The Next Life

Chapter 4 - The Exit

I think about my current, status, if I could say, is. 

Stepfather: dead

Mother: MIA, missing, gone, nowhere to be seen

Brother: Traumatized, annoying

Me: Worried, handling it

My Life:  A Lie

MY NAME IS KAMRI SMYTH, I AM A LIAR, I WAS BORN TO BE ONE, RAISED TO BE ONE AND NOW I AM ONE. AND I'M PRETTY DAMN GOOD AT IT.

It was at this point when I realised that every time we moved, I would always lie to people at school about why I moved, I would always say that is was for something like my parents job, or to get closer to extended family or older (ready-to-die) relatives, the truth is I lied because I honestly never knew why we moved house.

We had now made out of the forest and had come to be in front of a busy junction. Out of breath, we stared hard at the docile military town we lived in, Port Mistedge, it was also a port-town, known for the large vessels that come in day and night and the trading. Port Mistedge was a town that relied mainly on the money which came from the exporting, importing and shifting of goods. Nevertheless, it was a good area to live in and be from, one of the better areas of all of the places we had lived in before.

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Nathan and I are moving, which s natural to me at this stage, and, Nathan isn't too shabby either. He never really had to deal with the whole getting attached and then saying goodbye ordeal, because, he's homeschooled. Mom always said that it would be better for us, with our 'busy' lives that 'are always moving'. Mom managed to homeschool me for my first year of school, it was heaven for little 5-year-old-me, but hell for my personality, (not that I have anything against homeschooled kids). As soon as I was able to have some impact on the decisions made regarding me, I did, I told my mom that I wanted to go to 'normal school', just like all the other kids in our apartment building, where it was just us too, in our cosy little flat. So, she finally enroled me into the nearest public school, where I started going to 'real school'.

She didn't do that for Nathan, he likes it, and he does karate classes nearly every day, and as far as I can tell, he's doing (almost) just fine.

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Every time we move, we change it up, our looks of course, and judging by the danger it seems like we are in now, it seems appropriate. Nathan and I cautiously made our way through the maze of an intersection to come to the town centre, for shopping and food. We walked down to the middle of one of the neatly paved paths and walked down and into the quaint drugstore which sat quietly on its own, under an apartment block. We weren't neccissarily 'tight' on money, well... we were but bottom line, we had enough. 

It's no secret that we look surprised or shaken, but we are both doing our best to conceal it. We walked over to the hair and beauty section feeling the shopkeepers eyes following us, I tried to look interested in shampoos and conditioners. Holding Nathan's hand, I slowly strutted over to the hair dye section, I kneeled down to get to his level and said in 'a loud enough manner' "Now you go to the checkout area and get yourself a candy bar, and find one for me too, mm kay?" He looked and me understandingly ad did what I asked, as much as he can be a pest, he sometimes makes me proud. 

 I looked through the different boxes of hair dye, the 'lighty' airbrushed models staring at me sheerly. I thought of what colour I hadn't done before, reddish brown, like the girl from the Dr. Phil show. But then I thught of mom, how she used to tell me not to be like her. That me thinl deeper, what way she had her hair right now, ashy blonde, with amber highlights and olive lowlights. I picked up a box of ashy blonde dye, beacause my hair is alreaydy light enought to pick up the colour, and for Nathan's superhero blonde hair, I picked up some dark, almost black, brown box dye, the last one on the shelf.

There were hairdressers scissors, all stinless steel, with heavy handles, but too expensive for the look I was going for. In the art section, there were saftey scissors for a third of the price, I grabbed some craft scissors, ad walked down to the till. I saw Nathan, witha genuine grin on his face, the frst I've seen in a while. He was holding a double-decker and a wispa bar,waiting for me to pay so he could bite into the first bit of happiness he would have in a while.

We casually waltzed over to the only active checkout where the fabricated platinum bolonde cashier sat weirdly on a bar stool.She chewed her gum, loudly, like a cow chewing grass,  and just nodded after I said "I'll take these please,". She scanned all of the things on the tabe and blurted "16.64". I payed, in cash, as Nathan put everything into his bag. We left feeling the beady eyes on us the whole way out. We paused, right outside the door,  and let out great sighs.