The Story Of Daniel

/t h r e e/

Chapter 3

Ten Years Before

Due to his show of courage on his first day of school, Daniel survived second grade and became best friends with Amelia Cooper. Summer had finally arrived, but Daniel had grown out of his bug collecting phase and now had an entire two months of no school that he planned to spend with his new friend.

Over the school year, Daniel had found out that Amelia hated living with her aunt, so she snuck out of her house often. When she left, she would walk to Daniel's house, climb the tree by his window, and sit on the roof. One summer night, as Daniel was just about to go to sleep, he heard a soft knock on his window. It was Amelia, of course. He opened the window and silently stepped out onto the roof to sit with her.

"What's wrong?" he asked. She never came out this late. She had her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her body, staring out at Daniel's yard in front of her.

Without even looking at Daniel, she answered his question. "I hate my aunt. I just want to run away."

"You can't run away, Amelia." Daniel knew how badly she wanted to, but she knew what would happen if she did. Her aunt was her only family left other than her distant relatives that lived it Switzerland.

"I know. My parents will come back for me, and I need to be right here when they do." Daniel had heard this many times before. While everyone else believed her parents were dead, she thought that they were coming back.

"Do you really think they're going to come back for you?" he asked. It had been a year and there was no sign of them anywhere. They had either died, or been wiped from existence on earth.

"They have to," she said. "They can't leave me here all alone. I know they wouldn't leave without saying goodbye."

"You need to go back," he told her. "It's chilly and you can't sleep on a roof."

"I know," she said. "Thanks, Danny." He watched as she silently got up and climbed down the tree like she had done many times before. When she was finally on the ground, she waved up at Daniel and he waved back. Amelia walked away from the house and into the dark night, Daniel watched until the moon light couldn't illuminate where she walked, so far in the distance.

He looked up to the stars shining brightly in the sky and wished with all his heart that Amelia was right. He wished that her parents really were alive and they would come back to take care of their daughter. But there was no shooting star in sight, so he doubted his wish would come true. Daniel climbed through the window and went back to bed. He stayed awake for a while longer, staring at the ceiling. When he finally fell asleep, he dreamed of shooting stars.

Now

Daniel's mind was swimming. He needed a memory that was extremely important to him. What memory could he possibly have that could define who he was? Deep down he knew what the memory was, it was his secret. Daniel wasn't the type of person to lie; he always tried to tell the truth. And he wasn't technically lying; he was just keeping a secret. Just one little thing he kept all to himself. Only his parents knew about it. He refused to let anyone else know; not even Amelia knew. There are just some things you have to keep to yourself. It was the best day of his life, but he never spoke of it. But if it could save his life he would try to remember what had happened that day.

Daniel was crying. He sat in the corner watching the other kids play games of soccer or swing colorful hula hoops around their hips; laughing and talking together just like any other group of young, carefree kids. Daniel had no intentions of joining them; he just watched and wondered how they could possibly be having fun when they lived in a place like this. He was only four at that time, and he had nothing but a small suitcase containing some old, worn out, hand-me-down clothes and a little brown teddy bear he always lugged around that had certainly seen newer and cleaner days. He had no family, no friends, no one that cared if he lived or died. And he was thin; the orphanage was running out of food donations so soon they would have to shut down and send the children in their separate ways to other orphanages where they would probably never see each other again. Unless they were adopted before the food ran out and before the government officials came and before they were tossed from orphanage to orphanage like unwanted pieces of trash. Daniel was a smart boy, so he had realized that this would be his fate long before the other kids even realized that they were constantly hungry and there was no food for them to eat.

A little girl that had let her hula hoop drop to the floor wandered over to Daniel and asked, "Why are you crying?" Why was he crying? Because he knew what would happen to them all, and he didn't like it. They say ignorance is bliss and four year old Daniel would give anything to be stupid at that moment. So he could run and play and laugh with all the other children instead of crying in the corner with only the inevitable as company.

"Don't you get it? We won't be here much longer. We're all going to be sent away," he told her between his cries of despair. The girl walked away without a word and Daniel sat alone again, crying silently.

A woman came up to him, picked him up and tried to calm him down."Shhh. You have to look presentable. You can't have tears all over your face." She wiped his eyes with a rag then put him back on the floor. "If you're a good boy, you may get a family." That was enough to get Daniel's attention. If he could get out of here, he could escape the inevitable. So he wiped his eyes again and looked at the woman with a brave face as if saying 'I'm ready now'. She took his hand and walked him to a man and a woman sitting behind a desk.

Daniel didn't remember any more. All he knew was that the couple sitting behind the desk was going to be the ones who took him away from that horrible place. They were his adoptive parents, but no one knew. He knew people questioned it though. His mom and dad both had brown hair, while his was a fiery shade of red. They probably thought a) he was adopted or b) the red hair skipped generations in their family. Daniel felt like he was getting pulled. Like an outside force was yanking him out of his memories and back into reality. Now, Daniel knew he was waking up.

A/N: hey, readers. if you enjoyed this chapter, would you mind clicking the star icon to register a vote? it would mean a lot :) also, feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think