Dameon, stumbled into the door of his apartment while his mother and father helped carry him to his bed on the other side of the room. They helped him lay down as he could still not completely see from the migraines caused by his concussion. 

He lay in the bed as his father and mother talked nearby in the kitchen. “We can’t leave him here like this Walter!” “He will be fine Mabel. Dameon is a smart boy with a good head on his shoulders. His teachers just don’t see his potential.” His father stated in a state of confusion knowing that what he had just said did not quite make sense but he was not sure how he had come to that conclusion. 

Mabel stared a Walter for a few moments as she gathered her thoughts and fought back the tears as he watched her husband struggle to make a statement that had once been so simple. “His place is such a mess! He is a mess. Look at all of these old boxes!” Mabel stated dismissing Walter’s previous statement in order to avoid Walter getting further confused. “Let’s come back in the morning and help him clean up his place.” She stated.  She walked over to Dameon, who was obviously trying to sleep, bent down, and touched his shoulder lovingly. “Honey,…I hope you feel better. Your house is really messy.” She whispered. 

Dameon rolled his eyes as he lay on his side facing away from her. “We are going to come back in the morning and help you clean up the place. Your father doesn’t like seeing you like this.” She added Dameon began to tear up but didn’t say anything to her he didn’t want them to see his pain. As Mabel and Walter began to leave the through the front door Dameon rolled over to watch them leave his eye red and full of tears. 

One single tear began to roll down his face. He looked up towards the hall. Flash whimpered and looked at him with concern, but he looked past her. His eyes were fixated on the old boxes in the hall. How could mom forget what these boxes were, he thought to himself, after all these years? These boxes were all that remained of Reyley. 

The video doorbell began to ring on his video screen by Dameon’s front door. Dameon through a pillow across the room in the direction of the door and tried to go back to sleep. “Dameon…Dameon! It’s your mother and father, please let us in!” “FINE!!” Dameon screamed to the ceiling as he grabbed his aching head as Flash barked at the presumed intruders in the background. He threw the covers off with gusto and forced himself out of bed. 

The doorbell rang again. “I’M COMING!” Dameon yelled as if they could hear him. He tripped over a few of the old boxes that his mother must have moved before they left last night. He kicked them to the side and jumped over the rest and made his way to the door. 

 He cracked the door open slightly to appear as if he didn’t already know who was at the door. “No, thank you. I do not want to hear about your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!” Dameon joked sarcastically. “Dameon don’t joke about God.” Mabel stated as she pushed Dameon out of the way to in order to get through the door. “God’s the reason you are still with us after that fall you had!” She added “Mom, we talk about this all the time. God didn’t save me and he didn’t save Reyley either. Said Dameon 

His mother looked back at him with anger and sadness in her eyes. “Hi Dameon, I’m glad to see you son.” Walter chimed in with a smile on his face as he patted his son on the back “Good to see you too Dad” Dameon said calmly. He took a deep breath, rolled his eyes and look at his mother. “I’m sorry mom…these past few days have been really hard…Sarah left me…” 

“Oh…Dameon I didn’t know” Mabel said halfheartedly Dameon’s mother never really like Sarah, mainly because of how she kept him from ‘living for God’. “Yeah..well there is a lot you don’t know…” said Dameon “What is that supposed to mean? What else are you not telling me Dameon?” His mother said with concern “Nothing…don’t worry about it…let’s just clean this crap up…” Dameon said as he looked back at his mother with tears of anger in his eyes

 “This isn’t crap Dameon!” Said Mabel as she grabbed a few trash bags from under the sink and began to clean up empty beer cans from the floor “This is your house and you need to take care of your stuff!” “Ok got it mom.” Dameon added as he smiled sarcastically at his father. 

 Walter struggled to push himself up from the chair he was sitting in. Dameon rushed over to help him up. His father then slowly shuffled down the hall watching his every step navigation through the filth on the floor. As he turned the corner a loud thud was heard across the house. Flash perked her head up from her bed. 

 “Dang it” Walter screamed. Dameon and Mabel jumped up and ran to help him. They found Walter lying on the floor facing towards them holding his head. “ Tripped over this dadgum box!”