Rent
12-10-2009, 09:11 PM
Ok, first off, I am very amateur when it comes to writing, but I feel I have a story in me that needs to get out. This is what I have so far, comments would be appreciative and I can handle the brutal truth! Thanks everyone, I look forward to being a part of this community!
I was cold. The cold is what woke me but I was coming to from the smell of the oil, that smell penetrated my nostrils and reminded me of where I was and what my life had now become. That smell is unique, especially to me. At 16, I didn't imagine myself living in a single wide trailer with my sister, her husband, and my terminally ill mom. I didn't imagine it, but here I was. I was cold but I could smell the heat. I lifted my head up from the twin bed I now called my own and swung my body around and planted my feet on the carpet, if it could still be called carpet. The twin bed occuppied 95% of this small room. I was staring directly at the closet which was about 4 feet from my face. I am positive most people would refer to this room as a closet itself, but this is where I now slept. My mom use to be in this room until we needed the hospital bed, that is when she took the larger of the bedrooms. My feet were cold, I am still foggy but I don't understand why it is so cold when the heat is running. I walked three steps and met the hall that led to the large bedroom and bathroom to the rear of trailer and the rest of the trailer the other way. I glanced down the hall and saw light trickling in the doorway that led to the outside. I stumbled to the door and slammed it shut, hoping to make enough noise to bother my sister. It isn't unusual for the door to be left open, when she stumbles in from the bars at unforsaken hours, I often wonder how she even makes it to her bed. I hoped for a brief second she was annoyed by the door slamming as I was annoyed by waking up to coldness. As my eyes adjusted to my sad living quarters, I noticed that the door to her make shift bedroom was open. When I moved in five months ago, she already spent most of her nights sleeping in the living room, so she was more than happy to give me the larger bedroom. Once the decision was made to move my mom in, she and her then boyfriend felt they needed some privacy so they erected a wall in the already small living room to create a third bedroom for themselves. I looked into her bedroom and noticed that her bed was empty, it was never made, but it was still empty. My body was finally warming up but confusion was now taking over. Why was the door to the trailer open and where was my sister? I headed towards the large bedroom that was located at the end of the trailer that my mom was now occupying. My mom was dying of terminal cancer. She was at the point where walking was becoming to much for her, her mind was already gone. It had been a quick five months that my mom went from her normal loving, caring self to what she was today, an empty vessel. Up till a few weeks ago she was still speaking, it wasn't anything that made sense but it was sounds, random words, you could still tell her brain was thinking, screaming, screaming thoughts, full sentences but she couldn't verbalize that anymore. I walked past my bedroom, the washer and dryer that occupied the hallway, the bathroom and into my mom's bedroom. Her bed was empty. My sister's bed was empty, my mom's bed was empty and it was 6am. I went back to the door, the door was open, maybe my sister didn't leave it open coming in, maybe it was left open when someone left. I wonder if mom got sick and she had to take her to the hospital, but why wouldn't she have woken me? We never kept the door locked, no one bothered us on Grimms Bridge, we were down near the end of the road, on a side road of sorts, but still had the Grimms Bridge name for our mailing address. The road is named for the bridge that makes it home there. I opened the door, it had snowed most of the night, the ground was covered in white powder. I looked down on the porch and saw the foot prints heading away from the trailer. I ran into my room, threw some socks, sweatpants, sweatshirt, and tennis shoes on and ran out the door, leaving it the way I found it this morning. I started to trace the foot prints. I yelled, "Mom, Carol Ann" a few times knowing that she no longer knew she was a mom, let alone her name. I threw my sisters name out also, then listening for a response. Our drive way was approximately a half a mile long down a slight incline, in the summer it was grass and rocks, but today it was a blanket of white snow. The footprints looked odd, almost one and a half times of a normal foot print but it also looked like the feet were dragging in the snow, not being lifted up, that is how my mom was walking these days. I made it to the bottom of the drive and saw a disruption in the perfect snow. It looked as if a body had fallen into the snow. Almost as if some one was getting ready to make a snow angel, but never added the wings. The footsteps continued right, towards the main road, Grimms Bridge. I continued following the footsteps. They veered left where the side road that the trailer was on and Grimms Bridge met. To the left down a short hill was Grimms Bridge. I walked onto the bridge about a quarter of it's length when the foot prints stopped, I stopped. I looked around and took a breath of the cold winter air. I didn't see anything, so I looked down and to the right of me in the creek that layed belowed Grimms Bridge. I saw her, laying face down in mostly a pile of rocks and crimson snow. I took another breath in and held it. It felt like I held that breath for eternity, this was the breath I was going to remember for the rest of my life, this was my mom's last breath and it was over.
************************************************** *************************************************
Post 2
I could hear the sirens as they were coming down Grimms Bridge.
I ran back to the trailer, called 9-1-1, grabbed my mom's coat and now was back with her, caressing her head and trying to keep her warm. Why I thought she needed to be warm was beyond me, she was cold, her heart was cold, her body was cold. The sirens seemed to be screeching in my ear now and I could see the flashing lights out of the corner of my eye. The paramedics pulled off to the side of the road and jumped out of the cab. As they flung the doors to the back open, I could see multiple police cars pulling in behind them. One of the cars crossed the bridge and parked on the other side, blocking any traffic from that end to cross the bridge. The paramedics made it down the embankment and was in the middle of the creek with me and my mom. They asked to move away from the body, she is just a body now.
"Luke."
I turned my head and saw Sheriff Watkins standing at the side of the creek.
"Luke, come over here son."
A shiver went up my spine, the thought of being that man's son chilled me. I got up from my knees where I was kneeling next to my mom's head and began walking toward him. At this point, yellow caution tape was adorning Grimms Bridge, not exactly the decorations you would want to see with only a few days before Christmas.
"Yes Sheriff." I said.
"Luke, what happened here."
"Well from the looks of it Sheriff, my mom is lying dead in Beaver Creek." I replied.
"That's not what I meant."
"Then why don't you be more specific sheriff."
"How did she end up down there. How did she end up on the bridge"
"That I don't know. Why don't you tell me?"
"Listen son, I am trying to understand what we have here, your attitude isn't going to help matters. Did you touch her or move her?"
I held up my hands stained with blood.
"Yes I touched her head and put that coat on her, I didn't move her."
"Landers!" yelled the sheriff.
"Yes sir." he replied
"Take this boy up to his trailer and stay with him for awhile..."
"Im not leaving." I huffed.
"Yes you are Luke, we need to work and you need to get out of this cold and clean up. You can't do anything here son, go home, and I'm not going to say it again."
"I'll be back down in a hour."
"As you wish Luke. Oh, and tell Billy to come down to the station and pick Marcy up."
"What is Marcy doing down at the station?" I inquired.
"Well Luke if you must know, she was picked up early this morning wandering downtown drunk as usual."
As if he knew what my sister's usual drunkness was.
"I didn't know it was a crime to be drunk and walking downtown."
"Well, we just thought it was best if she came to the station, for her safety and all."
"Yeah, her safety was your first concern. Billy is on a run to Detroit, he isn't home."
"I saw his semi parked over in the Luxton's lot."
"Well he must of used someone elses truck because he isn't home. I'll go down and get her."
"Your a minor son, we can't release her to you."
"And your an *** sheriff, so I'm glad we understand each other. I'll be down to get her."
"Landers, take him home."
I turned around to take another look at the body. The medical examiner had arrived and was examining it from head to toe. The other officers were taking pictures of various items around the area, I saw one officer talking to a lady in a house coat, not sure who she was.
I followed Landers to his car and got in the front passenger seat. I sat there motionless, just staring out the window, processing my emotions and the taking the scene that was in front of me in. I must not of heard Landers the first time.
"There aren't many teenagers that would call the sheriff an ***. Luke...."
"Yeah, well there aren't any teenagers in this town, whose family has a history with the sheriff and his family as mine does. Let's go."
I was cold. The cold is what woke me but I was coming to from the smell of the oil, that smell penetrated my nostrils and reminded me of where I was and what my life had now become. That smell is unique, especially to me. At 16, I didn't imagine myself living in a single wide trailer with my sister, her husband, and my terminally ill mom. I didn't imagine it, but here I was. I was cold but I could smell the heat. I lifted my head up from the twin bed I now called my own and swung my body around and planted my feet on the carpet, if it could still be called carpet. The twin bed occuppied 95% of this small room. I was staring directly at the closet which was about 4 feet from my face. I am positive most people would refer to this room as a closet itself, but this is where I now slept. My mom use to be in this room until we needed the hospital bed, that is when she took the larger of the bedrooms. My feet were cold, I am still foggy but I don't understand why it is so cold when the heat is running. I walked three steps and met the hall that led to the large bedroom and bathroom to the rear of trailer and the rest of the trailer the other way. I glanced down the hall and saw light trickling in the doorway that led to the outside. I stumbled to the door and slammed it shut, hoping to make enough noise to bother my sister. It isn't unusual for the door to be left open, when she stumbles in from the bars at unforsaken hours, I often wonder how she even makes it to her bed. I hoped for a brief second she was annoyed by the door slamming as I was annoyed by waking up to coldness. As my eyes adjusted to my sad living quarters, I noticed that the door to her make shift bedroom was open. When I moved in five months ago, she already spent most of her nights sleeping in the living room, so she was more than happy to give me the larger bedroom. Once the decision was made to move my mom in, she and her then boyfriend felt they needed some privacy so they erected a wall in the already small living room to create a third bedroom for themselves. I looked into her bedroom and noticed that her bed was empty, it was never made, but it was still empty. My body was finally warming up but confusion was now taking over. Why was the door to the trailer open and where was my sister? I headed towards the large bedroom that was located at the end of the trailer that my mom was now occupying. My mom was dying of terminal cancer. She was at the point where walking was becoming to much for her, her mind was already gone. It had been a quick five months that my mom went from her normal loving, caring self to what she was today, an empty vessel. Up till a few weeks ago she was still speaking, it wasn't anything that made sense but it was sounds, random words, you could still tell her brain was thinking, screaming, screaming thoughts, full sentences but she couldn't verbalize that anymore. I walked past my bedroom, the washer and dryer that occupied the hallway, the bathroom and into my mom's bedroom. Her bed was empty. My sister's bed was empty, my mom's bed was empty and it was 6am. I went back to the door, the door was open, maybe my sister didn't leave it open coming in, maybe it was left open when someone left. I wonder if mom got sick and she had to take her to the hospital, but why wouldn't she have woken me? We never kept the door locked, no one bothered us on Grimms Bridge, we were down near the end of the road, on a side road of sorts, but still had the Grimms Bridge name for our mailing address. The road is named for the bridge that makes it home there. I opened the door, it had snowed most of the night, the ground was covered in white powder. I looked down on the porch and saw the foot prints heading away from the trailer. I ran into my room, threw some socks, sweatpants, sweatshirt, and tennis shoes on and ran out the door, leaving it the way I found it this morning. I started to trace the foot prints. I yelled, "Mom, Carol Ann" a few times knowing that she no longer knew she was a mom, let alone her name. I threw my sisters name out also, then listening for a response. Our drive way was approximately a half a mile long down a slight incline, in the summer it was grass and rocks, but today it was a blanket of white snow. The footprints looked odd, almost one and a half times of a normal foot print but it also looked like the feet were dragging in the snow, not being lifted up, that is how my mom was walking these days. I made it to the bottom of the drive and saw a disruption in the perfect snow. It looked as if a body had fallen into the snow. Almost as if some one was getting ready to make a snow angel, but never added the wings. The footsteps continued right, towards the main road, Grimms Bridge. I continued following the footsteps. They veered left where the side road that the trailer was on and Grimms Bridge met. To the left down a short hill was Grimms Bridge. I walked onto the bridge about a quarter of it's length when the foot prints stopped, I stopped. I looked around and took a breath of the cold winter air. I didn't see anything, so I looked down and to the right of me in the creek that layed belowed Grimms Bridge. I saw her, laying face down in mostly a pile of rocks and crimson snow. I took another breath in and held it. It felt like I held that breath for eternity, this was the breath I was going to remember for the rest of my life, this was my mom's last breath and it was over.
************************************************** *************************************************
Post 2
I could hear the sirens as they were coming down Grimms Bridge.
I ran back to the trailer, called 9-1-1, grabbed my mom's coat and now was back with her, caressing her head and trying to keep her warm. Why I thought she needed to be warm was beyond me, she was cold, her heart was cold, her body was cold. The sirens seemed to be screeching in my ear now and I could see the flashing lights out of the corner of my eye. The paramedics pulled off to the side of the road and jumped out of the cab. As they flung the doors to the back open, I could see multiple police cars pulling in behind them. One of the cars crossed the bridge and parked on the other side, blocking any traffic from that end to cross the bridge. The paramedics made it down the embankment and was in the middle of the creek with me and my mom. They asked to move away from the body, she is just a body now.
"Luke."
I turned my head and saw Sheriff Watkins standing at the side of the creek.
"Luke, come over here son."
A shiver went up my spine, the thought of being that man's son chilled me. I got up from my knees where I was kneeling next to my mom's head and began walking toward him. At this point, yellow caution tape was adorning Grimms Bridge, not exactly the decorations you would want to see with only a few days before Christmas.
"Yes Sheriff." I said.
"Luke, what happened here."
"Well from the looks of it Sheriff, my mom is lying dead in Beaver Creek." I replied.
"That's not what I meant."
"Then why don't you be more specific sheriff."
"How did she end up down there. How did she end up on the bridge"
"That I don't know. Why don't you tell me?"
"Listen son, I am trying to understand what we have here, your attitude isn't going to help matters. Did you touch her or move her?"
I held up my hands stained with blood.
"Yes I touched her head and put that coat on her, I didn't move her."
"Landers!" yelled the sheriff.
"Yes sir." he replied
"Take this boy up to his trailer and stay with him for awhile..."
"Im not leaving." I huffed.
"Yes you are Luke, we need to work and you need to get out of this cold and clean up. You can't do anything here son, go home, and I'm not going to say it again."
"I'll be back down in a hour."
"As you wish Luke. Oh, and tell Billy to come down to the station and pick Marcy up."
"What is Marcy doing down at the station?" I inquired.
"Well Luke if you must know, she was picked up early this morning wandering downtown drunk as usual."
As if he knew what my sister's usual drunkness was.
"I didn't know it was a crime to be drunk and walking downtown."
"Well, we just thought it was best if she came to the station, for her safety and all."
"Yeah, her safety was your first concern. Billy is on a run to Detroit, he isn't home."
"I saw his semi parked over in the Luxton's lot."
"Well he must of used someone elses truck because he isn't home. I'll go down and get her."
"Your a minor son, we can't release her to you."
"And your an *** sheriff, so I'm glad we understand each other. I'll be down to get her."
"Landers, take him home."
I turned around to take another look at the body. The medical examiner had arrived and was examining it from head to toe. The other officers were taking pictures of various items around the area, I saw one officer talking to a lady in a house coat, not sure who she was.
I followed Landers to his car and got in the front passenger seat. I sat there motionless, just staring out the window, processing my emotions and the taking the scene that was in front of me in. I must not of heard Landers the first time.
"There aren't many teenagers that would call the sheriff an ***. Luke...."
"Yeah, well there aren't any teenagers in this town, whose family has a history with the sheriff and his family as mine does. Let's go."