Far Longer then Forever

By

Mina-Elaine-

Chapter 1The Great Escape

Tye's eye lids fluttered open, his hands folded behind his head. The sky seemed a dark unwelcoming blue-grey. A storm was coming and it was not going to be friendly. Thunder rumbled, low and uneasy in the distance as Tye slowly picked himself up off the slightly golden grass, looking to the sky with his deep evergreen irises. A rain drop fell on his cheek and a shivered ran down his spine as the cold drop of liquid rolled lightly down his neck.

Knowing that when he got home the only thing waiting was a drunken father and a beaten up mom, Tye refused to move. He just stood there in the middle of the park searching the sky for answers. Reasons. Reasons why his father beat up on his mom. Reason why his father beat up on him. Tye's hand went up to his eye where a huge dark shiner laid barley hidden beneath the make-up trying to hide it.

Another rain drop fell on Tye's face. Then another and another. Tye heard his father's drunken yells calling out the name Tye never wished to here again. His own. He had to run. He didn't know where he would go especially with the rain beginning to pour. He had to cut and dye his hair, change his name and leave.

Tye only other into his bedroom was through his downstairs window. But he had to get in. As he knelt down and popped in the window, the hinges creaked softly from the rust. Sliding in on his stomach was a little harder than he thought it would be and it hurt his stomach but eventually he was able to get into the basement. As he tip-toed to his bedroom and opened the door, Tye looked around at its few contents. An old broken wood bed with a lumpy hard mattress and an old moldy dresser and desk lay unorganized around the room.

Tye had some trouble getting the drawer to his desk open because it was glued shut with mold and mildew. He grabbed the sharp metal scissors and the pouch he kept his pocket knife in. He opened his dresser and withdrew a small jar with about 80 inside. He emptied the money into a backpack and quietly made his way to the bathroom. He gathered the peroxide and his asthma medicine into the backpack as well as the scissors and pocket knife he had put in his pocket. In the bathroom he also grabbed a dirty pair of jeans and a green t-shirt from the overflowing laundry basket in the corner. As he stuffed these into his back pack he heard clumsy footsteps thumping down the stairs. Tye ran to the window and threw the backpack through it. He hopped up on the chair beneath it and hoisted himself up. As his back was beginning through the window, he heard his dad yelling behind him.

"You worthless kid, get your scrawny ass back in here," he yelled as he grabbed Tye's leg and began to tug with all his might. Tye slide back in through the window hitting his head on the window sill and falling down hard on the cement floor. Looking at his winded son, Tye's dad flipped him over and started punching him in the face and shouting, "You worthless son of a whore. Go back to where you came from. Die and don't come back."

For the first time in fourteen years, Tye fought back. He was tired of being complacent. He kicked and through his arms around his father's neck. Tye flung his father away from him and tried to get up but his father was back on top of him in a second so Tye simply kicked him in the face. Tye leaped up and dashed to the window. When he clambered out of the basement window, the skies were as dark as night and the rain was pelting down harder than ever. Absentmindedly Tye let a tear trickle down his red beaten cheek. The next thing he knew he was doing the only thing that seemed right to do at the time. He ran. He pushed himself harder and harder until he couldn't see his house at the end of Main Street.

-- T J --

By the time Tye made it to the old gas station about half a kilometer out of town, he was soaked to the bone and felt as though he was on fire. When he entered the clerk was turned around so he was able to slip quietly to the bathroom in the back unnoticed. He locked the door and tore out the scissors and peroxide from his back pack and began to cut his hair and then die it.

Tye even thought he looked weird with short blond hair. It was so different from his old long mahogany style before. When Tye exited the bathroom the man behind the counter was staring at him, watching everything he did every move he made. Tye made his way to the back coffee machine and poured the hot black liquid into a thin cardboard cup and placed the lid firmly on top. Slowly he made his way the front of the store and placed his black coffee on the counter.

"Is this everything?" asked the clerk in an emotionless voice.

Tye looked around timidly then grabbed a small bag of chips from a shelf behind him.

"Now is this sit?" asked the clerk again. Tye nodded he head. "7.64," said the clerk and Tye handed him the money. As Tye turned to leave turning the beaten bruised side of his face toward the clerk, the clerk said, "Wait!" very sternly. Quietly and slowly Tye turned with his eyes turned to the floor. "What's wrong son?"

"Nothing," Tye said solemnly.

"What happened to your face?"

"I fell down some stairs."

"Son, are you sure you're alright?"

"Nothing really, I'm fine!" Tye said through clenched teeth. He turned and left the gas station to sit outside on the small curb by the door and drink his coffee.

When he was finished his drink he got up and walked back into the pouring rain, he began to feel uncommonly cold and tiered. He knew he had top find a place to sleep. A dry place to sleep. Tye had traveled for what he thought was about another kilometer when he came upon a substantially large park that he guessed was just outside the next town. But it was too dark to possibly see how far ahead off him the town was. The covered tunnel in the slide seemed like a good enough place to sleep for the night. It wasn't very comfortable but it was better than the rocks on the ground. The pitter-patter of the freezing rain was the last thing Tye heard before he drifted off to sleep in his dark lonely tunnel.

-- T J --

"What happened? Where did you find him?"

"I don't know I just found him in the tunnel when I took Dominick to the park. He was burning up. I didn't know what to do."

"Jamie you should learn to leave well enough alone. James, he was burning up. What was I supposed to do, just leave him there and let him die?"

"Well you know it wouldn't have been a bad idea."

"James that's a horrible thing to say."

"He had a pocket knife, peroxide and scissors in his backpack Jamie!"

"I don't care James. He was so helpless. I just couldn't leave him there."

"Well can you just tell me again how you got him here?"

"I took Dominick to the park in the wagon and I just pulled him out of the tunnel and pushed him down the slide into the wagon. I told Dominick he could be a big boy and walk home holding my hand."

"You pushed him down the slide? Well now he's gonna have an even bigger bruise on his back than the one here on his face. What do you suppose happened?"

"I don't know, maybe he fell or got hit by a car or something. But James we need to help him. He was soaked to the bone and I'm sure he's got hypothermia."

"Well little sister what do you suppose we do? We can't take him to the hospital because we can't be seen or you'll be taken away along with Dominick."

"James, I've had enough time in these short 16 years on this earth to know enough about a simple flue. I'll take care of him. I'm sure I'll be fine, he's defenseless. Really."

"Why do you always have to use those damn cute puppy eyes when you want something? I just don't know. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Seriously James."

"Only if you promise to not be around him for to long."

"Deal, so now will you help me take him to my room."

"Your room?!"

"Yeah. I mean I'll sleep with Dominick and the boy can have my room."

"Okay, I'll take him up you can just get the thermometer and the other medicine that you need." James picked up the motionless 5' 10" body and held it close against his own 6' 2", 18 year old frame and carried the boy up the stairs. Jamie ran to the bathroom and opened that small squeaky cupboard to retrieve the thermometer, Vicks and cough syrup. In the kitchen she gathered a bowl and filled it with cold water and a rag and made her up the stairs.

When Jamie entered her room, James, her older brother, was pulling the covers over the strange boy who was now wearing a pair of James' dry boxers.

"There," said James in an uncertain tone. "Do your thing baby sister." And he left the room kissing Jamie's forehead.

Softly walking over to the bedside of the silent body of the boy, Jamie placed the bowl of cool water on the ground and rung out the rag folding it neatly and placing it on the boy's calescent forehead. She gently rubbed the Vicks on his chest that was rising and falling mercilessly fast because of discomfort and illness. Jamie tenderly pulled down his bottom lip and slipped the thermometer between foreigner's lips and lay back in her chair. She waited two minutes before gently pulling the thermometer away from his mouth and looking at the degrees. The thermometer read 105˚C. Jamie lay back in her chair a second time, placed her hand lightly on her forehead and closed her eyes with a sigh. Dominick had never had a fever this bad and this was a boy she didn't even know. How was she supposes to make him better. All she could think to do was pray. Jamie leaned forward with her elbows on her knees, her hands folded against her chin and recited a simple bible verse as a prayer, "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me."