Monsters

Doctor: “Did you talk to the boy?”

Attendant: “I tried, but all he says is ‘the monsters are everywhere.’”

Doctor: “The Russians?”

Attendant: “Who else? Perhaps you should talk to him. I think my being a man makes him nervous.”

Doctor: “Not surprising since all the monsters are men. I’ll talk to him. He was picked up with a dog. Is the dog with him now?”

Attendant: “No. The dog was taken from him.”

Doctor: “Why? might I ask.”

Attendant: “Dogs aren’t allowed in the clinic.”

Doctor: “Jesus Christ! No wonder he won’t talk to you. I’ll speak to him.”

The doctor and the dog enter the room where the boy is being kept. The dog barks then runs and leaps on the boy who is sitting in a corner on the floor. The boy hugs the dog. Then the boy shushes the dog who then lies quietly on the floor. The boy pets him, saying “Good dog, good dog.” The boy smiles at the doctor.

Boy: “Happy’s alive.”

Doctor: “He is, and he’s very happy to see you. My name is Grace. What is your name?”

Boy: “The monsters will kill us all.”

Doctor: “You’re safe here.”

Boy: “Nowhere is safe. The monsters are everywhere with their killing machines.”

Doctor: “I know Happy’s name. I would sure like to know your name.”

Boy: “If I tell you, you can’t tell anyone else. The monsters can’t find me if they don’t know my name.”

Doctor: “I promise I won’t tell anyone your name.”

Boy: “Yuri. That was my grandfather’s name.”

Doctor: “Thank you, Yuri, for telling me your name. It will be our secret. Where is your father, Yuri?”

Boy: “He went off to fight the monsters. He never came back.”

Doctor: “Perhaps he is still fighting the monsters. And your mother, where is she?”

Boy: “She’s dead. The monsters killed her.”

Doctor: “What happened?”

Boy: “We heard the monsters’ machines coming. They are easy to hear because they’re noisy and always shooting. Killing, killing, killing everything. They kill people and animals and shoot houses. They steal children.”

Doctor: “Why do the steal children?”

Boy: “To turn them into monsters like them.”

Doctor: “Who told you that?”

Boy: “We know. Everyone knows.”

Doctor: “Other children like you?”

Boy: “Not so many now but a few. They hide. But the monsters find them. Shoot them if they can’t catch them. There used to be many people everywhere. Now there’s nobody. Just the monsters.”

Doctor: “Tell me, Yuri, what happened to your mother.”

Boy: “The monsters were coming so she told Lisa my sister to hide in her hiding place in the boom closet. She told me and Happy to go to hide in the woods because she knew happy would bark at the monsters. So we did. In the woods I could still see the house. One of the machines stopped and the monsters got out and went into the house. Happy growled and I slapped him on the head and he knew to be quiet. I wanted to go to Mother but I knew I would be taken and Happy would be shot. So I waited. Then there was a gun shot. The monsters left the house. They found Lisa. She was screaming ‘mama, mama.’ It was horrible, but I could do nothing. The monsters put her in the machine and left. I waited a long time, until it began to get dark. Then I went to the house. Mother was on the bed. She was dead. I cried. I stayed in the house until more monsters came. I took a picture of Father and Mother with Lisa and me and left the house. I never went back.”

Doctor: Do you have the picture?”

Boy: “Yes.”

Doctor: “May I see it, Yuri?”

Boy: “Okay.” Yuri to the photo from his Knapsack and gave it to the doctor.

Doctor: “You have a beautiful family, Yuri. I’m going to make a copy of the photo to help find your sister.”

Boy: “Okay, but you will give it back to me?”

Doctor: “Of course I will. So what have you been doing since the monsters came to your house?”

Boy: “I followed the houses along the roads but a long ways from the roads. The monsters send tiny flying bombs. If they see you they come after you and kill you. But Happy can hear them, so when he looks at the sky we hide.”

Doctor: “You must have been hungry.”

Boy: “After a while the feeling went away. Happy and I would eat when I found food. If I found no food we wouldn’t eat. It did not matter. But I saw dead people in houses who were not shot. I think they died of hunger. They were afraid to leave their houses so died in them.”

Doctor: “What did you think, Yuri, when you saw those dead people?”

Boy: “They died because of the monsters. Everyone dies because of the monsters.”

Doctor: “Yuri, do you have any other family. Aunts or uncles, grandparents, cousins?”

Boy: “They’re all dead I think. My cousin Anna was stolen like Lisa by the monsters. She was a baby.”

Doctor: “Maybe they aren’t all dead, Yuri.”

Boy: “I hope not. But it doesn’t matter. The monsters are here and will never go away. Why haven’t they killed you?”

Doctor: “They’ve tried. But we have men here with big guns who shoot them if they come.”

Boy: “Good men like my father who fights the monsters.”

Doctor: “That’s right, Yuri. There are still good men like your father who fight the monsters.”