AndreaNadiaR

Published Online: August 23rd, 2011

I slowly walked up to the door; it didn t look like anyone was home, but it s better to check. This was the kind of house I secretly dreamed of. I firmly clutched my clipboard as I knocked on the door; waited a minute, no answer. The door was locked and so were all the windows on the front of the house. I walked around the side of the house and encountered a fence which I easily scaled. I landed in a small vegetable garden, stepped out of it. Shook off my clothes and shoes and covered the foot prints. Checked the back door and windows; looked up and found it. Bingo!My way in! These idiots had left a window on the second floor open, and they had a shed right beside the house. I climbed the shed, checked the neighbours yards. Good, no one in sight. Pulled myself up onto the roof and walked across to the farthest window. This was so much harder with the dumb clipboard. But I needed it in the case that someone opened the door. I had to wrestle with the window a bit, but finally opened it and climbed in. Pink walls, purple bedspread and lots of toys. Jackpot, Barbie s. I muttered. I could hear some annoying little dog barking downstairs. I left the room without disturbing anything. What looked like an older child s room was next. A laptop along with power cord. I had never gotten both at once! Took the pillowcase off the kid s bed and put the laptop and cord into it. I checked the master bedroom, found some jewellery, just the usual. But it could be profitable. One last stop before I leave the kitchen. They had one massive butcher knife which I helped myself to. Lots of people have motion detectors on the main floor, but these folks had a crazy bundle of fur running around. They probably have an alarm though. So, back the way I came. I went up the stairs, remembering my dreams of this kind of life. These people had everything that they could ever want. I had enough to live on, but I got all of it from people like this. Back to the sickeningly colourful girl s room;yay. I crawled out the window and slid it back down to its original position, walked across the roof and onto the shed. From the shed I could see an SUV pulling up onto the driveway. I quickly ducked against the house, and then sprang into the yard. I couldn t go out the front, so I had to use the back. Crap, not so lucky as to find a back alley, but a high fence and someone else s property. I had to struggle on this fence. I got over and me and my bag full of ready cash went crashing into a pool, headfirst. I had spent half an hour trying to get this. The laptop is lost but the jewellery could still be sold. Damn,I hadn t broken in for a couple of weeks and I needed this cash. My clothes and this bag were so heavy when saturated with water. I got out of the pool and dumped the laptop and cord; dead weight now. These people s back door were open, I had to get out of there.

Sprinting was my forte, so I used that often. I ran down the side of this house, luckily they didn t have a fence sealing me in. Hit the sidewalk and kept running for a couple minutes. It was the middle of summer, really hot, and my clothes were drying off although my shoes were still soaked. I kept walking until I got back to the bridge. Noah was already there. The bridge hid him in its shadows which made his dark hair look even darker. If I didn t know him I would probably have stayed clear. Noah was 17 and my brother Matthew and I were both 16. Helena! What happened to you? he said in an amused tone. Shut up, someone decided to build a pool. Did you even get anything? I countered. I ve got a wallet with 60 bucks and a bank card. He told me with pride. Any chance you know the PIN number? I asked. Maybe we ll get lucky. At that moment Matthew came up behind me. Nothing today he stated. Luckily I still had a knife and jewellery. The three of us started walking towards the closest pawn shop. Noah decided that he was going to keep the knife, but the jewellery, we sold. We made another 75 dollars. We were up to 135, pretty good for a day s work. That was enough for the week. Next stop was an ATM. Noah stood there for half an hour trying to guess the PIN. Matthew and I sat on the ground and begged him to give up. Down the street I saw a police car patrolling the area. Finally Noah agreed to leave. It was a warm night so we resolved to sleep in the park. The summer wasn t bad at all. We could walk around in the day and sleep comfortably at night. Winter was the real problem. Freezing cold days, and even colder nights. A lot of the time, we opted for a shelter. But this year was going to be different. The three of us had been saving our money all year and Noah was going to be 18 soon. By saving, I mean that Noahcarried hundreds of dollars on his person. Good thing he didn t fall into a pool, or we d have a wonderful time drying out money. We had found a guy who was willing to rent us an apartment, dirt cheap. It was tiny and in a crummy neighbourhood, but it was warm and it was going to be ours. We had enough for 4 months. We were planning to start renting it in November. There was enough money to pay till February, and we just had to raise some more for March. Then it would hopefully be warmer out. If not, we were going south. Matthew and I are twins and we had lived in a trailer park with my mom. Let s just say that she wasn t the best influence. When we were younger she was okay, but when we were 12 things started going downhill. Two years later Matthew and I left. At the time, Noah lived beside us. He lived with his dad. He had a brother who had moved out, gotten a decent job and never looked back. Noah s dad was an angry drunk, and he got drunk often. When our mom and Noah s dad were off doing whatever, we would play together. We had been friends since I was 6. Anyway, one night I told Matthew that I was leaving the trailer and asked him to come with me. He was reluctant at first, but when he saw me packing he agreed to go. Matthew and I went to get Noah. I knew that he d come with us. Noah wasn t afraid of leaving, I was slightly worried and Matthew was absolutely terrified. And that was that. We were just three kids, who didn t have real homes. * * *

We went on for weeks like this; getting enough to live on from wallets, cars and houses. Noah had found another laptop. It was our prized possession. We could charge it on the side of houses, or in bathrooms at stores. Matthew had gotten very interested in researching hot cities and states. He soon informed me that Arizona was his state of choice. Matthew loved the laptop, he was always hacking into peoples wifi and relaying the news and random facts about everything from astronomy to biology. Matthew was a smart kid. In the school that we had gone to; Matthew was the best student in almost all of our classes. Had I not run away, he would have graduated and maybe gotten a scholarship. He would have gone to college, maybe I would have gone to something. But at the time, this was the best option. In the long run, probably not.There is no doubt in my mind that Matthew will make a better life for himself. It s hard for me to imagine Matthew, and Noah for that matter, having a life away from me. We ve all been together since we were little. It s funny, when I imagine having my own house and family, Matthew and Noah are always there. When in reality they probably wouldn t be, they d have families of their own. Matthew is my brother and I look out for him. Whereas Noah is my closest friend, but I don t think of him as a brother. I never understood how on tv shows or books people always feel like brother and sister. I wouldn t want to see him as a brother; it s more fun this way. We ve had no reason to stick together this long, yet we have. * * *

It was mid-October when it started really cooling off. I went to the Salvation Army and found some heavy jackets for Noah, Matthew and myself. We ve recently been hunkering down in the playground in the park. It blocks wind and it s pretty warm with our old-new jackets and blankets. One difficulty is hauling around the blankets or trying to hide them in a tree. But such is life. We were running low on cash. Noah had our savings, which we couldn t spend, and I had about 10 bucks. It was time to top up. We went for a walk through a parking lot at the closest mall. I was carrying a small blanket and the other two were checking cars. Noah called me over Cha Ch ing, dumb lady left her purse here! I walked over and gave him the blanket. It was an older ford, which didn t seem to have an alarm. Lucky for us. Noah did a quick glance around, wrapped his hand in the blanket and smashed a side window. I grabbed the purse and put it around my shoulder, Matthew took the blanket, Noah checked the car. There was nothing left, so we walked away. Once we were a good block away from the parking lot I looked into the bag. We had 50 dollars, a daybook, an iPod, some makeup and a cell phone. When Matthew saw the phone he was quick to flaunt his knowledge Some phones can be tracked by their owners in the case that it s stolen. Like right now. Thank you Matthew. I said sarcastically Would a pawn shop know that a phone is stolen? I added. I would guess so. Noah replied. So I just dropped it onto the sidewalk and kept walking. The iPod was a great find. The music; much less desirable. This woman s playlist was full of Miley Cyrus and Ke$ha. But there were hundreds of songs. Would that make an iPod more valuable? We

would soon find out. Now the daybook and makeup were left. No one would buy either of those things used. I left them in the bag. Which brings us to the bag itself. This thing is massive. I stated to no one in particular. We should keep it. Our backpacks are full; we need another bag. This looks more innocent than a whole bunch of plastic bags. Noah explained. Good call. Matthew interjected. We kept walking towards the pawn shop when a cool breeze blew by us. It sent a shiver down my spine, got Matthew shivering, and tousled Noah s longish hair off his face. He found me looking at him What? he asked with a hint of enjoyment. Nothing I replied as I turned my face away. That s weird, I found myself blushing at Noah. Noah s like my brother. Well, no. Now I understand that statement, but ah. My mind is in no particular order. I can t even explain this to myself. We were walking for another few minutes, I felt awkward. Another first, I ve never felt awkward around Noah. Anyway, we were walking when Matthew brought up Arizona again. Helena? Yeah. Do you think that we could go to Arizona one day? Umm sure. I guess. Okay. Thanks. Why is your heart so set on Arizona? Noah chimed in Well, I ve always wanted to go travel around. And Arizona is really hot compared to here. So if we were sleeping in parks or something, it wouldn t be too bad. He replied I never knew that you wanted to travel. I stated I don t tell you everything Helena. He said. He seemed slightly embarrassed. Oh um. Alright was my best attempt at an answer. We walked the rest of the way to the pawn shop in silence.

This pawn shop was smaller than the ones that we normally found. We switched up the places that we used to make sure no one caught on. We also had to switch neighbourhoods often as to not be suspected. We stepped into the shop and an older man greeted us. He was a short man, frail with the thickest glasses imaginable. I put the iPod onto the counter. Surprisingly he knew how to turn it on. He told us that he would give us 40 dollars. I countered by telling him that there were hundreds of songs and anyone who was competent should be able to keep all those songs. He wouldn t boost his price. I could tell that that was all I was going to get. I took his 40 dollars and left the shop with Noah and Matthew in tow.

The sun was low in the sky and everything cast long dark shadows. Although there was a beautiful orange-ish glow in the sky, the temperature was dropping and a cold wind was blowing through. It had been a long day that was now ending in a cold night. We had been walking around scouting things out all day and were exhausted. Luckily I had seen some public change rooms on the beach. Having more common sense than Noah and Matthew combined, I went and checked out these change rooms. As I had guessed, the door could be locked on the inside. Our group slowly made our way down to the beach. We passed a little corner store and picked up 2L of 7UP and a pack of pepperoni sticks. We kept walking while chewing on pepperoni and sharing the bottle of 7UP. The sand on the beach was still warm from the day. Waves crashed hard, and seagulls cawed loudly. The beach was lightly littered with couple; young and old, and a few small children with their parents. I had lived near this city all my life, but my mom had never taken me to the beach. When Matthew, Noah and I ran away, it was the first time I had been to the beach. I was 14. These little kids on the beach proved that my mother hadn t ever been interested in me or my brother. We were never well off, but there was enough money for one trip to the beach every year. She decided to spend her money on pot, rather than us. We got to the change room, stepped in and locked the door. It was a big enough place; benches lined the walls, there was a bathroom stall and a whole mess of change stalls. The place was poorly heated, but better than the park. We packed our stuff onto a bench and sat down next to it. There were no lights in there, only windows, and the sun had almost set. There was maybe an hour of light left. So we started playing a game. I started by saying Duck Matthew continued with Bird Noah said McDonalds What? I asked I really wish I had some fries right now. He told me What does that have to do with birds? Matthew asked Nothing. It was just the first thing I thought of. Noah answered We had already spent enough money that day, so a big mac and fries were out of the question. I threw a blanket at Noah and another at Matthew. I took one myself and headed over to another bench and hunkered down for the night. It was rather warm under my blanket, with the little heater and walls. Rather than taking a bench, Noah set up camp on the floor right beside me. I almost felt like I was back

in the trailer with my mom and Matthew, with Noah next door; just like it was supposed to be. But I knew in my heart that it would never be like that again, at least not with my mom. * * *

The three of us woke up to a lot of pounding on the door. We all grabbed our stuff, and I opened the door. Whew!It was just some angry beach-goer rather than security guards or cops. We shot out of there and speed walked it to the street. Alright, so next time we do that, we have to get up earlier and unlock the door. I stated Not a problem. Said Noah. He had found a digital watch a while ago. Now he lifted up his wrist and said I ll set my watch. You re like one of those nerdy kids from school. Matthew told him I suddenly found myself defending Noah No. That s a good idea. We ll be able to stay there without getting caught. It s great. Yeah, whatever Matthew replied. As I had said before, Matthew was a smart kid but he wasn t the most logical person. He was good at memorizing things and repeating them, or doing things that were planned out earlier. He didn t think on his feet; thought came after actions; which was slightly problematic when breaking into houses, because things never went exactly as planned. The day had an odd start and the rest of it followed closely behind. We found out that there was a circus in town; another thing my mom hadn t bothered to take me to. They weren t set up yet, not that we could afford to go. But they did have an elephant on display, so we went to see it. Matthew started talking about where you could find elephants and what they ate, naturally I tuned him out. On a telephone pole nearby there was a poster up for the circus, it also advertised a freak show. I had seen some of those people on TV. This one had a guy who had 156 piercings and could stick a sword down his throat. I couldn t imagine anyone having enough skin for 156 piercings. I had 5 on my ears and one on my navel, and I was content with my piercing to skin ratio. If I had a freak show, I would also have wanted this guy working for me. I don t know about you two. But I m more interested in the freak show. I declared. Noah agreed. Matthew on the other hand told me I m for sure more interested in the circus. I don t want to see the pierced guy. Does Matthew want to see the pretty animals? I taunted.

Shut up Helena! he yelped.

Come on Helena he fussed I can get more than 60 back. It s cost effective; we can have more money than we have now. Please After a few hours (yes, hours) of whining Matthew convinced me to go to the circus. It would cost 60 dollars for us to get in, but he reassured me that he could pickpocket the money back. At the news, Matthew yelped with joy as Noah and I smiled at him. We had 20 minutes until the show started, so we began walking back towards the large tent that had just gone up. The elephant had been brought in and people were slowly filling in through the entrance. The three of us walked in the door and bought our tickets from a small stand. I would steal money, but I wouldn t sneak into a circus. I know; my morals make no sense. Stealing money from a well off family, and stealing a show from a circus that s barely standing on its feet, is very different. That is against my morals. Anyway, we walked into the yellow, orange and red tent, taking in this new exciting site, and tried to find some seats. As we walked up the bleachers I saw a mother turn away from her open purse to give something to her daughter. While processing this, I saw a hand reach into the purse and grab a wallet. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that this hand belonged to Matthew. He took it and stuck it into his hoodie. We continued walking and found seats right at the top, against the side of the tent. I sat down beside Matthew. He pulled the wallet out and opened it in between himself and me. There was 40 cash and the usual e.g. driver s license, credit card, photos. I took a look at the driver s license and then held it up for Noah to see. Can I pass for 32 year old Lami ah Ahmed? I asked with a grin. Sure! He responded. Guess not. I was blushing again. I quickly turned to Matthew and shoved the license back into the wallet. He said that he d go slip it back into the woman s purse while pushing past me. Within 60 seconds he was back without wallet; but rather than return to his original spot he told Noah and me to move down. So, I moved up against the railing and Matthew saw down at the end of the bleacher. Noah seemed to be sitting much closer than he d been before and his hand rested precariously close to my leg.

My heart was pumping faster and faster as the seconds passed. What am I supposed to do? I ve liked guys before, but none of them were like Noah. I needed him; I couldn t live with only Matthew out here. The lights dimmed and a spot light turned on and centered itself upon the circus director. Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Welcome to the Goodheim Circus! said the director. For the past three months we ve been travelling throughout North America, displaying our acts for many to see. This is one of our last shows this season. You ve made it just in time, before we head back to Arizona! That s when both Noah and I received a smack; loving administered by Matthew, who was nearly out of his seat at the sound of Arizona. For the next hour we were entirely taken by our first experience at the circus. The elephant that we had seen earlier was being ridden by a woman doing handstands on his back. A magnificent tiger was jumping through hoops, men walked on tightropes and women were being thrown into the air as they did flips. We were awestruck. To our disappointment, the show ended. Although the director invited people to come backstage and meet the animals, of course we had to go. They had an entire zoo in the back. Matthew began talking with the director and found out that they sometimes would have a petting zoo outside of the circus. Noah and I joined their conversation, only to hear Matthew say: Is there any chance that you need some more workers? It s funny you should ask, replied the director, three towns ago, one of our tigers gave birth to two cubs, and in the last town, our lama gave birth. We ve been looking for some help with the animals for a while now. I take care of them, but the others in the show don t think that it s their responsibility to help out. Do you think that you re up for this kind of work? I sure am but you see the problem is that I live with my sister and our friend. as he pointed towards us. The director looked at me and asked Do you think that you re ready for this? I looked at Matthew who was silently pleading with me. I d never seen him so excited. Hesitantly, I asked the director if I could go speak it over with Noah, who looked shocked. We walked a couple of feet away. He really wants this. stated Noah. Yeah I don t know what to say. Well, we don t have anything to stay here for. Matthew obviously wants this. It s warmer in Arizona. We might get paid if we worked for this circus. There are more jobs in Arizona, we could actually work. And I m almost 18, so I could sign you guys up for school.

Umm. So, I guess we re going to Arizona? Yeah. I think that it s a good idea. We d have enough money to rent an apartment. We walked over to Matthew and the director and I asked him Do you plan on paying us? Well, I can pay your brother and you. If the friend comes along I can t pay him. You can split your pay with him. He answered. I looked at Noah who nodded. Alright sir, the three of us now work for your circus.