Author's notes: This is my take on Duo's childhood, the Maxwell Church
massacre, and Duo's friend, Solo. I wrote this from a six to seven
year old boy's point of view. I tried to make it seem like Duo was
really writing it as a child. This is *not* a humor fic. Although
it can be funny at times, this is the most serious fic I've ever written. Please be respectful when reading. Thank you.
~Prussian Crystal
Duo's Journal
~I used to see angels. Now I see death. ~
March 1st AC 186
Sometimes I like to watch the people go by. Some days, there's really nothing like watching the people go by. You know, they really don't seem to know that I'm watching them. At first I thought I might be invisible, which would be really cool. If I was invisible, I could go around and take people's money and they wouldn't know. I would probably laugh. Probably. Do you think I would laugh? If that's what you think then you're wrong. That's what the grown-ups tell me. They tell me it's very wrong to steal things, and it's very wrong and rude to ask people for money. I don't really care if it's rude. I'm just a kid. I can be rude. I might as well be rude now because I when I get older I want to be...well...not rude. Grown-ups are never rude. That's because grown-ups don't have anything to be rude about. They have jobs, lives, money, food, chicken, roast beef, cake, pasta, .... I have to stop now. My mouth is watering.
I'm a boy. That's all I really know about me. I can't tell you how I know that because you might be a girl and not understand. Anyway, I don't have a name. At least I don't think so. Some of my friends call me "dude" or "kid." So, if you wan t call me something, I guess you can call me one of those names. I also don't know how old I am. I really don't think I'm old at all. I'm pretty short compared the people I watch. The people I watch are very tall. Some have hair of their faces. Some don't have very much hair. Some have no hair. I have a lot of hair. It gets in my way when I try to steal things. As I said, I am very short, but my hair is very long. When I sit down it often ends up under my butt...which is very uncomfortable because I feel a tugging on the back of my neck. Some of my friends have long hair, but not as long as mine. I have very long hair. Did I say I say that already? Oh well.
I don't see mirrors a lot, because I'm usually outside, unless I go In a store to steal some candy. But even candy stores don't have mirrors. I have nightmares though. I don't think they're like mirrors at all. They are scary. But mirrors can be scary too if you're really ugly. Anyway, I don't really know what I look like. Some people that talk to me, say I have really pretty violet eyes. I think violet is a type of purple. That's a girl color. I hope my eyes aren't really that color. Sometimes I feel bad because people think I'm a girl. Sometimes I even have to prove it to them that I'm not. But..I uh..get in trouble for that. I couple ladies slapped me with their purses. That was when I started to notice that ladies have long hair and boys (like me) have short hair. One time I saw a guy with long hair wearing a really colorful shirt. He showed me his thumb. Some people I watch really confuse me. Anyway, back to my nightmares. Most of the time they are of very scary things. One time I dreamt that I was being chased my giant lizard creatures, and had to jump through a mattress to get away from them (1). Sometimes I dream about being alone. That's not really a surprise since I'm alone a lot, unless I'm with my friends.
My friend's don't have names, just like me. We really wish we did have names, because it's hard to tell who you're talking to if you just yell, "Kid!" because it could be any kid. Sometimes I see kids with grown-ups. They are usually holding their hands. I wonder why some grown-ups like to hold kids' hands. How come nobody wants to hold my hand?
March 11 AC 187
This is the first chance I've gotten to write in a long time. I was watching people, like I usually do everyday, and then some weirdo comes and takes my bag. (It's the bag I carry around with me with stuff I need in it. It's mostly stuff I steal.) I keep with journal in that bag too. I don't why he took my bag, but he looked really hungry. Almost as hungry as me. He wasn't as skinny as me though. I'm very skinny and very small. Sometimes people lift me up my the wrist and throw me. I don't why they do it. They yell at me a lot too, to get out of their way and stuff. I don't walk very fast. I don't have a lot of energy, because I don't eat much. I have a lot of bruises on my wrists from where people have grabbed me. I wish the bruises would go away. But they don't. And every day I get more bruises. I fall a lot. It hurts really bad. But I don't cry.
About my journal, well, the guy took my bag and ran off. I didn't see him again until a lot of days later. I think a week is seven days. Sometimes I count the days on my fingers. It takes a long time. Yeah, but, I'm getting off the topic again. About my bag..well, when I saw the guy again, I was watching people. The guy was walking around staring at people funny. He was holding my bag. I decided to try and get is back. Bad idea. He threw me on the ground. I kept telling him it was *my* bag, over and over again, but he wouldn't listen, and every time I got up, he'd throw me back down again, even when I was chasing him. Then a very tall man came. He must have been important because there were people following him and they were all wearing suits. Some people on the streets crowded around him, and there were a lot of people with camera's taking pictures of him. He looked very old, and he had gray hair. I think I heard somebody say his name was "cans," you know, like soda cans. But anyway, he picked me up off the ground and made the bad man give me back my bag. Then he said something that a lot of people say to me. "Where's your mom?" I've had some pretty bad experiences with this question. The first time somebody asked me, I said I didn't have one. Then they asked me a lot more questions I couldn't understand and it scared me..
Anyway, he asked me where my mom was, and I said, "She's getting us some chicken." Chicken is my favorite food. I've only tasted it once but when I did it was very good. A nice man gave it to me when I was real little. He called it um...a free sample...yeah. That's what he called it. But, back to my bag story. The poplar man with cameras in his face gave me back my bag and told me to find my mommy and tell her what happened. I ran off before he could ask me anymore questions. I tripped when a ran...but I don't think anybody noticed. Some blood came out of my knee. Blood comes out of my knees a lot. I wish the ground would stop hurting me. I wish I had shoes so I could stop stubbing my toes. Well, that's how I got my bag back. Some things were missing. Like the tic toc thing that tells me the time, even though I would usually *ask* people what it said. Some of my clothes were missing. But clothes were the easiest things to steal. Sometimes people just leave them hanging around in their garages. My journal was still there though, so I'm writing in it today.
Not much happened in the week I didn't have my journal. Actually..I think it was more than a week since I counted more days than seven. Oh well. This journal is the best thing I've gotten so far. My grown-up friend that owns a little toy store, gives me one toy at the beginning of each month. He doesn't know that I don't have a mommy or daddy. I don't tell anybody anymore. They ask me too many questions and try to take me away with them. I just tell my grown-up friend that my family doesn't have very much money. I think he knows this because I where dirty clothes and I don't wear shoes. My hair is usually dirty too. Sometimes I try to find rubber bands on the street to tie it back because it gets really itchy sometimes. Anyway, back to the toy store. As I said, at the beginning of every month, I get a new toy. I got to choose too. I chose that tic toc I told you about, and once I chose a flashlight. I also chose a stuffed animal froggy one time. A big took it away from me and threw it in the mud. I don't know why people are so mean to me. Well, I loved my froggy a lot because he kept me warm at night, so I cleaned the mud off as best as I could. A couple days later some really big kids, even bigger than the first one, took it away again and threw it in the little hole by the street that goes into the sewer. I miss my froggy.
March 14 AC 187
Guess what happened yesterday! I went to my grown-up friend at the toy store, and he looked me funny and sniffed the air around me. I laughed because I thought he was pretending to be a puppy. But then he picked me up and brought me in the back room which he usually never lets me go in. He took off my clothes and set me down in this big bucket. Then he took a smaller bucket and went away. Then he came back with some water in the bucket and dumped it in the bucket I was sitting in. It was warm water and it felt good. Then he just kept dumping more and more warm water into my bucket. When we was done he went and gone a bar of soap and some stuff in a bottle. He washed me with the soap and a wash cloth that tickled. Then he gooped the stuff in the bottle in his hand and put it in my hair, then he kept rubbing it in my hair until it got really foamy. After that was the fun part. He scooped up some water in the small bucket and poured it on my head! Once all the foamy stuff was out of my hair, he pulled me out of the bucket and dried me off with a towel. I was really surprised when I looked at my skin. It wasn't brown anymore! And it was a lot smoother.
After that, he washed my clothes too, which took a long time so I had to sit in a towel for a while. But then, when my hair started to dry, I noticed it wasn't itchy anymore. And it was a lot shinier and lighter than it was before. I decided I liked sitting in a bucket and have stuff poured all over me. If it made me feel this good, it was worth it. Once my clothes were clean and dry, I put them on and said "thank you" to my grown up friend. He just smiled and said every time I felt dirty, I could come to his shop and have a bath. My grown-up friend is very nice. So I thanked him again and ran to go show my friends how clean I was.
The rest of the day wasn't so good. When I went to ally where some of my friends usually are, they weren't there. Not one. So I figured they had all went out to steal stuff. I was an about to leave when I heard a really loud noise! It was the loudest noise I have ever heard. Even louder than when a balloon pops. I had a balloon once. I was really big and orange. Someone gave it to me, but when I was running I tripped and fell, and accidentally let go of my balloon. It floated away, far up into the sky. But anyway, about the loud noise, I peeked out on the street to see what it was, and saw really big machines! They were walking on two legs just like normal people, and carrying really big guns! There were people screaming and running away, they dropped some of their groceries so I went to see if I could grab some food before they came back. When I was picking up food, I heard the loud noise again, and I looked up and one of those big machines was there! I tried to pick up my food and run, but then a heard and even louder noise and before I new it, I was flying across the ground and I hit it..hard. I think that was the biggest boo boo I've ever got. The backs of my legs were covered in dirt and blood, and my clothes were ripped and even my hair was burnt. But the worst thing was, my food was gone.
As for my friend's I haven't seen any of them at all today. Actually, I haven't seen much of anyone. I saw a lot of blood on the street. And a lot of buildings were gone and there was smoke in the air. I went to my grown-up friend's store, and cleaned me up and got all the blood and dirt off of me. It hurt. Then he put creamy stuff on where I had gotten burnt, and got me some new clothes. That was really nice of him, but I cried for a long time when he had to cut off the burnt parts of my hair.
March 20 AC 187
Once again, I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. I had to move to another city. You're probably thinking, how can a little kid move all the way to another city by himself? Well, if you are, there's a lot of things you don't know about me. I can walk pretty far by myself. I can also drive cars. Believe it if you want to, but I can. Really. I saw this guy hot-wire a car once so I tried it and it worked! That was really cool because sometimes I can steal cars and drive them to places I want to go. Everything around this place it pretty much the same. The sides of the sky are metal and it kinda looks like you're trapped in one big area, like you're not really outside. Well, anyway, I drove and walked my way to another city. This one isn't as crispy as the last one, especially since those big machine dudes came. I decided I don't like them. They hurt me pretty bad. Some of my burns feel better, and my the parts of my hair that was cut off is slowly growing back. There's lots of new people to watch in this place. There are mostly like the people in my other city. The person I will miss most is my grown-up friend. I don't get the take a bath in a bucket anymore, or get new toys at the beginning of the month, but it's a lot nicer here. There's less rats.
Another thing I miss about my old city is my friends. They always stuck by my side and helped me steal things. I really do wonder what happened to them. I wonder if one of those big machines hurt them like they hurt me. I hope not. That really hurt bad. I hope there no more machines in this city. Another thing I noticed about this city is a huge building, the biggest out of all of them, and it has a cross on top of it. I'm afraid to go inside because I think there might be something bad in there. I don't think I've ever seen such a creepy building. Whenever I'm around it, I feel this strong energy or something. It's hard to describe. Sometimes I see people dressed in really weird costumes come out of the building. Sometimes I watch them like I watch other people. They were these white collars and black dresses (even the boys)! And they carry around books and have necklaces with crosses on them. I think their scary so whenever I see one of them coming towards me, I run away.
Oh, I got some shoes yesterday! I stole them from this little stand that was on the street. The guy that was there yelled at me for a while and chased me for a while but he never caught me. I just kept running. Then I stopped and put the shoes on, and started running again. Man, these shoes make me run *fast*! They're the coolest things I've ever had! No way I'm giving these back. I can run without worrying about stubbing my toes, or stepping on sharp rocks or glass. Anyway, when I was running, I bumped into this kid. He had really dirty yellowish hair and was wearing a vest and a hat. He also had shoes, so I couldn't show off mine and back fun of him. Darn. But about the kid, he got real mad at me for bumping into him, and he shoved me on the ground. Then I got up and shoved him on the ground. Then we sorting just shoved each other around for a long time. Then he started laughing and said something like, "You've got a lot of spunk, kid!" and he grabbed my arm and led me into an alley. It wasn't like the alleys at my old city. It was a lot cleaner. Yeah, so, anyway, he led me into my alley and there were lots more kids there! They were all dirty and skinny like me. I figured they were probably hungry like me too. They were.
Ever since I met those kids, we've been stealing things together. It's a lot easier to steal things when you're not by yourself, because then you can distract who ever is trying to catch you while another one of us gets away with whatever we stole. Then we all meet back at the alley and split whatever we got between us. It's usually food. I don't think I've ever eaten so much in my life! I got a lot more energy, and was able to steal more and more without getting caught. Me and my friend's sleep in the alley. They had collected a lot of stolen blankets and even let me use one. It's nice to be warm when I sleep at night. One time I asked my friends about those big machines that walk like people. They were all really quiet and didn't want to tell me. Then the kid with the vest told me to ask someone named "Solo." He told me that Solo knew everything about being a kid with no home, and he knew about everything that went around. I asked them where I could find him, and the kid with the vest said he'd take me to him tomorrow. So here I am, writing in my journal and waiting for tomorrow. I look forward to another good nights sleep. Sometimes I can even sleep without bugs crawling all over me! This is the life.
~To be continued