by Marilyn Knowles Wilke

Created on: July 16, 2008

Daniel was never sure when he would get to eat again, but tonight turned out to be a good night. Mr. Forrester had thrown out a lot of good food. Mr. Forrester was the owner of the deli in town. Daniel knew in his heart that he threw it out on purpose. He had seen Daniel and his little sisters hanging out in the alley that afternoon. Daniel even thought he saw a smile on his face as he placed the boxes on top of the garbage. Daniel grabbed the boxes and ran home as fast as he could.

Home was not a home in a traditional sense. It was a spot that him and his mother had fixed up in the woods just outside of town. Their mother was not very well. She had been beaten by their father for so long that it had finally taken a toll on her body. He would not work or provide for them. All he wanted to do was stay drunk and beat on them. Most of his anger was taken out on their mother, but Daniel had gotten tired of his father hurting his mother, so he ended up beaten and bruised trying to protect her. Now, they had finally ran away from him. He swore he would kill them, but they knew they had to get away from here. They waited until he passed out and left after gathering all the things they thought they might need.

Their new home was surrounded by trees and their old beat up station wagon. Daniel had made it as comfortable as he possibly could with what they had. His mother helped him as much as she was able to, but her pain was getting worse. He had noticed her taking more pills than usual. She had made sure she brought any medicines they had at the house. She knew her husband was probably furious when he awoke to find that she had taken all his pain medicines. He was addicted to just about anything he could get his hands on. She just hoped that he did not find them.

"Mom, you okay?" Daniel noticed her swaying as she tried to warm the food on the fire. "Mom, let me do that. You need to rest."

"No, I am okay," She ran her hand across his forehead, moving his hair from his face. "I just need to eat something. You did good, son."

"It was that nice man at the deli," He smiled. "I know he put that out there on purpose."

"Well, that goes to show you that there are still good people in this world," She handed him a plate full of food. He made her sit down while he served up the rest of the food to her and the girls. His sisters were only two. They were twins and different in almost every way. Jana had blond hair and blue eyes, but Jena had light brown hair and brown eyes like their

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