1. Damon Herald I walked around the corner of my block as I did everyday. I've walked the same route to and from school, turned the u corner and circled the same block for 8 years. That's 96 months, or about 2880 days. Yeah, the same fricken' route for almost 3000 days. But today I saw 2 changes. One was slight, while the other really freaked me out. Firstly, it was autumn, just a day ago the ground was covered in pesky leaves. I used to jump on them with my brother as a kid when I had nothing else to do during the day. But lately I can't stand them, every step I take a leaf crunched under my foot. Walking to and from school every day had started to annoy me. But today there were only two or three leaves on the block. It wasn't windy and in this part of the neighbourhood the government wouldn't clean the pavement. In fact, I'd be surprised if they would touch it with a ten foot pole. 7th avenue was probably the worst in the city. My suburb, Orange Valley wasn't a great place to grow up in but it had its upsides. I lived in an apartment close to a 7-11. Okay fine, it has 1 upside.
As I turned the last corner on my walk, I almost pissed myself when I saw in the corner of my eye a man. An old man with a fascinated look on his face sitting on a stool with a large pile of dead leaves. He was wearing nothing but rags and the only thing he owned was the stool. His feet were stamping on the leaves. He had a sort of curiosity like a child. I go to a public school and live in a dodgy neighbourhood. This type of thing wasn't necessarily common but already at the age of 15 I had seen my share of messed up things. However, seeing an old African-American man with white dreadlocks, sitting on a wooden stool was peculiar. I started walking faster towards the door of my apartment. He was so intrigued he didn't take his eyes of the pile of leaves for the 30 seconds it took me to get to the apartment door.
I turned the handle as my heart raced. I closed the door and started jogging up the stairs. I probably shouldn't have been so shocked but in the time I've lived in this apartment, I've never seen any hobos in that alley. I'm sure I could've fought an old man if he tried to mug me but I couldn't be sure if he had a knife or not. I fumbled for my apartment keys to open the door, my heart still racing. I opened the door and heard our cheap $60 dollar TV on.
"Hey, Damon." I heard my sister shout.
"Hey." I replied.
My mom, Cassandra Herald would be working at T and H Clothing. My 15 year old brother, Markham Herald, would be in an afterschool fight that would be starting in about 3 minutes at 4:30. And in about 10 minutes he would either be in hospital or buying bandages at the 7-11. I was born 2 months before him, so technically as his older brother I should be there helping and making sure he doesn't die. Either way he was gonna lose the fight, there's no way he was going to beat a 16 year old the size of a 30 year old with the mind of a 3 year old. If Mark stopped running his mouth maybe he could go a day without getting a concussion. That left my 19 year old sister, Zara Herald who we called Z. Though she should be looking for either a job or an apartment, turns out she was doing neither. I walked in to the living room of our apartment to find her wearing sweats, eating a bowl of Macaroni and Cheese whilst watching Jersey Shore. She had long black hair and dark skin like me. I picked up the empty can of V and lobbed it at her.
"Energy drinks are bad for you…" I said, repeating what she had told me a week earlier when I bought a red bull from 7-11.
"At least it's not an empty can of Budweiser." She replied without removing her gaze from Jersey Shore.
It annoyed me how she could come up with witty replies but when she said the same thing to me a week ago all I could do was grunt.
"So I'm guessing you got the job and found an apartment already." I said "Hahahaha…" She laughed dryly.
We lived in a 3 bedroom apartment with one toilet and a small kitchen. Even though I shared a room with Mark that had a bunk-bed that filled half the room, we had gotten used to this apartment. I chucked my Puma backpack on the floor that was filled with homework I should be doing, instead I jumped on my bed and decided to do the homework tomorrow morning. My phone vibrated and I flipped it out. I read a text message saying:
I WON! I FRICKEN KNOCKED THAT OAF OUT! I knew Zara's karate moves wud work! pritty sure I broke sumthing tho…can u come back and help me walk home?
I replied Mark's text saying:
Or how about I stay here, aaaand u walk back ureself.
See you soon -Your loving big brother Mark replied saying:
Asshole…
"Zee, did you teach Mark your karate moves!?" I shouted to Zara from my room.
"I don't know karate." She replied.
"Tae-kwon do, karate, whatever same thing but did you teach him fighting moves?"
She didn't reply and I knew she secretly felt guilty.
My sister had started learning Tae kwon do at the age of 8 until she was 17. Our mom wanted Zara to be able to protect herself being a girl in a dodgy neighbourhood and all. She got her first black belt at 15. She stopped at 17 so she could focus on her college studies. When Mark and I also started at the same high school as her we were almost immediately bullied for being poor. Being 13 and my sister being 17 in her last year started protecting us and beating up any bullies that picked on us. But after she finished high-school there was no-one to protect us. So the bullies picked on us even more. But our mom didn't want us learning martial arts from her or else we might use it to pick on smaller kids or start fights, which was probably a smart move.
I walked back into the living room and stood in front of the TV to block her vision and make sure she listened.
"Look this is serious; you teaching him fighting moves has caused him to knock out a kid!" I snapped.
"Yeah well that was the point." She replied before stuffing a fork-full of macaroni into her mouth.
I looked at her puzzled.
"So you wanted him to knock a kid unconscious?!" I asked.
"I wasn't going to let my little brother be killed." She said "Well mom's going to kill you for teaching him you know."
"Who says she's going to find out?"
"I'm going to tell her."
"I see what this is about." She said, putting down her bowl. "You're jealous, you want me to teach you as well don't you?"
"No I want you to realise that it was a stupid thing to-" I stopped mid sentence when I realised that Zara had a large bandage on her ankle and a cut on her hand.
"How'd you get cut so badly?" I asked.
"Oh well you see, ninjas attacked us and I had to fight them so they wouldn't destroy the house but don't worry I took care of it." She replied.
"Don't joke with me, those cuts are serious."
"It's none of your beeswax."
I knew well that she kept things to herself and prying would just make her angry, I was still worried but as I was about to say something Mark walked in.
Markham had spiky jet black hair, dark brown eyes, freckles and wore the same clothes as me. Not the same style but we literally shared clothes. We were pretty much the same height except he's Caucasian with brown hair and I'm black with short dreads. Of course, we're not related by blood, we're adopted brothers. The only thing we share is a house…and clothes, and shoes, a room and food. We might as well be blood related. However my sister and I are actually blood related. Our mom adopted us when I was 1 and my sister was 4. My biological mother was best friends with my mom and was actually our godmother until she adopted us.
I don't know what happened to our biological mother but our mum forgets a lot at the age of 41 and she had to come up with a different lie each time. First it was that she moved away because of the stress of being a single parent. The second was that she died in a tragic car accident. And the most recent lie was that she just disappeared and left us at her door. I knew from the age of 11 that they were all lies, but I didn't care. I didn't want to have to add more stress onto our mom who was working two jobs to keep a roof over our heads. And anyway how can I care about someone I never knew…Right?
As for my dad I can only guess that he was a real dick for deserting a woman with 2 kids in a bad neighbourhood. And as for Mark's dad, he was a police officer who was shot by a drug dealer in a gun fight. He died a week after Mark was born so Mark doesn't remember him at all but he claims when he's older he's gong to fight criminals and fight for justice. He's not off to a very good start but hey, the guy wasn't left with much to copy. 3 photos of Mark's dad are around the house and a few medals, but nothing else.
"Hey guys, picked up a packet of Doritos to ceeeeleeebraaaate!" Mark said.
He had a swelling bruise on his cheek and bloody knuckles but other than that he seemed to come out of the fight fine.
"I still can't believe it lil' bro, up top, I knew you'd win" Zara said.
"Thanks Zee, couldn't have done it without a ninja master like you!" He said while bowing as if he was a student addressing his master.
"Yeah yeah, you're welcome but go do your homework now."
"Fine" Mark said as he walked to our bedroom and I followed after him.
"Good job psycho, any teachers find out?" I said.
"Nope, but some chicks found out I was alpha male" he replied.
"Ahahaha good one, like any chicks would look at you!" I laughed.
"Just because I don't have different girlfriend every month."
"Well, I'm glad you won but don't go around knocking out any other kids." I said.
"Don't worry, it was full luck anyway. Can I copy your chemistry homework?" Mark said.
"I haven't done it yet." I said.
"Well can you do it for me?"
"Nope."
"C'mon, you're a genius at science, it'll take you like 30 seconds, pleeease?"
"Fine, but I'll do it later."
"Thanks bro."
After about an hour and a half of playing the same demo of Sonic the Hedgehog over and over on my phone, our mom walked through the door. Our mom had brown hair like Mark except with many grey hairs and the same freckled skin. She had bags under her brown eyes. I felt like I was far too lazy given the hard working mother we had. Yeah I helped out time to time, but taking care of 3 kids, working 2 jobs and trying to keep us safe in a terrible neighbourhood seemed like far too much. One day at least one out of 3 of us would become rich and be able to repay her. Buy her a mansion or something, I don't know but she deserved more than this.
"Thanks for doing the dishes this morning Damon" Mom said.
"That's alright mom" I replied.
"Have you two done your homework?"
"Doing it now."
"Find anything yet Zara?" Mom said "Uhhhh not yet." Zara replied.
"I see." Mom said. "Well I'm going to head off to sleep now; I'll see you all tomorrow morning."
"It's only 7 o'clock." Zara said.
"Yeah I had a long day, I'm exhausted." She replied.
Half of me felt sorry for her, but the other half was relieved she was too tired to notice the bruise on Mark's face.
2. New Girl Next morning I woke up and went into grabbed my towel. At 8:01 am my mom had already left for work 2 hours ago, Zara had left to look for a job and Mark was still sleeping. I stepped into our one bathroom and brushed my teeth. It was raining and having a shitty heating system didn't help keep me warm so the shower was a safe haven. I stepped into the shower and cleaned myself in less than 5 minutes but I couldn't bring myself to get out of the warmth of the shower. I heard Mark bang on the door at least 3 times. When I stepped out of the shower he had started eating breakfast and by the time I was finished changing he had already started walking to school. I ate my bowl of Lucky Charms quickly. I locked the door behind me as I left the apartment and started walking down the stairs. I walked outside into the rain but I completely forgot about the strange old man. He was sitting on his stool just looking up at the sky. I tried walking faster but he greeted me before I could turn the corner.
"Good Morning" he said.
"Uhhh hi" I replied.
"Going to school?" he said.
"Yeah."
"By your tone I'm guessing you don't enjoy school very much."
"Well I don't know anyone who does."
"Don't take the gift of education for granted."
"Uhmm Okay."
"Good." The old man smiled. "Well have a good day"
"Yeah, Thanks."
The whole walk to school I was uneasy I hoped I wouldn't see him on my way back. When I left the house I knew I would have to hurry but now I would definitely be late. I started jogging. Even by the time I had got to school I was still wierded out by the old man. I walked through the door of my social studies class first period and I walked past a girl with dark brown, almost black hair and big, bright blue eyes. She was standing in front of the class in the middle of speaking. The girl was nervous and started to stutter and my social studies teacher, Mrs. Barnes shot me a look which I knew well. The look that said: "Sit down quietly and shut the hell up."
I sat down next to Mark and flicked him on the shoulder and whispered,
"Hey, did you see an old man that started asking you questions when you were walking to school?"
"Uhh no I did not, I was too busy staring at hot transfer chicks." He said.
I looked at him and then decided to pay attention to the new girl speaking when I did a double take and narrowed my eyes to take a better look at his hair. He had heaped gel into his hair. Not because he wanted to look cool but because that was the only way to keep it down.
"Did you pour a bucket of cooking oil on your head?" I said.
"Hahaha good one, well when you take 12 hours in the bathroom I don't have much time to do anything other than put on gel and get dressed," he replied.
"So you decided to slather your hair with gel?" I asked.
"Exactly." Mark said.
"Why didn't you just wait and take one after me?"
"Because I would've been late like you dipshit. Anyway, I took a shower last week."
I laughed and saw Mrs. Barnes was getting impatient, as the girl up front was stuttering like crazy. She was trying to explain why she moved to Orange Valley. I saw her legs shaking and looked as if she was close to fainting. I had completely missed the part where she told the class her name and halfway through speaking Mrs. Barnes told her she could introduce herself fully later and asked her to sit down. Of course the only seat left wasn't near me and Mark but in the front near the over-achievers. But my spot did get a view of her legs, where as Mark had a frizzy haired ginger in front of him so he was lucky if he was able to see the board.
After class we went to the cafeteria. Fortunately the cafeteria at Orange Valley High School was actually decent. It seems they spent the little money they had on good food instead of education and renovation. As usual we spent our shared eight bucks on pudding and French fries. We sat at a table at the back of the cafeteria near the rubbish. The new girl approached our table and asked to sit down and before I even got the chance to say yes, Mark cut me off and said, "Yeah go ahead".
"So Valerie, what brings you to Orange Valley?" Mark said.
"Uhh well my dad got a promotion which payed more, but he had to be relocated." she said.
"Oh that sucks…Oh yeah, my names Damon and this is my little brother, Mark."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Valerie. Valerie Beckett"
A couple of days later me, Valerie and Mark started walking back home. It turned out that Valerie only lived about 3 blocks away. I couldn't get my head around if her dad was supposedly a lawyer, how they could live in such a bad neighbourhood. We stopped by the 7-11 and picked up a bottle of Pepsi and more Doritos.
"Hey, uhmm do you guys think I could hang out at your house for a while?" Valerie said.
Any other situation we would be happy to spend more time with a girl but we were both hesitant about showing a new friend how poor we were. Also I'm sure Mark didn't realise but I noticed that something about Valerie's home made her uneasy. I knew I shouldn't have but I decided to test how bad it was.
"I mean yeah okay, but our house is kinda boring. How about we go to yours?" I said.
"Nah my house sucks. I don't have anything cool." She said.
"Okay, that's fine our house is good." Mark said.
I noticed her arms were shaking a little bit, that's when I saw a bruise on her shoulder.
We walked past the old man I saw in the morning and he greeted us. Mark and Valerie responded with a "Hello." Was I the only one who was suspicious about him?
"Was that the old guy from this morning?" Mark whispered.
"Yeah." I said.
"Weird." He said.
We walked into the house and I told Valerie to chuck her bag anywhere. Mom was at work and it looked like Zee was out looking for a job…Finally. All three of us were glad it was a Friday and at 4:05 there was nothing on T.V. Me and Mark were doing a terrible job at being hosts. We would've asked her if she wanted something to eat but if she said yes, the only thing we would have been able to serve was eggs on stale toast or Lucky Charms. So instead we just talked.
"So what does your mom do?" Mark said.
"Uhh actually she died 3 years ago…" Valerie said trying to keep the conversation as light hearted as possible.
"Oh my god I'm sorry." I said.
"Yeah we didn-"
"No don't worry, it was a long time ago" She said.
At the moment I guess you could say we were doing the worst possible job ever at creating conversation. After a long pause Valerie stepped in.
"So how did you guys get in this...situation." She said. I could tell she was trying to be as polite as possible so I tried humour.
"Well you might not have noticed but we're aren't biological brothers. My sister and I were adopted by Mark's mom. She's working until 7:00 tonight again but you'll probably meet her sometime. And our sister is out looking for a job, she's 19 an-"
Just then Zara burst through the door excited and screaming until she saw we had a visitor.
"Speak of the devil. Valerie this is our sister Zara Herald, Zee this is our friend Valerie." Mark said.
"Hi" Valerie said. "Uhmm hi" Zara said.
Zara suddenly looked intrigued and I knew what she was thinking.
"Very nice to meet you." Zara said smiling.
"Nice to meet you too" Valerie replied.
"Damon, can I talk to you in my room?" Zara said.
"Uhh, yeah sure." I replied.
I followed Zara in her room as she threw her stuff on the floor.
"So what did you want to talk about?" I said.
"Oh nothing I just thought we'd give those two lovebirds some privacy."
"What do you mean why do you assume their together?" I said offended.
"Don't be jealous, you can get a girlfriend every other week but they dump you almost immediately. Anyway I want to be an aunt someday so just let Mark have this one."
"Yeah, yeah anyway what were you so excited about?"
"Oh yeah," She said pulling something out of a bag.
I couldn't make out what it was.
"What is that?" I said "I GOT A JOB!" She squealed.
"That's awesome! Where?"
"Soft-Serve Express."
I then saw that she was holding up a uniform that required she wore an ice cream cone hat. I couldn't help laughing and broke out into laughter.
"AHAHAHA oh that is HILARIOUS, p-put on the hat I wanna see how it looks!"
"Shut up it's better than nothing." She snapped. "Anyway it pays well and I wouldn't be laughing if I was you cause in a week I'm gonna be loaded and I'm not gonna know who to share it with."
I immediately stopped laughing.
"Anyway I'm gonna go into the living room and interrogate my future sister-in-law."
I walked to the kitchen and I gestured to Mark to follow me.
"Is it just me or does it seem like Valerie's kinda nervous about going home." I whispered.
"Yeah she was also pretty uncomfortable when I asked her more about her dad." Mark said.
"Abusive?"
"Maybe, at least she can come here to relax."
"Yeah."
It looked like Zara didn't have to worry. They seemed to be getting along fine.
"Oh yeah by the way Zara finally got a job." I said.
"Cool, where?" Mark said.
"Get this, Soft-Serve Express." I said.
"The ice-cream place?"
"Yup."
"Oh my god that's priceless."
"That's not even the best part, she has to wear a uniform...with an ice cream cone hat."
"I need to get a picture of that." Mark laughed.
"Well I should probably get home now it's almost 5 and my dad's pretty strict." Valerie said.
"Oh ok I'll walk you back, you're new here but it's a pretty dodgy neighbourhood." I said.
"Thanks."
I knew I shouldn't pry into the life of someone that I had only known for a few days but every time I looked at the bruise on her shoulder, I couldn't help thinking that couldn't happen from tripping or accidently walking into a wall.
"So what law firm does your dad work for?" I said acting casual.
"Jay and Tecker Law firm." She replied. "What does your mom do?"
"Oh nothing like that, she works 2 jobs, one at a clothing store down the road and another at the post office." I said. "Do you have any siblings?"
"Nope only child, it kinda sucks."
"Do you want one of mine?"
"Haha, I wish!"
"Well you're welcome to come over anytime if you want to hang out with us or something."
We were nearing her house and I saw she was shaking again.
"Wow you're shivering, are you okay?" I said.
"Uhh yeah I'm fine." She replied.
"Valerie, tell me the truth are you okay?"
"No really I'm fine."
"Is it your dad?"
"No seriously I'm just a bit cold."
"Did he hit you?"
She put her hand over the bruise on her shoulder and shook her head.
"You don't have to lie, you can tell me. If you tell me the truth I promise in return I'll never keep the truth from you." I said.
"Sorry, I've gotten so used to lying. We've been to three different cities in the past year because he keeps getting fired. He's drunk pretty much every hour of the day since my mom died of cancer. He's a construction worker. I mean, he was a lawyer but he got fired for punching his boss when he was drunk. I've never really had any friends, probably because I always lie, it's become a habit." She said.
"Did he hit you?" I asked.
She nodded.
"Do you want to stay at our house for a bit longer?"
"No it's better if I just get in the house before curfew and head straight up to my room."
"Okay, text me or Mark and you can head over anytime." I said. "Did you want to go to a movie tomorrow or something?"
"Yeah okay, sounds good I'll come over tomorrow."
"Okay I'll see you later."
I walked back thinking of how terrible it must be for her. Is that what all dads where like? I promised myself that one day I would find my biological father, ask him why he left my mom. And if I didn't like his answer I would punch him in the face. I walked thinking about it the whole time. I went into the 7-11 again to get bandages in case Valerie's dad did anything to hurt her and maybe a chocolate bar for Zara to congratulate her. I saw the old man again in the 7-11 looking at drinks. I had the $5.57 left over from earlier. A pack of regular bandages was $2.99 and I could get a Mars Bar for $1.50. I walked past the old man just staring at the drinks. I took the bandages and the Mars bar and walked up to the counter.
"That comes to $4.49." The man at the counter said.
I tried to ignore the old man still staring at the drinks but I couldn't.
"Umm actually can I just get the bandages?" I said.
"Okay your total is $2.99" He said. "Do you want the receipt?"
"No thanks."
I put the bandages in my pocket and looked at the change. I walked up to the old homeless man.
"Hi uhmm, sir, did you want some money to buy a drink? I have $2.00 dollars change if you wanted to buy one." I said nervously.
He looked at me and nodded. "Thank you."
"That's alright."
After walking out of the shop, I almost felt bad that I gave him so little. $2 dollars could only buy him a drink anyway. Traffic was building up because people were coming home from work. By now I was emotionally exhausted and frustrated and I just wanted to get home. I took a risk and decided to cross the road quickly. But I tripped on the curb.
"Shit shit shit." I said frantically.
A car was coming from my left and I needed to get the hell of the road. But I knew it would hit me before I had time to get up. People talk about seeing their life flash before their eyes. For me it was the exact opposite. I was so scared my mind was blank like a deer in headlights. The last few moments that the car was coming towards me I just closed my eyes. Then I heard the crash. But I didn't feel any pain. Was I dead already? That was quick. No, I couldn't be. I heard car horns blaring. I opened my eyes. The old man had stopped the car with his bare hand. Impossible right? That's what I thought, but there he stood one had stopping a moving car and the other holding a can of Fanta.