Chaos Walking Childhood One Shots

Todd - First Day as the Only Boy

"You sure yer not gonna quit talking to me?" I ask for the thousandth time as Seb and I trudge through the fields outside the swamp.
"Course I ain't gonna quit talking to you," he says, also for the thousandth time.
"Talk!"
And there's my stupid dog bounding along behind us. I ain't got no clue what kinda boy I'd be if the only person I had to talk to was Manchee.
I'd probably lose my mind, or shoot someone. Or both.
For the rest of today, Seb Mundy and I are the only boys left in Prentisstown, have been since Liam Smith became a man one month and twenty-eight days ago. 
"Yer dog ain't that bad," Seb tells me as he bends down to pick up a rock. We just started hearing the Noise of the field crows, who obviously don't got nothing to worry about but food and shelter.
Except now they gotta worry about us.
"Easy for you to say," I bend down to pick up my own rock. "You only gotta see him when I'm around. You don't gotta feed him or bathe him or deal with his stupidity."
I throw my rock on the word stupidity, but it don't hit nothing.
"Yeah, he's almost as stupid as you are," Seb jokes as he throws his own rock. A couple crows fly out in all directions to avoid being hit. "And yer almost as stupid as me, so at least you got that going for you. Besides, I ain't going nowhere. I'd really be a fool if I left you to keep to yerself all the time."
"That's what everyone else said before they went off and became men."
In the quiet-- never the silence-- that follows, I watch my dog chase the birds and wonder what it would really be like to have to keep to myself all the time.
Just me, Todd Hewitt, the only boy left in Prentisstown.
No one to talk to while all the men are at their meetings, no one else to take the hits when the men decide to pick on the boys.
I'd rather die than live like that for the rest of forever.
"C'mon, Todd," Seb says, shoving my shoulder a little. "It ain't gonna be forever. Just a couple'a months and you'll be a man too, and we can do whatever men do together like nothing changed. Yer talking like this is goodbye or something."
I try to put the thoughts outta my head just to please him, and throw another rock at a flock of birds that just took off toward the swamp.
"Missed, Todd!" Manchee barks.
"Shut up," I say.
A part of me still wonders if this is goodbye.

When I wake up the next morning, the house is empty, as it usually is on the mornings that a boy becomes a man.
I sure couldn't tell you why. Some kinda celebrashun, I assume.
I get up like normal and head to the sheep's paddocks to see what kinda disaster I'm gonna have to deal with this morning. More often than you'd think, a sheep or two will try to make a break for freedom in the night and get its stupid self caught in the enclosure. But today there ain't nothing to deal with, so I clean out the feeding pens like normal and measure out new food and pour clean water like I always do.
Like nothing changed, I remember Seb saying.
I take a moment to listen out for any extra buzz from town to see if I can pick up exactly what this celebrashun is, but as usual, I don't get nothing.
The days boys become men are unusually quiet, and then unusually loud, like everyone's trying to cover some big secret. It's happened so many times before now that I've grown used to not caring, but now that I'm the only boy left-
(Oh geez, I'm the only boy left-)
I can't help but try to hear any amount of anything from town.
Still nothing new, as usual, like nothing changed.
But I know better.
I continue feeding the sheep, feeling spooked for some stupid reason.

Ben and Cillian come back home well after lunch time, also a normal thing on a day like today.
"So Seb ain't gonna talk to me no more?" I ask from the back porch where I've been waiting.
"That's for him to decide," Ben says, walking to the kitchen to make himself a late lunch.
"He's got lots more to do for the town now," Cillian says, planting himself down hard at the table. "Don't expect much from him."
I get up and go into the house, despite the storm cloud Cillian brought in to cover up some other storm cloud of grudges he's keeping.
"And what kinda work is that?" I ask, knowing full well I ain't gonna get an answer.
"No you are not," Cillian huffs.
"You'll find out soon enough," Ben says, trying to sound helpful. "You can be patient for three months, surely Todd."
"Three months and a day," I correct him.
"Ain't no difference," Cillian says. I try to give him a look, but something in Ben's Noise tells me that I'm just making it worse. I roll my eyes and head back outside. Manchee pops up from his nap as I storm by.
"Where do you think yer going?" Cillian yells from inside the house.
And I don't even know-
"The swamp, I reckon," I snap at him. "Since that's where boys are most useful."
"Yer needed here," Cillian yells louder to cover the distance I'm still putting between us. "You know you always got work to do with the-"
(The sheep, I effing get it-)
"The sheep?" I yell back. "Well what d'ya think I've been doing all day while you and Ben were off not doing yer own chores?" I turn back toward him. "Last I checked there's still an entire wheat field up there where it's always been-"
"My business is my business, and you ain't got no right to tell me how to do my job-"
"Yer business is everyone's business!" I yell. "All the damn time!"
"You watch your mouth-"
"The whole ruddy world knows Cillian's business, everyone except me! Everyone knows what you did in town with the rest of the men today, but do I even get a clue? No! Never!"
"Todd..." There's warning in Ben's Noise, but I ignore it. I start walking back toward the house so I can look at Cillian properly. I can hear him start to get up too.
"Cillian, sit down-" But Cillian ain't listening to him.
"You got something else you wanna say to me, boy?" He says, dangerous-like.
"Oh, I could write a book outta the things I wanna say to you."
(And I ain't even seen a book since-)
"That's enough!" Ben's yelling at us now. Cillian and I don't say nothing, but we're still glaring daggers at each other.
"Both of you just give it a rest, it's been a long day for all of us and I ain't gonna listen to no one's complaining." He takes a deep, slow breath to calm down, and looks at me. "Todd, I'm sorry I yelled, but if you truly feel the need to go to the swamp for a bit, take yer dog, make yerself useful, and bring some apples back."
"That ain't fair-"
"And Cillian," Ben shoots him a look of warning, "you know exactly what I've got to say to you, so I'm not even gonna say it."
Cillian's Noise is confusing. He's got all kinds of stuff being covered up by other stuff, crazy stuff, like he's so mad at the whole world that it could already be three months from now and I'm being dragged into town to-
And then it's gone.
(To what?)
"You stay outta my head, boy," he says, his Noise slapping me away. "Just go to the swamp if yer going."
And that was the end of that.

Manchee bounds along behind me in the swamp, sniffing every other thing and doing his business on the rest of it. I walked us right through the field of crows without stopping, cuz of course Seb wasn't there.
(He promised-)
But Cillian says he's busy, so I guess I believe him.
I didn't see Seb on the way thru town neither-
(I didn't see much of anyone out and about in town today-)
 But if they've got him working on something then I guess it makes sense.
That excuse ain't gonna help me sleep tonight, but-
Well, whatever.
No matter how busy Seb is and no matter what he's up to, I'm all alone now.
And... yeah. I kind of hate it.
"Got Manchee," Manchee barks, his own little way of telling me what we still got each other.
Which is just great.
"I know, Manchee," I sigh, squatting down anyway to scratch him twixt the ears. He presses his head into my hand and lets out a happy doggy sigh. I just stare at him for a while and try not to think much about nothing.
All I know is that this is gonna be the longest three months of my life.
If I'm gonna start somewhere, it might as well be here, so I stand up and shut my eyes for a moment.

My name is Todd Hewitt. I am twelve years and ten months old. I am the last boy in Prentisstown. I am the last boy on New World.