Help my boy

Help him. Help him, the woman says. I cannot bear it.
What happened?
He was coming to see me. A tire blew out.
A new tire. A steel radial tire. Oh please.
Please save my boy. Get him out.
But this is a tombstone, I say.
It is a grave.
Can you not hear him scream? the woman cries.
She tears at granite with bloody fingers.
Can’t you hear him knock?
No, I say.
The woman wails. What can I do?
What can I do?
I don’t know, I say.
She grabs my shirt.
Bloody nails dig into my chest.
What if it were your boy, she rasps.
I grab a hammer. I chip the granite.
I hear his scream.

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J. Alan Nelson is a writer and actor nominated for Best of the Net. His work appears in Acumen and New York Quarterly. He is verbose ‘Silent Al’ in the Emmy-winning short ‘SXSWestworld’ and narrates New York Times videos on the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief.