Lana and I were walking down the street, singing stupid songs really loudly, pissing off the neighbor hood. Old man Jenkins started throwing some colorful words at our way," He obviously doesn't know talent when he hears it" I whispered to the taller blonde. Lana giggled, "You just love to cause trouble don't you?" I gasped in mock horror, my eyes wide with surprise "Whhaaa? Me? Well I never!" she gave me a bored look. Next thing you know we both started laughing, holding our stomachs. Mr. Jenkins growled ready to throw his cane at us. He was an elderly man, a war veteran. I had the privilege to one day sneak into his house while he was on his daily exercise walk. Pictures of him and his fellow comrades were sitting in their frames on a wooden table pressed against the living room wall. A frame of Medals hung on the wall above the table. But what had caught my eye was a black and white photo of a woman smiling at the camera. At the corner of the photo something was written in red ink. I picked up the picture, "to my dear Harold, I love you till the day I die –Lydia' this puzzled me. I never knew he had a wife, I was curious and I wanted to investigate more, but an angry Mr. Jenkins was standing by the door way, his body shook with anger, "Get out…" "I- I'm sorry Mr. Jen- "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, NOW!" he screamed. I put the picture back down on the table and scrambled past him out the doorway.
I didn't really go that far. I went back to apologize but instead I found him on his knees holding the picture of the women close to his chest, crying "oh Lydia, come back….," My heart reached out to him. No wonder he was always so mad at the world, so angry. The world had taken somebody from him, somebody dear. Here I always thought he was a cruel man just because it was fun to him. Now I knew why he was the way he is. I ran away from there as fast as I could. I ran back home that day, crying. The instant I saw my mom I hugged her tightly. "Audrey? Sweetie, what's wrong?" I shook my head and continued to cry into her shirt "Audrey? "She asked worriedly, "nothing..." I replied," I just love you a lot mommy" she hugged me in return. The look of worry and concern etched cross her face. I just smiled with a tear stained face.
After that day, I never went back to that house, and every time I passed him I would pretended as If I didn't saw anything. I tried not to be as annoying and rude. I knew the feeling of losing someone. I understand him now. I thought I never could but I do. It's funny how life works. You find out you have more in common with the person you least expect. Lana had apologized to the old man. He snorted and walked back inside but not without stealing a glance my way. I stood frozen. I thought I saw something glint in his eyes but that quickly faded and his stare became a glare. I stuck my tongue out at him, which earned me a rough nudge to the ribcage. Mr. Jenkins growled, "Rotten kids," and with that he slammed the door and shut his curtains closed. Lana sighed" must you do that?" "Yes" she sighed in exasperation and we continued to walk to her house. She was babbling about one thing or another but I didn't really pay attention. I looked back at the old man's house. I did a two finger salute in his honor and went my way.
We finally made it to her place. Her mom was busy in the kitchen so we didn't bother her and headed into her room, "did you bring it?" she asked, "but of course my dear" I grinned. She opened the door to her room. Pink walls, pink bed, pink everything. I made a face like I always do every time I come into her room. She giggled and sat down in front of her T.V set. I took my back pack off and unzipped it open. I dug out the console and its wires along with the game I was eager to play. I opened the box where a few of the games of the Jak series were in, I pulled out the first game TLP and put it in the console. We plugged everything in and turned on the T.V. the Play-station logo appeared along with a few other advertisements. I grabbed the controller and watched the cut scenes, "let the game begin!" "hoorah!"
A few hours, dinner and a food fight later, I was ready to go on my way home. Ms. O'Neil had offered to give me a ride home and I politely declined, "are you sure? It's getting dark out" she peeked out the window. The sun was beginning to set. The sky a lovely orange hue, "I'll be fine Ma'am, not to worry, I'll get home fastest I can its only a few block away," "I know sweetheart but it can get dangerous out at night.
'This is -, with breaking news. A new source of energy has been recently spotted in Arizona, what looks like to be another oil spill, is not. Local feds. , Reported what seems to be a form of oil like substance but with qualities unknown to man. More new at elev-,' Lana's dad shut the news off turning the channel into a football game, "weird stuff" "totally" I agreed. " it's probably nothing, knowing the media they just want more views and will do anything to get it" her mother replied, "you should start heading home Audrey it's starting to get darker by the minute" "Right, well thanks for inviting me Ms, O'Neil, I'll see you at school Lana banana, see ya Mr. Daddy-o" "later kid-o...TOUCHDOWN!" we stared at the man with surprise. I laughed and headed out the door waving goodbye to the ladies of the house.
I was walking down the dark quiet streets. Normally this place was full of life in the day time, but now it's just kind of scary. 'Calm yourself Audrey, home is not too far away' I told myself. At the corner of my eye I saw a dark shadow move. I turned my head to the direction of the shadow but saw nothing but an empty street. I gulped and wiped the small beads of sweat off my forehead. I continued walking down clutching at the handles of my bag tighter. I saw another shadow move between two houses. I was starting to panic, crap. I began to walk a lot faster. 'I should've have gotten a ride home, stupid, stupid girl! My eyes must be playing trick on me, yea, that's it, just a figment of my imagination. Yea…' another shadow had moved in front of me, I screamed at fell back landing on my rear. I looked back up to see the same shadow was actually the shape of a person running away to the other side. I couldn't tell what kind of figure they had, if it was a boy or a girl, but they seemed to be my height and they were small. Pissed as I was for scaring me, I got up and ran after them, "hey, you!" I yelled out, for a moment they stopped and looked back, all I could make out was their clothes, they were dressed in black, and I could make out a strange round metal disk attached to their back. How Strange.
The stranger then continued to run, gosh they were fast. I took a second to catch my breath and ran after them. It felt like hours that I was chasing this person; they turned into so many corners and curves it was hard to keep up "stop!" I yelled out but to no avail, the figure kept running. Soon enough I lost sight of the person and found myself by an abandoned factory, a few miles from home. Crap…mom is going to kill me.