Always seen

         The day started like any other but ended like none before. The sounds of morning settled throughout the housing project with car sounds interrupting occasional voices and the constant hum of the traffic that filled the streets that surrounded the highrise. Gus made himself a bowl of cereal and settled in his place at the little table beside the second floor window observing all that passed , his morning ritual. His mother had to leave early most mornings to begin her shift at the private hospital two blocks down from their apartment, where she worked as a nurses assistant. She was never at home, spending most parts of the days always working and filling every night, when not at work in a never ending search to find a man to replace the father Gus never knew. She was always gone. He was always alone and it had always been this way for him, he knew of nothing else. This solitude has created a self reliance that was uncommon for a boy his age. He had learned from experience that if he wanted to eat he had to prepare the food, if he wanted something he had to figure a way to get it. That was just the way his life had been laid out. During the school year he was at the public school from morning till mid afternoon but during the summer months he had know where to be so this summer he became mobile , thanks to a bike that he had scrounged from outside a dumpster three blocks down. That bike was his savior. He cherished his wheels for they allowed his the transportation he needed. Every morning he would hit the pavement, free as a bird to go where ever he pleased. The sidewalks that graced the streets were always to crowded with people to ride down so Gus hit the alley that ran parallel to the sidewalks behind the projects. These alleys were his, and they covered most of the metropolis he traversed. There were rarely any people behind the hotels, and office highrises