I was beginning to think that my life would be like any other. Normal and without any notable adventures. It's not bad per se, but just living for the sake of it was not something I wanted to do. Just as I was accepting my fate trying to enter university everything fell apart. Well, not exactly everything, just the space that was in front of me while I was trekking in some forest near my house. Or at least that is what I think happened.
One lovely but lonely afternoon I was lying down on my couch, thinking about all the decisions that made me want to live alone and far away from my parents. It's not a bad history, they were never in the house and just sent me food and sometimes toys to play with when I was a little child and my grandma was there to take care of me. Then my parents got the opportunity of their lives, I think it was some days before my 10th birthday, and we moved to the other side of the country. With no one to take care of me, I had to learn everything by myself cooking, doing the laundry, tending the house, and all that. Naturally, I didn't have much time to go out and play with children my age if I wanted to manage correctly my life.
In the first year, I tried to go out and play, to let my mind wander in the clouds, to escape that life full of responsibilities that weren't mine, to begin with, and be like kids my age. But at the end of the day, every time I did that, the responsibilities just kept piling up. There were occasions when I had to go to school without a clean set of clothes, smeared with mud and trash collected from when I was rolling around the grass. I think that sometimes the school teachers tried to call my parents but in the end that didn't amount to anything.
So, I stopped trying to play with other kids when the day was packed with work. And after some time I just didn't find the amusement that I wanted when I could get out so I stopped it altogether. The only saving grace was that one friend that I made with some kid in my neighborhood, Jack I think. He would always try to come to my house and help me with some of my chores and then grab the PC to play some random games. It doesn't sound that much but to me, at that time, it was a great help to get out of some of the mundane responsibilities that burdened my day. Sometimes we would just sit in the lounge and talk for whatever time I had before I had to make dinner.
- Why do you always have so much to do around your house? Shouldn't your parents be the ones doing it, or at least the majority of what you do?
That certainly was one hell of a question, one that even I couldn't hope to answer. I never got to know what in the world my parents were working on and how it gave us so much money. Like I was literally drowning in money much more than I could ever imagine.
- I don't know. They aren't in the house much of the time. Maybe two or three times a year in some important festivities.- It seems that I put a bleak face or maybe some frown appeared on my face because he stopped asking questions altogether.
- Well, at least you got me to cover your back from time to time.
He responded to me with a big smile on his face as if to comfort me. The question itself didn't hurt that much, I was accustomed already to the life I was living and it seemed insignificant the absence of my parents.
After that little chat, Jack even started to come to my house to eat, with some lunch that his mom made of course.
With the passage of the years the chores started to become easier, and balancing my personal life with school became even more so. I didn't have many problems with my grades because I tried to learn by memory everything in class to not have problems in my house trying to pack studying, homework, and housework all in less than eight hours. At some point, it became normal for me to not study in my house and still obtain a good grade. My relationship with Jack didn't change over time, we became even close something between a good friend and a brother. I even went to his house to pass the time during the weekends and sometimes his parents took me out in summer to some local beach.
I made some additional friends in high school, three more or something like that, and some girlfriends, maybe two, but nothing serious. I did have some time to spare here and there, but going out the entire afternoon was out of the question, and that became a problem sometimes. If I had a change of class then all the connections with those friends ended up lost. The only ones that I kept in contact with were those near my house and even then it was just to pass the time between classes or have someone to talk to on the road back home.
That was my life for seven whole years. Clean the house, do your chores and homework, and then sometimes go out with the family of my friend. The first years were arduous and tiring, and maybe I resented my parents because they didn't support me the way they should be. But in the end, I had to steel myself because if not, then I would live in a total disaster. Considering that my grandma taught me that everything needed to be tidy and that I had to be responsible, then it's not entirely unthinkable that I managed to put my life in some kind of order by myself.
Then just after graduating from high school, my parents appeared from out of nowhere, well not entirely out of nowhere, they said something along the lines of "Your graduation is an important date, at least important enough to make time for it". As I said, I'm not close to them so it didn't matter if they were there or not. But not wanting to miss such a perfect opportunity I decided to tell them that I wanted to visit Grandma.
- Hey, I was wondering if I could go back and visit Grandma? It's been 7 years since I have seen her, and I wanted to take my vacation there.
They just observed me with blank eyes as if I was a fool for asking such a thing.
- She died. Two years ago.
After that, it was all a blank for me, I don't even remember what happened. The next thing I knew, I was on my way to the city where my grandma was buried, a lot of money to survive out there, and a forceful promise to my parents to enroll in university before I turned 18.
Now, 7 years later, I'm back in the house of my grandma. I laid down on the couch where I used to watch cartoons every afternoon after doing my homework. The house itself was in a pretty good state even if my grandma wasn't here to take care of it. I guess my parents at least took care of that, even if it was to sell it down the line.
Coming back from that mental travel I just stood there for a couple of hours, not knowing what to do with my life and contemplating how to get into university. After a couple of hours doing nothing, I got frustrated because I got nothing done and decided to take a quick walk around the park just behind my house. Taking some walks around nature was always a good way to clear my mind if I became stressed during the day.
After 30 or so minutes of walking around, I started to accept that I needed to go to university. Maybe I would even have a somewhat healthy social life, know a couple of people and even get myself a girlfriend, while trying only to maintain myself with the money that my parents gave me. Getting an apartment that is not too difficult to clean and maybe even get takeouts every Friday. I was getting my hopes high up, even getting a little happier after receiving news of my grandma's passing and moving across the entire country.
Then an explosion.
Then nothing.