The Christmas gift - A Christmas story - Chapter 1

                                     

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Today was a hard day. Jonah haven’t had enough to eat for the last few days and he was constantly searching for food. This morning he found a half-eaten sandwich and that took away most of the hunger pains. He tried to occupy his mind with happy thoughts but sometimes even the happy thoughts didn’t help.   

He was tired and weak and decided to crawl back into his little space, where he slept in the alley. At least he felt safe there. It was quite cosy and he did the best he could with some old newspapers to protect him from the cold at night. 

Last year the shelter handed out some blankets and he was lucky to receive two, but he only needed one, so he gave the other one to his friend Terrence, who lived close to him in the same alley. 

He hasn’t seen Terrence in a while, and wondered if he found a place in a shelter somewhere. It was difficult to find a place in a shelter. There were just too many people and Jonah didn’t want anyone to see him roaming the streets.  

After he ran away from home, he was put into the foster care program, but after being placed with two different families in three months, he ran away. He was not going to be shoved from family to family and be suffocated inside.  

The only place where he felt truly alive, was outside in his little shelter. There he felt free and he could breath.

Life on the streets wasn’t easy, but he knew that he was better off here than he ever was at home. Sometimes he missed his mother, but he knew that he couldn’t go back.  Not as long as his stepfather was still living there.  

Jonah’s father died a long time ago when he was about four years old. Life was sad and difficult after his father died, but it was even worse after Jack moved in. 

Mom seemed happier, but Jack didn’t like Jonah from the first day he moved in. In the beginning it was just the loud shouting, and he tried to stay out of Jack’s way, but then Jack started drinking heavily and that made things worse.  

Mom was scared all the time and every time he tried to come in between Jack and his mom, Jack slapped him so hard.  Once Jack hurt his arm so badly that they took him to hospital from school and he had to get a cast.  

Now he was more streetwise. He adapted to life in the ally and no one would ever hurt him the way Jack did, but at least he knew that his mom had a place to sleep and food to eat. He left her a message once and he imagined her reading the note. He had to give her peace of mind to let her know that he was okay and that she did not have to worry about him.  

All these different thoughts played around in his head until he finally fell asleep in his shelter.  Tomorrow is another day…hopefully he will find more food tomorrow. 

-To be continued