SIX FEET UNDER THE SKY

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

 

I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, my stomach making awful noises like mating call of the whales we listened to during biology class last year. My mom won’t let me eat in the middle of the night anymore because I always leave a big mess. I’m usually half asleep when I eat in the middle of the night and that half of me that is sleeping is apparently the one that’s suppose to be thinking of cleaning up. Once I didn’t push door of the fridge hard enough and it stayed open all night. I wasn’t allowed to get near my bike for 16 days because of that. I make a mental note to make sure everything is cleaned up and tidied up as it was and I sneak down the stairs and into the kitchen. I eat like starved animal and spend good 20 minutes cleaning up afterwards. I like to take all food that is edible right away, line it up on the table and then eat my way through it all. I turn off the lights in the kitchen and hallway and slowly climb the stairs so I won’t wake up mom or dad. When I pass the bathroom I notice slight shimmer of light from the window. I know it’s not from street light because its glow is mixture of orange and yellow and this one is sort of blue. I can’t see through the window because it’s too high so I take basket with dirty laundry from the corner of the bathroom, throw all the clothes out of it then flip the basket and place it under the window so I can step on it and look through the window. Basket is made of plastic and I’m scared ill break it when I step on it, probably making as much noise as it is possible to make with simple basket and wake up my parents but I really want to see where the light is coming from. I slowly step on the basket first with my left foot, then with my right. I slowly peak outside the window and see blue ball of light on the roof of Mrs. Norris’s house. The light is too bright to look at it at first but my eyes soon adjust and I notice dark figure next to the ball of light. It’s the girl. She is sitting on the roof looking up at the stars. When I look at it more carefully I see that ball of light is actually a lamp in a shape of a globe she took outside with her through her room’s window. I can climb on roof of my house too through window of my room. Alex and I used to take the phone and climb out there to prank call people. Once Alex dialed the number that at first he thought it came to him randomly but was actually number of prinicpal’s office in our school he heard principal give to his mom earlier that day and as soon as principal Brow answered Alex’s face went pale and he just hung up, cursed me for making I’m call anyone and said he doesn’t want to play “prank call” anymore. I’m surprised how this girl managed to climb up since her roof is pretty steep. She is wearing just some shirt that is way too big for her since it goes all the way down to her knees. He eyes are fixed on the night sky and she is just breathlessly trapping the stars in her eyes. I can’t stop myself from just looking at her, trying to figure out what is she thinking, why isn’t she asleep, what is so special about the stars that she looks at them so intensely? I’m so lost in my own thoughts and sight of her looking at the stars with just a dim light from her lamp unraveling her silhouette in the dark that I don’t even realize when she starts turning around in my direction. Suddenly my eyes lock with hers and I feel heat rising from my chest and spreading on my face, burning. Chills coarse through my body and as I instinctively step back, the basket slips and I fall down, noise of my demise echoing through the house. Before I manage to get off the floor lights turn on and I see my dad standing in the doorway.

-Jamie what the hell are you doing at this hour?

-Um , nothing.  – I mumble slowly getting up, pain in my back pulsating through the rest of my body.

-What happened? - My mom whispers behind dad, still half asleep.

-I fell. – I shrug it off like it’s no big deal. Mom suddenly got fully awake and rushes to get first aid kit . She was back with it in a matter of seconds .