Incomplete Existence - 1. Chapter 1

I hate airplanes. I mean they are boring, you always end up where you started, and the flight attendants are always complete bitches. Seriously, I hate airplanes. These thoughts and many more went through my head as I got off the 5-hour flight from California. I mean, seriously, 5 hours to go across the country. What is this world coming to?

“Flight 17 to Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris will be leaving in 30 minutes please go to Gate...blah blah blah...” sounded a nasally voice over the loudspeaker. As the announcement continued on in its droning tone, I began to drown it out in an attempt to gather my thoughts. I was in New Jersey. New Jersey... the smog capital of the world.

God was I lost, “Excuse me sir, where is the baggage claim for flight 5 from Los Angeles?” I asked a person who seemed to work for the airport.

“Hell if I know, kid.” He nonchalantly responded.

“Well, thanks anyway.” I shouted out, as he walked off.

Eventually, after wandering around for what seemed for hours, I found the baggage claim, which still had a mass of people near it. After waiting for 20 minutes for my plain black suitcase to be revealed from the black plastic strips on the wall, I finally found it off to the side. It seemed someone had tried to “help” me by taking it off the conveyor.

I walked over to my suitcase and this woman came up to me and purred, “Is this youur suitcase, young man?”

“Um...y-yes” I stammered out in response.

“I need youu to come with me. This suitcase was illegibly brought into the country.”

I seriously had to hold back a laugh at this. Boy was this woman barking up the wrong tree. “Excuse me ma’am, but are you some type of prostitute?” I bluntly accused, completely sure that saying that would drive her away in fear of being humiliated

“Yesssss, I ammmm.” She once again purred out, in an attempt to seduce me.

Half kidding, half serious, I asked her, “How much?”

When she replied, “Freeee.” I really did start laughing. She looked at me as if I were crazy, and just moved on.

As I made my way out of the airport, I was distracted by my continued laughter, so I didn’t see my parents running up to me to bombard me with attacks of “We missed you” and “How have you been,” even though they saw me one day ago and really didn’t care. When I stared at them without answering, they both looked at me and told me to get a move-on. It seemed we had a new family car, which made sense, I guess.

Apparently, my parents bought into the whole new life, new house, new everything philosophy. I still wasn’t sure why we had moved. It was a very spur of the moment thing. One minute in California, the next we were going to New Jersey for life—or a life sentence.

On the way “home,” I stared out the window and looked at the beautiful scenery that surrounded us. And it occurred to me that I didn’t know our address.

“Mom?” I questioned, when there was no response, I got louder, “HEY, MOM??”

“Yes, what is it dear?” my mom finally responded.

“I... um don’t know where we live...” I sort of questioned. Due to the lack of directness, my mom dismissed it as not important by waving her hand and going back to talking to my father.

“Michael, we will show you where we live when we get there...” my father reasoned.

And soon enough, we got there. I went inside the house lethargically, not really happy to see our new “home.” As I walked in, I was bombarded with the scent of new everything: new leather, new wood, new carpet, new everything.

It didn’t feel like home. In fact, it had a strange air of being completely uninhabited.

“Up the stairs, young man!” my mom shouted. “Your room is to the right!”

Irritably, I questioned, “I don’t even get to choose my own room?”

Simultaneously, my mom sardonically, and my dad woefully responded “No.”

As I held in a sigh, I slowly climbed the stairs to see my new room. I looked to the right, just as my mom had said and opened the door to see a bright, florescent, pink room.

It is safe to say that I—was—pissed. So pissed in fact that I didn’t see the naked girl in “my room,” nor did it occur to me that it wasn’t my room. At least—until I heard the scream and got slapped across the face.

I was dumbfounded, I mean I walked into what I was told by my mom was my new room—straight into Barbie-land and my naked sister. While I was contemplating what was going on, the door was slammed shut in my face, and I noticed for the first time the sign with the word “MelodyLand” on it surrounded by candy canes.

As Mel burst out of the door with a sadistic smile on her face, I was still laughing at the complete nonsense that was her sign. I stopped laughing long enough to realize that my sister was running down the stairs with spontaneous tears running down her face. And my smile turned upside down as I realized how much trouble I was in.

“Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!” My 11 year old sister cooed to get the attention of my mom. “Mommy, Mommy, Michael opened my door without knocking to see me undressed”

“HE DID WHAT?” screamed my mother as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up on end.

“Mommmy, he...” my sister tried to explain to my mom as she was cut off.

“Honey, it was a figure of speech, I heard what you said.”

My mom stormed up the stairs with anger in every step. She grabbed my arm and literally threw me across the hall screaming, “STAY IN THAT FUCKING ROOM FOR THE NEXT FIVE DAYS, DO YOU UNDERSTAND, YOU MORON???”

“Y-yes” I managed. “

YES WHAT?” the tyrant that was my mom screamed back.

“Ye...yes ma’am.”

My mother always did protect the little angel, I think she always wanted a girl, and I was a disappointment. It was about that time that I noticed the condition of my room. The closest comparison would be a dungeon, but even that was more welcoming. The first thing I noticed was the only piece of furniture in the room was a cot. I guess my ticket took up all the money that my parents would use on me for the next week.

I heard a knock on the door as my dad came into my room. “Welcome home son.” He said sarcastically. “I do realize the predicaments you live in, but frankly, I can't help you.” he continued, after which he left the room.

Since, I knew that I would be left alone for the next several hours; I decided to take a short nap. I went over to my cot and noticed the lack of pillows and blankets and tried to fall asleep. This proved to be impossible when my mind went on overdrive. I wonder what’s wrong with me. Lately, I’ve been almost as depressed as I have ever been. This depression seems to be getting worse and worse. It amazes me that nobody sees the inner feelings I am having. All I get out of it is that nobody really cares. It’s weird, I just moved away from my old life—you’d think that I would be upset that I left behind all my old friends and memories. Funny thing about that—there were no good ones. Eventually, I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up to a bang—it sounded a little like... I fully woke up as I realized what it was because my room didn’t have any windows. I raced from my room and as soon as I could find the stairs, I ran down them too. I ran out the open door and found two wreaked cars. The first, I had never seen before, but the second was the new “family car.” In the driver’s seat was my father. My sister was nowhere to be seen, but my mom, she was frozen with a face completely drained of color.

Realizing that it was left to me, I ran inside to call 911.

“Hello?? Hello??” I frantically screamed into the fucking phone.

“Hello???????”

“Hello sir. Please calm down. What happened and where are you located?” the moronic woman instructed me.

“Some type of car crash...my dad was hurt. I—I don’t know where I am, I just moved here, my parents haven’t told me the address yet… ” I rambled.

“Sir we just got another call near you...You can hang up now.” the woman told me.

“Oh, um ok bye.” I stupidly responded.

“Goodbye sir.” she dismissed me as I put down the phone.

I ran back outside to where my dad was and as I got there, my mom slapped me on the face. “This is your fault, you incompetent brat.”

“Me? But I...You told me...I didn’t… I was...” I incredulously attempted to voice my opinion.

“Do you see that hill over there? Climb it...and stay at the top until I come and get you.”

“But why? It doesn’t make any sense...” I murmured

“DID YOU HEAR ME?? I...” my mom responded, but she didn’t get any farther as I just walked off to the hill.

I sat on that hill for hours, just staring at the scenery. New Jersey certainly wasn’t as disgusting as I’d heard from everyone I talked to. The scenery kept me occupied for a while, but eventually I began to think about the reason I was there. What had I done? I woke up from being in my room, like I was told.

“WHAT DID I DO????” I thought, but actually screamed. A few people stared, but at that point, I really didn’t care. I know that everything that’s unexplained in this family is my fault, but still, I wasn’t even outside when it happened!!!! Then again, this was the least of my worries. I wonder when she will come and get me.

“What are you doing?” inquired a boy, no older than 15 years, as I was sitting on the sidewalk. I just shrugged my shoulders, in an attempt to get him to go away. I guess it looked a little bit rude that I didn’t even move my eyes, and continued to stare into space. The boy refused to give up and sat down right next to me. I winced in an attempt to shrink away from coming beating.

The boy asked again, “What are you doing?”

This time, it was with a sweeter and less judgmental tone. I pretended that I didn’t hear him in the hope that he would give up and go away. Instead, he stayed seated and stared in the same direction that I was.

After a long period of silence, I turned to the boy and harshly prodded him and asked, “You’re not going away, are you?”

“Nope.” The boy answered simply as he smiled and put his elbows on his knees. “So...” the boy trailed off as he realized he had nothing to say. And with about as much energy, he picked up again, “So, what’s your name?”

I turned to stare at him and as he was opening his mouth to speak, the boy continued, “Mine’s Josh.” As Josh started to speak again, I started to feel a little bit dizzy.

Suddenly, I felt like I was about to throw up. I tried to cut him off—“shut up already, you—” but couldn’t finish.

As I opened my eyes, I realized I was in a strange house with the boy, watshisname—Josh—Josh, that was it. I was on the couch and Josh was staring at me with concern etched into his face. “Wha?” I groggily voiced. Suddenly more awake and with wide eyes, I freaked. “Where am I? What am I doing here? How did I get here? What is going on?” Going into a panic I started to feel woozy again.

Calmly, Josh replied, “You fainted, and I didn’t know what to do, so I brought you here. Is that okay?”

“Um sure...I got to go....” I replied shakily as I ran my way out of the house. “Wait a sec...I never got your name?” insinuated a hopeful Josh. “Oh, um it’s.....Brandon” I quickly made up and slid my way out.

“See ya Brandon!” Josh yelled as he waved his goodbye.

I ran out of the house as quickly as I could. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, she’s going to kill me.” I shouted. What the hell am I going to do now???? I didn’t even bother checking my pockets for a cell-phone, because my mom always told me that I had no friends and didn’t need one. And that’s when it dawned on me that I had no idea where I was. I still didn’t know the fucking address to my house. I audibly sighed this time and realized that I only had one chance: Josh. Reluctantly, I turned around and climbed back up the path of stones and back to Josh’s house. As I was about to ring the doorbell, a smiling Josh opened the door.

“Are you okay?” Josh asked him. And for the first time all day I told the truth, “No.”

At this, Josh ushered me into his living room. It had a calm and peaceful atmosphere, but very rich and stuck up furniture. I asserted myself and asked if I could use the phone. Josh stuck up his index finger in response and walked out, only to come running back two minutes later with the phone.

I dialed the unfamiliar numbers: 732....um 57...4..20...40 and waited, with a cringe ready, for my mom to answer the phone.

“Hi.... I... I... don’t know where I am...” I said into the phone as my hands shook with fright. I covered the phone and asked Josh where we were.

Josh responded, “853 Ramapo Way” and I repeated it into the phone. As I cringed at my mom’s voice, Josh laughed as she yelled that I was only 2 lefts and a right away from home.

“Michael Isaac Wilks!” My mom shouted into the phone as I heard a bang when the phone was slammed down. And then Josh got confused.

“Michael?” Josh questioned. “I don’t understand.”

“Just leave me alone!” I shouted at Josh, who was taken aback and just stood there as I ran as quickly as I could out of the house.