This tree. This picture. This body. It’s the only thing I was left with.
October of 1986. It’s cold as I snag my dirty hoody from the branches. The sun rises up as I am making my way to the hot dog stand that I steal from every day. “Weenie Hut Juniors” the names stupid but it’s the best breakfast I can get and the only I can afford. I put my hood up and bolt to the stand, snatching a hot dog faster than “They” left me. The owner yells at me as I sprint back into my forest climbing up the tree like a squirrel I knaw on the hot dog “darn I should’ve stolen two” I say talking to myself as usual. People usually avoid me, I’m used to it at this point I’m nicknamed “That one hooded kid” I don’t like it but, I work with it.
I live in a tree far back in the forest, this tree is my sanctuary I sleep on a huge stable branch on the side of the tree with my dog Chase. He is all I have left other than the stray cat that comes around every once and a while and the picture of my parents the frame is chipping away and the glass is shattered.
My parents died when I was 9, my dad died 2 days before my mom did. I ran out of the hospital after the news eventually the adoption center found me, they searched for any family that I could go to but everybody was gone so I did what I could do and ran to the forest up a tree and hid from the workers. they couldn’t find me and stopped trying. I now live in this tree and stay hidden from anybody, that was until I met “him”.
He was running too. He was in the same situation as me. But how? I gripped his hood tightly to stop him from running and pulled him up into the tree. “Hey Sto-” he was cut off by my hand cupping his mouth “I’ll explain later,” I whisper. Flashlights were lighting up the forest, the workers pass the tree and soon turned around to head back to the main building where they work.
I allowed him to talk, he explains what happened to him. It was the exact same as my story. We talked for a while as I explained what life will be like for him now, he was in shock but soon snapped back into reality. “My names Jackson but you can call me Creek” he says surprising calmly. How could he be so calm in such a situation? “My names Lucas but you can call me Woods”. Now our names are after a part of the forest. GREAT. Somethings up here and I need to find out. Now.
I told him what his daily routine would look like now. Steal a hotdog. Clean the tree. Wonder. We talked some more and I asked him what his parent’s names were. Silence. “ Jim and Sarah” he says quietly “last name?” I ask “ Farmer” he says in a louder tone. “Same name as my parents first and last” I say. I never remembered having a brother. Later that day he told me that he lived with his Grandma she died and then shortly after his parents died too so he ran. That must be why I never knew him if he was my sibling. The sun was setting and it was time to sleep, I was about to climb into my branch, but I heard a scratching noise. Creek was struggling to get up to his branch, I pulled him up and he falls asleep in almost seconds. I have a lot of work to do.
I woke up to a desperate call of “How do I get down…..”. “Jump” It was simple but he acted like it was a marathon. Finally, he does it and lands perfectly. “Now you have to climb” I jump down to teach him as he attempts to scale the tree. “Left. Right. Grip. Push.” He was able to climb the tree sooner than expected. I threw him the hoodie he had on yesterday and told him to watch me because it was breakfast time. I sprint towards the stand a snatch two hotdogs for myself as I make my way back I noticed the worker was no longer trying to catch me. “You’re turn” I say as I shove a hotdog in my mouth, he starts running as quickly as me. How. When he came back he threw a third hotdog to my dog and started to pet him. “I’m gonna go for a walk downtown” Creek says “Ok” I say as I climb back into the tree.
Once he is halfway downtown I jumped to his branch of the tree. He had used a stolen hammer and put these papers on his side of the tree they stated that he had a missing sibling and the company was going to try their best to find the missing sibling. After reading that I had to thoughts going on in my head. First being “Is this real?” And the second being “Am I his lost sibling”. When he returned he came back with a scared look and shaking hands as he says “Run”.
Part 2
I knew what was about to happen, and I was prepared.
I grab his hand and run deeper into the forest, I can still hear the people running to find him but I won’t let them. I’m running so fast I can’t tell if I still have his hand I turn around for a second and realized he’s tripped a while ago, then my eyes are covered by a hand. I wake up with Creek next to me he’s still asleep, I was about to wake him until I notice my hands are tied and there is a man in the room. I try to slip out of the not I was tied in but the man turns around and sees I’m awake. He wakes Creek and I see a large bruise on is right cheek, I was scared out of my mind. I turn my head the other way to see my dog Chase, I thought to myself that everything would be ok as long as I could trust this man.
“Where are we?” I ask the man, “Where you should be” he says. “My names Chris and I just saved you” He explains how unhealthy it was to be living in the way we were, and that he was gonna get us a family to live with. For months all I could hear is Chris on the phone trying to get some families to adopt us, it never worked out they always hung up and never called back. Until one lucky day.
