Happy Easter Pt. 1

Prospera Pascha Sit

Zachary

A little boy, six years old, dressed in his Sunday best wanders through the park. A look of glee that he could not possibly feign at his age is etched on his face as he searches for loot. Three plastic eggs are in his little wicker basket that he carries in his right hand, two pink and one light blue. He is dressed in what might have been called a leisure suit in days past. The vomit-green jacket and deep blue pants might look ridiculous on an adult, but the clothing only serves to enhance his cuteness in the eyes of most, due to his young age. Platinum blonde hair crowns his head in a bowl cut, that yet again, enriches his comeliness. It is hard to imagine anyone wishing him ill. His name is Zachary.

The park is not overly large and there are two dozen children, many older, competing for the cheap bobbles filled with candy. While the others have almost filled their baskets and bags, Zachary has only the three. The park is part of a housing tract and also has a swimming pool. The pool is fenced in to avoid accidental deaths and to also disallow those not from the area, those without keys, entry. Well-manicured bushes surround the fenced in concrete hole that is full of water and that is where Zachary finds his fourth egg, a purple one. On the western side of the enclosed pool is a building; restrooms, changing rooms, and a meeting room are part of this building. There are no fences here, but the building serves as a blockade for this section of the perimeter.

There are more trees on the western section of the pool area. The shade darkens the surrounding area. Zachary takes in a deep breath and considers his life in the way only a child can, with innocence and ignorance. He realizes that he is happy with the simple pleasure of looking for plastic and candy. He has been genetically given a mind that will allow him to have above average intelligence when he is older. He also has an unusual ability to appreciate simple things and not ask for or want more than what he has been given. The anticipation of acquiring more treasure makes him giddy even as he realizes that it is not overly important.

The day is much cooler than is typical for April in California and he remembers his mother saying that it is supposed to get even colder during the next few days, unusually cold for the desert area of Southern California that can get unbearably hot for the majority of the summer in most places that are not coastal. Zachary enjoys the slight heat of the sunshine on his back for a moment before he ventures into the shaded area where he anticipates a drop in temperature that will make him at least slightly uncomfortable.

In comparison with the rest of the park, the smaller, darker area can almost be called densely wooded. Trees, primarily pine, and not indigenous to the area had been carefully planted in this area decades ago to give it an ambience of a tiny, deciduous forest. Man-made nature, both naturally and unnaturally pretty, if not beautiful captures his attention. Zachary gazes at a lone, concrete bench set in the middle of the cluster of trees. It appears cold due to the temperature and the way concrete can hold in the chill or heat depending on the time of year. It is colder here. It was developed to offer respite in the heat of a summer that has not yet taken hold.

An engine noise startles the boy and he jumps slightly, almost losing his grip on his basket and eggs. Zachary turns around to see an air conditioning unit has come to life. It is large and if he had more knowledge of the world he would have wondered why someone needed it to be working on a chilly day. The noise disrupts the dark tranquility of the scene. He recognizes that it is electrical and that it belongs outside, as his mother has a similar model outside their home a few blocks away.

He notices an egg, an orange one this time, right next to the air conditioning unit. A smile immediately lights up Zachary’s face as he heads over to retrieve his plunder. He starts to think, without any regret, that he will probably only get five eggs today. He doesn’t really mind, as he is having fun. He thinks of his mother and warms at the thought of receiving a big hug from her. He believes that he will see her soon. He wonders vaguely about his father. His father is gone, but that doesn’t lessen Zachary’s love for him. He will see his father next weekend. To make up for not being around this weekend, his dad will do something special with him. He arrives at the noisy electrical unit and reaches for the egg.

At this point, everything seems to happen in slow motion; what is actually taking seconds seems to take minutes. As his arm reaches for the egg, he notices that it is touching the steel tube that is connected to the noisy, whirring machine with the giant fan blade spinning rhythmically at high volume. He notices that the tube has been broken, not broken really, but gnawed at, chewed in an unsymmetrical fashion, bits of silvery, stainless steel litter the ground near the opening in the tube. Inside the tube, the rubbery coating of the wires has also been breached to reveal coppery colored conductants that seem to intertwine beautifully. He thinks that the metallic steel and copper will glitter fabulously if the sun were allowed to enter this place.

When his hand is mere inches from the egg, he realizes that not all is right. No one else is here. He is alone. This is something that would normally not bother Zachary, yet he cannot help but think that something is wrong with the situation. He senses danger. The copper color looks nice, but something is amiss. Then he notices the corpse of the squirrel. It is lying on its back, its little paws up in the air, cloudy eyes staring at nothing but emptiness, its little buck-teeth revealed in a mouth that will never close again. It is on the other side of the copper wires. He knows that metal can be dense and tough and that the steel surrounding the wires must have been very thin if a squirrel could chew through it. He feels sympathy for the little, furry mammal. He knows death, but is just beginning to understand its significance.  The last emotional, non-physical thing that will ever tear at his heart does so. He loves animals and feels sorry for the creature.

He thinks of cans, soda cans, beer cans that his father drinks, another metal. Aluminum? Maybe the tube is aluminum. These are just the last of his vague thoughts as his mind seems to want to think of multiple things at once. Mother. Father. Easter. Eggs. Swimming pool. Squirrel. Danger.

As his thumb comes in contact with orange plastic, his other fingers instinctively begin to close to grasp the prize. His middle and index finger begin an action that would have only barely brushed another object, but it is contact, and as his fingers touch the copper wires, they stick, immovable, as though they were suddenly glued to the wires.

20,000 volts of electricity thrash through Zachary’s little, crouched body to find an exit point through his left foot.

A power still not fully understood by mankind, a power that can be used to ease the lives of humans, a power that can be controlled in most circumstances, begins to cook Zachary’s internal organs. The capillaries in his lungs and blood vessels begin to explode. His left kidney shuts down, disturbed by the flow of electricity. Most of his muscles remain untouched, but still useless to Zachary, as he cannot control his body anymore. His bowels and bladder release. His bowels are not only releasing excrement through his anus, but, in places, they begin to crack open and release fecal matter into his abdominal cavity. His rib cage remains fully intact, but something has snuck in through a place his body was not designed to protect against, to destroy the most valuable organ in his chest. His heart tolerates the damage for forty-eight seconds before the left atrium chamber ruptures, spilling blood that is sizzling with heat outside the natural cardio-vascular system into his chest cavity. In some places his skin starts to smolder and smoke.

The current, acting naturally, has found the most direct way out of captivity, entering through his left arm, flowing through the left side of his body and exiting down his left leg. His brain has not been touched directly by the electricity. Still, he finds it difficult to think above the white hot pain that engulfs his body. He tries to think. He tries to understand and find reason for this pain. His thoughts are too scattered. He thinks of his mother and wonders where she is, barely, above the horrendous sensation that is killing him. A flash of memory startles him, even above the sensation, his first memory, his parents, still together, smiling, talking, loving him and each other, but he cannot put a setting to the image.

His left leg finally gives, convulsively, and his hand is ripped away from the leads. His little body crumples to the ground. His body is dead and his brain is dying. He is confused and helpless, but the pain is less intense now. He is almost at peace. He remembers the sermon from church earlier that morning. The pastor had claimed that God loved him. He wonders why God did not help him.

He then recollects something his father had said months ago, something about there being no god.  His mother always assured him that God loved him. He realizes that he was only doing what he was told in his beliefs. His mind is racing, trying to understand, but things are fading. It is becoming too difficult to think.

Zachary’s last attempt at thought is to hope that all those he loves will be happy. He is very young, yet he accepts his demise with little fear.