Just finished the rough draft; I hope you like it, of course I'm opening to your creative criticism that's why I'm on YWS to become a better writer!
Today’s the first day of the rest of our lives (Caleb)
“Caleb I’m hungry.” Corey whined.
This was the second week at the crack head’s, Gabe, house. Mom said she saw that he was more than just a junkie. But I just saw a addict; looking broke down and pitiful. We had eaten everything edible in the house and all that was left in the was salt and Gabe’s off limits food cabinet. He told me up front that if I touched it he would 'beat me shit'. I had been hit by enough of mom’s boyfriends to know that he wasn’t bluffing.
“Mom, we need to get some food Corey’s hungry.” I said nudging her. She had passed out the night before along with the others she and Gabe had brought here from a party they went to. Unlike the other passed out people she had me; she had me to hold her hair while she through puked 90% of the food she had eaten that day; unlike them I was there to pick her face out of the toilet that she crashed on; and unlike them she had someone to caress her head while talking her to sleep so the monsters in her eyes wouldn’t come and kill her. I was my mother’s keeper.
It was only a little passed noon; I knew for a fact that she wasn’t going to be up for a while and she hated me waking her up. But this needed to be done, I could stay hungry but, I didn’t even like it when Corey’s stomach was growling. She needed food. I knew she had to be starving because Corey was the type of person that held out as long as an 8 year-old kid can hold out on food. She knew when things were tough, though most of the time she wouldn’t admit it. She liked to believe that we moved so much because mom wanted us to see the world; she liked to believe that eating stale Cheerios and ketchup was a gourmet meal for people some place in Europe; she like to believe in mom.
“What do you want?” My mom said in a dead voice. She wasn’t very nice in the morning.
“We need food, we’re starving.” I said.
“Look in the kitchen.”
“There’s nothing in there, I already checked.”
She rolled over, making it look as if maybe she had a secret stash of food under the couch but she just buried her head in the pillow and shut her eyes.
“Mom, wake up we need food.”
“What am I suppose to do Caleb shit it out! I don’t have any; don’t you see I’m sleep, go away and leave me alone!” she snapped.
I bit down hard on my lip and looked back at Corey who quickly turned away. She wasn’t normally like this. She was just tired.
“I’m going to get you some food Corey, don’t worry.” I said patting her on her box braided hair that was over a month old.
I went into the kitchen making sure to step over the past out bodies on the way there. The kitchen was left the same way it was the night before when we looked for something to eat, empty and filthy. I looked through the cabinets and nothing but ant traps and dust filled them. The last cabinet I hadn’t opened was Gabe’s. It was stuffed with so many snacks that the door to it could barely close. I peaked out the doorway and saw Gabe slumped over and lying against the wall near the front door; then looked back at Corey. Without another thought I opened the cabinet and grabbed the first thing I could get my hands on; a jar of peanut butter.
“Are you sure you wanna do that?” Corey asked in a soft whisper.
“Positive.” I said as I handed her the jar. “Now go upstairs and eat that.”
I got two cups out from the piled high sink of dirty dishes and filled them with the cloudy water that came from the faucet; everything, even that water, wasn't meant for humans to live with, in this house.
“Yum! It's so good!” Corey said as we dipped our fingers into the half empty jar.
I watched her as her face got brighter with every finger scoop she ate. If I hadn't thought it before; the moment right now made it all worth, whatever was coming to me; if Gabe found out; was the least of my worries.
“Spell peanut butter.” I said taking the jar from her hands.
“P-e-e-n-u-t-b-o-t-e-r; Peanut butter.” She wiped the sides of her where a little peanut butter smeared across her face.
Corey and I didn't go to school a lot. In fact, maybe between the both of us we had been in school for maybe a year and a half; and only four of the months belonging to Corey. So with everything I knew from fourteen months and everything that my mother has taught me, I took it upon myself to passed it down to Corey.
I knew how to add, subtract, and multiply; and I read pretty well, I knew I wasn't at the level as other kids my age were, but I guess I'm OK with that. Mom says that being street smart is more important than anything you would learn in school.
“Those kids are going to be so fucked, once they leave school and get their heads out of those books. They'll learn it was all a waste. I didn't know that when I was eleven; my parents drilled all that crap into my head; I should have left that shit-hole sooner.” She'd say.
Corey didn't like when I asked her to do math or spell thing, though she always did it; she had mom's mentality when it came to learning. But I made her do it anyway, so she wouldn't end up like mom.
“Where the fuck is it?” Gabe kicked in the door and looked at me, holding the jar or peanut butter. He grabbed me by my hair and yanked me up. “What did I tell you about touching my food?”
It felt like if he took another simple tug with his rough hands that a clump of my hair would be ripped right out of my head. I could feel his grip getting tighter and tighter as I struggled in his arms.
“Answer me you little shit!” He finally let go of my hair and quickly twisted my arm behind my back and pinned me against the wall.
“Stop it!” I could hear Corey yelling from behind him.
“Ow!” Gabe yelled. He let me free and stumbled backward. “Did you just bite me?”
I looked at Corey, I could tell by the look on her face that she had, just bit him. Corey had always been a bitter for as long as I could remember it was always her go to move when we would get into fights. I thought she would have grown out of it by now, but it still worked for her.
I grabbed her by her arm and went for the door; but before we could make it he jerked her out of my grip, took hold of her face and slapped her to the ground.
“Corey!” I yelled. I ran down next to her, to see her face, to see if she was bleeding or bruised. No blood or bruising but I could still see the stinging red hand mark that covered most of the left side of her face, he hit her enough to hurt her and enough for me lose control.
I watched his as went over and snatched up the upside down peanut butter jar. I ran over and jumped on his back while he was still bent over and reached around his head and pressed my fingers in to his eyes hard. “Go get mom!”
Along with my mom's boyfriends, kids at school, and kids in the neighborhoods, defense was something I had to learn. I remember when I was seven, mom watched me get beat up by a ten year old. She told me it would toughen me up, and that if I was going to 'talk junk' about people I better be able to back myself up. I got my first black-eye during that fight, but I learned my lesson.
He started to try and shake me off till he finally reached back and pulled me over his shoulder and dropped me on my back on the side of bed post. I started to yell in pain and rolled over trying to do anything get off my back. He picked me up by my shirt and as he brought me closer to his face I rammed my elbow into his nose. I landed on the floor and jumped to my feet and started for the door.
BAM! As I came close to the exit a solid and thick object knocked me in the back of my head causing me to run straight into the door post. I fell backwards to the ground and covered up my now bruised cheek. I kept my eyes close bracing myself for another blow. I could hear him standing over me.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the hell is going on in here?!” I felt the door fly passed my face as my mother busted into the room.
I opened my eyes as she yanked me up by my shirt and shoved me behind her to where Corey stood . “Moira! Moira wait!” He yelled trying to cover up his bloody nose.
“What the hell is wrong with you Gabe!” She said pushing him. “You don't touch my kid!”
“Moira, baby wait!” He said stumbling back . “The little shit took my stuff!”
“I don't give a damn what he did! Take her out of here were leaving!”
I grabbed Corey and ran her down the stairs.
“Cale! We just can't leave her up there!” She yelled trying to yank her arm out of my grip.
“She's coming, Core, we're not leaving her.” We stood by the front door and watched the stairs waiting for her to come running down the stairs but the seconds rolled by and the commotion got louder. I couldn't take it any more. “Don't move from this spot; I'm coming right back I just need to check on mom!”
I started up the stair, but then came back down and ran into the kitchen. I didn't know what exactly I was looking for; but I needed something to fight with. It didn't take long for me to find a long sharp cutting knife in one of the drawers.
I ran up the stairs trying to situate the knife in my hand.
“Caleb what are you about to do?” Corey yelled out from the same place I left her at.
“Don't worry about it!” I yelled behind me.
I came around the corner just in time to see Gabe pushing her against the wall.
“Babe, please don't, don't leave me!” Gabe was groveling as he shook her.
“Get off her!” I yelled. I held the knife with both hands and pointed at him. “Get the hell off of her!”
“Caleb, I told you to get out of here!”
“I can't--I can't just leave you here; you gotta come with me!” I said getting closer to her.
“Nobody is leaving, look Caleb, I'm sorry man; you can have anything you want! What's mine is yours!” he said letting go of her and coming toward me.
“Stay away from me!”
“Cal, chill out, I'm telling you I'm sorry! Put that shit down! Let's just talk.”
“Ma come on!” I yelled keeping pointed.
She came around and grabbed my arm and started to shake the knife out of my hand and letting it drop to the floor . “What the hell is wrong with you? Put that down; the only person your ganna hurt is yourself!”
“But mom-”
“Shut up!” She snapped.
“Thank you! Now can we just please sit down and talk this out?” Gabe said still holding up his hands up as he stepped forward.
“No, you stay back!” She yelled, quickly picking back up the knife. She reached back and grabbed me by my shirt and began to slowly back up up.
The moment we got out of his sight we darted down the stairs. She shoved me next to Corey as she went around to the front of the couch and came back with a balled up fist of bills in one hand and two small sandwich bags of coke and some car keys in the other. We followed closely behind her as we rushed out the door and headed to Gabe's rusted 1993 Ford truck. Before we could pull off Gabe ran in front of us and began to yelled and bang on the hood of his car.
“Get out! Get the hell out of my car!” He yelled. He slammed his hand down on the hood so hard I couldn't help but try and look for a dent.
Corey and I just looked up at her wondering what her next move was going to be; whatever it was we would support her.
She shifted the gear into drive. “Move Gabe.” She called out calmly.
“I'm not moving.” He said keeping his ground.
Without a word she shrugged and jerked the car forward, then quickly slammed on the breaks. She had hit Gabe enough to make him stumble back, but not fall. She did it once more before he could regain stability causing him to fall to the side in the bushes. The drive way was now clear and she pressed the gas hard and we sped off.
Corey turned around watching out the back window as we pulled out into the street and out of the houses' sight.
We drove for close to two hours in silence, until she pulled over on the side of the road and turned off the car. She woke up Corey who had fallen to sleep twenty minutes into the ride.
“Look we're out of there, and we're never going back.”
Truth. I though as she looked me in the eye.
“It's just the three of us from now on.”
Lie.
“Today is going to be the first day of the rest of our lives.” She genitally stroked the unbruised side of my face.
She said that every time she messed up. It was a way of her saying '“sorry”, for putting you through Hell again'. It was her way of saying sorry without even saying it. Her sorry could mean a million things one day and nothing at all the next. And no matter how many times she would say that, I still couldn't tell if she was telling the truth or not. But no matter how much I didn't want to, I still believe in her.
Because I couldn't wait (Corey)
It was hard to keep my mind on anything else, but being hungry. I always played mind games. If you can last one more minute, I'd tell myself, then you can say something; if you last two more minutes, then you can say something. But that was 3 hours ago when I started. As much as I didn't want to, I couldn't stop myself from saying something.
“Caleb, I'm hungry.”
He had been sitting in front of the small TV for days, just watching the snowy moving picture. Not moving unless I asked him for something. He was irritated I could tell, not with me, but with mom. We had only been here, at Gabe's house, for a couple of weeks; maybe less, and he already wanted to go. He let out a sigh and went over to mom; she was sleeping peacefully on the couch her beautiful her dirty blonde hair tousled going every which way. I liked to watch he while she slept, she was even more stunning.
The moment Caleb tried to wake her up she yelled at him. I hated when she yelled at him, it usually was always my fault; it just made me think, if I had held on a little longer and just waited till she woke up, she wouldn't need to snap at him, because of my whining. He takes the fall for me so many times while I... I just don't do anything, but sit back and watch it all blow up in his face.
I followed him into the kitchen. There was nothing in there; there hadn't been anything for days. We had both searched every cabinet and drawer twice, just in case we had missed something. I watched as he started the search again slamming every door when nothing was found. I glanced at Gabe's cabinet, all I knew is that he told Caleb not to touch it and that's all I need to hear to stay away from it. But that didn't stop Caleb, with a second glance out into the living room he went for Gabe's over stuffed cabinet and handed me a jar of peanut butter.
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Positive.”
The aroma, the taste, the feeling as it slid across my tongue and down my throat, it was perfectly satisfying. I was all smiles until Caleb asked me to spell. I didn't know how, I wasn't smart like he was; I hated school, but I knew he wouldn't allow me to go on without at least trying to spell the word. Out of all the subject in school spelling was my worst, there were always a millions ways to spell just one word and it was just too much for me to remember.
“P-e-e-n-u-t-b-o-t-e-r; Peanut butter.” I was wrong; I knew I was, I didn't even need him to tell me.
“Where the fuck is it?” Gabe burst in the room, just like a cartoon bull; even his eyes were a burning red. I jumped up and looked to Caleb for what to do, he just stood there holding the, now empty, Peanut butter jar. “What did I tell you about touching my stuff?” He grabbed Caleb by his hair and yanked him off his feet a little, and started hurting him. I just stood there looking down at the jar that now laid next to my feet, he now had Caleb pined to the wall twisting his arm to his back.
“Stop it!” Caleb cried with his red face smashed against the wall. I had to do something. I couldn't just let him break my brother's arm. Without another though I grabbed hold of his leg and bit down as hard as I could. I darted back against the bed as he began to stumble; but as soon as he regained stability he took me by the face and smacked me down to the floor. My face stung and tears began to swell up in my eyes but I blinked them away when I felt Caleb next to me. I let him lift my cheek into the light and with that, his face harden.
Gabe was still bent over when Caleb ran and jumped on his back. Mom said Caleb wasn't a fist fighter his way of fight was dirty, he use anything and everything to bring down is opponent but he would rarely use his fist. Gabe began to shake and shake as he yelled out in pain, Caleb's fingers digging into his eyes. “Go get mom!”
I ran out the room and down the stairs. There was mom still on the couch, still knocked out not hearing everything that was going on upstairs. I shook her awake not even stopping to watch her angelic sleeping for a second. Her eyelids opened in shock. “Is it important?”
“Gabe's hurting Cale!” With my rushed words came a loud bang coming from upstairs.
She jumped up like a super hero ready for action and sprinted up the stair. I got to the top stair just in time to see her picking Caleb off the floor. “What the hell is going on here?” She pushed Caleb behind her next to me his cheek was bruised but it must have not been hurting all that much because he kept his hand rubbing the back of his head. “You don't touch my kid!”
“Moira, Moira; please baby wait; the little shit took my stuff.” I had never seen a grown man grovel at someone, the way Gabe did mom; but she always had that affect on men, nobody wanted to let her go.
“We're leaving; get her out of here.”
I watched as mom started to push and yelled at Gabe about what he did to Caleb, she was so bold. Caleb's grip on my shirt snapped me out of my gaze upon her. He rushed me down the stairs. “Cale we can't just leave her!”
“She's coming, Core, we're not leaving her.” We stood by the front door just waiting. She's going to come down any minute, unharmed, ready to take us out of here. But minutes past and she didn't come and the yelling started to get louder. I looked up at Cale, his leg shaking in anticipation he looked as if he were about to explode until he finally broke into a run up the stairs; but less than half way up he came back down and went into the kitchen, coming back out a minute later with a knife. “Don’t move from this spot; I’m coming right back I just need to check on mom!”
“Cale what are you about to do?” I yelled as he took two steps at a time up the stairs.
“Don’t worry about it.” That was Caleb-speak for: whatever it takes. And doing whatever it takes, always lead to him doing someone he shouldn’t. I wanted to follow him upstairs so bad, that I found myself holding on to the doorknob of the front door so as to keep me from moving. Mom and Caleb would come down any second now and I needed to be ready to go.
I reached down into my pocket where Pita always resided; Caleb always made fun of me for keeping her, he said I was too old to be carrying around stuffed animal. Pita was nothing but a small purple rabbit that was just a few inches bigger than my hand. I had gotten her from a fast food restaurant when I was four and I kept her ever since. She was small enough that she didn’t take up any much needed room when we were on the road, so it didn’t bother mom. I’d only hold on to Pita when mom wasn’t herself, when I didn’t want to pester Caleb about how I was hungry or tired, or like now, when I was scared. Holding on to Pita, always made things feel better.
Just one more second and they’ll be down, thought as I started my game, just two more seconds and they’ll be down. I tried to slow down my counting, just to trick my mind into thinking I wasn’t about to hit fifty-seven seconds. Usually if I hit a minute counting, in these kinds of situations, I would panic and no amount Pita-squeezing would help.
I threw my hands up over my ears and closed my eyes, trying to focus on my counting and not the brash voices coming down the stairs. Sixty seconds and they’ll be down. I opened my eyes to what sounded like a stampede of animals coming at me; but it was just mom and Caleb came running down the stairs. Caleb and I stood next to the door as mom ran around grabbing a hand full of cash, car keys, and the small bags of stuff that made her different. We followed her outside to Gabe’s truck and all got in. Gabe came running out of the house like a mad man screaming at the top of his lungs for us to get out of his car. Even from the car I could see the bulging veins in his neck as he repeatedly slammed his fist on the hood of the car. Caleb and I looked up at her watching for her next move.
“Move Gabe.” Her voice was mild as it she wasn’t watching this man that looked as if he could rip the car door off its hinges and drag us out of the car. I stuffed my hand into my pocket and held on to Pita for safety.
“I’m not moving.” He stood his ground staring intensely at her.
She shrugged and without hesitation her jerked the car forward and quickly slammed hard on the breaks. Gabe stumbled back with a completely shocked looked on his face. He didn’t quiet understand what my mother was capable of doing. She did it once more just before he entirely regained his footing and this time he fell to the side into some bushes. The driveway was now cleared, and with a small smirk on her face we sped off. I turned around to look at Gabe to see if he had gotten up. For a second I thought he was dead until I saw his legs moving around.
Once we got out of the sight of the house I let go of Pita; we were out and safe. We road in silence; what could any of us say after that? I let out a small sigh not wanting to break the peace. I laid my head against Caleb’s arm and let the car lull me to sleep.
I woke to mom shaking my arm. We were on the side of the street, still in Gabe’s car. To my disappointment the incident with Gabe wasn’t a dream.
“Look, we’re out of there and we’re never going back,” She said taking turns to look in both of our eyes. “It’s just the three of us from now on.
“Today is going to be the first day of the rest of our lives.”
I watched her as she caressed Caleb’s face I her hand. I had messed up again. When ever she would say: ‘today is going to be the first day of the rest of our lives ' that meant that we had to start over again. Starting over was never an easy thing for us, but we always pulled through. And even though I knew we’d be, okay leaving everything behind again, I couldn’t help to feel to strong guilt of what I had did. It was my fault we were her on the side of the road in a stole car, it was my fault that Caleb’s face was scarred, I had messed it all up because I couldn’t wait.
