Word Count: 430
You remember the man with no nose, Mr. Hegerson, a widower who lived on the block. You were little and he caught you staring, and your mother wasn’t around. He lifted up the rubber nose that he wore on a string tied around his head and showed you the hole in the middle of his face. He snapped the nose back in place and grinned around a deep throated laugh as you cowered in fright.
You held the scream in till your stomach swallowed it down. You found and clung to the side of your mother, gripping her hand as if she could keep you from falling into that void on Mr. Hegerson’s face. Never told her, even when you woke up in the black safety of your bedroom, when the hole where a nose should have been haunted your nightmares. Because staring is rude and seeing is what you deserved.
Some of the boys claimed that they’d seen it, but you knew they were making that up. It oozes blood! You can see his brains! It’s got teeth and a tongue like his mouth! No, no; they hadn’t seen it. It was more wretched than that.
Shot off in the war. Sliced clean from his face by a butcher betrayed by his wife. Leprosy. Playing with fireworks. Rotted off from picking his nose as a child. This last was your mother’s suggestion and warning. You took it seriously since you saw–no, still can see in your mind–the effects.
The memory faded a while when you went off to college, married, had two boys of your own. Then you shipped off to Afghanistan for two years of combat. You came back in a year and two months. Alive and missing an eye.
It seemed bitter irony. You brooded. You cried from your one eye. Your wife was as patient and loving as always. Tried to explain to the boys. Told them you were the same Daddy but they still seemed a little afraid.
Give them time, your wife said. They’ll come around. But they stiffened when you hugged them good night. Whispered their answers to the simplest of questions you asked.
The little one, Michael, loosened a little. James seemed defiantly stubborn. Then one day you looked up from your chair. He had snuck in and stood there quietly watching. Perfectly still, though you saw him twitch when you caught him. He stood his ground, daring you. And you did, you lifted the patch off your eye and snickered as he ran silently screaming out of the room.
