Young Writers Society

The Most Unusual Thing I Ever Stole: A Snowman

Chapter One

Just like every other day, I’d sit here hopeless, watching my family –who I loved dearly- cuddle up tightly to keep warm. The snow was starting to get heavier now; I could see it speeding down at the end of our alley. It’s hard to imagine how we ended up like this, homeless with no place to go at all.

I sit here remembering before these dreadful two years that had passed, on the days when we used to live luxuriously. We had lots of money that would have lasted us a lifetime. We had a big house, where all my brothers and sisters were able to run freely and where we each had our own room. Money and luxuries were all that we cared for, and of course our family.

Mum never kept friends because she was too stuck up and she let the relationship between her and her parents become weak too, which is why we have no one now.

I don’t care about money or luxuries anymore. I just care about keeping my family safe, finding somewhere warmer to stay and getting some food for us to eat.

I’ve grown very protective over my family. I feel very responsible for them since our dad died. I especially feel responsible for the two younger ones, Lyla and Matilda. They’re a handful. They’re at the age when they throw tantrums over silly things, like if you took them to a supermarket (not that we could ever afford to go to a supermarket nowadays) and if they didn’t get what they wanted; they’d scream the place down. Mum raised us all very spoilt and promised us we could always have what we wanted. Well you shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep, look at us now…this was never what I wanted. Dad always used to say, “A promise is a comfort to fool.”

Lyla and Matilda wake up every night crying for dad even though it’s been three years since his death. I’m always the one to comfort them, as Mums never here during the night; she’s off trying to earn as much money as she can. We’re definitely living the hard way now. I’d often wake up Chantal when the screaming got too much and too loud for me to handle. We wouldn’t want anyone finding us in this hidden dark alley way. We’d get taken into care and get split up from each other and never see our mother again.

Chantal was my twin sister who I cared for and respected. I looked out for her and she looked out for me and we both looked out for our family. Although our family is different in many ways to other families, we were a lot closer. A tight bond which had formed due to our homelessness was never to be broken.

I blame Mum for our homelessness, I know I shouldn’t and I know its wrong but she shouldn’t have done what she did. Anyone would have known that that horrible low-life man she let into all of our lives would do nothing but ruin it. She was the only one who liked him and cared for him. Lyla and Matilda were scared of him, Chantal just wanted her dad back and I just wanted my family to be happy. All of them. Mum didn’t really care about our views; she just kept trying to bribe us into liking him. Mum thought he was perfect. That was until all the secrets and lies came out. Anthony (Mum’s so-called perfect man) was a gang member, and I’m not talking about those fake teenage ones. I’m talking about the real thing: drugs, guns, knives, fraud, and robbery. Everything you could get arrested for.

He got her involved with it all too. I don’t know exactly what he had her doing, she won’t tell us. Mum tried her best not to get involved. She always made up excuses that she was busy with Lyla and Matilda so she didn’t have to do what he told her to. Mum pretended like everything was OK but it really wasn’t, you could tell that in her facial expressions. She had a constant look of frightfulness.

Mum finally came to the conclusion that we had to ‘get rid of him.’ The way she said it was almost like she plotting to kill someone. I would have been Ok with that plan.

It didn’t go according to plan though. Me and Chantal overheard the conversion. We sat at the top of the stairs and peeked through the banister without being caught. She pulled him away from his ‘friends’ and took him into the kitchen, where we could no longer see.

“I don’t want to be with you anymore,” she said nervously. It went silent for a bit.

“What are you saying?” he said through his teeth.

Mum started breathing more heavily.

“I’m saying, I-I want you to leave.”

“And whys that?”

Mums voice turned thick, like she was holding back tears.

“Well, because of all this. All these people being here twenty four seven. This house is no longer a home for me and my kids, it’s become more like a drug den and it scares me to bring them up around all this. I don’t want them getting involved in it.

The only way for my life to get back to normal is if you were to leave.”

There was a lot of breathing, I didn’t know whether it was Mum because she was scared or Anthony because he was angry.

There was a loud clapping noise and then Mum burst into tears. It was obvious he was beating her.

I didn’t know what to do. Chantal turned to me; her eyes full of worry and fear. I couldn’t do anything and it pained me to know that I couldn’t do anything, and that I had to just sit there and listen to her screams and cries.

“That’s not going to happen is it?” he said.

Mums breathing got faster and faster. She just about managed to say “No.”

I remember that day like it was yesterday. That was the reason that everything got from bad to worse. He used to beat her all the time, every single day. I wondered if he got thrill out of seeing her hurt or hearing her crying and begging for mercy. He didn’t care about us; he just cared about our money, like us. He kept making deals with people, like other gang leaders and used our money to pay them. Mum didn’t like that, but she couldn’t do anything. We couldn’t run away because he threatened to kill her and kill us. We couldn’t go to the police for two reasons; one because mum was involved in the crime too and two, there was a chance that there was a chance that we might have got taken away.

We didn’t see Anthony for weeks and weeks. No one knew where he’d gone or what might have happened to him, he was missing. Mum thought about telling the police that he was missing but one of his friends told her not to and that he was probably sorting things out. We knew he owed people money and stuff but he usually paid what he owed with our money. Maybe they killed him. I wouldn’t care if they did, I would only care if he showed up again. Not that he would ever find us here; I don’t even know where we are.

Things were getting back to normal. Anthony’s ‘friends’ stopped coming round. Mums face still weren’t as happy and a bright as it used to be before she met him, but it weren’t full of fear anymore. Lyla and Matlida were joyful and playful, again. I held back from being happy, I kept feeling anxious like something was going to happen.

I remember this day very clearly, probably because I dream about it often. It was the first day of our homelessness. Men, big men burst through the front door. I would have said that they were police but the only thing that resembled police men was there guns. We all jumped in our seats, as the men stood in front of us pointing the guns at us. I never would have thought that I would ever be held at gun point, living in the suburbs and all. Mum put both her arms around Lyla and Matilda. Chantal grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly. There was about five men altogether. Four went off to search the house, leaving one still standing in front of us pointing the gun. He didn’t speak. He stood still and stared at us, almost without blinking. Tears welled up in Mum and Chantal’s eyes. I was too scared to breath. I was thinking about getting up and running out into the middle of the street and start shouting help. That wouldn’t have helped though there were too many of them and I didn’t know how many of them where outside.

“What do you want?” Mum asked. I was scared that that was it, that he’d shoot her there and then, right in front of us. He didn’t say anything; he just lifted his finger to his lips and said “Don’t speak!”

We were being held hostage, and I didn’t know why. I had a feeling that it was to do with Anthony.

They looked too posh to be involved in gang related stuff. They were all wearing suits.

The four other men came in and stood in front of us facing the other man. They had their guns at there sides.

“He’s not here,” I heard one of them say.

“What?” the man who told us not to speak said.

“He’s gone.”

The four men turned around to face us.

“Where is he?” one said.

They looked at Mum.

“Who are you talking about?” she said. Her voice was full of fear.

Chantal squeezed my hand even tighter.

“Anthony.”

“I don’t know,” she said. I tear rolled down her face.

One of them sighed deeply and said “Don’t lie to us.” He tightened his grip around the gun and inserted his finger into the trigger hole.

“I swear. He hasn’t been here for about a month, I have no idea where he is.” I tried my best not cry, I wanted to be the brave one. Everyone else was in tears. I tried so hard that I got that lump in my throat; I knew that if I spoke you’d hear it in my voice.

Hours and hours had passed. They had no reason to be here, they knew that we didn’t know anything. They probably knew more than us. They weren’t pointing their guns at us anymore, and four of them had left the room again to re-search the house. The one left sat there staring at us, watching our every move. I wasn’t even thinking about what would happen after they left. I wasn’t even sure if they were ever going to leave, and if they did leave how did I know we’d still be here?

Eventually they did leave, at about 4am. They said, “They’d be back soon.” That frightened me even more. When they left I wanted to get up and go to the toilet, but I couldn’t move. I’d been sitting for so long that my bum felt numb and I felt paralysed. Chantal never loosened her hand after they left, not even a little bit.

Mum let go of Lyla and Matilda and ran upstairs. I had no idea of what she was going to do. Lyla and Matilda leaned in and hugged each other. Chantal and I both looked at each other confused.

I got up and ran after Mum upstairs. She was in her room shoving clothes and stuff into a holdall.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

She looked up at me and hesitated. “We’re going,” she said through her tears.

I stared at her blankly.

“Going? Going where?” said Chantal who was suddenly in front of me.

“Anywhere! Anywhere but here.”

“No. We can’t.” Chantal looked back at me, “tell her we can’t.”

I looked back at her and then at Mum who was moving full speed around the room.

“We have to Chan!”

I looked at both of them not knowing what to say. Chantal was still in tears.

“But those men, they’ll be back, they said they’ll be back.”

“Exactly Chan, that’s why we have to leave, right now.”

That’s how we ended up like this: sleeping in alley ways, scrounging for money, robbing people and places. We aren’t aggressive with the robbing, we’re discrete, mainly pick pocketing. Robbing shops is more complicated, you have to have a distraction (Chantal or Mum) while you rob as much as you can. I hated doing it, I wasn’t scared of getting caught or anything because I was good at it, I just hated the guilty feeling I would get after doing it.

It wasn’t long until Lyla started her screaming.

“Daddy!” She cried. I crawled over to her and lifted her onto my lap.

She tried pushing me away at first, but I held her tightly until she calmed down.

“Daddy?” she said. I leaned back to look at he face.

“No Lyla. Daddy’s not here anymore.”

I cuddled her while she cried on my chest. I felt like crying too, I always feel like crying.

I hate it when Mum isn’t here. She goes off almost every night to do her ‘business’ that keeps us from starving. I don’t like the idea of her having to do what she does, but she refuses to listen to me when I tell her not to. She says “It’s the only way Tyler, it needs to be done. It’ll all stop when we get back to normal.” In that case it won’t ever stop because we’ve been living like this for a year now.

We went through loads of different hostels for the first year. It wasn’t nice but there was no other choice. It was a lot better than this though, it was warm. The only reason we don’t stay in hostels anymore is because Chantal nearly got abused in the last one. Mum said that she won’t let anything like happen again, so we don’t stay in them at all.

Chapter Two

“Tyler?” I heard Mum say. I heard them talking over me but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. It felt as though everything was distant.

I felt Mum pushing me softly.

“Come on, wake up. We need to go.” She said, still pushing me softly. “Chan, grab those bags as well.”

I opened my eyes slowly and saw Mum leaning over me.

“Finally!” she said straightening herself up. “Come on, take these bags.” She handed the bags to me and I sat up and took them.

“Are we going again?” I asked. I saw Chantal, holding Lyla on her hip with bags in both hands, struggling to keep them from dropping, standing in rear the end of the alley way next to Matilda who was also holding bags. I looked at the empty space around me, confused.

“Yes,” Mum said.

“But we’ve only been at this spot a day.”

“Yes, I know. Just come on will you.”

I did as I was told and started walking towards Chantal. Even though I had a lot of bags myself, I took most of hers.

We walked round and round and round for what felt like ages. I didn’t know this area well and I don’t think Mum did either.

People kept looking at us. I would look too if I saw a family of five walking around with Tesco bags looking lost.

Mum pointed over the road to an alley way. It was narrow and discrete and there were bins on one side of the wall, taking up quite a lot of room. I heard Chantal groan silently and discretely to herself.

* * *

The snow was high, so high I had to lift my feet high off the ground to take the next step.

I was cold and tired; Lyla was very heavy on my back and every now and then I’d stumble. We were on our way to meeting Mum, Chantal and Matilda at some high street off the main road.

The street was very quiet and empty; everyone was probably inside eating a nice cooked lunch or something. These houses were very, very big, like our old house. It was obviously the rich side of town. I was surprised to see no kids playing outside and running around in the snow. The snow didn’t even look as though anyone had stepped foot on it, there was not even an indent to be found.

Walking in the snow was very peaceful. Although my hands were very cold, my face remained warm and it felt nice as the snow fell slowly onto my face.

“Are you cold Lyla?” I asked, breaking the silence between us.

“Um-hmm,” she replied.

We turned the corner onto a not so quiet street which had lots of kids playing outside. These houses were not nearly as big as the ones on the other street.

The children ran around throwing clumps of snow at each other.

“Snowman,” Lyla shouted pointing across my face to the other side of the road.

I looked in the direction of her finger and saw the big fat snowman standing there on the front garden.

“Yes. A snowman,” I said.

We carried on walking down the street, which seemed very long.

“Snowman,” she said again, this time pointing in the opposite direction. I followed her finger again and saw another fat snowman standing in the front garden.

“And there, there and there!” she said pointing all over the place. Her voice turned high with excitement.

“There are loads of snowmen. Aren’t there Lyla?” I said.

“Lots and lots. Can we make one? When we get home.”

Home? What home? We didn’t have a home, there’s no way I’d call that place home.

“Maybe,” was what I had said.

She sighed. I didn’t want to say yes because I knew there’d be some reason why we wouldn’t be able to. How weird would that look anyway, four kids building a snowman outside an alley way.

She made up a snowman song that she sung the whole way to meet Mum. She was very excited about snowmen, I don’t know why. At our old home, our proper, normal home, she collected those snow globe things and all the ones she had, had snowmen in them. She had some kind of obsession. She brought one with her when we ran away but it got lost at one of the hostels we stayed at. It was her favourite one out of the whole collection.

Mum was sat on a bench outside a café when we finally arrived. She had a tray of food and hot drinks in her hand.

“What’s all this?” I asked.

“Food, duh!” said Chantal who was sitting on the bench stuffing her face.

I took Lyla off of my back and put her down next to Chantal then I took some food off of the tray and started eating too. It was bread mainly, but it was warm and nice and the hot chocolate was nice as well.

“Where did you get it from?” I asked.

“The café,” Mum said.

I frowned.

“But we don’t got any moneys,” Lyla said.

“Mummy went to work last night, remember, so we have a little,” Mum said.

“How much is that?” I asked.

“Well it was fifty-pounds but all this came to ten- pounds so we only have forty left. It’s not a lot, I know, but it should last a few days.”

We finished eating and had put the rubbish in the bin. We split up: Me and Chantal then Mum, Lyla and Matilda. We hadn’t a clue where to go or which shops were easiest to rob, because we were new to his area. So we just walked around for a bit. We walked and walked, mostly in circles. A few people asked us if we were lost and if we knew where we were going. Of course we didn’t know where we were going but we didn’t say that instead we acted polite, (not that we weren’t polite) smiled and walked away.

We walked linking arms, looking in shop windows. We were clearly wasting time; we didn’t have that much time left until we had to go back to the meeting place (the café) to meet Mum and the others.

Chantal stopped to fix her shoe. That’s when I saw it; I stared at it for what felt like ages, it dazzled me, every detail. The dome shaped glass, the dark wooden base, and then, the inside of it. The two diamond like eyes sparkled brightly. For a split second one eye, the right eye closed and then opened again- a wink. It couldn’t have though, I was clearly hallucinating, I didn’t even notice any of the other objects at window, it was just this one.

“Come on,” Chantal said tugging my arm. I turned to face her in what felt like slow motion, but I couldn’t move any faster, everything seemed to be moving slowly.

She gave me a look as if to say ‘weirdo’ and then everything went back to normal speed. I turned back to look at the object, Chantal followed my gaze.

“That’s the one Lyla had isn’t it?” she said.

I nodded and said “yes”.

We looked at it for a while, in silence.

“Shall we?” she asked.

I looked at her confused.

“Shall we what?” I said. She looked at me as though it was obvious.

“Well, what are we here for Ty?”

I caught on; she wanted us to steal it. Well she asked if we should.

“Oh,” I said. “I don’t know.”

She thought about it and I thought about it.

“Just imagine how happy Lyla would be if she had it.”

I sighed. “Yes, I know. She’d be ecstatic.” I told her about all the snowmen she saw and how excited she got.

“It’s exactly like the one she lost.”

“It most likely is the one she lost,” I said pointing to the shop banner.

“’Second Hand Shop: Trash or Treasure,’” she read.

We both looked back at the snow globe then at each other.

“Come on then,” she said. “Better get a move on.”

“How? How are we going to do it exactly? The globes in the window display.” I said.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Just grab it. When I give you the look, grab it.”

“But-”

“Just trust me Tyler. Come on.” She pulled my arm and led the way into the shop.

The shop smelt of cigars and menthol. It was very wooden; wooden walls, wooden flooring and wooden furniture. The front room was quite small. The walls were covered with shelves and the shelves were full of objects- all