© 2024 Maine Public | Registered 501(c)(3) EIN: 22-3171529
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scroll down to see all available streams.

The Telling Room: 'One Man's Fear'

We continue our summer series featuring the work of young writers, in partnership with the Telling Room in Portland. This week we showcase the work of Nicholas Giroux, a student at Scarborough Middle School. Giroux's piece was inspired by a project the Telling Room did with all of the middle schoolers there on "wild Maine weather."  

The cold flakes landed on the blackened tips of his fingers. Frigid air crept through his clothing and, like a bandit stole his body's warmth from under him. Showing no sign of remorse, the flakes continued to engulf him in white making him invisible from a distance, like the snow had claimed him as a trophy. He could still feel it lurking in his wake. The thought of being followed, being spied upon from some unknown being drove him to the near point of insanity. For he was by himself but he was almost sure that he wasn't alone.

He looked in every direction and saw nothing. All that he did see was a snowy haze acting like a veil as if meant to blind him, to ensure a slow painful death was near. But a sign of hope emerged from the cold. A silhouette formed in the distance making his mind race and his stomach churn. His eyes pooled as he ran and ran nothing in his mind except to reach warmth. You could see the impulse oozing off of him. The pure animal inside surfaced. You could see it in his face. His eyes had hollowed and the bitter taste in his mouth became sweet.

As he approached the shadow it began slowly to become harder and harder to see until it vanished and he once again found himself watching the cold flakes of ice ravish his body and turn his thoughts against him. Was he going to die an insane man unsure of his life's meaning? "No," he whispered under the constant wind rushing over his head. "No."

The Telling Room in Portland is a non-profit writing center dedicated to the idea that children and young adults are natural story tellers. Nicholas Giroux is a student at Scarborough Middle School. His work is one of four from the "wild Maine weather" project that were selected to be published in the Telling Room's anthology of best writing from the year.