Destiny

Night had taken the tiny room by storm. A lone lamp sliced through the gloom and dared shadows to resist. Alone, Eddie sat at his aluminum desk doing homework. On the sparse tabletop sat an overused eraser that had not been new when the boy received it. Next to that, there were a few pencils, a red notebook with most of the pages missing, and a picture frame displaying a faded image of what appeared to be a beautiful woman holding a newborn. Behind the boy, a rumpled bed with dull gray blankets waded the battlelines of light and dark. One dull gray pillow matched the dull gray carpet. In the dimness, the door appeared to be holding a silhoutee of a cross and faced a solitary dresser with the top drawer slighty open.
Today had been a very trying day for Eddie. Addition and subtraction had been pretty straight forward for the boy. This afternoon, Sister Maria, had tried to show the class multiplication and division. That had been an entirely different situation. Numbers had always seemed to mock Eddie.