The Long Walk Home

A Story by starfast

After missing their bus, a high school student is forced to walk home in a sketchy neighbourhood in the pouring rain and learns an important lesson along the way.

When my mom dropped me off at school this morning, I felt like I was forgetting something important. After first period, I realized that something may have been the history unit test that everyone seemed to know about except for me. But after school, when I walked up to the nearest bus stop, I realized that it was not only the history test, but also my wallet.

As the bus pulled up to the stop, I stepped back as I watched everyone else get on. Once the bus had driven away, I took out my phone and called my mom. I listened to the phone ring, and just when I was certain that she wasn’t going to pick up, I heard her voice coming through my phone.

“Hello?”

“Hey mom,” I said, “I forgot my wallet this morning.”

There were a few seconds of silence before my mom asked spoke again. “You don’t have any spare change on you?”

“No,” I told her, “And all my friends left already.”

“I guess you’ll have to walk home then,” My mom said, “I’d pick you up if I could, but you know I’m working, and so is your dad.”

“I know, Mum,” I said, “I guess I’ll see you at home tonight.”

We said goodbye to each other, then hung up. I looked up at the dark grey clouds, hoping that it wouldn’t start raining before I got home. Not likely, since home was a half hour walk away from the school.

As I began walking down the sidewalk, it had started to rain, just as I had thought it would. It started off with just a light mist, but five minutes later, it was pouring and all I had to keep me warm was a hoodie. If I knew it would be raining this hard when I left for school this morning, I would have brought an umbrella with me. It wasn’t much longer before the rain had soaked through my clothes and left me shivering.

Soon, the friendly neighbourhood where my school was located transitioned into a sketchy area of town. An area with dark alleyways in between dull, run-down, grey building. The only hints of bright colours was the graffiti that had been spray painted onto the walls.

Despite my backpack feeling like it was filled with bricks, I picked up my pace. This was the area where all the druggies would gather to snort cocaine. The area where delinquents would hide in the shadows and mug anyone who looked like they had anything semi-valuable on them. It was the area where the police had found the bodies of people who had been shot or stabbed to death. It was the one area where no one wanted to be alone.
As I hurried down the sidewalk, a bus passed by. I felt envious of everyone inside of it. They would get home warm and dry, unlike me. Water had soaked through my shoes and drenched my socks. Just keep walking, I reminded myself, you’ll be out of this dump soon.

Across the street, I noticed a couple of teenagers. About five of them, huddled together in an alleyway. They were dressed like your stereotypical gangster: baggy clothes with their jeans hanging low. Some of them had baseball caps, which they wore backwards. They probably have weapons, I thought, yeah, they’re probably looking for someone to jump. I looked around, feeling paranoid. I panicked when I noticed that I was the only other person nearby. Just don’t make eye contact. Don’t give them a reason to notice you.

“Excuse me?”

The voice made me jump. I tried not to scream. I looked around and saw the source of the voice. Sitting down in front of one of the grey buildings was a homeless man. He had a scraggly brown beard with a few grey highlights. His plaid shirt and black pants were soaking wet and caked with mud. His pair of once white running shoes were now a shade of brown.

“I don’t suppose you have any spare change,” The homeless man asked me.

Of course I don’t, I wanted to say, if I had spare change I wouldn’t be here now. In fact, I’d probably be home by now. But I didn’t say any of that.

“No, sorry, I don’t.”

The homeless man said nothing. I took that as my cue to keep walking again. I was cold, shivering, and drenched from the rain. I couldn’t wait to get home. Then I thought about the homeless man.

At least I had a place to go home to.