Tomorrow for Them

Chapter One: Tomorrow and the Sun

Enter Becky Cohen, a sixteen-year-old girl with reddish-blonde hair, blue eyes and a big dreams of becoming a musician. It's Christmas Eve, 2008, and Becky is outside of the apartment she and her father share with his best friend and his son, holding her father's old camera. She holds the camera up carefully, squinting into it, and beginning to mimic her father's usual narration...

"December 24th, 9:00 P.M., Eastern Standard Time. Um...I guess I'll try to shoot without a script. I hope something comes of it..."She sighed, putting the camera down. "It will probably just be shit..."

In comes Jason Davis, the son of Becky's father's best friend, and Becky's best friend since birth. He walks over with his father's guitar, sitting down and trying to strum gracefully. He is light-skinned with dark hair and green eyes, dressed nicely. He is a perfect blend of his mother and his father. Becky quickly turns to him, camera rolling...

"First shot: Jason, tuning his father's old acoustic guitar, which he hasn't touched in about a month or so,"Becky continued, picking up the camera and turning it on Jason.

"Will you bug off?"Jason snapped. Becky just grinned, continuing to film.

"Hold on...I've almost got it...okay! Tell the folks at home what you're doing, Jason!" Becky cried excitedly. Jason stopped playing, scowling at Becky.

"Would you just give it up? You're never going to be like your dad. So stop trying, and stick with your piano,"he grumbled. And he stormed back into the building. Becky sighed, watching him go.

"Close on Jason: his mother, Mimi, died just two years ago from AIDS, which he himself has carried in his blood stream since birth,"she finished sadly.

Becky put down the camera, kicking the wall of the apartment. Jason had AIDS. Roger had AIDS. Collins had AIDS. Aaron had AIDS. Mimi had had AIDS. Why didn't she have AIDS?

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la la la la la! Come on Roxie, sing with me!"

Becky grinned a little as her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Aaron Collins' loud, booming voice from around the corner. Aaron, a tall, handsome African-American boy of 18 came into view, followed by gorgeous, dark haired and small-framed 14 year-old ballerina Roxie Johnson-Jefferson, her usual pout on her face. Aaron and Roxie only added on to the talented pack of bohemian youth, Aaron amazing the high school with his above-average test scores, and Roxie just shoving all other young dancers aside with her grace and skill in her movement on the floor.

"Hey Becky!"Aaron called happily, running over to Becky , and joining her where she sat slumped against the brick building. "What's up?"

"I think I made Jason kind of pissed. I was trying to film him again,"Becky sighed.

"That would probably do it,"Roxie agreed, tossing her curly, dark hair over her shoulder.

"He's right, you know. I'm nothing like my father, and I never will be. I should quit now and save myself the humiliation of failure..."Becky grumbled.

"Don't say that!"Aaron cried. "You're young, you still have plenty of time to catch up with your father."

"I just...I want to be like him so much, I really do! But I can't get my heart into it the way he does. I don't have that talent, that...that skill for capturing images like he does,"Becky sighed, obviously frustrated. "Like Jason does."

"It's funny, the way he picked up Uncle Mark's filming,"Aaron commented. "You'd think he would have been a musician. But it looks as if you have taken on Uncle Roger's title, huh?"Becky grinned, punching Aaron jokingly as he pulled one of her braids.

"Hardly. It's taking me months to write one song. And besides, Uncle Roger really expects Jason to follow in his footsteps. Jason will become the musician, you'll be a rocket scientist, Roxie will be dancing through Paris, and I'll be here in some tent city, failing miserably at trying to be like my father."Aaron patted Becky's shoulder in a very brotherly way. He was the oldest. It was his job to take care of these guys. Collins had been kind enough to take him in when he was an infant, the least he could do was give that back to the others.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Becky,"he said sympathetically. "What were you up to today anyways? You didn't show up at Life Support with your dad."

"Oh, I was helping the Harrisons again. Mrs. Harrison hasn't been feeling well since Sarah was born, so I played with the kids for a while to keep them out of her hair,"Becky replied. The Harrisons were a very poor, homeless family that lived in a tent city in the East Village. Mrs. Harrison was a single mother with three children, the oldest, Emily, was seven, the middle child, Bobby, four, and then the newborn baby, Sarah. Mrs. Harrison was HIV, her three children also all suffering from the deadly disease. Becky helped them out whenever she could, bringing them food and helping them start a fire, taking care of the kids and trying to get a hold of some AZT for the family(not a very easy task when most of her bohemian family needed the AZT as well) Aaron admired Becky greatly for the way she was aiding this sick, poor family, and giving them hope again.

"I bet you made their Christmas Eve a lot better just by being there,"he said, smiling at the girl that he looked upon as a younger sister.

"You should be careful when you're around them, Becky. People around here get like, really sick this time of year,"Roxie warned. Becky grinned.

"I'll take care of myself,"she assured her. Then a thin, blonde man with glasses and a striped scarf walked out onto the fire escape. He was about 40, though he still looked young.

"Hey! Guys! It's dinner time, come on up!"he called to the three teens.

"Super...I should have stayed at Lindsay's after class,"Roxie muttered, referring to one of her ballet friends, whose house she was constantly at to avoid being home with her mothers.

"Hey, it's Christmas Eve, Roxie,"Aaron said. "Let's try to be happy we're a family for just one night."Roxie sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Fine...one night!"she agreed. Aaron laughed, following her into the building.

"Hey, you coming?"He called back to Becky, who didn't move from where she was.

"I'll be up in a minute,"she assured him.

"Okay,"Aaron said. And he walked after Roxie into the apartment. Becky let out a deep breath, standing up, and looking down at the camera that her father loved so much, and proved quite useless to her.

"Sometimes it really sucks to be the one of us to survive..."