Take Me Home

Life Before

  The next thing I remember was coming to with a bright light shining in my face, and a small hand touching the stinging spot on the right side of my cheek where it hurt the most. I opened my eyes a bit, and as I looked up I saw the lamp that was propped up next to the couch above me. Joey was kneeling on the floor beside the couch, looking upon me very curiously but also very worried.

  I didn't really know what happened. I was sort of confused, and disoriented. I rubbed my eyes, trying to block the bright light somehow, but it was no use. Touching the right side of my cheek accidentally, and then jerked away as the pain shot through my face in an instant. I sort of remembered the punch, but at the same time it didn't feel real. Like only a dream. However I knew now it was real. The only light that was on was the lamp in the living room, which I was directly underneath. I lied on my back on the long blue couch, as Joey just kept watching me. I turned to him very slowly, but almost immediately the right side of my face began to throb, and I backed off a bit.

  "Joey, what happened?" I asked the little kid if he knew anything, as I tried to piece together what occurred.

  "I don't really know. It was dark in here when we got in. And then I heard him hit you, because I heard the smack. I heard a thump. And then he turned on the lights, and you were just lying on the floor. He wasn't mean anymore after that, and he called your name but you didn't wake up. And then he freaked out," he told me bit by bit what he saw, and that started to make a bit more sense. But why did I pass out from just a punch? I hadn't in the past. So why did I now? I tried to lift my head up a bit, in search for him at all, but there was no sight of Martins.

  "Joey? Where is he?" I asked the little blonde boy as he looked around too, and then it seemed a lightbulb flicked on in his tiny head.

  "Oh, he went to go get something he said. Something for you he said. But I forget," he spoke in that child like voice, as I tried to relax a bit more. Polo was lying there beside me on the couch, as he lifted his head up once I looked at him. Me and him were as if inseparable. Whenever I was around, he would always cling to me. Probably because I had him since he was a puppy, and had taken care of him for the past eight years.

  As the television set was on low in the background, I didn't pay too close attention to it. I think it was the news playing, but I wasn't too sure at the time. All I remember hearing was the news song that they played every time before a segment came on, but that was all at first. I didn't start to listen until I heard a news lady say Joey's name, and missing child, and that's when I put the pieces together. "Look Chris, it's me," the little boy said to me as he pointed to the TV, and then just kept watching it.

  "Go turn up the volume," I ordered him quickly as he crawled over about five feet towards the TV and pressed the little plus sign going up on the front of it. And we listened from there.

"It has been a full 24 hours since little seven year old Joey Millard went missing after failing to return home from school. Police in Bakersfield are puzzled at the case, as they are trying to find any witnesses that had seen or heard anything at all. The parents of little Joey Millard are beginning to post a reward for their seven year old sons' safe return. If anyone has any information about the whereabouts of Joey Millard, they are advised to contact the Bakersfield police." The news lady ended her segment as they moved onto another topic quickly, and then Joey looked back at me. His expression somewhat confused and sad.

  "I thought he said my parents were hurt and I couldn't see them," he said slowly to me, as if he wanted me to clarify to him what was happening, although I wasn't too sure myself. And as I tried to process what I just heard about Joey's parents being ok, not hurt like Martins had told him, I started to wonder about my own family, if they truly met the fate that Martins claimed they did. This odd feeling began to motor up and was reborn again. A feeling a hadn't felt in a long time. Hope.