Best Thing in My Life

“Who is this.” I asked my mom as I stared up at a very tall stranger. He had short dirty brown buzz cut hair and these magnificent green eyes. They almost looked like emeralds when you looked at them in the sunlight. He had on a brown button up coat with a black hood in the back. Along with blue jeans that had rips in them, and parts had faded so much that they looked white rather than blue. He was wearing some black running shoes that looked worn down. His face was very sharp and clean cut with no facial hair along with cherry red lips that was complemented by his small nose. His ivory skin glistened in the sunlight. I only reached up to his belly button because of how tall he was. Who are all these people? Everyone around me is very tall and white they all look the same except him. “Who is he.” I'm asking my mom at five years old, very curious about all the people around the fire that the men had made. In front of the little chop shop on the big space of land that these people owned I stare at the boy that is not like anyone I see.

“Honey that is your cousin, all these people around you are your family.” I have never seen any of these people in my life. All of them have boring brown eyes, brown hair, long legs, and smiles on their faces. “Come on and I’ll introduce all of them.” I followed my mother as she walked over to the crowd of people. Her hair swinging left to right it is a bright red from the die she put in her hair every two months. She is a short and stocky woman; she isn't a light person; she has weight on her side. A couple of seconds pass and I am in the middle of quite a bit of people. Some of them have beers in their hands and the others have cigarettes in between their fingers. “This is my youngest kiddo Kimmy.” Then the questions started to roll… “How old are you sweetie? What grade are you in this year? Do you have a favorite color or movie?” I give them all one word answers to the questions they had asked me. “5, Kinder, Blues Clues.” I do this because they aren't the ones I want to know. I want to know the boy that is playing a game with my brother in the background. I start edging my way away from my Mother and start walking towards my brother. I finally see them as I get closer they are fighting each other with sticks like samaris. I poke my brother and say “Bubby Can I play too?” I got shot down with “This is a boy’s game go back to mom”, but then this boy I had never met before jumps in with so much enthusiasm saying “Hey she can be on your team and you two can fight me together.” Hannibal, my brother doesn't even try to hide his sigh and says”fine”

I jump right in with a little stick from off the ground beneath my feet it was cold in my small hands. We went in on this boy we had never met before and eventually got him down on the ground stabbing him with our little sticks. When we got tired of our game He asked “do you guys want to go inside” so we went inside the house where all our family were. When we walked in there was a giant table in the dining room and the living room was right off the dining room you could see straight through the house. Standing at the front door I could see the glass back door. People were hanging out around the big table playing card games or smoking cigarettes. Others were hanging out around the fireplace or laying on couches watching T.V. My mom was passed out on the couch with her face in the pillows, it was clear we were staying the night. The boy led us to a room and this is when I found out that the house was his. I walked in and the first thing I saw was the small twin bed and a tv on a stool with a gaming conceal attached to it on the floor. I sat on his bed and the boys sat on the floor and talked about a lot of different things like cars, movies, and Pokemon cards. That is when I finally heard his name. I had been so scared to talk to him or even ask him his name. That moment was the moment when I decided that his name was the most important name in my life.

The name Benjamin. I looked up to see the boys on the floor looking through large stacks of Pokemon cards. I loved how he could name off each different character on a different colored card. Ben also announced what their powers were, their strength and what their damage was. I asked him “Can I have one of them?” Ben stood up and started to walk toward a shelf in his closet and said “No but you can look at these.” He pulled out a wooden box that jingled like it had keys in it. When he opened it there were many different types of intertwined metal shapes. This is when he explained “All of these are a puzzle game you have to try to get them apart without bending them.” Ben then handed one to me. It was two triangles that had little openings where the metal pieces are supposed to slide apart at. I looked at it and tried to take them apart but couldn't. I thought it was going to be easy but little did I know those puzzles were tricky. Hannibal said “Pass it over I can get them apart.” He tried many times getting mad at the inanimate object because it wouldn't come apart for him. Ben grabbed it from Hannibal and slid them apart easily. I exclaimed “How did you do that? That's not fair, you're cheating.” He started walking towards me and sat on the bed and said “Look you have to put them at an angle so there is enough space for them to go through each other.” He slid them apart slowly so I could see what he was doing to get them apart. When he handed it to me I slid them apart and smiled the biggest smile because I actually accomplished something. I handed it to my Hannibal and he could not get them apart and I laughed because he was using all his strength trying to get them apart. After my brother struggled with the puzzle Ben took it from him and said

“Kim you can keep this one.” He then walked over to the box again and picked up another puzzle and said “Try to figure this one out by yourself.” Handing me the puzzles he smiled as the light caught the corner of his eye and the inside cornea seemed to be black while the outline seemed to be clear green. At that moment I felt whole. Like my life would never be the same because of this one boy, I felt safe in his presence. As he taught my brother how to play video games on the PlayStation 2, I never actually went to sleep. I laid down on Ben’s bed and closed my eyes. I could hear them talking about stuff like how they had to jump two seconds before to get over the rocks in the game. After that I heard them fighting each other while constantly saying shut up your going to wake her. This went on for hours then I heard Ben’s father open the door and say “you need to get your asses to bed now.” I tried not to laugh because they had gotten yelled at. I laid there freezing and shivering because the air conditioner was on right beside the bed. It also doesn't help having a circulation problem which makes you feel temperature ten times worse than it actually feels. So if it is seventy degrees outside to me it feels like it’s one hundred degrees and the same in cold situations.

As I laid there I heard the whole conversation going back and forth between Ben and my brother. It started something like this. “You need to wake her up so she can sleep on the floor,” my brother said. Ben fired back with “she is a lady she gets the bed and it's my room so I get to lay with her so you get the floor.” My brother whispered back “Fine but next time your sleeping on the floor and I get to sleep in the bed with my sister.” After the conversation stopped I felt two blankets get sat on top of me and then tucked into my sides. Ben climbed into the bed and had to have felt me shivering because it was really cold. He wrapped his arms around me and instantly heat filled the space between us. Soon the little light I could see through my closed eyelids became black, and the noise of the air conditioner became silent. Later that night I woke up a little, with my eyes still closed. I forgot where I was for a second and then felt a blanket wrapped around me and a very warm body behind me. Then I remembered where I was and what had happened, I could already tell Ben was the one behind me. I just scooted closer to him and his warmth and went right back to sleep. When I awoke in the morning Ben was right there beside me while my brother laid on the floor with almost seven pillows and one blanket. I get up and go to the bathroom. I walk through the kitchen to get to the bathroom and see another girl cooking eggs on the stove. She was also tall with brown eyes and brown hair that reached the small of her back. I knock on the bathroom door and the girl says “there is someone in the bathroom already.” I sit down on the little lawn chair that was in the kitchen and I ask her “Are you Ben’s sister?” She replies with “No Ben doesn't have any siblings he doesn't even have a mother she left him when he was eight years old.”

I don't say anything else because my parents always told me that I should never pry into other people's lives because it is impolite. Instead of asking her questions I just waited for the person in the bathroom to get out so I could use it. After a couple minutes a Tall man with salt and pepper hair came out of the bathroom with an over sized olive green shirt on and greased up jeans that went down to his toes. He walked with a limp as I just went past him and went to do my business. When I went back into the room where my brother and Ben were they were all dressed and had their shoes on ready to leave. I asked them “Where are you guys going?” they answered shortly with “Climbing trees” That is when I asked “Can I go with you?” and they surprisingly said “yes.” I quickly grabbed my shoes and tied them up. We walked out of the room at the same time as my mom was passing by and she asked us “What are you three up to?” looking at us skeptical like we were actually up to making trouble. Ben answered for all of us saying “We're going out to climb the pine trees that are down the little hill.” She approved us going and we walked out of the house. When we got outside we all started running following Ben down the hill to the rows of evergreen trees. He stopped at this particular one and said “this is my favorite tree so take care of her.” He climbs up the tree with ease and my brother follows him up fearless of falling.

I stayed on the ground because I don't want to fall and get hurt. Ben climbed down to where I was and said “you not going to come up with us?” I just said “I don't want to fall.” That is when Ben said “Get on my back and I'll carry you up I promise I won't let you fall you just have to hold on.” I said “no” and he kept saying “I promise I won't let you fall just trust me.” Finally I climbed onto his back and he started to climb up the tree. I held on so hard because he wasn't holding onto me he was using his hands and feet to climb so I had to hold on or I was going to drop. I held on so hard that I left little nail marks on his chest and I wrapped my legs around around his torso so hard that he told me “calm down I’m not going to let you fall or drop you.” I listened to him and relaxed at the sound of his voice, and the next thing I knew I was at the top of the tree looking down at all the fields there were around me. The golden strands of wheat looked like they were never ending, and how from up there the houses and cars looked so small. Ben told me to just sit on the branch that was at the top and that I wouldn't fall if I just kept my balance. I didn't want to so I held onto him tighter, almost choking him to death. I took the chance and trusted him and sat on the branch and when my heart dropped I felt so free. We all started to talk about everything in our lives and how me and Hannibal’s other brother Virgil really annoyed all of us. Virgil really likes to get on all of our nerves and tells us all the time. On that tree top with us three I felt like nothing bad could ever get to me. Ben looked so handsome in the morning sunrise with the purples and pinks creating a gold outline of his green eyes.

He was wearing the same brown jacket he had been wearing the day before with a pair of grey cargo shorts. Ben was being very silly up there pretending to fall and nearly giving me a heart attack many times. Hannibal asked Ben many times “Do you want to get down and go play swords with me?” Ben wanted to stay a little longer. My brother eventually got down and it was just us two on that tree top. Ben asked me “do you want to see something cool?” I simply said “yes” we climbed down the tree and walked down the rows of trees until we came to a clearing. We walked along the tree line then we came to a spot with many black berry bushes. When we stopped Ben grabbed a handful of ripe black berries and asked “do you want to try some?” Without saying anything I took a couple and put them in my mouth. I had never tasted black berries before and they were sweet and juicy when I bit down on them. They had a very pleasant taste. My taste buds thanked me for the gift. I just replied to Ben “Yummy those are really good” after swallowing. He looked back and said very seriously “don’t tell anyone about this place okay, I want to keep it a secret.” He continued to walk so I followed him. Soon we come to a stop and we are in front of an old two door Ford pickup truck. The color of the truck seemed that it was red at some point but the paint was chipped and there was rust along the sides. The truck was stuck in a large pothole and looked like it had been there for years. Ben climbed in the driver's side of the truck so I climbed in on the opposite side and looked over at him sitting in the driver's seat.

He just said “imagine getting out of this place and never having to come back.” I smiled, looked over to him and said “I wish this truck could work so we could just drive out of here right now and not come back.” Ben doesn't say a thing he just stared out the front window at the bushes keeping his hands on the steering wheel. There was something going on in his mind causing his eyes to turn dark green like an emerald. I was born an empath which is where when I touch people or when i'm around one person I feel everything they are feeling. It is a blessing and a curse because I can’t turn it off and sometimes feelings are too much to handle. I reach over to comfort him and when I touch him I instantly feel deep sorrow and frustration. I keep my hand on his shoulder trying to show him that he isn't alone. After a while of sitting there the frustration in him turned into calming seas and the sorrow turned into a light happy feeling. We sat in that beat up pickup truck for a long time just enjoying each other's company. I felt like I was meant to be there, that that was the place where I wouldn't have to worry about anything else. This was the place where my parents wouldn't yell and I would be protected. I had to ask Ben “is this our place?” He replied with “yeah this is our place.” he looked over to me on the passenger side and said I will protect you Kim nobody will ever hurt you and I promise to be there for you.” Nobody had ever said anything like that to me before, not even my big brothers. There was only one response that felt right so I said “I love you Benji.” Then Ben said “we need to get back to the house so we can eat lunch.” We got out of the truck and when we started to walk Ben asked “Do you want a piggyback ride back to the house?”

He smiled this really big goofy plastered on smile. I didn’t want to walk all that way back so I climbed onto his back with my feet dangling at his sides. I relaxed while he was holding onto me letting the smell of his jacket enclose around me. He smelled like fire wood and green apples. He walked like a soldier with steps that said One, Two, One, Two. My body swayed from side to side like a rocking chair. Soon the sounds of birds were gone and I was asleep. When I woke up I was alone in Ben’s bed wrapped in blankets. Someone had taken their time to take off my shoes and tuck me in. I looked up and it was night time and I got up and put on my shoes and walked out of the room. My brother Virgil walked up to me and said “we're leaving, get your stuff and get in the car.” I gathered my stuff and walked out the front door. As I was walking to my mom’s car Ben ran across the field to me. He stood in front of me and said “you're leaving?” I said “yeah” “when are you coming back?” I just said “I don’t know I hope soon.” he just walked closer to me and then put his arms around me and hugged me as he picked me up off the ground. I just hugged him back like I was never going to see him again. He just whispered “I love you Kimmy” and sat me down so I could get into the car. I walked two steps to my mom’s car and sat down in the middle seat next to both of my older brothers, to try to keep them from killing each other. The drive home consisted of dirt roads and rolled down windows and cigarette smoke. The radio was on the station 98.1 playing many new pop songs. We were in a 1990’s maroon Buick with carpeted seats and flooring that was grey. The car was so small that no one was ever comfortable. When we got to the house everyone went inside and my parents went to their room for the rest of the night.

I went to my brothers room because I wanted to play with legos. My brothers were in their room playing with Nerf guns because they were fighting because they share a room and fight over everything. When I walked in they both looked at me like they wanted to kill me. I just spoke up and said “I’m playing with the legos.” I grabbed the giant tote of legos and started to play with the legos on the ground while my brothers wrestled on the other half of the room. Their room was quite big. They had a dresser in one corner and two beds on opposite sides of the room because they drew a line in the room and made one half Hannibal’s and the other half of the room was Virgil’s. They shared the dresser. The dresser was positioned right in between a column and a wall so it made a cubby hole on top of it. My brother Hannibal did many puzzles on top of his dresser because he had nowhere else to do the puzzle. Most things in our house were dirty except for my room. My room is so small that it would be impossible to even get it dirty. In my room on the wall there was a white board and one twin size bed with a closet the size of a pantry. While I was playing with the legos trying to make a whole town and finishing up the watchtower my brothers rolled over my masterpiece while they were wrestling. I started to sob over my legos and both of my brothers stopped fighting and said “I am so sorry sissy I’m sorry I didn't mean to destroy your town. They started to put my town back together and said “what if we put this lego guys head on backwards” I started to laugh because my brothers were being dumb and as I looked up at them I smiled really big because they really wanted to make things right with me. We stayed up late playing games and playing with legos. We talked about our parents and how we really wanted to get out of our house. Many nights me and Hannibal would stay up and talk about how we think we were switched at birth and that these people weren't even our family. Many times we would fantasize about our real parents realizing that they have the wrong kids and get us back. We would have a great life with these people who don't even exist. It was getting late and I asked my brother Hannibal “will we ever get to see Ben again?” All he responded with was “probably” I got up and walked to my bedroom. I got underneath my covers and I laid my head down on my pillow. While I laid there in the darkness of my room looking at my discolored ceiling I started to think about how good it would be to leave the town with Ben. Knowing that if I left with him that there was no way I would ever make it back to my parents. I slowly drifted off to sleep thinking about my amazing cousin.

Nobody could ever understand how I felt about him and never would. The days following the greatest day of my young life were boring and the same as all the millions of days that I had lived before. Get up, Go outside with my brothers and play with the kids around the neighborhood, come home and make myself something to eat, then go to bed. Nothing really changed from day to day because that is how you grow up when you're poor. Some days we would watch cartoons on the television but we would get the same two episodes of Mr.Rogers Neighborhood in a row, it got pretty boring watching the same thing over and over. Other days we would be able to play on the PlayStation two when our father was not on it. Many of my days as a child did not consist of my parents being there day to day, they would be there one day and then be gone the next. Sometimes gone weeks at a time leaving us to fend for ourselves with whatever we had in the house. Days passed until I got to see Ben again and when I did he gave me a piggyback ride down to the open field with my brother Hannibal. We played with sticks and played many games of tag where I would be it most of the time because I'm slow. The days would pass by so fast when I was with him. We went to the Truck on the side of the wheat field when Hannibal went to go get something to drink. When we got to the truck we sat in the bed of the truck and pulled out another metal puzzle game out of his pocket. He handed it to me and I looked at it for a couple of seconds.

I slid one side out and could not get the square metal piece to get out of the triangle piece. He took it back without saying anything and took it apart and then put all three pieces back together and handed it back to me. All I said was “I got it now” and instantly the puzzle came apart in my little hands but I could not put it back together how he handed it to me. Ben just laughed a little bit and put it back together. As we sat in the bed of that beat up truck the sun was going down and the sky was looking beautiful. Ben Started a conversation with “how is everything at your house?” I looked at him quizzingly wondering what he meant by that. I looked down at my hands and said “everything is good at my house” I smiled a weak smile and stated “My brothers are my best friends so everything is great in my house.” My smile slowly disappeared after I spoke. Ben looked over to me with this big goofy smile on his face and said “I don't have any siblings and you have two older brothers so why not have three older brothers it’s not that much change right and you would love to have me as our older brother right?” I nodded in agreement and returned his smile. He stood up on the back of the truck and looked down at me like he was going to say an important speech. In a fake deep voice he said “from this day on I shall call you my little sister and you shall call me your big brother till the day we die.” I started to laugh really hard because he was trying really hard to be serious but failed to keep the smile off his face while he was giving his revolutionary speech. He sat down in front of me and said “what's so funny I was trying to make a statement Little Sister.” I just said between laughs “You couldn't keep a straight face” He looked at me with his amazing eyes cutting a hole through the barriers that I had put up throughout my short life time.

Tears started to fill my innocent honey brown eyes and I said “I lied” Ben just knelled in front of me and said “what did you lie about?” I replied with “ my family isn’t good, my parents fight all the time and are never there for us sometimes they leave and don't come back for days and my mom hits me and my brothers. He sat down and pulled me into his chest and said “it’s okay i’m here i’ll protect you I promise I will protect you just come to me if you need anything.” I started crying harder into his chest because someone actually cared about me. I cried so hard that I couldn't breath to where my eyes couldn't open and the tears came out in streams. When I finally found my composure I looked up at Ben with my eyes red and puffy from the crying and said “Please don’t leave me no one has ever treated me like you have and I don’t want to lose you.” Ben got down on one knee implying he wanted me to get on his back so he could give me a piggyback ride. I climbed on his back and he jumped off the bed of the truck and I held onto his shoulders. When he started to walk towards his house he started talking saying “I already promised I would protect you, how am I supposed to do that if I leave you?” I just smiled into his neck and looked forward at the starry night. Nothing else in my life could compare to the moments I spent with my cousin. He was very trustworthy and caring and unlike anyone else I’ve ever met. When we finally got to his house my parents were ready to leave and were kinda mad that we took forever to get back. When I said goodbye to Ben and got in the car right as we drove away my mother was already yelling at me. She said “You know I have work tomorrow so why would you stay out that long if you knew that, you worthless piece of shit…. I buy the food in our house. Would you like to starve because I will stop feeding you if you would like that.” I wanted to cry but all I did was be quiet because if I said anything back to her she would hit me and I didn't want my night to be ruined more than she already did. The car ride was quiet and cold. We pulled up to the house and when every one got out I stayed in the car a little bit longer. I wanted to give them time to cool down so I could just slide through the house to my room and go to sleep. That is exactly what I did when I got out of her car. I moved slowly through the house and went to my room and fell asleep.

Almost every night was like this they didn't care about me or how they impacted me. Nothing was ever that important to them, not even their own children. Living life without parents is really hard alright no one to go to when you get hurt or when you're hungry. In the morning no one is waking you up for school. You have to do that yourself if you want to go to school and going to school is a lot better than staying home. Six years old and my dad doesn't have a job and my mom leaves more often she works the night shift at the company she works for so we don't see much of her because either she is at work or off doing stuff or sleeping for days at a time. When my mom wasn't working the night shift she would fight with my father throughout most of the night so I would sneak out and walk to Ben’s house. He never turned me away because his dad worked the night shift and was never there. When I would knock on his door he would let me in and I would fall asleep with him and he would wake me up in the morning for school. My parents never asked where I had been; they just cared that I wasn't dead because that would mean less money from the state. They only kept me around for the paycheck. Ben walked me to school every time I stayed the night at his house. I only remember once when my own parents actually walked me to school and that was my first day of kindergarten. Independence is a big part of my life at a very young age. That summer was the best one I had in a long time. I spent the long days with Ben at the old truck and the cold night with him at his house. Our connection grew tenfold throughout that long hot summer.

Nothing could compare to the way he took care of me. Ever since I was young it was always me against the world but then in those moments getting piggyback rides and sword fighting that was when it was me and Ben against the world. I wasn't alone anymore. I finally had someone that I could count on. No one was going to take that away from me. My grandma and grandpa would come into town to visit us on holidays and they took me and my brothers on trips once and awhile. At the beginning of the winter break they came down and I was very excited because I love my grandparents very much. I waited for them with my brothers and Ben. Ben really just wanted to say goodbye to me because I would be with my grandparents for a week in Colorado. When my grandparents parked in our driveway they had my aunt, uncle and cousin with them. When they got out I gave all them hugs and kisses. They all went inside to talk to my parents and we stayed outside waiting for them to get back so we could leave. I turned to you and said “ I’ll be back in a week.” Ben turned to look at me and then picked me up with his arms stretched out in front of him so my feet were dangling beneath me and I was eye to eye with him. He replied with “I’ll see you when you get back I’ll miss you Sis.”

everyone started to come out of the house and we started to pile in the cars. I got stuck with my grandma, cousin, aunt, and brother Hannibal. All the others went in my grandpa’s truck because there wasn't enough room for all of us to be in the same car along with all of the luggage. On the way to Colorado Springs We ate almonds and beef jerky while my cousin fought her mom over what CD to put in the radio. Even though I love my family very much they can be very annoying at times. When we got to the hotel in Colorado we all picked out what rooms we wanted and the beds we wanted to sleep in. I shared a bed with my cousin and Hannibal was in the other twin bed that was in the room. My grandma and grandpa shared a room with my aunt while my brother Virgil had to share a room with my uncle. The first night we stayed in Colorado we went swimming in the hotel’s pool. I didn't know how to swim at the time so I just stayed in the shallow end and splashed around. After we went swimming we went to a restaurant to eat dinner. We ate at I hop. I remember getting chicken strips. When they sat down in front of me I tried to dig in as soon as they hit the table but they were scolding hot. I sat the chicken down on the plate quicker than a person could say “it’s hot.” My grandma looked at me and then took a chicken strip off of my plate and ripped it in the parts and said “It’s not as hot when you rip it up.”