The Forgotten Boy

Chapter 1

            I used to be normal. I used to have fun...I used to have a family. But that was long time ago. Today is different. My name is Jack. I think. My real name I don't know. But I want to be Jack. So I am Jack. I have a brother. He knows his name. His name is Michael he is ol er than I am. He is all I have left. The rest of my family I don't know. I always ask Michael he doesn't tell me about them. When my family left I was four. I am now seven. I turn eight tomorrow. Well that is that Michael told me at least. Michael is twelve. But Michael doesn't ike getting older. He is no longer happy when it is his birthday. I don't know why. The last memory of my family that I have is it was a happy day. I do not know why. But That is the last time I remember Michael ever being happy. It is hard to be happy now. I see why Michael never is. I try to be happy though. I try to make Michael laugh. I do sometimes but then the moment passes and I feel like Michael is mad at me. I never know anymore. I wish my life went back to how it was. I miss being happy. I want to go home. But we don't know where it is. Where we are we are not sure. But our parents took us on a roadtrip. It took forever. Yet once we finally got there, we where all alone nobody around us. We where all having fun, we ate and played games. We where playing hide and go seek. Michael and I where counting. My family got in the car to hide. But nevcer came out when I folund them. They drove away and acidentally forgot us. We stayed there for hours. They didn't come back. I never knew why. I think Michael does. He wanted to leave right away I did not want to. I wanted to wait for them. But we finally left. 

          Back then all Michael and I did was walk. Now we usually stey hwere we are. We are surrounded by tall buildings. Everywhere. All over the walls are pretty art though. Some of the art isn't too nice though. Michael tells me what the nice ones mean. He doesn't tell me what the bad ones mean. But I know what they mean. I here the bad people say them all the time. I said it once. Michael yelled at me. I never talk about them anymore. Michael and I usually get hungry. He never gets hungry anymore. I know this because he gives me all his food. We usually borrow it from people. They get very mad. I don't know what we do wrong we just borrow it. Michael says it is okay. So I do it. But something always seems wrong when we do it. Michael and I sleep. I don't like sleeping though. It hurts my back. I tell Michael it hurts all the time. He either ignores me or yells at me to go back to bed. We sleep in different places all the time. But we always keep the same stuff with us. We keep our can. Certain clothes that we borrowed, and a crusty pillow and a ripped up old sheet we found. It gets very cold when we sleep. Especially when god crys. It makes me wet. As Michael calls it. But the worst is when gods tears get really cold and turn white. It looks really fluffy but it is really cold. I don't like it. It makes it hard to sleep. Then one day something came. He makes it a lot easier to sleep. We named him Rufus.

         Rufus is our dog. Michael doesn't really like him. He sleeps in between me and Michael. Michael says he smells. I like Rufus. He is soft and warm. He follows us everywhere no matter what. He also keeps away the little dogs. They squeek and bite Michael on our toes. I hate it. But Rufus scares them away. Then eats them. It is funny I laugh at Rufus. He makes me giggle a lot. One thing that makes me giggle about Rufus is his face. His face is brown with some black spots. He has weird tetth. SOme are sharp and crooked. It is funny. His eyes crack me up the most. He has criss cross eyes. That always makes me giggle. The one weird thing about him is he doesn't have a tail. Michael tells me he was born that way. But I don't think so. Becuase when he first came to us his ears looked cut and his paws where bleeding. That is why we decided to keep him. Because he looked hurt. So I begged Michael to keep him. I nearly cried. Michael tells me all the time I did cry. But I didn't. We barely go anywhere without Rufus. Whenever it comes around the time to eat Michael getys really mad at Rufus. He mutters under his breath alot. I don't think he likes to feed Rufus. We give Rufus some of our food. I think that is one reason why Michael doesn't like Rufus. But lately Rufus hasn't been eating. I think he goes and fines his own food. I think this because Rufus has been looking a little chubby lately. I love him. I think he likes me too. I couldn't live without him. 

       But one day we where sleeping. And it was in between a dark small place in between two buildings. Michael calls them alleys. I think that is a weird name. This place is very mosit and scary. I don't like it. But that morning I woke up early to surprise Michael with some food. Rufus came with me. I coudn't think of what Michael would've wanted. I think he will like what I get him. I am going to get him what he calls a "bagel". There is this "bagel" shop really far away from where we sleep. But I made it there. It was really easy today. People where outside eating there "bagels" and I walked up to them. I just stared at the "bagels." But then they said something. I just grabbed both of the "bagels"and ran.  I shoved them in a small satchel that Michael found for me. They didn't yell or chase me. I ran back to where we slept.  The good thing about Rufus is that he was fast. He always beats me back home. But I saw Rufus make it home. He ran in and out of the "alley" vut then came back to me. I got to where we slept, but Michael was gone. 

      I didn't know where he was. But all of our stuff was gone. Our beds and everything. Then I feel a pull on my shoulder. It was Michael. His eye was black and blue and gross. I tried to ask him what happened. He just said that we had to leave. I was actually glad, I didn't like that place. As we were walking to the next place where we would stay. I asked Michael what happened. He said it was just an accident. But I know what happened. Michael doesn't know this but one day late in the afternoon. After Rufus and I went on a walk we heard boys yelling and shouting. It was coming from where we slept. I looked around the corner and saw two boys kicking and punching Michael on the ground. I froze, I didn't know what to do. I just watched. They just spit and kicked him in the gut. Then they went into a side door of the building and disapeared. A few minutes later I finally walked in and said nothing. As if nothing happened. The boys must have come back. They always said mean things to Michael. They would say," You useless peice of junk, why don't you go home? Where are your parents?" Michael said nothing. The boys would call him a mute and mock and spit on him. I hated them. But Michael still wouldn't tell me the whole story. 

     I was glad though Michael was going to be okay and he grabbed most of our stuff. Like out beds, sheets, and some of our left over food. He asked me where I was. I told him it was a secret and I handed him the two "bagels." I said bagel your favorite. He smirked. He siad they where donuts. I didn't see the differnece. But he seemed almost glad to. But one thing I noticed as I saw him is that he had slashes on his arms. I supposed thy where cuts from the boys. But I didn't ask. It seemed like hours until we finally got to the next place where we would stay. It was still an "alley" as Michael said. But it was cleaner, and it smelled much better. I asked Michael what that smell was. He said there was a bakery across the street. I liked it here. We stayed here for a couple of years. We decided we had to leave because everything was closing. I didn't know what that meant. But I am now ten and Michael is forteen. He seemed taller and smellier than usual. But I didn't mind. Even though we went away from those mean boys Michael still had the weird cuts on his arms. Some where new too. I knew they could not be from the boys. Michael has been worrying me lately. Everytime it comes around his birthday he gets newer cuts. I saw him bleeding one day and helped him cover it up. It was deep, very deep. He said it was just broken. glass that he dropped. But I didn't believe him.