It Never Came Too Easy | Teen Ink

It Never Came Too Easy

August 19, 2012
By TalhaTheKing, Allen, Texas
More by this author
TalhaTheKing, Allen, Texas
0 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
"My life is my message" - Ghandi


Author's note: Even though this piece still needs some editing, I just wanted to show some kids inspiration about hardship and how you can really change your lives for the better.

The sun rose from the bottom of the horizon and lit up Denver, white flakes falling from the gray clouds; students all over the metropolis were putting on their uniforms, while their parents got ready for their own work. It seemed like a usual day for everybody; well everybody except for one person. Adam was the young lad’s name.
“Well…I’m going to be late again,” Adam whispered to himself as he scanned his neighborhood looking for his car to arrive.
He shut the door behind him and entered his front lawn. He walked and walked until the gravel of the road went up a little hill and met a pebble path that led to Adam’s front door. He sat down right at the conjunction, he soon saw a shining, black Escalade pull up from the main road and turn towards his neighborhood. Adam slowly got up and reversed his steps from the place he was sitting; the car finally stopped and Adam opened the trunk, and placed his backpack lazily, and closed the trunk. As he was going towards the front of the car to sit in the passenger seat, he saw a slim young lady that had too much make up on, opening the door for him; he couldn’t recognize her face, but he knew it wasn’t his mother. As he was getting aboard the car, the woman spoke.
“Hey, how are you doing kiddo”
Adam didn’t reply back.
“Sorry I was late, both of your parents are really busy today” said the driver.
“Aren’t they always,” he said silently to himself.
“But that is okay,” he exclaimed in a jubilant mood.
Once he sat down on his seat, the woman shut the door and went across the front of the car, opened the driver seat’s door, sat, started the car, and took off. Adam searched across the window shield from inside the car looking at Mr. Klagan, his neighbor. He seemed so happy, and so did his children who were playing on the front yard. The sun was shining in the east across Denver, eliminating the darkness and bringing hope and happiness. The trees blossomed with petals of leaves growing, and the sky was clear like an empty and calm ocean. Even the traffic on Highway 56, there was no cars honking at each other; it was like the city became silent. It was 8:30 and Adam knew he was late for school. The car exited the highway and stopped at the last stop light before Lloyd High school, he recognized two faces on a huge billboard. The billboard was so tall, people from all Denver could see it from at least a mile or two, and it was an advertisement of his parent’s hospital. He looked at the billboard for a couple of seconds longer and bent his head down, and the stop light turned green. As he approached the red, brick building; Adam knew he was late. It was one hour past eight, and he knew for a fact that this day, like any other day he was late, was not going to end well.

As Adam entered the vacant building, the silence made him feel like an intruder robbing a bank and getting caught by a late-night janitor mopping the floor. He tried to tip-toe across the front office, where the most beautiful yet angry principle sat, but then a voice spoke through the speakers throughout the whole building.
“Mr. Wuhang, please report to my office. Now!”
Adam observed where he was standing and looked ahead to see if he could escape, but he knew he had to go get a late pass, which was located in the principal’s office. He slumped his way back to the front office, and opened the glass door to enter Mrs. James’ office. He entered the room with silence and sat down in a chair that was planted right in front of her huge desk. An artificial bear stared right at him across the room. He focused on the bear, trying to determine if it was real or not. The principal interrupted his thoughts.
“Mr. Wuhang, I have told you twice, and I have given you the same amount of warnings too.” Adam shook his head in trying to get himself back into reality and responded, “Sorry Mrs. James, my parents have a new job so they need some time to adjust.”
The principal stood up from her chair and frowned with her red head and stared at Adam as if he just gave the wrong answer. “I cannot give you more warnings, Adam.” Adam shifted his position slightly making it hard for the principle to see his face. The principle sighed, “But I suppose I can give you another chance.”
Adam’s eyes became wider and he was shocked with her words; Adam still confused, got up and left the office without saying a word.

Many seconds, minutes, and hours flew by; as brutal papers were being done and turned in all day, Adam was sitting at the same desk slobbering his saliva across the wooden platform. Every ninety minutes people would leave and enter the classroom, well everybody except for Adam. As the final bell rang, Adam woke up from his dream and started packing his things; as got up from his seat at the back of the physics lab, everybody looked at Adam. His shirt was all crinkled, a bit of his saliva glued to his face, and his eyes were really red, but Adam didn’t care, that was the last thing he cared about. As the final bell rang the second time, he ran out of the classroom, and went straight to the front of the building waiting for his parents. Adam laid back on the curb, not knowing how long it’s been since school was out, and Adam soon began to worry a little bit.
“I wonder what is taking her so long.”
The school was completely vacant, even the teacher parking lots were empty; Adam, not paying attention, heard whispering and noises. Adam couldn’t tell who was making those noises so Adam got up and searched the empty lot, Adam running around trying to find the direction of where the sounds were coming from, and suddenly a shadow appeared in front of him. Adam looked back and saw a navy blue Sienna.
“Hey Adam, I am Dillon’s mother…” a little complaining came from the back that made her pause for a moment, “…and I was just wondering if would like a ride home since it’s kind of getting late.”

Adam looked around his surrounding, deciding whether or not he should stay to wait or go home with Dillon’s mother.

“I guess I could,” said Adam in a monotone voice.
Clouds were moving across the gray skies making patterns that would hurt the human brain, there were many trees around his neighborhood that are without any leaves to be covered with, and the ground covered with slimy and dirty snow; Dillon’s mom was driving like a crazy maniac trying to get to happy hour at sonic before it ended. He was at home in no time, right after he got off, the woman’s car and her drove off. Adam didn’t care all he wanted to do was relax peacefully. He went along the brown pebbled path and as he came close to the front, Adam reached into his pocket.
“O man, where are my keys!”
His nose started to turn red and his hands started to freeze, and as he was starting to bend down in trying to see if there was a key under the door mat, bam, the door flew open.
“I probably left the door open or something.”
Adam entered the house and closed the door behind him forcefully from the snow wind.
“Hello is anybody here, Daniela are you there?”
Not even the slightest movement was heard.
“I guess she didn’t come today. Again.”
Adam took a few more steps and headed towards the stairs leading him to another level of his house; he passed through the kitchen, it filled the whole house with a stench that smelled like Limburger cheese with a little bit of dish water draped all over it. As he began climbing the almost never ending stairs, he turned around his shoulder to his left and passed through all the dirty laundry that lay on every living room furniture; it looked as if no one dared to clean up the aftermath of a closet makeover. Once Adam reached the top of the stairs; Adam traveled towards his room. Adam twisted the worn out copper door knob and heard one of the screws fall out as it headed towards the wooden floor. The house was mute, and Adam went inside his room.

There were torn books on the floor, posters of the Beatles and the Temptations were ripped to pieces on his bed. There was a ray of red and orange that lit part of the room, and the room grew dimmer and dimmer each time Adam blinked. He sat on top of his bed, and watched as the light of earth turned off. Suddenly every whisper, buzz, and honk went silent; Adam took his mid-day shower, and placed his back pack next to his working space. He stacked textbooks on the edge of his sturdy old desk. He finally sat down on his chair, and he picked up his back pack once more to search for any pencil that was hiding in the abyss. The back pack suddenly fell from his hands and was punched down by the books. Adam grabbed the books that sat on top of the back pack and placed them back on top of the desk, this time in a better position. Adam began working, and it was one hour before midnight.

“Man teachers are brutal these days; I wish…” Adam murmured as he gently rested his head on top of his Pre-Calculus book.

Good morning, good morning, Adam lifted his head up with part of his brain waking up, while the other half of his head was still asleep and made him yawn. Going to work don't want to go feeling low down, Adam was more alert with the lyrics booming out of his alarm clock. He lifted his head up slowly as if he just rose back from the dead. He took a peep at the clock to see what the time was, and suddenly Adam jumped out of the chair. Looking for some clothes, Adam started twisting his head, looking left to right. Adam quickly went into his closet, and picked out a red color shirt. He scanned the floor for shorts, even though there were many of them lying there. He randomly picked out one, and ran downstairs to head outside. Adam ran quickly to the bus stop, as he saw his chances of riding the bus drifting away. He slowly began switching his pace from running to jogging, and then eventually he began walking. By the time he reached the bus top, the bus was nowhere to be seen on the street.
“Are you looking for a job?”

Adam nodded his head to agree with the paper.
“Then come on down to Billy’s food mart on January 15, we are hiring from the age of sixteen. On 324 Denver, Colorado, for more information please call…”
Adam looked away from the paper and stopped for a moment; he looked up to the sky above looking for answer but lost hope after looking up for a while, and began tracing the oil leak trials.
That afternoon, Adam walked his way home after being tired of waiting for a ride. The bees were buzzing, birds were chirping, and the airplanes above disturbing the peaceful nature’s hum. Adam strolled down the school’s back walkway that led straight towards his house. The cricket sounds soon began to come alive, and Adam was half way through his walk.

“Why am I here,” he sobbed a little bit.
“All I want is a place where someone would appreciate me and be there for me all the time.” He was now under the bridge where he can hear all the trucks and cars zoom through the bridge.
“I don’t get it why they do not want to come home and spend time with me; it has been thirteen years since the last time my parents came home for the weekend to spend time with me but that’s because I was four years old.”
Suddenly Adam fell and woke up to his reality and found a little irritating injury on his forehead. He was not dead, and he was definitely not injured; but he was scratching his head and found a little bump on his forehead. He looked up to the sky and saw nothing. It was dark and he could heard an owl preaching out to the sky. Soon Adam heard the owl’s wings flap and flap until there was no more sound heard on the trail he was day dreaming on. He picked himself up, and brushed off the small specs of residue off his shirt. He finally rose up from the ground, wiped some of the dried tears from his yellowish face. He stepped back a step and heard a scratching noise; Adam stared all around him to see where it was coming from. He moved a little bit and heard it again; Adam gazed up at the sky to see where it was. There was nothing; he looked down, and picked up the white plain paper. A few minutes passed away at surveying the paper, and Adam looked at the trail and where it headed, and found that he was at the bust stop. He looked at which direction he assumed he came from, and immediately saw a sign stop. He knew exactly what to do and headed straight for home.
Adam did not know what exactly happened to him during his walk, but he directly picked up the home phone and dialed the phone number that was on the paper; Adam anticipating the other person on the other side to answer his phone every time the phone buzzed its ringer. Adam heard a noise through the phone and automatically began talking.
“Hi my name is Mr. Wuhang and I was wondering.”
After minutes of talking, Adam finally hanged-up the phone and went directly to his bed and slept like it was the first time he slept after a long journey.
Adam slowly rose from his bed, and smelled the air. He looked at the alarm clock, and surprisingly it did not sing any music. Adam picked up the clock and looked at it. The numbers were a blur, so he opened his eyes wider and scratched his eyes. It was 12 o’ clock. Realizing what day it was, Adam changed really quickly finding any clothes that he could see and wore it. He ran and downstairs and tried to open the door, but the door knob slipped from his finger and so he tried again. He finally got the door to open and ran and turned right running towards the sun and onto the main road. He walked a block or two and finally found his destination, the store didn’t look exactly the same as the one on the flyer but he was glad to see a job opportunity sign. As he entered, he felt and absorbed the new vibe and feeling that was in the air of the store. It kind of smelled fresh and some of it smelled like another opportunity of disappointment; in a hurry, he confronted one of the cashier ladies while she was talking to someone. He interrupted her conversation, and as she turned around Adam couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Adam saw a woman with young hair from the back but from the front she was totally the opposite with chapped lips and makeup all over her face as if she forgot where to place them on her face properly.
“Hi my name is Adam, and I was just curious where exactly are the interviews being taken place?”
She looked at me as if I just asked her the wrong question and slowly replied back, “I will catch you later Billy, you have a nice evening alright,” the man she was talking to left her but he replied back in a soft tone as he was in the distance. She looked at the man for a moment and immediately turned back at Adam.
“Alright kid, look if you interrupt me again, I will seriously grab your tongue and cut into two pieces; now what did you want from me?”
Adam cleared his throat and slowly replied to her answer making sure he said every word clearly and thoughtfully.
“Well…I was just wondering if you could tell me where the interview room was?”
She pointed her finger in the air; Adam rotated his face to where she was pointing and saw the sign hanging from the ceiling. Adam looked back at the woman and nodded his head expecting the lady to understand that he was trying to say thank you. As the signs were getting bigger, it seemed like Adam was getting closer and closer to his destination, suddenly there were no more signs to follow.
“Now, where is that office?”
He took three steps out on the big space of empty tiles with no shelves suppressed on them. He looks down and sees a reflection of a sign. ECIFFO TNORF was what the tile read, and Adam looked up and saw in big silver letters the front office. He ran forward and opened the front two doors; bend down on his knees to relief himself from the long run that got him there, and finally looked up and saw a different universe. The reception room was like a five star hotel lounge with breakfast/lunch area, chandeliers hanging from the ceiling that covered the office part of the store, and siting areas filled with leather seats and marble tables. Adam quickly turns to his clock to see what time it was.
“12:24? O crap I only have a minute to spare and I don’t even know where to go.”

Adam started running from right to left looking and asking the people in the room where the boss was. Everybody ignored Adam, talking and negotiating with other clients through the phone, it was 12:25; Adam finally sat down in one of the chairs and walked the clock’s second hand turn every second until it hit 12:26. Adam searched the ground below him, wondering what he could have done better; suddenly, there was a sound. A sound of a door cracking open, and Adam searched upon the room from where the sound was coming from; there was a woman, who seemed to be like miss universe and the other was a freakishly tall, yet, small headed young man walking out. The woman pointed fingers and moved them to show the man of where is the nearest exit, as the man was leaving; however, Adam didn’t move a muscle or even cared what was happening until he heard his last name.
“Mr. Wuhang, will you please come forth, Mr. Deng is ready for you?”

Adam still looked down on the ground,
“Why am I here, look at me; I am a mess!”

The lady started backing up and started closing the doors where she had come from, but before the door officially closed, she asked the reception room one last time.
“Mr. Wuhang, Mr. Deng is waiting for you.”

As the door was finally closing down, the door stopped moving and there was a hand in on the side of the door, Adam opened the door just enough to get in; Adam closed the door behind him very quietly and looked upon where he entered, it was a hallway filled with awards and luxurious decorations. Adam finally saw the lady that was calling her name, and stopped her before she opened an office door in the back of the hallway. Adam walked close to where she was standing.
“Hi my name is Mr. Wuhang; sorry for not responding at first, its hard getting called by Mr. Wuhang since no one has ever called me that.” Adam looking at her tag “Ms. Adriana.”

The woman stared at Adam for a while and continued opening the door she was doing before she got interrupted by Adam; Adam was hoping she didn’t recognize that he was lying, but she did not care. She left the door open and directed him inside the office and left; as Adam walked in his view was a back of a big brown Texas-size leather seat facing towards him. When he finally sat down, the big chair spun around and Adam finally got to see the front of the chair. Adam cleared his throat and spoke his very first words.
“Good morning.”

A few days passed and Adam was getting worried that his interview didn’t go well. Instead of worrying about the phone call, Adam started to focus on his school work and made sure that the house was clean enough to see the floor. Eight days of no reply and Adam began to lose hope; as he was cleaning the dishes after dinner, Adam just gave up and sat down. Then there was a sound, not a sound that bird would make and definitely not a sound that a car would make, but it was the sound of a black, landline telephone that was ringing to the best of its ability. Adam ignored the sound and focused on a blank plasma TV, and before the last bell rang Adam picked it up.
“Good evening Mr. Wuhang, sorry for keeping you waiting for a while; but on the behalf of Mr. Lincoln and the staff here at Billy’s food mart, we will like to welcome you to the business.”

Adam stood frozen as ice in Antarctica.
“Now remember your shift starts in about an hour so you better be here at twelve, good luck and have a nice rest of the morning!”
Adam thanked her again and busted upstairs and back into his room. He opened the shower and put on his dad’s shampoo and conditioner. Once he brushed off all the water on his skin with a towel, he got out his eight grade graduation tie, white oxford shirt, and black pants. He went downstairs and made his own omelet and eats it and opened the fridge to take out the orange juice and poured it for himself. After finishing his breakfast, he put on his Clark handmade shoe, as he was tying the laces he stared the ground for a while and smiled. It was ten minutes before twelve, as Adam left the house.
“First day of my job and I am already late!”
He turned left to enter the building and ran towards the cash register to meet a lady. “Good morning, where should I begin?”

Adam not looking up at the lady completely o he couldn’t see the lady he was talking too completely. The lady was talking to a customer and said.
“Well, you can first start by going to the back and start opening boxes of food items, and if you have any question there are plenty of people to ask in the back.”

The woman still talking to a customer finally looked behind her to see who she was talking to.
“Hey don’t I know you?”
Adam looked up and saw the same face he saw when he came for the interview.
“Yeah sorry for acting the way I did last week, I was having a terrible day.”
Adam looked at her and forgave her and began working at Billy’s food mart.
There was snow covered the whole building looking like a big white curtain; The store was about to open, and Adam and the workers at Billy’s food mart were celebrating Adam’s first anniversary as member of the store. As everybody was finishing up the celebration, with eating the last crumbs of the cake and drank their last sip of their champagne, Mr. Deng came up to Adam.
“Congratulations son, you earned it”
Mr. Deng placed a shiny key in Adam’s pocket. The store opened and a rush of people came running in clearing out every aisle, trying to keep up with remembering how and where to put the groceries when greeting the customers.
“Just two more hours and it will be all over.”
“Hurry up, uhm Mr. Adrian…you are holding up the line.”
Soon little voices from the line started to complain.
“Excuse me Ma’am my name is Adam, and I am sorry for the hold; there has been just a lot of things going on, since it is Christmas Eve.”
The woman looked at Adam and stared at him for a while as if she didn’t care what Adam’s problems were.
“Do I look like your mother?”
Adam confused and replied.
“No ma’am.”
She looked at him and paused for a second or two, waiting for Adam to do something.
“Then why don’t you just put my groceries in the bag so I can get the hell out of here!”
Adam finally finished putting her groceries back into the bag; after getting screamed at, Adam started to increase his speed. The day was almost done as the sky began turning dark; as Mr. Deng was walking around the store making sure everything was in order, Adam asked Mr. Deng one of the hardest questions anybody has asked him.
“Alright boss, I have to go; my parents they are finally here and I can’t miss this opportunity.”
Mr. Deng immediately replied back
“Merry Christmas Adam and I will see you on Monday.”
Mr. Deng quickly ran to stop someone, and Adam turned to the opposite direction and left the grocery store.
He entered his neighborhood, and pulled up on the curb in front of his house. He opened the front door of the driver seat and stepped out of his car with his new winter New Balance shoes splashing on the white sheet of snow that covered the grass; he slowly began thinking. As he opened his trunk to take out all of the groceries for the feast, he slowly backed away from the trunk and closed it shut and began walking towards the front door of the house. He slowly walked the endless mile of steps to the front door, where an old life ended and a new life was just to begin; he was thinking clearly and for the very first time he smiled a smile that he knew for a fact that will last forever.
He slowly opened his door, not wanting to open because of the big risk of losing all hope again. He sat down for a while astonished by the works he had accomplished and was amazed of how clean the walls of his were, the dishes finally lined up, and he was finally wearing a nice clean well ironed shirt saying to the world that he is ready to do anything. Then the doorbell finally rang and Adam’s thoughts just exploded into having no thoughts at all. As he got up to go get the door, he remembered the day his parents left him in the morning and some random driver picked him up, he remembered getting pulled into the principle office. As his last thoughts of last year’s Christmas he opened the front door and a big and handsome looking man was in his face.
“Hey son, why is there a car parked in front of our house?” Adam gave his dad a little smile.



Similar books


JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This book has 0 comments.