Monorail Thieves

chapter 1

Carmine stood with his headphones on and walked out of his apartment on the third floor, room C34. New day new dawn and it all felt the same to him. In his town, nothing ever happens, although the building next to them burned to the ground and scorched part of their building, nothing ever happens.

    Over the last couple of months the crime rate in the town had tripled, so after the fire looters had come out to search through the rubble for anything left that didn't burn and that was worth anything of value. The sounds of their arguing and fighting could hear them cussing all through the night.

Carmine rubbed those memories out of his head, they were terrible. First came the screams and then came the cries of children, it went on for a while their screams and wails, then it all went silent. Then the building caught fire. Then everything went back to normal the next day.

After looking out the 3rd story window at the building's ruins he walked down the flights of stairs to the 2nd floor entrance and walked on to that floor.

It was monday December 2nd, his land lady's birthday. It was always a big deal to her that everyone in their building was a community so they always celebrated eachother's birthdays, the land lady was turning 51.

She was a thick Russian lady who always wore floral patterns and was always in and out of her kitchen baking and cooking. She would sometimes forget to brush off her hands and would get flour on everything she touched including her face. She had the appearance of a grandmother and loved everyone in that building like they were her children.

He stopped at her door and knocked a voice from inside yelled for him to come in. He stepped through the door and saw her standing over a counter rolling bread dough.

" Happy birthday Ms. Yokovich!!!" he yelled, even though she knew he had come in it surprised her to see him there.

" Ohhh, thank you little Carmine, this means so much to me," she went over and hugged him, trying to not get flour on his jacket, " my family never celebrated birthdays! This is why I want all of you to celebrate evryone's in this building, it makes us feel special,". Then she went and sat down in her big red chair and said wistfuly," this year, Carmine, I feel empty inside. My grandson has not yet come, he was supposed to arrive a while ago but he never came. He always made me smile on my birthday, but I miss him so much," she got out of chair and smiled, " but that is the past and this is the present. Did you get me a present?" she asked that with a certain child like glee that everyone feels when they get a present.

" Yes I did!" Carmine said excitedly. He pulled out a package from his bag and handed it to her,           " happy birthday Ms. Yokovich!"

She started unwraping it with glee and smiled fondly at what she saw, a russian nesting doll. " Carmine! Did you paint this??" Ms. Yokovick exclaimed.

The dolls were a cherry red with floral designs all over them. Their faces were pal, but with rosy cheeks.

" Yes I did," Carmine said," It took me nine months to finish them,". Mrs. yokovich looked fondly at him again and gave him a big hug again.

Carmine looked at the clock and told her he had to go. He walked out the door and ran down the rest of the stairs and out the building door. The cool air nipped his nose as soon as he went outside. He pulled his hat down over his ears and popped up his collar up over his nose and mouth. He turned on his music and started walking down the street to the beat of the song he was listening to.

His school was about 4 blocks away. It was pleasent to walk to in the spring, summer, and fall, but terrible to walk through in the winter. he sped up his steps and put his hands in his pockets.

                       ((d -_- b))                               <-_->                               ((d -_- b))

The St. Peter's senior high school was a buzz with activity. Red ribbons were everywhere and green bows were on every locker. Christmas was in the air. As he was walking down the hallway and walked past all the cliques in their school. The stoners in the corners completely oblivious to everyone else, the jocks and the hormone crazed cheerleaders, the hippies sitting on the floor in circles,and the musicians heading to the band Equipment Room (ER for short) and that's where he went.

As he walked in Carmine spotted his friends, Aaron and Morgan. Aaron was a dark haired guy who always wore a knit hat and band tee-shirts. Morgan always had her hair dyed a different color each year, this year was brown with the bangs over her eyes dyed pink. She always wore sweater vests, white colored under shirts suspenders and white skinny jeans, a classy punk student. They were sitting on the floor playing their guitars. Carmine went down and sat next to them and grabbed a guitar off one of the stands next to him.

Aaron and Morgan finally looked up after being in a trance of music. They both looked as if they just noticed one another was there and looked at carmine with an odd expression.

"What?" Carmine asked.

"Why is there flour on you jacket and face??", Aaron asked.

"Because," said Carmine, " it's my land lady's birthday and she hugged me without brushing the flour from her hands and apron. she's like my grandmother...she pays my rent and everything after my mom left 2 years ago." Carmine always says his mom left, but really, she died. The emotions were too hard for him to cope with so he just said left. His dad also dissapeared which is partly why she died. 

Ever since both his parents left, Ms. Yokovich took out part of everyone's rent money so she could pay for Carmine living there.

Morgan took a box out of her bag and threw it to Carmine, " Merry Christmas!!!" she yelled and hugged him. Carmine had no clue what happened until Morgan was on top of him.

"WOAH!! What's the big idea!! It's not even close to christmas yet!!" Carmine exclaimed

"So, I'm not going to be here Christmas eve or Christmas morning so I though I would just give it to you before..and today just felt right to give it to you."

Carmine opened it and inside was a picture frame of him, Aaron, and Morgan...when they were children. Carmine's mom was in the back kissing his dad and Aaron, Morgan, and himself were looking at eachother with their tongues out. It made him tear up.

Morgan always gave the best most meaningful gifts.

" I found it in an old scrap book my mom made for my 10th birthday," she said.

Carmine didn't say anything, all he did was fiddle around on his guitar, he played an upbeat instrumental on it, somewhat resembleing the tune to 'hey there dalilah' by the plain white tees.

The bell rang and they all had to leave the room and get to class.

After that, Carmine started thinking about his parents. He thought of all the happy times he had with his parents, then they just left. He was angry. There's nothing like the feeling of anger against something you couldn't stop......

Anger is a lonely feeling.....