Uriseya

            “Tommy, you need to clean the mess you’ve left out here in the living room.”

            “Okay—hold on—just one moment.”

            “One moment my sweet feet. You think I work all day long to come home to a filthy house? Lord no, this ain’t the squalor you were left in, this ain’t Baltimore. Get up here and get to work makin' this place nice, boy.”

            “It’s not a mess,” Tommy said, pointing at the scattered Legos. “Shadow taught me how to build it. It’s his home, a replica of Uriseya.”

            “Well Shadow can whisper you his sweet little nothings while you clean.”

            “He says: out there in Uriseya they got milkshakes in all sorts of flavors you ain’t never even heard of.”

             “Boy, get over here and start cleanin’ this instant fore’ I have to whoop you.”                  

            “...”

            “Dammit Tommy, 3...2…I’m getting the wooden spoon in 1… ”

            “...”

            Bright red welts swelled up on Tommy’s light brown rump and fresh tears wet his eyes. Afterwards, he deconstructed his Lego city and said, “Adults have all forgotten what it’s like to play, huh Shadow?”

            He listened intently and looked out the screen door towards the woods that surrounded their home. “How bout’s we show em’ huh? You and me’ll sneak out and walk all the way to Uriseya. Then nobody’ll stop us from playin’ all day and drinking milkshakes.”

            Tommy sniffled and used his shirt to wipe away the last of his tears then said to Shadow, “Yeah, that’ll show em’ good.”

            When the living room was cleaner than it had been in weeks Tommy yelled, “Ready for inspection.”

            Heavy footsteps trotted his way, “Fine, you did a fine job, Tommy.”

            “Shadow helped too.”

            “Sure, Shadow and Superman both. Just take them mugs to the kitchen and run the dishwasher. Then get started on your homework. Mrs. Blue says you’ve been slipping in her class, so you better show me when you finish up, you hear?”

            “Okay,” Tommy said, grabbing the mugs and bringing them to the kitchen. When he was alone, he made a face in the direction of the master bedroom, chuckled, then put his pointer finger to his mouth and whispered, “Shhh” to Shadow.

            He checked to make sure the coast was clear, then opened the screen door and snuck off into the woods. Winter had run its course and the fresh, green, life of spring was invading the path to the Chesapeake Bay. “Watch it Shadow, that’s poison ivy right in front of us.”

            “...”

            “Well Shadow, if you say the quickest route to Uriseya is due East, then I’ll use this here machete just like how I seen it in the movies, and you and me will hack our way there, whaddya think?” Tommy said, picking up a heavy stick and wielding it like a samurai sword.

            Then he stepped into the undergrowth and through a spiderweb. “Blast! We’re under attack, help me out Shadow.” Tommy was spinning and running his hands through his hair in a fury. When it was over, he steadied himself on a young chestnut tree and said, “That sure was close. Come on, let’s get out of here”

            He picked up his stick and they walked East through the thick forest until his two sizes too small Reebok sneakers started sinking into the moist, algae covered, marshland. To avoid the mud, Tommy turned southeast and eventually south.

            "And you say they got lemonade jellybean flavored milkshakes in Uriseya? Oh wow, and blueberry fudge sundae? My goodness golly Shadow. What'll you have first?”

            “...”

            "Gourmet Colombian coffee? Bleh."

            “...”

            "Oh me, well, I'll probably just start out slow. Maybe a strawberry cotton candy creamsicle shake."

            "..."

            “Let’s see...last time I had a milkshake was at the Paper Moon Diner in Baltimore. But that was before the police took everybody to jail and before I had to stay with Auntie Lee and go to this dumb school where I ain’t got no friends.”

            “...”

            "Logan? Na, he ain’t my friend, nowadays he plays sports and hangs out with Leo and Zeke. And we don’t need him anyway; he'd probably just get boring old vanilla."

            “...”

            “I wished Logan hadn’t gone an’ joined in with those other boys too.”

            “...”

            “I know it Shadow. I ain’t sayin’ he had to build the tower with me. I just wished he hadn’t joined in with em’ afterwards when started throwin’ rocks at me.”

            “...”

            “Well, I’m used to them other boys bein’ mean as hell. And they ain’t half as mean as the boys from the group home back in Baltimore. I just wished Logan hadn’t got mean with’em. That’s all.”

            “...”

            “Yeah, well you’re the only friend I got now Shadow, just you and me. But, maybe if he hears about Uriseya and all the milkshakes we drank, he’ll get jealous and want to come out here with us and be buddies again.”

            “...”

            “I think it too.”

            And they walked on without a care until the sun sank into the horizon and great golden clouds painted the Chesapeake sky. “Are we getting close?” Tommy asked, then looked behind him and realized for the first time that he was lost. “What’d you bring me out here for in the first place, Shadow?”

            “...”

            “Okay,” he exhaled deeply, “we’ll just keep on headin’ this way. Soon enough we’ll be in Uriseya and sippin on a pair of milkshakes.”

            And then the moon took its turn in the sky and an owl called out above Tommy. “Folks are prolly startin to worry bout me. Maybe I oughta turn around now.” And he looked behind him and saw the same dark forest that was in front of him. “Or maybe I ought to stay pointed in one direction. I sure am hungry, and thirsty too. Boy do I wish I had one of them milkshakes right about now.”

            A tight knot was forming in his throat, but he was telling himself not to cry. Then, he saw a flickering orange light in the forest. It wasn’t a flashlight, no, the closer he got the more sure he was that it was a fire. Yes, it was definitely a fire, he could smell it too, and something was cooking. “Looky there Shadow, we musta’ finally made it. That’s Uriseya, got to be.”

            Still, Tommy crept up to the man made fire like he was a fox on his way to a chicken coop. He saw a figure in tattered clothes with a beard as thick as the forest. A duck was roasting over the flames. “Looks like the people who I seen sleepin in the streets back in Baltimore,” Tommy whispered. 

            “Hey boy!” Tommy froze. “Hey boy, get over here, what the hell you doin out in the woods this late?” the man had a mouth like a beak and dark purple bags under his eyes.

            “...”

            “Ain’t got nothin to say?” the man asked, setting the duck down and standing up.

            Tommy ran into the woods. He didn’t dare look behind him. He ran until the glow of the fire disappeared and only the moon lit the sky. He ran and ran until he reached the water and then he hid in the reeds and didn’t even care that the mosquitoes were sucking his blood like thirsty vampires.

            “I should’a never listened to you Shadow. There ain’t no Uriseya anyway, I always knew it.”

            “...”

            “bout time I stopped playin’ games. This here ain’t no one’s fault but my own. I’m all by myself out here. Got no shadow cept the one from the moon.”