short fiction for tuesday

There is a couch in a room somewhere. And no one is sitting there. There is a sun on a beach somewhere no one is sitting under. There are words in a safe somewhere no one will ever read. There is a signal high up in the air no one will ever see. When the children go out, they fill up their packs--sandwiches and juice boxes, lucky rocks, extra socks. They need to bring everything in case they go somewhere where there is nothing, or not enough. they need to be everything to know everything to see everything They need to breathe everything be everything When the children go to sleep, their dreams are watercolored versions of stories they've heard. When the children grow up, they dig a big hole in the sand, throw their packs in and bury them. Then they go for a walk and never come back. "Never come back!" they chant. "Never come back."