Chapter Two

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. -Albert Pike

chapter two

When sunset finally arrived, my mom decided to text me. It read, “Come home. Carter and Vince are fighting.” I texted her back saying I was on my way there. So all three of us hopped up and started our way back to my house.

We walked extra slow on our way back to my house. I was in my fantasy, and going back to reality was not a choice of mine. Before we made our way home, Kingston lives on the main street, thus he went home before we did.

I walked her back to her house. I decided to since I would not have to walk far from Kahlar's house to mine, because she lives up the street. She turned to walk in the door, but turned back around. She said, “I am really sorry about Ms. Hope.” I kissed her on the cheek and waved goodbye. Then I started to walk down the hill to my house.

I was walking down the hill just like any other day when I walked from the bus stop to school. But that day felt weird. It might have been because my grandma had just died but then, it felt like someone was watching me.

            I was just doing the normal thing and just walking back home and out the corner of my eye I thought I saw a black figure. I turned the way of the figure, there was nothing there. So I turned forward and started to run like my life depended on it.

            When I got to the house I decided to go in from the back window to my room, and I saw Carter sitting outside on the deck. I asked, “What happened?”

            “Well we got in a fight. Not like argument-fighting, but fist-fighting. He wrote something bad about Grandma and I lost it,” he told me. “The effect was that they sent me outside to ‘think about what I have done’ and that stupid mess.”

            I recapped everything he said and asked him, “You said he wrote something bad about Grandma, he wrote what?”

            “He wrote that Grandma was a worthless piece of trash and never cared about anyone except for herself.”

            All I could see was red. How dare he talk about our Grandma like that! I stomped inside the house, ready to fight Vince myself. I searched around the house ready to confront Vince, because it was Confrontation Time. I saw the delinquent in my room, snooping again.

            “What are you doing?!” I hollered at Vince.

            “Oh just snooping,” he said to me.

            “Get out of my room! Why do you hate me so much? I never did anything to you! How you could talk so badly about Grandma anyway? You loved her,” Jonah shouted.

            “Yeah I loved her,” Vince said. “But, I also could not stand her; You do not have to like someone to love them. I did not choose to love her, I had to. She’s family.”

            Vince and I just kept bickering back and forth about him bad-mouthing Grandma. After a while, this crazy, irrational, and foolish maniac decided he had the nerve to push me.

I looked side to side, wondering why in the world he made the first move. He did not want to mess with me. I have been in two fights at school and I won every one of them. Hence I push the creature back. Then I tackled him to the ground.

I punched him three times. I punched him twice in the jaw, and once in the nose. Carter came into the room, and tried to grab me off of him. After he grabbed me off of him, I was struggling to get Carter off me. I wanted to fight anyone and everyone who got in my way of beating Vincent Joel Parson.

Uncle Cam came into the room and took Carter and I outside into the backyard. Aunt Kat and Uncle Morgan took Vince outside into the front.

Uncle Cam yelled, “What were you doing! Fighting your own cousin! What the hell is wrong with you?!”

Thinking about what he just said, I do not know why I did it. It was just kind of a dauntless act.

            I responded, “Sorry Uncle Cam. It is just that he wrote something crazy about Grandma which  is why he and Carter got to fighting. Since she just passed away, it kind of hit me hard.”

Uncle Cam did something he never really did since Carter and I were about three years old�"he hugged us. He gave us a genuine, sincere hug. To be honest, even though I’m thirteen, I miss his hugs. But after a while, he let us go. Then and there, we decided to go back inside.

My mom, Uncle Cam, Vince, Carter, and I all resumed to working on the funeral. Carter and I were working on it on one side of the house, and Vince was working on it on the other side. I needed to calm myself down anyway.

By the time we finished preparing the funeral, it was ten o’ clock p.m. I decided to take my shower and Carter took his shower downstairs. While in the shower, I remember all the fun, memorable moments me and Grandma had. I really missed those and knew I could not have any more because she was gone. I sat down in my shower and cried.

After my little episode in the shower, I was ready to go to bed.

I texted Kahlar, “Luv u. Goodnight. P.S. could u come 2 the funeral?”

She texted back, “Sure. And luv u 2. Nite.”

So my girlfriend is coming to my grandma’s funeral. Almost everything is good. Except that most of our house is occupied with our family. People are sleeping in Mom’s room, the couch in the living room, the pull-out couch in the family room, the transportable bed in the closet, and… my room.

There are three of us�"me, Carter, and Vince�"and I have one bed. We could all sleep in the bed, but who is going to do that. You would have thought I lived in the crazy house if all three of us were going to sleep in that bed.      

Therefore, I called Mom’s name before she went to sleep because when she’s sleep, she is like a sleeping dragon. You DO NOT want to wake her.    

I told her, “Look, Mommy. Our situation is not good. There are three of us and only space for two.”

“Well,” she said, “you sleep on the floor, and Carter and Vince can sleep in your bed.”

Clearly, she did not understand. I tried to object, but she stated, “That is final. Get a blanket out the closet, then go to sleep.” She turned back around and then headed back to her room.

I did not want to sleep on the floor. Vince got my sweet, plush, and comfy bed, and I get the cold, hard, and carpeted floor! But I just let it go, because I did not want my Mom to put me on punishment. So, I got my blankets and made a pallet on the floor. About ten minutes later, I drifted off to sleep.