The Black Box

8

When we drove into the driveway, a squirrel ran across it and we almost made that squirrel into roadkill. My mom swerved to the left and drove into the garage. Our hearts were racing by the look of her face. I was shaken up, so I get out of the car and go into the house.

I guess my dad got a hold of Toby 'cause he was scolding him for something.
"Toby you shouldn't do that! You almost killed Saige!" my dad yells at Toby. Toby's just standing there like every word is going in one ear and out the other.

"Hey dad, what happened?" I ask him.

"Not now Peter," he replies. I guess Toby did something really bad 'cause my dad never pushes away my questions like that.

I go up into my room and see that my new blankets are made nearly on my bed. Someone also cleaned up the floor 'cause it was a wreck when I left it. I go to my computer to check my email.

Nothing really has happened. Jax sent me an email saying that he made the basketball team.
I reply to some of the emails and go back downstairs to see if my dad's still yelling at Toby.

Toby's in the "time out chair" which is basically a chair in a corner of our living room. He has a glum expression on his face. I guess my dad took the darts away or something else that he likes. Was it his truck? I hope it was.

I see my dad go into his office and run towards the door just in time to catch the door before it closes. But I wasn't quick enough and my fingers got jammed in between the door and the doorframe. I scream out in pain. My dad opens the door and I take my hand away from the door and start rubbing it.
"What is it Peter?" he asks.

"I wanted to ask you something before my fingers got jammed into the doorframe by the door," I tell him.

"What do you what to ask me?"

"I wanted to know why you were scolding Toby earlier."

"Oh. He raced into Saige's room and threw a dart that almost hit Saige in the head."

"Oh." Toby's a messed up child. Does he want to hurt everybody in his family? He doesn't show it in front of my parents probably 'cause he's "innocent." He's just four but how'd his mind become corrupt? I have absolutely no idea.

I decide to go down to the basement to watch some TV. I go down the stairs and turn the light on.

It looks like someone put an entire new basement down here. It has a nice couch hat reclines as I found out later, and a flat screen. There is a closet off to the side to hold junk. It's probably bursting with our junk we formulate over the years. It probably has memory boxes for each of us and old board games.

I watch TV for awhile, relaxing for once in the past couple days.

Then I hear the doorbell ring. I rush upstairs and trip on one of the stairs. I fall flat on my face, and run to the front door. Jax is at the door. I wave and he waves back. He has blond hair that's shaggy like mine. He has orange eyes like a sunset. Or a sunrise.
"Wanna come in?" I ask him. He asks his mom if he could hang out for awhile and she said yes. Our parents are business partners so his parents come over to talk about work.

We decide to go up to my room and play on my computer and then we come back downstairs.
"Can we go into your basement?" asks Jax.

"Sure," I say. We walk down the stairs and jump onto the couch.

"Did you really end up in the hospital?" asks Jax.

"Yeah I did. It wasn't scary though," I reply. I lied to him about the hospital not being scary. It was terrifying.

"People in school heard rumors that you jumped off a cliff or skateboarded down a steep hill and broke your arm or something. What really happened?"asks Jax. I didn't know people made rumors. Ugh gossip. I don't even own a skateboard and there's no cliffs near here. Why would I give my life up for selfishness?

"Um, I was out shopping with my mom and I opened the trunk door and it hit me in the face. Hard," I tell him.

"Man that must've hurt Peter," He seems sympathetic. He probably is, knowing him.

"Jax we've gotta go. We have dinner reservations," his mom yells down the stairs.

"Ok mom. I'll be up in a second," he replies.

Jax leaves and I'm left alone in the basement.