I Was A Spoiled Brat

I asked my mom “what’s wrong,” she replied with a sorrowful “your Aunt Lisa is in trouble, we must leave now.” The worst part of all of this was my Aunt Lisa’s son was with us, Matthew. He did not know what to think or believe. No one knew the world would slowly start shattering beneath all of us that morning. We drove to her house, we saw ambulances and police cars driving by, that did not help our nerves at all. We finally arrived at her apartment, we never thought all of those emergency vehicles would be going there. My brother and I stay in the car since I was only eight and he was only eleven. My mom and cousin run into the apartment hoping to only find my Aunt had fallen and is unconscious, or she is passed out drunk, just let it be something that is not permanent. What they come to find is that my Aunt is laying on the floor, unconscious, but cold as ice. It was not from someone killing her, or us getting there too late. She had died twenty-four minutes before that phone

It was Wednesday morning, 6:30am, and yes I had to go to school. I remember calling and begging, asking if I could take the day off, but mom wasn’t having any of it, so I had to get ready. The pain was gone, which I was fortunate about, but I still felt ill. I hopped into the shower, washed up, and when I got out I collapsed. White light again, but this time it was all I could see. I closed my eyes. I was on the floor, unable to move. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally opened my eyes. I went straight to my bed, and fell asleep. I woke up a mess, and felt worse than before. I looked at my phone, and saw at least six hundred missed called from mom. I called her, fearing for what was to come. “WHERE ARE YOU? WHY DIDN’T YOU GO TO SCHOOL?” She screamed. “I’m at home. I didn’t go to school because I feel worse than before. I really need to go to the hospital.” I whimpered. She told me that we’ll go when she comes back from work, and I agreed. Back to sleep I went. I wake up to my mom rushing into my room. She signaled to get ready by moving her head quickly forty-five degrees to the left. I got ready to leave, and we left at around

Five minutes left of my safe haven. Which means ten minutes until I come back to reality. Ten minutes until I see my father. RING! Sounded the bell, breaking me from my nightmare. I gathered my books and put on my sunglasses. I walked out of the school feeling nauseous. I walked the short distance to my house. My hand shook against the door knob. I turned it, checking to see if it was locked. It was open, so I walked straight in. It was quiet. Too quiet. I walked around looking for my father. I checked the couch, not there. I checked him and my "mothers" room, not there. I let a smile break out on my face. I took a shower, which was very rare. Showers for me are about as common as breakfast in the morning, and breakfast is not common. I got out the shower and dried off. I put on a pair of boxers and shorts and got in my bed. I lied there and thought about the times before my step father. My mom an I were so close. I began to fall asleep as all these thought flooded my mind, and before I know it, I was out cold. I slept for what felt like mere minutes before a cold, hateful voice awoke

“Mom, please help!” I shouted through the house. Through the eyes of a ten year old getting ready for school, I hear my father gasping for air, I ran to his aid in panic. Discovering him in sweat and discomfort, I watched him in terror clutching his hand so tight in a fist across his chest dissolving in pressure and pain. My mother getting ready for another long day of work and my two older brothers already gone for school, I felt all alone. I acted quickly trying to do as much as a ten year old knew how to but, I soon realized it was out of my hands the body covered in sweat with hands that were clenched a second ago went limp his forehead and gaze felt cold and vanished . I lost my father. I felt helpless as my mother called 911 for help. I laid next to my father and promised that I never want to feel this helpless again.

It was cold on the night of November 14th. My friend, her boyfriend and I were walking to Walmart, planning on getting cake ingredients for my friend’s grandmother’s birthday. On our way there my surroundings seemed rather quiet for it being Angola. I felt like something was wrong like something had happened. But I continued to toss the feeling aside and just walked the path that leads to the parking lot. I couldn’t help but look in between the trees that held pitch black darkness. I was worried that was where troubles may lie, I was wrong. My real problem all started with a simple phone call.

It happened after school on June 8th, 2011, a Wednesday. There were no clouds in the sky and the sun was blazing. It was so hot that our neighbors were swimming in an inflatable pool in front of the apartment. I was inside watching them and I wanted to go swimming as well, but our neighbors didn’t like us. Our mother and father wanted us to do it, probably because they wanted to do drugs like they used to, or still do. I don’t know. I still don’t understand why they did drugs. I stopped watching because it was like torture. Minutes later the cops came in and said that we had to leave. I was struggling not to cry, but I couldn’t help it. I burst into tears and hugged my father for unbeknownst to me, the last time ever. I don’t even remember saying anything to my mother. This doesn’t make sense to me because my father did a lot worse things to me than my mother. We were then put into a grey van and driven to our new house, which turned out to be our forever

Claire and I had just come home after tennis practice. When we walked into our apartment we saw that our mom had made a huge fancy meal for us, and I had a small feeling that something was up. My mom looked at me with eyes that looked somehow guilty, but everything seemed fine I guess. After we finished eating we were very tired, so Claire and I went to our separate rooms. Not long after laying down, my dad came in and told me we needed to talk about something. He wanted to talk to me and Claire separately, so we walked downstairs to a private community room in our apartment. He had never done this before and I didn’t know what was wrong, so my heart began pounding loudly in my chest. When I sat down and he told me the news, the pounding stopped. My heart sank. He said that our family couldn’t afford to go to Cathedral anymore, so my sister and I would have to switch schools and attend Sartell High School that year. I walked upstairs slowly afterwards and fell on the floor in my room. I stared at the ceiling waiting for Claire to be told. I don’t think I really believed what my father said to me at the time. I tried not to think. I just

This one night everything seemed to be normal my dad made dinner, my mom got stuck with the dishes. I came out of my room right before I went to bed and I saw my dad sitting at the glass table that is on our porch in the backyard. I went out to see what he was doing and he was smoking a vanilla cuban cigar, my mom came and took me to bed. Little did I know in a few hours every memory in the house was not going to compare to this one. My mom ran into mine and my sisters rooms telling us we needed to get up, I asked her many times “what's happening”

Coming off the bus from my first full week of middle school, I vividly remember the abnormal absence of cars in the driveway. Using the spare key under the “welcome” mat, I opened the door only to find an empty house with the lights still on, TV running, and cold leftovers. As an eleven year-old coming home to an unusually vacant house, panic flooded my body. Immediately, I sprinted to the home phone and frantically dialed my mother. The dissonance rings that followed as I hit the call button seemed to last a lifetime; my breath drew still as those consistent buzzes stopped and my mother's comforting voice answered “hello”. The pounding in my chest ceased, yet worry still overpowered my conscience. She explained that she and my father had to abruptly leave to

I remember being on a math class when I received a text saying I was soon going to receive an emergency call. The worst things cross my mind but nothing could ever prepare me to hear what I did. My mother called saying that my sister was under ICU because her former flu had become an odd illness in her lungs. My thoughts immediately went to my father. My younger sister had always been so close to him and I couldn’t even imagine how destroyed he might’ve felt. I was taken to a waiting room at the hospital my sister was in. The moment I arrived, I saw my father pacing back and forth from the bathroom to a chair. He was neither crying or sad but he did seem desperate as if his life was on the verge of being taken away and he was barely holding

April 20 at 6:00 pm, I had just finished cleaning my classroom at work when I looked outside and saw a Rotor-Rooter van in the parking lot. I looked closer, it was my dad’s work van. I was very confused, it was not my dad’s weekend and there were no plans of him coming over, that I knew of. I knew something was wrong, he never just comes and picks me up from work, unless it is his weekend. I hurried up and clocked out. The moment I got into his work van and looked at him, his eyes were bloodshot, watery, and buffy. I asked, “What happened?”

The sunlight beamed through my window, waking me up to the sound of birds chirping in the tree outside. It felt just like any other morning to my happy ten-year-old self. Three days had passed since Christmas, and I was still relishing my new presents and Christmas break. As I entered into my living room, my brother Corbin was watching TV and who snuggled up in his favorite brown blanket. I made myself comfortable on the floor in front of him, when his phone rang. The call appeared to be my brother's friend since kindergarten, Ulu, who lived in Texas. As they proceeded to talk, I watched Corbin's face fill with confusion and concern. He had called to ask my brother if his best friend and our next door neighbor, Danny, had died. Corbin knew

My parents are like two equally charged magnets pushing each other away. I hear the birds laugh and chatter with each other outside and I am lost in thought. I always space out like this. After we are done with the food we sit down on the couch, all four of us and eat ice cream. Moose tracks. Yes! my favorite, and we watch TV. The 44 minute episode ends. My parents share a small glance, look away and start to talk. With sadness in her eyes my mom says “Kids, you know that we love you very much.”, “yup.” i say, and my stomach is full of rocks. My first thought is that someone died, as I always think when there’s that tone in my mom's voice. “Well, there’s something we need to tell you. This may be difficult.” “ok” i say “Then just tell us.” My brother looks impatiently around the room. “ Um well your dad - uh - tyler is going to be living somewhere else for a while and-” “We’re splitting up.” my dad cuts her off. I feel the earth drop under my feet. My whole entire life i have lived in fear of this moment. This is the worst feeling ever. I am shocked for a small moment and then my feelings come knocking at the front door. I taste a salty waterfall as the news starts sinking in. Then, I see my mom and dad are crying too. This was the first time i had seen my dad cry. All of the sudden, Zak stands up and storms out of the room. I hear a door slam, BANG and i

Phillip became really scared. He panicked and did the first thing that came to mind, which was call the cops. The dispatcher immediately sent out a call to the officers, three cars showed up in my driveway with lights and sirens on. Only my father was home though. He had no idea what was going on when he first saw the lights, he became scared. The first words out of their mouths were, “Is your daughter here? Is your daughter okay?”. My father had no idea how to respond, he was confused. The officer repeated the questions, and my father was able to stutter out the words that I was fine. The officer asked him again if I was home, but my father had to respond that I was not home. The next question was the officer asking my father where I was. I was on the east side of Birmingham at a football game with the band, which clearly implied that I was okay. The officer got onto his radio and got in touch with the Student Resource Officer, Guppy, at the game. He immediately came looking for me, but he could only find one of the band directors. So, he had to tell him what was going on so they could pull me out of the stands. Brandon, one of the band directors, found my mother. Brandon had to explain everything to her about what was going on and why Guppy was looking for me. I saw her almost fall to the ground, she immediately started to cry. At which point, I knew something was going on, and it wasn’t not

A few days went by , me and Karen took shifts staying with dad , I did more job searching , with dad out of work for now someone has to provide. Dad was quiet the whole time , watching the TV and barely eating anything. My leg was better as the days passed , I can walk faster , Karen's poor back was pealing with scabs like crazy . It was dad's last day in the hospital , I tried conversations with him , but nothing , I could not resist anymore. “ Dad , are you sure you don't know who could have done this?” He stared into fear ness again not saying a word. “ I'll be back to bring you home tomorrow .” I was walking out the room when he stopped me . “Mark !” I stopped looking at him , in a serious tone voice he looked at me . “ There's something you need to know .” I