"Class, I want you to write a paper about how this year has been going. It needs to be at least 2 pages long and is due on Monday," said Mrs. Timson. Everyone in the class moaned, but I thought hard about what I was going to write. I couldn't write about how bad my year has been since my father is an alcoholic and began to beat my mother, brother, sister and me whenever he's drunk. Couldn't write about how poor we are and how some days we have to go starving. And definitely couldn't write about how my mother told me that someday that she's going to leave my father and is going to take me and my other siblings with her since my father isn't exactly the best person that we could be living with. This will be a hard paper to write! I'll do it later I thought to myself, but I knew that I'll have to do it eventually.
School got let out about 20 min. after Mrs. Timson told us about the stupid paper that we have to write. I walk home by myself since I really don't have too many friends since I have to support my family and there is no time to make friends. I think that I would be able to make friends if I didn't have to support my family as much as I do, but that would be in a good world.
I walked down a few streets that lined me right up to a straight shot to our poor little neighborhood in Washington D.C. I love everything about D.C. the people, the city, the stores, I can go on for hours, but my favorite thing about D.C. is that the white house is here. Ever since I was a little boy I have dreamed of getting out of my neighbor hood and living in the white house. Since that's a little of a lofty goal I have a fall back on opening a clothing store. Most kids want to do what their father's do but not me. I honestly don't know what he does, but the part that I definitely don't to be is a horrible father who comes home drunk, and beets all of his family members.
If you think that's depressing you should see my walk home. My school is in a rich part of D.C. and by rich I mean rich. There's all of these big houses that are three times the size of mine. You go past nice stores and restaurants and even Ford's Theater which is a very nice theater that President Lincoln sometimes goes to. Famous actors perform there like John Wilkes Booth and…… Then a few steps past that there's what I like to say call the poor boarder, which is basically a cut off saying if your on the left side you are poor and if your on the right your rich. It’s almost like a change of life right when you pass it. There's literally a small house to the left of the line and then their neighbor to the right has a house four times the size of it. See everybody in my neighborhood dreams of living on the rich side, but nobody ever will.
I passed the border and my house is a few block down. As soon as I got home my mom was helping my little brother Erick eat. She loves Erick more than me and my sister, Marline, just because he is three years old and still does cute baby stuff that Marline and I don't do. Marline is 13 and 3 years younger than I am. She doesn't do anything to help around the house which makes me so mad. Whenever I tell her to help she does, but I can't tell her to help a lot since she is never home. Nobody really knows what she does or where she is most of the time. Honestly I don't think her future will be very bright.
"How was school Benjamin?" my mother asked me.
"It was good," I lied due to the fact that I have to write an essay about how my life sucks currently. "What do you need help with?" I asked
"I need you to wash our clothes and get the dinner table ready."
"Ok," I sighed. My mother and I have a little routine every time I come home. It gets a little annoying, but it's nice to know that my mother cares about me unlike my father.
I first started with the table. I put down five of everything, plates, forks, knifes, everything. That part was easy and I got it done fast. Then I moved on to the clothes. As soon as I walked out of the back door I first saw that there was a mountain of clothes in the backyard. I stomped my way back into the house.
"Stop it!" Erick yelled at the top of his lunges.
"Be quieter next time Erick," my mother said. "What is wrong Benjamin?"
"Why is there a huge pile of clothes in the backyard?"
"Oh, well, Erick had a some strawberries and went in your room," she said not finishing the whole story.
"And," I said in disgust.
"And he thought that it would be funny if he squeezed them all over your clothes," she said.
I looked over at Erick and he had a huge smile on his face. I looked down at his hands and saw the strawberry juice on them. I stomped my way back outside. The only reason why I didn't sit there and complain was because if then I would end up making dinner which is worst than washing clothes.
In the middle of my washing I herd my fathers voice from a distance. I wasn't for sure what he said, but it sounded like he said something that nobody could understand. He was obviously drunk. Then there was this big thump sound that came from the house. I knew this wouldn't end well so I ran in to see what was going. When I came into the house I heard a sigh. I turned the corner and my father was on the ground. He must have fell.
"Wow you can't even walk," my mother said.
My father laughed, but he had no idea what was going on. The only thing that he new was that there was sun light that filled around my mother and attracted him, so he got up and started walking towards my mother. He almost fell down again but he caught himself on the counter.
"Hey why don't you give me a kiss," my father said. His breath smelt so bad that I could smell it from eight feet away.
"Not with that breath," my mother while plugging her nose.
"Why not!" my father screamed.
Before she could get a word out my father hit my mother and knocked her down. She drew blood at the nose. Right when she was getting up he pushed her down and fell on top of her since he couldn't keep his balance. Erick began to cry from the other room. I ran over by Erick and told him to get to his room. He ran away while screaming. Right when I turned around my father threw a punch at her face while she was down. I was furious. My father started to lean in on her to get his kiss, but I walked in and kicked him in the face. He flung back and hit his head on the cabinet door. He tried to say something but nothing came out. I walked closer to him and punched him in the stomach and when he leaned forward I punched him in the face. My anger made me stronger than I really was. His face blended into a dark red color as if Erick had painted his face.
I began to help my mother. She smiled at me as I helped her get on her feet.
"Thank you," she said.
I went up the steps and checked on Erick. He was still crying.
"I want mommy!" he yelled as several more tears came down his eyes.
My mother went into his room so I went down stairs to see what my father was up to.
"Benjamin!" he yelled to the point where it hurt my ears. This freighted me so I ran out of the door within a heart beat.
I just started to run further and further away, and before I knew it I hit the poor boarder. I didn't know what to do, if I went back to the house my father would kill me, but if I stayed out here I would have to stay the night out side. I chose to stay outside.
I thought for a long time to see what I could do out here. During the time when I was thinking the night struck faster than a blink of an eye. I decided to try to find an enclosed area to keep me warm. While I was looking I looked across the street at Ford's Theater. I knew that on the 15th president Lincoln was going to see a show at Fords Theater. There were some rich people walking by so I got into their way.
"Excuse me. Due any of you know what the date is?" I asked.
"Today is April 15th," they said.
"Thank you."
Now I had a plan, to be laying on the ground in depression, while the president was walking by. He would have to help me in some way.
I walked across the street and went laid right in front of the building.
I waited for a long time and was on the verge to sleeping. There was a loud laugh that woke me up a bit. Then all of a sudden there was a gun shot, followed by screams in terror. I stood up and looked around, and saw two women pointing at the side of the theater(). I ran over there and saw John Wilkes Booth yelling at the crowd(). It was hard to tell what he said(). He then limped off and turned the corner of the building(). I began to run over by the corner, but while I was running I saw John Wilkes Booth on a horse, riding into the darkness of the night().
"This is unreal," I thought to my self.
All that I could hear were the screams of women in the theater. The thought of panic paralyzed my legs to the ground. It was hard to become calm in this time but I managed to do so.
I began to walk towards the door where Wilkes had gone out of. Slowly I turned the knob and looked in. The stage was bright and it just made it easier to see the fear in all of the people. There was a path way being created for the men who was carrying a man ()who must have been shot due to the fact that there was a stream of blood coming from his wound. The men were headed towards the front of the building so I ran out side and into the front.
The man that was being carried was Abraham Lincoln. There was a wound in the front of his head, but when the men got in front of me I could see that there was a wound in also the back of Lincoln's head.
"A bullet must have went through his head," I thought to myself.
People were following the him across the street. While they would run past me they would a bump into me and one knocked me off my feet. Between the legs of the people who were running I could that the men carried Lincoln into a hotel across the street(). I got up and followed the other people that went into the hotel. It was crowded and difficult to tell what was going on.
"Nobody is allowed in this room," somebody yelled at all of the people who wanted to see what was going on.
I began to walk further down the hallway of the hotel, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a room that had the door cracked open. I went inside and it was dark and empty. I closed the door and locked it. As I turned around I walked into the bed and fell asleep.
The next morning I woke up and walked outside of the room and into the hallway. There was a women who was out in the middle of the hallway and looked at me strange.
"Hi," I said politely.
"Hi, are you suppose to be in there?" she asked.
"Um,?" I said just to give me sometime to think "Yeah." I then ran outside the door and into the street. There was no reason for me to go back to my house, but I did anyway. It wouldn't be safe to actually go into the house. I walked for a while until I was a safe distance away but could still see the house. There was something odd about the house. It seemed empty. I walked a little closer and saw some brown boxes that were hiding behind some bushes. There were some writing on them but I couldn't figure out what it said. I walked closer and the first box that I say said Erick. Then I looked over and one said mother, then one said Marline, and lastly one said Benjamin. None of them said father on them.
We were finally moving. Thank you father.
Even as I Walk Away From You
Even as I walk away from you
I feel so satisfied
The feeling of white,
And the taste of a sigh
As I turn to look at you
It starts to snow
Then when I turn away
The elevation of spring
Fills within me
Even as I walk away from you
I am in a world of elation.
