Perpetual Ruminations

Jimmy Finds Trouble (from a prompt)

Written to one of WdC's writing prompts, "As the Frisbee left his hand, he knew ..."

Jimmy, his mom, and his dad, lived in a small two bedroom house. It was small, just a kitchen and a living room that doubled as the dining room. His parents bedroom was right off the living room, there was a small bathroom off the kitchen, and Jimmy's bedroom had formerly been a fair sized pantry off the kitchen and right next to his parents bedroom. The house was old, the walls thin, and not much for a yard, just a bit of patchy grass behind the bedrooms. His family has just moved to the small, rural town so his dad could take a better job, so they rented the small house, for now, until they could afford something a bit bigger and better.

Jimmy's mom had found a job at the littler cafe uptown, working as a waitress. His dad, worked for the sheriffs department and since he was the newest member, worked the night shift. He would get home shortly before his mom had to leave for her job. She would wake him after she got home, either bringing supper with, or after fixing something. They had the evenings to enjoy together as a family, as well as every other weekend.

While school was in session, everything had worked fine, but now, it was summer vacation and Jimmy was home with his dad, needing to entertain himself without making much noise, or it would wake his dad. He didn't have enough room in his bedroom to play, so he had to entertain himself in the living room. As long as he was quiet, this was not a problem. But, after pushing his toy cars around the hardwood floor for a couple hours, he had become bored. Not thinking, he had turned on the television and was looking for a movie to watch.

He settled in with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich his mom had made for him before she left and was just getting started with the western he had picked out of the DVD's. But, when the cowboys started shooting, it got louder and his dad had waken and stormed out of the bedroom and shut the television off. He yelled at Jimmy, "What are you doing? You know I need to sleep so I can work tonight!"

Jimmy lowered his eyes to the floor, "Sorry Dad, I didn't think it was too loud."

His dad glared at him through red, sleep depraved eyes. "I know. it's got to be hard for you. But, Jimmy, I've been having a rough time sleeping with the sound of you scampering around the floor in here and the TV was just too much. I know you didn't mean too, but you need to think about what your doing. I have to be up all night and need to get some sleep. Find something quiet to do -- if you wake me up again, your going to find yourself in trouble. Understand?"

Jimmy nodded. He felt bad, he knew his dad was tired and didn't get enough sleep, and he had tried to be quiet. "Well," he mumbled to himself as his dad returned to the bedroom, "You will have to try harder."

He sat on the sofa for a while, then decided he would read one of his books, that would be quiet. He went to his room and looked through his box of books, picked one out, and headed back to the sofa. He almost fell asleep reading, so he put the book down and walked quietly around the small room to wake himself back up. Stopping in front of the small window, he looked outside. It was now early afternoon and the sun streamed in. A beautiful spring day. Jimmy knew now what to do, he would go outside and entertain himself in the small backyard.

He quietly left the house and was exploring around the bushes and hedge that enclosed the back yard when he found a Frisbee wedged into the hedge. He worked his hand and arm into the overgrown shrubbery until he felt the bright yellow plastic disc. He had to work at it a bit to get it free, but after a couple of minutes and a few little scratches, he was staring down at a slightly beat-up and dirty Frisbee.

He turned it over and pondered where it may have come from. One of the neighbors, he thought, but who? Most of the people that lived in his neighborhood were elderly, he had not seen any other children close by. he pondered this for a few minutes and then decided that it was unlikely anyone would be looking for this, at least, not anymore. How long had it been stuck in the hedge? Had a former renters child lost it? Well, he thought, it's mine now.

He had seen people in the park playing catch with a Frisbee, but he had never thrown one himself. He went through the motions and liked the way it felt in his hand. Cautiously, he tossed the disc a short distance. It curved to the right and went almost straight up. After retrieving it, he turned and tried again. This time it went much straighter and bounced off the over-grown hedge.

Jimmy's heart skipped a beat when it hit the hedge, he didn't want to loose this treasure like someone else had. "No," he spoke quietly to himself, "I won't throw it towards the hedge."

With his back to the hedge, Jimmy found the proper grip on the Frisbee. He concentrated on holding his hand level, drew back his arm and as the Frisbee left his hand he knew, he was in big trouble. The disc flew straight and level, quickly traveling across the small yard and impacted dead center on his parents bedroom window. With a loud crash of busting glass the yellow disc vanished into the curtained room as a very deep and horse voice cried out, "What in the hell..."