It was late October and Zachary Hanson watched as his two older brothers, Isaac and Taylor, got ready to go to their friends house.
"Come on guys," Zac pleaded, "let me come with you!"
Isaac shot Taylor a sort of 'what should I say to him?' look before answering his little brother.
"Maybe next time Zac, we have some really important stuff we have to talk to Amy about."
"You said that last time Isaac! Taylor, can I come? Please!" Zac said as he started to get really upset.
"Zac," Taylor started patiently, "I wish you could come along with us but you just can't. I promise you can come with me and Isaac the next time we decide to go over to Amy's house."
By now Zac was really mad, "You guys never take me anywhere with you anymore! Ever since last week you've been so secretive around me and I don't like it! It's like you don't care anymore!"
"Whoa," Isaac said quickly jumping back into the conversation," Don't say that Zac, we still care about you, we've just been really, really busy lately. We'll make it up to you, I promise."
"Promish, smomish." Zac muttered as he started to retreat back into their room, "Go on and have fun without me, I'm just the unimportant one in the family. Everyone loves Taylor and Isaac and Jessie and Avery and Mackie but nobody cares about poor little Zac....." eventually his voice faded away into nothing.
Taylor threw a worried glance in the direction of their room as him and Isaac walked out of the house.
"Hey Ike," Taylor said as casually as he could, "Do you think Zac will be Ok until tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Isaac answered in a tone of voice that gave away the fact that he wasn't really sure himself, "He'll love the surprise birthday party so much tomorrow that he'll forget all about the past week or two."
"I sure hope so."
A few minutes later Taylor and Isaac arrived at the house of Amy Sabec.
After they rang the doorbell Amy's mom answered the door.
"Why hello boys, Amy and Lucy are already downstairs."
"Hi Mrs.Sabec," Isaac said as he walked through the doorway, "Thanks for helping us plan this surprise party for Zac."
"No problem boys, it's the least I can do after all you did for us in the weeks after Madeline died."
Taylor flinched a little when he heard Mrs.Sabec mention Madeline, he still hadn't quite gotten over her dying.
A moment later Taylor and Isaac walked into Amy's drawing room.
Lucy looked up from where she was sitting as they came in through the door, "Hi Taylor, hi Isaac."
"Hi Lucy." Taylor said as he walked across the room and sat in the chair next to Amy's, "Hi Amy."
"Hi guys, thanks for coming." Amy said as she picked her clipboard up off of the desk she was sitting next to.
"How everything going?" Isaac asked as he looked down at the list that he was holding in his hand.
"Ok, my mom picked up the cake earlier today." Amy replied as she leaned back in her chair and marked that off her list.
They spent a few more minutes going over their plans for Zac's party before Amy brought up an interesting question.
"How's Zac taking all of this sneaking around? I mean, how exactly is he taking all the secrecy and all?"
"Pretty normally I suppose," Taylor answered, "He's kinda bummed out about all of it but I think that he'll be ok."
If Taylor had only seen Zac at that moment he might of changed his mind.
Zac was laying on his bed trying to figure out why everyone was ignoring him.
Lucy hadn't come to visit for quite a while and she was one of his very best friends.
Amy never came over anymore, Isaac and Taylor always went over to her house, and never took him with.
Just then Diane Hanson stuck her head inside the door, "Zac, time for bed."
Zac sat up, "What about Taylor and Isaac? Shouldn't they be home by now?"
She just dodged the last question that he had asked, "Don't worry about them honey, just go to sleep."
After his mom left Zac changed and laid back down and thought to himself, "Now that I think of it, Mom and Dad have been pretty quiet too....I wonder what's going on."
With that thought, Zac fell into a deep slumber dreaming about his birthday on the very next day.
PART II
The next morning Zac woke when he heard the bedroom door slamming shut.
"It's my birthday." was the first thought to go through his mind, "I'm twelve. Awesome!"
Zac quickly got up and changed.
A moment later he came running into the kitchen.
Taylor looked up from where he was eating breakfast, "Mornin' Zac."
"Hi Tay, do I look any different to you?" Zac asked as he dropped hints that it was his birthday.
"Not really, why do you ask?"
Zac couldn't believe that nobody had said anything about it being his birthday, "Do I look any older?"
"No," Isaac replied as he sat down and tried to keep a straight face, "Why would you?"
"Forget it." Zac muttered under his breath as he began to look for something that he could eat.
After everyone had finished eating Isaac took the cordless phone and went into his parents room.
Isaac shut the door as quietly as he possibly could and quickly dialed Amy's phone number.
~Ring~ ~Ring~
"Hello?"
"Hey Amy, it's me, Isaac. Just checking to see who all is coming."
"Well, you, me, Taylor, Lucy, Tim and Jason Cunningham, Chris Spencer, Jeff Sainters, Katie Axcel, Jamie Bec, Julie Shmolder, and Jimmy Ambers. Johnny Misinger can't make it, he has to go out of town. That's twelve plus Zac which makes it thirteen.
"Great. Call Lucy and then come on over so we can finish going over all the last minute details."
"Okay, I'll be over with Lucy in a couple of minutes. See ya!"
"Sure, bye."
Isaac hung up the phone and walked back out.
"Who were you talking to Ike?" Zac asked as he cleaned off the table.
"Amy."
"Cool, is she coming over?"
Isaac paused for a moment, "Yeah, she's bringing Lucy too."
"All right!" Zac shouted as he almost dropped the dishes he was holding, "What are we going to do? Rollerblade? Laser Tag? Scrabble™? Well?"
"Um, Zac. Me an' Taylor were going to be helping them with something."
"Can't I help too?"
"No Zac. it's kinda a secret. Maybe we'll show you later." Isaac said as he hung the phone back on it's base.
"Of course," Zac said in a disheartened tone, "nothing ever has anything to do with me anymore. I'm going outside."
Isaac started to go after Zac but he changed his mind, "I'll just let him cool off for a while."
A moment later Amy and Lucy were knocking on the back door.
Taylor let them in and then they all went into the family room to talk about the party.
Isaac sat Indian style on the floor, Amy and Lucy were sitting on the couch, and Taylor was sitting in a chair across from Amy and Lucy.
While they were all talking Taylor looked over at Amy and thought to himself. He knew that Amy knew how he felt about her but he hadn't asked her out yet.
Suddenly Taylor realized Amy was looking back at him so he gave her a quick smile, blushed, and then he looked back at the list he was holding.
Meanwhile Zac was outside moping.
He glanced in the window and saw everyone smiling and laughing.
"I used to be part of that," he thought sadly to himself, "but now they all ignore me. Why?"
Slowly he walked back to the tree house and sat down.
Without even realizing it he fell asleep.
"Zac......Zac.....wake up."
Zac felt someone shaking him.
He rolled over and opened his eyes.
< When he looked up he saw his little sister Jesse was waving a envelope over his head.
"You got some mail Zac. It's from Kelea." Jesse said as she dropped the letter on the seat next to Zac.
"Thanks Jesse." secretly Zac was wondering why Kelea would be sending him mail.
After Jesse left Zac picked up the letter. It was in a bluish-green envelope and it had a stamp with a picture of a palm tree on it.
Zac opened up the envelope and pulled out the card.
"A card?" Zac asked himself out loud.
When he opened it up he almost fell off his seat in surprise.
Kelea had sent him a birthday card, along with a ten dollar bill.
Just then Zac heard a crack of thunder.
"Uh oh!" Zac shouted as he gathered up his stuff and ran back to the house.
The moment he stepped inside lightning filled up the sky and the rain started pouring down.
Zac threw his coat on the floor and ran into the family room.
"Guys!" he shouted at everyone, "Look what I got from Kelea! She sent me a happy birth....."
Taylor recognized the stationary so he jumped up out of his seat and started talking before Zac could get any farther, "That's nice Zac, could you tell us about it later? We have alot of work we still have to do."
"But I didn't even get to tell you..."
Isaac quickly joined the conversation in order to keep Zac from mentioning that it was his birthday, "Do you know what Zac? We were just getting ready to go into the living room. You'll have to tell us later."
Amy and Lucy quickly got off the couch and gathered their stuff.
As the four of them left Zac standing alone in the family room none of them saw the tears that were beginning to run down Zac's cheek.
Zac ran into his room and began to throw clothes into his backpack, "They don't care about me anymore. I don't care what any of them say, I'm not important anymore. Let Isaac and Taylor be famous without me, it's not worth it if they all forget about me!"
Zac packed a few of his prized possessions and his money in his backpack and then he silently walked into the kitchen, "I don't care what happens" Zac continued to tell himself as he packed some food, "I'm going to run away. Anywhere I go will be better that here. I know, I'll go to Kelea's house, at least she remembered my birthday."
Zac looked outside at the falling rain and then he picked his coat off the floor and put it on.
He found his gloves and his hat and put them on.
A minute later he slid on his boots and quietly opened the door.
Slowly he stepped into the falling rain, "Goodbye everyone."
Zac could hear his mom and dad talking from their room, just as he turned to leave he heard Avery walk into the kitchen.
"Zac? Where are you Zac? I wanna show you something."
He walked back to the door and without opening it back up he listened for a moment.
"Where are you Zac? I want you to see my picture. Zac...Zac....."
Finally he heard her voice fade away and he backed up from the door.
"I'm sorry Avery," he whispered, "at least I know you'll miss me. I love you." he added as he took one last look at the house were he had grown up before he turned and began the long walk that laid before him.
PART III
"Isaac......."
There was a soft knocking on the door of the living room.
Isaac got up from where he sitting in the living room and walked over to the doorway, "What is it Avery?"
"Do you know where Zac is? I wanna show him this picture." Avery said as she held up the drawing.
"I don't know.....he's probably hiding or something." Isaac replied as he picked up his little sister, "Why don't you go show it to Mom and Dad and then you can ask if they know where Zac is?"
"Ok." Avery said as she gave him a hug.
After Isaac put Avery down on the floor and she left to go find their parents, he went and sat back down.
"Hey Ike," Taylor said throwing a pillow at his older brothers head, "Go get the cordless phone."
"Why?"
Amy sighed, "We need to call everyone who's coming to tell them to make sure Zac doesn't see them. If he's sneaking around the last thing we want is for him to see everybody with presents. He might get just a little bit suspicious if he see that, don't you think?"
"Good idea," Isaac said as he stood back up and carefully stepped over the bag of party favors, "I'll be right back."
Moments later he walked back in, "Here Amy, you can make the calls while the three of us finish up with the party favors."
"Sure." Amy replied taking the phone as she flipped open her address book to Katie Axcel's number.
A few minutes later all you could hear was Amy calling people while Taylor, Lucy, and Isaac sorted the bag of toys.
Lucy looked out the window and shuddered as a flash of lightning illuminated the sky, "Wow, I feel sorry for anyone who's caught in the storm."
Isaac just laughed as he tied one of the bags shut, "Me too Lucy, I'm just glad it's not one of us out there."
If only Isaac could of known.
Zac was leaning against the side of a building, it didn't offer much protection from the pouring rain but he would take what he could get. He had spent the last hour just walking, not quite sure were he was going, he just knew he had to get away.
Everyone back at home had forgotten about him, he felt like a stranger in his own house. Like the weird one, the one who doesn't fit in.
As Zac watched all of the people walk around him in such a hurry he started to sing, not really loud enough to be heard by anyone except himself, he was just singing to calm his nerves.
In the middle of singing Zac stopped.
A family had just walked by him, the parents were laughing, the mother was holding the youngest kid, a little girl. The two younger children were begging for attention, the middle child was tugging on the fathers sleeve, the oldest was dashing in-between everyone else, Zac turned his head, it hurt to much to see a sight like that, a family and the love that it had in it.
Just then he started to think about one of the songs that he and his brothers had written together back when they still paid attention to him. Before they became famous.
It was featured one their hit CD, song number three, 'Weird'.
Zac thought about it for a moment and then started to sing the second verse.
Isn't it hard. Standing in the rain.
You're on the verge of going crazy and your heart's in pain
No one can hear but your screaming so loud
You feel like your all alone in a faceless crowd
Isn't it strange how we all get a little bit weird sometimes.
Sitting on the side. Waiting for a sign. Hoping that my
luck will change
Reaching for a hand that will understand, someone who
feels the same.
When you live in a cookie cutter world being different
is a sin.
So you don't stand out. And you don't fit in. Weird.
Zac noticed that the rain was letting up so he picked his backpack back up stepped back into the crowd of people.
All he wanted know was just to get away from everyone. Everywhere he looked he saw things that reminded him of his own family.
PART IV
Isaac surveyed the room one more time before he took a head count.
"10...11...12...Ok, that's everyone."
Isaac was standing in the middle of his living room, all around him were the guests for Zac's party.
Amy came in balancing a tray a sodas, "Isaac, your mom wants your help in the kitchen. I'll stay in here and watch the kids."
"Sure, no problem. How's Taylor doing?" Isaac replied as he made his way over to were Amy was standing.
"Just fine, he should be back any minute now...." Amy said as she put the tray on the table that was set up.
Almost as if on cue Taylor opened the front door and stepped inside completely drenched.
"Guys," Taylor started in a serious tone, "I can't find Zac anywhere."
Lucy walked over, "What do you mean Taylor?"
"I mean he's like missing, I checked all of his favorite spots to hang out. Nobody's seen him today at all."
"Oh my word," Amy cried out softly, "Go tell your mom, I'll take care of everyone in here."
As Taylor made his way to the kitchen Amy got the attention of all the guests, "Ok, everyone, we've had some problems. Due to this I'm going to have to call all of your parents and have them come and pick you up. If your parents aren't home I'll make arrangements for you to stay at someone else's house........."
Amy's voice disappeared under all of the questions that were being called out.
About an hour later everyone had finally gone home except for Amy and Lucy.
Walker and Diana didn't know what to do.
Finally Diana spoke up, "Well, we can't file a police report yet. Amy, call your mother please."
"Sure."
A moment later she came back with the phone.
"Mom? Hi, it's me Amy. Yeah everything's Ok. Mrs.Hanson wants to talk to you."
Amy handed the phone to Diana who proceeded to make arrangements for Jesse, Avery, and Mackie to stay at the Sabec household while they looked for Zac.
After everything was finally arranged they split into two groups, Taylor and Isaac with their dad, and Amy and Lucy with Diana.
They dropped the three younger Hanson kids off with Mrs.Sabec and then they set off in search of Zac.
By eleven o'clock there was still no sign of Zac and everyone was tired.
They returned disheartened to the Hanson's house were they all laid down to get some rest before setting of to find Zac in the morning.
As she drifted of to sleep Lucy said a silent prayer for Zac's safety.
PART V
The next morning found Zac sleeping on a bench at a bus stop about six miles from his house.
The clouds from the previous day were nowhere to be seen and Zac began to wake up as the early morning sunlight fell across his face.
"Oh man...." Zac groaned as he rolled over onto his back and almost fell off of the bench, "Where am I?"
Zac sat up with sudden realization.
He ran his hand through his hair as he thought back on the day before.
"My birthday too....." Zac said sadly.
As Zac began to gather stuff he continued to think to himself.
Zac thought about his family, his mom and dad would probably be worried to death by now. Zac could still see Avie's face as she called his name, so innocent, she'd never be able to understand why he left. He stopped halfway through packing and thought back on the past two weeks....at first Taylor and Isaac acted normal but then they started drifting away, becoming more distant every day.
Now that Zac thought about it, there had never been any coldness in the way they had treated him, maybe he was taking it way to hard. Maybe he was wrong, for a moment he considered turning around and going back home but that thought was quickly dismissed.
"It's to late, I'm already to far to stop now." Zac fought off the urge to cry as he began to pack his last items.
His last thought before he headed around to the front office was of his family.
"I wonder what they're doing right now..."
The answer to his question was not a pretty sight.
Two very tired adults were trying to decide on the best way to look for Zac while four equally tired children sat silent at the kitchen table.
Each was lost in their own thoughts. Lucy wanted to, needed to cry, but all that come were silent sobs as she struggled to keep the fear inside her from surfacing. Amy was staring into space as if somehow that would help her find Zac. The look that Zac had on his face the last time she saw him was haunting her, he had looked so innocent, so confused by the way they were all acting towards him. The unspoken question that had been in his eyes were haunting her the most. Isaac played the one moment when Taylor first announced that Zac was missing over and over in his mind. He looked up just as Taylor did the same. Isaac could see the fear and confusion in his younger brothers eyes, he looked as if he was on the verge of tears, but he also looked physically exhausted, his shoulders were slumped as if he was carrying the weight of the world on them. He seemed to be taking it harder than anyone, he felt as if he had just tried harder to find Zac he would of found something to help them in their search for Zac.
Taylor's gaze shifted from Isaac to Amy as she reached out and put her arm around his shoulder.
She gave him an encouraging smile and he smiled a faint smile back.
Not long afterwards they once again split into two groups in order to cover more ground. Isaac and Taylor went with their father while Amy and Lucy went with Diana.
They figured Zac was within a ten mile radius, they were partly right. Physically he was about that far but in heart and mind he was still at home.
At that fateful bus stop Zac had already bought his ticket and he was sitting behind a group of people at the actual stop.
The man in front of him was lacking in the hair department, Zac laughed in spite of himself, but it was more nervous laughter than anything else.
The man was going on about how he had almost been a meteorologist when he was younger.
After an hour or so Zac had taken just about all he could handle, he was just about to move to another bench when suddenly a funny thought struck him, the man in front of him reminded him of the man in the song 'Man From Milwaukee'.
Zac decided to sing that song since he needed something to take his mind off of what was taking place.
'It started at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere
Sitting beside me was a man with no hair
From the look on his face to the size of his toes
He comes from a place that nobody knows
Maybe I'm hallucinating, hyperventilating
Letting this big-toed bald man sitting here tell me
about the sky
Maybe I'm hallucinating, hyperventilating
If you asked me now then I couldn't tell you why
I've been sitting here to long by a
Man from Milwaukee
He's been talking to long on his yellow
walkie talkie
He's been talking to Mars but I think
he's wacky
He says they'll come get him, come get
him someday'
When he got to the part right after the second time the chorus is sung he didn't here it in his own voice, instead he heard his mother calling out....
'This is mother bird calling baby bird. baby bird come in, come in baby bird. for the love of pete! come in!'
When Zac heard that playing in his mind he suddenly wished that his mom was right there so he could answer her.
"I'm right here mom," Zac said in a whisper, almost as if pleading for her to come and take him back home, "please mom, I miss you."
Suddenly Zac felt a pair of arms wrap around him from the back, "And I miss you too."
Zac turned his head around very startled, he turned to see his mother holding him almost to tight, she had tears streaming down her face. He saw the relief in her eyes and he realized that everything was going to be okay.
When he looked around he noticed Amy and Lucy standing off to the side a little feeling a little out of place during that emotional moment.
Zac carefully broke his mothers grip and stood up. He slowly walked to were Amy and Lucy were standing.
None of them said a word, for a moment they just stood there. Finally Amy broke the tension.
She reached out and softly brushed a strand of hair off his face, "Oh Zac...."
Amy couldn't figure out what to say when suddenly Lucy summed up how all of them felt in three little words.
"We missed you." Lucy smiled as she reached out and took hold of Zac's hand.
Amy couldn't stand it any longer, she swept Zac and Lucy into a tight hug.
Diana called her husband on her cell phone to let him know that they had found Zac and that they were heading home.
A minute later she had the three young kids bundled into the car.
PART VI
An hour later after Zac took a long hot shower he walked into the family room were he knew that his family would be waiting for him.
His father motioned for him to sit down before he began talking.
"Zac, I know that you've already learned your lesson so I'm not going to punish you. However, I would like you to explain why you ran away."
Zac looked around the room, everyone's faces were full of concern.
He took a deep breath and then began.
"I don't know...I guess I just felt like nobody wanted me around here anymore. Everyone was ignoring me..."
Taylor interrupted unable to suppress all the fear that he had felt while Zac was gone, "Zac, we would never be able to not want you here! We love you, you're family! I'm sorry if that's the way you felt, I really am, I know we caused it, but you should of told someone. If you really wanted to talk I would've listened to you."
Isaac put a comforting hand on Taylor's shoulder and then continued from his younger brothers previous statement.
"Taylor's right, we were all so worried about you. We didn't know if you were ok or not. I am sorry about the way you felt. We acted that way because we were planning a surprise party for you. We weren't even close to forgetting about you, in fact that's about the exact opposite."
Diana and Walker watched proudly as Taylor and Isaac continued to talk to Zac.
Zac looked up at everyone with teary eyes, "I'm sorry guys, I didn't mean for all this to happen. Honestly, I don't know what got into me. It's like I didn't even know what I was doing. I feel so stupid now."
Taylor felt a peace fall over the room as Zac stopped talking and hung his head.
"I forgive you Zac."
Everyone in the room quickly nodded in agreement with Taylor.
Before anyone could say anything the doorbell rang.
Pretty soon Zac was being smothered with hugs from Jessie, Avie, and Mackie while Amy and Lucy hung up their coats.
Diana broke into a wide smile and asked, "Now that everyone's here, why don't we go into the kitchen and have some cake to celebrate Zac's return?"
Her question was quickly greeted with many yeah's as everyone stood up.
Suddenly over everyone else a familiar voice spoke up, "Hey guys! Last one to the kitchen cleans the room tomorrow!"
Before anyone could respond Zac was already on his feet and halfway to the kitchen.
Nobody could resist the smiles that appeared on their faces.
It sure was great to have Zac back home.
Almost in spite of himself Zac could feel an ear-to-ear grin spread across his face as he ran by everyone else.
Never again would he doubt the love his family and friends had for him.
Need Kleenex...
My First Three Stories
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Email: kai_yuria@hotmail.com
