Home (Short Story)

Home is a short story by James Van Pelt. It appears in Realms of Fantasy (1998), Strangers and Beggars (2002), and Curious Fictions (Jan 19, 2019).

Word Count: 5,090

Author's Note
From Curious Fictions:

''Just about every teenager feels out of place, like they don't belong, even the really confident, successful looking ones. For some of them, this feeling is worse than others. If you would like a soundtrack to this story, try Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill."''

Characters

 * K - an unhappy foster kid who has hallucinations
 * A side-by-side kid who only turns right
 * A giant silvery monster with a pipe organ voice who tells K to "Pack [his] bags"
 * Mrs. Coder - K's current foster mother
 * Amelia Nurenberg - A name on a gravestone in the Odd-Fellow's cemetery

Summary
K is a boy who feels like his body doesn't fit him, that sounds are too sharp, that rhythms are always off. He walks through the school halls, trying not to touch anyone, pretending he's antimatter and everything else is matter and the barest touch would destroy the town.

He sees a side-by-side kid with a walker who's stuck against the wall and helps get him turned around. At the same time, he sees a ten-foot-tall silver monster no one else can see, coming for him. K helps get the side-by-side kid to class, and when the kid thanks him, K is so stunned he forgets to run from the monster. The monster puts a hand on K's shoulder and says "Pack your things". It feels like a threat and reminds K of every school and foster home he's been kicked out of. K sprints from the school, cutting the last class of the day.

That evening, his foster mother tells him the school called to inform her he'd skipped class. She tells him to straighten up or get out. Just then, the silver monster looks in through the window. It says "Pack your things. I'm here to take you home." K runs from the house to the edge of town, eventually stopping at the Odd-Fellow's cemetery. The monster finds him, so he runs back to the foster home and hides under the blankets.

When he wakes, his foster mother is sitting on the edge of his bed and tells him she and her husband have decided he can't stay. He goes to school and is expelled for too many unexcused absences. He sits outside the school, watching the side-by-side bus unloading. He sees the kid with the walker. And past them, on the football field, a small group of the silver monsters. He decides he'll go with them.