I looked at the calendar and looked at today's date. February 19th. I walked out to our huge backyard, to the little gravestone there. My grandchildren Laila and Eric played in the backyard while I brought out a beautiful blue and purple flower out to the grave. It was a very special and quite saddening occasion. It wasn't any old ordinary birthday. It was Jerry's birthday.
I walked out to the grave with the flower and planted it into the soil. I bent over and picked up the picture of me and Jerry, when he was seven and I was twelve. Laila and Eric came over with their golden retriever, Debbie. Eric was eight years old and Laila was seven. "Who's that, grandma?" Laila asked, pointing to me in the picture. I looked at her. "That was me when I was younger." I said to her. "I mean the boy. Is that Grandpa?" she asked. I looked at her. "That's not grandpa. He was my best friend for a short time." Eric looked at me. "What happened?" he asked. I looked at them, and grabbed a stool and sat down. They sat down in the grass, with their dog in between them sitting. "Get comfortable. This will take a while."
As I explained to Laila and Eric the story, I could remember every single thing that happened at this point. I mean who could blame me? It was practically burnt into my memory like music onto a disk. No matter what I did, it always came back to me. All I could ever think of was Jerry
It was a sunny day in April, April 27th to be exact, when a new boy came to our quiet town of Abbot, Maine. He was about seven years old, with blonde hair and light blue eyes. For a kid his age he was skinny. He came with only his grandmother, who was probably no older than seventy-eight. I noticed he was kind of quiet, not really talking to the kids on our street. Every day when I walked back home I noticed he was having trouble with his bicycle. One day on June 20th, a week before my last day of fifth grade, I finally went over to him, something I will never regret.
"Hi there." I said to him. He looked at me. "I really like your bike." I said, and he flashed me a smile. "I'm Kayrow." I told him. He looked at me, sitting on his bike. "I'm Jerry." He said, putting on his helmet. He started pedaling, but soon the bike toppled over. I caught him before he hit the pavement. He looked up at me, and I smiled. "I can help you out, if you want." I said, and he took it. As he pedaled, I held onto the bike. After a while I let go, and he started pedaling faster. "You're pedaling on your own!" I exclaimed happily. He got off of his bike and hugged me. It was the start of a great friendship.
Jerry and I always hung out after that. He even came to my twelfth birthday. "Say cheese!" I said, putting a camera in front of us, while we were sitting on the broken fountain in my backyard. I snapped the picture, and Jerry and I secretly went to the hill behind our street with towels. We laid our things on the ground and lied there, looking at the sky. We lay down next to each other, talking.
"So, do you just live with your grandma?" I asked. "I didn't always. I never had a father, but I did have a mama." He said. "What happened to her?" I asked. "She... passed on... in January." He said, getting an unpleasant look on his face. I wanted to know what happened, but I knew the situation made him uncomfortable, so I stayed away from it as best I could.
We started talking about other things. We found out we had many things in common; we both had birthdays in February, we both loved grapes, our favorite numbers were odd numbers and we both had some sort of scar.
"I was trying to get something off of the top shelf in my basement, and I slipped and hit a nail." Jerry said, lifting his shirt to show the scar. It was a pretty big scar; I had to admit, it was going diagonally across his body from his chest to the bottom of his stomach. "I got this scar when my cousin wanted to play mumble the peg." I said, taking my shoe off and showing the scar, which was like a four-way, cutting my foot from the start of my leg to my toes, then horizontally from one side to another. "That must have hurt." Jerry said. "I'm used to pain. We used to work at a farm a couple years back. I worked the bulls." I said. We lay there together and soon we dozed off. It was a great afternoon.
I remember one time when we snuck into the woods in July of that summer. The woods were a place surrounded by plenty of houses, and no one was permitted into going there. Jerry looked out to it while we stood on the hill. "I'd really like to go into there." He said. I looked at him. "We can't. We used to, but over-hunting animals became a problem." I told him. He then turned to me. "So we have to be punished? I'd like to see some of the animals in that forest." He said, smirking. I knew that look. He had a mischievous look on his face. A plan. He took me to the back of the drug store by the forest and set out the plan. We waited for nightfall. When all of the lights in the houses went out, we snuck to the forest with our stuff (helmets, flashlights, etc.). We had told our parents/grandparents we would be sleeping over at each other's house. We went into the forest, and were greeted by animals, like deer, beavers, and many other animals. We ventured forth into the woods. We soon got lost and the batteries were dying. But Jerry had smart thinking, and he had made a trail along the way, so because of Jerry, we had gotten out of the forest. And no one found out.
There was one time just two weeks later which was probably our favorite moment. It was when we found hidden mine shafts in his basement. We found them while looking for some slabs of wood for the fire place. I looked around a poster and saw a little bit of light. "Jerry, come over here." I said to him. Yes, Kayrow?" he said. "There's something behind the poster." I told him, taking the poster down carefully, considering this isn't my house. "It's an old mine shaft!" Jerry said. He started climbing inside of it. "Come on, Kayrow." He said. I shrugged, smiled and grabbed a hammer and went into the mineshaft. We explored it a bit and saw some black rocks. "Coal!" we yelled, and used the hammer to our best ability to get it out. After sometime, it finally came out and we searched the mine shaft a bit more. We looked a bit and found a small opening in the top. I lifted Jerry to the top, and he told me what he saw. "It's not much, let's get back before people see us." He said, and I put him down. We didn't have much trouble getting back. We came back, found the slabs of woods, put the poster back, and went up. She was pleased, and didn't ask about the coal. We had a great fire burning that night.
I was just walking past a newspaper stand when I saw something interesting on the front page. I bought a copy and read the story. The title was enough to get me to read:
Mother Killed after neck snapped from supposed "telekinesis".
That was sounded really interesting and I read on a bit. I saw a picture of a distressed old lady, and I looked closer and realized something: it was Jerry's grandmother. I read the interview with his grandmother. "My grandson Jerry was there when it happened. He witnessed his mother die in the ambulance." She said. I quickly turned and ran for Jerry. I ran out into traffic, and didn't notice until the truck came at full speed honking his horn.
I stopped and put my arms over my head, expecting to be flung onto a passing car, but that didn't happen. The truck was spun around, blocking cars. I tried to get away and see Jerry, but I was trapped by cars that piled up to make a triangle. I looked around, and saw a small way to get out, which was then totaled by a car crashing in that exact spot. "Think, Kayrow, think!" I said, banging my head with my hands. I then looked at one of the cars, noticing that one of the cars was able to jump onto. I quickly jumped onto the car, hopped off, and made my way back for Jerry.
I ran into Jerry's house. Jerry was reading a book next to his fireplace. "Jerry, do you know about this?" I said, pointing at the paper. He quickly grabbed the paper and looked at it. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" he said. He quickly grabbed a backpack and started filling it. "I have to go into hiding!" he said. I had no clue what he was talking about. "Why?" I asked. "You don't understand! If they find this soon, I'm done for!" he yelled. He looked so stressed. It wasn't usual to see him like this. He wasn't the hyperventilation type. He darted to his room, and started filling stuff in it. I had no clue what was going to happen, but from the sound of it, it was going to be bad. And I was right. A few minutes later, as he looked for a little bear he made for me, cops started piling into the house, and took me and Jerry to an interrogation room across the town. The last thing I saw in that house was my bear.
It was very tense. I knew the assistant cop interrogating Jerry. It was my Brother Steven's nineteen-year old friend Robert. He and his other cop told me to wait outside. There was a little TV where I could watch the interrogating, and I could hear them too. "So, kid, what happened to your mommy?" he said. Jerry didn't talk. It was like when he first came to the town. "Kid, we are going to ask again. What happened to your mother?" they asked again. Jerry fiddled around with a pen. "Can you tell us on this piece of paper?" they asked, giving him paper. He wrote something and gave them back the piece of paper. "Very well. Stay here." Rob said, and they left the room. "Kayrow, get in there." They said, showing me the paper. It said: I'll only tell Kayrow.
I went into there and sat next to him. After awhile they left to get something to drink, most likely rum, and we could talk. "Jerry, you can tell me anything, ok?" I said. He looked at me. "It was January 28th. It was just me, my mama and my cousin. I was only six years old. My cousin, Ricky, snuck up on me while I lay down on the ground reading. The little bastard thought it would be funny to scare me. He scared me, and my telekinesis powers were used. The thing is, though, is that I didn't mean it. Honest! See, I can't control my powers. I tried my hardest that day, but it failed. Anyway, she was flung to the wall, and her neck snapped. She died in the ambulance." He said. I looked at him, because I know realized one thing: things would be different because of a police officer.
We usually spent a lot of our time trying to figure out what to do now that at any moment the police could come and take us away. We often spent time in the mine shaft. One day I told Jerry to go into there, and I would keep watch. Jerry fell asleep in there, and I dozed off a bit too. After a while I heard large footsteps. I immediately covered the mine shaft with the poster. The cops saw me and recognized who I was. "She's the one" one of the cops said. The main cop looked at him and said, "Take her to the car." They took me to the car, where another person was, and buckled me in. the other person in the car was Robert. They rolled up the little window, separating us. We couldn't hear them, and they couldn't hear us. "I thought you'd be with them, against Jerry." I said. He looked at me. "I'm with Jerry. I needed to know what happened in order to make sure he stays safe. I'm risking myself, to lose everything, my friends, and my family, everyone to keep this boy safe. I'm thinking of fleeing cross country. What do you say? Will you join me?" he said. "Do my parents know?" I asked. "They know. They said you can go." He said. I answered with one word. "Yes."
I was put into a separate room. They tied me to a chair. "Now kid, I want you to tell me what the boy said." The main cop, who looked older, rugged and meaner, gritted through his teeth. "I don't have to tell you anything. I know how you people work. You take the information you get and kill the person!" I said. Across the table, he smacked his hands onto the table. "I'm going to ask you one more time. Tell me what the boy said or you'll be punished severely." I looked at him. "No, you little son of a bitch!" I spit at him. "Ok then. Get the blindfold and mouth band!" he said to his cop. Lying next to him was a little stove with a gigantic cauldron burning with something sticking out. He took out a large stick, with a gigantic "J" on the end. "I hope you realize that messing with me gets you the wax. Blindfold her now!" he yelled to his other cop. He blindfolded me and put in the mouth band. He rolled my sleeve up, and said, "I hope this reminder will be worth it."
I made grunting noises as the hot wax touched my skin. I could feel the skin burning away, the layers all going one by one. "Ok, I'll tell!" I wailed, and he removed the wax from my skin. I told them everything. "That's all we needed to know. Get her out of here!" he screamed to the other cops. On the way back I was bawling my eyes out. "Kayrow, it's ok. Hot wax kills, I know." I looked at him. "It wasn't the hot wax; I told them what he said. I will do the best I can to keep him safe. But we mustn't tell Jerry. He has to find out on his own."
Robert and I explained to Jerry's grandmother that we had to take him away. She told me she understood. My parents told my school what was happening, and I wouldn't be back for a while. I got packed, said my goodbyes, and left for Jerry's house. I woke him up. "Get up, you're coming with us." I told him. "What, why?" he said. "They're looking for you; Robert and I will keep you safe." I told him. That day we went without stopping, and we stopped at a trading place in New York. We had gotten far, for a day. We had brought stuff to trade, and they let us sleep there because we gave them some coal, so we would be ready for the day ahead. Little did I know something about interrogation would almost single handily ruin everything.
The next morning we woke up early and made our way. Walking was tiring, but trading made out packs lighter, so we could go farther. We got really desperate at around lunch though. We were starving. When no one was looking, we foraged through the fountains for coins, considering we couldn't trade just things likes like coal or meat, you had to trade money, which was difficult for us to get considering no one would buy. We got to Iowa and had enough money for dinner and a motel. We watched some TV at the Motel. "More info given by girl about Mother killed by telekinesis."
"Kayrow... you told?" Jerry said. I looked at him. "I'm sorry, Jerry... it slipped, and I just..." I said. "You know what. I don't need your apology. It won't do any good! I told you a secret that could kill me! I thought I could trust you!" Jerry said, using his telekinesis powers to lift me up. "Jerry, I'm sorry. Maybe we could..." Jerry looked at me. "What 'we'? I'm done! See ya'll later!" Jerry dropped me and walked out the door. I went for the door, tears dwelling in my eyes, when Robert stopped me. "Don't, Kayrow. Just leave him be. He'll come back." I stayed back. When we went to bed that night I couldn't sleep, so I scrapped some money and went to the liquor store across the street. "One glass of beer, please." I said. The bartender gave it to me and I chugged it down. "Bad day, huh?" the bartender said. I nodded slowly. "I lost a friend today." I said. "My name's Conroy. Do you happen to be one supporting a boy named Jerry?" he asked. "I actually am one supporting him. You heard about him?" I asked. "You mean the boy who saw his mother die of a snapped neck? I saw the story on the news in January, and I just finished the report just now." Conroy said. "This boy named Robert and I; we were sneaking him away from the FBI." Conroy looked at me. "Could I join you? I mean, no one comes here anyway. You were my first customer of the month." He said. I agreed and brought him to the motel. He would help us through many hurdles.
Conroy and I walked back to the motel. "Robert, this is Conroy. He said he would help..." I said, noticing the look in Robert's eye as he stared at Conroy. "Robert?" Conroy said. "Conroy?" Robert looked at him. Conroy started arm-hugging Robert. "He was an assistant store clerk at my old campus, good old' Princeton! Robbie worked there for me for 2 years until he got enough to go to university. I see you didn't go to Princeton, though. Which college did you finally pick, Robbie?" Conroy asked. Robert looked at him. "Harvard, sir. My parents wanted me to go 4 years, and they let my family go for just a little bit over than fifty-nine thousand dollars." The next morning we woke up really early, about 5:12 in the morning, because before we went on getting cross country we had to do one minor thing: Get Jerry back.
Robert, Conroy and I walked looking for clues where Jerry could have been. Conroy looked at the ground. "Are those his footprints?" he asked, pointing at some footprints on the ground. I looked at the size. They were size 2. "These are his size!" I said real happy. "Nice job Conroy!" I said and followed the tracks. I was really happy over a clue about finding Jerry. I could hear Robert in the back ground. "She must really love Jerry to risk everything to keep him safe!" Robert said. I didn't care if he was talking about me. I was destined to find Jerry, even if it left us behind schedule.
We ended up going south looking for Jerry. That day we made it to Virginia just following Jerry's tracks. "Man this kid really likes to walk, wouldn't you say?" Conroy said. I nodded. We were all tired. "Can't we just rest? We have been walking for 12 hours straight." Robert told me. "I don't see you dropping!" I said. One state later, the footsteps came to an end at an old restaurant. I walked in and walked up to the waiter. "Have you seen a little boy around here? He has blonde hair and a blue tint in his eyes." I said, looking him straight in the eye. "He left not too long ago. We gave him some food, when he was finished he walked into the bathroom, bastard probably escaped out the window without paying." He said. Man, I wanted to slug that guy. No one calls Jerry a "bastard" with me around. But there wasn't any time for fighting. I went through the men's washroom and looked at the window. Open.
I jumped through the window and saw some more tracks. "This way, guys!" I went, and they followed. Soon we got hungry and gave Robert and Conroy the food and I had none. Soon after it had been 28 minutes before midnight, and I was still going. I was fading in and out of consciousness from lack of water, food and rest. Who could blame me? Imagine your best friend nowhere to be seen, and you care about them so much you'll risk everything. About 32 minutes later, I fell to the ground. I was unconscious.
When I woke, it was morning. It was 7:14 in the morning. Once I had water and something to eat, I got up and we started walking again. We hit a couple of other states, and soon got to Alabama. We walked around, and soon started to see drops of blood on the ground. I got worried, because Jerry's footprints lead to Alabama. I followed the blood drops, and it lead to a bush. I looked into the bushes, and I was both relieved and scared, I saw a major discovery: an unconscious Jerry.
I picked up Jerry. He was covered in blood, his shirt missing, and a jagged scar running down from his neck to his stomach, crossing the diagonal scar. "We have to get him to a doctor! And we have to be fast!" I said, running to a map that was on the ground of the town. The nearest doctor was a mile southward, and Robert, Conroy and I started running. We had to keep Jerry alive, or this whole mission would be worthless. I ran into the doctor, and told them the situation. The nurses took an X-ray of him, and said when he was cut a blade broke and got stuck next to his stomach. "If a surgery isn't performed soon, he won't make it." One of the nurses said. I quickly poured out all of the trading money and gave them to the nurses. "Please, help him." I said, choking back tears. "Please hand him over." The doctor said, as he was listening in the door way. I kissed Jerry's forehead and handed him over.
The nurse came out after about ten minutes. "Is Kayrow Lewis here?" She asked, and I stood up. "We are estimating that this surgery will be six hours long if he is to live, or it will be shorter if he dies on that table." I nodded, feeling a strange feeling. I couldn't remember life before Jerry. Two hours later, just as I was about to doze off, I heard a lot of commotion outside. Robert and Conroy were asleep, and they couldn't hear it. I got up and went to go see what it was. A group of men, woman and children no younger than 9, held up picket signs and shouted things out, but it was hard to hear. In front of them was lead by a boy who looked to be age, holding a picket sign, and shouted what the sign said, and a huge wave of relief washed over me. "Jerry's as innocent as you are! Keep him alive!"
I ran over to the boy. He was standing on the hood of a car. I tapped him on his shoe. He looked down, and jumped off of the car in front of me. "Hi." I said quietly. "Hi." He said back. "I'm Kayrow." I told him. "My name's Alexander. Petey Alexander." He said. "You're a supporter of Jerry, I see." I said. "You mean Jerry Carter, the 7 year old boy being hunted by the FBI because they are either going to do tests on him or kill him? The boy who couldn't control his telekinesis powers and ended up killing his mother by accident, because some idiot scared the shit out of him? Yup, I'm one of the people who think he's innocent, and he didn't mean to kill his mother. It's not his fault, it's the idiots fault. They knew perfectly well that scaring people who can't control their powers always cause a death." I looked at him. "You know, me and two other men, Robert and Conroy, are leading Jerry cross country, and were trying to keep him from the FBI. Would you like to join us?" he looked at me, and asked a question. "I'll go, but only if my family can come."
Petey, his family and I walked into the doctor's office. There was only two hours left, considering I had been at the square with Petey and his rally for two hours, and it was about 3 in the afternoon. I got to meet Petey's family. His mom and dad were nice; two of his sisters didn't talk much while the third sister, who looked to be a sophomore in college, talked to Conroy and Robert. Petey's brother really caught my attention. He was a jerk, often talking about Jerry should just die and that he'll be glad when it happens, so we could all go home. Jerry came out of the doctor's office smiling, and I hugged him. The scar had been stitched up and taken out, just leaving a scar. "The cut healed really fast." I said to myself. As we all walked out, I knew phase two was about to begin. We walked our miles, now it's time to hide.
I didn't know Petey's two sisters and parent's names were, but his older sister's name was Lauren (the sisters and Petey were triplets) and his brother, who was 16, was named Satanas (as much to it being completely ironic, but I'll get to that later). We found a forest, and soon found a manhole in there, a great place for hiding. We had enough food from trading, and we were right next to a lake, so we could always get water. A fallen tree hid us from being seen, so we were beyond safe. That was really how we lived for a month or so. Then food became scarce.
"I'll go out and mine for coal. I'll trade it and get us more food, ok?" I told them, I waited until dark to go out. I walked through the forest and soon saw flash lights. "We have to find the boy, sir! If we don't, he will kill more people than his mom!" They said. I turned and ran, and stepped on a twig, snapping it. They turned their flashlights to me, so I acted like an animal. They walked away, and I darted out of the forest. I got some coal and traded it. I got some food and quickly got back to the others, so I couldn't draw more attention to myself.
"Did the FBI come near you guys?" I asked as soon as I got there. "They walked by, but they didn't see us. After they left Satanas went out to get water." I looked around the hole. That's why he's not here. I thought. Robert looked at me. "You know what I just realized. I realized that Satanas is Spanish for 'Satan'."Rob said, and I nodded. I didn't know that Satanas would do something worthy of me calling him 'Satan'.
We finally decided to get out of hiding, and we kept going cross country. We hoped to get to Washington by at least 2 months, only because we detoured out of our way to get back Jerry. I tried to stay in a good mood, like I always did since we first left. But Satanas would keep complaining that he was tired, or his feet hurt, or all that other stuff that not even a young child didn't complain about! After 5 hours of his whining, I snapped. "Oh, would you shut up already? Jerry is seven and I haven't heard a single complaint out of him!" I barked at Satanas. Satanas mumbled something. It sounded like he said 'So glad I...' but I couldn't get the rest of what he said.
After a month or so of walking, resting, and staying alive, we finally made it to Wyoming. We would have been here long ago, but someone sprained Jerry's ankle (Who kicks someone repeatedly in the ankle while their walking? Satanas does, apparently). Anyway, our plan was almost completed. We planned to march on the Supreme Court and protest that a law to be made that Jerry can't be killed goes into effect. We took a break from walking after awhile and sat next to Jerry. "I can't believe it. You're really risking everything just for me?" I looked at him. Of course I do. You were my first friend." He looked at me, confused. "What do you mean?" he asked me. "All of the girls thought I was insane, just because I liked other things. They like hot pink, I prefer blue. They like makeup, I hate it. They segregated me, and the boys don't usually hang out with girls." Jerry smiled at me. "You were my only friend as well. My parents found out I had telekinesis on my first day of preschool. The raced me home, and I was homeschooled." After awhile Jerry dozed off next to me, and I did as well. About an hour later I was woken up to Jerry screaming. He was in the hands of the FBI. A helicopter dropped down a ladder, and the FBI agent holding Jerry hopped on, and the ladder came closer to the helicopter, and started to leave into the air.
I jumped onto a stone platform just below the disappearing ladder. At the edge I hopped off and grabbed onto the bottom ladder. I held on for dear life as we got higher and higher. I saw the FBI agent climb higher, and climbed after him. I looked down. Robert Conroy, and everyone but one followed the helicopter. I climbed higher and grabbed the FBI agent's ankle. The agent shot a blank at me, and I fell off of the ladder. We must have been about 40 feet up, because I fell a long while. Petey ran and caught me in his arms, and didn't even fall. We watched as the helicopter disappeared.
"Where is Satanas." I asked him. "He refused to follow." Petey said. Robert looked at us. "We won't keep up with them on foot." He said. I looked around and got an idea. I whispered the idea to Petey. He grinned. We looked at Robert. "Got any money?"
We rode our bikes out of the store. After awhile we saw the helicopter. It landed at a headquarters of some sort. It was hidden with huge fences. We climbed them. "I think Satanas climbed here earlier. He does run faster than all of us. We jumped off of the fence to the other side and snuck in within a crowd going in. I saw a man carrying Jerry, and we followed him. We watched from the doorway. They put Jerry into a chair and strapped him down. He is a smart boy, but he did something not so smart. "Kayrow!"
The two FBI agents turned their heads over to us. I saw Satanas by them. "Satanas, what are you doing?" I asked. "Oh my god! You really fell for that trick! "I went to get some water"? Bullshit! I told the FBI to meet up with me in Wyoming. That was so we can all forget about it and just go home!" My cheeks turned red, and fists clenched. Jerry was overly pissed off. He broke out of his chair and jumped onto the floor. "I can die because of you!" he spat out at Satanas through his teeth. "Good!" Satanas yelled at him. Jerry tried to control his powers, but he couldn't. His telekinesis powers lifted Satanas off of the ground, and flung him into the wall. There was a major cracking sound. Satanas neck had snapped in half. The FBI shouted something. "Fry it!"
angel until we meet again. And I have to tell you a secret." He said. I came closer, and he kissed me on the lips. "I love you." He said. "I love you too." I told him. "Forever and always." He started gasping, and then his breathing stopped. He was no longer alive.
Laila and Eric looked at me. "He died?" Eric asked. "Yes, he did, sadly." I said. Laila looked at me. "So who is Grandpa?" Laila asked, watching Debbie walk away. "Your Grandpa is Petey. Satanas died when his neck was snapped." Eric stood up. "Good! He has no heart, giving Jerry away like that!" Eric said angrily. "What are those?" Laila asked. "Those are little bears that Jerry and I made for each other. He had the girl bear and I had the boy bear." I said. "Wait a second. We'll be right back!" Eric said, running across the yard and into the house. They came back out with something in their hands. They placed their things in front of the bears. What I saw brought tears to my eyes: two baby bears.
The End.
I walked out to the grave with the flower and planted it into the soil. I bent over and picked up the picture of me and Jerry, when he was seven and I was twelve. Laila and Eric came over with their golden retriever, Debbie. Eric was eight years old and Laila was seven. "Who's that, grandma?" Laila asked, pointing to me in the picture. I looked at her. "That was me when I was younger." I said to her. "I mean the boy. Is that Grandpa?" she asked. I looked at her. "That's not grandpa. He was my best friend for a short time." Eric looked at me. "What happened?" he asked. I looked at them, and grabbed a stool and sat down. They sat down in the grass, with their dog in between them sitting. "Get comfortable. This will take a while."
As I explained to Laila and Eric the story, I could remember every single thing that happened at this point. I mean who could blame me? It was practically burnt into my memory like music onto a disk. No matter what I did, it always came back to me. All I could ever think of was Jerry
It was a sunny day in April, April 27th to be exact, when a new boy came to our quiet town of Abbot, Maine. He was about seven years old, with blonde hair and light blue eyes. For a kid his age he was skinny. He came with only his grandmother, who was probably no older than seventy-eight. I noticed he was kind of quiet, not really talking to the kids on our street. Every day when I walked back home I noticed he was having trouble with his bicycle. One day on June 20th, a week before my last day of fifth grade, I finally went over to him, something I will never regret.
"Hi there." I said to him. He looked at me. "I really like your bike." I said, and he flashed me a smile. "I'm Kayrow." I told him. He looked at me, sitting on his bike. "I'm Jerry." He said, putting on his helmet. He started pedaling, but soon the bike toppled over. I caught him before he hit the pavement. He looked up at me, and I smiled. "I can help you out, if you want." I said, and he took it. As he pedaled, I held onto the bike. After a while I let go, and he started pedaling faster. "You're pedaling on your own!" I exclaimed happily. He got off of his bike and hugged me. It was the start of a great friendship.
Jerry and I always hung out after that. He even came to my twelfth birthday. "Say cheese!" I said, putting a camera in front of us, while we were sitting on the broken fountain in my backyard. I snapped the picture, and Jerry and I secretly went to the hill behind our street with towels. We laid our things on the ground and lied there, looking at the sky. We lay down next to each other, talking.
"So, do you just live with your grandma?" I asked. "I didn't always. I never had a father, but I did have a mama." He said. "What happened to her?" I asked. "She... passed on... in January." He said, getting an unpleasant look on his face. I wanted to know what happened, but I knew the situation made him uncomfortable, so I stayed away from it as best I could.
We started talking about other things. We found out we had many things in common; we both had birthdays in February, we both loved grapes, our favorite numbers were odd numbers and we both had some sort of scar.
"I was trying to get something off of the top shelf in my basement, and I slipped and hit a nail." Jerry said, lifting his shirt to show the scar. It was a pretty big scar; I had to admit, it was going diagonally across his body from his chest to the bottom of his stomach. "I got this scar when my cousin wanted to play mumble the peg." I said, taking my shoe off and showing the scar, which was like a four-way, cutting my foot from the start of my leg to my toes, then horizontally from one side to another. "That must have hurt." Jerry said. "I'm used to pain. We used to work at a farm a couple years back. I worked the bulls." I said. We lay there together and soon we dozed off. It was a great afternoon.
I remember one time when we snuck into the woods in July of that summer. The woods were a place surrounded by plenty of houses, and no one was permitted into going there. Jerry looked out to it while we stood on the hill. "I'd really like to go into there." He said. I looked at him. "We can't. We used to, but over-hunting animals became a problem." I told him. He then turned to me. "So we have to be punished? I'd like to see some of the animals in that forest." He said, smirking. I knew that look. He had a mischievous look on his face. A plan. He took me to the back of the drug store by the forest and set out the plan. We waited for nightfall. When all of the lights in the houses went out, we snuck to the forest with our stuff (helmets, flashlights, etc.). We had told our parents/grandparents we would be sleeping over at each other's house. We went into the forest, and were greeted by animals, like deer, beavers, and many other animals. We ventured forth into the woods. We soon got lost and the batteries were dying. But Jerry had smart thinking, and he had made a trail along the way, so because of Jerry, we had gotten out of the forest. And no one found out.
There was one time just two weeks later which was probably our favorite moment. It was when we found hidden mine shafts in his basement. We found them while looking for some slabs of wood for the fire place. I looked around a poster and saw a little bit of light. "Jerry, come over here." I said to him. Yes, Kayrow?" he said. "There's something behind the poster." I told him, taking the poster down carefully, considering this isn't my house. "It's an old mine shaft!" Jerry said. He started climbing inside of it. "Come on, Kayrow." He said. I shrugged, smiled and grabbed a hammer and went into the mineshaft. We explored it a bit and saw some black rocks. "Coal!" we yelled, and used the hammer to our best ability to get it out. After sometime, it finally came out and we searched the mine shaft a bit more. We looked a bit and found a small opening in the top. I lifted Jerry to the top, and he told me what he saw. "It's not much, let's get back before people see us." He said, and I put him down. We didn't have much trouble getting back. We came back, found the slabs of woods, put the poster back, and went up. She was pleased, and didn't ask about the coal. We had a great fire burning that night.
I was just walking past a newspaper stand when I saw something interesting on the front page. I bought a copy and read the story. The title was enough to get me to read:
Mother Killed after neck snapped from supposed "telekinesis".
That was sounded really interesting and I read on a bit. I saw a picture of a distressed old lady, and I looked closer and realized something: it was Jerry's grandmother. I read the interview with his grandmother. "My grandson Jerry was there when it happened. He witnessed his mother die in the ambulance." She said. I quickly turned and ran for Jerry. I ran out into traffic, and didn't notice until the truck came at full speed honking his horn.
I stopped and put my arms over my head, expecting to be flung onto a passing car, but that didn't happen. The truck was spun around, blocking cars. I tried to get away and see Jerry, but I was trapped by cars that piled up to make a triangle. I looked around, and saw a small way to get out, which was then totaled by a car crashing in that exact spot. "Think, Kayrow, think!" I said, banging my head with my hands. I then looked at one of the cars, noticing that one of the cars was able to jump onto. I quickly jumped onto the car, hopped off, and made my way back for Jerry.
I ran into Jerry's house. Jerry was reading a book next to his fireplace. "Jerry, do you know about this?" I said, pointing at the paper. He quickly grabbed the paper and looked at it. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" he said. He quickly grabbed a backpack and started filling it. "I have to go into hiding!" he said. I had no clue what he was talking about. "Why?" I asked. "You don't understand! If they find this soon, I'm done for!" he yelled. He looked so stressed. It wasn't usual to see him like this. He wasn't the hyperventilation type. He darted to his room, and started filling stuff in it. I had no clue what was going to happen, but from the sound of it, it was going to be bad. And I was right. A few minutes later, as he looked for a little bear he made for me, cops started piling into the house, and took me and Jerry to an interrogation room across the town. The last thing I saw in that house was my bear.
It was very tense. I knew the assistant cop interrogating Jerry. It was my Brother Steven's nineteen-year old friend Robert. He and his other cop told me to wait outside. There was a little TV where I could watch the interrogating, and I could hear them too. "So, kid, what happened to your mommy?" he said. Jerry didn't talk. It was like when he first came to the town. "Kid, we are going to ask again. What happened to your mother?" they asked again. Jerry fiddled around with a pen. "Can you tell us on this piece of paper?" they asked, giving him paper. He wrote something and gave them back the piece of paper. "Very well. Stay here." Rob said, and they left the room. "Kayrow, get in there." They said, showing me the paper. It said: I'll only tell Kayrow.
I went into there and sat next to him. After awhile they left to get something to drink, most likely rum, and we could talk. "Jerry, you can tell me anything, ok?" I said. He looked at me. "It was January 28th. It was just me, my mama and my cousin. I was only six years old. My cousin, Ricky, snuck up on me while I lay down on the ground reading. The little bastard thought it would be funny to scare me. He scared me, and my telekinesis powers were used. The thing is, though, is that I didn't mean it. Honest! See, I can't control my powers. I tried my hardest that day, but it failed. Anyway, she was flung to the wall, and her neck snapped. She died in the ambulance." He said. I looked at him, because I know realized one thing: things would be different because of a police officer.
We usually spent a lot of our time trying to figure out what to do now that at any moment the police could come and take us away. We often spent time in the mine shaft. One day I told Jerry to go into there, and I would keep watch. Jerry fell asleep in there, and I dozed off a bit too. After a while I heard large footsteps. I immediately covered the mine shaft with the poster. The cops saw me and recognized who I was. "She's the one" one of the cops said. The main cop looked at him and said, "Take her to the car." They took me to the car, where another person was, and buckled me in. the other person in the car was Robert. They rolled up the little window, separating us. We couldn't hear them, and they couldn't hear us. "I thought you'd be with them, against Jerry." I said. He looked at me. "I'm with Jerry. I needed to know what happened in order to make sure he stays safe. I'm risking myself, to lose everything, my friends, and my family, everyone to keep this boy safe. I'm thinking of fleeing cross country. What do you say? Will you join me?" he said. "Do my parents know?" I asked. "They know. They said you can go." He said. I answered with one word. "Yes."
I was put into a separate room. They tied me to a chair. "Now kid, I want you to tell me what the boy said." The main cop, who looked older, rugged and meaner, gritted through his teeth. "I don't have to tell you anything. I know how you people work. You take the information you get and kill the person!" I said. Across the table, he smacked his hands onto the table. "I'm going to ask you one more time. Tell me what the boy said or you'll be punished severely." I looked at him. "No, you little son of a bitch!" I spit at him. "Ok then. Get the blindfold and mouth band!" he said to his cop. Lying next to him was a little stove with a gigantic cauldron burning with something sticking out. He took out a large stick, with a gigantic "J" on the end. "I hope you realize that messing with me gets you the wax. Blindfold her now!" he yelled to his other cop. He blindfolded me and put in the mouth band. He rolled my sleeve up, and said, "I hope this reminder will be worth it."
I made grunting noises as the hot wax touched my skin. I could feel the skin burning away, the layers all going one by one. "Ok, I'll tell!" I wailed, and he removed the wax from my skin. I told them everything. "That's all we needed to know. Get her out of here!" he screamed to the other cops. On the way back I was bawling my eyes out. "Kayrow, it's ok. Hot wax kills, I know." I looked at him. "It wasn't the hot wax; I told them what he said. I will do the best I can to keep him safe. But we mustn't tell Jerry. He has to find out on his own."
Robert and I explained to Jerry's grandmother that we had to take him away. She told me she understood. My parents told my school what was happening, and I wouldn't be back for a while. I got packed, said my goodbyes, and left for Jerry's house. I woke him up. "Get up, you're coming with us." I told him. "What, why?" he said. "They're looking for you; Robert and I will keep you safe." I told him. That day we went without stopping, and we stopped at a trading place in New York. We had gotten far, for a day. We had brought stuff to trade, and they let us sleep there because we gave them some coal, so we would be ready for the day ahead. Little did I know something about interrogation would almost single handily ruin everything.
The next morning we woke up early and made our way. Walking was tiring, but trading made out packs lighter, so we could go farther. We got really desperate at around lunch though. We were starving. When no one was looking, we foraged through the fountains for coins, considering we couldn't trade just things likes like coal or meat, you had to trade money, which was difficult for us to get considering no one would buy. We got to Iowa and had enough money for dinner and a motel. We watched some TV at the Motel. "More info given by girl about Mother killed by telekinesis."
"Kayrow... you told?" Jerry said. I looked at him. "I'm sorry, Jerry... it slipped, and I just..." I said. "You know what. I don't need your apology. It won't do any good! I told you a secret that could kill me! I thought I could trust you!" Jerry said, using his telekinesis powers to lift me up. "Jerry, I'm sorry. Maybe we could..." Jerry looked at me. "What 'we'? I'm done! See ya'll later!" Jerry dropped me and walked out the door. I went for the door, tears dwelling in my eyes, when Robert stopped me. "Don't, Kayrow. Just leave him be. He'll come back." I stayed back. When we went to bed that night I couldn't sleep, so I scrapped some money and went to the liquor store across the street. "One glass of beer, please." I said. The bartender gave it to me and I chugged it down. "Bad day, huh?" the bartender said. I nodded slowly. "I lost a friend today." I said. "My name's Conroy. Do you happen to be one supporting a boy named Jerry?" he asked. "I actually am one supporting him. You heard about him?" I asked. "You mean the boy who saw his mother die of a snapped neck? I saw the story on the news in January, and I just finished the report just now." Conroy said. "This boy named Robert and I; we were sneaking him away from the FBI." Conroy looked at me. "Could I join you? I mean, no one comes here anyway. You were my first customer of the month." He said. I agreed and brought him to the motel. He would help us through many hurdles.
Conroy and I walked back to the motel. "Robert, this is Conroy. He said he would help..." I said, noticing the look in Robert's eye as he stared at Conroy. "Robert?" Conroy said. "Conroy?" Robert looked at him. Conroy started arm-hugging Robert. "He was an assistant store clerk at my old campus, good old' Princeton! Robbie worked there for me for 2 years until he got enough to go to university. I see you didn't go to Princeton, though. Which college did you finally pick, Robbie?" Conroy asked. Robert looked at him. "Harvard, sir. My parents wanted me to go 4 years, and they let my family go for just a little bit over than fifty-nine thousand dollars." The next morning we woke up really early, about 5:12 in the morning, because before we went on getting cross country we had to do one minor thing: Get Jerry back.
Robert, Conroy and I walked looking for clues where Jerry could have been. Conroy looked at the ground. "Are those his footprints?" he asked, pointing at some footprints on the ground. I looked at the size. They were size 2. "These are his size!" I said real happy. "Nice job Conroy!" I said and followed the tracks. I was really happy over a clue about finding Jerry. I could hear Robert in the back ground. "She must really love Jerry to risk everything to keep him safe!" Robert said. I didn't care if he was talking about me. I was destined to find Jerry, even if it left us behind schedule.
We ended up going south looking for Jerry. That day we made it to Virginia just following Jerry's tracks. "Man this kid really likes to walk, wouldn't you say?" Conroy said. I nodded. We were all tired. "Can't we just rest? We have been walking for 12 hours straight." Robert told me. "I don't see you dropping!" I said. One state later, the footsteps came to an end at an old restaurant. I walked in and walked up to the waiter. "Have you seen a little boy around here? He has blonde hair and a blue tint in his eyes." I said, looking him straight in the eye. "He left not too long ago. We gave him some food, when he was finished he walked into the bathroom, bastard probably escaped out the window without paying." He said. Man, I wanted to slug that guy. No one calls Jerry a "bastard" with me around. But there wasn't any time for fighting. I went through the men's washroom and looked at the window. Open.
I jumped through the window and saw some more tracks. "This way, guys!" I went, and they followed. Soon we got hungry and gave Robert and Conroy the food and I had none. Soon after it had been 28 minutes before midnight, and I was still going. I was fading in and out of consciousness from lack of water, food and rest. Who could blame me? Imagine your best friend nowhere to be seen, and you care about them so much you'll risk everything. About 32 minutes later, I fell to the ground. I was unconscious.
When I woke, it was morning. It was 7:14 in the morning. Once I had water and something to eat, I got up and we started walking again. We hit a couple of other states, and soon got to Alabama. We walked around, and soon started to see drops of blood on the ground. I got worried, because Jerry's footprints lead to Alabama. I followed the blood drops, and it lead to a bush. I looked into the bushes, and I was both relieved and scared, I saw a major discovery: an unconscious Jerry.
I picked up Jerry. He was covered in blood, his shirt missing, and a jagged scar running down from his neck to his stomach, crossing the diagonal scar. "We have to get him to a doctor! And we have to be fast!" I said, running to a map that was on the ground of the town. The nearest doctor was a mile southward, and Robert, Conroy and I started running. We had to keep Jerry alive, or this whole mission would be worthless. I ran into the doctor, and told them the situation. The nurses took an X-ray of him, and said when he was cut a blade broke and got stuck next to his stomach. "If a surgery isn't performed soon, he won't make it." One of the nurses said. I quickly poured out all of the trading money and gave them to the nurses. "Please, help him." I said, choking back tears. "Please hand him over." The doctor said, as he was listening in the door way. I kissed Jerry's forehead and handed him over.
The nurse came out after about ten minutes. "Is Kayrow Lewis here?" She asked, and I stood up. "We are estimating that this surgery will be six hours long if he is to live, or it will be shorter if he dies on that table." I nodded, feeling a strange feeling. I couldn't remember life before Jerry. Two hours later, just as I was about to doze off, I heard a lot of commotion outside. Robert and Conroy were asleep, and they couldn't hear it. I got up and went to go see what it was. A group of men, woman and children no younger than 9, held up picket signs and shouted things out, but it was hard to hear. In front of them was lead by a boy who looked to be age, holding a picket sign, and shouted what the sign said, and a huge wave of relief washed over me. "Jerry's as innocent as you are! Keep him alive!"
I ran over to the boy. He was standing on the hood of a car. I tapped him on his shoe. He looked down, and jumped off of the car in front of me. "Hi." I said quietly. "Hi." He said back. "I'm Kayrow." I told him. "My name's Alexander. Petey Alexander." He said. "You're a supporter of Jerry, I see." I said. "You mean Jerry Carter, the 7 year old boy being hunted by the FBI because they are either going to do tests on him or kill him? The boy who couldn't control his telekinesis powers and ended up killing his mother by accident, because some idiot scared the shit out of him? Yup, I'm one of the people who think he's innocent, and he didn't mean to kill his mother. It's not his fault, it's the idiots fault. They knew perfectly well that scaring people who can't control their powers always cause a death." I looked at him. "You know, me and two other men, Robert and Conroy, are leading Jerry cross country, and were trying to keep him from the FBI. Would you like to join us?" he looked at me, and asked a question. "I'll go, but only if my family can come."
Petey, his family and I walked into the doctor's office. There was only two hours left, considering I had been at the square with Petey and his rally for two hours, and it was about 3 in the afternoon. I got to meet Petey's family. His mom and dad were nice; two of his sisters didn't talk much while the third sister, who looked to be a sophomore in college, talked to Conroy and Robert. Petey's brother really caught my attention. He was a jerk, often talking about Jerry should just die and that he'll be glad when it happens, so we could all go home. Jerry came out of the doctor's office smiling, and I hugged him. The scar had been stitched up and taken out, just leaving a scar. "The cut healed really fast." I said to myself. As we all walked out, I knew phase two was about to begin. We walked our miles, now it's time to hide.
I didn't know Petey's two sisters and parent's names were, but his older sister's name was Lauren (the sisters and Petey were triplets) and his brother, who was 16, was named Satanas (as much to it being completely ironic, but I'll get to that later). We found a forest, and soon found a manhole in there, a great place for hiding. We had enough food from trading, and we were right next to a lake, so we could always get water. A fallen tree hid us from being seen, so we were beyond safe. That was really how we lived for a month or so. Then food became scarce.
"I'll go out and mine for coal. I'll trade it and get us more food, ok?" I told them, I waited until dark to go out. I walked through the forest and soon saw flash lights. "We have to find the boy, sir! If we don't, he will kill more people than his mom!" They said. I turned and ran, and stepped on a twig, snapping it. They turned their flashlights to me, so I acted like an animal. They walked away, and I darted out of the forest. I got some coal and traded it. I got some food and quickly got back to the others, so I couldn't draw more attention to myself.
"Did the FBI come near you guys?" I asked as soon as I got there. "They walked by, but they didn't see us. After they left Satanas went out to get water." I looked around the hole. That's why he's not here. I thought. Robert looked at me. "You know what I just realized. I realized that Satanas is Spanish for 'Satan'."Rob said, and I nodded. I didn't know that Satanas would do something worthy of me calling him 'Satan'.
We finally decided to get out of hiding, and we kept going cross country. We hoped to get to Washington by at least 2 months, only because we detoured out of our way to get back Jerry. I tried to stay in a good mood, like I always did since we first left. But Satanas would keep complaining that he was tired, or his feet hurt, or all that other stuff that not even a young child didn't complain about! After 5 hours of his whining, I snapped. "Oh, would you shut up already? Jerry is seven and I haven't heard a single complaint out of him!" I barked at Satanas. Satanas mumbled something. It sounded like he said 'So glad I...' but I couldn't get the rest of what he said.
After a month or so of walking, resting, and staying alive, we finally made it to Wyoming. We would have been here long ago, but someone sprained Jerry's ankle (Who kicks someone repeatedly in the ankle while their walking? Satanas does, apparently). Anyway, our plan was almost completed. We planned to march on the Supreme Court and protest that a law to be made that Jerry can't be killed goes into effect. We took a break from walking after awhile and sat next to Jerry. "I can't believe it. You're really risking everything just for me?" I looked at him. Of course I do. You were my first friend." He looked at me, confused. "What do you mean?" he asked me. "All of the girls thought I was insane, just because I liked other things. They like hot pink, I prefer blue. They like makeup, I hate it. They segregated me, and the boys don't usually hang out with girls." Jerry smiled at me. "You were my only friend as well. My parents found out I had telekinesis on my first day of preschool. The raced me home, and I was homeschooled." After awhile Jerry dozed off next to me, and I did as well. About an hour later I was woken up to Jerry screaming. He was in the hands of the FBI. A helicopter dropped down a ladder, and the FBI agent holding Jerry hopped on, and the ladder came closer to the helicopter, and started to leave into the air.
I jumped onto a stone platform just below the disappearing ladder. At the edge I hopped off and grabbed onto the bottom ladder. I held on for dear life as we got higher and higher. I saw the FBI agent climb higher, and climbed after him. I looked down. Robert Conroy, and everyone but one followed the helicopter. I climbed higher and grabbed the FBI agent's ankle. The agent shot a blank at me, and I fell off of the ladder. We must have been about 40 feet up, because I fell a long while. Petey ran and caught me in his arms, and didn't even fall. We watched as the helicopter disappeared.
"Where is Satanas." I asked him. "He refused to follow." Petey said. Robert looked at us. "We won't keep up with them on foot." He said. I looked around and got an idea. I whispered the idea to Petey. He grinned. We looked at Robert. "Got any money?"
We rode our bikes out of the store. After awhile we saw the helicopter. It landed at a headquarters of some sort. It was hidden with huge fences. We climbed them. "I think Satanas climbed here earlier. He does run faster than all of us. We jumped off of the fence to the other side and snuck in within a crowd going in. I saw a man carrying Jerry, and we followed him. We watched from the doorway. They put Jerry into a chair and strapped him down. He is a smart boy, but he did something not so smart. "Kayrow!"
The two FBI agents turned their heads over to us. I saw Satanas by them. "Satanas, what are you doing?" I asked. "Oh my god! You really fell for that trick! "I went to get some water"? Bullshit! I told the FBI to meet up with me in Wyoming. That was so we can all forget about it and just go home!" My cheeks turned red, and fists clenched. Jerry was overly pissed off. He broke out of his chair and jumped onto the floor. "I can die because of you!" he spat out at Satanas through his teeth. "Good!" Satanas yelled at him. Jerry tried to control his powers, but he couldn't. His telekinesis powers lifted Satanas off of the ground, and flung him into the wall. There was a major cracking sound. Satanas neck had snapped in half. The FBI shouted something. "Fry it!"
angel until we meet again. And I have to tell you a secret." He said. I came closer, and he kissed me on the lips. "I love you." He said. "I love you too." I told him. "Forever and always." He started gasping, and then his breathing stopped. He was no longer alive.
Laila and Eric looked at me. "He died?" Eric asked. "Yes, he did, sadly." I said. Laila looked at me. "So who is Grandpa?" Laila asked, watching Debbie walk away. "Your Grandpa is Petey. Satanas died when his neck was snapped." Eric stood up. "Good! He has no heart, giving Jerry away like that!" Eric said angrily. "What are those?" Laila asked. "Those are little bears that Jerry and I made for each other. He had the girl bear and I had the boy bear." I said. "Wait a second. We'll be right back!" Eric said, running across the yard and into the house. They came back out with something in their hands. They placed their things in front of the bears. What I saw brought tears to my eyes: two baby bears.
The End.