THE SECRET LIFE OF BRANDON

Six years ago

It was killing him. The secret was eating away at nine-year-old Brandon Murphy’s conscience like a middle-aged, single, overweight woman at an all-you-can-eat buffet. He knew he couldn’t tell anyone, even though he felt that he needed to in order to keep his brain unstressed.  Being a kid he wasn’t the best at making decisions, and this would come to be the worst of his life.

Brandon was not very intimidating, especially in school. Kids would pick and beat on him because he was short and lanky.  Other than these problems, Brandon did fantastic in school. He got good grades and was always paying attention as much as he could.

Brandon’s home life was tragic. His mother died when he was just a toddler, around the age of three, in a plane crash on her way to a business meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. Brandon still had fond memories of his mother singing to him in his bed, but he knew that “alea jacta est”. On a Wednesday evening, Brandon’s father had also died from three fatal gunshot wounds to the chest, but no one knew of that yet.

 Brandon’s teacher, Mrs. Denstien, noticed that on Thursday Brandon was acting more apathetic than usual. The bell rings and Mrs. Denstien speaks.

“Class you are excused, except for Brandon, please see me after class.”

About 6 minutes after the bell Brandon came back to the classroom and glared at his teacher with apathy.

“You wanted to see me?” Brandon asked with a rude attitude.

“Yes, is everything alright, Brandon?”

“Uh, yeah I’m fine. Why?”

“You just seem to be acting different than usual.”

Brandon could tell that Mrs. Denstien really did care about him.  She saw that Brandon was beginning to open up.

“Well, it’s just that…” Brandon couldn’t find the strength to reveal his secret.

“Never mind, nothing’s wrong.” He quickly ended.

“Alright Brandon, but I just want you to know that you can tell me anything, do you understand?”

“Sure.” Brandon replied, now acting apathetic again.

“Now you better call your father to come pick you up.”