Hated Read online

  “This is a rare find,” the old man murmured. “It’s made out of pure white gold and the etchings on it say ‘secret music, secret box’ over and over in a variety of languages. A young woman had come in and asked me to make it a few years ago.”

  I went in to my wallet and found a picture of my mom when she was younger with some of her friends. The picture was a bit bent from being stuffed in to small compartments from a few years, but you could still see the faces. “Did she look like this?” I asked, pointing to my mom in the picture.

  The old man shook his head and pointed to one of my mother’s friends. “The young woman that came in looked like her,” said the old man. I turned the photo over and tried to read my mother’s handwriting. The writing was a bit smudged but I could make out most of it, it read Maria Santiago.

  “Maria Santiago…no, no that was her maiden name,” said the old man. “When she was married her name became Maria Wilson, she was a good friend of the family. Well, until she was killed a couple years ago in a car crash, and it was on Christmas Day, too.”

  The old man sighed and shook his head. “Both she and her husband were killed and they left four kids behind to be raised by Maria’s parents,” the old man continued, reaching into his own wallet and pulling out a photo of the woman, Maria, and her husband along with the rest of the family. They had one daughter and three sons, and Maria’s parents were in the picture, too. The picture was faded but it was better off then mine, and I could see the faces more clearly.

  One thing that bothered me about the picture was that the daughter looked very familiar to me. I asked, “What is the daughter’s name?”

  The old man looked thoughtful for a moment, then he said, “I can’t remember the name but I could tell you a bit about her if you’d like.”

  I nodded and the old man tried his best to describe her personality. “She was a very strong willed girl, and energetic too. She had said one day when I was over that she had wanted to be a doctor so that she could help people,” said the old man, staring at the photo. “She was very kind and gentle, but a while back her grandparent’s, her brother’s and herself were caught in a tornado. Something had happened in the tornado because she wasn’t the same afterword.”

  Now the daughter was getting more and more familiar. But I still couldn’t put my finger on who she was. I paid the old man for his time and thanked him for telling me about the daughter, and then I left. But just before I got out the door the old man called me back and gave me a photo of just the daughter. Then he smiled and wished me luck on my search.

  I went back to my bike and thought about the girl. Who was she? Why did her mother give the charm to my mother? And what does the writing mean by ‘Secret music, Secret box’? I knew I had to get away, right now, to some place quiet to think things through. I called my dad and told him I would be late getting home. I didn’t bother to tell him where I was going because I didn’t really know myself. I just kept driving until I came to a cliff that over looked the entire city, and then I sat down and tried to sort things out.

  Chapter 9

  Stephanie Wilson

  Boston 5:20 pm Wednesday February 14th 2029

  “Steph, why are you training down here?” Kevin asked as he came down the stairs to the basement. I stopped hitting the punching bag for a second and grabbed my water and took a swig. Kevin was waiting for me to answer, he had more patience then I did when it came to getting answers.

  “I’m blowing off some steam,” I replied, sitting down and taking another swig of the water. I looked up at him from where I sat. I could see that he had some dried blood on his knuckles and a bruise was starting to form around one of his eyes. “Although it looks as if you’ve already blown off some steam, what happen this time?”

  “I was jumped by a couple guys in an alley on the way home,” he replied, then he smiled, “but I sure taught them a lesson.” Kevin was actually pretty tall for his age and it made him seem older, but when he smiled he looked much younger. I motioned for him to come and sit beside me, and he complied. I gently touched around his face and he closed his eyes.

  I felt a couple of small lumps on his head and face but that was about it. Then I checked his hands, I found that he had broken a finger and sprained another. I smiled; he was getting better at fighting and not hurting himself in the process.

  “You are getting better, brother,” I told him.

  He smiled and said, “Well I have a good teacher.”

  That made me smile and Kevin hugged me close. We sat like that for a little while before Jean called us for dinner. We ate and chatted a bit about our day and other minor things, before we headed to the living room to listen to the radio. We do this to hear about the news and other things, since we can’t afford T.V.

  After we listened to the radio for a while I went to go put Anthony and Andrew to bed. I read them a book and they fell asleep within a short while of me reading. When I finished I quietly left the room and went to join the others in the living room. They were discussing the day’s profits and how much we could keep, and how much we had to give away to work on paying off the debt.

  Just talking about it gets me in a bad mood, and soon I had to go downstairs to get my anger out on the punching bag. I feel horrible dropping this debt on the rest of my family. They shouldn’t have to pay for my mistakes…for my stupidity. I felt tears spring to the corners of my eyes and fought them back, and I hit the punching bag harder. My hands and legs were starting to get really sore from hitting the punching bag.

  Just then my weak leg gave out from underneath me and I fell on to the ground, hard. It was my fault that my family was like this, we could’ve been living happily debt free. But I trusted the wrong person and now I pay the price for it. Good people are so hard to find these days, good and honest people. I just lay on the floor for a while thinking about so many things that I got easily overwhelmed, and I had to get up and get out.

  I trudged up the stairs and walked to the door. My brother, Kevin, saw me but didn’t say anything; instead he just nodded and then looked back to Betty and Jean. I walked out the door and into the cold night air that bit at my cheeks and nose. I walked to the back, grabbed my bike and headed out into the night. I didn’t know where I was going but when I started to pay attention, I saw that I was heading up to the abandoned make-out cliff. I found that I came up here more and more often when I needed to think things through.

  As I arrived I saw some tire tracks and foot prints, someone had been up here recently. I was a little upset, I mean it’s not like I thought I was the only person to come up here, but still I was hoping that I was the only person who knew about it. Just then I heard a noise coming from the brush beside the cliff, at first I thought it was an animal but it sounded a bit big to be an animal.

  I was about to investigate when my pager went off. Great they found out that I was missing. I heaved a sigh and headed back to my bicycle. I took one last look at the brush before I started to head for home. I knew as soon as I stepped in the door that I was in trouble. Betty and Jean didn’t like anyone being out too late because of the gangs that liked to hang out at night. I got a huge lecture in which I tried to look ashamed and sorry for what I had done to them.

  But truthfully I wasn’t, at least not about going out at night. I do it so often that sometimes they don’t even notice I’m gone until I get back. After the lecture I was so tired that I just went to bed. I had worked at the bookstore for a couple hours today but what had really gotten to me was the fact that Antonio was at my school, and he was hanging around with Haley. Yuck!

  I don’t think that he really likes her either. I could tell just by the way he had removed her from his bike. Wait; hadn’t he let me ride his bike? No he hadn’t, I had kind of forced my way on to the bike. I doubt he would let me on again even if I asked. But when I was riding with him on the bike it had felt so natural. So…I don’t know…umm… so accepted, I guess.

  I crawled into bed next to Kevin, and he ro
lled over. His arm came around me and I nestled into his embrace, we are the only ones left…Family sticks together no matter what. Then I felt sleep take me over and I was slowly pulled into the darkness.

  In the morning we did our usual morning routine and then walked to our schools. Kevin, Anthony and Andrew went to the elementary school, which went from grades K-8. Kevin is in grade 8, and Anthony and Andrew are in grade 6 but I am in grade 12 and I go to the high school, which is a bit further away.

  Once I got to the school grounds I saw that Antonio hadn’t gotten there yet. That wasn’t surprising with what had happened yesterday. I smiled to myself, yesterday was very interesting. I looked up just in time to dodge a car that was hurtling towards me. I landed on the sidewalk, scraping my right arm across the pavement. I looked to the car and saw Haley step out of the car along with…Antonio? What was he doing with her? I thought he hated her…I thought he was different. I guess I was wrong about that, too.

  I tried to get up but I was sore all over, and I was dizzy. I think I might have hit my head trying to dodge the car. I heard some footsteps come towards me, I thought it was Charles at first but when I looked at the shoes I knew it wasn’t Charles. I looked up as high as I dared to and saw that it was Antonio. Oh great, just what I needed. I tried to stand up again and got almost all the way up before a wave of dizziness hit, forcing me to go back down.

  However I didn’t land back on the ground like I thought I would, instead I felt someone lift me up by my left arm. I looked to see who it was and saw that Antonio had a grip on my arm. The dizziness started to fade and I was able to stand on my own. I snatched my arm back and stepped away from him. I tried to hide my wounds so that he would not think I’m a weakling, but he saw them and he was not happy.

  “What are you doing?!” Haley shouted, coming up to stand beside Antonio. But she wasn’t talking to him, she was talking to me.

  “Trying to dodge a psychotic bitch, why what are you doing?” I asked her, smiling all the while, she stood there with her mouth agape.

  “Why you…!” Haley seethed, raising her fist. But just as she was about to bring it down on me Antonio grabbed her wrist, and pulled her back.

  “Why did you try to run her over?” Antonio asked his voice was as sharp as ice and just as cold.

  “What do you care, she is just a pest!” Haley exclaimed, trying to pull her hand away. But Antonio had a good grip on it, and gave a warning squeeze to Haley. She winced and stopped pulling.

  “Now, answer the question,” Antonio said, his voice had a dark note to it that sent a shiver through me. I could see Haley swallow hard as she thought. I looked around and saw Charles off to the side staring at the scene along with a bunch of other people who had nothing better to do. I saw Charles signal me to come but when I tried to move Antonio would look down at me with cold, dead eyes, and I would freeze on the spot. Not because I was scared but because I saw something in his eyes that wasn’t suppose to be there, understanding.

  “Well she is…far behind in paying…for her debt,” Haley stumbled, “and I thought a little scare would knock some sense into this selfish, little girl.”

  Now that ticked me off and I could not stop myself from retaliating, “SELFISH!? Look who’s talking! My family can…we can scarcely…” I didn’t want to say what our condition was because then she would just put more pressure on us to pay up. Antonio caught my drift but didn’t ask any questions. The only thing he did was squeeze Haley’s wrist until she cried out in pain, then he let her go and grabbed my arm. I tried to push him away but he squeezed my arm, until I stopped trying to pull away.

  He took me to the nurse’s room in silence. Not really caring about the audience that he had attracted. The halls were pretty much empty except for a couple people at there lockers. Everybody must’ve been outside watching the commotion going on between Haley, Antonio and myself. I glanced up at Antonio from time to time trying to read his expression, but there was almost nothing there to read. By the time we were half way to the nurse’s office I had had enough of the silence and enough of Antonio being with me. It was making me think and feel things I didn’t want to with him.

  “Okay, why did you bother helping me?” I asked ripping my arm from his grip. I rubbed the arm that he had had a hold of; it ached from him squeezing it. I knew I was going to have a bruise there tomorrow.

  “What I’m not allowed to help people?” he asked, surprised by my outburst.

  “People from gangs always want something in return for offering their aid,” I replied through clenched teeth, trying to keep my temper under control.

  “Why do you say this?” Antonio asked confused. What is he confused about? I mean he is part of a gang. Maybe he doesn’t deal with the people who ask for help or who need it.

  “Experience,” I muttered and started to walk away.

  “Why do you keep comparing me to the other gangs?” Antonio asked, I stopped and turned around. “Can’t I just be myself without having a label?” Antonio sounded sad and he had this very odd expression on his face.

  “Well if you want me to consider you separate from the other gangs you’re going to have to prove to me that you deserve it,” I replied. I walked the rest of the way to nurse’s office on my own, leaving Antonio to think about what I’d said.

  I knew the nurse because I came to her office pretty much every day, with either a wound of my own or a wounded person who couldn’t walk. The nurse’s name was Isabella, and she was happily married with a baby on the way.

  I walked into the office and Isabella looked up from reading the newspaper. She looked surprised to see me, but she smiled. We both enjoyed each other’s company even if it wasn’t under the best of circumstances.

  “What are you doing here so early in the morning?” Isabella asked. “Stopping by to say hi?”

  “I wish that were why I was here,” I replied, and I held out my right arm. Isabella got up and came around her desk to look at my arm. My arm had started bleeding a little while ago and I could see some of my skin had peeled off. As Isabella was looking me over she found a scrape on my head. I had suspected that I had hit my head but I didn’t think that there would be a scrape where I had hit the ground. I had thought there would be a bruise.

  “Oh dear, what happened that made you get these?” Isabella asked as she went to the back room to grab some stuff.

  “I dodged getting hit by a car,” I answered, going to sit on a bed in one of the rooms that was in the office.

  “Who tried to run you over?” Isabella questioned in shock.

  “Haley Williams,” I told her. Isabella got out of her state of shock and went straight to being angry.

  “I didn’t think that she would go as far as to try to run you over,” Isabella muttered, and started to disinfect my arm. When she disinfected my arm it really stung, and I had to grind my teeth so as not to cry out but a whimper did escape my lips. Isabella wrapped my arm up and then disinfected the scratch on the side of my face, but she didn’t put a bandage on it.

  “I insist that you stay here for your first class,” Isabella said firmly. I knew there was no point in arguing with her so I just nodded. When she left the room I laid back and tried to rest. I must’ve dozed off because Isabella came in and woke me up.

  “There is a young man who wishes to see you, may he come in?” she asked.

  Groggily I sat up on my elbows and asked, “Who is it?”

  Isabella stepped aside and Antonio walked into the doorway. Uh oh, why is he here? When I looked to Isabella for help, I saw that she was smiling at me.

  “Well, I have some paperwork that needs to be filed,” Isabella said, shuffling towards the door. “I’ll come back and check on you guys later, bye.” Isabella shut the door behind her as she left, not even giving me a chance to protest. I turned to look at Antonio he had grabbed a chair and was now sitting down beside the bed on the chair.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked him annoyed.

  “I wante
d to make sure you were alright,” he answered simply, looking at my bandaged arm.

  “I’m fine,” I replied my voice guarded, I didn’t know how long I’d been out for. I looked around the room but I couldn’t find a single clock, so I asked, “What time is it?”

  “Its lunch time,” Antonio replied, not bothering to look at his watch. I felt my mouth drop as this new knowledge sunk in. I’ve been out for about two and a half hours. I’ve missed both of my first two classes, this was not good. I thought Isabella would wake me up so that I could go to my second class. I wanted to miss as few classes as possible because I hated being behind in work. I closed my mouth only to find myself grinding my teeth, nervously.

  I got up to a sitting position with some effort because my joints and muscles were stiff and sore. Antonio didn’t offer any help which I was glad for. Although I did catch a flash of something on his face, but it disappeared before I could decipher what it was. What I did next was completely on impulse.

  I really didn’t mean to do it and I don’t know why I did, but I asked, “Are you okay?”

  Just then he looked like a deer caught in headlights, clearly startled by my question. He nodded mutely. I knew he was lying since I could see the raw marks on his face. I reached out slowly and carefully felt around the marks. Antonio (still in shock I think) didn’t move at all. When he finally came to his senses I also came to mine and pulled my hand away.

  “Ah, sorry about that,” I said looking at my hands, “it’s a force of habit.”

  “Well that’s not a bad habit to have,” Antonio commented. “What exactly were you doing, anyway?”

  “I was…umm…it’s actually very difficult to explain what I was doing,” I answered finally.

  “Fair enough,” Antonio stated, ending the discussion on that subject. He seemed so relaxed sitting on the chair in front of me. How can he be so relaxed while I’m a bundle of nerves?