The Realization

Despite the fact that it was Monday, school was alright. Chris had gotten along fine with his friends, and he didn't even have homework, which was saying something for high school; usually, he was swamped, but today it seemed as though his cruel teachers had taken mercy on their classes and decided that today was no homework day.

Honestly, Chris wasn't used to having so much free time on his hands, and he didn't know how to spend it since all of his friends were busy volunteering at some grocery store. Chris had refused to participate in that, for if he had, he would have to wear a milk-carton costume that even he couldn't pull off.

Chris smirked at the thought of Kayla, Charlie, and Mike in produce costumes handing out food, and plopped down on the couch, scrolling through his news feed. An ad that read "10 best tips to lose weight for lazy people" popped up just as his mom walked behind him; great timing.

"Oh, trying to get fit for the school year, eh?" she said.

"It's an ad, mom" Chris laughed, as he clicked out of the pop-up. "And besides, Grandma wouldn't appreciate me losing any weight"

"Your right about that, just the other day she asked me if you and Lilly were getting enough protein"

Chris smiled. That sounded like something she would say.

"Hey, Chris, I put some boxes of your old stuff on your bed for you to go through. It's mainly old clothes, but just go through them so I don't throw out anything you don't want me to."

Chris groaned. "Do I have to do it like, right now?"

"Yes, Chris."

Chris sighed, pulled himself out of the couch, and trudged up the stairs.

"Hey, don't give me attitude!" His mom shouted after him.

"Okay, okay, sorry! I'm going to look through it!" Chris closed the door to his bedroom, being careful not to slam it. If Chris closed it even just slightly too hard, he knew his mom would flip out.

Chris stared at the giant box on his bead and grimaced. There was so much, and honestly, if he hadn't needed it for this long, he couldn't see why he would suddenly need it now. His mom might as well just give it away already, but, he didn't want to get in trouble, so he began to sort through his old belongings.

His mom was right, it was mainly old clothes, but there were some old toys as well. Chris pulled out an old fire truck that he had gotten when his parents had first fostered him, and set it aside from the goodwill box. It was too memorable to give away. Chris found himself setting aside many things that he had forgotten about, and was glad his mom had made him go through this stuff. Even though Chris didn't cherish his time at the group home and foster care, it was still a part of his life and he couldn't change that. It felt wrong to give away all the possessions he had gathered throughout that time; he didn't want to give away a part of himself, so Chris found himself keeping the teddy bear that he had gotten in the courtroom the day he was adopted. All of the kids in the system were given a teddy bear for each time they were in court, but luckily for Chris, he only had two: one for when he entered the system, and one for when he was adopted. He had seen kids with whole bags of them.

Chris neared the bottom of the box and moved some of the clothes aside, where he found a small cardboard box. Chris frowned, wondering what it could be. He picked it up, and carefully opened the lid, only to find that it was empty. He was about to put it back, but something from the bix caught on his sleeve, and he pulled it away to find an elastic string. Chris kept pulling, but the string was stuck to something at the bottom of the larger box.

Chris began to take the clothes out of the box, but as he did, he heard a sort of rolling sound at coming from the bottom, like a marble. As more and more old clothes were removed, the bottom of the box began to come into sight, and he found what was making the rolling sounds. A bunch of wooden beads littered the bottom of the box, all rolling back and forth. Chris, confused, picked up one of the beads and held it up to the light. It was all misshapen, like someone had carved it by hand. He picked up another one and felt and hard groove in the side, so he turned on his phone flashlight and held the bead close to it, and what he saw made him gasp. There was an E in wobbly calligraphy carved into the side of the bead. Chris frantically began to collect the beads and ran to his desk where he set them all out in a line. He hurriedly arranged them, even though he knew what was coming.

Chris sat back and stared at the lettered beads, not really understanding the situation. He read the letters over and over and finally processed the two words.

"Remember me"

❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈

It all came flooding back. The memories of him and this little boy, who was his best friend in the home. The box Chris was holding in his left hand fell on the floor, but Chris didn't even notice. He tried to swallow, but his throat was dry and it felt like sandpaper. How could he have forgotten about this kid? He had even made him a bracelet saying "remember me," but Chris was too stupid to remember the only person who has stuck with him through the worst time of his life,

Chris clenched and un-clenched his fists, trying hard to remember the kid's name, but it wouldn't come. All he had was a blurry image of the kid's face, and the memories of the times they had together. Chris seemed to be at a loss, wondering what to do next. After all, just a blurry image wasn't much to go on, but he knew that he had to find his friend, or it would destroy him.

Most likely, his friend had probably ended up in foster care after the home, unless he had gotten adopted. Chris knew all of the terrible things that happened in foster care, as most of the parents fostering kids were just in it for the money. A lot of kids in the system would have abusive parents, and no guidance, which led them to make bad decisions in life. Most foster kids would end up in jail or unemployed by age 20, but from what Chris did remember of this kid, he was pretty smart, and Chris hoped he would know enough to have stayed out of trouble this long.

Chris sat there at his desk for a good 10 minutes longer, trying to process the situation and figure out how to find this kid. Then it hit him. Chris frantically ran downstairs and into the kitchen, looking for his mother.

"Mom!" he called out.

"I'm in my office, Chris" she responded.

Chris ran back upstairs and into his mom's workspace.

"Jesus, are you alright? You look like you've just seen a ghost!"

"Yeah, mom, I'm fine, but do you remember the name of the group home you got me from? Boys and girls something, right?"

"No, But I have it somewhere in my room, I'll go check. Wait here"

Chris plopped down in a love seat by his mom's desk and sighed, waiting for his mom to come back.

After what seemed like forever, his Mom walked back in, and in her hand was a stack of papers.

"Okay, should be here somewhere... Did you say boys and girls? I do recall that being part of the name..." she mumbled. "Ah, here it is! Josephine's Haven for Boys and Girls."

"Thanks a lot mom!" Chris shouted as he rushed out the door. He could hear his mom say something from her office, but Chris really didn't have any more time. He ran back into his room and pulled his laptop out from under his bed, where he kept it.

Chris typed in Josephine's Haven for Boys and Girls and the year that he had first arrived. He clicked on the first link, and there it was. The terrible, menacing building towering over a quant little garden sitting out front. There was a photo of the workers and the kids together, all lined up at the front of the building, but Chris wasn't one of the kids, and neither was his friend. He scrolled down a little further and found that they had taken many pictures like these, one for each year it seemed. Chris clicked on one that had a familiar worker by the front, and the picture filled his screen. Chris looked at the kids in the front row, and his little self staring back at him, all pudgy and dirty. Chris looked up higher at the top row where he found the kid he was looking for, but the picture still wasn't good quality. Well, at least it was something to go on. Chris looked for a place where they might have listed the kids' names, but he didn't find anything. The website was pretty empty, and it hadn't posted anything new in two years.

Chris exited the page and looked at more links with the name Josephine's Haven for Boys and Girls, but he had no luck. They were all just as useless as the first one.

Chris looked down at his watch and saw that he had already spent three hours searching for this kid. He sighed and wondered why it mattered to him so much. After all, he hadn't seen this kid in 8 years, why would he suddenly care now? But Chris knew deep down that this friend of his meant a lot more to him. It felt as if he were a long lost brother or family member that needed to be found, and he could be in danger in the system. Chris needed to find him and make sure he was okay, but first, he just needed to find out what this kid's name was. That would be a good start.

Chris rolled out of bed the next morning, but it felt as if he hadn't slept at all. He kept thinking about the group home, and what may have happened to his friend. During the night, however, he had racked his brain trying to remember more of what the kid looked like. So far all he had was Latino, curly hair, tall, and skinny. But then again, he had probably gone through puberty and changed a lot throughout the years, which rendered Chris's efforts useless.

Chris slid into his slippers and trudged downstairs. He planned on faking sick so that he could do some more research, maybe go to the library and use one of the high-tech computers, like the ones used for finding criminal records. He doubted he could find anything without a name, but it was worth a shot. Besides, he could go to the police department and show them the picture he had and ask if they knew who it was, then he could look into the group home a little bit more and see if he could find any useful information.

Chris didn't know whether to tell his friends or not. He was planning on telling Kayla a little, but he didn't know if he should tell Charlie and Mike... it wasn't the sort of thing they usually talked about anyways. Chris didn't want to get himself into an awkward situation with his friends.

Chris moped downstairs and poured himself a glass of water. His dad was already at work, but his mom was still home and he knew he'd have to ask to stay home eventually and there was no point in procrastinating.

"Hey, mom?"

"Yes?"

"I'm really not feeling good, do you mind if I stay home today? I haven't missed any other school days so-"

"Chris, honestly, I can't say I approve but you look terrible, so I'm going to trust you on this. Don't make me regret it."

"Okay, thanks," Chris said and downed the rest of his water.

"Well, I'm off. Hope you feel better" His mom said, and she ruffled his hair and walked out of the door, her keys jingling in her hand.

"Bye, mom" Chris called out after her.

As soon as her car had pulled out of the driveway, Chris grabbed his keys and opened the door. He walked into the garage where his car sat, looking spotless. Chris grinned and started the engine. He was going to the library, to find out what had happened to his friend.