Beware the Man with Pink Eyes

Beware the Man with Pink Eyes

By Plot Roach

Karen looked over at her sons watching television while sprawled upon the couch. A scream prompted the youngest, Max, to cover his eyes as the gore washed over the screen. Despite her better judgment she had let the seven year old boy watch the horror movie with his older brother, Kevin.

“Okay, I think that’s enough of this.” she said, lifting the remote control to change the channel.
“Awww Mommm.” Kevin moaned.

“No, really. I’m okay, Mom.” Max protested. “I know it’s not real.”

They continued to watch the movie in relative silence, broken only by an occasional gasp from Max or chuckling from Kevin. As the credits scrolled across the screen, it was time for Max to go to bed.
“Ummm…Can I stay up for a few more minutes?” he pleaded. “I can help put up the dishes in the kitchen.”
“And why are you so helpful tonight?” Karen asked.

“No reason.” he said.

“Could it be that my little brother is afraid of the zombies?” Kevin asked, wiggling his fingers in front of him as he lurched, zombie like, across the living room to his brother.

“Mom! Make him stop!” Max yelled.

“I’m coming to eat your brains Ahhhhhh!” Kevin said, as he continued his pursuit of Max.

“Enough already!” Karen yelled, separating the two of them. “Kevin, you go put the dishes up.”

“But Mom!”

“Just do it.” Karen hissed at him. “You put him up to watching this movie, even though you knew he’d be scared afterward and now you are going to make fun of him for it? I don’t think so. Go put the dishes away, champ, and we’ll talk about it later.”

“And as for you-” she started, pulling her youngest son onto her lap. “I hope you understand that the things on the television screen weren’t real and you shouldn’t be -”

“Scared. I know.” he said, tracing his big toe along the pattern of the carpet. “It’s just… different when it’s over, you know?”

“I know.” Karen sighed. “It’s funny when it’s on the screen., and we know that it isn’t real. But sometimes when we’re in the dark, stupid things fill up our heads so that we can’t think any better.”

“And they’re not real.” Max said.

“No they’re not.” Karen agreed.

“Who says?” Kevin called out from the kitchen. “I think they’re real. And I think that they’re going to eat you up in the night.”

“Kevin!” Karen yelled. “What’s gotten into you?”

He ducked his head around the corner, a dishtowel in one hand and a plate in the other. “In for a penny, in for a pound.” he said and grinned before disappearing back into the kitchen.

“You are grounded for a week, mister!” she yelled at him.

“It was still worth it!” he yelled back, muffled by running water.

When she turned back to max his eyes were wide with fear. “Oh, honey.” she said, brushing back the hair from his forehead. “There are no such things as zombies.”

“But what if there were?”

“Then you would know them right off the bat, by what they look like.”

“But that one lady in the movies didn’t know that her boyfriend was one until it ate her!” max argued. “They look just like us before they get all gross looking. How can we tell the difference before they eat us?”

“See what you started?” Karen asked Kevin as he sauntered back into the room, his chore accomplished. He made a face and then turned to his brother, ruffling the hair on the top of the boy’s head.

“Dude, do you remember what the first thing happens to someone who got bit in the movie when they were becoming a zombie?”

“They’re eyes got all weird.”

“Yeah, they went all red around the edges, then their eyelashes got all funky looking and then the pupils started to shift around into funny shapes.”

“Yeah…”

“Well, that could happen in real life, too.” Kevin said with a smug look and a wink to his mother. “So all you have to do is look at someone’s eyes to see if they’ve been infected.” he reasoned.
“Are you satisfied?” Karen asked, but wasn’t really sure herself of which son she was talking to. Max nodded, and then headed down the hallway to the bathroom to brush his teeth before bed.

There was a knock at the door and he rushed back to the living room, swinging it wide. “Daddy!” he called, before launching himself at the man.

“It’s good to see you too, sport.” his father laughed. “I’m so hungry I could just eat you up!”

The boy pulled away from his father and upon seeing the red rims around his father eyes, screamed and ran for his bedroom. “Zombie! Zombie! Dad is a zombie!”

“What’s that all about?” the father asked.
 “I’ll explain later.” Karen said, playfully smacking Kevin upside the head as he laughed himself breathless. “Right now I’ve got to keep Max from calling 9-1-1.”
“First I have the world’s longest business trip, then it turns out that I caught pink eye from one of the hotel’s guests. And then I get trapped at the airport so long, that I miss the bus. So I took a taxi home, not even stopping for dinner along the way, and this is the greeting I get?”

This is a work of fiction. No real people, places or events were used. Copyright ã 2011 Plot Roach.