Never Too Late

Chapter One

"You worthless, lazy slouch, get up!" Someone hoarsely shouted. Slowly opening his heavy eyelids, Johan groaned and turned on his back, his body draped with exhaustion as he tried falling back asleep. "I said get up!" His blanket was roughly pulled away, forcing him to sit up and look at the chubby woman standing over him. "Do you think you're at a hotel? Go boil some water and make breakfast for the others!" His foster mother, Mrs Clementine, ordered as she glared at him with disgust.

Johan slowly rubbed his eyes, reluctant to move as his longtime foster mother started throwing insults at him. Her words sounded jumbled as she complained and snapped at him with a row of incomplete, uneven teeth.

"Okay, I'm going," He said putting on his shirt and getting up. When he went to the bathroom and washed his face, he saw how exhausted and frustrated he looked. He had red circles under his eyes and looked thinner than before.

Pulling his shoulder-length hair back, he looked at the scar behind his right ear before concealing it again when he realized that a few strands lingered in his palm. His hair was falling out again. Initially alarmed, he eventually shrugged it off because there was nothing he could really do, he would still survive.

Following his usual routine, he went to the kitchen, did the dishes, made breakfast, and then did the dishes again; by mid-morning, he was barely able to stand and wanted to go back to bed, but Mrs Clementine stopped him.

"Where are you going?!" She shouted as he walked towards the room he shared with his foster siblings, "There's a leak in the roof I've been telling you to fix all week, go do it right now!"

"I'm tired," Johan responded, "I'll do it later."

"Who told you to go to bed late huh? I don't have any space for freeloaders so either pull your weight or get out!"

Johan grit his teeth and glared defiantly, but he knew he had no choice but to do whatever she said. Since the day he turned seventeen, her favorite thing to do was remind him of the limited time he had remaining at the foster home, and with his eighteenth birthday nearing, her insults had gotten worse.

He had no money, no contacts, and nowhere to go. As much as he wanted to never see her again, he knew that once he was thrown out he would be living on the streets.

"Don't just look at me, move!" She shooed him.

Johan rolled his eyes and went for the toolbox, but he secretly regretted the night before, playing cards and idling amongst friends as they wasted the night away. This was his only escape from the torment of his reality but it made his present situation worse.

The hours passed with Johan doing various chores and tending to the younger boys in the foster home because their caretakers neglected them at every chance, verbally and physically abusing them whenever they saw fit.

This was the norm with many foster homes; It didn't matter how kind the foster mothers or fathers seemed at first, and Johan learned to have faith in none of them.

In the evening, as he was washing and cleaning the vegetables in preparation for dinner, the housemaid Sarah stopped him.

"Go get the young ones cleaned up, I'll take it from here." She was one of the more understanding people in the house but he knew her strict nature, so he went immediately. "Oh when you're done, take those empty boxes outside." She said pointing to the old boxes in the corner.

Obeying, he called the younger boys inside while picking up their toys. "Time to come inside, play time's up."

"I don't want to!" Oliver, a young boy with Autism screamed. His screeching pierced Johan's eardrums to the point where he threw down his toys and had to drag him inside. The other young boys outside playing also started whining as they followed Johan inside.

"Why did you have to make him cry!?" One of them grumbled before putting his toys aside. Johan silently cursed himself because whenever Oliver started screaming, he would continue nonstop as he had numerous times throughout the day. Johan tried his best to calm him down but eventually gave up.

After getting the boys ready for dinner, he took the boxes outside and then set off down the street. He had developed this nocturnal habit because of his desire to get away from the constant noise and chores around the house.

Taking a bus downtown, he watched as night fell. The mountains in the distance blended with the sky as the lights came on in the buildings he passed.

Coming off at a rundown house in a poor neighborhood, he walked around to the side where he knew his friends would be sitting at the back. When he opened the gate, he saw his best friend Asher smoking a cigarette around a makeshift fire pit constructed from a half-buried metal garbage can sticking out of the ground.

"Hey, I didn't know if you were still coming," He half smiled before offering Johan a bottle of liquor. Asher was a few years older and shared a rough upbringing just like him which solidified their friendship.

"No thanks," Johan said taking a seat beside him.

"You look like you need it." Asher continued. "Rough day?"

Shrugging, Johan mumbled, "Same old, same old."

Sighing Asher knocked back the bottle before coughing. "Did you get any sleep? You look wasted."

"Here and there," Johan responded. "They kept bothering me all day though."

"Ahh, I see." He chimed in and took in more alcohol. "Tell me do you have any plans after you leave that place?" His broad smile, full of pearly teeth, seemed optimistic, but this feeling didn't resonate with Johan.

"I don't know, I'll figure it out." The sound of the fire crackling made the silence that followed deafening but Asher laughed cheerfully.

"Don't worry, I told you before that I'll help you out. You've got this!" He said patting Johan on the back.

"Oh, by the way, did you look into the thing I asked about?" Johan inquired, turning away from the fire and looking at him anxiously.

"Yeah, I almost forgot!" Asher said picking up his tattered backpack that he had hidden behind him. "You should've reminded me earlier." He ran his hand through his thick dark brown hair and smiled ruefully. "I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get these."

After handing him a large envelope Johan sat back and pulled out the papers.

"Hey," Asher said stopping him, "You should know that whatever you see, you might not like."

Johan looked at him blankly; of course, he expected nothing good to come, but he needed answers to questions that burned inside him from childhood. He had bouts of not caring and desperately needing to know but now he wanted to put the mystery behind him at last so he could move on with his miserable life. He had to know what happened to his family.