A New Chapter Starts Part 1

So what happens next? I immediately began screaming for Leo as I reach into Crawford’s cage. Blood leaks out of the corner of her mouth and her head twists around as I lift her. Tears begin to fall from my eyes as I slide to the floor.

Leo is at my door and by my side in less than one minute. The rest of the kids from the group home quickly climb out of bed and gather in the hallway outside of my door. The kids, who were awoken in the middle of the night and ran to my door, were in pajamas and shorts.

While I explain to Leo what happened, he begins to pace back and forth punching the wall. The counselor, who got stuck doing overnight this week, runs up the back stairs and pushes through the kids to get to my room.

She stands and stares at me with her hand on the jamb. She is trying hard to catch her breath. The counselor stares at me because I am sobbing; blubbering and have blood is all over my shirt and I am holding a close to dead rat. “What the hell is…….?” The counselor starts to say when Leo takes his arm, and sweeps everything off of Jonathan’s dresser.

“I’ll kill that Mother Fucker! Leo screams.

Leo leaves in search of Jonathan. Instead of going back through the group home, he storms down my front stairs. The bell jingles and jumps, when it slams closed.

Leo vows on the way out, that he would not come home until he finds him. The kids from the group home stand in my doorway with their mouths open, as I cry over Crawford who is now dead in my hand.

I hold her to my chest and rock back and forth. She was all that I had, and she was now gone.

Jonathan is found by Leo as he hides in the bushes behind the group home. Leo grabs him by the back of the neck and once again, gets dragged back into the woods. The police and neighbors are attracted to Jonathan’s screams and he is found beaten and tied to a tree.

Leo is arrested and the court sends him to Juvenile Hall where he allegedly stabs a nurse to death on the grounds.

Jonathan is removed from the group home Independent Living apartment and sent back into the system. He will end up at another group home in the system and no one will read his records. He will find that he has a clear slate.

I will be sent to live in the apartment of the man from Africa. A counselor calls a cab for me and I pack it with all my worldly belongings. I am given cab fare and a check to give the man for rent and that’s it. The next day I am starving and eat a little of this and a little of that out of any food that I can find in the apartment. My hopes are that he won’t see I am stealing food.

Two weeks later I am on the streets. I spend my days sleeping in a Laundromat. That way I look like I am waiting for my clothes to dry. At night I am in Washington Park hiding under bushes. The rats are bold and will walk over the top of you to go where they are headed. I spend most of the nights wide awake

to be continued……


Geoffrey Doig-Marx holds all written and electronic rights to his writing "A Day in the Life". It can not be reprinted in part or whole without his written consent.