“Unstoppable”
Leroy Johnson never gave up, so when he heard that both his parents died on their cruise, he kept on living his life almost as if nothing happened. He persevered through all his struggles in life. When he didn’t make his grade 6 volleyball team he trained all summer and became captain of his grade 8 volleyball team. When he failed grade 10 math he retook the course and passed with an A. He was the only person in his grade 11 gym class to run 7 kilometers without stopping even once, granting him the fastest time in his school’s history. Now came the biggest trial of his life, the death of his parents. They were the only family members that he considered himself to be close to.
Leroy woke up in his bed and looked around as if hoping that it was all a dream. It wasn’t. As he looked around he immediately remembered where he was, and why he was there. He was at his Aunt and Uncle’s house because his parents died. This was the first day of his new life, a life without parents, a life of an orphan.
He walked down stairs to the kitchen of his cousin’s home to see the replacements of his family all sitting down happily at the dining table. His two younger cousins and his Aunt, were sitting at the dining table and his Uncle was in the kitchen making breakfast. Leroy put on his mask of a smile and sat down with them. The volume of their conversation went low as he sat down. He noticed a few awkward glances from his younger cousins and when he returned the glance they quickly looked back down to their empty plates that awaited breakfast.
“So,” Lucas broke the silence. “What’s for breakfast?”
“Oh you know, the usual.” Leroy’s Aunt Mary replied with an overexaggerated smile. “Bacon, eggs and toast!”
Leroy opened his mouth to speak but then paused. He shook his head with a face of slight frustration.
“Stop. Guys just stop.” He looked at everyone. “I’m fine, you don’t have to act all different around me ok?! Im fine.”
He paced back upstairs to his bedroom and prepared to go to school. They rest of the family sat there in silence and the only thing that could be heard was the sizzling of the bacon.
“He doesn’t seem fine.” one of his younger cousins spoke in a concerned and sad tone.
Aunt Mary who sat beside her son rubbed his shoulder compassionately. “He’s having a rough time right now, but he’s a tough cookie. It’s best to give him space and be there for him when he needs us.”
Leroy’s bus ride wasn’t any different than his breakfast. All of his friends that would usually be causing a ruckus, cracking jokes, or even just talking in general just sat in silence. Leroy hated it.
“Hey anyone watch the game last night?” Leroy asked hopefully. Even though it was a stupid question. Of course everyone watched the game last night. Leroy just hated that everyone was acting differently around him.
“Yea, Liverpool won three nill.” one of his friends replied.
“Nice. Who scored?!” Leroy said almost desperately, trying to force the conversation.
“Uhh, Ballotelli scored twice, and Stevie G with a header.” another one of his friends responded, slightly confused.
Leroy could feel his face steaming. He was embarrassed and frustrated. He dropped back into his seat and stared outside the window for the rest of the bus ride. The silence returned to him and his group of friends once again.
When he got to school Leroy headed straight to his classroom to avoid any more potential unnecessary conversation. As Leroy sat in his classroom and his seat was conveniently in the middle of the class where everyone could see him and be reminded of his tragic event. Thankfully for Leroy, not everyone knew about his tragic event. That was until the public announcement system turned on for the entire school to hear.
“Good morning Crosswell High, as some of you may be aware the S.S. Goliath sunk last week Saturday due to a mishap with the ship’s drain plugs. There were a total of 3056 passengers on the ship, and while 2134 survived, 922 passengers sunk with the ship and their bodies are currently still being searched for and collected. Two of the unfortunate passengers were the parents of a student that goes to our school, you may already know him, his name is,”
Leroy’s eyes widen and his heart rate increased, Everyone is going to know.
“Leroy Johnson, please be empathetic to this brave young man who still decided to attend school today despite his tragic loss.”
Leroy could feel everyone’s eyes on him and he burrowed his head into his folded arms on his desk. He felt the hand of the person next to him rub his shoulder.
“Leroy...you don’t have to stay at school, I understand that this must be terrible for you.” the teacher said genuinely. But all Leroy heard was another person reminding him that he should be devastated.
“Do you understand?!” Leroy’s words exploded out of his mouth as his head shot up from his folded arms on the desk.
His teacher jumped a little and gasped.
“Do you?!” he waited for an answer
“No. No you don’t.”
Leroy stood up and left the class, leaving his books, bags and that moment behind him.
Leroy walked briskly through the hallways of the school with a stern look on his face. He kept his head straight and walked without looking at anyone, ignoring compassionate stares. He was headed towards the only place he knew where he could be alone, he headed towards the boxing gym.
Leroy viciously wailed at the punching bag, each hit causing an echo in the gym, the room was dimly lit, except for the ring that was fully lit in the middle of the gym. He heard the doors to the gym creak open and he stop punching to look who it was. It was his best friend, James. Leroy watched as James walked in to the gym. James was as calm as ever as he casually looked around the gym. Leroy took a seat on a nearby bench and took a drink from his water bottle, he stared into space as James walked up to him.
“I knew you’d be here!” James laughed. “You okay bro?”
“I’m fine.” Leroy shot back.
“No, you’re not.” James said sternly and he raised an eyebrow. “I’ll ask again, are you okay?”
“Yes! Now lets just move on, please!” Leroy said desperately and angrily.
“Leroy, you don’t have to pretend you’re fine, honestly you’re not fooling anyone.” James frowns. “There are some things in life where you can’t just go through by ignoring the pain. You have to accept it and become stronger from it.”
“What if I don’t want to accept it?!” Leroy was ballistic.
James just stared at Leroy with a caring frown, a face full of genuine concern. Still frustrated and confused, Leroy climbed into the ring and put his boxing gloves on.
“Suit up, lets spar.” Leroy said to James in a serious tone.
“Really?” James laughed. “Are you serious right now?”
Leroy didn’t say anything.
“Fine.” James sighed.
Within a few minutes the two friends were circling each other in the ring.
“Show me what you got.” James said suddenly.
Leroy launched himself almost barbarically at his best friend and swung as hard as he could at his face. James reacted by throwing both his gloves up into a defensive position and blocked the punch. This happened repeatedly, Leroy kept swinging and James kept on blocking. James spoke in between punches.
“You know Leroy,” James dodged a punch. “no one is born unstoppable.”
“Well I was.” Leroy replied. “I have to be.”
“No-” James blocked another punch. “No you don’t. It’s ok to be sad bro.”
“I don’t want to be,” his punches were becoming weaker. “It hurts too much. It makes me weak.”
His words were wavering like his punches.
“Well,” James was breathing hard and still dodging. “In order to be strong, you need to be weak first.”
Eventually Leroy couldn’t hold them anymore, the tears slowly came dripping down his face and his punches were becoming slower and slower.
“When you get past this,” James continued. “And when you do bro, you’re going to become stronger than you have ever have before. You will become unstoppable.”
Leroy threw one more punch that barely made an impact on James’ glove and then dropped to his knees and began to cry. His hands were on the ground and he cried more than he had ever before in the longest time. He missed them, they were all the close family he had, and they were gone. He wanted to ignore his sadness, and act like nothing happened, but he couldn’t. He just couldn’t.
He never cried again. And just like James said, after that day he was unstoppable.