Follow In His Footsteps - William Tierney

Those four words have become simply background noise in my everyday life.

They are still forever present, but most days it is no worse than the sting of tinnitus. The words float around my head, but drift in one ear and out the other,

constantly with the mix of slurs and fat jokes into a white noise that I often find myself only noticing during sleepless nights.

Follow in his Footsteps.

Those four words echo in my head, as I stare at the dark river below me. The moon and stars reflect vaguely into it, providing small breaks in the ever present

reflected void. I find my eyes gravitating towards the vague patterns they form, trying to find some semblance in the light being drowned in the murky water.

Follow in his Footsteps.

Those four words loudly beat through my ears like a drum, as I wipe his spit and my tears from my face. I stand up and face the monster before me, only to be

met with a young boy like myself. I wish he was bigger. I wish he had a knife. I wish I had an excuse to freeze up. I wish that the simple act of remaining was brave,

but I know I only remained because I was a coward.

Follow in his Footsteps.

Those four words ring through my ears, as my heart beats frantically and my mind becomes a void. I had never truly met this man, not in a time when I would

have remembered him, but I see his footsteps. Tracks burned deep into my family’s flesh, festering wounds that will never heal.

When I was ten, my mother told me why I had never met or heard from my Uncle James. Before I had ever turned two, he hanged himself in our garage. I didn’t

know how to process this information, a concept I had never met before, so the next day in Gym I confided in a friend. A girl passed by, eavesdropping, and said

“Follow in his Footsteps.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

William Tierney Jr. is a freshman English major at uAlbany. This is his first published piece, one that is close to his heart. He aims to be a professional writer someday, specifically in the film industry. He's dreamed of being a published writer since he was a kid, even if he somehow ended up as a published photographer beforehand.