Self portrait
Jonah walked on a cold winters' night. It was about midnight, and his parents were calling him nonstop, trying to get him to come home. Jonah heard the silent roar of sirens blazing in the backround. Police cars were flying by Jonah as he walked. He didn't care about it, he was used to it. He was used to seeing slags on the side of the road, waiting for a pick-up; he was used to seeing drug dealers selling their drugs. He was just used to all of the bad influences around him. He's tried to get his parents to move to a better neighborhood, where things aren't all so bad as they are where he lives. Even with this, the answer that they usually give is a "no." Even through all of this, all of the attempts, he somehow finds tears in the back of his eyes to cry out. His neighborhood was always full with drugs, gangs, and violence within almost every home.
While Jonah walked, he was remembering some of the bad ties he had at home. He remembered when two dogs broke into their house. They knocked over precious family heirlooms, pictures broken, electronics being stuffed into sacks. He thought of how his dad had saves up enough money to buy a 18 in. TV, that was stolen. When they got into the house, the dogs ran out, and Jonah tried to jump on one, but the dog pushed him off, breaking Jonah's arm. It took months to recover from that incident. After that, there was another break in; while they were out at dinner, they came in, and stole just about everything. Pictures, chinaware, electronics, clothes, jewelry, you name it, it was stolen.
Jonah walked for what seemed almost hours more, until finally, he came to the house he was supposed to be at.
"Well, I sure hope this is the right place." Jonah knocked, no answer. He knocked again, still no answer. One last knock, still nothing. As Jonah turned, he heard the doo slightly creek open. He turned back again to see the door slightly open. He looked into the house through the slight opening in the door. There was nothing he could see, but his curiosity overwhelmed him, and he walked into the house. He called out for his friend, and there was no response. He started looking around for any sign of his friend. He first checked in the den. The TV was all static, but other than that, the room was empty except for Jonas standing in the room silently. He turned off the TV, and walked into another room of the house. He checked the kitchen, which seemed to be normal. There were few dishes in the sink, and the countertops were not cleaned. This was not the usual behaviour of his friend. Jonah walked out into the den again, and up the stairs. He walked into the bedroom, and the bed was messy; the sheets were tore up, covers were all over, and the bed was warm, showing that someone was recently laying there. Other than that, everything was normal in the room. He fled the room, and went into the bathroom. The curtains were over to the side, and the mirror was fogged. Upon further inspection, Jonah noticed the words 'In The Basement.' Not knowing that anyone else was here, Jonah began to get frightened.
"Okay, Jonah, you're gonna go down their and find out what is going on here. Are they just messing with me again, or are they really hurt?" Jonah slowly goes down the stairs, and to the basement door. Shaking, Jonah reached for the doorknob. He walked down the stairs and slowly ventured into the darkness. Coming to the bottom, he reached for the light switch; it didn't come on. Working at the switch furiously, still no light. Jonah worked his way up the stairs, skipping over the faulty ones. Jonah grabbed the doorknob, and noticed it was locked. He got confused, he was almost certain he had the door unlocked, and didn't even close the door. He turned, and faced the darkness of the stairwell. knowing it was his only was his only option. He went down the stairs one last time. He remembered he had his phone with him. He checked it, and of course there was no service, but at least he had some form of light.
Jonah pointed the light of the phone at the floor se he could see where he was stepping. He came into an open room. To Jonah's surprise, the once "broken" light came on, an his friends popped out, and shouted "Happy Birthday Jonah!"