Leaving Home

In this chapter, Nothing really exciting happens. It's funny at times, but not really action-packed.

I was sitting in the back yard when my older sister Cassidy came outside looking for me. 

"Michael, come on! I need help moving the last bookshelf into the truck," she said when she saw me.

Right. It was moving day. I turned around, and sighed. She was always telling me what to do, and it drove me nuts. I understood that she's older, but she wasn't my mother (you'll learn about her later).

I turned back towards her her to look at her. 

"You know, you could ask for my help instead of demanding it," I said. 

She said "whatever", and went back into the house. I looked around me, and told myself that I would be glad to leave this town. I didn't have any friends. I hated my school, and all the teachers in it. Well, except for my algebra teacher, Ms. Prescott. She had always been nice to me, even though I was failing her class. All the other teachers seemed to have it out for me. Mr. Larme, my history teacher, said I was a disgrace to his teachings. Needless to say, we didn't get along. All my other teachers were even worse than him. My science teacher, Mrs. Remberg, told me that she had seen fourth graders take better notes than I did. I think she's lying, because most of the other students in the class copied off of mine, and they all did fine. My gym teacher, Ms. Torsen seemed to think I was on some sort of drugs, because my performance in gym was close to that of Olympic athletes my age. I was stronger and faster than almost everyone in the class, which had seventh graders (my grade) and eighth graders. She had me tested for steroids after the first week of school. She never did it again because of my mom. When the results came back, my mom stormed into the office, and demanded to talk to Ms. Torsen. I sat in the hall, and listened as she yelled at the principle and the gym teacher. There wasn't anything I'd miss in this town. 

I stood up and went inside. I walked through the back door, and looked for my sister. I figured she would be in the hall, waiting for me to help with the bookshelf. Before I could go that way, my dad stepped into view. 

"Hey, Mikey. You about done with your part of the house?" he asked in a casual tone.

(Technically, I was already done, but he would expect me to keep helping.)

"Yeah, I was just gonna help Cassidy with that last shelf, then I think we're good to go," I answered. He looked at me with a weird expression on his face. It didn't last long, but it was pretty strange. It disappeared just as Cassidy yelled from the hall.

"Michael! I'm getting old here!" she called. 

I sidestepped my dad, the ran down the hall to the shelf. We lifted it, and it took us less than thirty seconds to maneuver it out the door. This was pretty much the only time we had ever worked together without arguing. We were only able to do this because we'd had to do so for the past three days. Any other time, my sister and I couldn't even agree on what kind of music was better, even though we both loved rock music. We fought over practically everything, and there were days we said that we hated each other. We had never physically fought, but it was still bad enough that our parents had discussed separating us. They wouldn't ever actually do it, but there were times I wished they would have. After we put it into the back of dad's pick-up, I decided to go back into the house one last time. 

"Hey, I want to check the house one last time. Is that okay?" I asked my dad.

"Sure. We don't need to leave just yet, and I still haven't blessed the house," he said. 

I went back inside the house, into my room, and knelt in front of the closet door. I opened it, and went to lift the trap door in the corner, but remembered what I had been told.

"Lord God in heaven," I whispered, "Forgive me my sin and trespass, bless my unworthy soul. I am thine tool here on Earth, and thine servant in both realms of the living world."

This was not a Catholic chant, but a Christian prayer. My family had never been Catholic, but we did believe in God. I said the prayer before opening the trap door because of what laid inside. I opened it, and pulled out an old, leather bound box. I set the box down in front of me, closed the hidden door, shut the closet, and went back out to the back yard.

Once on the other side of the only tree in the yard, I sat down cross legged. I set the box in my lap. It was covered in dust, even though I had received it only the day before. I blew the dust off before opening the box. When I opened it, the blade was still there. I should explain how I came by it, since I technically wasn't allowed to have weapons. 

The day before, Cassidy's boyfriend, Gage, had come to the fence that separated the back yard and the alley. He was actually her ex-boyfriend, as he had broken up with her a week prior. 

"Hey Mike! Can I talk to you?" he had asked quietly, as if he were scared to be around the house. 

"Uh sure, I guess so," I had responded. 

He looked around the yard, I guess to make sure we weren't being watched.

"Listen, I know we don't get along very well, but... Well, I think you should have this," ha said. He pulled out a box and handed it to me. 

"I'm gonna give this to you, but you must always say this prayer before touching it. I know you're not supposed to have weapons, but this isn't really a weapon so much as it is a keepsake." 

He told me the prayer, and made me recite it until I remembered it perfectly. He said that he had planned on giving it to Cassidy for their two month anniversary, but hadn't known about us leaving. He said he didn't want it; it reminded him too much of her. I had accepted the gift, and hidden it in my room.

Now, as I looked at it, I noticed the details. It was a beautiful knife from handle to point. The handle was shaped like a wolf. At the end of the handle was the tail, curved to form a knuckle guard. The legs and paws were little rivets that would settle comfortably between the holder's fingers. The eyes were rubies, and the mouth was open. out of it came the blade. It was thick and bowed. The whole knife was made out of black iron, but it caught the light and reflected it in a dazzling way. I breathed in sharply. I couldn't believe that Gage had given me a gift like this. We hadn't ever really gotten along. Most of the time, he would call me "squirt", "kid", or "chump". All of these were nicknames I hated. I would usually do all I could to ruin his day every time he and Cassidy were together. So why had he given this to me? I couldn't come up with an answer. 

I would've sat there all day staring at the thing, but I heard Cassidy call my name.

"Michael, we're leaving! Get in the truck or get left behind!" she yelled. 

I sighed. Time to leave this place, I told myself. 

Author's Note

What do you think of the beginning? Was the dialogue okay? Do I have I good intro?