A Twist in my Story

As I wheeled my way around the airport with my small bag on my lap, I tried once again to read over the instructions that the officers had given me. I ignored the stares that everyone seemed to be giving me, some even murmuring ‘poor boy’ or ‘stupid reckless teenagers’, either way, I paid no attention to it.

1. Once you get off of the plane, you need to find your luggage.
2. Double check you have everything.
3. Leave the building, head towards the front and look for a man
holding a sign that says ‘Looking for Caleb Freeman’, that’s
your uncle.
4. Good luck Caleb.

I checked off the first and second option before looking over the third, quite surprised that I actually knew what this letter even said. I nodded at the piece of paper before folding it and stuffing it in my jeans pocket. I let out an irritated sigh, as I placed my tired hands back onto the wheels and wheeled myself towards the front entrance, following the signs that hung from the ceiling by chains.
It took a while before I managed to pull myself out of the crowded airport and into the more spacious atmosphere of Fresno, California. I took a deep breath of the fresh air, before I glanced around for a man that held the sign indicated in note.
It wasn’t long until I found a middle aged man jumping around excitedly, his short cut greying hair bobbing around with his head. I noticed next to him stood two teenagers around my age, jumping around with him. They all wore happy, excited smiles as they ignored the odd looks that they were receiving. I smiled at them as I moved over slowly, stopping a metre away from the three, staring up at them.
The three of them obviously hadn’t noticed me yet as they danced around to the faint sound of some sort of music that the girl teenager was singing along to.
The girl held some sort of device in her right hand as she danced around in her old fashion, polka dotted black and white dress, her flats slapping against the ground every time she jumped into the air, extending her tanned arms as she let her long, straight, mid-back length black hair flail around her make-up covered face, her amber eyes closed.
The boy next to her had the same attractive facial structure as the girl as he also had his amber eyes closed, letting his shoulder length, straightened black hair fall around his face after every fast movement. The boy wore a pair of black jeans, which seemed to hug his legs as he wore a pair of red and black checkered shoes on his feet, them having a small label sticking out of them saying Vans. His white shirt seemed to match his ‘Vans’, as they had four cartoon-ish figures on the front along with what long like a faded spider in the background as in large red, capital letters read MCR, whatever that meant.
I heard the gruff voice of the man clear his throat, clearly embarrassed, making my eyes flicker away from the boy and over to my ‘uncle’.
“Uh, well, you see, we were, uh, just celebrating your arrival you see. I haven’t seen you since you were born, and your cousins here—” the word cousins seemed to repeat itself over and over again as my uncle finished his sentence “—have never seen you, but they’ve always wanted to, you see the fu—I mean your father never let us before. I’m your Uncle Billy and these are your cousins Zeke and Isabella.”
An amused smile flashed on my face as I stared at Uncle Billy, I couldn’t help but smirk up at him before biting my lip so it wouldn’t turn into a smile. He seemed nice enough.
“Hey, Caleb, right?” I heard the girl ask, rubbing the back of her neck as her cheeks were still pink from embarrassment.
“Yeah,” I mumbled back nodding as the tip of my finger continued to move along the fabric of my jeans, feeling the odd texture.
“Cool, just double checking, by the way call me Izzy, not Isabella,” Isa—Izzy said with a kind smile, showing her pearl white teeth.
I nodded in response before my eyes flickered back to my uncle who wore an old blue suit, making my eyebrows scrunch together in confusion.
“I’m a lawyer, a suit is compulsory. I have to go work after I drop you and the kids off at home, and then you’ll meet your Aunt Patricia,” Uncle Billy replied, answering my unmentioned question.
“O-oh,” I stuttered, nodded before I stared down at my jeans, a blush rising up on my cheeks as I scratched my bandaged head, making me wince slightly.
“Which reminds me, we have to get going, I don’t want to be late,” Uncle Billy alleged before picking my bag up off of my lap and swinging it over my shoulder.
“You look like a Mummy, dude,” I heard Zeke say in an amused tone as he spoke for the first time while Uncle Billy lead us towards the car park.
“Don’t be mean!” Izzy screeched, before hitting Zeke across the head making me wince back with a whimper.
What’s wrong boy? Don’t just stand there! Make yourself fucking useful and get me another fucking beer!” He screeched before returning his attention back to the television, his feet placed upon the glass countertop as he rested his pudgy hands on his large belly.
I nodded, frightened before scurrying out of the lounge room and into the dark kitchen. Opening the fridge, I stared into white object, my heart dropping when I realised there was no beer, or any alcohol for that matter left. I gulped, before glancing over my shoulder nervously, unsure on what to do. I was going to be murdered. It ends here, oh god…
“Boy! Where’s my beer? Don’t tell me you fucking ran away!” I heard him holler, making me stumble backwards into the lounge room, my body feeling cold and numb.
“T-there—there’s none l-left,” I stuttered, nervously, a humourless chuckle leaving my mouth.
“You think it’s funny? You think it’s funny that you drank all of my beer? Stupid little fucker, you should know better by now,” my father hissed before rising out of his seat with a grunt before advancing towards me.
“I-I didn’t do such a thing, I s-swear!” I spoke, trying to convince him.
“Oh yeah? Then why isn’t there any left? Huh, boy?”
“Y-you drank it, p-please, I wouldn’t touch it. I-it’s yours,” I stuttered out as I kept moving backwards.
“This is going to be fun boy, come here,” he hissed with a smirk as his slapped me across the face with an amused chuckle. “Oh, cheer up boy.”
I grunted in pain as my so called father slammed me into the wall with excitement gleaming in his dark brown eyes—
“Caleb? Caleb!” I heard a girls voice say, dragging me back to reality as I realised I was sitting in my wheelchair in the middle of the road with teary eyes as I stared down at the cement.
My head snapped up to look at Zeke, Izzy and Uncle Billy’s concerned faces. I flashed them a fake smile before I continued walking towards an old, busted up, white Ute. I noticed Zeke and Uncle Billy tug the doors open in the front before they climbed in beside each other, slamming the door behind themselves as they waited for Izzy and I to climb in. Izzy flashed me a smile before moving around to the other side of the car and repeating their actions, leaving me standing outside.
I tugged on the door handle, expecting the door not to budge, but instead it flew open, sending me stumbling backwards. I blushed, embarrassed as I moved quickly towards the back seat and slid in without glancing up at the rest of my family in the car as I closed the door behind me.
I had a family, and hopefully, this would be a real family. I smile tugged at the corner of my mouth, but I refused to let it show as I felt, and heard the Ute roar to life, us pulling out of the crowded car park and driving away from the airport.

The car trip was short and quiet as Uncle Billy dropped us off at the front gate before honking at us and driving away to work. The walk must’ve been difficult for Izzy as she tried to push me up the steep hill of her driveway causing guilt to run through my veins. In the end Zeke rolled his eyes and took over, pushing me easily up the hill until we had reached the top.
Izzy took back over once we were inside, and rolled me towards Aunt Patricia who was in the kitchen cooking some sort of meal that included vegetables and what looked like steak, but I wasn’t positive, I’ve never seen steak before.
Aunt Patricia was a thin woman, like the rest of her family. She wore a smiple floral dress with a plain white apron over top as she continued cutting up what looked like carrot. Aunt Patricia flashed loving smiles at her children before directing her light brown eyes towards me, her eyes scanning over my scarred body before returning it back to my face.
“You poor darling, I can’t believe what you went through!” Aunt Patricia cried before moving over to me to pull me into a gentle hug. I felt her nose scrunch up as she hugged me and it was still scrunched up when she pulled away, but it disappeared after seconds. “You’re so thin, and no offense, but you smell rotten. So why don’t you take a shower, then I’ll feed you the steak and vegies I’ve prepared, then after that you can sleep, I’m sure you’re tired from jetlag.”
I nodded in reply, not bothering to ask what ‘jetlag’ was. I heard movement from behind me as Zeke left the kitchen leaving Izzy to move forwards to grab a garbage bag out of the draw along with some tape.
I listened as Izzy gave me a set of instructions while she wheeled me towards the bathroom, before leaving me to do the rest on my own.