Childhood Memory

by **Parker Emery** Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:44 pm

Parker was sitting on the curb in front of his house, picking at the grass growing between the cracks in the pavement. A warm breeze swept the air, blowing his hair around his face. It was quiet, peaceful, all the other kids at school as he feigned sickness again. He had missed more days of school then he'd gone to. It didn't feel worth it. He didn't feel he should have been there. There was just something wrong about it. The kids were mean, the teachers never paid any attention, the classrooms were crowded, and the place was overall a dump. Even he knew that. When he was told he'd never get a good job if he didn't go to school, Parker hardly cared. He'd just backpack around rather then be confined like he was, or at least felt like, constantly.

For a time, home had been that escape, but it was no longer that. Certain incidents he didn't quiet understand, put his family in even greater economic strain then they already were. His parents had found themselves second jobs, they spent less time together and less time with him. Trips to the grocery store were less frequent, fighting when his parents were together more frequent. He had a sinking feeling that things were just about ready to fall apart. And he wasn't helping by not going to school and disappearing at odd hours during the day, just off walking. Searching for something he wasn't quite sure of.

Sitting on that curb, Parker pulled his knees close, wrapping his arms around his legs, and resting his chin on his knees. He let out a sigh as he wished he could fly away with the wind. He looked down the road, where a moving truck was. He wondered if another kid was moving in. He hoped not. Another person to hear and see playing in the street. One more person to make him feel more alone. None of those kids were his friends. He wished they were nothing to him, though. He wished he never had to deal with them.

A long time he watched that truck, as the furniture and boxes were moved into the house. Around the same size as his own. By the looks of it there were a couple of younger kids. Red hair and bright faces. Normal, like the rest of them. He didn't know why...but he just felt different, the others had apparently picked up on it too, always making sure they had a rude comment, or pointed out something offensive. Though as Parker saw a boy closer to his age walk into his new house, something felt different about not only him, but the rest of them too. He couldn't put his finger on it, so he pushed it out of his mind.

---

A few weeks passed, only a few days of school dispersed between them, as well as a few scraps and bruises as well. He sat on the curb again, it probably near lunch time for the kids in school. He looked over to the house again. None of them had gone around to say hello like people usually did when they moved in around here, especially when they had kids. Speaking of kids, they were playing out in the yard. It seemed as if they didn't go to school. Parker sat and watched the younger kids for a while, wondering why they weren't in preschool or a daycare of some sort. If they lived here, surely there parents were busy working...

Just then the boy around his age walked by, walking a small dog on a leash. Parker looked over at him, but the boy didn't spare him more then a second glance. Parker continued to watch him curiously. He wasn't like the others...maybe things could be different with him then? From what he'd noticed he never played with the other kids on the street either.

Whatever Parker was hopeful about in the fact those people seemed different, didn't matter just a few weeks later once summer had begun. It seemed as if one day they were there, and the next they had already packed and drove off. The slight disappointment he felt could not be dealt with though, as that day, when his parents got home, he received a rather curious letter in the mail.