Running to the Sun

Willie Gray was only 12 years old when the panic of 1983 occurred. It was very similar to the depression, every one was poor and it was hard to find work to feed your family.  But Willie’s parents had been in the government and were very wealthy. Willie went to school in a normal school in El Paso, Texas, which the students there were all poor. He didn’t think of himself as anything better than the others. He didn’t want to be known as the wealthy kid.

So Willie decided  to keep his wealth a secret, because he knew the kids at his school would be mean to him.

It was December 5th, 1893, the panic had been in action for a while now. It was a very normal day, Willie woke up, got dressed, ate breakfast, and went off to school.  

A few days earlier Willie’s classmates asked Willie how he got clothes like he had, and too scared to reveal his wealth , he lied. He told them that he he stole them from the market. Willie’s classmates were all rough, tough, and we’re ready to scrap for any money they could. They dressed in ragged clothes, with holes and stains galore. But they didn’t care, that was who they were. Willie knew telling them this story, he would become one of them. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to become one of them or not, but if it kept his secret from coming out he was willing to do whatever.

The biggest and meanest of all his classmates were the twin brothers Mark and Matthew Smith. They were used to being poor even before the panic began, so they had experience in the scrapping business. The boys were known for pocket picking, and sneaking from the market.

They had their own little clan of six friends. They all lived in the same neighborhood, so they spent a lot of time together. The group consisted of Spanks, Roscoe, James, Poncho, Garrett, and Johnny. They were all big, tall, and mean... so Willie was quiet intimidated. Willie finally got to school, it was hot and nasty outside so every one was starting off cranky. The Texas sun was shinning brighter today than ever before.

As soon as Willie came in and sat down, he knew something was up. Everyone just kept staring at him, he’d worn his play clothes that had holes and stains in them, so that he would blend in.

He thought to himself, “Do I look too fancy, or do I not look normal?” He was afraid that the other boys had caught on to him. The teacher Mrs. Martin came in and everything began as normal. Mrs. Martin was a young teacher, she was as sweet as a honeysuckle, but could be as mean as a snake.

Roscoe pinched Willie and said, “You better watch out you little punk.”

Willie began to become frightened, curled up in a little ball. All day the boys chuckled at him, and growled. Willie was a little nervous about going outside to play. His class drug on, and the teacher said it was time to go outside and play for a little bit. Willie began to have chills.        

The whole group followed him out the door and swarmed him when the reached the back of the school yard. The yard was very large and long, the only hidden place was behind the school house. As soon as they reached that spot, Mark pushed Willie to the ground and started yelling at him. Willie got to where he couldn’t breathe from the boys being so close to him, he felt as though they were covering him with a blanket, a wool blanket that had been covering a wet dog. He felt sharp pains all down his body, like someone was stabbing him with a thousand knives, the boys were punching him and kicking him without pulling back. Willie wanted to scream for help, but his body wouldn’t let him do it. He started to choke on his own blood, he was so scared of what was going to happen next.

Finally the teacher found them and got to Willie, but it was too late. He could barely breather , his eyes were swollen, and all the bones in his body were broken to pieces. The teacher ran Willie down the road to a doctors home in hope that he could help him. The doctor put Willie in a bed, and checked him up and down his body. Two hours later, Willie’s whole rib cage collapsed and he died. That group of boys watched as the layed his body in the ground with their guilt crushing them inside.

“We did that.” Johnny stated.

The boys couldn’t believe what they had done.

“Why did we do this?!” Mark yelled.

He began to crouch towards the ground as his guilt ate his organs alive. He felt a warm hand rub across of his head and looked up to find Johnny. Johnny looked over at the family, right at that time Willie’s mothers eyes caught Johnny’s with a shattered look on her poor face. He can began to feel his heart throb as he walked away from what he had done.

The group of boys knew what they had done, and began to run. It looked like they were running to the sun because all you could see in front of them was the sunset of the big Texas sun.