Storymania - No Child Left Behind by Matt Lenox

No Child Left Behind
Matt Lenox

Ryan Cloaser was a private tutor for 13 years now and he has dealt with every type of kid. He has had good ones, and he has had bad ones. He has had smart ones, and dumb ones. He had some that cared and others that didn’t. But as of late he has had the kids that didn’t care, were bad, and were dumb.
The kids didn’t pay attention, they told him to shut up, and once, one even hit him when he took away Game Boy. He held his cool, understanding that these kids were of ages between seven and ten, but was near the breaking point. He couldn’t comprehend why these little rich kids were so obnoxious. Then he realized that was the reason why they were so obnoxious. Because they were rich, spoiled, white suburban kids who thought they were untouchable. And they were.
After the kid hit him, Ryan was about to grab him when he said, “If you touch me, I’ll tell my mom and have you arrested.” This made Ryan want to hit him even more but he knew that he couldn’t and put his hands down.
Today he was tutoring another rich ten-year-old suburban kid in the fifth grade. He was going to be teaching him some math and some history. He drove his beat up 93’ Buick to the front of the house, which looked like every other house. This mother probably didn’t want her child going to the same school as the black people who were all little gangsters. And rather than risk sending her precious child to a private school where “one of them” might be, she hired a tutor.
Ryan made his way up the walkway carrying a brief case that contained some work sheets and some books on Native Americans.
He rang the doorbell and waited. A woman who looked like someone from Desperate HouseWives answered the door.
“Hello.” She said with a suggestive smile. It looked like she was going to giggle like a schoolgirl who was talking to the high school hunk.
“Hi. I’m Mr.Cloaser. I’m the tutor.”
“Oh, why come on in.” She stepped out of his way so he could enter. “Would you like some coffee Mr.Cloaser?” She gave that suggestive smile again.
“No thank you.” He answered. He wanted to teach the kid and get out. That’s what he came for after all. Not to have an affair with some wife whose husband cheated on her every day with his secretary.
“Oh” she said disappointed. “Well, I’ll take you to Harvey then.”
She led him through a hall that was longer than his house. She led him up stairs that he didn’t have in his house. He grew angry that these people had it so nice. The wife was a slut, and from the upper portion of a deer he saw in the living room, its blank stare told Ryan that the dad was one of those “Sportsmen.” Someone who uses a powerful shotgun to shoot a deer five feet away from him, a deer that’s eating food that he planted as bait, and the deer was attracted by a special deer scent that he sprayed in the area. This is considered a sport.
They heard loud sounds coming from the room. They sounded like gunshots. She knocked at the door a couple times. From inside the kid yelled “What?” trying to be heard over his excessively loud video game.
His mom called in cheerily to him. “Your tutor his here sweaty.”
From inside again, trying to be heard over his game, which he could simply pause, he says “Cant I have the day off?”
Ryan called inside “You mean ‘can I have the day off?’”
The game still goes on. More gunshots are heard. Now cop cars are heard with more gunshots. The mom tries again.
“Honey, if you don’t come out, we wont go to Disney Land for our family Vacation.”
The noises stopped and a little child opened the door. His head didn’t even reach the doorknob. “Fine.” He said and walked downstairs.
That was a common annoyance that Ryan noticed. Mothers who have to bribe their kid to get him to listen. Kids who would not do something because their parents tell them but because they were threatened to lose something or if they were told that they might receive something.
When they went downstairs Harvey sat on the couch with his arms folded and an annoying look on his face. He rubbed his hands through his very short hair; probably imitating someone from T.V who was mad or frustrated.
Ryan sat next to him and set his briefcase on the coffee table. He took out a book with some Indians on it and set it in front of Harvey. “Today” he said, “We will be learning about Native Americans and how they survived.” The kid still sat leaning back and probably didn’t here a word that he just said. Before he could continue Harvey’s mom entered the room.
“Excuse me, but I’m going out to the gym and then to meet some friends downtown for lunch. I’ll be back around two, is that a problem?”
“Not at all.” Ryan said. Go ahead to the gym to “exercise” with that personal trainer he thought. She picked up a bag that had her gym clothes in it, which she probably wouldn’t be wearing for too long he thought, and left the house. Ryan went on to talk about the Indians.
“Native Americans were very thrifty people. They never wasted anything. They would always use every part of the Buffalo, out of respect and necessity.”
The entire time that he was saying this, Harvey was peering out the window, watching his moms car back out the drive way and off down the street. And once it was out of site, he stood from the couch and made his way to the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Ryan asked, knowing exactly where he was going.
“I’m going to plat my game. You can stay there.”
He got up and stood in front of the kid who came up to his waist area. “You’re to sit back down and learn. Not play video games.”
“What?” he genuinely said.
“Why is that such a shock? I’m a teacher and I teach. No big shock there.”
“All my past tutors didn’t try to teach me.”
No wonder this kids so screwed up he thought. No one ever tried to lay down the law and make him work. “Well, I’m not the other tutors. I am here to teach you.” He really wanted to. After all, this was the future of the country and he might still be alive for it. He didn’t want idiots running every thing.
“You can’t make me do anything. You’re not my parents.” He turned and walked away. Ryan grabbed his shoulder to stop him. Harvey turned and bit his hands. He bit it hard. As a reflex Ryan hit Harvey in the forehead the palm of his hand. He hit him hard enough to send the kid backward into the stairs and hit the back of his head on one of them. The kid started crying very loud. Ryan ran over and put his hand with a large bite mark over the mouth of the kid to stop his crying. What was he going to do? He was in deep trouble. He was in trouble no matter what because it was his word against the kids. And a middle-aged man who wasn’t married would probably lose.
The kid started to scratch his hand now, trying to get it off his mouth so he could cry and let the whole neighborhood here. Ryan became panicky. He didn’t know what to do. Then there was a very loud cracking noise and silence. There were no muffled screams, or “shhs.” It was dead silent, because Harvey was dead, his neck snapped by Ryan Cloaser.
He rose from the body and moved swiftly around thinking. What was he going to do? He could run away he considered. That would be too hard he thought. His car was in no condition to get him far away before two o’clock rolled around in four hours he thought. He could bury the body maybe. But wait, it was too risky to take the child from the house at all. Some neighbor watering their lawn would see a stranger carrying the limp body of someone else’s child.
The only way of getting through this was by getting rid of the kid, inside the house and then claiming that he ran away. But how could he get rid of all traces of the kid? He couldn’t put him in the floorboards like in the TellTale Heart. Today’s C.S.I was too good for that. The silence was broken by the growling of his stomach.
That’s It he thought. He could eat the kid. Then there would be no evidence because it would be digested and unrecognizable in his stomach! He could eat it in the bathtub too, then there would be no blood anywhere. Just like in the TellTale Heart.
He carried the kid up the stairs to the bathroom. He laid him down in front of the bathtub. He took off his clothes and carried them to his room. He folded them and put them away in their proper places in the dresser on top of which rested a T.V bigger then his own. Hopefully his mom wouldn’t remember what clothes he was wearing. She was probably too busy wondering what she was wearing and would it make all the guys stare.
He went back into the bathroom where the kid was lying. He looked at the kid and tried to figure out how he was going to eat him. Obviously he would need a knife. He went down the stairs where Harvey hit his head and went into the Kitchen. He found the kitchen drawer where the knives were. While grabbing the knife he noticed a blender on the counter. He quickly grabbed it and went back up stairs. It would be easier to drink him rather then eat him he reasoned.
He picked up the kid and laid him into the tub. First he started by shaving the hair off his head using the knife and washing it down the drain. There would be nothing odd about hair in a bath tub drain. Next he cut off the ears and dumped them into the blender. Blood was gushing out of the holes where ears were, and went down the drain, through the pipes and eventually into some sewer to never be seen. Next he gouged the eyes out and dumped those also in the blender. The nose and much of Harvey’s upper face followed.
He rinsed his bloody hands and turned on the blender. It spun and churned the body parts into a puree. He stopped it once all visible solids were going and began to drink it, very slowly. He wanted to hold his nose shut but couldn’t because he was using both hands to hold the pitcher. He was not taking a chance of spilling it every where. The taste was horrible. It was raw human meat that he was drinking. He gagged a couple times but got it down.
He finished the pitcher after seven minutes of rhythmic breathing and burps that smelled like none that he ever had. But there was no time for rest. He got right back to carving up the body and tossing the parts into the blender. But this time he was going to try to take his mind off of what he was drinking. He was going to focus on his account of what happened. Why was Harvey missing? Why didn’t he stop him from leaving?
These were the questions he asked himself while he choked down the swill that was little Harvey’s throat, his cheeks, his tongue and his lips. Trying to divert his mind slightly worked, but this cannibal concoction still tasted bitter as he drunk it down.
He took a quick drink from the faucet to wash down that piece of tongue stuck in his teeth. He checked his watch and saw that he still had plenty of time. He took a cup from the sink and filled it with water, repeatedly pouring it over the child’s body, rinsing away the blood. He took a few breaths and got back to eating the kid.
An hour and a half later he was down to the waste, with all the skin eaten. But the internal organs were still inside. He reached up under the rib cage and scooped out the lungs, the heart, and some other gunk. This reminded him of scooping out pumpkin innards. His hands got slimy and the intestine just seemed to slip out of his hands when he tried to grab hold of it. But he wasn’t going to abruptly eat the stomach and intestines. He was smarter than that.
He took these organs very carefully to the toilet, making sure that nothing dripped on the bathroom floor, which he managed to keep clean this entire time. He held the intestines over the toilet and squeezed out anything stuck inside. Then he returned them to the bathtub for consumption. He then took the stomach over the toilet and squeezed out the contents. This kid had an unhealthy diet he could tell. Lots of gum he noticed. Looks like he had Pop-Tarts for breakfast. He took the stomach back to the bathtub and returned to the toilet to flush it. Luckily it didn’t clog. He knew nothing about fixing or stooping a clog so he would have been in deep shit if it did overflow. Literally. Luckily it went down smoothly and he could get back to the body.
He put the heart in the blender and found that it was the only thing that could fit. These organs were getting to big to fit in the blender and cutting them up would take awhile longer. He was going to have to eat the organs.
He drank the heart, which went nicely but now had to chew on the lungs. He held his nose but it didn’t help. He sat chewing it trying to get it down but he bit off more than he could handle. While trying to swallow it he found himself throwing it back up along with some other parts. He sat hunched over the tub gagging, and realized that he just hacked up a lung. That was a joke that referred to smokers and their horrific coughs but here he was doing it for real. And he didn’t smoke.
The puke lay splattered over Harvey’s body, too chunky to wash down. So he scooped it up with his hands and re-ate it. It tasted much worse the third time around, worse then the up part and the first down part combined. It was as if he was regurgitating it like a mama bird does for its kids sometimes. What a disgusting thing to do he thought as he finished the last of his vomit. And then he imagined a human mother eating a carrot, poking her finger down her throat, throwing up the carrot and then spitting it in her babies’ mouth. That would be horrible he imagined as he ate the child’s liver.

Ryan sat leaning against the wall breathing heavy and slow, burping every so often. He looked at his watch. One fourteen it said. Good, Ryan thought. He had about forty-five minutes to hide the bones and call the cops.
He stood up slowly trying not to stir his stomach at all. The slightest imbalance could make him explode. Grabbing the knife and blender which he thoroughly cleaned he headed for the kitchen. He was going top make a sandwich for his tale, and try to come up with a good place to hide the bones on the way. Ryan went down the stairs in the same way that a pregnant woman would. He went one step at a time, holding the railing at all times and going down in a side ways kind of way.
He walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to get out some jelly. He went inside the cupboard to get out bread and peanut butter. His story was that the kid said he was hungry, so Ryan decided to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. When he came back the kid was gone. He had no idea where he vanished off.
Ryan took the sandwich and set it on the table in the living room to show that he came in with the sandwich and found him gone.
He had his story. Now he needed to get rid of the bones. He hadn’t really thought about it earlier but thought about it now. He walked around looking at various places. Upstairs, down stairs, basement. Then when he went for the Bathroom to clean one more time, he saw the deer again. It sat there staring at him with blank eyes, and seemed to say pick me, pick me.
He answered his call and took him from the wall too examine him. Ryan removed a piece of plastic that was now the deer’s butt. He was filled with stuffing and had plenty of room for rent. Ryan went upstairs and took the skeleton of the recently deceased Harvey, and brought him to the deceased deer. He started with the skull. Then came the ribs. He squeezed the arms in, and then the spine. But that was all he could fit inside. He put some cotton over the end and put the butt back on. He shook the deer a little bit and heard no noise. He hung it back on the wall. Now he had the pelvis and legs to dispose of. But where?
He rinsed the bathtub once more and checked the blender. Everything was clean. Clean enough to eat off of you could say. But none of that would matter if he couldn’t find someplace to get rid of the legs. He ran around the house again even though it pained his stomach to do so.
He opened the door of Harvey’s room and saw the big TV. It was big and square and would most likely never be used again. He looked around the TV for a spot that separated and found it in the back. He pried the back off. There was plenty of empty space. So he ran back to the deer head where he left the legs and ran back to the TV. He stuffed the bones inside, smiling. He was so excited, cause he was going to get away with murder!
When he secured the back of the TV on he ran to the phone and called the cops. As he listened to the dial tone, he had to fight the urge to laugh. He was so proud of himself.
“911. What’s your emergency?”
“Akidiwastutoringjustranawayandicantfindhimandionlyleftforasecond…”
“Sir, slow down. We have some men on the way.”
“Thank you. It’s just that its not my kid and I’ve been looking all afternoon and…” Ryan continued this fast talk and repetition until the cops arrived. He let them in and when they began to search the house, he walked with them explaining the story.
“He said he was hungry, so I went into the kitchen and made him a sandwich. When I came back he was gone.” They look at the sandwich sitting on the table. “So after he was gone, I called for him and when he didn’t come I searched the house.” They began upstairs past the deer head that was calling check me, check me, but the cops didn’t here him. Once on the second floor they checked every room. First they looked inside the parents room. Then the bathroom. Then the kids room, and in each one they saw nothing and noticed nothing.
This was the biggest moment of his life. He just outsmarted the cops. They went down stairs again. He looked at a clock on the wall and saw that it was already two thirty. Looks like the mom’s “lunch” with her “friends” went a little long. After checking the whole property they needed a few answers from Ryan.
“What time did he leave about?”
He answered every question precisely and sticking to a standard story but the questions kept coming. They didn’t suspect a thing, or did they? After the tenth frivolous answer he noticed a faint odor in the air, and it was quite bad. He tried locating it and identifying it.
“About 13 years.” Ryan said. And then he smelled it again, intently. But what was with all the questions he thought? He swallowed in fear now and tasted something disgusting. And then it dawned on him! His breath was calling the smell! He never rinsed his mouth after the final piece of Harvey and his mouth reeked of it. Was that why the cop was asking all the questions? Did he notice the smell too and was trying to find out if it was him?
The cop asked another question that was irrelevant to the case.
“What time did you get here at?” He asked.
Ryan muttered his answer, trying to keep his mouth shut. The cop turned the side of his head towards him.
“Can you repeat that please?”
And again he muttered his answer so no one could hear, or smell him.
“Sir, I need you to speak up.” He said impatiently. Ryan was positive that the cop smelled his breath. He was on to him. He was trying to get that one last smell and finally slap the coughs on him Ryan thought. He started sweating and getting scared. He was nervous and shaking at this point, and this, the cop noticed for sure.
“Sir, are you all right? Do you need an ambulance?”
Ryan was about to answer but when he tried talking his throat felt weird. He knew this feeling. His breath felt shallow and his eyes felt heavy. These were the symptoms of someone about to throw up. And so he did. He emptied his stomach all over the cop and the floor. Ryan went to his knees and found himself staring into the pile of what used to be Harvey and saw one of his eyes that went un-chewed. And the cops saw it too. And it seemed to tell them, he killed me, he killed me. And everyone in the room heard it loud and clear. The cops knew that Ryan killed and consumed the child, and Ryan knew that the cops knew that he ate the child.