Rescuing A Dropout
You wake up to a scratching sound on your window. Without looking you know it’s your cat. You open the window and the cat jumps in. It’s wet and cold from staying out in the night’s rain. It brushes up against your leg but you don’t mind, even though it’s wet. Your clock reveals it is far past time to wake up. You get in the shower and wash up. No one’s home so after getting out you just dry off and look for the clean laundry basket to put on your favorite clothes for your favorite day. You check the calender to make sure it’s Saturday.
You pluck your cell phone from its charger and check your calls. No call from anyone you know. You call your friend’s cell phone as you have been doing everyday this week. He hasn’t been in school, returning your calls or e-mails, or stopping by after school to watch T.V. because he doesn’t have cable. You leave your house and set out to find him.
Starting out from his house you ask his mom where he is. She says she doesn’t know so you leave to search elsewhere. You check the library because he doesn’t have a computer at his house to use for the Internet. You don’t see him on a computer or singed up for one so you look for him near the comics and manga. He isn’t looking at the movies so you move on to the next place. You check his favorite anime store but the guy behind the counter you are both friends with hasn’t seen him at all this week either. He tells you that your friends preorder stuff came in and that he should pick it up soon. It was 1:43 when you left the anime store. You decide to check the collectible games place because you know he likes to play trading card games with the younger kids. No one there has seen him in a while either.
You try his cell phone again but it goes straight to the answering machine. You leave a message saying that it is important that he talk to you. You planned to have fun with him this Saturday but you end up looking for him instead. You remember a promotion at the video game store in the mall today. You thought he would be there for sure. You get to the mall winded and thirsty so you buy a bottle of water and suck it down quickly. He isn’t at the video game store either and none of your friends there saw him either.
You are on your way back to his house to see if he has come home yet. Your cell phone says it is about 3:12.You can’t believe your whole day is almost wasted so far. You had planned to do a lot today. Remembering that he hasn’t been in school at all this week makes you think about the worse. What if something happened to him? The sun isn’t out and the street was still a little damp from last nights rain.
His mom says that he actually did not come home last night. Disappointed you walk home. You try calling him one more time but now his number is not in service. The sun is setting a bit early and you can feel the night’s cool setting in. Your younger sister is home alone and your parents are out with friends. You ask if Mom made dinner or if she ordered food but she had not. You begin to cook and think about your friend. You wonder why he didn’t go home last night. You think maybe something happened.
You look to the past for answers as you sit on your bed. You remember the first day you met him in first grade. You got along great from the beginning and were inseparable. Further on you remember he looked up to your intelligence. He always liked to goof around more than work. In fifth grade he was goofing around and almost got hit by a car. Luckily for him you tackled him out of the way. You can remember the huge scrape on your leg and almost feel its sting. You couldn’t remember anything from your past together that would point to signs of his disappearing.
You wake up the next morning to the cat scratching again. Today the cat feels warm from basking in the morning sun. You pet its head and got ready for your day. You still wonder and worry about your friend. You won’t let it slip your mind. Your clock says it’s just before noon. You can’t think of anything to do so you just watch T.V. while you think. You grow bored because you have the same thoughts running through your head and it’s getting you nowhere. The first few days he missed school he returned your calls. Why then but not now you thought. You began to think school was the issue. You did notice his work has been coming later, sloppier, and poorer but you thought this was only because his dad drove him into depression by not picking him up for vacation two weeks earlier and not coming to see him on the weekends.
Maybe he is going quit school. You choose to ignore that thought. You think the idea of him quitting is stupid. He goofs off a lot but he’d never quit. Maybe his dad is making it up to him now. Maybe he picked him up and took him on vacation. That seems like the better choice. But not telling his mom? That isn’t it, you tell yourself. But he wouldn’t just ran away either.
You don’t have a religious family and everyone is home this Sunday. You stay in your room alone most of the day trying to think more about your lost friend. You try to find some way in which you can help him. You wonder if he is hurt or dead. Was he kidnapped? All the thoughts trouble you. You can’t really imagine him in any circumstance you’ve thought of so far. Maybe that’s why this is so difficult.
You travel by his house again to see if he has come back yet. His mother says he hasn’t but will call if he does. You find something strange about this. Why would she be so calm knowing her son disappeared? Why hasn’t she called the cops yet? You wonder if he got into drugs or with a bad crowd and is trying to avoid you now. You try not to think about it too much. It still doesn’t seem like your friend.
You get home and eat a small lunch. The house is pretty warm. Your cat knows it as it tries to get outside. But you are preoccupied and don’t notice even the sound of a fly buzzing past your ear. You wonder about your friend’s mother. She seems too calm about her son’s disappearance. Maybe she has something to do with it you thought. Maybe she isn’t getting enough money from both her jobs and the child support so she has to get rid of him. You realize this is far too dramatic. You tell yourself you have been watching too much T.V. lately and cast the ideas away like all the others.
You realize that with all the ideas you have in your head, you don’t even have a single clue to back one up. You believe you let your imagination run wild. You start to think its all nothing. He’ll be back in school tomorrow. You go to sleep thinking he’ll be there tomorrow.
You go to school early. You hope to see him in the school library. He eludes you again. You realize he might not be coming back. You find that this is a sad realization. English class goes by without a single wisecrack from him. You miss how much fun he makes school. You realize at lunch there is no one to make jokes about all the little stupid things that make you laugh anyway. In math there is no friend to make stupid decisions or suggestions. The only good you see coming from this is that you are learning a bit faster than usual, though you still wish you had your friend.
When you arrive home you are bummed. You don’t want to do anything. You just sit in your room alone again trying to think about what actually happened to your friend.
Your mother calls you down stairs when she gets home from work. She asks you to go to the market to buy some things for dinner. You quickly go on your way thought you don’t want to go. You just figure it’d be better to do something rather than nothing.
At the market you grab a jar of peppers and it slips from your hand. When one of the workers comes to clean it up, and you apologize and realize his face looks familiar. It is your friend. He notices you. He only looks embarrassed and ashamed, almost as if he doesn’t want you to find out. You wish you could reach out and help him but you didn’t know how. You walk to the register and get home as soon as possible.
After dinner he comes over to talk to you. You don’t want to talk. You only wanted to listen to see if there is a way to help him. You come to another sad realization when he is done talking. You can’t help him. He needs to work because his mom quit one of her jobs. Her boss was trying to take advantage of her. He is working for a good reason but sacrificing his future. You want to help him so his dreams for the future can become reality.
You can’t help him. You can’t get over that fact. You hate that you can’t help everybody. You only wish you had some cause you were willing to sacrifice everything you had for. You only wish you could be a hero.
