Lit. Out Loud: Dyslexia

     I walked through the two doors and down the stairs that lead to the cafeteria. I stared at all the lights, shining around the room. The room was lit by Christmas lights and lava lambs that members of club donated for tonight. I looked around and noticed other students in the club and those that attended the school. I saw Mr. Gazzer, who I knew very little. He was one of the advisers for the club along with Mr. M, who was my English teacher and role model and just like years before, did not notice I was at the event.
     The lights went dim and I found a seat to sit at. None of my real friends were there, but I saw a few people I knew and waved to them with a smile on my face. I was there to listen to the pieces that people wrote. Some people wrote poems, other wrote short stories, and a few others played music. It was a wonderful performance, however, my heart started to ache for although I loved to write, there was one thing missing. Spelling and grammar, and my reading were below average. I knew that the people standing up there reading will get papers publish and maybe even a book, while my talent laid hidden to the world.
     Having dyslexia was never easy and I knew my dream of becoming a great writer was slim. I cannot remember the first short story I wrote, but I do remember that before going to bed, I would write. I would write about all my imaginary friends and how they went on magical adventures with me. How we saved the world, a world that existed in my imagination. Where laws and physics never set foot, but the good guys always won and bad guys always lose. I wrote down these stories when I was only about ten-years-old in elementary school, but when I looked back at these stories, I discovered my spelling mistakes and grammar. I could not spell “what”, “how”, “when”, “mine”, “the,” “next”, “this”, and much more. My letters were everyway on the page, never staying on the line. These were my first stories and I continued to write before bed until I finished high school.
     In middle school, and even in high school, very few had noticed my gift. Although my spelling and grammar have improved, many still overlook my creativity and only saw the errors.
     Besides my spelling and grammar, my reading is slow and I often mistake words for something else. I am embarrassed to read out loud and I am afraid of screwing up, like I used to do when I was younger. That is why I look up to these other students and I wish I could tell them how lucky they were. They have perfect grammar, spelling, and can read without a single flaw. They are in the spotlight, while I am in the dark. Their talents will be noticed and people will clap for them, while I am sitting down with the audience without anyone noticing my talents. Because the ones standing up and reading have a talent and gift, something that I have as well, but I will never be able to share it. Because I have dyslexia and it will be the cross that I carry for the rest of my life.

Leaves

     We knew they were coming, we always knew that they would come sooner or later. My parents grabbed my brothers and me and put us in a hidden room behind the bookcase. They were not able to finish it to fit all of us and before closing the hidden door, they kissed all three of us and told us that they loved us. Right when the door shut, we heard the door to our apartment open and guns were fired.
After many hours, we left the hidden room only to find our parents gone and the room torn to bits. I held my baby brother in my arms and looked down at my six-year-old brother and told him that we were going to leave and never return to the apartment.
     The war was terrible and it kept getting worse. Soldiers were everywhere and other countries kept bombing the country, mostly the capital city. People were suffering but were still loyal to the fatherland. And people like us (the Jews) were being taken away and killed.
My brothers and I found a shack to live in near the bay. We depended on the fish in the bay to eat and even sale. We thought we were safe, but eventually the soldiers found us and somehow they knew we were Jews. They burst into our new home and attacked by hitting and kicking us. One soldier grabbed my baby brother and I yelled at him to give him back. When a soldier was about to grab us, I held on to my other brother and then everything went blank.
     The next thing we knew, we were in the middle of a jungle and the sun was beaming down on us, but the trees cover sunlight. I woke up to see my brother next to me, but somehow I knew that my baby brother was not here. As my brother started to wake up, I started to cry and mourn for my baby brother. That was when they showed up. The other children with tan skin and yellow eyes.





     There was no time on the island. The sun rose and then it went down. The moon and stars came out at night, but there was no calendars, no days, no months, no years. No one kept track of time. No one on the island grew older then about thirteen years old and we all had tan skin and yellow eyes, despite that at the time when my brother and I arrived we had pale skin, we always had pale skin, until we arrived on the island. No one knew how he or she got here or why we were here. Either way, this island was a paradise. There were no adults, no wars, and fruit grew on every tree and bush. The water that surrounded the island was clean water instead of salt water. Our memories of our home, our families, and our other lives started to fade away. The only thing I could remember was my baby brother and how I could not protect him and I blamed myself every day.
     One day, while I was out gathering basil, I heard a baby crying. I thought that maybe my brother was alright and he finally arrived at the island. I followed the cry to the beach and out in the ocean I saw a boat. Except the boat was on fire and sinking. Coming towards the island was a basket and I heard the cry come from the basket. The basket wash up on the shore and I looked inside to see a small baby, looking up at me and when he saw me he stopped crying and had a big smile on. I picked up the baby and held him in my arms. I knew he was not my baby brother but I fell in love with him right away. I stared once more time at the boat sinking, most of it was under water and I knew that this baby was now an orphan. I cradle him in my arms and told him, “don’t worry, I will always protect you,”

“Gather everyone!” yelled Demon and everyone went out into the jungle to gather the kids who were out doing their chores, both pre-teen and toddler. Demon went to the tallest tree in the jungle and looked out into the ocean. In the distance appeared a ship and from that ship he saw a small boat coming towards the shore.
“What do you see brother?” asked Angel with a concern face.
“Adults, they found this island.”



“I’m faster than you!”
“No you’re not!”
“Then let’s have a race!”
“A race!” near the voice there was a shrieked and out came two children, a boy and a girl, barely eight years old.
“We want to see!” the young girl said.
“No way,” said a boy with blonde hair.
“Tiger, we are going to need witnesses,” said a boy with black hair and pale skin.
“I guess,” replied Tiger.
The two boys were ready to race and when the children yelled, “go!” they were off. They ran as fast as they could through the jungle. They jumped over roots, swung through branches, and ran through leaves and bushes that got in the way. The two boys had big smiles on their faces and laughed along the way.
“Hey Leaves! Is this the fastest you can run at?” asked Tiger and then it hit Leaves. He knew a short cut and went off the course.
“Giving up?” asked Tiger, but Leaves continued to run. While he ran, a cliff that he had to jump across caught Leaves. With a running start he jumped and crossed it. By then he knew he could win. When he saw the finish line, he saw Tiger next to him and the two younger children were cheering. Leaves saw that he was ahead by a little bit, but then he tripped and Tiger crossed as the winner.
“That doesn’t count!” exclaimed Leaves.
“You tripped, it’s fair,” replied Tiger. The two started arguing, when Feet and Hands appeared. The two were on the council and they were twin brother and sister.
“There is an emergency! Did you hear the alarm? Get back to the village, how could you ignore the alarm and getting two young ones in danger! Get back, you’ll be happy we won’t be telling Demon about this,” they both said.
Back at the village Leaves found his sister Angel and gave her a hug. He saw the worried look on her face.
“Where have you’ve been?” she asked.
“Tiger and I were having a friendly race. I lost,”
“Now is not the time to race, there is an emergency. Can’t you listen just once to the council and not worry me?” Leaves saw tears in her eyes and felt guilty for making his sister worried. His sister was the one who found him, raised him, feed him, clothe him, and did everything for him. Including getting him out of trouble when he broke a rule as a young kid. He did not see Angel as his sister, but as a mother. Then Demon came out.
     Demon was the leader of the village and also Angel’s brother. Angel found Leaves on the beach and adopted him, while Demon was her younger brother by blood. For some reason, Demon never accepted Leaves as his brother and Leaves believes it is because they are not blood related or that Leaves was different.
     On the island, all the other children appeared like magic to the jungle, while Leaves was washed up on the shore from a shipwreck. Because of this, the island never accepted Leaves. All the other children had tan skin and yellow eyes, but Leaves still had his dark black eyes and pale white skin. Also, unlike the other kids, Leaves kept getting older and everyone was aware that Leaves would probably grow up to be an adult, the only adult on the island while everyone else remains young. The part of growing up or even thinking about growing up disturbed Leaves, but for now he was about thirteen years old.
“What’s going on?” asked one of the children.
“We believe that adults are coming to the island,” announced Demon and then there was an up roar among them. Some children thought they should fight and protect their home while others believed they should hide and hope that the adults would go away. The five council members and Demon talked among themselves and seemed to agree to a solution.
“We decided to go into hiding and avoid conflict. We also forbid any contact with the adults. If someone should come into contact, they will be punish or exile.” Then Demon turned around and left with the council. Everyone went to their huts and started to pack up.
“Angel, what are we doing?” asked Leaves.
“Pack everything. Pack the clothes, the food, and put down the hut. We will burry the stuff we cannot take with us and eat as much as we can for now. We’ll be living in the trees for a while or maybe even a cave. This island is big enough to hide in,”




     Leaves started to get bored living in the trees, he lost count for how long they have been hiding from the adults. Leaves was also curious about the adults. Leaves (and everyone on the island) do not know what he or she look like or forgotten what he or she looked like before arriving to the island.
“Hey Leaves,” Leaves looked up to notice Tiger, his best friend and also a rival at running. Tiger had two other boys with him, Quiet and Apple.
“What’s up guys? Up to no good?”
“Listen, we gather rocks and we have our sling shots. Guess what we are going to do.”
“Hit yourself?” Quiet and Apple giggled while Tiger seemed a bit angry.
“I was going to ask if you wanted to join us in fooling around with the adult.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know! Throw rocks at them. Like hide-and-seek. We throw the rocks, it hits them, and we hide. Maybe they’ll think it is a ghost. It’ll be funny to watch!”
“Demon said not to make contact with them,”
“He said not to make ‘contact’ with them. He said nothing about going near them, did he?” Leaves could not remember what Demon said except that no one could make contact with them because they can be put in excel.
“Come on, it’s boring here. Let’s have some action!” said Tiger and Leaves started to think.
“Alright, I’m in.”
     The boys found the adult camp in the jungle and they started to shoot rocks at them with their slingshots. There were two men. One was fat and the other one was extremely skinny and tall.
“Aim for the skinny one,” Tiger told Quiet. When the rock hit the man, he jumped up and ran in a circle screaming.
“What! What is it?” asked the fat one who started to look worry.
“Something hit me! Something hit me! Something hit me!” yelled the skinny man.
“It’s just your imagination,” said the fat one trying to calm him down. The boys in the trees started to giggle and covered their mouths so they would not get caught.
“Hey, Apple. Get the fat one,” said Quiet.
“Let’s both get him. I’ll get him in the butt!”
“Then I’ll get the back of his head.” The two aimed and got a direct hit of their targets. The fat man turned around and went pale, while rubbing his head.
“What is it?” asked the skinny man getting scared.
“Nothing, it’s nothing,” said the fat one in a scared tone.
“How many rocks do we have?” asked Leaves.
“I have none,” said Apple. Quiet and Tiger also said they had none and Leaves was able to find an extra one in his pocket. Leaves took aimed and then hit the skinny one in the head and he started to go crazy. The boys kept laughing under their breathes.
“Let’s go back before Demon discovers what we did,” said Leaves and the rest of the boys agreed.                                 When the three took off, Leaves turned around because he caught something in the corner of his eyes.
     Something was coming out of the jungle and towards the two adult men. He was ready to protect the men from whatever beast was about to come out and attack them but instead it was not a beast. It was a girl! A girl with clothes that Leaves never saw and she had dark brown hair, pale skin, and brown eyes. He never saw anyone like her, someone like himself. The girl helped the two men and was laughing at whatever they were saying. Then a couple appeared behind the girl and the girl hugged them. Leaves did not understand how this girl could have affection for the adults, especially the two she was hugging. The five of them started to take off, but the girl turned around to pick flowers. That was when the branch under Leave’s legs broke and he fell out of the tree and on the ground. The girl turned around shock and dumfounded. Leaves quickly got up and the two stared at each other, silently, not knowing what to do. The girl said something but Leaves could not understand what she said. Then someone grabbed Leaves. The girl kept screaming something and Leaves kept fighting but then he was tied up. He looked up to find his capture: the two adult men whom him and his friends were teasing earlier.

      Leaves was put on a boat on the sand and the two men started to push it out into the ocean. The couple and the girl were on bored and the girl could not help staring at Leaves with a sad face. Leaves looked back to the jungle and saw someone. He took a closer look and saw Angel. She was crying. Leaves wanted to cry, but instead he sat up straight and tall, just like Demon did at every meeting.
“Don’t worry Angel, my dear sister, I’ll be alright.” The men got in the boat and it started to go towards the big boat out at sea. Leaves watched as the island, his home, was getting smaller and smaller. Leaves knew he never belong on the island and the island was now showing her true nature.