Gaze

Author’s Note

This story is inspired by a tale told to me by an old man who remembered a fear he had as a boy. His story involved a flight of stairs, but the table, the knick-knacks and, of course, the photograph hanging above the table are all fabrications.

I wanted to tell the story from the boy’s point-of-view, but the vocabulary I wanted him to use and the insights I wanted him to have, were too grown-up for a boy of ten. I changed the tense and changed the narrator to be the boy all grown up. It works better, I think.

I have a feeling that there might be more story here. What effect did the scene, as it played out in this story, have on the boy’s life? Why is the man recounting it now? What’s happened in-between?

I’d like to find out sometime.

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• Published in jamscary.com (September 18th 2022)