TV buzzing in the background, he pulled the soft, blue blanket closer. The couch and television accompaniment had become somewhat of a nightly comforting ritual. His mother having been absent for two weeks now, still on her very important business trip, (No time to call and check on her only child, of course. ) left him plenty of time to talk to the shadows that danced in the corner of his eyes. Thunder roared from outside and he reached for the remote, clicking it up 10 bars of volume higher. Simon pulled the blanket over his head and closed his eyes, praying that sleep would overtake him before the fear of thunder did. It had rained quite a lot since his mother left, leaving only a note and a couple bags of groceries. There had been a bit of flooding down the road the other day on his walk to Grundskola, but hopefully it wouldn’t rise to his neighborhood. He tried to focus on the rising water in the forested area or school or really anything other than the cracks of thunder that continued on ahead. As he closed his eyes tighter, his hands brushed against some left over cracker crumbs. His stomach grumbled and he plucked a piece of discarded cracker from his earlier dinner off of the plush sofa and popped it into his mouth. Still hungry. His white noise of colorful cartoon characters suddenly died as bright light flashed and left. The storm had taken his only auditory comfort, leaving him utterly alone in the eerily dark and quiet house. “Nej, nej…” He whimpered and peaked out from the navy fabric, making out the familiar shape of the now dead television set as the porch light bounced off of it. “Nej, nej, snälla…” His brown eyes lined with tears at the realization of how alone he was in the storm…and how mad his mom would be if she got back and saw the television was broken. as he pleaded for it to turn back on.