a world in perspective

2

With great dissatisfaction, I force myself down stairs for breakfast. It's the last Saturday before school starts, and Mrs. Hilton is busy in the kitchen. The food's probably one of the only things I like about the house. Everything's made from scratch, and most of the ingredients are local. Whether she likes me or not, Mrs. Hilton won't let me starve.
I take in the open, main-level of the farm house and realize I'm the last one up. I usually am. No one seems to care except for Sam who was watching me from the living room. His face started to relax now that I've appeared at the top of the stairs. I wonder to myself, Why does he care about me so much.
My thoughts are interrupted by Mrs. Hilton calling for everyone to come eat. As usual, the table has been neatly set with plates, glasses, and mounds of eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and toast. I take my assigned seat between Sam and his little sister, Jill, his older brother, Jack, across from me, and the twin toddlers, William and Walter, on either side of him. Mr. and Mrs. Hilton took the end seats. Why such a large family was willing to take in a foster child was still a mystery to me, but I guess adding one more person to a family of seven didn't make much of a difference.
As the other kids and I started to pile food on our plates Mrs. Hilton asked, "Anything interesting in the paper today, Oliver?"
Mr. Hilton, the only man I have ever met who still reads the daily paper, barely looked up from his paper to reply, "Nothing good, Rose. The Sheriffs found Ed Carson's son, Tommy, in the woods this morning dead."
Every one, except for the twins, froze. I know that everyone is shocked to hear this. Mr. and Mrs. Hilton are really good friends with the Carsons, and Tommy had been Jack's best friend since the could walk. He seemed especially shell shocked.
In a quiet, sad voice, he asked his father," Do they know who killed him?"
As if trying to concentrate on putting a puzzle together, Mr. Hilton took his time answering. "They don't for sure, but it appears that he killed himself by putting a bullet through his head."
This information made me sick. It was bad enough that someone was dead. Now with possibility that he committed suicide...I no longer felt hungry. I know want to go back to the attic and hide under the blanket on my bed.
I looked up at Jack. He was becoming paler by the second. This only further proved to me that people who kill themselves don't realize who their actions hurt.