pushed us out of harms way. I've played the hero, and now I have to face whatever consequences might come of it.