The Day We Became Men, Chapter 4

Plastic Taking the knife to...

Vianne stood outside and stared at the flat tire on...

Written by Nate Stanford

Saturday, 23 August 2008

The next few weeks went on without question, every morning and every night Jonah would say a detailed prayer, asking for everything he could think of to help him against Randy until school started. He prayed for courage, for safety, for the safety of all his close friends and relatives. When he told me about those things, I couldn't help but smirk, thinking this whole thing had probably made Jonah the least selfish he had ever been. I was quickly proved wrong.

It wasn't long before Jonah was insanely popular amoung his peers. He would stand under the big oak tree in Seneca Park and boast, telling the story differently each time. I was there a couple of times, other times I couldn't stand it. Sure, it was a little humorous, listening to obtuse and exaggerated versions of an experience both me and Jonah both had. But the absolute most frustrating thing about these stories was that Jonah never mentioned me in any of the stories. One might ask how he would forget about me, and my safety being the reason he fought Randy in the first place. Usually he replaced my name with Sadie, or he made Randy insult his mother or something.

So, as the days got chilly, our parents made us come in sooner. We had to wake up early as well, so we could "get used to school days". I thought it was all a bunch of crap. But, I could be a good kid, so I went with it. My parents appreciated it, and everything was pretty much O.K, if you didn't count the Jonah thing.

I woke up smoothly one morning, this particular morning was to lead up to one of the last days of summer. I yawned and stretched my arms as I usually did. It was seven in the morning, and the blasting sunlight from the window made my eyes swell up. I got dressed and stumbled down stairs, which lead directly into my dining room. My mother greeted me as she laid out breakfast for her and dad.

"Hey Henry. How did you sleep?"

"Pretty good. Where's dad?"

"Oh, he wanted to go to the hardware store, you know, men and their tools."

"Haha. Yeah. How long ago did he leave?"

"Not too long ago. Hey Henry? I had an idea and I wanted to run it past you before we did it."

"Sure. What is it?"

"Well your father has to go to New York for a couple of days after school starts," she checked the calender before going on, "We would be leaving September 7th, which is a Friday. School starts on the 4th, and we would be in New York for a couple days, maybe five or six. Do you want to go with your father, maybe you could bring Jonah?"

Two things struck me about what she just said, but for some reason I spat out a yes before running up the stairs again. Jonah. I would have to be with Jonah, still my official best friend, but one I haven't talked to in almost a week. That could be tough, but managable. The second thing. New York meant Hudson Bay. Which meant Alex Ward.

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The Day We Became Men, Chapter 4

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