It's been a few months since my parents died and I became homeless. It's around mid-February now, and I've been squatting at home. When it started getting too cold to sleep in the park anymore, I went back home. I didn't celebrate Christmas this year; I had no one to celebrate it with. The house was empty, and the water and electricity were turned off, and everything was starting to gather a thin layer of dust. I don't think anyone's been in the house since before the funeral.
I wake up every night at around 10 o'clock at night with a nightmare about the night my parents passed away. If I'd just been faster and went downstairs right away when I heard my parents screaming, I couldn't seen their killer. Maybe then the police would have someone to arrest. Then again, their killer could've killed me, too. I guess I'll never know. I've been dozing off and taking naps nearly every day because of my lack of sleep at night.
Since the water and heat are shut off, I have to layer up in a quilt or in my winter jacket all the time, and every time I have to use the bathroom or shower I have to go back to the park a block away or use the bathroom at the grocery store. I do have soap and toothpaste in the house, but it's starting to run low. I'll have to get some at the store today, which is where I'm heading right now after going to the library.
My parents got me a library card for my birthday as well as a few books since I love reading, so I've been filling my time with reading books since I have no electricity and not much else to do. I sometimes draw a character I like from a book based off of their description, though. Like June Iparis in the Legend trilogy. Her description makes her sound really pretty and I wanted to draw it to see what she'd look like.
After stopping at the library and putting my new books for the week in my bag, I walk to the grocery store. The cashier says 'hi' to me when I walk in, and I go toward the canned food isle like usual. I pick my soup can for the day and look around to make sure nobody else is around before unzipping my bag.
As I zip my bag back up, I hear someone exclaim, "Hey!"
I can feel my heart pounding in my chest as a worker walks up to me.
He glares down at me, saying, "What did you put in your bag?"
I sputter out, "I didn't put anything in my bag! I was just, uh, checking if I had my homework in there."
He raises an eyebrow, then says, "I've seen you in here plenty of times before, but I never see you walk out with anything or buy anything. Prove it. Show me what in your bag."
I exclaim, "No! I don't have to prove anything to you!"
The guy's eye twitches in anger, and he takes my backpack from me.
I exclaim, "Hey! Give me back my bag!"
He unzips my bag and pulls out the can of soup I put in there, saying, "I knew it! You've been stealing from our store!"
I grab my bag back from him, saying, "No, that's my soup from home! I was supposed to have it for lunch today at school but I wasn't hungry. Give it back!"
He narrows his eyes at me, deadpanning, "It still has the price sticker and today's date on it."
I start sweating despite the cold, and he picks me up by my jacket's hood, leading me toward the door.
The cashier asks, "Henry? What's going on? Why are you holding that kid by the hood?"
The worker, Henry, responds angrily, "I caught this kid stealing from the store." He then turns me around to face me and says, "You're never coming back in this store again, kid." He lets go of my hood and shoves me out the door, exclaiming, "You're banned from this store! I better not see your face around here again!"
I exclaim back at him, "Please, you've gotta understand! You can't kick me out! I'm just trying to get something to eat! I'm just so hungry!"
He says, "I don't care, kid. Just go home to your parents and ask them for food and stop taking it from here."
I exclaim, "But I don't-" The automatic door shuts before I can finish my sentence, so I just mutter the rest to myself, "Have... parents."
I feel my stomach grumble and I sniffle, holding back tears as I pull my hood over my head, shivering a little bit in the cold winter air.
I bump into somebody, and mutter out, "Sorry."
I hear a voice, the same speech impediment as mine but further developed, say, "Wait a minute. Are you Raven?"
I turn toward him, asking nervously, "H- how do you know my name?"
He responds, "I knew your parents and heard what happened. Are you okay?"
I respond, "I'm fine. I've got a roof over my head."
He asks me, "Where have you been staying since... you know... that happened?"
I respond, "At home. I don't have anybody else."
The guy exclaims, "You're living at the place they died?! That can't be healthy."
I scoff, saying, "I'm fine. Like I said, I have a roof over my head."
He say, "No, you're not fine. I saw you getting kicked out of that store just now. You're stealing to eat? You need someone to take care of you."
I exclaim, "What? No! I can take care of myself!"
He responds, "You're just a kid! You shouldn't have to take care of yourself. Just come with me, and we can go to the police station. They'll find someone who can take care of you."
He grabs my hand, and I shove him away, exclaiming, "Let go of me! I can take care of myself!"
I run away from him, just trying to go home. He follows me, seeming to know his way around town better than me. By the time I'm a few blocks away from home, he's not tailing me anymore, and I think I've lost him until I find him out of breath in front of the porch steps.
I'm about to run again when he exclaims, "Stop! Please!"
I stop, asking, "What do you want from me?"
He responds, "I just want to help you."
I ask, "Who even are you? You claim to know my parents, but I don't even know who you are!"
He responds, "My name is Donald Duck. My sister was good friends with Dahlia, your mom. We hung out a few times after Della disappeared, and she showed me pictures of you. She was very proud of you, Raven."
I tear up from hearing about my mom. She told me about Donald a few times. That he was a good guy and he was taking care of his nephews and his sister, her best friend, disappeared before I was born. She never found out what happened to Della, and she and Donald became friends to try to cope over the loss together.
Donald pulls out his wallet, showing me a picture of my mom and dad on either side of Donald, and he's holding a polaroid picture of his sister with a sad smile on his face. The angle looks like he'd taken a selfie with my parents, the caption at the bottom of the polaroid reading 'the gang's all here'.
I tear up as Donald says, "I've been trying to find you after the funeral. Your parents told me before they passed that if anything happened to them that they wanted me to take care of you."
My bottom lip quavers, and I fall to my knees on the sidewalk.
I say, "Okay. Take me away. I'm so sick of being alone."
