1892 a2 The Jolly kid

Pyre was hanging out again.

Today was special. The surprise rain show last week had everyone mad, but not him, never him.

It was strange for it to rain for five days non-stop, actually, everyone complained, just not Pyre. He was happy to see his father to be home- that too for five days?

That's all he sees him in a period of three months.

True they had issues, financial ones, but nothing his smile couldn't handle.

His dad got a job it seems. The rain did enough damage for them to hire more workers, it looks like the rain was really a godsend, almost magical as some may call it.

He kicked the stone again, taking his companion from his house to the nearby lake.

He wondered, if he had all the money in the world, wouldn't that make his life much different?

His dad would not have to go to work. They could have all the food in the world!

He would have friends, no one would shun him.

His mother would not have to work so hard- she could have gotten maids- heck he could have a maid of his own!

Contemplating these thoughts, Pyre did not notice his proximity to the lake shore.

Slip, he did, right into the water. And the water level was nowhere near what it was five days prior. Pyre fell right into the deepest part, which was once just the shore of the water body.

The nine-foot water dip, added to his surprise due to the fall, made it a dangerous time for him to lose consciousness. Fortunately, his mind remained active.

Pyre brought his hand to the front and pushed the water beneath him, but the thrust was not enough to even stop the gradual decline. He repeated the process to pull him immobile, but that was progress.

He looked down, beneath him was the newly formed lakebed, just half a foot from his standstill.

Pyre let and let himself drown, eventually, his feet made contact with the surface below.

Bringing all he had in him, he pulled his body downwards and then made a jump, for it was difficult to get to the cliff end of the lake bank due to his drifting towards the centre of the lake.

Jump he wanted and jump he did. He pushed the water downwards again, this time contributing to his motion. Water bubbles were noticeable at the top of the water. 

"AaHH" He reached the surface and took the deepest breath in the history of deep breaths.

Pyre looked at his surroundings, to get help from someone, yet there was no sign of life for as far as his sight goes... except... an  Owl.

He swam to the coast, non-chantantly walking home, unknown to the witness to this whole incident.

Ignoring his 13 feet jumping in the water and swimming for half a mile after that as if it was normal for a 10-year-old boy.

.

.

Pyre's father, Steve was an ex-workman in a flour mill. That was prior to his wedding. The wedding changed his life- some would agree for the worse but he himself thought it was a boon.

After his marriage thought, he indulged in all sorts of drugs. whatever was available in the market, he had gotten himself into that.

Morphine, heroin, opium, cocaine, to the point alcohol and tobacco were the lesser evils.

His marriage was not going all flowery. The drugs reigned in his mind and often he was at work and then unconscious due to drugs. 

But one day, his wife said she was pregnant.

He knew that the child could not be his, they had not done the deed for the last six months.

'Did I force myself unconsciously?' He thought to himself, he had a record of that with prostitutes.

But he hadn't- he knew whatever he did outside the house, stayed outside the house. Despite all the fights and whoring, he never brought his anger or anything he deemed bad inside his house.

So it was established this was not his child.

To say he was angry was the bare minimum. The thoughts come raging in- hit his wife. kill her? flee away from here? but none of them were put into action.

Instead, he just lay down on the bed and slept away with his feelings, unsure of how to act.

Days went by and Steve remained bed-stricken. His wife served him still but he pretty much ignored her.

And the situation had not changed since her child's birth. One could still count on the household being as silent as a graveyard. In spite, of some other feelings the child was named Pyre, which the mother accepted, somewhat reluctantly.

Some say time heals wounds, so it did for Steve as he came around loving the little child somehow.

Slowly but surely he could not ignore such a cute kid in his own household.

And so stopped the alcohol at first, but the addiction took him five years and all his will for such to come by. The whoring stopped, the cursing stopped, and gradually all turned for the better.

Things were tough but nowhere near enough where the son's smile could not clear them.

However, somewhere deep in his mind, there was always the question of Pyre's parentage.

Fast forward, ten years, the family was stuck together by the glue named Pyre. Love bloomed for the couple, for the family, for each other. And in time they indulged in their desires...

The rain week as the people called it came bearing gifts, for his wife was pregnant. This time it's actually his child- not that Pyre was treated any different than his own flesh and blood.

Work he gotta do and work he did, for he had to provide for four now. So he took the train to Scotland to get some extra money.

What did not pass by him was the bloodied sheets of the bed... often the sign of "purity" deemed by noble ladies in the aristocracy...