Samuel & I

By Laura Chechak-Roy

SAMUEL & I is a journey of two teenage friends who take a chance by leaving their poverty ridden lives behind them. They travel across the US searching for an escape. With the limited resources two runaways can muster, they are able to experience life in all its beauty, tragedy and sheer evil. Their experiences take a jump start as adolescents, when they are thrust into unfamiliar territories that force them to mature, and in certain circumstances against their will.

SAMUEL & I can make you realize that sometimes the foundation from which we start, may not be as stable as we once believed it to be.

While living off the grid in Hollywood, the two friends discover just how far some people would go to save their own souls. They continue to experience life in its true raw form, while taking bus trips and hitchhiking across state lines. The greatest survival tool we have is instinct, a concept all too familiar in SAMUEL & I.

Although they would like their adventures to continue, major roadblocks hinder their very existence as friends. There are a few scenarios in life that aren't so cut and dried, but in order to survive, they must rely on each other to cushion any unexpected stumbles along the way.

We all have a past that is full of secrets and sometimes shame. What would you do to escape it all? Better still, what wouldn't you do? There is a point in life when we question our limits. It is a matter of time really. How long can we balance on the fine line between insanity and reason?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laura Chechak-Roy
• Release date: Aug 24, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476406138

Laura Chechak-Roy

In short, I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At 18 I traveled to Europe, got married and now have three cheeky sons. I look back on what I have written and how I would have said it differently but that's hindsight I suppose. Finding that place in mind where my thoughts make no sense to anyone but me.....that's the spot I really love. i hope the awkward way in which I write at least intrigues my reader.

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Samuel & I

By Laura Chechak-Roy

Copyright 2012 Laura Chechak-Roy

Editor: Subir Roy

Production & Design: Amit Roy

Published at Amazon

Table of Contents

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Chapter One: Smitty And The Neighborhood

Chapter Two: Holmewood

Chapter Three: Predicament

Chapter Four: The Start Of Something Different

Chapter Five: Changes

Chapter Six: Forgiveness Is Optional

Chapter Seven: Drama

Chapter Eight: A Fresh Start

Chapter Nine: Line Them Up

Chapter Ten: Closet Full Of Skeletons

Chapter Eleven: Double Take

Chapter Twelve: Patience Is A Virtue

Chapter Thirteen: Breakaway

Chapter Fourteen: The Encounter

Chapter Fifteen: Remember Me?

Chapter Sixteen: Revelations

Chapter Seventeen: The Fear

Chapter Eighteen: Home Truths

Chapter: Nineteen: Loose Ends

Chapter Twenty: Samuel & I

Thank You

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to http://www.smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this story to my entire family, both immediate and in-laws. While writing this story, I couldn’t help but take inspiration from all aspects of my personal life. I am so grateful to have such a supportive family, both in blood relation as well as marital.

There were times when I thought that I might not be able to finish this tale by the deadline for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, but I never really felt the pressure from anyone in my family, just myself. I appreciate being given patience. There have been many occasions and exchanges between family that have given me ideas to create events in SAMUEL & I. Thank you all, I am eternally grateful.

Finally, I must make a special mention to my husband and son, and also to the little one in my tummy, on its way. I am so happy to have you all in life. There are times when I needed you to be there and other times when I needed silence, and you have always been understanding… Thank you.

Acknowledgments

No matter how many times I get a chance to write this section, I will probably never get it correct, but I will keep trying. I would like to thank Mr. Subir Roy. He has been my editor from the beginning; I couldn’t have asked for a more supportive father in-law. Your ability to re-assure me and keep me focused, is much appreciated. Your skill in correcting my repetitive grammatical errors ought to be commended. Thank you.

I would also like to thank Mr. Amit Roy. He has been a professional in every sense not just with correcting, producing, cover design, and assisted editing, but with keeping me on track as well.

This story was written in two weeks, which was no easy feat in itself. This tale’s completion is a testament to the dedication of these two men.

Chapter One: Smitty And The Neighborhood

I have come too far to turn back now. For some reason I thought, it would be easy to watch one of the person’s closest to me, die. I didn’t do anything to instigate it, but I didn’t do anything to stop it either.

Yes, I felt guilty, but to everyone else, I was the victim. There have been many times I have thought about ending it. I had become desensitized to the act of suicide over the years. I know for some people, they can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. They feel the only option is to end their pain. However, it seems to me to be a selfish act. I don’t feel the need to sugarcoat it. Maybe I have become too cynical about it all. I know from personal experience that the people most affected by it are the ones left behind. Of course the people who attempt or succeed in committing suicide have their own reasons. Ok, they are gone and no longer have to worry about their own lives, but they inadvertently shatter the lives of others, mainly the people who love them.

So, I guess I do have a sense of guilt. Not because I felt it was my fault, but because I didn’t feel anything. One of the people I loved the most and whose opinion meant the world to me, decided to end it all when I was 14. Why this single act alone led me to spiral out of control I will never know. Under the circumstances, it would have been very easy for me to turn to vandalism, drugs, or violence, in the kind of neighborhood I grew up in, but it didn’t turn out that way. I had an interesting childhood until that point.

My neighborhood could be ranked as one step up from sleeping on the streets. I felt love in my household; it was outside my home that caused me to have an almost selective introverted personality. I was born into a loving family, loving yet slightly screwed up. Denial was a great personal protector. I had always known that there was something different about me from my other siblings, but I chose not to see it. It would have been very easy to go from treading water to sinking in it. Instead, I chose to look at my surroundings and blend in. I was poor and everyone around me was as well, but even in poverty, there are degrees of separation. However, for the most part, everyone I grew up with had a similar upbringing. It’s really quite strange; it has been 20 years since I thought about that summer when I met Samuel, but it is as clear and fresh in my mind today as it was then, as though nothing has changed, as if I haven’t changed. But I know people have moved on; hell, the world has moved on. Everyone has got themself into a frenzy. If things were to have happened differently, I might have found it easier to sleep at night. Some kids had it really hard. My friend, Samuel’s life was an especially miserable one.

I guess you have to appreciate his upbringing… or the lack thereof. While most kids played on the street corners or hung out in arcades or at Laundromats, he was in a homemade prison. I met Samuel the day he moved in, a few streets away, in the nice area of town. We got to be so close. I brought him into my inner circle of friends. His mom used to let him play with kids in the neighborhood all the time. However one night everything changed. His mother changed. That summer seemed to take such a long time to get going. All the kids on my block were so excited.

When that third week in June approached every year, kids around the neighborhood rejoiced. Summer break had begun. No more cocky twenty something teachers yelling at you for petty things like chewing gum or passing notes in class. There was no dreaded detention either. Oh, the humiliation of writing the same sentence 200 times on the chalkboard! Teachers were so lame, as if you would remember those moments as life changing experiences.

The strange thing about summer break is… we always found ourselves hanging around the school when it was closed. I suppose we thought we were being dangerous. There was no one guarding the school for those three months. As children, we thought that it was like breaking the law, to climb the padlocked fence and get into the playground. There was a bright map of America painted on the ground. We used to jump on each state, and shout out a name. I know now that we only got one state right, and that was the one we lived in.

I was so carefree as a child. I had no curfew and as long as I didn’t get into any major trouble, my parents weren’t strict. Safety in the neighborhood was not great, but we would walk around in small groups. It was an unspoken rule not to go out and play without at least one other person. Crime and drugs tend to go hand-in-hand amidst poverty. When you need money for the roof over your head or food for your kids you have to take drastic measures. We didn’t go to bed without having had any food, but we have gone to bed feeling hungry.

With the exception of money, I think Samuel and I were birds of a feather. He was born to privilege, yet he was lonely. I was born into poverty but had loads of friends. I think we related to each other in the sense that we were the extremes of our situations. Actually, I was always the poorest of my friends. They assumed I wouldn’t be able to buy the coolest new toy at Christmas, or afford to go on school trips like them. There were times when we had to provide $5 to pay for the gas for the school bus on field trips. Often the kids were right, I didn’t have the money, but they were constantly trying to make me feel inferior. Samuel was different. He didn’t care about status. He wasn’t trying to impress me… or rub my nose in his wealth. He just wanted to be my friend.

His mother came from money, and when she married his father she had to choose love over money. They lived just outside my neighborhood, in the good part of town. Samuel still had to attend my school by law because in those days it wasn’t common for people to get homeschooled. Samuel’s father made a good living as an accountant.

Samuel didn’t want for anything, not that he would. When his parents first met, they apparently fell deeply in love. I could never imagine how that could be the case, considering how frigid she seemed to be. According to Samuel’s father, she wasn’t always an ice queen. To be honest, my memories of her are quite vague. It wasn’t until later that everything changed. I prefer to reminisce about the happy times in my childhood, which, oddly enough, don’t include her; like my ninth birthday.

It was the summer of 1991. That was an amazing time. A whole decade before America second-guessed itself in every security situation. As a child I had never felt the threat of an overseas bad guy. I suppose I was lucky to be born as the last of the fearless generation of children. I don’t think parents today are trying to scare their kids. However, I do think that children now are far more exposed to the dangers of society. I suppose I was more bubble-wrapped. I did some pretty stupid things as a child. I put myself in questionable situations. But when I was a kid there was no Internet, no predators, and no unknown danger to worry about. It seems absurd to say all this now, as I am only approaching my thirties. My friends are always saying so much has changed for their own children. It’s hard to believe that so little time has elapsed for this to happen. I feel really old now. Damn grownups and their eventual truths. They always said, You will see things differently when you’re older and have kids…

When do you think it is that we lose the ability to ignore the judgments and opinions thrust upon on us by others? When I was younger, unless you were my relation or my friend, I couldn’t care less about what you thought of me. There are so many things I miss about being a kid. I have a vivid memory of playing in the rain. I ran down the street chasing Samuel with no shoes on, pretending that I was treading along the sand of a golden tropical beach. I had never been to a beach nor had seen one as a child, but that didn’t matter. When I ran out of breath I would stop and stand in a stream of water that was headed for a sewer grate. I made sure I stayed clear of the actual sewer. I could sense that there could be glass floating by the filter, but it didn’t occur to me that the water I was standing in, itself probably had glass, and many things that could be more dangerous, such as, used drug needles.

I never really thought of the world around me as dangerous. With the exception of once being robbed by a grown man in broad daylight while out walking with my friend Samuel, I thought I was pretty safe. We were heading to the library to borrow books for a school project when it happened. As you can imagine we did not go to the library very often because it was in the center of drug central in our neighborhood. Of course we lived in a big city, but it was the only library within walking distance, and we didn’t have the money to just get on a bus to go to town. So, we thought of just walking fast, not making eye contact with anyone and we would be ok. Samuel was not used to having to conceal any property he had in his possession the way I was. Where I come from, people can act like magpies. If you are wearing an expensive ring and you walk in an unfamiliar area, you should either take the ring off, or to not draw attention to yourself, turn the ring around. If someone sees you wearing a plain band they are less likely to attack you for it because they will assume it is cheap.

This situation was a first for Samuel because he only came out of the house to play with me, and I never took him anywhere that was this unsafe before. So, as we were walking, he pulled a Walkman out of his hooded jacket pocket, and asked me if I wanted to listen to it. I freaked out and shoved it into my jacket pocket. I whispered to Samuel, Pretend nothing happened and just keep walking. The next thing I knew, I had a throbbing pain coming from my left ear. As I went to hold my ear a guy appeared before us and stopped us from walking past him. I looked down at his hand and he was holding a butterfly knife.

Samuel and I were silent. The man said, Give me your Walkman, I seen it and I want it. Don’t try to be a hero or I will take a couple of your teeth along with it. I handed over the Walkman and looked down at the ground so that he didn’t think I was trying to be brave. As I stared at the pavement I saw some blood come down and initially thought it was my own earlobe bleeding. I could feel he sliced it, but it wasn’t