It's the Little Things in Life

Chapter 1

~ Americus Beacon

Some say that each day is "just another day", I mean up until the "Big Change" I thought the same thing. Every day was just another cycle of wake up, eat, go to school, eat, talk to friends, go to sleep. Nothing ever changed, nothing exciting ever happened at least Americus thought. Wow! talking about myself in third person great another thing I can be called weird about.

Hey! I'm Americus. Americus Beacon. I'm what some may call your ordinary sixteen-year-old. I do what I have to do to survive. And that means staying out of the way of my older siblings and parents, eat, sleep and go to school.

What exactly is this story about you may ask? Me. That's what this is about. It's how I learned to cope with my pathetic life and how it all started changing. Where should I start? Well at the beginning of time. Well not the WAY beginning of time, just the start of my time.

I was born on November 1st, 2001. That day has been proven to have an unlucky meaning. The day I was born, of course, I don't remember it, but I've been told about it, had been the first change in my life.

It began the day my mother's boyfriend ran three red lights to get my mother to the hospital. Yeah sounds heroic, right? He helped my mom into the hospital, made sure she was in good hands, then left, walked right out the door.

I was born at 12:01 a.m. about six hours after my supposed father disappeared. They say there were "complications" with my birth, given the reason it took so long. I came out at four pounds. As you may guess, that was my first near death experience. I stayed locked in an incubator for the first two weeks of my life, only allowed out when the nurses came to feed me.

My mother was released a couple days after I was born. From what I heard she went off and got wasted and just never came back for me. With no one to take care of me I was stuck, at two weeks old I had experienced my first heartbreak.

A couple of weeks later a nice woman and her husband took me to their house. I cried. A lot. Probably because I missed the nice lady who fed me my milk and sang me to sleep. The nice couple never gave up. They'd lost their baby girl not even a month before and were using me as a buffer.

It took them two years to decide they didn't want to adopt me.

I was sent to a new home. A place with no one but me. I got food when I wanted it. I wasn't allowed to bother my new father. I was expected to stay out of the way. I didn't mind this as long as Benji was around.

Benji was the neighborhood stray. He was, in my eyes, the first thing that truly loved me. He was always at the door when I had finished breakfast, probably expecting my scraps (which I gave him). He was the fur I cried into when I got in trouble for being in the way, oh the fur like this warming shield that protected me from all danger when I touched it. He listened to everything I had to say and never complained when I was in his way or how I talked or how loud I sang he just listened to every word like he truly cared.

But if he truly cared he wouldn't have left. When I was five I learned that I had to go to school. It made me sad knowing I had to leave Benji, but there was nothing I could do about it.

On my first day of school, I didn't know what to expect. My teacher told me her name and gave me a seat beside Jacob, the nose picker. We were allowed to play games, draw pictures, play dolls, or "anything our little hearts desired". I was overwhelmed by the choices I was given, so I tried them all.

I played Tic Tac Toe with Daisy, I won three times. I drew Benji and me and planned to show him when I got home. I played dolls with Sam but he got to be annoying so I left. I ended up just sitting and thinking about how I could be with Benji right then.

When I got off the bus I expected to see my new father, David, arms open ready to give me a hug and ask me how my first day of school was. What I saw was what broke my heart. Benji. Laying on the side of the road, dead. I ran to the house, tears streaming down my face, calling for David.

In all my emotions, I hadn't noticed the strange car parked in the driveway. When I opened the door, all I saw was a lady in a suit standing beside a pile of my possessions. She rushed to me and asked what was wrong. I told her Benji died and when she asked who Benji was I couldn't answer for all the crying had choked me up. She gave me a hug and told me I was going to be alright.

She stood up and told me to go say goodbye to David. She never did give time to ask why I guess I was just expected to go.

I found David in his room, sitting on his bed staring at the wall. I walked in and gave him a hug. He looked down at me and told me to stop crying that crying was a waste of time. I looked at him before walking back to the lady who was waiting for me.

I got in her car and as she pulled away I put my hand on the window as we drove past Benji's body laying on the road to be forgotten.

While the tears painted my face, the lady told me that I won't ever have to experience that again.