More Than What Meets The Eye BY: BEN JAMES
The bright, pinkish sun was beginning to set on the dingy, grimy streets of Stockton,
Missouri. Scavenging for any morsels of food, a young man was preparing for a cold night ’s sleep on the cold, wet sidewalk he called home. By now, he was used to being ignored by every pedestrian that passed him. It had been a long six months since nineteen-year-old Dallas Reynolds had felt the warmth of a bed or had the pleasure of consuming clean food or water. As he began to rest his head on his ratty, worn out jacket, which he used as a makeshift pillow, Dallas began to think back on how he ended up in his present situation.
Six months ago Dallas was an average eighteen-year-old kid thinking about where he
would like to attend college. After school one day, Dallas went out to eat with his friends. One of his friends got him a cheddar cheese burger with fries. He could smell the fresh burger buns being baked. The salty french fries went perfectly with the juicy burger. He thanked his friends for the amazing meal and headed home. He arrived home at about eight o’clock and went straight to bed. Dallas had a test first thing in the morning and he was exhausted. At ten o’clock he heard his mother and father at the door. They had gone out partying, as they did every Wednesday night, and were considerably drunk. He heard his parents shuffling, half wittedly towards his room. In an instant, his door was abruptly and violently flung open with a slam. His parents came at him fiercely, punching and kicking their son. After what seemed like forever, they stopped and stumbled off to bed. Dallas felt like his ribs had caved in. His parents rarely paid attention to him, and when they did, it was usually in an abusive manner. He never understood why they did such horrible things to him. Dallas knew he worked hard and had several academic full ride scholarships to great colleges.
