Photo by George Hodan - Image in the Public Domain, under CC0 Licnese

The little child appeared on the beach, wet. Had he come from the sea? The bonfire sparkled. I’m taking my brother. His voice echoed in the nightly beach. They remembered five years ago; they weren’t ready. Her hands protected her round belly; the pain started. He’s not safe with you.

Learn about last edition of @Jayna’s 50-Word Short Story Contest.

About This Story

A child symbolizes new beginnings and rebirth. Partially paradoxical, child related imagery also refers to the past (where beginnings are) and to inner emotions we do not want others to know about because we are afraid they are not going to approve of them

In Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” (a story a highly recommend for youths), for example, the hidden child is receptacle for filth. Like a vessel of Jungian shadows, he is to take the beating, insults and all the hurt, so others can live “idealistically” in what is actually a dystopic society. Sometimes children take the worst part so adults can live what they think are better lives; for example, when a couple decides to get rid of their unborn child.

Children are vulnerable. They are weaker and smaller; also, they have less experience than grownups, which make them easy to handle and to trick.If you are f ond of Blake, like I am, you’ll think of innocence when mentioned the word child. And precisely because they are synonym of guiltlessness, the idea of getting a child to commit a crime or some other abomination is grotesque. The victim becomes the victimizer.

Something is grotesque when it shows conflicting structures which produce disgust in the beholder. This feeling is crucial in some horror stories, more if they are only fifty words. I’ll be lucky if I get the reader to feel a bit of the grotesque in the scene I’ve just described.

Thanks for reading.

Soy miembro de @talentclub.