pyrate

Grayce Has read a bit of my writing, and told me I whould be a writer. I wouldn't say I exactly aggred with her, and she told me to write her a short story. I told her I had nothing to write, about, and she should give me something to write about. The idea she gave me was "an 8 year old boy comes across two teens making out in the woods". So here it is.

Skinned Knees, and Suicide Pacts

By Pyrate


If you are reading this it means I am dead,. Try not to cry, it was a long time coming. I guess I should explain why I had to take my own life,...hell to be honest I gave it away a long time ago. To tell you the story I have to go back to 1988. I had a pretty happy child hood, for a kid from a broken home. My mom was always very quiet, and kind of let me do my won thing. My brother Brad was a great guy. When I look back on it he was a much greater guy than I could really fathom at age 8. He played baseball, and ran track, and was great at both. He was the star pitcher and had more RBIs than anyone on his team. What really made him special was that he didnt care what anyone thought of him. He dated a def girl named Gail, and was constantly made fun of for it. He just didnt care though. He loved her, and that was all that he cared about. My mother loved to watch him compete. She always thought his athleticism was a thing of beauty. I guess I was to young to understand. My dad left us soon after I was born. I was never suppose to be. After Brad was born my father got fixed, because he thought one kid was enough. He referred to me as the one that got away. I now know what that means. My mom called me her happy little mistake, which really wasnt that much better. After he left us my mother moved into a suburb that we could afford. Dont get me wrong it wasnt a bad house, just not as nice as the one we had before. I really didnt know any better I guess.

Darden Woods is where I would have the summer of skinned knees, and suicide pacts, Ill get to that though. In this neighborhood I met the Blue Crew. I had really never had any friends, and my mother thought it was time to get out and get some. To be honest I think she just wanted me out of the house. I got on my bike and started exploring. I ran across a scene unfolding in front of a house not more than five houses down from my families new place. There were two guys in jean jackets outside yelling at the guy inside the house. I say guys because they were older than me, they were just kids really. Magic, 12 years old, was the only black kid in Darden Woods. He was a rather small guy for his age, about the same size as me. Apparently every so often Magic gets mad at Dick and wants to fight him on a weekly basis, hence all the yelling. Ill get back to dick in a second. Dont get me wrong the guys are friends, they were just guys, this shit was normal for them. Magic was like a little dog, all bark and no bight, thats why this wasnt a big deal. All the fights they ever got into nobody every got hit. The other guy Zack wasnt yelling, just standing back and smiling. You could tell he was the ring leader, and that he just got a kick out of this. He was a bigger kid, and had a dirty blonde Maguiver mullet which was tough looking at the time. You could tell he was a tough kid because of the way he carried himself, arms always crossed, and his dark in set eyes.. He was the oldest guy in the group at 13. Oh yeah, back to Dick, and yes that was his name. Actually his name was Richard, but he actually liked being called Dick better, which I always thought to be strange. He was a strange kid who spent most of his days inside playing Nintendo, he was the same age as Magic. Zack noticed me, and called me over. He gave me the low down on why Magic was yelling at Dick. Ya see, Dick had told Magic that there was no way the Sega would ever be as Good as Nintendo. Funny thing is Dick was right. Zack liked me though, and he took me under his wing, like a little brother. He later told me that he called me over because I didnt looked scared by the yelling, more interested in what was going on. Actually I was scared they would notice me at all. These guys were older, but in this neighborhood they were all I had. Zack gave me his old jean jacket so I could be a part of their Blue Crew, which is funny because when summer rolled around of course we resorted to tank tops, and shorts.

Dick didnt stay inside over the summer months, he came out and hung out with us. We did all kinds of stupid shit kids our age do. We would have dirt clod wars, build forts in the wood, play baseball, and have races around the block. It sounds innocent enough, but it got kinda rough. We would get together, and race other surounding neighborhoods. Four of them, against the four of us. It turned into a four man relay, no rules. Zack didnt play games either. He wanted to win at any cost, and thats what he would do, and he made us do the same. If we were losing we would resort to getting up behind the other bikes, and clip their back tires. If we couldnt get close enough for that, we always have a pockest full of rocks that would get the job done. Zack, and I even raced at one point, this is where I learned never to cross him. I was winning when he clipped my back tire which sent be into the pavement. He passed me and went on to win of course. He later came back to see me crying from the absence of skinn on my knees and elbows. He told me to be proud of my scabs, and to not cry about it, I earned them. There were kids in the neighborhood whos parents wouldnt let them play with us. Zack was know to have quite the porn collection for a kid his age. I remember one time this wimpy kid Jeffs mom caught us showing her son a dirty magazine. When she asked Zack what he had, he told her to mind her fucking buisiness. He just didnt care. I remember him teaching me my first cus word. We all knew not to cross Zack.

We had woods that backed up to our neighborhood, and they were huge. We built our fort in the woods over the spring so we would have it in the summer. Dick didnt really help as much due to his lack of being outside, so he would always get flack from the other guys that he didnt really earn his spot. I didnt care, I just thought having our own fort was cool. It was in the center of the woods, so it felt like there was no one for miles. We would explore the woods, and think we were the first ones to discover certain parts of it. There were creeks, which at the time we thought were rivers. There were mudded out hills, that looked like half pipes looking back on it. We loved riding our bikes through them, and jumping them into the next one. There was one part of the woods that we called the crater, for a simple reason really. It looked like a giant crater. The walls of the crater stood about sixty feet high at points, and were pretty steep. There were no trees, it was just a big clearing about the size of three to four football fields. There were a few big rocks, about the size of a small car down at the lower part of the crater. Where they came from I dont know. There was brush along the ridge of the crater. We called it the crater, but the older kids, called it the love pit, I found that out later. We just liked to ride our bikes down the steep walls of the crater, because you could get going so fast. To be honest I wouldnt say I loved it, going that fast down a steep hill scared the piss out of me. I think it scared the other guys too, but they wouldnt let Zack know. I dont even think Zack really liked it, he just liked seeing us scared.

One day on our way to the crater we noticed a car at the top of it. On closer inspection I noticed it was my brothers car. He had an awesome car he bought with money he made and saved since way before he was my age. Money from Birthdays, Christmas, whatever, he saved it. Not to mention he always had a job. He drove a five speed 300zx, and He loved that car. He was with Gail his girlfriend making out down in the crater, as we watched. Look at your brother doing it with that tard Magic said. Magic always liked to talk about people, my mom always said it was because he was insecure with himself. He started saying My brother and Gail were going to have retarded babies. Zack punched him in the arm, and told him to shut the fuck up. Zack could see that I was getting upset, and he was just looking out for me. We came up with the great idea to go get some ice cream, but we didnt really have any money. I knew my brother sometimes kept five dollars in his glove box for gas. I thought I could get in their, and take it, and some how have it back before he noticed. Due to the brush he couldnt really see us. His windows were down so I hopped in and went for the glove box, as the guys watched my brother. I was searching through the glove box, and not finding anything, so I started looking elsewhere. Through his cassettes, through his work out bag, nothing. I heard Magic scurry away as Zack said Hey man we gotta go, your brother is on his way up. I got scared and got caught up in the seat belt trying to get out. Zack reached into free me, and I got out of the car. I guess on my way out of the car I knocked it into neutral, and it began to roll down the hill slowly at first. The speed of the car rolling started to grow like a snow ball. Zack and I crouched down behind the brush, where Brad couldnt see us.

When Brad started to notice the car rolling I could tell he didnt know what to do. He started running and yelling at Gail trying to warn her, but she couldnt hear him.. Gail was leaned against a rock, putting on her shirt. I could see the car pass Brad on the way down the steep incline. He was to late, there was nothing he could do. By the time she noticed it was to late. The car pinned her against the rock. I dont think I have ever heard a scream like that ever. You hear screams in movies, those arent screams. You could her the end in her scream, like she knew it would be her last. Brad struggled, and fought, and he finally got her free, and carried her out of the woods. She later died from complications. My brother never saw us, so he thought he had left it in neutral, and that her death was his fault. The death of Gail was deemed an accident, but Brad never saw it that way. He was never the same after that. That fall when school started he couldnt take it, I found him hanging is his bed room, one after noon. I was going up to get him so we could carve the pumpkins for Halloween. Ill never be able to get that image out of my head. That, and the image of him crying over her dead body at the crash scene. Her blood on his hands, mixed with his tears. My mom died inside the day I found my brother. She held his lifeless body, while I called 911, she kept crying hes only 17, oh god why. I knew why. My mom and I never really talked after that. She sent me to live with my grand parents.

I always wanted to tell my brother what I had done, but I couldnt. Zack made us all promise to take what we had done to our graves, and if we did tell he would make sure we would end up their. Mostly I think he was trying to protect me, and once my brother took his own life I knew I couldnt tell. Ever since then the secret has eaten me up inside. I killed my Brother, and the love of his life for ice cream. I wanted to tell you what I did, so you would know that I deserve what I have inevitably done to myself if you are reading this letter. I wanted you to know that you were not the reason for my suicide. I love you, but I hope you understand why I have done what I have done. I couldnt take this to my grave.