A story from my youth that is based on my actual experience.
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Lyrics
When I was a boy of 11 that Fall
I played with my brother bouncing a ball
On the backyard steps
Or the house-side wall.
Our neighbor, a man of considerable age,
Yelled at our play, how it filled him with rage.
His anger grew under torment of noise,
At the callow treatment at the hands of small boys.
My brother would taunt him, he would yell back in kind,
But I would stand silent of a gentler mind.
I would take up the ball and put it away
For a moment of peace at the end of the day.
But one day a bounce off a step with the ball
Sent it high in the air and over the fence
To land in the hands of our neighbor next door
So pleased with his feat, but with glaring intense
He turned to his house and opened a door
Taking our ball to be seen nevermore.
Sometime later … in the heart of the cold
I stood alone in our yard under skies grey and dim
When I heard a voice both creaking and old
Sensing the neighbor, I turned. It was him.
“Liddle Boy, Liddle Boy, please come to my side
“You have nothing to fear, I have nothing to hide.
“I know that you’re good, a good boy after all
“I’ll give back your toy, I’ll give back your ball."
It seemed very strange, it seemed rather odd,
But I went to his side, I went into his yard.
He opened the door to his basement stairs,
Down we went in the dark, my heart beating hard.
By the side of his furnace was a rusted thin door
Which opened to a tight crawl space in his wall
At the end of the space in the pale light bulb glare
I saw cobwebs and dirt and my deflated old ball.
“Liddle Boy, Liddle Boy, please crawl here inside
“You have nothing to fear, I have nothing to hide.
“I know that you’re a good boy, a good boy after all
“I’ll give back your toy, I’ll give back your ball."
I backed up quite slowly, up the old basement stairs
My mind went numb from the cold and the fear
I ran from his yard and ran to my house
I slammed close the door, but his voice I could hear.
“Liddle Boy, Liddle Boy, please come back inside
“You have nothing to fear, I have nothing to hide.
“I know that you’re good, a good boy after all
“I’ll give back your toy, I’ll give back your ball."
A long time passed and I kept the secret in me.
A secret of evil once glimpsed openly
What happened that day I forever would hide
Until I heard from my mother, the old man had died.
My mother and brother went off to his wake,
But I refused, my will would not break.
That evening alone I sat in the dark,
I remembered my horror, on my soul a black mark,
When faintly I heard a voice from a well,
An old creaking whisper from the bottom of Hell.
“Liddle Boy, Liddle Boy, please come to my side
“You have nothing to fear, I have nothing to hide.
“I know that you’re good, a good boy after all
“I’ll give back your toy, I’ll give back your ball."
My blood ran like ice, then I heard a thump in the hall
In the moon light passage lay my filthy, old ball.
I’ve never told anyone, at least to this day
How the voice still haunts me and will not go away.
“Liddle Boy, Liddle Boy, please come to my side
“You have nothing to fear, I have nothing to hide.
“I know that you’re good, a good boy after all
“I’ll give back your toy, I’ll give back your ball."