Bed of Roses (Watty Awards)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

     Slowly I pushed open the trailer door. I peeked in and saw that there was not a sign of life.

     It was 3 o’clock in the morning and everybody had passed out from the ‘lets-all-get-together-and-drink-beer-party’.   I had waited behind our neighbor’s trailer since about eleven o’clock. I sat on their back porch and waited for the time when everybody passes out. I knew that time so well. It was like I had an internal clock that told me when the party would start, when people would show up, and when NOT to be anywhere near the house, and when they would either leave completely drunk, or they would pass out in the nearest place.  

     I slowly entered the house and crept down the hall way and into my decrepit bedroom, luckily it was unoccupied.

    Standing in the door way and I looked around at the room that I had called my own. Luckily there was a full moon and the light shown in through the broken window blinds.  The sight before me was a sad sight to see. No matter how horrible it looked it had been mine for the past several years. Yes, it wasn’t anything like I had when I was a child, but I was VERY grateful for this room.  I was thankful for my tiny old mattress laying in the corner of the floor, for the old wooden dresser that was missing 2 of the 5 drawers and the ones that were there were falling apart, I was proud of my tiny desk lamp that my Mother had bought at a neighbor’s yard sale.

     I quietly emptied my trusty backpack that I had carried with me for years, and I began to put in my few precious belongings. I put in 5 pairs of jeans, about 5 t-shirts, some underclothing, a stick of Deodorant, tooth brush and tooth paste, then I reached under my mattress and found my most prized possession and I stuffed that down in between my pants and shirts hoping that will protect it. I ripped off the thin worn out blanket on my bed and stuffed it into my bulging backpack I already had my trusty boots on. I thought about grabbing my old tennis shoes, but decided against it. Who needs more than one pair of shoes?

     Standing with my hands on my hips I looked around at what was a picture of what was about to be past life. 

    Slowly creeping down the hall and out of the house I leaped off of the front porch and ran for my new life!

     Once I had made it out of the trailer park and about a half mile into the woods I made my way to the main road.  Standing in the middle of the road I looked up to the full moon that was meant to light my path, I took a deep breath that hurt my sore lungs but I didn’t care. I had hoped that deep breath would be the relief that I wanted and so craved, but it never came. I knew that I had a long journey ahead of me, but I was going to make it.  My relieved, relaxed, peaceful body and spirit will come in time, but now was not that time.

      I began to walk straight down the center of the road it wasn’t like there were any cars about to come by, I mean it was like three-thirty in the morning!

     I knew that before I started my long walk to the next town that I had one more thing to do before I left.  

     After about 40 minutes of walking, I finally made it to Lynn’s house. I sat down beside her mail box and pulled out a pin and my notebook. 

    “Dear Lynn,

       I’m fed up with my life. Don’t worry I am not going to kill myself. I’m am going out to make a life all my own. I want you to know that no matter how bad my highschool and junior high has sucked you were the best thing in this life. You always made me smile no matter what.

                            Love ya always and I will see you again,

                                                                           Chevy”