"Jet" | Teen Ink

"Jet"

November 7, 2016
By T.E.D, Kalamazoo, Michigan
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T.E.D, Kalamazoo, Michigan
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Author's note:

I just thought of this idea.

It was an ordinary Tuesday.  I wake up, get ready for school and head downstairs.  I can smell bacon in the air.  I get downstairs, dad is sitting at the table with a newspaper and Mark and Tucker are eating while mom finishes up the bacon.  I set my backpack down and sit at the table.  Mom hands me my eggs and bacon and I start to eat.  When we are all done eating, Mark, Tucker, and I head to the door to put our shoes on.  That’s when I heard mom scream.
All three of us run over. A man with scruffy hair, old ripped up clothes, and a hammer is standing over mom and dad, both of them tied up.  Dad isn’t moving.  Mom is crying and begging, “Please! Please!”  Mark runs at the man but the man swings over and hits Mark across the face.  Mark tries to get up to run but is too dizzy from the hit. The man ties Mark up too.  He kicks dad, then mom, and then Mark.  Only mom and Mark make a sound.  I start to cry and I hold Tucker in my arms.  The man grabs Tucker and throws him toward the door. The man yells, “Grab your brother and stay outside till I say so!” I quickly grab Tucker and run outside.  I listen through the screen door and I can hear mom yelling dads name.  Then I hear the man yell at her and then mom screams again.  The back door swings open and it’s Mark, broken free from the zip ties.  He then collapses at the picnic table outside.  He’s bloody but still alive, I think.  The man walks through the front door and faces me and Tucker.
“I’m Daniel Morrow.  See this hammer?  It killed your family and if you don’t do what I say I’ll kill you the same way.  Now get in my car and I’ll tell you what to do next.”
We get in his car.  I can feel his dead eyes watching my every move.
We drive for what seems to be eternity.  It’s getting dark now and Tucker is asleep on my lap.  As I sit in the silent, dark car, I think of dad laying on the floor, mom screaming and Mark running in the yard.  I start to cry again.  I try to hold it in but I can’t.  Thankfully Daniel can’t hear me.  The car hits a bump and Tucker wakes up.  I look outside and see that we are no longer on the road but in the woods.  Daniel stops the car and gets out, while me and Tucker pretend to be asleep.  He swings open the car door and yanks us out, he ripped my shirt.  He throws us on the ground and tells us to shut up and go to sleep.  That was the worst night of sleep I’ve gotten in years.
It’s been 2 weeks.  We are still with Daniel who we now call Jet.  We have gotten used to being with him, used to being hungry, and used to being scared.  Me and Jet have kind of bonded but Jet is so mean to Tucker.  He beats Tucker, but he doesn’t touch me.  I almost wish he beat me and not poor Tucker.  Jet takes us to and open part of the woods.  He starts to talk and I know what he’s going to say. 
“You have 2 ways to die.  I either shoot you or suffocate you.  Which is it?”
I offer to go first.
“I’ll be choked.” I say.
I lay down on the ground as he slowly wraps a rope around my neck.  I can hear Tucker crying.  I can feel the rope getting tighter and the world starts to go from black to white over and over.  At this point I can barely breath but I manage to say “Jet! Please..don’t...do this!”
He lets go of the rope and starts to cry.  I can feel the air fill my body.
“I can’t!”  He yells.  “I just can’t!”
We get back in his car and drive forever again.  I look out the window and see trees and billboards.  One of the billboards has a picture of me and Tucker saying,
“MISSING: CARMEN AND TUCKER HILLMAN-REWARD!”  Relief flows through my body.  It is almost dinner so Jet takes us to Denny’s.  I order a burger, fries and a milk shake.  Jet watches me eat.  People around the restaurant watch me eat.  I don’t know why.  I look at Tucker.  He’s eating chicken tenders and fries.  I look at Jet.  He’s still looking at me even with a full plate of food in front of him.  I look out the Denny’s window and I see red and blue flashing lights.  I can hear sirens too!  I look at Jet one more time and he is looking down with tears streaming down his face.
“Carmen, will you visit me?”
I didn’t know what he meant.  Then a group of police and police dogs came flooding in the restaurant.
“Put your hands up!”
Jet stands up and the police cuff him.
“Will you visit me?” He asks again.
At this point I know what he means.  The police stands me and Tucker up and we follow the police officers holding Jet out of the Denny’s.  Me and Tucker wait outside for the police officers to come back and I see Jet getting in a cop car.
“Wait Jet!” I yell. He looks up.  “I will never forget you!”  He smiles and the cop pushes him in the car.
Me and Tucker are finally home.  Mom and Mark are pretty beat up. They went to the hospital the day me and Tucker were taken.  Dad went with them, but never came home.  I have visited Jet a couple times.  The first time I visited him in prison we played cards.  While we were playing he told me he was sorry and that he didn’t mean for it to go this far.  I didn’t respond.  I regret it.  Even though he might not know it, he killed my dad, and he took me and Tucker, I forgive him.



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