• My mother was shuffling around in the cupboards. She was a beautiful woman.... of course she never believed it.... she believed that's why my father left us, the truth was he was a selfish man. He wanted his own adventure... without a wife and two children. It was sad.... my little brother was close to him... and always believed that he was coming back. I was the backbone of this whole family.... the independent one... without me this would be a mess.

    "Hazel," mother said, Can you go to the store and get me some tomato sauce.... I need it for the spaghetti." "Sure mom."I replied. We lived in a apartment upstairs... the convient store was only a few blocks away... not much happened here... but this neighborhood wasn't the best. I walked down the steps seeing Mr.Mason.. our landlord. My little brother always called him Mr.Eelephant, the man was a large man... and tall.... and he wore clothes that looked 2 sizes too small. I felt bad for him though... he had never married and never had any children... he was a nerd.. he played World of War Crafts all day.

    I went to the store and picked up the tomato sauce... the store was owned by typical Indians.... they were nice people... unless you stole from them... which my brother has done a few times. Going back home there was a breeze... it was nice.. since it's usually a blazing heat... When I came in the house my mother was on the phone. She looked very deep into the conversation. I decided just to leave the sauce on the counter.

    "James!" I called for my brother. "What!?"He screamed back. "What are you doing?" I said calmly. I heard a sigh. I didn't ask anymore... he was probably on his x-box. I sat down on our old retro couch, which mom bought from our old neighbors... she loved weird things like this. I told her it was extremely ugly and only place it should sit is in a dump... but of course I was ignored. I seen mom was off the phone. She had a face of distress... like thinking.
    "Sweetie..." she said.
    "Yes Mom?"I asked.
    "Go get your brother."
    "Why.. is dinner ready?"
    "No we have to go..."
    "To where?"
    "Your grandparents.... hurry!"
    I had heard the tension in her voice and hurried away.