Gus

New Life

One day my classmate Brody Heseinberg showed off his friends the new toy car his grandmother got for him. The closest my grandmother ever got to getting me a gift was a candy bar from the deli, and she only gave it to me because she 'didn't feel like' cooking dinner that night.

As the years passed, my grandmother seemed to get more and more bitter. She mumbled more and more to herself, and spent less time in her garden, and more in her bedroom. Sometimes, when I would go to get a snack, I would peek inside and see her holding a picture of my grandfather close to herself. I guess she did love him after all.

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The most memorable dream I ever had happened on the night of July 9. I was 9 years old at the time. You'll have to bear with me through it, though.
I was sitting in a wooden chair with a spotlight facing down at me. All around me, it was black; nothing in front of, in back, or to my sides. Suddenly, my grandmother opened a door to my right and called me to dinner. I got up from my chair and followed her into the light of the next room.
However, some things were different about the dining room: my grandfather was sitting happily in his seat, and the walls were blue instead of yellow. I sat down like it was a normal and ate my dinner. My grandmother brought up a story when she was young and fell into the mud with her friends in the playground. It made me laugh.
After dinner, we go into the main room and watch some TV. Then my grandfather gets out his board games and we play Candy Land. Later, my grandmother bakes a cake and we all eat it. When it's time for me to go to bed, I walk out the strange door and back into my wooden seat. I sit down with the light shining on me, look up, and whisper,
"You will never be happy."
I woke up with a startle and looked around, realizing I was still in my bag. I silently cried to myself, and couldn't get that dream out of my head. Not only did it show me what it would've been like if my grandparents wanted to be with me, but the Other Me showed me something I didn't want to believe; the truth.

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The only thing my grandmother ever got for me for Christmas, or ever for that matter, was in the winter of my 10th year. She surprised me by saying that Santa actually thought I was a good boy this year, but I knew the truth about Santa. I went to the fake Christmas tree my grandma had bought from Kmart, which didn't even have any lights or ornaments on it, and rushed over to my present. It was poorly wrapped, but I didn't care.
I ripped open the paper and stared down at the gift. There was a box, and inside the box was a lamp. Just a rusty, bent-over old lamp. But you know what? I loved it. It showed me that my grandmother really did care. So I took it into my room and put it on the drawer by the door. When she came in and asked how I liked Santa's present, I told her I liked it, but I didn't believe in Santa. She frowned and admitted to me that she didn't buy the lamp; she stole it from a nearby yard sale.
That night, I stuffed the lamp into my closet and slept in the cold darkness.

Once I turned 10 1/2, my grandmother decided that I should start walking to school by myself. She previously took me every day to school, but thought I was now old enough to go on my own. But to be honest, I think my grandmother was just sick of taking me to school.
On my first day on my own, I got lost. Literally, I walked two blocks away from my house and after that I had no idea was the hell I was doing. I looked around for street signs, but there were none. I looked for a crossing guard, but there was none. This is a poorly built neighborhood, I thought to myself. Suddenly, I saw a man in raggedy clothes coming towards me.
"You lost, kid?" he asked in a croaky voice.
"Yeah," I said.
"I can help you," he said, then grabbed my hand. Thinking I had no other choice, I let the dirty man lead the way for me.
"What's you name?" the man asked me.
"Gus," I said, "what's yours?" I asked back, trying to be polite.
"Sidney."