When I was fourteen I was very experimental with drugs. It was an escape for me, and I know that sounds cliche but it was. I took weed any pill my friends had in their medicine cabinet. I would mostly get the drugs for free by going to raves and acting like everyone’s friend. The best drug was from my friend, Garret’s grandma. She suffered from some old person disorder that screws up the mind so she had a prescription for it. I don’t know what was in it but after I took one pill, I was on cloud nine. So I stole half of the bottle. I split each pill into halves and take one every morning. I would go back to Garret’s house when I started to run low. I did that for at least six months.

One day at Garret’s house he started to talk about how his grandma has been refilling her prescription a lot. He got worried that she was slowly trying to kill herself by overdosing her prescription. I have a heart so I decided to stop stealing her meds.

Surprisingly, Serenity was gone when I was on her drug. She would come back around the night time, but in the morning and afternoon, she was gone. She came back a few days after I finished that drug and it was worst than ever. She forced me to sell my clothes to get some money for the bills. Yet, I would see her with new skimpy clothes almost every day. I was stuck wearing the same three T-shirts and two pairs of jeans.

I decided to burn her clothes so she can understand what ti feels like to have only the clothes on your back. I went into her room and spread all her clothes on the floor. She had a full wardrobe of a prostitute. I started to strike the match against the box but then she came behind. She pulled me by my hair and told me since I tried to burn her stuff, I would have to burn myself. She stood in front waiting for me to burn myself. Ii burned the tip of my pointer finger and she was glad to see that I was in pain.

   "Hanne!“ Terry yelled from the top of his lungs. Hanne woke up from her daze and walked to where Terry practiced his aim with Ash watching him.  Terry and Ash looked so identical that the only way to tell them apart was the freckles on Terry’s face. They both shared the same rose color hair and the body of an eleven year old. Hanne walked to see a tall man in a plaid suit observing the living room. "How may I help you sir” Hanne asked politely. He coughed into his fist and glared at Hanne. “I am the new landlord. I am here to inform the guardian of the home that we will be raising the rent to two-thousand and seven hundred dollars.” He said never breaking contact with Hanne, “I will also like to meet the other kids. There is supposed to be seven and I only see three right now.”  Terry walked over to Hanne and placed his hand on her shoulder.

“I got this” he told her with a smirk. He cleared his throat as if he had a pound of mucus in his throat. “Family meeting in one minute. If you don’t come you’ll be shot in the ass with my nerf bullets and they have tacks on the end of them!” he said loud enough for the whole floor to hear. He patted Hanne on the back,  "You are welcome.“ he said. They were quick footsteps as the rest of the kids occupied the living room. They sat on the L couch while Hanne watched them.

"This seems more like an orphanage or foster care. There’s two blacks or more like caramels.” the landlord chuckled to himself looking towards Raine and Jaylenn. He cleared his throat. “A Korean, two gingers, and two whites.”

“We have different mothers.” Hanne told him with a bleak look on her face.

“Oh yes, It looks like every one has a little vanilla in them.” he chucked to himself again.

“Hanne, I think our new landlord is a dipshit.” Terry said in a calm sarcastic voice.

The landlords face went from blissful to hostile. Terry chuckled to himself, “Dude it was a joke” he said. He lifted his arm above his head and slapped his knee. The landlords face went back to blissful. “Oh.” he smiled “Well your mothers must have been sticking holes in condoms to get some money. He’s obviously rich. Where is he?” he asked looking towards Hanne.

“He’s in Africa volunteering. He left us enough money for food and other things. I’m eighteen so I can take care of them while he is away.” Hanne answered.

“Okay. As long as I get my money everything should be good. I don’t want to come down the hall with Bitch Better have my Money playing.” he said trying to keep himself from bursting out laughing. A small tear drop fell from his eye. He turned around and exited. Terry stood on the couch chanting “Our landlord is a dipshit.”

“I can’t believe he called me caramel. I’m obviously a nut meg” Jaylenn complained. His legs spread across the seat because of his tall and well built body. His flat top added a couple inches.

“I guess he only knew my skin tone. I match the caramel in his Frap he gets from Starbucks every morning. ” Raine said. Her petite body, big brown eyes and round face made it easier for to manipulate others.

“Don’t worry guys. He’s harmless. Get to bed we have a big day tomorrow.” Hanne said. She clapped and everyone started to get up and head to their rooms.

“Eliakim Anderson. You are here because you murdered your mother.”

“Call me Eli. I did not murder my mother. I just took her out of her misery.”

“Well, let me hear your story. I can sit her all day.”

“You want to know everything.”

“Everything. Beginning to end”

Reason 1

So many people have called a son of a bitch, and I always tell them they are correct. I am the son of a bitch, a major bitch. Some people refer to her as my mother but I’ll refer to her by her name Serenity. I am also a drunken mistake and Serenity made sure I knew. She’s been treating me like shit since I came out the womb. She wanted to abort me but I was too big. No one wanted to adopt me because they didn’t want a baby from the vagina of a woman that has failed many drugs tests and been in and out of prison for ten years. They were worried I was going to come out mentally insane or have some other disease that cost too much to care for me.

She took me home from the hospital and gave me to my grandma. She raised me up till I was ten. After she died it was pure hell. I would wake up to see Serenity on the couch passed out sometimes with a guy lying next to her or she wouldn’t be home at all. I would steal lunch from school to bring home so I could have some type of dinner. Every afternoon I will come home to her eating out of a chinese food take-out container. If I dared ask for any she would smack my hand away and yell at me. “You don’t deserve this you piece of shit”, “Because of you I rarely get laid”, “I should have taken an hanger and ripped you out myself” are some of the stuff she would say to me. Some nights I would cry myself to sleep, other night I couldn’t fall asleep at all because I all I could hear was Serenity and some other guy having hardcore sex.

All the toys my grandma got me, my mom forced me to sell so the bills would be payed.I had no TV, games, or toys. I had no friends or family to hangout with. I was bored out of my mind. I had to steal clothes from those donation contraptions you see at the gas stations. My bedroom had one twin sized bed with the same baby blue sheets I had for as long as I could remember. A tall chestnut dresser that fit my whole wardrobe and one nightstand right by my bed.I thought I could last for eight years but I guess I only lasted for five.

Over the summer I studied computer animation at a college. One time when the professor was out of the room, a kid in my class animated a penis ejaculating on the professor’s computer. Mind you the professor’s computer screen was projected onto a 90 inch screen in front of the class.

I have this girl in my class who lowers her head while simultaneously  lifting her arms to her ears in a quick motion every time the teachers has bad news. So every time my teacher says “We have a test” or “We have an outline due in a week” she does the motion and it never fails to make me smile.

She heard her name be called by her crush. But he was calling the girl who sat being her who shared the same name.

He pulled the trigger and he never felt happier.

“Okay. Here’s the plan” Hanne said. She sat crossed legged on top of the brown desk with a glass coke bottle in her right hand. The room everyone met in was pretty much the size of a closet with the brown desk being the only furniture. Whoever sat on top of the desk was the person in conducting the meeting. The brown desk was left in the apartment when they got there. The desk looked as if it was a teacher’s desk from a school in the 17th century. Hanne wore the usual over sized plaid shirt with ripped jeans and high top vans. “Fran and Me will be go inside the bank. We will go in at ten am, that’s when it’s least crowded. We go with our wigs and colored eye contacts and hand the lady the note. We’ll say our father gave us the note. We get the money, Adiana and Terry will be in two different cars. We go into Terry’s car first then we go into Adiana’s car. Terry, Ash and Raine will distract the cops when they get to the bank. Say something like our bike got stolen or we saw a dead body. Jaylenn, you tell one of the cops that you saw two girls with a belligerent man and point to the park. Any questions?”  

“Can I wear my eye contacts” Adiana asked.

“You won’t be seen” Terry responded.

“I was not talking to you. Hanne, can I wear my colored contacts?.” she asked again.

“You can wear whatever you” Hanne told her. She lifted herself up on the desk and jumped off of it. She chugged down the rest of her coke and handed it to Raine to add to her collection. “Meeting adjourned” Hanne said.

Hanne went to her room, which was adjacent to the meeting room. Raine followed her walking toe to heel studying the bottle Hanne has given her. Hanne plopped onto her queen sized bed back first. Raine plopped down right next to her. “You have your own room” Hanne said. “I’d rather be with you” Raine said rolling over to lay on Hanne’s chest. “I think this will be our biggest heist yet. Maybe a couple thousands of dollars.” Hanne put her arm around Raine, “It will be. We haven’t done much this year. We’ve been so busy trying to escape our landlord and social workers. This will be the best one yet.”

Thank you so much for taking the time read this. More of “Mavericks” will be coming soon.

“You can erase absolutely anything. Anything at all. Good or Bad.” he said. His legs crossed looking at me with his bloodshot eyes waiting for my answer. “I don’t know” I said leaning against the brick wall. 

“Nothing at all” he said, “C’mon boy. You must have had a traumatic experience or some girl must have dumped you or you get rejected or something.” He lifted the joint in between his fingers to his lips, “If I could erase a memory I would erase…I would erase that day…oh yes…at the club. I was drunk. Druunnk. At least 5 no 6 shots in. I saw this girl, she wasn’t pretty or anything. We ended up going to the bathroom together and did it, you should know what it is right. What are you 10.?” he said looking at me inhaling and blowing the smoke in my face. “I’m 17” I said. “Mhm. Actually I’ll erase the memory of that girl. After the night she hunted me down. That’s right, hunted. She was saying she had a kid and it was mines. I wore a condom and I know it. I never not have a condom on me. She tried to get me to pay child support. If I didn’t remember her, my mind wouldn’t think about that kid every time I’m sober.” he inhaled deeply and held the smoke in his lungs for at least ten seconds then blew it out. “I used to be able to make circles with my smoke. So what would you erase?” he asked again. I looked onto the street. “I guess, I’ll erase the memory of my father. So I don’t have to sneak out of my house just to visit him on his blanket in front of a grocery store.” I said getting up. “Your dad is just like me. Maybe I’ve seen him before. A lot of homeless comes to this grocery store. This is where the rich people come buy the organics for their children.”  

“How much for a firecracker?” she asked.

“Two dollars” he responded.

“Okay”

She shook her piggy bank.

One dollar, two nickels and two dimes.

She dug in between the couches.

Five nickels, three pennies and a cheeto.

She checked the pockets of the coats hanging on the door.

Four dimes, four nickels and two pennies.

She stepped outside and looked down.

One dime.

“I would like one firecraker please” she said happily.

Placing all the money in his hand.

He dug into his freezer and handed it to her.

“Thank you”