The next morning I came shuffling out of my bedroom and saw Jason sitting at the kitchen table with the phone in one hand and his face in the other.
"Is everything okay?' I asked
Jason looked up at me with an enraged, yet almost sorrowful, look in his eyes.
"Apparently that cop that was chasing you kids yesterday was looking for Pete.
"Yea, I know he was hasslin' some kids, lookin' for a fight."
"Nah, that's not why," Jason explained. "Apparently his old man blew the rent check on liqueur and Pete held up a convenient store just to get a little extra cash."
"What! Really?"
I was speechless. Pete liked to make trouble of course, but we all knew that deep down he was a good kid and he wouldn't actually do something that stupid.
"Damn it!" Jason said, as he pounded his fist on the table. "A while back he came to me asking for help when his old man pulled a similar stunt. I guess he didn't wanna bother his friends no more."
"Did the cop end up catching him?" I asked.
"Yea he did. Pete's lookin' at doin some time," Jason answered. "I just can't believe he didn't come to me for help. I know we ain't got much, but we have enough to at least get by and help out our friends.
That sunday went by real slow. I went out for a short walk. Erik was probably still grounded, so he wouldn't be able to hangout. I decided to head over to Sally's place. I just really needed to get my mind off what happened to Pete.
As I strolled up to the porch and was about to ring the bell, the door suddenly opened. It was Sally.
"Hey, what's up?" She asked.
"Eh, ya know just taken a walk." I didn't bother to ask her if she knew about Pete getting arrested, because I figured she already knew. Word got around pretty fast in our neighborhood.
"Ya wanna come inside?"
"Sure," I replied.
We went inside to the living room and sat down.
Sally reached for a cigarette and a lighter off of the coffee table.
"Mom said no smoking in the house!" Her bratty little brother yelled as he walked outta the kitchen with a bowl of cereal. "I'm going to tell on you!"
"Like hell you are you little brat!" Sally yelled back. "If you tell then I'll use this light to burn all your comic books and melt all of your action figures."
The threat shut him up, as he ran with his bowl of cereal up stairs to his room.
"Connor's shut a bratt," Sally turned to me and said with a disgusted look on her face.
"I'm sure he'll grow out of it," I replied.
"Yea and grow up to be the biggest butthole in town," Sally said with half of a grin on her face.
We both had a good laugh, as we continued to talk late into the day.
Finally her parents got home just before dinner time.
Her mom walked in through the garage door.
"Sally will you please help your father unload groceries out of the car?"
"Fine," Sally said with a sigh as she got up and went out to the garage.
"Hi Jonah," her mom said with a smile. "We're going to be eating supper soon. You're more than welcome to stay and join us."
"Thanks, but I really should be going. My brother wants me back before dark tonight."
At that I got up and headed out the front door.
The next morning I woke up and went to school. It was like any other Monday. I knew I probably wouldn't see Pete for a long time. He was the heart and sole of the group, always makin' sure that everyone was havin' a good ol' time. He would always wait around for me after school since he was ahead of me and got out earlier.
As I gazed out the window of my classroom I started to imagine what was happening to Pete. Maybe he was sitting in a cell. Knowing him he probably tried to smooth talk his way out and got a beating from the cops. "Man I hope he's okay," I thought.
"Jonah!"
I looked back over towards the teacher who was scolding me for not paying attention. I generally did pay attention and enjoyed learning at school. Even in math class, but how could I think of anything now except for how my friend Pete was in real trouble.
Finally, the bell rang. Mrs. Jackson's math class was my last class of the day. At long last, I was free to go home. Well, at least after I did my homework, which I would probably blow off anyways. I exited out the main door of my school and ran across the parking lot. I stopped just before crossing the street and decided to make a left through the main part of town before heading home. It wasn't really a short cut, in fact it was a significantly longer route, but I really wanted the solitude right now.
As I walked through town I imagined how things would be different if Pete got sent away. He was the life of the group and I honestly don't know what we'd do without him. Even if he busted himself out, which knowing Pete was a likely possibility, he'd have to be on the run and leave town. We would most likely never see him again.
I eventually made it home a couple hours later.
I went straight to my room and crawled in bed.
After lying there for a few minutes I decided to get up and play video games for a little bit. The time flew by and before I knew it, it was past supper time. I hadn't even noticed that Jason never came home. He probably was working late as he often did.
I completely spaced my homework. I was tired though, so I decided I would just go to bed now and wake up extra early to do my homework before school.
The next morning I woke to the sound of the dog barking at the window. I looked over at my alarm clock to see that I was late for school.
I jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes, grabbed my backpack and rushed out the door.
As I ran up to the front door of the school, the principal was there to greet me.
"Mr. Jonah Anderson, may I see you in my office please."
I shrugged my shoulders and followed the short, bald, grumpy looking man to his office.
Once there, I plopped myself down and sunk deep into the chair.
"Jonah, I didn't bring you in here because you were late. Although, that will have to be dealt with if it happens again. However, I will excuse it this time due to the circumstances.
"I'm sorry sir, I wasss..."
"Don't interrupt me Jonah!" He interjected harshly.
"Yes sir," I muttered under my breath.
"What's that?"
"Yes sir," I said more clearly.
"Your brother called me and is on his way to pick you up. He didn't want me to tell you what happened, but under the circumstances you are excused from class whenever you need for the rest of the week."
"Thank you sir," I said hesitantly. "What is going on," I thought. I didn't want to ask since he said my brother didn't want the principal to tell me. I assume Jason wants to tell me himself. Perhaps our father died. Why would I care about that? I barely knew the guy.
As I sat there in the principal's office waiting for my brother to come pick me up I felt really nervous about what was going on. I started to feel sick to my stomach.
"Why don't you go wait by the door," the principal suggested.
"Okay," I responded.
I got up and walked over towards the front door of the school.
As I approached the window I could see my brother already there waiting by the side of the curb in his blue pickup truck. It looks like he came straight from work. "What could possibly be going on?" I muttered to myself under my breath as I stepped outside.
Approaching the truck I could see my brother staring blankly out the window with a disturbed look on his face. I hadn't seen him look like that since our mother had passed away.
I opened the door and got inside. My brother turned towards me with a saddened look in his eye.
"Kid, I gotta tell ya something. It's really serious."
"What's up?"
"Well, as you know Pete was arrested the other day by that officer who had caught up to him."
"Yea, is he okay?"
"He tried to escape last night and well, he posed like he had a gun in order to get away and the cop shot him on the spot."
My face froze in silence. I had no words to speak.
We both sat there in silence for a minute staring at each other.
"Is he..?
"He's gone kid."
My brother put his arm around me and I buried my face in his chest trying to not cry.
The drive home was in complete silence. Once we got home I went straight to my room and went to bed. Jason knew to give me space.
A few minutes later I heard the phone ring. Jason answered and then hollered that it was for me.
I didn't really feel like talkin' to no one at the moment, but nonetheless I reluctantly came out of my room.
Jason handed me the phone. As I put the device to my ear expecting it to be Erik or Sally. I guess it could possibly be Pete's girlfriend, but I doubt it. None of us had heard from her in weeks. I'm not even sure that they were still dating.
The voice was deep and gravelly like an old man. Definitely not Erik or Sal.
"Hello, is this Jonah"
"Yes, this is him."
"This is Jesse Pete's brother."
I paused for what seemed like an eternity. I had no idea what to say.
"I need to give you something of Pete's. He told me to give it to you. Come by the house after the funeral.
"Okay," I replied as I hung up the phone.
"Who was that," Jason asked.
"Pete's brother Jesse. He wants to give me something after the funeral."
I went back to my room until it was time to go to the funeral.
At the funeral, we sat towards the back next to Sally and Pete's girlfriend Claire. Erik showed up by himself. I guess his parents couldn't make it. They weren't really evolved in the neighborhood anyways.
Pete's father got up to speak, half drunk he stumbled to the front.
"My son, that that, that was one hell of a stupid thing to do rrunnnin' awaaayy from a cop llike like that. I only feel sorry fur yuh, cause well, well now I am gonna have to send in the rent checks myself and do all your other chchores." He stumbled back to his seat.
I wanted to run up and punch him. I clenched my fist and held it close to my side.
Jason put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me.
After the funeral let out Jason offered to take us all out for dinner. None of us were really hungry, but he insisted that we eat something and that we should all be together for now.
Going out to eat was actually a good idea I suppose, but the whole time we all just sat in silence until finally Claire spoke up,
"I still can't believe he's really gone." She said while trying to hold back tears.
"There there," Sally wrapped her arm around her shoulders. "Why don't we get outta here and have some girl time. I think it'd do you some good."
Claire shook her head in agreement and the two started towards the door.
Sally turned around, "I'll see y'all later. Imma make sure she gets home alright."
We were pretty much finished with our meals so Jason took Erik home and then we went by Pete's house.
I got out and walked up to the porch where his father was sitting with a bottle of booze in his hand.
"Ya know you were a real asshole at your son's funeral."
"Why don't you take this backpack that Jesse left for you and get outta here kid," he said as he took a swig of vodka from his bottle.
I picked up the backpack and walked to the truck.
After we got home I took the bag to my room, but I refused to open it until the rest of the gang was with me. The backpack sat there haunting me as I stared at it in disbelief that Pete was really dead.
The following day the school had an assembly, everyone was pretty quiet that day.
Jason wouldn't let me stay home that day. He said I needed the distraction, but nothing could take my mind off of what happened.
After school, I met up with Erik at the bus stop. We decided to walk home together so we could stop by Sally's house and tell her about the backpack. Sally went to a private school so we hadn't seen her yet.
Her family was actually fairly middle class, not wealthy necessarily, but they had enough money for Sally to attend a decent private school on the other side of town. I don't know why she was such a punk, she actually had pretty cool parents.
We arrived at Sally's house and she was sitting there on the porch. She had stayed home that day.
We showed her the backpack and finally decided to open it up.
I unzipped the bag and a notebook. I opened up to the first page, and found "To the Junkyard kids." As I flipped through the rest of the book, I realized that it was a journal of the neighborhood with all of us.
It had writings of the times we all had spent together going back to the last few years.
"It's a journal!" Erik exclaimed
"How sweet," Sally added
I looked through it some more. "I think it's meant to be our history. A history of us and the neighborhood.
"What do you think he wanted us to do with it?" Erik asked as both he and Sally looked at me.
"What are y'all lookin' at me for?"
I looked down at the notebook and stared for a minute.
"Alright, let's see what else is in here."
I dug my hand deep into the bottom of the bag. I made a surprised look on my face as I felt what was there.
"What is it?" Sally and Erik both asked simultaneously as they peered into the bag.
I pulled out a pistol from the back pack.
We all jumped back for a second, surprised that Pete had had a gun.
It was loaded and there were three extra magazines in the bottom of the bag as well. None of us knew much about firearms except for one time that Jason took Eric and I out to our cousin's place outside of town to go target shooting.
I quickly put the gun back into the bag before anyone would see me with it.
"Listen up, we can't tell nobody 'bout this, got it," I said sternly, while looking around to make sure no one was watching us. Particularly Sally's snot nosed little bratty brother Connor.