Parents

By the middle of the summer, Ken had a ton of music sheets in his room, all of them stacked down his bed, it was his little treasure. He spent every day writing and playing with the recorder to see what else he could say to his friend.

While this was a gigantic achievement Ken was still limited by the form of the words he could said, he was just a boy after all, but he didn’t even realize what he was doing, all he cared about was that he had friends from a secret society, from another world even, living in the deepest parts of his backyard.

But this morning was different. While he was writing, his mother came to his room and sat down on his bed, sighing.

“I am so tired, Ken, would you mind going to the store again?”

“Sure, Mom, once I finish this”

“Ugh… I need you to go now, honey. I want to surprise your dad, he is going to come early today”

“Really?!”

“Yes, he called me early in the morning saying the office will let him come early for the hard work all of them did”

“I want to see daddy!”

“Me too, honey. I miss him a lot, he comes here when I’m asleep, but I intend to hold him tightly and not let him escape. Would you help mommy to not let daddy go away?”

“Yes! What do you need?”

“That’s my boy”

Ken’s mom sent his son to the convenience store but when he left, she took her son’s notebook and saw the weird symbols, she got weirded out and started to flip page after page and she got more anxious.

She tried to distract herself by doing what she could in the kitchen and when her son returned with the groceries, she kept doing the food, it was not until she had all prepared for her husband’s arrival that she went to Ken’s room once more.

“Sweetie, can we talk?”

“What is it, mom?”

“What is with all these symbols?”

“OH! These are the sounds I use to communicate with my friend!”

Ken went down to his bed and took all the papers he did, his mom took her hands to her mouth while her son showed her with excitement all the papers she did.

“W-When do you say you met this friend?”

“Uh… I did not tell you?... You are not going to ground me… right?”

“O-Of course not, honey… tell me”

At that moment, his mother started to fear what her son could possibly be doing. What would a kid that only stays at home and is obedient to his parents require supervision?

No phone, no friends and no people around that had bad intentions, all those thoughts came to the mind of Ken’s mom. Did I fail on something? Am I raising my kid badly? What would my husband do? I need to tell him.

Her son was playing with something that she was unaware of, a creature, a kind of black ball that came after midnight, Ken’s mom let his son talk as she tried to hide her worries until her husband came to the house.

When he stepped inside the house, the first one that came running was his son, he hugged him and lifted him, putting him on the side of his shoulder.

“Welcome home, daddy!”

“I’m back”

“Welcome home, darling”

Her husband smiled warmly, but his smile faded away as soon as he looked at his wife, he knew something was off and he put down his son to go hug his wife.

“Something happened?”

“I’ll tell you later, for now enjoy the food I prepare for you, okay?”

Ken’s dad kissed her wife, they lasted a bit and then they went to eat dinner. For Ken, the day was spent like the rest of the days of his summer, it was until the real time when all of his excitement arrived. Midnight.

But this time, it was different. While he was trying to sneak away with his papers and recorder, someone was already in the backyard waiting, it was his mom and dad, Ken approached them slowly, and he saw them with a worried look.

“Ken”

His father said a bit shocked and he made a motion with his hand to let him know to come.

“Am I in trouble?”

“Not, champ. Show me what you did”

Ken’s dad looked at the papers and he got worried too, his wife hugged him worriedly, and Ken’s dad sighed, he took the hand of his wife and looked at Ken.

“Can you show me where your friend is, son? Mom has been telling me about him a lot, I want to meet him”

“Really?! I will call him”

Ken took the recorder and smiled at his parents.

“I wanted to do this a long time ago but I didn’t want to wake you up”

Come here, Korkokus, I want you to see my parents. Please. Come here.

The grass started moving and Ken’s dad had a fierce look while his wife held him tight to his arm. He stood up next to his son and what he saw made him laugh.

“It is really a furball”

“Don’t make fun of him dad, it’s a bit sensible, and his name is Korkokus”

“Korkokus, I see, I see”

Ken’s dad approached the creature and took him with his bare hands.

“Dad no!”

The creature out of fear stuck out his hair like needles, penetrating the hand of Ken’s dad, a silent scream was out of Ken’s father, the creature was trembling while trying to remove the blood of his hair and Ken’s father was trying to contain both his pain and anger.

“Ken, get away from that thing”

“Dad, no, you scare him, he didn’t want to do that!”

“KEN!”

Ken’s mother shouted, something she did not do often, Ken got scared and the three of them went inside the house.

Ken was trying to make an apology for Korkokus, but his parents didn’t want any excuse.

“He did that because he was scared! You grabbed him out of nowhere!”

“Don’t you dare raise your voice to your father, Ken!”

“I DON’T CARE!”

Ken screamed and with tears in his eyes he ran to the backyard, his father ran behind him but when he reached the backyard, he didn’t see anyone in there.

“Where's Ken?”

“Darling…”

“Help me find it, he couldn’t go far, relax, we will find him”

While his parents searched for him, Ken fell on the floor crying and Korkokus approached him, he wanted to whistle but his voice was cut every time he tried it, Korkokus put itself in Ken’s head until he stopped crying.

When Ken stopped crying, he let himself fall on the floor while Korkokus moved to his arms, when he woke up, he coughed and started to whistle.

Are you ok?

Yes, you?

I’m fine, I need to go back, come with me

Korkokus moved itself from left to right, Ken got confused but then tried to jump out of the furball’s home, he couldn’t and he sat with Korkokus.

“I’m sorry”

Korkokus went to its town and returned with a few leaves but Ken just laughed at it.

“If only I could eat it, thank you, Korkokus”

Ken tried to kill time in various ways but he smiled but often looked down on the floor, spacing out a bit, making Korkoku to perform tricks or sing songs with a soft melody.

Waiting for the night to come felt like an eternity, Ken’s stomach roared and he was struggling to maintain his eyes open, but as soon as the night came, Korkoku was the first to let Ken know that he could come back.

Ken jumped and rushed to his house. At the moment he entered, his parents were at the table with the phone on the table and without making any noise.

“Dad? Mom?”

“KEN!”

Ken’s mother ran towards his son with tears in her eyes, he hugged Ken strongly while sobbing.

“Don’t go away from Mommy's view again, don’t make Mommy worry like this again, please, just stay here”

“Mom… I’ll tell you everything, relax, I’m okay, Korkoku didn’t do anything and neither did my other friends”

“I’ll listen to you”

“Thanks dad”

Ken sat down in front of his parents while eating a sandwich. They both couldn’t believe such a story, little creatures appearing late at night and having a portal that only opened at nights.

“I understand, sorry, I thought these creatures meant harm, I was wrong, son. I’m sorry. I know, to compensate you, how about we go on a little trip tomorrow?”

“Really? Are we going to the beach?”

“We are going to a fancier place! But for now, you will need to go to sleep, okay?”

Ken nodded and hugged his parents then went directly to bed.

“Are you okay doing this?”

“What else are we supposed to do, do you want these creatures running around our house? With our child?”

“I felt bad for Ken…”

“Is for his own good”

Ken’s dad held his wife’s hand and kissed her on the forehead.

“He is going to hate us for this, but that’s what being a parent is about sometimes”

Ken’s mom nodded and hugged her husband, tearing up a bit.

The next morning, as they promised, they went on a trip. Ken's dad was making a ton of calls before going and even raised his voice sometimes, they went into the car and enjoyed a trip on the beach.

Ken played around and enjoyed his time, a bit too much maybe, he fell asleep as soon as he went into the car, the night already came and when they came back from the trip, there were a few people in the house.

Ken’s mom took him to his bed and kissed him on the forehead.

“I’m sorry, dear”

Ken’s dad sat down drinking a beer.

“We took care of it, it wasn’t difficult, but… I felt a bit…”

“That thing took my child, if you were in my position…”

“You don’t need to get angry at me, man. We are with you”

One of his friends touched his arm and he sighed.

“I know…, sorry…”

“Your child is now saved, we can guarantee you that, go get some sleep, we will get everything done in here”

“Thank you, all of you”

“Come on, darling…”

Ken’s mom took her husband upstairs while the others tidied the place and left without any trace.

A few hours passed and Ken woke up with a big smile, he jumped from his bed and looked at all the places, going to the backyard, opening the door as quietly as possible, he whistled his friend’s name but…

Nobody came…

About half an hour passed, and…

Nobody came…

The feeling that something is wrong, your skin feels colder, and all your body got shivers, Ken went to the end of the backyard and jumped…

Nothing happened, he tried multiple times but the only thing that came out was dirt and dust. He dropped on the floor at the verge of tears and saw hair on the ground, tons of them, he took one of them and closed his hand.

“Korkokus” Ken said as he was making noises, he then started to whistle for a few minutes. Ken went back to bed and tried again the next night, and the next after that, but there was no luck, the portal was closed and with that, his friend was gone too.

On the final day of summer break, Ken stares at the starry sky holding his recorder, he put his lips on the tip and started to play, would it be a sad song? Only Ken could know but the tone was melancholic. Tears fell down his cheeks as he continued to play, he sometimes coughed and breathed heavily, but he remained, like a wolf howling.