Part 1:
Mrs. Baker searched around frantically. Where was Mark? She ran into his room, opening the door and slamming it behind her. There! On the bed, a note. It read, "Big Families Stink!"
But why?
She ran into the hall. "Tom, Mark ran away."
About 5 minutes later, everyone was out in the neighborhood pushing each other.
Jake went around on his skateboard by himself, while the rest of the family broke into groups. Nora arrived soon after.
Mr. Baker was still consulting with the police. "No, why would he go on a train or a bus?"
"He might have," Nora interrupted. "That's where I always wanted to go when I ran away from Midland. I wanted to hop on a train and go to Chicago. My favorite place in the whole world."
Tom Baker said out loud. "My favorite place in the whole world."
Running as fast as he could, he ran to the train station. A train leaving to Midland. It was leaving at 10:00. He checked his watch. He had one minute to get there. He ran and ran and got on the subway, right before it left. He climbed to the back and saw Mark, holding a box with "Beans" scrawled on it.
Mr. Baker looked at his son with eyes filled with relief. "Mark," he said. Stumbling over to Mark's seat, he grabbed his sun and hugged him.
"Dad," Mark said, embracing his dad and crying.
They sat there as the train left.
Mark and his dad got off the train, truly exhausted. They started walking up to the entrance to leave the station and then… Mark ran to the rest of his family, standing and waiting for him.
"Do that again and I'm going to have to pound you," Sarah replied.
"I thought I was FedEx," Mark said.
"Your hair color and eye sight are genetic traits that could have been passed down from any of the Baker ancestors," said Jessica.
Mark looked around, filled with happiness and then- "Hey, where's Jake?"
Jake Baker was tired. But he had to find Mark. He looked around and realized that he didn't know where he was anymore. No, he thought. I'm not lost. I can't be lost.
But he was.
Jake skateboarded slowly around, hoping that he would find something familiar.
"We can't find him," Mike said.
"We have to," Mr. Baker retorted. "We'll split up again. Sarah, Nora, Lorraine, Jessica, and Kim. You guys go that way," he pointed, "Charlie, you take Mark, Mike, and Henry that way, Kyle, Nigel, Mom, and I will go this way. Now go!"
They set off.
Jake looked around wildly. There! There were his sisters. He started racing up to them and his eyes widened in horror. Kim was in the path of a car and it was heading right at her! He went as fast as he could.
"Kim!" he shouted.
Instinctively, Kim turned to see Jake instead of looking at the danger before her.
Jake didn't have any second thoughts. He raced up, shoved Kim out of the way and felt a searing pain though his side as he was flung through the air. He hit something, and all was black.
Nora watched the scene go in slow motion. She almost screamed out as she saw Kim in the path of the car. But she couldn't. As she saw who was in the car, she felt an overwhelming sadness. It was Hank. He was clearly trying to crush Kim before him, intending it.
She watched as Jake flew and shoved Kim out of the way and saw his body being flung through the air. She saw Jake's mangled body hit a car hard and fall off. He was unconscious and never even felt himself hit the ground. The last thing she saw was the immense satisfaction that filled Hank, her former boyfriend's eyes, as he watched Jake laying in a great amount of pain on the ground, and rushing away in his car.
Lorraine was screaming her head off. She babbled for Jessica and Sarah to watch Nora and she ran across the road to Jake. She told Kim to get the rest of the family.
She went to Jake and picked him up in her arms. Gosh, he was heavy. His skateboard lay smashed beside him, in a pool of his blood soaking through his shirt.
Kim came rushing up to her brothers, sobbing hysterically.
"What's going on?" Henry asked her, which made her sob even harder.
Mark began to lose his patience and began yelling which flustered her and made her wail even louder.
Charlie grabbed her shoulders and looked at her eyes. "Kim, what's happening?"
Kim calmed down a little. "Hank tried to kill me with his car and Jake pushed me out of the way and he got hit!"
"We need to get there!" Charlie yelled. "Mark, go get Mom and Dad."
Mark obeyed running off into the distance.
The boys began following Kim's lead to the place where Jake was, hoping that they weren't too late.
After Mark reached his parents and twin brothers, he ran into their house and called the police, telling them where Jake had been hit, (according to Kim), and to come quickly.
Mr. Baker got everybody into the car and began driving like a madman towards the corner of Miller Street and Windmill Avenue.
He arrived there as an ambulance pulled up. Lorraine was sitting with Jake in her lap, Sarah was stroking his face gently, and Charlie looked on. The other girls were shaking Nora and trying to wake her up. The boys were plotting an evil plan to destroy Hank at another part of the street.
Tom Baker stood helpless. His children had been hurt before, but it was usually something like spraining an arm or breaking a finger. It had never been serious like being hit by a car.
Kate Baker ran up to Lorraine who was sobbing hysterically.
"Mom!" Lorraine wailed. "I don't know what happened to Jake! He's bleeding and I don't know what to do! I'm not a doctor! He lost a lot of blood!" She proved this by stretching her arms out to show her mom Jake's blood from holding him.
"It's okay honey," Mrs. Baker said, comforting Lorraine. "You helped a lot."
She threw a look at Jake's still face.
Two men came over to Lorraine and Mrs. Baker.
"Excuse me," he said. "We need to take him now."
Jake was taken from Lorraine's arms and loaded onto a stretcher. The Bakers followed the ambulance to the emergency room where they waited, and waited.
Jake was later announced to being alright, but still unconscious. The Bakers went into the room where he was and sat quietly.
Kim, Nora, and Lorraine seemed to take Jake's condition the hardest.
Nora blamed herself for what Hank had done to her brother, swearing to avenge him, until Tom Baker told her that revenge was not the way to do this.
Kim hated herself for not watching where she was going, so Jake wouldn't have had to save her.
Lorraine just stared in silence, wishing that she could have somehow helped. She should have been nicer to him.
But their father reassured them that it wasn't their fault.
"Jake knows," he said gently. "Jake won't blame you."
In a way, Mr. Baker was glad that it had been Jake who had been hurt. He knew that if it had been one of his other kids, they would have never forgiven Nora or Kim.
It was true.
When Jake woke up, he immediately asked where Kim and Nora were.
Kim rushed into his arms, sobbing, but unable to get any words out. Jake put his arms around her and hugged her.
"It's alright," he said. "I know. It's not your fault."
Nora begged him to forgive her, for even ever liking Hank in the beginning.
Jake almost became angry at her for blaming herself. "Nora! If you don't stop that I'm going to have to not forgive you. How many times have I told you? You couldn't have done anything and I'm alright now!"
So Jake returned to his family after several weeks in the hospital, as good as new.
That was until next time…
Review. Please?
FiNnGrl
