Stranger to stranger

Painted story

My mom has now locked her office for the past five hours. She kept the key on her ever since. She wouldn't ever give me the chance to steal it. For all I know, she plans to sleep with the key in her hand. But, I am planning on stealing it. I will not let my mom get in the way of my treasure hunt. If I can call it that because, technically, there isn't a price at the end. The only price I might get is the chance of a better lifestyle. I am still determined to go to the end of this journey I started all by myself. I need to get that key. But how? When could my mom leave the key alone? She'll sleep next to it and I am practically 100% sure about that. By sneaking into her room, I would wake her up. Unless I make sure she is in a very deep sleep. What am I thinking? I won't drug my mom into sleep. absolutely not, this is not something I support and would do to her or anybody. What else is there to consider? She goes anywhere with that damn key. The only way she doesn't have it in her end is if her ends are already full. In that case, she needs to put the key down or keep it in her pocket. My mom mostly wears jeans, and so, she always has pockets at her disposal. When could she possibly already have something in her pockets? She never puts anything in her left pocket because she always forgets to check it since she is right handed. All the stuff always ends up in the cleaning machine and is then ruined. She would need to have her phone in her pockets. I got it: grocery shopping. She would need to bring the bags in the house and put her phone in her pocket. Which leaves me with three keys: the car key with the house's key on the ring and the office key. Grocery shopping is my best chance at getting the office   key. But, knowing her, she would prefer to put the key in her left pocket than to let me have the chance to have it. That's when my plan comes in. My mom doesn't care about what she wears, she only takes the first thing she sees in her drawer and puts it on because she's too tired to think properly. I will put a pair of sweatpants on top of the other clothes because they are so big and loose my mom won't notice the keys are in her pockets. I only need to make my grocery list so big that she forgets she has them in her left pocket. For her to put them in her left pocket, I'll hand the paper to her saying that I will need everything on that list for my school lunches. I will then put her phone in her right pocket saying that she can't forget it. She's going to thank me and put the office keys in her left pocket then head out the door. When she comes back from grocery shopping, I will bump into her and spill juice on her pants. She is going to be obligated to change and, in the anger, will forget her office key is in her left pocket. I will then put my house key on the kitchen counter beside the grocery bags to make it seem like she left it there when she came in. She will take them and put them in her pocket without ever noticing that I am in her laundry basket, taking the keys from her wet pants and sneaking into her office to take back my letters. I will put fake letters into the shoe box, knowing that she will never really read them because she finds them stupid. They will just be there for her to check every night and think they are still safely locked into her office far away from my grip. But, I can't forget to lock the office again when I head out and which I won't. This is how I am getting my letters back and I am very positive that this will work. Now, I only need to make a normal grocery list, write two fake letters, and put her sweatpants on top of her other pants. Tomorrow, the real stuff begins. Now that I think about it, what will happen when I get the letters? I could simply keep them until my mom finds out the fake ones or run away while I got time. Running away seems a bit extreme, but do I have any other choice left? It's either I stay here locked in a house that my mom won't let me leave or outside where I can persuit my treasure hunt. I don't understand why my mom thinks keeping me inside is going to help. If anything it makes me feel worse. I get it, what I'm doing right now has no guarantee but I have liberty to choose what's good for me. Even if it would be freeing, I really don't want to be left alone outside. It wouldn't make a big difference because I have been living practically alone for the past year. Still, living outside doesn't seem easy or like a choice to even consider in the first place. I will still keep this choice in mind.

Nothing like a Sunday morning locked up in a house. How dreamy my life must be. Hopefully, it will all change in the next few hours. Everything is set out for my plan, I only need to put it into action. I head downstairs with my grocery list in my hand. My mom is already making breakfast in the kitchen with the sweatpants I placed on top of her drawer last night. She is facing the wall, while mumbling a song and cooking eggs. I try to find the keys on the counter, but can't seem to see them anywhere. I tell my mom 'good morning' to see her turn around. I can now see the keys on the counter that was covered by her. She gives me a soft smile that makes me wonder how long it must have been since I have said that to her. I wasn't kind with my mom for the past year. Her smile makes me soft and curious to know if it's real. She didn't deserve to lose a kid. 'Good morning', she tells me, before going back to her eggs. I slowly slide the grocery list on the counter and head upstairs. It's not long before my mom comes back up saying she's going out to do some grocery shopping. Weirdly, she didn't ask me what the grocery list was for. It's rare that I help my mom with grocery shopping. Maybe she didn't think that much of it. I head downstairs with her to make me a glass of water. I can see the office keys still on the counter, at the same spot as this morning. I can see her phone next to it. I take it and slide it in her right pocket, insisting on her not to forget it. She gives me a confusing look but quickly covers it up with a 'thank you'. She takes the office keys and puts them in her left pocket, just like I planned. She tells me she's going to be back in an hour and a half, which gives me an hour and a half to make up fake letters. She opens the door and looks back at me to say goodbye. She doesn't leave until I say it back. I feel bad about breaking her trust. I can't help but think I'm taking advantage of a time I'm never having back with my mom. I have to put myself first, but making her upset isn't a fair trade. I hope this doesn't upset her too much to the point where I have no other choice but to leave. I really want to know where and who this could lead me to. I started without my mom, I can finish without her too.

I wrote in the two fake letters what I most remember about them. The way the stranger had a very specific way of expressing his words is still a mystery to me. I wrote what I thought sounded the most like him. No time to start over because I can hear my mom pulling up in the driveway. I rush downstairs, empty my glass in the sink and fill it with juice. The door opens with a quiet and soft 'I'm home'. This is where my plan ends and possibly succeeds. My mom joins me in the kitchen and puts the bags on the counter. 'I bought everything you asked for', she says with a smile. I can't help but to say 'thank you' for taking the time to go grocery shopping on such a short notice. She empties her pockets on the counter. She wasn't supposed to put the keys on the counter. I guess she didn't forget they were there after all. This might even make my plan easier. I just need her to get distracted enough for me to spill juice all over her. Her phone rings which makes her pick it up in her hands immediately. She starts walking towards the back door to go outside. Why did she run away so fast? Everything just got even easier, weirdly. I won't need my glass of juice anymore.I put down the glass, take a deep breath and reach into my pocket. I take out my house key and slowly walk towards the office key on the counter. My mom can see me from here, but she's so busy talking on the phone that she doesn't even notice me changing the keys. I put my house key on the counter and place the office key in my pocket. She seems upset and desperate. As if what she was hearing really didn't make her day any better. Should I ask her about it? I don't think so. I don't have much time left and she probably wouldn't want to talk about it. I head upstairs to unlock the office door. Her office is a mess, filled with papers and money calculations. A bunch of numbers circled here and there. I really shouldn't be here. The walls are filled with ripped paper journals. They are all about young teenagers dying in car crashes. In the middle of all of them, I can see a gray picture of my brother and the article that was written about him. She highlighted the part that said my brother's and his friends' names. A picture of the car upside down, the windows broken and the blood stains on the ciment is shown as the first page of what was once a journal that my mom ripped apart. All of the other articles on the walls have the victims' names highlighted on them too. I can see letters she wrote but never sent to the families of the accidents. They all say that she's sorry and there if they want help, but really, I know she only meant that she needed help herself. She was obviously devastated. If only I wasn't so blind to see how broken she was. She never dared to ask for help, that's why she never sent those letters. I can hear her opening the back door. I start to search everywhere until I find a shoe box in her closet. I exchange the letters with the fake ones that were in my pocket and head out quickly. I made sure to put back everything where it was and to lock the door. It feels good to have the letters back in my hands. I can finally start the treasure hunt again. I should probably start tracking down the third letter immediately before my mom figures it out. I can only think about how long this will last before she notices the real letters are gone. What happens then?