So, if you have wondered why I haven't posted the next chapter in over a couple years, I apologize. There has been a lot of learning and maturing as a writer over the last few years and with that I have picked up on a lot of mistakes in my own writing process and learning what works for me and how to develope a full working story from concept to complete product. I've spent the last few years going to school and learning how to better my writing and unfortunately that means this "in-process" story has taken the back seat. I've enjoyed this story and I look forward to finishing it. And I WILL finish it.
Right now, I hae taken every post and have put every chapter on a single document. I'm systematically going through rewriting and adding details, chapters, and filling out the holes and ironing out the mistakes. My goal is to make this as realistic and believable as possible and in the end, I hope you enjoy this as much I do.
For everyone who has read this so far and have shared this with friends, thank you. And for everyone I've turned away by not posting, again I am sorry. This project is in process, and when i have everything writen out I will again begin to release more chapters. I will be taking the old posts down before I begin to repost so If you see this and don't see any other posts, stay tuned. It's coming soon. If you do see the old chapters, feel free to read and get an idea for the story! My goal is to be re posting chapters by the end of summer 2014 or by the holiday season. I hope you keep coming back and I thank you for your interest. See you again Summer 2014!!!
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Chapter 11: Facing Facts
You know that feeling you get when you’re reading and your mind goes into autopilot? Then you have to go back because you realized your were reading the words but you didn’t register anything that was being read. It’s that fuzzy feeling of vague déjà vu but everything you start paying attention to is totally new. My next week was like that. It was a flash of denial and regret. I was skating by, skipping school, and sitting alone in my room. Melanie called me a few times, worried that I would follow Michael into the abyss. I never answered my phone. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I barely talked to my parents anymore. They were getting upset and started talking to a psychiatrist to see how much it would be for me to start seeing him. I didn’t want to see anyone or talk about it. I was doing a good job of blocking out the mental torment on my own. Days flew by without notice. Staring out the window for so long became a game of “I-Spy”. No one would have noticed that Mr. Hitchens always seem to leave at 5:30 am and Mrs. Hitchens seemed to leave 10 minutes late every day. She was always in a hurry and murmuring to herself as she tries to put on makeup.
The day of the funeral came and went. People crying and semi-sincere apologies filled the day as I did my best to block everything out. I didn’t feel a thing. I looked at Michaels still, white, lifeless body lying in the casket. It was hard to think that he was actually dead. I wanted to shake him and wake him up but I withheld my urges in order to seem as if I had not lost my mind. There was a lot of suppressed emotion that day and sometimes I wonder if it had affected my mental health. Melanie had come to be supportive for me. I was glad she was there. I’m not sure if I would have made it through the funeral without her. After it had ended, she brought me off to the side to talk. We walked around the corner of the church entrance, away from the crowd of people leaving. She was really worried about me. “Nick, I haven’t seen you for a week. You don’t seem fine to me.”
“Mel, what do you want me to be like? My best friend was murdered.”
“I know what Spaz did was horrible, but Mike had a choice in the matter. You haven’t left your house since Sunday. I would feel better if you would talk with someone.”
“What like a shrink? You think I need a shrink?” I was a little mad.
She replied calmly, “I think you need to talk with someone. I don’t care who, but someone.”
“If I feel like I need to talk with someone, I will.” I walked off irritated at her.
As I did, she said softly, as if she wanted me to know, but it was too late to say, “I’m here for you.”
I walked over to my parent, who had brought me there because I originally wasn’t going to go. I asked if we could go now, in an annoyed tone. My mom, who was giving her condolences to Rose and her mother, turned around and told me to go wait in the car if I was so ready to be done. I rolled my eyes and went to the car. My parents followed about 10 minute later. It felt like forever while I stared out the window at a group of kids playing tag football across the street. I had to look away, remembering the days of Mike and I playing in the streets until the sun set and we would hear our moms call us in for dinner. I buried my face in my hands and began to cry. The reality was setting in and I wasn’t ready to face it. As soon as I felt the grief rise up in me, and the tears started to flow, I tried my hardest to suppress it. Like reshutting a lid on a shaken up bottle of soda, I built a wall, and extra layer of protection from the hurt. I literally felt the heartache being pushed back down my throat and into my chest, being locked away in my heart for as long as it took to dissipate.
As my mom and dad got back in the car and drove off to go home, I whipped my eyes and kept as quiet as possible. I looked back out the window towards where the kids were playing and saw one of the kids trip. As one of his teammates, who reminded me of myself when I was that age, tried to help him up, a girl they were playing with, who was on the same team, ran over and pushed the him down. He fell on top of his friend, who was already on the ground. They both looked at her in shock as she walked over, laughing with everyone else, and gave the quarterback of the other team a high five. I looked away as they got up and started to quarrel with each other. I thought of my friends and said to myself, my friends would have helped me get him up.
The rest of the drive home was just as quiet. I stared out my window, trying to block out thoughts of Michael and suppress the anger and grief in side of me. As I did, I realized how easy it was for me to do this. Throughout my child hood, I was bullied. The nice guys always are. I had to learn how to not show emotion because after all “The only reason kids bully you is because they want to get a reaction out of you”, or that’s what my dad always said. So I figured if I didn’t give them a reaction they would stop. But they didn’t and I kept suppressing. I became so good at it that when our pets died, one by one throughout the years, I never shed a tear except for twice. Even then, though, it was brief and short lived. I was ready to move on. I had realized that I would do this with everything. It was even hard for me to be excited for someone, or truly be thankful for something. Not because I wasn’t but simply because anytime I had gotten excited about something when I was younger, there was always someone to put me down and tell me that I was wrong for liking it or there was something so wrong with it that it wasn’t worthy of my affection. It was easier to not be excited for something and not have my hopes and dreams be smashed on rocks of disappointment than to experience happiness. That is when I realized I had a problem. That’s when I made up my mind.
We finally got home and we pulled into the driveway. My dad got out and went to unlock the front door as my mom was getting her stuff together. I didn’t move but I did stop my mom from getting out after I knew my dad was out of earshot. I always had an easier time telling my mom things that I was insecure about. Maybe it’s just because I take after her so much. I stopped my mom from getting out and said, “I want to see a psychiatrist.” My mom was taken back. “I thought you were adamant about not seeing one?”
“Mom, I have an issue that I need to work out and I think it would be better for me to talk to a professional. No offence.”
“Non taken. I think that is a very responsible thing to do. I’ll call Mr. Krimpen in the morning.” I nodded and got out of the car
The next day, I went to see Mr. Krimpen. He was a friend of the family so I didn’t feel too awkward talking to him. My dad had met him in high school and I guess they were close for some time. He had been there for my first birthday and he had come on some trips with us when I was younger. He was a Dutch native, single, and full of what I called “bachelor humor”. You know the kind that guys would get but might not be so entertaining to girls. It’s the kind of attitude that is trained out of you when you get married. He was cool and I didn’t mind seeing him once a week.
The first day I saw him, I was unsure of what to say or do so I just kind of sat there. He was sitting in a maroon arm chair, like the one I was sitting in, and was wearing a dark green sweater vest over a faded light yellow dress shirt. His light brown slacks finished the stereotypical psychologist get-up he had on. It was very different from his usual stone washed jeans and band t-shirts I usually saw him wear. He had long brown hair tied back in a ponytail at the base of his skull. He was a little younger than my dad but just as tall as me, if not taller. He always seemed like a giant to me until I caught up with him in height a few years ago. He had his reading glasses on and peered at me over the top of them for a few minutes before asking me the obvious question. “So Nick, your mother tells me that it was your decision to come see me. She didn’t tell me why. So, why do you want to see a psychiatrist?” I sat there for a second thinking about where I wanted to start. I figured I would start from when I realized I had an issue. “My best friend, Michael, died this last week and at his funeral, as I stared at his body, I didn’t feel anything except for surrealism. I just wanted to wake him up. After I went out to the car to wait for mom and dad to come out, I wanted to cry but I wouldn’t let my self grieve. Any time that emotion came up I suppressed it automatically. I didn’t feel like I had a choice in the matter. I haven’t been able to grieve properly because of it and I feel like I might be going crazy. I keep seeing us as kids in other kids and sometimes I think I see Mike out in public. I haven’t gone to school or even left my room except for the funeral and here, because I’m afraid I’ll run into him… Or the guy that caused his death. I know if I see him, I’ll do something I will regret for years and possibly go to jail for. I need some serious help.”
“Well the good news is you’re not crazy. If you were you wouldn’t think you were. Sometimes the best way to understand a problem is to talk about where it came from. Do you want to talk about when this problem might have started?”
“Honestly, I don’t know.” I didn’t at the time. “Where would I even start?”
“Well, lets talk about your past. What was it like growing up?
“Oh come on, you know most of this already.”
“True, but it helps to talk about it.”
I conceded and talked about how the kids in school would make fun of me on a daily basis and make me feel worthless time after time. I explained how I would make up facts about things and over exaggerate events in my life to either gain pity or respect, neither of which usually happened. I became an excellent liar in order to save face. Not only lying with my words but also lying with my expressions and even to myself in order to not face reality some times. I talked about events in my life that I was regretting and things that other kids had done to me while growing up. Everyone has this picture of this big bad bully picking on this feeble, wimpy, little kid, but the portrait I painted was of quite the opposite. Everyone who picked on me was smaller and much more feeble than I was. Mr. Krimpen explained that it isn’t the bigger kid picking on the smaller kid, it is usually the meaner kid picking on the nicer. He went on saying, “Those kids that bully some one usually are the ones that have poor self esteem and the only way they can feel better about themselves is by making someone who is truly happy feel worse than they do. What parents and even other family members might not know is that the most important thing to instill into a young kid is the fact that they are valuable and a sense of self worth. Like you said, your parents just kept telling you to shrug it off and not let it effect you, but in a lot of cases, like yours, they end up just suppressing those emotions of hurt and self loathing and that doesn’t benefit anyone. Do you think you have low self esteem now?”
“No, not really... Not since I started dating Melanie, at least. She made everything better. I didn’t feel like I was trying to find who I was anymore. I mean, I don’t know everything yet, like what I want to do with my life, but I’m more confident when I’m with her. I stand up to people better when I’m with her. I’m not so hot headed and can stay calm and think clearer. I know I’m a nice guy and that people like me so I’m confident with myself there. I don’t know, I guess before Melanie I was scared to go past the friend barrier with girls because I was scared of rejection. Is that a part of low self esteem?”
“Not always but it can be. I think for you it might have been, but that’s something all men battle with is the fear of rejection in one situation or another. Lets talk about your need to suppress emotion. Do you do it consciously?”
“Like do I do it knowingly instead of without thought?”
“Yeah.”
“Sometimes… Most of the time.”
“Well, one thing you might use to help work out your suppressed feelings is some sort of creative project. Focus all of your emotion into one singular goal and see what happens.”
“What do I do though?”
“You’re a creative guy. You’ll think of something.” He smiled at me and I smiled back, thinking of a good project. We sat there for a minute or so in silence. He then looked at the clock and said, “Well, our time is up. Think of something to work on and let know next week, alright?” “Alright.” I said as I got up and went to shake his hand. He grabbed my hand, pulled me close, and gave me a hug instead. I hugged him back and then thanked him for his time, then walked out.
When I got home, I sat on my bed. What am I good at? I thought. I remembered back in school when I had to write a paper or story or something, I would make it up right there. I was pretty good at writing. I figured I had a talent and the project had to do with what had hurt me in the past so I figured I would write a narrative biography. I sat down and thought about where to start. I didn’t want to start too far back. My life wasn’t too exciting, I thought, so I was trying to think of where the adventure would start. After some brainstorming and some serious paper chucking at the waist basket, I decided on a good starting point. I sat down on my bed with a pen and a note pad and began to write. “My 18th birthday was a month ago…”
The day of the funeral came and went. People crying and semi-sincere apologies filled the day as I did my best to block everything out. I didn’t feel a thing. I looked at Michaels still, white, lifeless body lying in the casket. It was hard to think that he was actually dead. I wanted to shake him and wake him up but I withheld my urges in order to seem as if I had not lost my mind. There was a lot of suppressed emotion that day and sometimes I wonder if it had affected my mental health. Melanie had come to be supportive for me. I was glad she was there. I’m not sure if I would have made it through the funeral without her. After it had ended, she brought me off to the side to talk. We walked around the corner of the church entrance, away from the crowd of people leaving. She was really worried about me. “Nick, I haven’t seen you for a week. You don’t seem fine to me.”
“Mel, what do you want me to be like? My best friend was murdered.”
“I know what Spaz did was horrible, but Mike had a choice in the matter. You haven’t left your house since Sunday. I would feel better if you would talk with someone.”
“What like a shrink? You think I need a shrink?” I was a little mad.
She replied calmly, “I think you need to talk with someone. I don’t care who, but someone.”
“If I feel like I need to talk with someone, I will.” I walked off irritated at her.
As I did, she said softly, as if she wanted me to know, but it was too late to say, “I’m here for you.”
I walked over to my parent, who had brought me there because I originally wasn’t going to go. I asked if we could go now, in an annoyed tone. My mom, who was giving her condolences to Rose and her mother, turned around and told me to go wait in the car if I was so ready to be done. I rolled my eyes and went to the car. My parents followed about 10 minute later. It felt like forever while I stared out the window at a group of kids playing tag football across the street. I had to look away, remembering the days of Mike and I playing in the streets until the sun set and we would hear our moms call us in for dinner. I buried my face in my hands and began to cry. The reality was setting in and I wasn’t ready to face it. As soon as I felt the grief rise up in me, and the tears started to flow, I tried my hardest to suppress it. Like reshutting a lid on a shaken up bottle of soda, I built a wall, and extra layer of protection from the hurt. I literally felt the heartache being pushed back down my throat and into my chest, being locked away in my heart for as long as it took to dissipate.
As my mom and dad got back in the car and drove off to go home, I whipped my eyes and kept as quiet as possible. I looked back out the window towards where the kids were playing and saw one of the kids trip. As one of his teammates, who reminded me of myself when I was that age, tried to help him up, a girl they were playing with, who was on the same team, ran over and pushed the him down. He fell on top of his friend, who was already on the ground. They both looked at her in shock as she walked over, laughing with everyone else, and gave the quarterback of the other team a high five. I looked away as they got up and started to quarrel with each other. I thought of my friends and said to myself, my friends would have helped me get him up.
The rest of the drive home was just as quiet. I stared out my window, trying to block out thoughts of Michael and suppress the anger and grief in side of me. As I did, I realized how easy it was for me to do this. Throughout my child hood, I was bullied. The nice guys always are. I had to learn how to not show emotion because after all “The only reason kids bully you is because they want to get a reaction out of you”, or that’s what my dad always said. So I figured if I didn’t give them a reaction they would stop. But they didn’t and I kept suppressing. I became so good at it that when our pets died, one by one throughout the years, I never shed a tear except for twice. Even then, though, it was brief and short lived. I was ready to move on. I had realized that I would do this with everything. It was even hard for me to be excited for someone, or truly be thankful for something. Not because I wasn’t but simply because anytime I had gotten excited about something when I was younger, there was always someone to put me down and tell me that I was wrong for liking it or there was something so wrong with it that it wasn’t worthy of my affection. It was easier to not be excited for something and not have my hopes and dreams be smashed on rocks of disappointment than to experience happiness. That is when I realized I had a problem. That’s when I made up my mind.
We finally got home and we pulled into the driveway. My dad got out and went to unlock the front door as my mom was getting her stuff together. I didn’t move but I did stop my mom from getting out after I knew my dad was out of earshot. I always had an easier time telling my mom things that I was insecure about. Maybe it’s just because I take after her so much. I stopped my mom from getting out and said, “I want to see a psychiatrist.” My mom was taken back. “I thought you were adamant about not seeing one?”
“Mom, I have an issue that I need to work out and I think it would be better for me to talk to a professional. No offence.”
“Non taken. I think that is a very responsible thing to do. I’ll call Mr. Krimpen in the morning.” I nodded and got out of the car
The next day, I went to see Mr. Krimpen. He was a friend of the family so I didn’t feel too awkward talking to him. My dad had met him in high school and I guess they were close for some time. He had been there for my first birthday and he had come on some trips with us when I was younger. He was a Dutch native, single, and full of what I called “bachelor humor”. You know the kind that guys would get but might not be so entertaining to girls. It’s the kind of attitude that is trained out of you when you get married. He was cool and I didn’t mind seeing him once a week.
The first day I saw him, I was unsure of what to say or do so I just kind of sat there. He was sitting in a maroon arm chair, like the one I was sitting in, and was wearing a dark green sweater vest over a faded light yellow dress shirt. His light brown slacks finished the stereotypical psychologist get-up he had on. It was very different from his usual stone washed jeans and band t-shirts I usually saw him wear. He had long brown hair tied back in a ponytail at the base of his skull. He was a little younger than my dad but just as tall as me, if not taller. He always seemed like a giant to me until I caught up with him in height a few years ago. He had his reading glasses on and peered at me over the top of them for a few minutes before asking me the obvious question. “So Nick, your mother tells me that it was your decision to come see me. She didn’t tell me why. So, why do you want to see a psychiatrist?” I sat there for a second thinking about where I wanted to start. I figured I would start from when I realized I had an issue. “My best friend, Michael, died this last week and at his funeral, as I stared at his body, I didn’t feel anything except for surrealism. I just wanted to wake him up. After I went out to the car to wait for mom and dad to come out, I wanted to cry but I wouldn’t let my self grieve. Any time that emotion came up I suppressed it automatically. I didn’t feel like I had a choice in the matter. I haven’t been able to grieve properly because of it and I feel like I might be going crazy. I keep seeing us as kids in other kids and sometimes I think I see Mike out in public. I haven’t gone to school or even left my room except for the funeral and here, because I’m afraid I’ll run into him… Or the guy that caused his death. I know if I see him, I’ll do something I will regret for years and possibly go to jail for. I need some serious help.”
“Well the good news is you’re not crazy. If you were you wouldn’t think you were. Sometimes the best way to understand a problem is to talk about where it came from. Do you want to talk about when this problem might have started?”
“Honestly, I don’t know.” I didn’t at the time. “Where would I even start?”
“Well, lets talk about your past. What was it like growing up?
“Oh come on, you know most of this already.”
“True, but it helps to talk about it.”
I conceded and talked about how the kids in school would make fun of me on a daily basis and make me feel worthless time after time. I explained how I would make up facts about things and over exaggerate events in my life to either gain pity or respect, neither of which usually happened. I became an excellent liar in order to save face. Not only lying with my words but also lying with my expressions and even to myself in order to not face reality some times. I talked about events in my life that I was regretting and things that other kids had done to me while growing up. Everyone has this picture of this big bad bully picking on this feeble, wimpy, little kid, but the portrait I painted was of quite the opposite. Everyone who picked on me was smaller and much more feeble than I was. Mr. Krimpen explained that it isn’t the bigger kid picking on the smaller kid, it is usually the meaner kid picking on the nicer. He went on saying, “Those kids that bully some one usually are the ones that have poor self esteem and the only way they can feel better about themselves is by making someone who is truly happy feel worse than they do. What parents and even other family members might not know is that the most important thing to instill into a young kid is the fact that they are valuable and a sense of self worth. Like you said, your parents just kept telling you to shrug it off and not let it effect you, but in a lot of cases, like yours, they end up just suppressing those emotions of hurt and self loathing and that doesn’t benefit anyone. Do you think you have low self esteem now?”
“No, not really... Not since I started dating Melanie, at least. She made everything better. I didn’t feel like I was trying to find who I was anymore. I mean, I don’t know everything yet, like what I want to do with my life, but I’m more confident when I’m with her. I stand up to people better when I’m with her. I’m not so hot headed and can stay calm and think clearer. I know I’m a nice guy and that people like me so I’m confident with myself there. I don’t know, I guess before Melanie I was scared to go past the friend barrier with girls because I was scared of rejection. Is that a part of low self esteem?”
“Not always but it can be. I think for you it might have been, but that’s something all men battle with is the fear of rejection in one situation or another. Lets talk about your need to suppress emotion. Do you do it consciously?”
“Like do I do it knowingly instead of without thought?”
“Yeah.”
“Sometimes… Most of the time.”
“Well, one thing you might use to help work out your suppressed feelings is some sort of creative project. Focus all of your emotion into one singular goal and see what happens.”
“What do I do though?”
“You’re a creative guy. You’ll think of something.” He smiled at me and I smiled back, thinking of a good project. We sat there for a minute or so in silence. He then looked at the clock and said, “Well, our time is up. Think of something to work on and let know next week, alright?” “Alright.” I said as I got up and went to shake his hand. He grabbed my hand, pulled me close, and gave me a hug instead. I hugged him back and then thanked him for his time, then walked out.
When I got home, I sat on my bed. What am I good at? I thought. I remembered back in school when I had to write a paper or story or something, I would make it up right there. I was pretty good at writing. I figured I had a talent and the project had to do with what had hurt me in the past so I figured I would write a narrative biography. I sat down and thought about where to start. I didn’t want to start too far back. My life wasn’t too exciting, I thought, so I was trying to think of where the adventure would start. After some brainstorming and some serious paper chucking at the waist basket, I decided on a good starting point. I sat down on my bed with a pen and a note pad and began to write. “My 18th birthday was a month ago…”
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Chapter 10: The Day From Hell
As we came closer to our exit, the door opened. The sun was blinding as the setting light hit our darkness-transfused eyes. My eyesight was still adjusting but I could make out two figures walking in. A bigger man came in first with a smaller man holding something to the bigger man’s back. After a few seconds, my eyes were getting use to the light. I realized the bigger man was Don. I still couldn’t tell whom the smaller man in silhouette was but I had a few guesses. Then, as if a ghost from the past come back to haunt me, an all too familiar voice spoke, breaking the silence. “Good to see you again, Nick. Did you miss me?” Right then my worst fears had been personified in a single voice. It was unmistakable and it confirmed what I had wished had not happened. Robert had survived. I stood there speechless, as did Rose. Rob waited for a response but didn’t get one. “An old acquaintance comes back from the dead and you don’t have enough balls to say hello?” I had to say something to suppress my dismay. “I have so many questions right now but all I can think about is how much I hate you.”
“Wow, strong words to a man who can take even more from you than what you’ve already lost.”
Rose looked at me with a question on her face, not knowing what had happened or why she was kidnapped. I tried to keep the subject away from Michael’s death. “What happened to you while you were on the run?”
“Well, you already know most of it from what Don, here, has already told you. What this TRATOR didn’t know was that his little stunt on the train gave me a concussion. I spent the next 4 days in mental confusion not knowing what had happened! Dickey found me wondering around out in the desert and brought me back to his house. After I had remembered what Don had done, I brought Dickey out to the train tracks under the guise of wanting to find a bag of drugs I had on me. After he told me which way town was, I killed him, one slice to the throat. WHAM!” He scared all of us, including Don, as he yelled and hit a piece of metal behind him. “You killed or dealer?” Don asked in dismay. “Yeah, I did. It’s pretty amazing how easy it is to cut someone open with a rusty shard of shrapnel.” He said as the rusted piece of aluminum siding he was holding against Don’s back, came up round his throat from behind. Rob whispered into Don’s ear, “I should kill you right now.” I hid Rose’s face in my chest, not wanting her to see anyone die. Don replied, “If you kill me, you lose phase four. And you don’t want to lose that one.” Robert put his hand down and shoved Don towards us. “I said I should, not that I will.” Wanting more information about these “phases” Don mentioned, I asked the obvious question, “What phases? What are you talking about?” I looked at Don for an explanation but he shook his head no. Rob answered, “Go ahead Don. You’ve given enough away so far. You might as well keep going.”
Don got mad. “I haven’t told him a DAMN thing!”
“Yeah, well how can I be so sure, huh? While I was gone, you have told him where we went, what we did, and where we go to disappear! How the HELL do I know you haven’t already told them about…”
Just then, there was a big crash towards the back of the big room. Spaz, who had been knocked out until now, was waking up and had knocked over some paint cans as he was getting up. “Finally, someone I can trust.” Rob said as he walked over to Spaz. Spaz was wobbling in the knees; still dizzy from the punishment I put him through. He could barely walk straight and his speech was obscure. He rubbed his head while trying to catch his balance as Robert asked him some questions. “You have any problems?” He asked sarcastically. Spaz dusted himself off. “Nothing I couldn’t handle until this joker showed up.” He said pointing at me. “She put up a pretty good fight but a few shocks with the tazer you gave me did the trick.” I looked at her and realized that she had burn marks on her arms, neck, and upper chest, a lot more than just a few. That would explain why she was overly tired. Robert asked, “Did you get board and complacent while you were waiting for me or do you just suck at fighting?”
“Nah, how could I get board? I was having to much fun tazing her in the chair, watching her squirm!” I wanted to kill him this time. He not only kidnapped my best friend’s sister and made him kill himself to save her, but he was also torturing her without us knowing. I hugged rose a little tighter and whispered in her ear, “I’m so sorry, Rose.” She was tearing up already and hugged me back.
“Bet you wish you had killed him now, don’t you Nick?” Rob said to me.
I looked at him right in the eye, with animosity written on my face. “Before this is done, I will personally give you hell.”
“Have at it! I welcome hell with open arms.” He was being brash, one of his many character flaws. “I’ve been there and have stolen a sip from the devil’s cup… It kind of tastes like strawberry vodka.”
“Your insane!” Rose yelled, after mustering up the energy to bellow.
“I may be, but insanity and brilliance are a gradient, fading into one another. I just have found a happy medium between the two.”
I was mad enough as it was. I didn’t need to hear this guy rant about sanity. So I turned and began to walk Rose out to the car. “We’re leaving now. Don, try and pull him back from the edge.” Don stepped in front of us, blocking our path. “Sorry man, if I don’t, he’ll kill me.” Don said, sullenly. I was taken back. “What…” Robert stopped us with words. “Uh uh uh! No one laves until I have conformation of Michael’s death.”
Rose let go of me and spun around. “WHAT?!?”
I got pissed and started marching towards Robert. “Conformation!?! YOU WANT CONFORMATION?!?” I took off my blood-stained shirt and threw it in his face. “HOW’S THAT FOR CONFORMATION?!? I watched my BEST FRIEND DIE RIGHT in front of me! I could FEEL his life leave his hand! NOW YOU tell me this was YOUR IDEA?!? With everything you’ve put me through, I have EVERY RIGHT in the WORLD to END YOU RIGHT NOW!!!” He took the shirt off of his face as I screamed at him. The blood was still wet, leaving some on his face from the stains. He simply handed me my shirt back and said calmly, “Now you can go.” As I snatched the bloody shirt from his hand and stormed back towards Rose, who was now bawling and on her knees in a tear-soaked muddy puddle, Rob continued. “Oh and Nick…” I stopped and looked back at him. “… This is just the beginning.” I turned back around, helped Rose up, and we walked out to my car.
I helped Rose into the car and then got in on my side. I threw my shirt into the back seat and buckled my seat belt. With everything that was going through my mind, I didn’t know whether to drive until I calmed down or go back in there and kill every last one of them. I gripped the steering wheel as hard as I could. My knuckles were as white as Rose’s face. Her tears had soaked into her shirt, leaving it wet with grief and fear. I looked at her and all my rage and animosity bled away with each drop of anguish and heartache from her weary eyes. My heart melted as I watched, helplessly, her palpable agony. Every memory, every event, every mental picture of Michael were mortal lacerations to the soul, slowly killing what was left of my reasoning. I had to go before I did something I would regret later.
I started the car and drove off the lot. The 10 minute drive back to Rose’s house was the longest drive I had ever taken. We passed the old mall that Mike and I met Don at, the park where we grew up playing, the place where we had our 8th grade graduation, and even the preschool Mike and I first met. Every place had memory. Every memory killed me a little bit more inside. As we drove up to her house, I was overwhelmed with sorrow and grief. I parked in their driveway and broke down crying. Rose leaned over and hugged me as I rested my head against my folded arms on the steering wheel. The tears rolled down my face, off my nose, and into my lap. No one and nothing could fix what had happened. I cried there for hours. Rose had shut off the car so not to waste gas. I didn’t care. My friend was dead and I even watched him die. My life would no longer be the same.
Finally, I caught my composure and Rose asked if I would be all right. “Do you think you will be ok to go home like this? If not, I’m sure mom will let you sleep on the couch until morning.”
“I think I’ll be ok.” I said whipping my eyes. “I just need to drive so I can clear my head.”
“Ok, just be careful.”
“I will.” I said. She got out of the car, thanking me for today, and watched as I backed out from the driveway. As I got to the curb, a loud horn blared and I slammed on the brakes. I had almost backed right into a white 4x4 truck. I watched, in horror, as it blazed by my back bumper. I threw it into park and just sat there, not sure what to do next. I couldn’t talk, or even think. My mind was in shock, not able to process any thing. The moment was flowing through me like air through a vent. Rose came running up to my window as I rolled it down. “You should stay the night. You will feel better in the morning.” She said, as she reached in and shut off my car. I agreed and got out.
We went inside and her mom ran up and hugged her with watering eyes. Her face was a mix of thankfulness and misery. She had lost one child but at least her other was still safe. After about 20 minutes of her mom crying and a reunion of mixed emotions, Rose explained why I was there. Her mom, always eager to help, ran and got me a blanket and a pillow to use. Rose gave me a clean shirt from Michaels closet. “I’m sorry, this is all I have. I thought you would want a clean shirt to sleep in.” I took the shirt, reminiscing about the last time He had wore it. That was the day we went to Sedona. I looked at her, trying to hold back my tears, then I put it on. It was a little tight but it would work. I thanked her and hugged her again. She helped me pull out the fold-away-bed from the couch. Then I set it up and crawled into bed without even changing.
There was no dinner that night. Who could eat after a day like this? An even better question was, who could even sleep after a day like this? I laid there wide awake, thinking about what was to become of me. What was going to become of Rose? My mind was going a million miles a minute with no end in sight. Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming down the hall. As I looked, I saw Rose standing there in her Eeyore pajamas, which I thought to be eerily appropriate for the mood. “Nick? You asleep?” she whispered.
“No. I can’t seem to get that far.” I said quietly.
“Can I come out here with you?”
“Sure, if it’ll help you sleep.”
She came over and crawled into bed with me. Like a little sister who had a bad dream, she needed to be with someone familiar. With in minutes she was asleep. I laid there with my arm around her, comforting her as she slept. A few more moments passed then I followed suit.
Today was a day from Hell. No one came away unscathed except for the one man who caused all of this. I wanted to kill him and display his head on a pike at school but wisdom and supernatural self-control, of which I do not know where it had come, kept me from doing so. Questions still plagued my mind. What did Robert mean by “this is just the beginning”? What was the thing Robert was going to mention before Spaz had gotten up? And how much more of this could I possibly take?
“Wow, strong words to a man who can take even more from you than what you’ve already lost.”
Rose looked at me with a question on her face, not knowing what had happened or why she was kidnapped. I tried to keep the subject away from Michael’s death. “What happened to you while you were on the run?”
“Well, you already know most of it from what Don, here, has already told you. What this TRATOR didn’t know was that his little stunt on the train gave me a concussion. I spent the next 4 days in mental confusion not knowing what had happened! Dickey found me wondering around out in the desert and brought me back to his house. After I had remembered what Don had done, I brought Dickey out to the train tracks under the guise of wanting to find a bag of drugs I had on me. After he told me which way town was, I killed him, one slice to the throat. WHAM!” He scared all of us, including Don, as he yelled and hit a piece of metal behind him. “You killed or dealer?” Don asked in dismay. “Yeah, I did. It’s pretty amazing how easy it is to cut someone open with a rusty shard of shrapnel.” He said as the rusted piece of aluminum siding he was holding against Don’s back, came up round his throat from behind. Rob whispered into Don’s ear, “I should kill you right now.” I hid Rose’s face in my chest, not wanting her to see anyone die. Don replied, “If you kill me, you lose phase four. And you don’t want to lose that one.” Robert put his hand down and shoved Don towards us. “I said I should, not that I will.” Wanting more information about these “phases” Don mentioned, I asked the obvious question, “What phases? What are you talking about?” I looked at Don for an explanation but he shook his head no. Rob answered, “Go ahead Don. You’ve given enough away so far. You might as well keep going.”
Don got mad. “I haven’t told him a DAMN thing!”
“Yeah, well how can I be so sure, huh? While I was gone, you have told him where we went, what we did, and where we go to disappear! How the HELL do I know you haven’t already told them about…”
Just then, there was a big crash towards the back of the big room. Spaz, who had been knocked out until now, was waking up and had knocked over some paint cans as he was getting up. “Finally, someone I can trust.” Rob said as he walked over to Spaz. Spaz was wobbling in the knees; still dizzy from the punishment I put him through. He could barely walk straight and his speech was obscure. He rubbed his head while trying to catch his balance as Robert asked him some questions. “You have any problems?” He asked sarcastically. Spaz dusted himself off. “Nothing I couldn’t handle until this joker showed up.” He said pointing at me. “She put up a pretty good fight but a few shocks with the tazer you gave me did the trick.” I looked at her and realized that she had burn marks on her arms, neck, and upper chest, a lot more than just a few. That would explain why she was overly tired. Robert asked, “Did you get board and complacent while you were waiting for me or do you just suck at fighting?”
“Nah, how could I get board? I was having to much fun tazing her in the chair, watching her squirm!” I wanted to kill him this time. He not only kidnapped my best friend’s sister and made him kill himself to save her, but he was also torturing her without us knowing. I hugged rose a little tighter and whispered in her ear, “I’m so sorry, Rose.” She was tearing up already and hugged me back.
“Bet you wish you had killed him now, don’t you Nick?” Rob said to me.
I looked at him right in the eye, with animosity written on my face. “Before this is done, I will personally give you hell.”
“Have at it! I welcome hell with open arms.” He was being brash, one of his many character flaws. “I’ve been there and have stolen a sip from the devil’s cup… It kind of tastes like strawberry vodka.”
“Your insane!” Rose yelled, after mustering up the energy to bellow.
“I may be, but insanity and brilliance are a gradient, fading into one another. I just have found a happy medium between the two.”
I was mad enough as it was. I didn’t need to hear this guy rant about sanity. So I turned and began to walk Rose out to the car. “We’re leaving now. Don, try and pull him back from the edge.” Don stepped in front of us, blocking our path. “Sorry man, if I don’t, he’ll kill me.” Don said, sullenly. I was taken back. “What…” Robert stopped us with words. “Uh uh uh! No one laves until I have conformation of Michael’s death.”
Rose let go of me and spun around. “WHAT?!?”
I got pissed and started marching towards Robert. “Conformation!?! YOU WANT CONFORMATION?!?” I took off my blood-stained shirt and threw it in his face. “HOW’S THAT FOR CONFORMATION?!? I watched my BEST FRIEND DIE RIGHT in front of me! I could FEEL his life leave his hand! NOW YOU tell me this was YOUR IDEA?!? With everything you’ve put me through, I have EVERY RIGHT in the WORLD to END YOU RIGHT NOW!!!” He took the shirt off of his face as I screamed at him. The blood was still wet, leaving some on his face from the stains. He simply handed me my shirt back and said calmly, “Now you can go.” As I snatched the bloody shirt from his hand and stormed back towards Rose, who was now bawling and on her knees in a tear-soaked muddy puddle, Rob continued. “Oh and Nick…” I stopped and looked back at him. “… This is just the beginning.” I turned back around, helped Rose up, and we walked out to my car.
I helped Rose into the car and then got in on my side. I threw my shirt into the back seat and buckled my seat belt. With everything that was going through my mind, I didn’t know whether to drive until I calmed down or go back in there and kill every last one of them. I gripped the steering wheel as hard as I could. My knuckles were as white as Rose’s face. Her tears had soaked into her shirt, leaving it wet with grief and fear. I looked at her and all my rage and animosity bled away with each drop of anguish and heartache from her weary eyes. My heart melted as I watched, helplessly, her palpable agony. Every memory, every event, every mental picture of Michael were mortal lacerations to the soul, slowly killing what was left of my reasoning. I had to go before I did something I would regret later.
I started the car and drove off the lot. The 10 minute drive back to Rose’s house was the longest drive I had ever taken. We passed the old mall that Mike and I met Don at, the park where we grew up playing, the place where we had our 8th grade graduation, and even the preschool Mike and I first met. Every place had memory. Every memory killed me a little bit more inside. As we drove up to her house, I was overwhelmed with sorrow and grief. I parked in their driveway and broke down crying. Rose leaned over and hugged me as I rested my head against my folded arms on the steering wheel. The tears rolled down my face, off my nose, and into my lap. No one and nothing could fix what had happened. I cried there for hours. Rose had shut off the car so not to waste gas. I didn’t care. My friend was dead and I even watched him die. My life would no longer be the same.
Finally, I caught my composure and Rose asked if I would be all right. “Do you think you will be ok to go home like this? If not, I’m sure mom will let you sleep on the couch until morning.”
“I think I’ll be ok.” I said whipping my eyes. “I just need to drive so I can clear my head.”
“Ok, just be careful.”
“I will.” I said. She got out of the car, thanking me for today, and watched as I backed out from the driveway. As I got to the curb, a loud horn blared and I slammed on the brakes. I had almost backed right into a white 4x4 truck. I watched, in horror, as it blazed by my back bumper. I threw it into park and just sat there, not sure what to do next. I couldn’t talk, or even think. My mind was in shock, not able to process any thing. The moment was flowing through me like air through a vent. Rose came running up to my window as I rolled it down. “You should stay the night. You will feel better in the morning.” She said, as she reached in and shut off my car. I agreed and got out.
We went inside and her mom ran up and hugged her with watering eyes. Her face was a mix of thankfulness and misery. She had lost one child but at least her other was still safe. After about 20 minutes of her mom crying and a reunion of mixed emotions, Rose explained why I was there. Her mom, always eager to help, ran and got me a blanket and a pillow to use. Rose gave me a clean shirt from Michaels closet. “I’m sorry, this is all I have. I thought you would want a clean shirt to sleep in.” I took the shirt, reminiscing about the last time He had wore it. That was the day we went to Sedona. I looked at her, trying to hold back my tears, then I put it on. It was a little tight but it would work. I thanked her and hugged her again. She helped me pull out the fold-away-bed from the couch. Then I set it up and crawled into bed without even changing.
There was no dinner that night. Who could eat after a day like this? An even better question was, who could even sleep after a day like this? I laid there wide awake, thinking about what was to become of me. What was going to become of Rose? My mind was going a million miles a minute with no end in sight. Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming down the hall. As I looked, I saw Rose standing there in her Eeyore pajamas, which I thought to be eerily appropriate for the mood. “Nick? You asleep?” she whispered.
“No. I can’t seem to get that far.” I said quietly.
“Can I come out here with you?”
“Sure, if it’ll help you sleep.”
She came over and crawled into bed with me. Like a little sister who had a bad dream, she needed to be with someone familiar. With in minutes she was asleep. I laid there with my arm around her, comforting her as she slept. A few more moments passed then I followed suit.
Today was a day from Hell. No one came away unscathed except for the one man who caused all of this. I wanted to kill him and display his head on a pike at school but wisdom and supernatural self-control, of which I do not know where it had come, kept me from doing so. Questions still plagued my mind. What did Robert mean by “this is just the beginning”? What was the thing Robert was going to mention before Spaz had gotten up? And how much more of this could I possibly take?
Friday, September 2, 2011
Chapter 9: Salvation and Sacrifice
We were standing there in utter disbelief, practically comatose as we watched the police advance into the bank. Suddenly I heard coughing and choking over the phone and I realized he hadn’t died! “HOLD ON MIKE, I’M COMING!” I yelled into the phone, hoping he could hear me. Melanie was crying even harder now, realizing what I had, that Mike hadn’t died yet. As I ran out the front door, Melanie’s dad stopped me. “Nick, wait up. You’re not going to be able to get in to see him without a cop, plus you can speed with me as an escort.” He hopped on his cop motorcycle as Melanie and I got in my Camaro.
If adrenaline is a drug, speeding is my needle of choice. Add the fact that I had to get to my best friend before he might pass away, I was on overload. We roared down the road going 40, 50, 60 miles per hour on surface streets. Swerving in and out of traffic trying my best to keep up with what seemed to be a trained action hero on a bike. Her dad was making me wish I had a motorcycle. We hit the freeway doing 75mph and quickly accelerated to 90+mph. Melanie was trying to wipe her tears and hold on for dear life as we dodged cars that were doing their best to clear for the siren coming the bike. We got to our exit and as her dad took the corner, leaning into it like a street bike racer, I drifted around the turn, quickly recovering and resumed my speed of 65mph. The rush of racing through the streets was unbelievable but all I could think about was Mike lying there in his own blood, slowly bleeding out and the paramedics doing there best to save him. My biggest fear was not getting to him in time and the last thing he sees is some random guy, with a cold heartless face, doing his best to save him.
We rolled up on the scene. Blaring sirens and screeching tires were our theme song as we came in a movie-like entrance. I scrambled out of the car and ran straight for the bank’s front door. Another cop tried to stop me at the tape but I pushed right past him and rolled under the police line. Melanie was running right behind me as her dad pulled his badge and told the cop we were with him and explained the situation.
As I burst through the front doors, I saw paramedics working on Mike and cops were standing around taking statements and drinking water as if it was another day at the office. I ran and slid up next to Mike, looking at his wound. It was a small caliber round that had gone “through and through”, as the paramedic put it, meaning it had passed straight through without getting lodged inside of him. That usually would be a good thing but he had aimed for his heart, missed and it punctured his left lung while shattering his left scapula (the plate-like bone on the back side of your shoulder). The paramedic was having trouble stopping the bleeding. Some of the fragments of bone had shot back and punctured the backside of his lung and they believed they might have even entered the lung causing breathing difficulty. I asked if I could hold him. The paramedic said he shouldn’t move, so I picked up his bloody hand and looked at him in the eyes. He was barely conscious but he knew I was there. “Mike, why? We could have saved her. WHY?” I was trying my best not to cry but the tears were too much to hold back. He reached for something in his pocket with his other hand and pulled out an envelope that had been folded. He handed it to me with two words, “Don’t… trust…” then I watched, in disbelief, as the life of my best friend, the one who had always been there for me, my comrade, my brother, left his body. His eyes shut slowly and his arms went limp. I sat there in shock as the paramedics came and checked him. He was pronounced dead at 5:35 on a Sunday after noon.
I sat there, holding in my grief, as they put the sheet over him. Melanie was crying, shaking her head no as she came over and put her hand on my shoulder. Her dad had come in and saw them putting the sheet over Mike’s body. He just sunk his head. Melanie knelt down behind me and was crying on my shoulder. I sat still as anger and rage welled up inside me like water being stopped by a dam. All I could think about was Spaz and how he had caused this. I wanted to rip that twig limb from limb. He was going to break in my hands, his life for a friend’s. Citizen justice.
I got up, leaving Melanie there on the ground crying still. I put the envelope in my pocket. I would look at it later. I didn’t have time now. As I made a bee-line to the front door, her dad stopped me with his hand on my chest. “Where are you going?” “I’m gonna kill him.” I barged past his arm after he had asked me. He chased after me. “Don’t tell me that. Don’t stoop to his level. Be the hero NOT the villain!” I got in my car and peeled out. I had the smell of blood in the forefront of my mind, not only from the stains on my clothes but also the thought of Spaz’s demise. I was running through all the things I might do to him, thing’s to make him suffer, thing’s to make him beg me for mercy, which I was not willing to give. My blood was hot and my face was red with rage and vengeance. My hands were shaking while gripping the steering wheel. Millions of thoughts were flowing through my head all at once, then out of nowhere I realized… I had no idea where I was going.
I pulled out my phone and found the schools number. I called and asked for Don’s address but they wouldn’t give it to me. So I called Melanie. She was still at the crime scene while her dad was helping the cops settle things. “Melanie, do you know where Don lives?” She was taken back by the question. The tone in her voice indicated she was still deeply disturbed by what had happened. “Uh… Yeah… Why do you need to know that?”
“He’s going to know something that will help me find Rose. I’m not going to hurt him. Trust me.”
“Ok. Hold on. I have to get it from my phone.” I heard her pushing buttons for a moment. Then she came back and gave me the address. The good news was it wasn’t too far away. Bad news: I was going the wrong direction. “Alright thanks. Don’t tell your dad where I going. I need to do this alone.”
She hesitated but agreed. “Alright, fine. But don’t kill anyone. There’s been too much bloodshed for one day as it is.”
“I can’t promise anything.”
“Nick!...” I hung up on her. I didn’t need her to try and talk me out of anything. I had made up my mind but it was still just a thought. I turned onto Don’s street. I was repeating the number Melanie had given me, in my head until I found it. “Ah, there you are.” I said as I pulled up to Don’s house. I noticed his dad wasn’t there and he was getting out of his car as I stopped. He had gotten to his front door with a few bags of groceries and was trying to unlock his front door as I walked up. I turned him around, grabbing at his shirt, and threw him up against the door, causing him to drop his bags. “WHERE IS HE?!?” I yelled. Don didn’t know what was going on. “What are you talking about?!?”
“Spaz! He has Rose. I’m only gonna ask you ONE more time… WHERE IS HE?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if Spaz kidnapped anyone, there’s only one place he would have taken her. I’ll show you if you let me put these in the house.”
“Fine.” I didn’t have any other choice. I grabbed a couple bags for him and brought them into his kitchen. From there, we got in my car and I pulled away from his house. Don said, “Drive that way.” So I did.
The drive took about 5 minutes to get to the abandoned warehouse that Don had brought me to. “This is where we would come to hang out. We could do anything we wanted here. No one ever comes by, and even less know about it.” I pulled up next to the giant, ominous, dilapidated building. We got out and Don took me around back to show me a secret way in. “Follow me.” We went up an old fire escape, and entered through a broken, rusted shut, window. The place was dusty and stuffy. It was obvious no one had used this place since the early 1980s. We came out onto a catwalk that went across the entire warehouse. We could see everything from up here. There was a ladder down on the other end of this football-field-length pathway. It led to a lower observation deck. It was apparently the office level of the business that use to use this place. From there, a staircase that went down from the back of the platform to the bottom floor. Down in the middle of this massive room, where some light from holes and windows in the roof illuminated the floor, I saw her.
Rose was tied up to a chair. Her feet were bound to the chair legs. He hands were bound behind her back. She had duck tape over her mouth. Her head hung there, as if she was asleep. I prayed she wasn’t dead already. Don turned to me and whispered. “This is where you and I say good bye. I don’t want anything to do with this.” He turned back to the window and climbed out. I was on my own. I looked around for Spaz but I didn’t see him anywhere. I made my way to the ladder and climbed down. I heard a tool fall to the ground on the other side of the warehouse. I stopped and hid. As I looked over there, I saw Spaz stumble out of the dark holding an aluminum bat in his hand, resting on his shoulder. He was speaking to Him self. “Oh! Crap. Well that was a close one wasn’t it?” He turned and walked over to Rose as I worked my way quietly down the stairs. “WELL my dear! This was an ingenious plan, now wasn’t it? Pretty much what ever happens, You both lose! Hee hee hee hee…! Man! Gotta love his planning.” I assumed he was talking about some sort of plan Robert had come up with before the incident outside of Melanie’s house a month or so back. I hid in the dark at the base of the stairs, watching and waiting patiently for my opportunity to strike. Spaz shook Roses head trying to get her to wake up. “Hey! Wake up! I’m not here just to talk to myself now! Come on…” He smacked her across the face. I could tell she was obviously awake by her reaction to the slap. Her head jerked towards where I was hiding. She was in tears, probably had been for quite some time. I wanted to move right then and kill the s.o.b. for hitting her, but I told myself to calm down. Deep breathe. Be patient. Wait for the right moment. He will get it in the end soon enough.
Spaz kept talking about seemingly random stuff, as I took deep breathes quietly. “Oh, don’t be down, love! This goes BEYOND you. You and I, we’re just pawns. Although we didn’t plan on a traitor…” he stopped his passing and stared into space, thinking of some one. Did he know about what Don had done? Or was he thinking of someone else? If it was someone else, who? “… ANYWAYS! That’s beside the point. We are going to WIN and you will lose. That’s it! The game is check mate at this point.” I came up behind him with a broken 2x4 I had found by the stairs. “Actually, it’s Game Over.” I hit him in the face with the piece of wood, knocking him down and out long enough to untie Rose. “Rose. Rose? Are you ok? Did they hurt you?” She was obviously tiered but was rapturous to see me. The ropes were tied tight around her feet, cutting off circulation. The same was done to her wrists. I pulled out a pocketknife I had on me and cut the ropes with the serrated part of the blade. I had just gotten the ropes free when she got up and threw her arms around my neck. She started crying tears of joy harder than I have ever seen her cry before. I held her tight as she sobbed into my chest. As we hugged I looked down at her. She looked up at me. I smiled and removed the duck tape from her mouth. “That better?” She replied in an exhausted, raspy voice, “Much. Thank you Nick.” Just then I saw Spaz starting to get up. I saw he had a shank in his hand. “Can you walk?”
She replied, “Yes, why?”
“Good. My car is right out the front doors there. Run.”
“What?” Just then Spaz got up and took a stab at Rose. I moved us out of the way and pushed her towards the front bay door. Spaz was up and ready to fight. Rose ran towards the bay door but turned around to watch the brawl. Spaz threw a left jab followed by a right hook with the shank. I dodged both followed it up by a swift kick to his gut. He stumbled back but recovered quickly. As I rushed forwards out of pure hatred for the guy, Spaz thought he could stab me in the chest but I grabbed his fist that was holding the sharp shard of metal and hit him in the face with my elbow. He still wouldn’t let go. He reached around with his other hand, grabbing me from underneath the chin, kicking me behind the knee on my back leg. He threw me to the ground and knelt down on top of me. His knee dug into my diaphragm as I tried gasping for air. He looked at me as I tried to maneuver his knee off of me with no avail. “You know, we have BIG plans for you, but I’m gonna have FUN messing you up before hand.”
He brought his hand above his head, poised to plunge that makeshift dagger into my flesh. I could hear Melanie gasp over in the corner as Spaz brought his fist down upon me. I threw my hands up in a scissor-like formation, blocking his shank from piercing my chest. I grabbed it and pulled it above my head. He brought his hand up again and swung down at me more forceful. I moved my upper body as best I could to one side while knocking his arm off to the other side. When his shank hit the concrete floor, his hand slid down the blade and cut his hand. “AAAaaaaaaahhhhhhhh….!” He yelled. I took the opportunity to get up. He was wide open to attack, so I hit him in the crotch, causing him fall over. I rolled on my stomach and slowly got up, recovering from the knee in my abdomen. I was coughing and gasping for air as I got up. Spaz, who was trying to recover from the world worst “nut-tap”, started to get up also. As we stood up, he was holding his hand as it bled all over the place. “Is that all you got?” He said, sarcastically. “Oh, I’ve got plenty left where that came from.” He took a swing at my face, but I moved out of the way of his fist and moved it in the direction of it’s own momentum. I punched him in the kidney and followed up with a gut shot. I continued with a sharp jab to the chest and to the face, gaining ground, moving him backwards with each punch. I kept hitting him in the chest, stomach, and face like a machine gun, one right after the other. It was pure rage. Each impact represented something that was pissing me off. I finished with a roundhouse kick to his gut, throwing him back 5 feet. His momentum had flung him into a workbench, breaking it with a loud crash.
The warehouse went silent. Only the flapping of bird’s wings were audible in this dusty, god-forsaken, dilapidated husk of a building. I wiped the blood spatter off my face and walked over to check Sapz. He was out cold. Still breathing, unfortunately, he would live. I turned to leave and saw Rose was still inside. “I thought I said to go to the car?” She ran up to me and gave me a desperate hug. “You did… but I couldn’t leave you in your time of need.” It took me a minute to realize what she was saying. Then I hugged her tight, trying to hold back my tears at how much she cared about me. Time of need was right, a bit of an understatement but accurate nonetheless. I asked her, “Are you ready to go home?” “Please.” She said, as if begging to leave. She smiled as I put my arm around her and helped her to the exit.
We walked slowly to the bay door, outside of which was where I had parked. I was in pain and she was exhausted. We looked like two weary travelers making the long trek back to once where we had come. I was supporting her as we walked to the exit, but as we got close, the door opened. The sun was setting at this point in that direction and we were blinded after being in the dimly light warehouse for some time. I saw two figures walk in. A bigger man came in first with a smaller man holding something to the bigger man’s back. After a few seconds I realized the bigger man was Don. I still couldn’t tell who the smaller man in silhouette was. Then an all too familiar voice spoke, breaking the silence. “Good to see you again, Nick. Did you miss me?”
If adrenaline is a drug, speeding is my needle of choice. Add the fact that I had to get to my best friend before he might pass away, I was on overload. We roared down the road going 40, 50, 60 miles per hour on surface streets. Swerving in and out of traffic trying my best to keep up with what seemed to be a trained action hero on a bike. Her dad was making me wish I had a motorcycle. We hit the freeway doing 75mph and quickly accelerated to 90+mph. Melanie was trying to wipe her tears and hold on for dear life as we dodged cars that were doing their best to clear for the siren coming the bike. We got to our exit and as her dad took the corner, leaning into it like a street bike racer, I drifted around the turn, quickly recovering and resumed my speed of 65mph. The rush of racing through the streets was unbelievable but all I could think about was Mike lying there in his own blood, slowly bleeding out and the paramedics doing there best to save him. My biggest fear was not getting to him in time and the last thing he sees is some random guy, with a cold heartless face, doing his best to save him.
We rolled up on the scene. Blaring sirens and screeching tires were our theme song as we came in a movie-like entrance. I scrambled out of the car and ran straight for the bank’s front door. Another cop tried to stop me at the tape but I pushed right past him and rolled under the police line. Melanie was running right behind me as her dad pulled his badge and told the cop we were with him and explained the situation.
As I burst through the front doors, I saw paramedics working on Mike and cops were standing around taking statements and drinking water as if it was another day at the office. I ran and slid up next to Mike, looking at his wound. It was a small caliber round that had gone “through and through”, as the paramedic put it, meaning it had passed straight through without getting lodged inside of him. That usually would be a good thing but he had aimed for his heart, missed and it punctured his left lung while shattering his left scapula (the plate-like bone on the back side of your shoulder). The paramedic was having trouble stopping the bleeding. Some of the fragments of bone had shot back and punctured the backside of his lung and they believed they might have even entered the lung causing breathing difficulty. I asked if I could hold him. The paramedic said he shouldn’t move, so I picked up his bloody hand and looked at him in the eyes. He was barely conscious but he knew I was there. “Mike, why? We could have saved her. WHY?” I was trying my best not to cry but the tears were too much to hold back. He reached for something in his pocket with his other hand and pulled out an envelope that had been folded. He handed it to me with two words, “Don’t… trust…” then I watched, in disbelief, as the life of my best friend, the one who had always been there for me, my comrade, my brother, left his body. His eyes shut slowly and his arms went limp. I sat there in shock as the paramedics came and checked him. He was pronounced dead at 5:35 on a Sunday after noon.
I sat there, holding in my grief, as they put the sheet over him. Melanie was crying, shaking her head no as she came over and put her hand on my shoulder. Her dad had come in and saw them putting the sheet over Mike’s body. He just sunk his head. Melanie knelt down behind me and was crying on my shoulder. I sat still as anger and rage welled up inside me like water being stopped by a dam. All I could think about was Spaz and how he had caused this. I wanted to rip that twig limb from limb. He was going to break in my hands, his life for a friend’s. Citizen justice.
I got up, leaving Melanie there on the ground crying still. I put the envelope in my pocket. I would look at it later. I didn’t have time now. As I made a bee-line to the front door, her dad stopped me with his hand on my chest. “Where are you going?” “I’m gonna kill him.” I barged past his arm after he had asked me. He chased after me. “Don’t tell me that. Don’t stoop to his level. Be the hero NOT the villain!” I got in my car and peeled out. I had the smell of blood in the forefront of my mind, not only from the stains on my clothes but also the thought of Spaz’s demise. I was running through all the things I might do to him, thing’s to make him suffer, thing’s to make him beg me for mercy, which I was not willing to give. My blood was hot and my face was red with rage and vengeance. My hands were shaking while gripping the steering wheel. Millions of thoughts were flowing through my head all at once, then out of nowhere I realized… I had no idea where I was going.
I pulled out my phone and found the schools number. I called and asked for Don’s address but they wouldn’t give it to me. So I called Melanie. She was still at the crime scene while her dad was helping the cops settle things. “Melanie, do you know where Don lives?” She was taken back by the question. The tone in her voice indicated she was still deeply disturbed by what had happened. “Uh… Yeah… Why do you need to know that?”
“He’s going to know something that will help me find Rose. I’m not going to hurt him. Trust me.”
“Ok. Hold on. I have to get it from my phone.” I heard her pushing buttons for a moment. Then she came back and gave me the address. The good news was it wasn’t too far away. Bad news: I was going the wrong direction. “Alright thanks. Don’t tell your dad where I going. I need to do this alone.”
She hesitated but agreed. “Alright, fine. But don’t kill anyone. There’s been too much bloodshed for one day as it is.”
“I can’t promise anything.”
“Nick!...” I hung up on her. I didn’t need her to try and talk me out of anything. I had made up my mind but it was still just a thought. I turned onto Don’s street. I was repeating the number Melanie had given me, in my head until I found it. “Ah, there you are.” I said as I pulled up to Don’s house. I noticed his dad wasn’t there and he was getting out of his car as I stopped. He had gotten to his front door with a few bags of groceries and was trying to unlock his front door as I walked up. I turned him around, grabbing at his shirt, and threw him up against the door, causing him to drop his bags. “WHERE IS HE?!?” I yelled. Don didn’t know what was going on. “What are you talking about?!?”
“Spaz! He has Rose. I’m only gonna ask you ONE more time… WHERE IS HE?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if Spaz kidnapped anyone, there’s only one place he would have taken her. I’ll show you if you let me put these in the house.”
“Fine.” I didn’t have any other choice. I grabbed a couple bags for him and brought them into his kitchen. From there, we got in my car and I pulled away from his house. Don said, “Drive that way.” So I did.
The drive took about 5 minutes to get to the abandoned warehouse that Don had brought me to. “This is where we would come to hang out. We could do anything we wanted here. No one ever comes by, and even less know about it.” I pulled up next to the giant, ominous, dilapidated building. We got out and Don took me around back to show me a secret way in. “Follow me.” We went up an old fire escape, and entered through a broken, rusted shut, window. The place was dusty and stuffy. It was obvious no one had used this place since the early 1980s. We came out onto a catwalk that went across the entire warehouse. We could see everything from up here. There was a ladder down on the other end of this football-field-length pathway. It led to a lower observation deck. It was apparently the office level of the business that use to use this place. From there, a staircase that went down from the back of the platform to the bottom floor. Down in the middle of this massive room, where some light from holes and windows in the roof illuminated the floor, I saw her.
Rose was tied up to a chair. Her feet were bound to the chair legs. He hands were bound behind her back. She had duck tape over her mouth. Her head hung there, as if she was asleep. I prayed she wasn’t dead already. Don turned to me and whispered. “This is where you and I say good bye. I don’t want anything to do with this.” He turned back to the window and climbed out. I was on my own. I looked around for Spaz but I didn’t see him anywhere. I made my way to the ladder and climbed down. I heard a tool fall to the ground on the other side of the warehouse. I stopped and hid. As I looked over there, I saw Spaz stumble out of the dark holding an aluminum bat in his hand, resting on his shoulder. He was speaking to Him self. “Oh! Crap. Well that was a close one wasn’t it?” He turned and walked over to Rose as I worked my way quietly down the stairs. “WELL my dear! This was an ingenious plan, now wasn’t it? Pretty much what ever happens, You both lose! Hee hee hee hee…! Man! Gotta love his planning.” I assumed he was talking about some sort of plan Robert had come up with before the incident outside of Melanie’s house a month or so back. I hid in the dark at the base of the stairs, watching and waiting patiently for my opportunity to strike. Spaz shook Roses head trying to get her to wake up. “Hey! Wake up! I’m not here just to talk to myself now! Come on…” He smacked her across the face. I could tell she was obviously awake by her reaction to the slap. Her head jerked towards where I was hiding. She was in tears, probably had been for quite some time. I wanted to move right then and kill the s.o.b. for hitting her, but I told myself to calm down. Deep breathe. Be patient. Wait for the right moment. He will get it in the end soon enough.
Spaz kept talking about seemingly random stuff, as I took deep breathes quietly. “Oh, don’t be down, love! This goes BEYOND you. You and I, we’re just pawns. Although we didn’t plan on a traitor…” he stopped his passing and stared into space, thinking of some one. Did he know about what Don had done? Or was he thinking of someone else? If it was someone else, who? “… ANYWAYS! That’s beside the point. We are going to WIN and you will lose. That’s it! The game is check mate at this point.” I came up behind him with a broken 2x4 I had found by the stairs. “Actually, it’s Game Over.” I hit him in the face with the piece of wood, knocking him down and out long enough to untie Rose. “Rose. Rose? Are you ok? Did they hurt you?” She was obviously tiered but was rapturous to see me. The ropes were tied tight around her feet, cutting off circulation. The same was done to her wrists. I pulled out a pocketknife I had on me and cut the ropes with the serrated part of the blade. I had just gotten the ropes free when she got up and threw her arms around my neck. She started crying tears of joy harder than I have ever seen her cry before. I held her tight as she sobbed into my chest. As we hugged I looked down at her. She looked up at me. I smiled and removed the duck tape from her mouth. “That better?” She replied in an exhausted, raspy voice, “Much. Thank you Nick.” Just then I saw Spaz starting to get up. I saw he had a shank in his hand. “Can you walk?”
She replied, “Yes, why?”
“Good. My car is right out the front doors there. Run.”
“What?” Just then Spaz got up and took a stab at Rose. I moved us out of the way and pushed her towards the front bay door. Spaz was up and ready to fight. Rose ran towards the bay door but turned around to watch the brawl. Spaz threw a left jab followed by a right hook with the shank. I dodged both followed it up by a swift kick to his gut. He stumbled back but recovered quickly. As I rushed forwards out of pure hatred for the guy, Spaz thought he could stab me in the chest but I grabbed his fist that was holding the sharp shard of metal and hit him in the face with my elbow. He still wouldn’t let go. He reached around with his other hand, grabbing me from underneath the chin, kicking me behind the knee on my back leg. He threw me to the ground and knelt down on top of me. His knee dug into my diaphragm as I tried gasping for air. He looked at me as I tried to maneuver his knee off of me with no avail. “You know, we have BIG plans for you, but I’m gonna have FUN messing you up before hand.”
He brought his hand above his head, poised to plunge that makeshift dagger into my flesh. I could hear Melanie gasp over in the corner as Spaz brought his fist down upon me. I threw my hands up in a scissor-like formation, blocking his shank from piercing my chest. I grabbed it and pulled it above my head. He brought his hand up again and swung down at me more forceful. I moved my upper body as best I could to one side while knocking his arm off to the other side. When his shank hit the concrete floor, his hand slid down the blade and cut his hand. “AAAaaaaaaahhhhhhhh….!” He yelled. I took the opportunity to get up. He was wide open to attack, so I hit him in the crotch, causing him fall over. I rolled on my stomach and slowly got up, recovering from the knee in my abdomen. I was coughing and gasping for air as I got up. Spaz, who was trying to recover from the world worst “nut-tap”, started to get up also. As we stood up, he was holding his hand as it bled all over the place. “Is that all you got?” He said, sarcastically. “Oh, I’ve got plenty left where that came from.” He took a swing at my face, but I moved out of the way of his fist and moved it in the direction of it’s own momentum. I punched him in the kidney and followed up with a gut shot. I continued with a sharp jab to the chest and to the face, gaining ground, moving him backwards with each punch. I kept hitting him in the chest, stomach, and face like a machine gun, one right after the other. It was pure rage. Each impact represented something that was pissing me off. I finished with a roundhouse kick to his gut, throwing him back 5 feet. His momentum had flung him into a workbench, breaking it with a loud crash.
The warehouse went silent. Only the flapping of bird’s wings were audible in this dusty, god-forsaken, dilapidated husk of a building. I wiped the blood spatter off my face and walked over to check Sapz. He was out cold. Still breathing, unfortunately, he would live. I turned to leave and saw Rose was still inside. “I thought I said to go to the car?” She ran up to me and gave me a desperate hug. “You did… but I couldn’t leave you in your time of need.” It took me a minute to realize what she was saying. Then I hugged her tight, trying to hold back my tears at how much she cared about me. Time of need was right, a bit of an understatement but accurate nonetheless. I asked her, “Are you ready to go home?” “Please.” She said, as if begging to leave. She smiled as I put my arm around her and helped her to the exit.
We walked slowly to the bay door, outside of which was where I had parked. I was in pain and she was exhausted. We looked like two weary travelers making the long trek back to once where we had come. I was supporting her as we walked to the exit, but as we got close, the door opened. The sun was setting at this point in that direction and we were blinded after being in the dimly light warehouse for some time. I saw two figures walk in. A bigger man came in first with a smaller man holding something to the bigger man’s back. After a few seconds I realized the bigger man was Don. I still couldn’t tell who the smaller man in silhouette was. Then an all too familiar voice spoke, breaking the silence. “Good to see you again, Nick. Did you miss me?”
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Chapter 8: Questions and Answers
After Michael and I left the mall, on our way to our car in the parking garage, I told Michael what I was going to do. He didn’t really get it. “What makes you think Spaz is going to have any answers?... Hello ladies…” He said off to the side to some passing girls.
I answered him any ways. “Either He knows something Don doesn’t or we know something he doesn’t. Either way, it’s more than what we know now.”
After being rejected, he said, “Yeah but Don made us promise not to tell anyone. That includes Spaz.”
He had a point. “Well then, what do you think we should do?” I asked sarcastically.
“We go talk to Melanie. At least tell her what we know.”
“I’m not telling her anything until I get some definite answers from Spaz.” We reached the car and I unlocked it.
Michael and I opened our doors. “Well how do you expect to do that?”
I paused, “I don’t know yet. I may have to talk to Melanie’s dad. He’s a cop. He’ll have to know some kind of technique to get info from someone.” We got into the car and started it.
Michael continued, “Maybe, but where do we go now?”
I sighed, “I don’t know. I have to see when her dad is available and then go talk to him then. It might be a couple of days.”
“Ok, well once you know something let me know. If he comes back, I don’t want to be the only one in the dark.”
“Don’t worry. When I know something, you’ll know something.”
“Fair enough.”
We backed out and left the parking garage. It was getting dark now so I drove him back home. The drive to his house consisted of rocking out to our favorite bands and Michael whistling at girls out the window. He was always hitting on girls no matter where we were. I would always keep him in line though, smacking him when he said something objectifying. That was his style, random, wild thinking. He made for good comic relief in life. When we got to his house, I asked if he was doing anything over the weekend and he said no, but asked if I would be willing to hang out with Rose because she had been wanting to hang again ever since our trip to Sedona. I said sure and asked him if he was going to come with. He said he would and we left it at that.
A few days later, Michael had been throwing up, so Rose and I decided we would go hang out alone. There’s not much to do in Tucson besides walk around Old Town, go to the mall, or hang out at parks. So since we didn’t have any money at the time, we chose the park. We weren’t really doing anything special. We just sat on the swings and talked. “I’m glad we get to hang out alone today. I don’t think we have ever gotten to do this before.” She said cordially, as she began to rock back and forth on the swing.
“Yeah, it’s nice.” I didn’t know what to talk about. Usually, Mike and I would crack jokes and she would interject, but here, without mike, I was lost. What do you talk about with your best friends sister who use to have a crush on you? I mean, really. Lucky for me, she took the initiate. “So how are you and Melanie doing?” Ok, not the worse subject to talk about with her. “Uh, good I guess.”
“Oh.” Crap, I stand corrected, worse subject to talk to her about. “What do you mean ‘Oh’?” I kind of giggled, trying to not show how awkward I felt about her response.
“Can I be honest with you about something?” And it gets worse.
I asked, so I had already stepped in it. why not go swimming? “Yeah, of course.”
“I’m really not a fan of her.”
Not what I had expected but ok. “Why?” I asked confused.
“I don’t know. Something just isn’t right with her.”
“What are you talking about? You are the one who practically set us up.”
“I know, but… Call it a woman’s intuition.”
“Woman’s intuition? Are you sure you’re not just jealous?”
“Of her? HA, You’re funny, Nick!”
“What? You know you use to like me!”
“Yeah, when I was like 10. Come on Nick, we have practically grown up together. You might as well be my brother.”
Well that was a relief. “Hahaha, yeah you have a point.”
“You thought I still liked you, didn’t you?” Now she was just patronizing me.
“No! No I didn’t.” Yes I did.
“Yes you did!”
“No I really didn’t!” Yes, I REALLY did.
“Oh come on, Don’t lie. You did, didn’t you?”
What could I say? She wasn’t buying it. “Ok fine, the thought had crossed my mind.” Like a million times.
She started laughing really hard. Then she started talking in a high pitched voice, acting as a caricature of herself to mock me. “Hahahaha… Oh Nick! Your SO hot!” She got off her swing and started over acting everything out. “Why do you have to have a girlfriend?!? You and I should GO OUT!!!...”
“Oh shut up…”
“But Nick, I want you!” She threw her self on me, almost knocking me off my swing. “Come on give me a SMOOCH!!”
“Oh GOSH, Rose, COME ON!” I pushed her off of me, as she started cracking up. She tripped backwards and fell on her but in the sand. “Oh man, I’m sorry! Are you ok?” She was sitting there silent, with her head slumped down into her chest. I noticed her shoulders starting to bounce up and down, but there was no noise. She threw her head back and I saw her eye smashed shut and her mouth wide open… laughing! She was laughing so hard she wasn’t making any noise. She could barely breath. I couldn’t help but start laughing with her. Her whole performance was pretty entertaining, and to end it with that kind of fall was pure comedy. I tried helping her up but I started laughing so hard I fell down, too. We sat there for the next 20 minutes or so just laughing at ourselves.
The rest of the day passed with us laughing and joking about earlier. She didn’t let me live that one down for a while. We went back to my house and I got some money from my dad for dinner. She wanted to go to a Mexican food place so we did. We bought Mike a tortilla soup to get better. That night, I dropped her off at her house. As she got out, she turned back and thanked me for the dinner. “Thanks Nick. Today was really fun. I’m glad we got to hang out.” She then leaned back into the car and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Your welcome. We should hang out again soon. Tonight was really fun.”
“Today?”
“Yeah, that’s what I meant, today.”
She smiled and agreed. Then she shut the door and I waited to see her walk in the front door.
The next day, I went to Melanie’s house to talk to her father. It was late in the afternoon on a beautiful cloudy Sunday. When you live in a place where you get nothing but sun all the time, a dark monsoon-ey day, with a thick shroud of clouds is a nice day. Anyways, I got out of my car and walked up to the front door. I rang the doorbell and Melanie answered the door. “Oh hey!” She gave me a kiss. “What are you doing here?” She let me come in and I came into the living room. “Well actually I’m here to talk to your dad. Is he here right now?”
She shut and locked the door behind me. “Actually they found a drug dealer robbed and murdered out near the train tracks. What do you want to talk to my dad about?”
I took a seat on the couch and thought about how to answer. I couldn’t tell her why because she would ask for more information and I couldn’t go there. I had made a promise and even if I didn’t like the guy, I still planed on keeping it. “I just need to ask him for some advise. It’s nothing.” She was persistant though and pushed for an answer. “Advise on what?” She had sat down next to me and put her arm around me. “It’s nothing, really. I’ll tell you what, when I know something, you’ll know something. Ok?” She looked at me with eyes of disbelief. “Come on. You say that when you don’t want to share something.”
“Listen, I can’t tell you anymore than that right now. When I clear some things up, and get some answers, I’ll let you know more. Ok?”
She looked at me and thought about it. “… Ok, fine. But I’ll hold you to it.”
“Fair enough.” I smiled. She leaned in and gave me a kiss.
Just then, her Father walked in the front door. “Well at least you two still have your clothes on.” He said sarcastically. Melanie got up off the couch and came to give her dad a kiss. As she aproched, she said, “Oh dad, you know we wouldn’t do anything.” She then kissed him on his cheek. “Sometimes you make me wonder. Nick, you know your not supposed to be with Melanie without me here.”
“Yes sir, I do, but actually I’m here to see you.” He paused and looked at me with a confused look on his face. “Sir, I actually need to ask your advice about my situation.”
“And what situation would that be?” he said looking at Melanie earnestly.
She piped up, “Don’t look at me, he wouldn’t even give me any details.”
His gaze shifted from her to me. “Alright, we can talk in my office.”
We walked upstairs and entered the second door on the left. His office looked like something out of a movie, with the shelves of book reaching from the floor to the roof along the back wall behind his desk with a huge window to the right with a view of the neighborhood. Behind me was the door and the wall was garnished with pictures of his daughter and him as well as pictures of his ex-wife. You could tell that this was a man who loved his family no matter what. On the wall to my left there was a fireplace that only looked like it belonged in accordance with the other furniture in the room. Who would put a fireplace in a guestroom? I thought to myself. To the right of the fireplace, even with the desk, there was a big gun safe that not only had a ten-key pad but also a finger print scanner and a big silver helm, like on a ship, to unlock and open it. He had more pictures on the mantel and there was a big picture in a fancy frame of him and his daughter hugging during their trip to the Grand Canyon last summer. He sat down in his big leather desk chair behind his desk and motioned me to sit down in one of the stationary leather chair in front of his desk. “So, what is it that you need to ask me?”
“You were a detective before right?”
“Yes, why?”
“I need to know how to get information out of someone without showing my hand on the subject. Got any suggestions?”
“Is this person cooperative?”
“Not likely.”
“Well, I’m not an torturer…”
“I’m not talking that kind of interrogation. What would you do to some one you caught on the street that might have knowledge about someone more important?”
“What do you know, and who are you wanting to talk to?” I told him about my conversation with Don at the mall and I told him about what Spaz said to Melanie at school, minus the whole rape thing. I didn’t need him getting the cops involved just yet. That could wreck my chances of finding Robert. When I was done, he had that look of ‘I see.’ on his face. “That’s why I didn’t want to tell Melanie. I didn’t want her to feel like there was no longer any reason to worry until I know for sure if Robert is dead or not. You cant tell anyone what I told you though, because Don is smart and he’ll find a way to make me pay if anyone finds out that I told.”
“Don’t worry, nothing that is said in this office will ever leave this office. How do you expect to question him?”
“I…” My cell rang. I looked down and saw it was Mike. He probably was calling because he was feeling better and wanted to see if I could hang out so I silenced it. “Sorry about that. I actually haven’t thought about it yet. I figured I’d come talk to you first before I figure out the best way to proceed.”
“Well, We have facilities that we incorporate certain methods of getting into the criminals head. Now, you can improvise these things, but the most important part is…” My phone went off again, this time as a vibrating sound. It was Mike again, so, I silenced it once more. I apologized and he continued. “Well, the most important part is to remember you’re not trying to force the information out of him, you’re trying to coax it out of him. Now, you could kidnap him, but that’s considered illegal. Plus threatening is never a good thing to do. So I suggest you read this…” He got up and walked over to one of the shelves closer the fireplace and took down a small book. It was only about 150 pages or so. He tossed it to me and I looked at the cover. It read “Interrogating a Suspect: Training Manuel for Recruits”.
“Sound’s promising.” I said, reading the title.
“I was given that when I first joined the force by one of my instructors at the academy. He said he knew I’d be a great detective one day.” The room was silent for a moment as he reflected on his days as a detective. I broke the silence when I spoke. “Well, thanks again for your help. I hope I can get some answers.”
“Me too. Good luck.”
I nodded, and turned to walk away, but I stopped and turned back. “By the way, do you mind if I ask, why did they demote any way? You were one of their best detectives.”
“It’s kind of a long story but lets just say I trusted the wrong people closest to me and it destroyed me. But that’s a story for another time.” I nodded and went to walk out the door. When I opened it, Melanie was just about to knock on the door. She had the phone in one hand and looked like she just saw someone get killed. I asked, “Are you ok?”
“Michael is on the phone. He need’s to talk to you.” She was monotone and barely audible. I just looked at her as she handed me the phone. I looked back at her father as I took the phone and put it to my ear. I heard mikes voice on the other end. He sounded nervous but trying to stay calm. “Hey Nick, You wanted my stereo system right?”
I was worried. “That was if you died man. What’s going on?”
“Yeah well, that may be sooner than we thought.”
“Whoa! What are you talking about, man? What are you doing?” I thought I heard cops in the background, yelling on a megaphone. It was muffled though
“You know my dad was never smart about hiding spots, leaving his revolver under his bed with the ammo. Not smart, man.”
“Why are you doing this? Rose needs you, man. Don’t let your sister down. How would she feel if she found out you were dead? Come on man, Think about what your doing!” Melanie’s dad shook his head and mouthed ‘stay calm.’ “I have thought about man, and this is the only way to get her back.”
“Alright, stay calm. Who’s got who?”
“Spaz was on my answering machine when I got home today. He said he had her. Guess she was at the park with friends. He said it was either me or her so I made my decision.”
“No Mike, we can get her back. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can save her. Melanie’s dad is a cop, man. We can…”
“No! If I’m not on the news tomorrow, she’s dead. That’s why I’m calling you. I want you to know I didn’t want to rob this bank, but there was no other way.” The cop’s megaphone in the background started to make sense. I ran downstairs and turned on there TV. The news was on and they were already broadcasting the hold up. The bank was completely surrounded. There was no way he could escape that by himself.
“Man you don’t have to do this. We can still get you off. Just wait for us to get there.” Melanie’s dad was already getting his stuff together.
“No, I’ve made my peace with God, man. I know what I have to do. See you on the flip side.”
“NO! Don’t! Don’t!!!” I heard a gunshot, a thud, then silence over the phone. The anchorman on the news reported, “It seems the gunman has committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest.” That stopped her dad in his tracks. Melanie gasped and held her hands up over her mouth. She was on the verge of tears and so was I. We stood there in utter and complete shock. I couldn’t believe what just happened. No one said a word. The phone was still connected, and I could hear footsteps coming closer as we watched the police move in on the bank. I wanted to stop them from touching him but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even move. Tears were running down my face and I could barely stand, my legs were so weak. Then out of the nothingness on the phone I hear a cough, a gurgle, and a moan that almost sounded like a growl. At that moment, a flood of adrenaline burst through my veins. He was still alive! I screamed into the phone, “HOLD ON MIKE, I’M COMING!”
I answered him any ways. “Either He knows something Don doesn’t or we know something he doesn’t. Either way, it’s more than what we know now.”
After being rejected, he said, “Yeah but Don made us promise not to tell anyone. That includes Spaz.”
He had a point. “Well then, what do you think we should do?” I asked sarcastically.
“We go talk to Melanie. At least tell her what we know.”
“I’m not telling her anything until I get some definite answers from Spaz.” We reached the car and I unlocked it.
Michael and I opened our doors. “Well how do you expect to do that?”
I paused, “I don’t know yet. I may have to talk to Melanie’s dad. He’s a cop. He’ll have to know some kind of technique to get info from someone.” We got into the car and started it.
Michael continued, “Maybe, but where do we go now?”
I sighed, “I don’t know. I have to see when her dad is available and then go talk to him then. It might be a couple of days.”
“Ok, well once you know something let me know. If he comes back, I don’t want to be the only one in the dark.”
“Don’t worry. When I know something, you’ll know something.”
“Fair enough.”
We backed out and left the parking garage. It was getting dark now so I drove him back home. The drive to his house consisted of rocking out to our favorite bands and Michael whistling at girls out the window. He was always hitting on girls no matter where we were. I would always keep him in line though, smacking him when he said something objectifying. That was his style, random, wild thinking. He made for good comic relief in life. When we got to his house, I asked if he was doing anything over the weekend and he said no, but asked if I would be willing to hang out with Rose because she had been wanting to hang again ever since our trip to Sedona. I said sure and asked him if he was going to come with. He said he would and we left it at that.
A few days later, Michael had been throwing up, so Rose and I decided we would go hang out alone. There’s not much to do in Tucson besides walk around Old Town, go to the mall, or hang out at parks. So since we didn’t have any money at the time, we chose the park. We weren’t really doing anything special. We just sat on the swings and talked. “I’m glad we get to hang out alone today. I don’t think we have ever gotten to do this before.” She said cordially, as she began to rock back and forth on the swing.
“Yeah, it’s nice.” I didn’t know what to talk about. Usually, Mike and I would crack jokes and she would interject, but here, without mike, I was lost. What do you talk about with your best friends sister who use to have a crush on you? I mean, really. Lucky for me, she took the initiate. “So how are you and Melanie doing?” Ok, not the worse subject to talk about with her. “Uh, good I guess.”
“Oh.” Crap, I stand corrected, worse subject to talk to her about. “What do you mean ‘Oh’?” I kind of giggled, trying to not show how awkward I felt about her response.
“Can I be honest with you about something?” And it gets worse.
I asked, so I had already stepped in it. why not go swimming? “Yeah, of course.”
“I’m really not a fan of her.”
Not what I had expected but ok. “Why?” I asked confused.
“I don’t know. Something just isn’t right with her.”
“What are you talking about? You are the one who practically set us up.”
“I know, but… Call it a woman’s intuition.”
“Woman’s intuition? Are you sure you’re not just jealous?”
“Of her? HA, You’re funny, Nick!”
“What? You know you use to like me!”
“Yeah, when I was like 10. Come on Nick, we have practically grown up together. You might as well be my brother.”
Well that was a relief. “Hahaha, yeah you have a point.”
“You thought I still liked you, didn’t you?” Now she was just patronizing me.
“No! No I didn’t.” Yes I did.
“Yes you did!”
“No I really didn’t!” Yes, I REALLY did.
“Oh come on, Don’t lie. You did, didn’t you?”
What could I say? She wasn’t buying it. “Ok fine, the thought had crossed my mind.” Like a million times.
She started laughing really hard. Then she started talking in a high pitched voice, acting as a caricature of herself to mock me. “Hahahaha… Oh Nick! Your SO hot!” She got off her swing and started over acting everything out. “Why do you have to have a girlfriend?!? You and I should GO OUT!!!...”
“Oh shut up…”
“But Nick, I want you!” She threw her self on me, almost knocking me off my swing. “Come on give me a SMOOCH!!”
“Oh GOSH, Rose, COME ON!” I pushed her off of me, as she started cracking up. She tripped backwards and fell on her but in the sand. “Oh man, I’m sorry! Are you ok?” She was sitting there silent, with her head slumped down into her chest. I noticed her shoulders starting to bounce up and down, but there was no noise. She threw her head back and I saw her eye smashed shut and her mouth wide open… laughing! She was laughing so hard she wasn’t making any noise. She could barely breath. I couldn’t help but start laughing with her. Her whole performance was pretty entertaining, and to end it with that kind of fall was pure comedy. I tried helping her up but I started laughing so hard I fell down, too. We sat there for the next 20 minutes or so just laughing at ourselves.
The rest of the day passed with us laughing and joking about earlier. She didn’t let me live that one down for a while. We went back to my house and I got some money from my dad for dinner. She wanted to go to a Mexican food place so we did. We bought Mike a tortilla soup to get better. That night, I dropped her off at her house. As she got out, she turned back and thanked me for the dinner. “Thanks Nick. Today was really fun. I’m glad we got to hang out.” She then leaned back into the car and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Your welcome. We should hang out again soon. Tonight was really fun.”
“Today?”
“Yeah, that’s what I meant, today.”
She smiled and agreed. Then she shut the door and I waited to see her walk in the front door.
The next day, I went to Melanie’s house to talk to her father. It was late in the afternoon on a beautiful cloudy Sunday. When you live in a place where you get nothing but sun all the time, a dark monsoon-ey day, with a thick shroud of clouds is a nice day. Anyways, I got out of my car and walked up to the front door. I rang the doorbell and Melanie answered the door. “Oh hey!” She gave me a kiss. “What are you doing here?” She let me come in and I came into the living room. “Well actually I’m here to talk to your dad. Is he here right now?”
She shut and locked the door behind me. “Actually they found a drug dealer robbed and murdered out near the train tracks. What do you want to talk to my dad about?”
I took a seat on the couch and thought about how to answer. I couldn’t tell her why because she would ask for more information and I couldn’t go there. I had made a promise and even if I didn’t like the guy, I still planed on keeping it. “I just need to ask him for some advise. It’s nothing.” She was persistant though and pushed for an answer. “Advise on what?” She had sat down next to me and put her arm around me. “It’s nothing, really. I’ll tell you what, when I know something, you’ll know something. Ok?” She looked at me with eyes of disbelief. “Come on. You say that when you don’t want to share something.”
“Listen, I can’t tell you anymore than that right now. When I clear some things up, and get some answers, I’ll let you know more. Ok?”
She looked at me and thought about it. “… Ok, fine. But I’ll hold you to it.”
“Fair enough.” I smiled. She leaned in and gave me a kiss.
Just then, her Father walked in the front door. “Well at least you two still have your clothes on.” He said sarcastically. Melanie got up off the couch and came to give her dad a kiss. As she aproched, she said, “Oh dad, you know we wouldn’t do anything.” She then kissed him on his cheek. “Sometimes you make me wonder. Nick, you know your not supposed to be with Melanie without me here.”
“Yes sir, I do, but actually I’m here to see you.” He paused and looked at me with a confused look on his face. “Sir, I actually need to ask your advice about my situation.”
“And what situation would that be?” he said looking at Melanie earnestly.
She piped up, “Don’t look at me, he wouldn’t even give me any details.”
His gaze shifted from her to me. “Alright, we can talk in my office.”
We walked upstairs and entered the second door on the left. His office looked like something out of a movie, with the shelves of book reaching from the floor to the roof along the back wall behind his desk with a huge window to the right with a view of the neighborhood. Behind me was the door and the wall was garnished with pictures of his daughter and him as well as pictures of his ex-wife. You could tell that this was a man who loved his family no matter what. On the wall to my left there was a fireplace that only looked like it belonged in accordance with the other furniture in the room. Who would put a fireplace in a guestroom? I thought to myself. To the right of the fireplace, even with the desk, there was a big gun safe that not only had a ten-key pad but also a finger print scanner and a big silver helm, like on a ship, to unlock and open it. He had more pictures on the mantel and there was a big picture in a fancy frame of him and his daughter hugging during their trip to the Grand Canyon last summer. He sat down in his big leather desk chair behind his desk and motioned me to sit down in one of the stationary leather chair in front of his desk. “So, what is it that you need to ask me?”
“You were a detective before right?”
“Yes, why?”
“I need to know how to get information out of someone without showing my hand on the subject. Got any suggestions?”
“Is this person cooperative?”
“Not likely.”
“Well, I’m not an torturer…”
“I’m not talking that kind of interrogation. What would you do to some one you caught on the street that might have knowledge about someone more important?”
“What do you know, and who are you wanting to talk to?” I told him about my conversation with Don at the mall and I told him about what Spaz said to Melanie at school, minus the whole rape thing. I didn’t need him getting the cops involved just yet. That could wreck my chances of finding Robert. When I was done, he had that look of ‘I see.’ on his face. “That’s why I didn’t want to tell Melanie. I didn’t want her to feel like there was no longer any reason to worry until I know for sure if Robert is dead or not. You cant tell anyone what I told you though, because Don is smart and he’ll find a way to make me pay if anyone finds out that I told.”
“Don’t worry, nothing that is said in this office will ever leave this office. How do you expect to question him?”
“I…” My cell rang. I looked down and saw it was Mike. He probably was calling because he was feeling better and wanted to see if I could hang out so I silenced it. “Sorry about that. I actually haven’t thought about it yet. I figured I’d come talk to you first before I figure out the best way to proceed.”
“Well, We have facilities that we incorporate certain methods of getting into the criminals head. Now, you can improvise these things, but the most important part is…” My phone went off again, this time as a vibrating sound. It was Mike again, so, I silenced it once more. I apologized and he continued. “Well, the most important part is to remember you’re not trying to force the information out of him, you’re trying to coax it out of him. Now, you could kidnap him, but that’s considered illegal. Plus threatening is never a good thing to do. So I suggest you read this…” He got up and walked over to one of the shelves closer the fireplace and took down a small book. It was only about 150 pages or so. He tossed it to me and I looked at the cover. It read “Interrogating a Suspect: Training Manuel for Recruits”.
“Sound’s promising.” I said, reading the title.
“I was given that when I first joined the force by one of my instructors at the academy. He said he knew I’d be a great detective one day.” The room was silent for a moment as he reflected on his days as a detective. I broke the silence when I spoke. “Well, thanks again for your help. I hope I can get some answers.”
“Me too. Good luck.”
I nodded, and turned to walk away, but I stopped and turned back. “By the way, do you mind if I ask, why did they demote any way? You were one of their best detectives.”
“It’s kind of a long story but lets just say I trusted the wrong people closest to me and it destroyed me. But that’s a story for another time.” I nodded and went to walk out the door. When I opened it, Melanie was just about to knock on the door. She had the phone in one hand and looked like she just saw someone get killed. I asked, “Are you ok?”
“Michael is on the phone. He need’s to talk to you.” She was monotone and barely audible. I just looked at her as she handed me the phone. I looked back at her father as I took the phone and put it to my ear. I heard mikes voice on the other end. He sounded nervous but trying to stay calm. “Hey Nick, You wanted my stereo system right?”
I was worried. “That was if you died man. What’s going on?”
“Yeah well, that may be sooner than we thought.”
“Whoa! What are you talking about, man? What are you doing?” I thought I heard cops in the background, yelling on a megaphone. It was muffled though
“You know my dad was never smart about hiding spots, leaving his revolver under his bed with the ammo. Not smart, man.”
“Why are you doing this? Rose needs you, man. Don’t let your sister down. How would she feel if she found out you were dead? Come on man, Think about what your doing!” Melanie’s dad shook his head and mouthed ‘stay calm.’ “I have thought about man, and this is the only way to get her back.”
“Alright, stay calm. Who’s got who?”
“Spaz was on my answering machine when I got home today. He said he had her. Guess she was at the park with friends. He said it was either me or her so I made my decision.”
“No Mike, we can get her back. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can save her. Melanie’s dad is a cop, man. We can…”
“No! If I’m not on the news tomorrow, she’s dead. That’s why I’m calling you. I want you to know I didn’t want to rob this bank, but there was no other way.” The cop’s megaphone in the background started to make sense. I ran downstairs and turned on there TV. The news was on and they were already broadcasting the hold up. The bank was completely surrounded. There was no way he could escape that by himself.
“Man you don’t have to do this. We can still get you off. Just wait for us to get there.” Melanie’s dad was already getting his stuff together.
“No, I’ve made my peace with God, man. I know what I have to do. See you on the flip side.”
“NO! Don’t! Don’t!!!” I heard a gunshot, a thud, then silence over the phone. The anchorman on the news reported, “It seems the gunman has committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest.” That stopped her dad in his tracks. Melanie gasped and held her hands up over her mouth. She was on the verge of tears and so was I. We stood there in utter and complete shock. I couldn’t believe what just happened. No one said a word. The phone was still connected, and I could hear footsteps coming closer as we watched the police move in on the bank. I wanted to stop them from touching him but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even move. Tears were running down my face and I could barely stand, my legs were so weak. Then out of the nothingness on the phone I hear a cough, a gurgle, and a moan that almost sounded like a growl. At that moment, a flood of adrenaline burst through my veins. He was still alive! I screamed into the phone, “HOLD ON MIKE, I’M COMING!”
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Chapter 7: Villain or Hero (rewritten)
The weekend went by fast, almost as if it was a dream. My fists and wrists were still sore from the other day’s beating at the gym. Monday came and went like it was just another day. Spending time with mike after school helped me calm down and laugh off the stress. Tuesday was the same. Wednesday, Spaz took Robert’s place as Melanie’s harasser. There was nothing out of the ordinary, just the regular keep-away that usually ensued. As always, I came by pushing Luke, usually into the lockers, out of the way Spaz’s pass; caching Melanie’s binder and giving it back to her. This week, I might have been more aggressive than usual but these guys were the ones who tried to kill me and they use to work for a despicable reprobate that I hoped had died on the run.
I would still go over to Melanie’s house after school to talk about her day. I loved listening to her talk. Her voice was soothing and reminded me of an angel’s chorus. It seemed to me, though, that she kept mentioning Spaz more and more in her daily agenda. I didn’t think much of it until one day I came over and she was extremely infuriated. You could practically see the steam coming off of her she was so enraged. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to, but I asked anyways, “So… Why are you mad?”
“I can’t believe him! That stupid, arrogant, son of a…”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I cut her off, “Slow down and use some nouns and verbs. Who did what and when?”
“That oppugnant worm, Spaz, stopped me in the hall today just to tell me that Robert says ‘hi’ as if he’s TALKING with him! Who does THAT?!? What kind of a person relates messages just to scare someone?!?”
“Sounds like a terrorist. What did you say to that?”
“I asked him what his problem was! He said it doesn’t matter who I’m with, Robert will have me, ‘even if he has to take it from me’.”
“Wait, he threatened to rape you?”
“That’s what it sounded like.”
“Ok, that’s it. I’m giving you a knife to carry with you everywhere." I pulled out a pocket knife I had been carrying with me. "The blade is over 3 inches long, plenty of length to hit any major organ in the human body. I know you can’t have it at school but make sure no one knows you have it. I mean NO ONE.”
“Well, I don’t…”
“Listen, your life is more important than whether or not you get in trouble. I love you too much to see you get hurt. Promise me you’ll keep it with you.”
“Ok, I promise I’ll keep it with me.”
“Thank you.” I kissed her on the fore head, hugged her tight. Then we moved on to other subjects.
The next few weeks of school were like any other. It had been almost a month without any sign of Robert coming back any time soon. On the other hand, Don had showed up to school a week earlier. He wasn’t talking to anyone, just following Michael and me around school. He made no contact, no gestures of communication, just watching us, like a stalker, just not as subtle. Michael wanted us to confront him about it, but I told him that there was no reason to escalate things without cause. He didn’t seem to understand why, but he said he would wait and see what Don was going to do. Don was planning something. We could see it in his face as he watched us during lunch. The look of scheming was accompanied by vexation and anguish. Robert and he must have seen or done some pretty messed up stuff while they were gone. He was no longer the calm, cool, and collected voice of reason of the gang. His face told a story of fear, unrest, chaos, torment, and grief. Only God knew the hell he had experienced on the run. There was a disturbing rumor going around school that stated Don actually had killed Robert to get away from the cops. Half the school (mainly the credulous underclassmen) believed it. The other half knew Robert would kill his mother before being subjugated by anyone. Michael and I wanted hear it from Don himself before assuming anything.
Mike and I were walking around the old mall. We were just walking the halls talking because this mall had been losing business for so long, all the good stores had been leaving or going out of business. We were talking about different things we wanted to do for the summer. Mike asked me, “So what are your plans for after graduation?” Actually I had no idea. Lately I had been too focused on Melanie to really give it any thought. “I’m not sure.” I said, “Might just work for my dad, earn enough for collage. What about you?”
“I really want to travel for the summer. I’ve got relatives all across the country so I might just go on a road trip. I’ve got enough money from the past year working at Peter Piper Pizza so I think I could do it. You should TOTALLY come with me!”
“Maybe another time, bro. I don’t even know what I want to do with my life yet.”
“How about you come work for me at My new company!”
“Uh, Mike, you don’t have a company.”
“Well Not yet, BUT Once I start up… OOO! MASSAGE chairs!” He ran off to go try one, totally forgetting what he was saying. We were over by the food court at this point so I was contemplating getting something to eat as Mike enjoyed his massage. I knew he had big plans for life. He had always talked about starting a company that provided free rent homes in a rent-free community and jobs working on the houses for homeless people. Then it changed to a company that provided free cell phone service to those who were looking for jobs. I’m sure it had changed again but to what, I had no idea. None of his ideas were ever going to make him any money but his heart was in the right place. He came back from the chair. “Aw man, I can’t wait to own one of those!”
“So what’s the company this time?”
“What company?”
“The company you were telling me about.”
“When?”
“Just now before you got in that chair!”
“What? Oh yeah… I don’t remember. I had it for a second then it was gone.” Classic Michael.
Just then, I got a call from a restricted number. I showed it to Mike. He shrugged, not knowing whom it was. As soon as I answered it, I already had a feeling I knew. A deep, almost raspy, voice came through the phone. “We need to talk”
“Hi Don, how’s it goin’? I know you probably see us right now so if you want to talk show yourself and we’ll talk face to face.”
“Turn around. Food court, three tables from taco bell.”
I turn to see Don sitting there hunched over the table. He was about as big as I was. A lager football players figure leaning as if he had been traveling for ages through the desert. His usual short light brown hair had grown long and shaggy. He hadn’t shaved in a week and it was obvious. “Alright, we’re on our way.” I said as Mike looked at me with that “what the heck are you thinking” look. I looked at him and said, “He said he wanted to talk so we’re going to talk. Lets go.” We walked over to Don’s table where he was drinking a Pepsi. I pulled up two chairs and Mike and I sat down. “So, What did you want to talk to us about?” He just sat there looking in between us, not making any eye contact at all. He looked disturbed, like someone had died. Michael and I looked at each other like Uh, what are we supposed to do? It was an awkward silence, but I kept trying to read his face, trying to figure out what was tormenting him so much. Don started with a since of doom in his voice, “Listen to what I have to say. I'm only saying this once. I have not told this to anyone so far and I don’t plan on it getting out, but I have got to tell some one to keep my sanity... Or at least what’s left of it. So if this gets out I will bury both of you. Understand?” Of course we both agreed. “Ok. About a month ago Robert and I had to run from the cops. Robert said we didn’t have a choice. This was right after we had attacked you. So, we yanked our cords and we stole some nurse’s outfits that were lying in the first supply room we came to. Those two weren’t going to be done for a while. Good thing Robert was a smaller guy and she was a bigger girl ‘cause there’s no way I would fit in that chick’s uniform. Anyways, we were on the run for a week and a half jumping from abandoned building to abandoned building. We were doing good, making friends with potheads and bums who would get us weed and other drugs. One of our... suppliers, if you will, offered us a chance to go with him to a buy.We would get a cut of the money and then be on our way. We were selling and some new guy on the streets was supposed to be buying, but when we got there and started the buy, things didn’t seem right, even to me on my first exchange. Before we knew what hit us, we were being told we were under arrest and to get on the floor. Well, needless to say Robert and I ran. We weren’t supposed to be there. We had the authorities thinking we were in the next state by then. We escaped out a nearby fire escape and headed toward the train tracks. We hopped on the on coming train and decided to take it to the next town. We found a girl in the car we were in. She must have been a runaway because she had a sack full of provisions. Robert went over there to talk to her, but you know him. He always has other things on his mind. It started as a common conversation, you know, ‘Hello, how are you?’ ‘Oh good, how are you?’ all that stuff. He was getting a little too friendly, if you know what I mean. She told him to stop but then he got mean and said he’d do what he wanted with her and she’d have to take it. I told him to stop and that she looked like she’s been through a enough. He turned to me and yelled ‘And we haven’t?’ He then turned back to the girl, with his hand around her neck and tore her shirt. I couldn’t just stand there and watch. Plus I’m not one for rape so I found a tire iron behind a wooden crate and I hit him over the head with it. As I did, he slumped over and fell out the open cargo door. I don’t know what I was thinking but I knew I had killed him when he landed and just laid there. The girl screamed but then looked at me and saw I was just as scared as she was. I helped her up and we jumped off the train. I took the iron with me for protection. When we got back to town, I bought her a new shirt and a jacket with some money I had stolen from a drug dealer’s wallet earlier. Then we bought two nights at a motel. I hiked back here the next day, met up with my dad and was back to school that next week.” I didn’t know what to say. That was a lot to process all at once. We just sat there for a while, in shock, so I had to say something. “Why are you telling us this?”
“Don’t you get it? I killed a man! MY FRIEND!… I figured you would want to know that Robert won’t be a problem any more.”
“Listen, you saved a girl. That makes you a hero in my book.”
“Thanks for the sentiment but I don’t feel much better about it.”
He got up and walked out of the mall. Mike and I didn’t know what to say. We just sat there dumfounded at what we just heard. What was Spaz talking about when he made that threat to Melissa? Did he even know that Robert was dead? How was I going to tell her that her ex died to the hands of his own friend? Should I even tell her? I wasn’t sure of anything any more but one thing was for certain, I had to talk to Spaz and get some answers. If he knew something, I wanted to know what it was and I wouldn’t stop until I got it.
I would still go over to Melanie’s house after school to talk about her day. I loved listening to her talk. Her voice was soothing and reminded me of an angel’s chorus. It seemed to me, though, that she kept mentioning Spaz more and more in her daily agenda. I didn’t think much of it until one day I came over and she was extremely infuriated. You could practically see the steam coming off of her she was so enraged. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to, but I asked anyways, “So… Why are you mad?”
“I can’t believe him! That stupid, arrogant, son of a…”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I cut her off, “Slow down and use some nouns and verbs. Who did what and when?”
“That oppugnant worm, Spaz, stopped me in the hall today just to tell me that Robert says ‘hi’ as if he’s TALKING with him! Who does THAT?!? What kind of a person relates messages just to scare someone?!?”
“Sounds like a terrorist. What did you say to that?”
“I asked him what his problem was! He said it doesn’t matter who I’m with, Robert will have me, ‘even if he has to take it from me’.”
“Wait, he threatened to rape you?”
“That’s what it sounded like.”
“Ok, that’s it. I’m giving you a knife to carry with you everywhere." I pulled out a pocket knife I had been carrying with me. "The blade is over 3 inches long, plenty of length to hit any major organ in the human body. I know you can’t have it at school but make sure no one knows you have it. I mean NO ONE.”
“Well, I don’t…”
“Listen, your life is more important than whether or not you get in trouble. I love you too much to see you get hurt. Promise me you’ll keep it with you.”
“Ok, I promise I’ll keep it with me.”
“Thank you.” I kissed her on the fore head, hugged her tight. Then we moved on to other subjects.
The next few weeks of school were like any other. It had been almost a month without any sign of Robert coming back any time soon. On the other hand, Don had showed up to school a week earlier. He wasn’t talking to anyone, just following Michael and me around school. He made no contact, no gestures of communication, just watching us, like a stalker, just not as subtle. Michael wanted us to confront him about it, but I told him that there was no reason to escalate things without cause. He didn’t seem to understand why, but he said he would wait and see what Don was going to do. Don was planning something. We could see it in his face as he watched us during lunch. The look of scheming was accompanied by vexation and anguish. Robert and he must have seen or done some pretty messed up stuff while they were gone. He was no longer the calm, cool, and collected voice of reason of the gang. His face told a story of fear, unrest, chaos, torment, and grief. Only God knew the hell he had experienced on the run. There was a disturbing rumor going around school that stated Don actually had killed Robert to get away from the cops. Half the school (mainly the credulous underclassmen) believed it. The other half knew Robert would kill his mother before being subjugated by anyone. Michael and I wanted hear it from Don himself before assuming anything.
Mike and I were walking around the old mall. We were just walking the halls talking because this mall had been losing business for so long, all the good stores had been leaving or going out of business. We were talking about different things we wanted to do for the summer. Mike asked me, “So what are your plans for after graduation?” Actually I had no idea. Lately I had been too focused on Melanie to really give it any thought. “I’m not sure.” I said, “Might just work for my dad, earn enough for collage. What about you?”
“I really want to travel for the summer. I’ve got relatives all across the country so I might just go on a road trip. I’ve got enough money from the past year working at Peter Piper Pizza so I think I could do it. You should TOTALLY come with me!”
“Maybe another time, bro. I don’t even know what I want to do with my life yet.”
“How about you come work for me at My new company!”
“Uh, Mike, you don’t have a company.”
“Well Not yet, BUT Once I start up… OOO! MASSAGE chairs!” He ran off to go try one, totally forgetting what he was saying. We were over by the food court at this point so I was contemplating getting something to eat as Mike enjoyed his massage. I knew he had big plans for life. He had always talked about starting a company that provided free rent homes in a rent-free community and jobs working on the houses for homeless people. Then it changed to a company that provided free cell phone service to those who were looking for jobs. I’m sure it had changed again but to what, I had no idea. None of his ideas were ever going to make him any money but his heart was in the right place. He came back from the chair. “Aw man, I can’t wait to own one of those!”
“So what’s the company this time?”
“What company?”
“The company you were telling me about.”
“When?”
“Just now before you got in that chair!”
“What? Oh yeah… I don’t remember. I had it for a second then it was gone.” Classic Michael.
Just then, I got a call from a restricted number. I showed it to Mike. He shrugged, not knowing whom it was. As soon as I answered it, I already had a feeling I knew. A deep, almost raspy, voice came through the phone. “We need to talk”
“Hi Don, how’s it goin’? I know you probably see us right now so if you want to talk show yourself and we’ll talk face to face.”
“Turn around. Food court, three tables from taco bell.”
I turn to see Don sitting there hunched over the table. He was about as big as I was. A lager football players figure leaning as if he had been traveling for ages through the desert. His usual short light brown hair had grown long and shaggy. He hadn’t shaved in a week and it was obvious. “Alright, we’re on our way.” I said as Mike looked at me with that “what the heck are you thinking” look. I looked at him and said, “He said he wanted to talk so we’re going to talk. Lets go.” We walked over to Don’s table where he was drinking a Pepsi. I pulled up two chairs and Mike and I sat down. “So, What did you want to talk to us about?” He just sat there looking in between us, not making any eye contact at all. He looked disturbed, like someone had died. Michael and I looked at each other like Uh, what are we supposed to do? It was an awkward silence, but I kept trying to read his face, trying to figure out what was tormenting him so much. Don started with a since of doom in his voice, “Listen to what I have to say. I'm only saying this once. I have not told this to anyone so far and I don’t plan on it getting out, but I have got to tell some one to keep my sanity... Or at least what’s left of it. So if this gets out I will bury both of you. Understand?” Of course we both agreed. “Ok. About a month ago Robert and I had to run from the cops. Robert said we didn’t have a choice. This was right after we had attacked you. So, we yanked our cords and we stole some nurse’s outfits that were lying in the first supply room we came to. Those two weren’t going to be done for a while. Good thing Robert was a smaller guy and she was a bigger girl ‘cause there’s no way I would fit in that chick’s uniform. Anyways, we were on the run for a week and a half jumping from abandoned building to abandoned building. We were doing good, making friends with potheads and bums who would get us weed and other drugs. One of our... suppliers, if you will, offered us a chance to go with him to a buy.We would get a cut of the money and then be on our way. We were selling and some new guy on the streets was supposed to be buying, but when we got there and started the buy, things didn’t seem right, even to me on my first exchange. Before we knew what hit us, we were being told we were under arrest and to get on the floor. Well, needless to say Robert and I ran. We weren’t supposed to be there. We had the authorities thinking we were in the next state by then. We escaped out a nearby fire escape and headed toward the train tracks. We hopped on the on coming train and decided to take it to the next town. We found a girl in the car we were in. She must have been a runaway because she had a sack full of provisions. Robert went over there to talk to her, but you know him. He always has other things on his mind. It started as a common conversation, you know, ‘Hello, how are you?’ ‘Oh good, how are you?’ all that stuff. He was getting a little too friendly, if you know what I mean. She told him to stop but then he got mean and said he’d do what he wanted with her and she’d have to take it. I told him to stop and that she looked like she’s been through a enough. He turned to me and yelled ‘And we haven’t?’ He then turned back to the girl, with his hand around her neck and tore her shirt. I couldn’t just stand there and watch. Plus I’m not one for rape so I found a tire iron behind a wooden crate and I hit him over the head with it. As I did, he slumped over and fell out the open cargo door. I don’t know what I was thinking but I knew I had killed him when he landed and just laid there. The girl screamed but then looked at me and saw I was just as scared as she was. I helped her up and we jumped off the train. I took the iron with me for protection. When we got back to town, I bought her a new shirt and a jacket with some money I had stolen from a drug dealer’s wallet earlier. Then we bought two nights at a motel. I hiked back here the next day, met up with my dad and was back to school that next week.” I didn’t know what to say. That was a lot to process all at once. We just sat there for a while, in shock, so I had to say something. “Why are you telling us this?”
“Don’t you get it? I killed a man! MY FRIEND!… I figured you would want to know that Robert won’t be a problem any more.”
“Listen, you saved a girl. That makes you a hero in my book.”
“Thanks for the sentiment but I don’t feel much better about it.”
He got up and walked out of the mall. Mike and I didn’t know what to say. We just sat there dumfounded at what we just heard. What was Spaz talking about when he made that threat to Melissa? Did he even know that Robert was dead? How was I going to tell her that her ex died to the hands of his own friend? Should I even tell her? I wasn’t sure of anything any more but one thing was for certain, I had to talk to Spaz and get some answers. If he knew something, I wanted to know what it was and I wouldn’t stop until I got it.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Chapter 6: Citizen Justice (new)
I remember reading somewhere that in the old west, sometimes regular citizens would take the law into their own hands, dealing out justice according to their own moral compass. I thought about that the next day as I sat in my room, waiting, wondering if I would see Robert walking down the street towards my house. I clenched my hunting knife as I thought about what I would do if I saw him come near anyone I cared about. The thought of taking a man’s life because of the retched things he’s done. All those lives he’s ruined. Those girls he sweet talked into a corner and had his way with. The thought of the world being better without him, started to seem more appealing. It enraged me that a monster could exist like that with out anyone standing up and taking into their own hands, the responsibility to cease his reign of terror.
My mind wondered as I thought about all the reasons why he deserved to die. All the things Melanie had told me about him doing. All the things I had heard of him doing from his victims back in my underclassman years. I started thinking about freshman year and how we had met. He was a monster even back then.
We had PE together, well for the second semester at least. He had transferred PE classes because he had beaten a classmate senseless over the loss of a dodge ball game. There were 13 strikes in total. He had hit him four times in the face, three times in the back of the head, and six times in the stomach, all with a rubber kick ball. There had been a ban on using those for dodge ball after a kid got a concussion during a game at another school but Robert had taken one from the coach’s office. He had been suspended for a week and was put in our class when he got back.
A month had passed since he had joined our group, and we had seen him get mad over small things before, but nothing as horrifying as that. Now, our class was taking place at the same time the girls PE class was going on, just in a different gym. When we went out to run laps, often we would end up running with the girls. Some of the guys were pigs, hitting on them as they ran, and others would rather take the nice rout. They were the ones who ran along side the girls talking like friends hoping they would get a number or something. I had a friend named Lucy, who was in that class. When we had the chance to, we would run together and talk about random stuff.
That day, My class had gotten out to run laps before Lucy’s did, so I was running alone. Sure I had friends in PE but one was in cross country and left me in the dust and the others were either out of shape or asthmatic so I could have walked as fast as they were running. I could hear our coach yelling from the finish line, "IF YOU DON'T DO THE WORK, YOU GET THE ZERO!" Finally, about half way through the second lap, a familiar voice came from behind me, “Hey, wait up, stranger!” I turned around and there was Lucy, with her blond hair and brown eyes, jogging up to meet me. “Hey there! What’s new in the world of Lucy?” I said, joking around. We always said she was off in her own little world, never paying attention in class, even though she was a natural observer. Rarely did something happen to someone without her noticing a difference. She was the gossip queen of the school. Usually it was always, Oh, so-and-so broke up with their partner, or, so-and-so got pregnant, or, so-and-so got this ugly new bag, you know, girl drama. She replied in almost a serious tone, “Well actually, I think there is something really wrong with Susan. She hasn’t been herself today.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, usually she is up beat and talkative, always with a smile on her face, but today she came into class quiet and didn’t make any eye contact with any one. When Coach called out her name she answered quietly. Coach had to call her again because she didn’t hear her the first time. It’s strange. It’s like someone abducted her and returned an empty shell of her body.” Susan was a brunet, Italian girl who usually told it as it was, and always spoke her mind. She was never really a quiet person. I looked over at her. The expression on her face was one of apathy, for once. “She looks like she doesn’t care anymore. Any word on what might have happened?”
“No, none. She was gloating about how she was going on a date with Robert Daniels a few days ago, but the date was last night, and not a word about it today in the locker room.”
“What do you mean?”
“Guys gloat about their ‘conquests’ in the locker room, right? Well, some girls do the same thing, and she is usually one of them. But today, not a word.”
“Hmm, I hope everything went well. He doesn’t seem like such a great guy.”
“She’s not the only one either.”
“There’s someone else?”
“Yeah, Gloria hasn’t been the same since she went out with him either. That was like a month ago, too.”
“Wow, wonder if she’ll talk to me about it at lunch.”
“Doubt it. She hasn’t spoken of it since before it happened.”
I sighed, as best as I could out of breath and finishing the final lap. As I finished my laps, I told Lucy I’d see her later. The rest of the day consisted of indoor soccer champion ships. We were playing in the gym, basketball court. Rules were the same, with one exception. If anyone could kick the soccer ball and make it into the hoop, they automatically won. We had gone a whole month seeing pretty much everyone try and fail. No one had come close. My team sure wasn’t the best but we had proven ourselves and now we were playing the champion ship against the best team in our class. They had probably lost one game but they were out for blood. Each game was about 10 minutes long but this game was 15. About 10 minutes in, we were getting blown away, 7-2. I was doing my best to stop their shots as goalie but they were good. We started to pick up speed towards the end, though. Their goalie was getting tired and we scored 2 more times. As we started getting our confidence back, the sidelines started counting down. “10…!” Their team had already scored a couple more times. “9…!” The score was 9 to 4. “8…!” We had accepted our fate of losing the finals. “7…!” We could see the soon to be champions were already smiling and some were laughing. “6…!” We had the ball and Robert stopped it 10 feet from me. “5…!” He took a few steps back as the other team was settling into their victory. “4…!” Robert ran up on the ball and booted it above everyone’s head. “3…!!!” The cheering went silent on the other team as they watched in disbelief. “2…!!!” It looked so straight, I was debating with myself whether or not it could actually happen. “1!!!” *Swish* It was perfect. No backboard, nothing! The silence in the gym was deafening. You could have heard a pen drop in the hall. Then all at once, my team and I erupted in cheers and hollers! “BOO YA!” “SUCK IT LOSERS!!!” “WOOHOO!!! YOU GUYS CAN EAT IT!” The other team wasn’t as impressed. “You guys suck.” “You cheated!” “Oh come on. We got robbed!” We cheered and celebrated for the rest of the day.
Back in the locker room, Robert continued to glory in his own luck. “BOOM! Hole in one!” One of his buddies piped up, “Yeah, like last night? Or were you saving up your luck for today?” my ears perked up, remembering what Lucy had told me about earlier. “No way man, THAT was all skill. Just like last night. And, ooooooo, she was FINE!” Another guy interjected, “Man! First date and she just opened up for you like that?” “Well, it took some work on my part but I got in there! SWISH, just like today, baby!” I got disgusted and couldn’t stop my insult from coming out. “You must have been horrible because sources tell me Susan hasn’t mentioned a word about it all day. She’s usually chatty isn’t she?”
He wasn’t very amused. “Ha, I’m better than you! How many girls have you been with?”
I couldn’t say none because I was forever in the friend zone, so I improvised. “Enough. As a matter of fact, I heard the last two girls you’ve been with would rather act like it never had happened. You must be treacherous in bed! How bad does a man… sorry, Boy, have to be to shut up their dates up for months on end?...” He was fuming at this point.
He cut me off, “Shut up! You don’t know shit!”
I started laughing, “You know, there’s got to be at least ONE HONEST reason why ANY girl would be SO ASAMED that they slept with you and that would be that they were STUPID enough to think you had ANYTHING worth WHILE in your PANTS!”
He was so mad, that if it wasn’t for the coach stepping in to break up the argument, it would have been an all out brawl in the locker room. “Hey, knock it off in here. No one leaves until the bell rings. Got it?” “Yes sir.” We replied. The bell rang right after we had said that, and I escaped out the door as soon as it did. I wanted to get out and to lunch before he got a chance to fight me on school campus. I’d rather keep my nose clean in school and mess his up later out on the street.
After I had gotten the greasy pizza and tots from the lunch lady, I walked around, looking for Gloria. I had to talk to her, maybe get her to trust me and open up. Took me about five minutes to find her sitting alone by the library. No friends, no loiterers, nobody was around. She was sitting with her dirty blond hair draped down over her face. Her pretty green eyes were now dark and grey. Obvious signs of depression were degrading her pretty figure and the usual gleam she gave off. She was slumping over her own lap keeping to her self, barely eating her salad and drawing dark pictures in her notebook. I sat down next to her, ready to eat my lunch. She scooted away barley glancing up at me. “How are you doing, Gloria?” She grunted, hardly even acknowledging my greeting. I saw her lunch sitting next to her. “That looks good. I’m glad to see not everyone chooses to eat badly.” Nodding towards my pizza. “Guess I should take notes, huh?” She giggled. I was making a break through. “My name is Nick. I’m a friend of Lucy’s.”
She spoke (shocker), “I know who you are. Your one of the nice guys everyone knows.”
I smiled, “Well thank you. I heard you’ve been down lately so I figured I would try to cheer you up.”
“Heh, good luck.”
“Well, I’ll try.” How could I cheer someone up if I didn’t know what was wrong? I noticed she had a geometry book in her bag. “I see your taking geometry. You must be pretty smart to be a freshman in geometry. I like a girl who’s smart.”
She smirked. “Yeah sure. That’s what they all say.”
“No really! Do you know how many girls would rather act dumb to get guys? It’s hard to fake real genius. That’s a valuable characteristic.”
“Hmh. I guess so.”
“You know, you have a lot to offer. You’re kind, smart, and caring. There’s so much value in you.”
“Not according to some.”
I could tell she wanted to talk about it but wasn’t quite there. “Well, I see value in you. Don’t ever let anyone tell you other wise.” I got up and started to walk away. She stopped me before I got too far. “Wait!... Can I tell you something?” I turned around and came back. As I sat, she continued. “I feel like I’ve been ripped away from who I was. I can’t explain it any better than I feel broken.” She was opening up to me finally. Her eye’s started welling up with tear so I put my arm around her to comfort her. “Oh Gloria,” I said in a calm, caring voice, “What happened?”
“Robert was such a smooth talker. I can’t believe I fell for him. We had gone on a date a moth ago and things were going well. He took me to a nice restaurant. He bought me a lobster salad and a nice dessert that we shared. I couldn’t eat much but it was nice. After dinner, we went for a walk around town, and saw the lights. It was nice. We went to see a movie but we didn’t do much watching.” She blushed a little bit. “Things were going well until after wards.” She started crying worse. I hugged her and let her cry into my chest. I didn’t know what to say. I could easily jump to conclusions but I needed to know facts. “Gloria, you’re a strong girl. Something bad must have happened. What was it? It’s ok to cry. You can tell me when you’re ready.” She sobbed for a good ten minutes before continuing. “He… He went to drive me home but we didn’t go back to my place. We stopped in the middle of nowhere and he said get out. I asked him what he was doing but he shut off the car and got out. I didn’t move but he came around and pulled me out of the car by my hair. He threw me on the ground and undid his pants…” I sat there in horror and enmity for the atrocities this monster afflicted on her that night. She went on in detail, things that angered me to the core. The more I heard the more I loathed this villain who had just received a victory and praise earlier that day. How he had treated her and the things he did to her were nothing less than an abomination. This 15 year old boy needed to be thrown in jail for life for the things he had done. I wished I could have rode up on a horse, caught him in a lasso, and drag him through the desert before hanging him from a tall tree in the middle of nowhere to never be found. Citizen justice, just like in the old west.
The bell rang and she was still crying on my shoulder. I held her there to comfort her but there wasn’t much I could do other than that. We had to go to class before the final bell rang so I gave her my cell number so she could call or text me when she needed to talk. On my way to class, I came across Robert in a remote part of the school making out with a random girl. I looked around to see if there were any teachers. When I noticed there were none, I grabbed him and threw him up against the wall. I looked at the girl who was taken back and I told her to get out of there. Then I stared Robert right in the face. “You’re a monster, a piece of garbage, an ignoble barbarian worthy of hell and torture. If I could get away with it, I would part you from your pride and hang you from your balls. You’re a contemptible stain on humanity with as much fortitude as a slug. And if I EVER hear of you forcing yourself upon another girl again, I will kill you slowly and painfully. DO YOU understand?” He looked at me with animosity in his eyes and in a calm controlled voice seasoned with hatred, he said, “Are you threatening me?” I replied with as much enmity as I had in me, “Call it a declaration of intent.”
“No one threatens me. Not you, not the principal, not God himself. I will destroy you before we graduate, and you won’t even see it coming.”
“Take your best shot. I’ll see you die before I let another person’s life get ruined by your depravity.”
I heard a phone ringing as my daydreaming was sucked away by the obnoxious sound of my cell phone vibrating against my nightstand. I picked it up to see who was calling. It was Melanie. I let it go to voicemail. The memory of what Robert had done and our conversation that day had left me too angry to talk to any one right then. I grabbed my car keys and headed to the gym. I told my mom where I was going as I walked out the door. Those heavy bags had no idea the punishment I was going to put them through.
My mind wondered as I thought about all the reasons why he deserved to die. All the things Melanie had told me about him doing. All the things I had heard of him doing from his victims back in my underclassman years. I started thinking about freshman year and how we had met. He was a monster even back then.
We had PE together, well for the second semester at least. He had transferred PE classes because he had beaten a classmate senseless over the loss of a dodge ball game. There were 13 strikes in total. He had hit him four times in the face, three times in the back of the head, and six times in the stomach, all with a rubber kick ball. There had been a ban on using those for dodge ball after a kid got a concussion during a game at another school but Robert had taken one from the coach’s office. He had been suspended for a week and was put in our class when he got back.
A month had passed since he had joined our group, and we had seen him get mad over small things before, but nothing as horrifying as that. Now, our class was taking place at the same time the girls PE class was going on, just in a different gym. When we went out to run laps, often we would end up running with the girls. Some of the guys were pigs, hitting on them as they ran, and others would rather take the nice rout. They were the ones who ran along side the girls talking like friends hoping they would get a number or something. I had a friend named Lucy, who was in that class. When we had the chance to, we would run together and talk about random stuff.
That day, My class had gotten out to run laps before Lucy’s did, so I was running alone. Sure I had friends in PE but one was in cross country and left me in the dust and the others were either out of shape or asthmatic so I could have walked as fast as they were running. I could hear our coach yelling from the finish line, "IF YOU DON'T DO THE WORK, YOU GET THE ZERO!" Finally, about half way through the second lap, a familiar voice came from behind me, “Hey, wait up, stranger!” I turned around and there was Lucy, with her blond hair and brown eyes, jogging up to meet me. “Hey there! What’s new in the world of Lucy?” I said, joking around. We always said she was off in her own little world, never paying attention in class, even though she was a natural observer. Rarely did something happen to someone without her noticing a difference. She was the gossip queen of the school. Usually it was always, Oh, so-and-so broke up with their partner, or, so-and-so got pregnant, or, so-and-so got this ugly new bag, you know, girl drama. She replied in almost a serious tone, “Well actually, I think there is something really wrong with Susan. She hasn’t been herself today.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, usually she is up beat and talkative, always with a smile on her face, but today she came into class quiet and didn’t make any eye contact with any one. When Coach called out her name she answered quietly. Coach had to call her again because she didn’t hear her the first time. It’s strange. It’s like someone abducted her and returned an empty shell of her body.” Susan was a brunet, Italian girl who usually told it as it was, and always spoke her mind. She was never really a quiet person. I looked over at her. The expression on her face was one of apathy, for once. “She looks like she doesn’t care anymore. Any word on what might have happened?”
“No, none. She was gloating about how she was going on a date with Robert Daniels a few days ago, but the date was last night, and not a word about it today in the locker room.”
“What do you mean?”
“Guys gloat about their ‘conquests’ in the locker room, right? Well, some girls do the same thing, and she is usually one of them. But today, not a word.”
“Hmm, I hope everything went well. He doesn’t seem like such a great guy.”
“She’s not the only one either.”
“There’s someone else?”
“Yeah, Gloria hasn’t been the same since she went out with him either. That was like a month ago, too.”
“Wow, wonder if she’ll talk to me about it at lunch.”
“Doubt it. She hasn’t spoken of it since before it happened.”
I sighed, as best as I could out of breath and finishing the final lap. As I finished my laps, I told Lucy I’d see her later. The rest of the day consisted of indoor soccer champion ships. We were playing in the gym, basketball court. Rules were the same, with one exception. If anyone could kick the soccer ball and make it into the hoop, they automatically won. We had gone a whole month seeing pretty much everyone try and fail. No one had come close. My team sure wasn’t the best but we had proven ourselves and now we were playing the champion ship against the best team in our class. They had probably lost one game but they were out for blood. Each game was about 10 minutes long but this game was 15. About 10 minutes in, we were getting blown away, 7-2. I was doing my best to stop their shots as goalie but they were good. We started to pick up speed towards the end, though. Their goalie was getting tired and we scored 2 more times. As we started getting our confidence back, the sidelines started counting down. “10…!” Their team had already scored a couple more times. “9…!” The score was 9 to 4. “8…!” We had accepted our fate of losing the finals. “7…!” We could see the soon to be champions were already smiling and some were laughing. “6…!” We had the ball and Robert stopped it 10 feet from me. “5…!” He took a few steps back as the other team was settling into their victory. “4…!” Robert ran up on the ball and booted it above everyone’s head. “3…!!!” The cheering went silent on the other team as they watched in disbelief. “2…!!!” It looked so straight, I was debating with myself whether or not it could actually happen. “1!!!” *Swish* It was perfect. No backboard, nothing! The silence in the gym was deafening. You could have heard a pen drop in the hall. Then all at once, my team and I erupted in cheers and hollers! “BOO YA!” “SUCK IT LOSERS!!!” “WOOHOO!!! YOU GUYS CAN EAT IT!” The other team wasn’t as impressed. “You guys suck.” “You cheated!” “Oh come on. We got robbed!” We cheered and celebrated for the rest of the day.
Back in the locker room, Robert continued to glory in his own luck. “BOOM! Hole in one!” One of his buddies piped up, “Yeah, like last night? Or were you saving up your luck for today?” my ears perked up, remembering what Lucy had told me about earlier. “No way man, THAT was all skill. Just like last night. And, ooooooo, she was FINE!” Another guy interjected, “Man! First date and she just opened up for you like that?” “Well, it took some work on my part but I got in there! SWISH, just like today, baby!” I got disgusted and couldn’t stop my insult from coming out. “You must have been horrible because sources tell me Susan hasn’t mentioned a word about it all day. She’s usually chatty isn’t she?”
He wasn’t very amused. “Ha, I’m better than you! How many girls have you been with?”
I couldn’t say none because I was forever in the friend zone, so I improvised. “Enough. As a matter of fact, I heard the last two girls you’ve been with would rather act like it never had happened. You must be treacherous in bed! How bad does a man… sorry, Boy, have to be to shut up their dates up for months on end?...” He was fuming at this point.
He cut me off, “Shut up! You don’t know shit!”
I started laughing, “You know, there’s got to be at least ONE HONEST reason why ANY girl would be SO ASAMED that they slept with you and that would be that they were STUPID enough to think you had ANYTHING worth WHILE in your PANTS!”
He was so mad, that if it wasn’t for the coach stepping in to break up the argument, it would have been an all out brawl in the locker room. “Hey, knock it off in here. No one leaves until the bell rings. Got it?” “Yes sir.” We replied. The bell rang right after we had said that, and I escaped out the door as soon as it did. I wanted to get out and to lunch before he got a chance to fight me on school campus. I’d rather keep my nose clean in school and mess his up later out on the street.
After I had gotten the greasy pizza and tots from the lunch lady, I walked around, looking for Gloria. I had to talk to her, maybe get her to trust me and open up. Took me about five minutes to find her sitting alone by the library. No friends, no loiterers, nobody was around. She was sitting with her dirty blond hair draped down over her face. Her pretty green eyes were now dark and grey. Obvious signs of depression were degrading her pretty figure and the usual gleam she gave off. She was slumping over her own lap keeping to her self, barely eating her salad and drawing dark pictures in her notebook. I sat down next to her, ready to eat my lunch. She scooted away barley glancing up at me. “How are you doing, Gloria?” She grunted, hardly even acknowledging my greeting. I saw her lunch sitting next to her. “That looks good. I’m glad to see not everyone chooses to eat badly.” Nodding towards my pizza. “Guess I should take notes, huh?” She giggled. I was making a break through. “My name is Nick. I’m a friend of Lucy’s.”
She spoke (shocker), “I know who you are. Your one of the nice guys everyone knows.”
I smiled, “Well thank you. I heard you’ve been down lately so I figured I would try to cheer you up.”
“Heh, good luck.”
“Well, I’ll try.” How could I cheer someone up if I didn’t know what was wrong? I noticed she had a geometry book in her bag. “I see your taking geometry. You must be pretty smart to be a freshman in geometry. I like a girl who’s smart.”
She smirked. “Yeah sure. That’s what they all say.”
“No really! Do you know how many girls would rather act dumb to get guys? It’s hard to fake real genius. That’s a valuable characteristic.”
“Hmh. I guess so.”
“You know, you have a lot to offer. You’re kind, smart, and caring. There’s so much value in you.”
“Not according to some.”
I could tell she wanted to talk about it but wasn’t quite there. “Well, I see value in you. Don’t ever let anyone tell you other wise.” I got up and started to walk away. She stopped me before I got too far. “Wait!... Can I tell you something?” I turned around and came back. As I sat, she continued. “I feel like I’ve been ripped away from who I was. I can’t explain it any better than I feel broken.” She was opening up to me finally. Her eye’s started welling up with tear so I put my arm around her to comfort her. “Oh Gloria,” I said in a calm, caring voice, “What happened?”
“Robert was such a smooth talker. I can’t believe I fell for him. We had gone on a date a moth ago and things were going well. He took me to a nice restaurant. He bought me a lobster salad and a nice dessert that we shared. I couldn’t eat much but it was nice. After dinner, we went for a walk around town, and saw the lights. It was nice. We went to see a movie but we didn’t do much watching.” She blushed a little bit. “Things were going well until after wards.” She started crying worse. I hugged her and let her cry into my chest. I didn’t know what to say. I could easily jump to conclusions but I needed to know facts. “Gloria, you’re a strong girl. Something bad must have happened. What was it? It’s ok to cry. You can tell me when you’re ready.” She sobbed for a good ten minutes before continuing. “He… He went to drive me home but we didn’t go back to my place. We stopped in the middle of nowhere and he said get out. I asked him what he was doing but he shut off the car and got out. I didn’t move but he came around and pulled me out of the car by my hair. He threw me on the ground and undid his pants…” I sat there in horror and enmity for the atrocities this monster afflicted on her that night. She went on in detail, things that angered me to the core. The more I heard the more I loathed this villain who had just received a victory and praise earlier that day. How he had treated her and the things he did to her were nothing less than an abomination. This 15 year old boy needed to be thrown in jail for life for the things he had done. I wished I could have rode up on a horse, caught him in a lasso, and drag him through the desert before hanging him from a tall tree in the middle of nowhere to never be found. Citizen justice, just like in the old west.
The bell rang and she was still crying on my shoulder. I held her there to comfort her but there wasn’t much I could do other than that. We had to go to class before the final bell rang so I gave her my cell number so she could call or text me when she needed to talk. On my way to class, I came across Robert in a remote part of the school making out with a random girl. I looked around to see if there were any teachers. When I noticed there were none, I grabbed him and threw him up against the wall. I looked at the girl who was taken back and I told her to get out of there. Then I stared Robert right in the face. “You’re a monster, a piece of garbage, an ignoble barbarian worthy of hell and torture. If I could get away with it, I would part you from your pride and hang you from your balls. You’re a contemptible stain on humanity with as much fortitude as a slug. And if I EVER hear of you forcing yourself upon another girl again, I will kill you slowly and painfully. DO YOU understand?” He looked at me with animosity in his eyes and in a calm controlled voice seasoned with hatred, he said, “Are you threatening me?” I replied with as much enmity as I had in me, “Call it a declaration of intent.”
“No one threatens me. Not you, not the principal, not God himself. I will destroy you before we graduate, and you won’t even see it coming.”
“Take your best shot. I’ll see you die before I let another person’s life get ruined by your depravity.”
I heard a phone ringing as my daydreaming was sucked away by the obnoxious sound of my cell phone vibrating against my nightstand. I picked it up to see who was calling. It was Melanie. I let it go to voicemail. The memory of what Robert had done and our conversation that day had left me too angry to talk to any one right then. I grabbed my car keys and headed to the gym. I told my mom where I was going as I walked out the door. Those heavy bags had no idea the punishment I was going to put them through.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Chapter 5: What Hapened? (rewritten)
When I was waking up, I had a splitting headache. I felt like I had slept on a cattle brod. I was lying on a couch. I knew that much, but everything was blurry. I saw a figure standing over me. At first I was scared, so I put my guard up, throwing my knees up, using my forearms to block my face and head. A kind and disarming voice, not to mention female, started telling me it was ok. “Whoa, Nick, it’s ok! It’s ok! It’s me, Melanie. Shshshshshsh, everything’s going to be ok.”
“What… What happened? Why do my muscles ache? And why does my neck feel like it was branded?”
“Luke stopped you with a Tazzer. My dad heard the fight and grabbed his stun gun from his utility belt and ran outside. Luke dropped like a bag of potatoes. He’s tied up out in the shed while dad’s waiting for his captain and some other cops to show up.”
“Guess it’s a good thing this happened here and not at the restaurant. Do you think they’ll need a statement?”
“They probably will. Don’t worry though, you fought them off in self-defense.”
“What happened to Robert and Don?”
“The paramedics came and took them to the hospital. They’ll be fine. My dad took care of the paper work so that went pretty fast. He put you in a good light.”
She put her hand on my shoulder. It was calming, considering my level of nervousness and stress. Her father walked in from the kitchen and was just getting off the phone. “… Thanks Frank. Just get here as soon as you can… Ok. Bye. *click* Well look who’s up! How are you feeling Champ?”
“Like someone branded me.”
“Well you’re a lucky guy. If Luke had gotten you in the chest, your heart could have stopped and tonight would be going a little differently.”
“Well I guess I should be glad you came when you did.”
“Just so you know, the police chief is on his way and is going to need to get a statement from you. Don’t be nervous, you didn’t do anything illegal.”
He patted me on the back lightly and went to his room upstairs. While he did that, I decided to go check on Luke. I turned to Melanie, “I’m going to go check on our little prisoner out there.” As I got up to go out to the shed, she said, “Don’t hurt him. He’s just there until my dad’s partner and chief get here.” “Don’t worry, I won’t touch him. I just have some questions.” My legs were still weak and I felt like I was walking on a boat. Melanie came and helped me until I could walk normally. I got to the back door and asked her to stay there.
The shed was used as Melanie’s dad’s workshop. He would carve beautiful wooden furniture like his wife’s rocking chair and Melanie’s bed frame. He was very good at what he did with wood and also as a cop. When I got there, Luke’s hands were cuffed up around a support beam above his head. The shed was only 8 or 9 feet tall at the peek of the roof so the beam was only about 6 feet off the ground, just high enough so his arms were bent slightly. He looked at me with the eyes of forced hatred, which I knew was just a sorry attempt at intimidation. I walked in and pulled up a nearby chair Melanie’s dad had just finished. “So Luke, looks like you got the short end of the stick, didn’t you?” He didn’t say anything; he just looked off to the side so not to look me in the eye. “You know those guys don’t care about you right?” There was still no response from him, so I continued more sternly. “You’re going to juvi for assault and Robert and his little pose aren’t going to bail you out. Hope your mom received a good tip from her client last night. Heard she's making house calls to lonely guys around town.”
“Shut up about my moms!”
“Ok, one, your not black. Two, your not a gangster. So with those things cleared up, talk like the inbred, red blooded, white trash, American red neck you are.”
“You don’t even know me or my moms!”
“Your mom’s what?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Nope, sorry, think you forgot a noun in there somewhere.”
“What do you want from me?”
“An explanation! What possible reason do you have to hate me?”
“Melanie is Roberts girl.”
“What do you care? It’s not like she has a thing for you or you’ve got the hotts for her. Actually, with as much as you do for Robert, people might start to think you’ve got a crush on him!... You are straight aren’t you?”
“Ass.”
“Hey, I just call ‘em as I see ‘em.”
“So, you screw her yet?”
“That’s for me to know and you to never find out!”
“So you have…” I picked up some duck tape from a near by table and put a piece of it over Luke’s mouth in the middle of his sentence. I didn’t need him guessing and finding out that we decided to wait. That would just be one more bullet to add to their "bully gun". “Have fun talking to the police about how much you love to kiss Robert’s butt.” I left him there to simmer in his own anger, hoping he would unload on the cops and not get bail. I came back into the house as Melanie opened the door for the Police chief and his guys. Her dad came down the stairs and greeted the chief. Then he turned to me and waved me over. “Nick is the one who got attacked. Nick, tell them what happened.”
I wasn’t really sure where to begin. “Well, sir, I don’t honestly remember much but what I do remember is that I brought Melanie home from dinner. I walked her up to the door and… well, anyways, I turned around and got blindsided by a paint ball. Next thing I know, Robert is rushing me with a bat so one thing leads to another and I finished the fight. Then every thing went black. Where did the paramedics take Rob and Don?”
The chief replied, “The hospital right down the road. They’ll be fine, we just have to finish talking to you and Luke out there and then take Luke in.”
“What’s going to happen to Rob and Don?” Melanie asked.
“After they have recovered and the hospital releases them into our custody, they’ll go to jail until their court date.”
I then had to know, “How long do you think they’ll get?”
“Well, considering it’s not their first offense, probably somewhere from 6 to 12 months, but we need to finish questioning. Did they provoke you earlier, yesterday perhaps, or even earlier in the week?”
Melanie answered, “He interrupted our dinner tonight. He made a huge scene about needing to talk to me but Nick wouldn’t let him near me. The store manager and a waiter threw him out.”
“Did, he make any threats or anything like that?”
I took this one. “He went to take a swing at me but the manager stopped him before he could. He then told me that it wasn’t over and he was waiting for me, but when we left he was no where to be found. Guess he was waiting for us here.”
“Alright, well I think that’s it for now. If we have anymore questions I’ll let you know.” The chief said to Melanie’s father, “So now we have to talk to Luke. Where is he again?”
Melanie’s dad answered, “He’s cuffed out in the shed. Here I’ll take you to him.”
They walked out back and disappeared into the darkness as I turned to Melanie. She looked at me with a thankful expression, glad that I was ok. I didn’t know what to say but I was glad to hear she did. “So what do we do now?”
“Well, the mood here just got a little too ‘Law-and-Order’ for me. I say we get out of here.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“What would you say if I said I wanted to make sure I didn’t permanently damage Rob and Don?”
“I’d say I’ll go just to see Robert in pain!”
I had to smile, “I’ll Race you to the car.”
Before I could get a response, she was already out the door and half way down the walkway. I unlocked the door and as she got in the passanger side, I slid across the hood dukes-of-hazard style. I got in the car and started it. The drive there was filled with jokes of how bad Rob would be. It took us about 5 to 10 minutes to get there but it was real easy to find a spot to park. When we got there, we walked right into in to a realm of chaos with nurses and doctors running around like a flock of birds with nowhere to go. I reached out and grabbed the first person I felt, which ended up being a nurse who had set up Robert and Don in their rooms. The first thing out of my mouth was, “What happened here?” The nurse was on the verge of tears. “I… I did all I knew. I… I need this job. I don’t want to be fired. I…”
“Whoa, calm down. Listen…” I looked at her nametag, which said Jenni. “… Jenni, I need you to look at me. Alright? look at me. Now calm down and focus. What happened here?”
“I set those two boys from the assault case earlier tonight up in their rooms. I left to go get them some medication and when I got back they were gone.”
Melanie piped up, “Were their names Robert and Don?”
“I think so, yeah.”
At that point I knew if they weren’t here they were coming back after me. And this time, for blood.
“What… What happened? Why do my muscles ache? And why does my neck feel like it was branded?”
“Luke stopped you with a Tazzer. My dad heard the fight and grabbed his stun gun from his utility belt and ran outside. Luke dropped like a bag of potatoes. He’s tied up out in the shed while dad’s waiting for his captain and some other cops to show up.”
“Guess it’s a good thing this happened here and not at the restaurant. Do you think they’ll need a statement?”
“They probably will. Don’t worry though, you fought them off in self-defense.”
“What happened to Robert and Don?”
“The paramedics came and took them to the hospital. They’ll be fine. My dad took care of the paper work so that went pretty fast. He put you in a good light.”
She put her hand on my shoulder. It was calming, considering my level of nervousness and stress. Her father walked in from the kitchen and was just getting off the phone. “… Thanks Frank. Just get here as soon as you can… Ok. Bye. *click* Well look who’s up! How are you feeling Champ?”
“Like someone branded me.”
“Well you’re a lucky guy. If Luke had gotten you in the chest, your heart could have stopped and tonight would be going a little differently.”
“Well I guess I should be glad you came when you did.”
“Just so you know, the police chief is on his way and is going to need to get a statement from you. Don’t be nervous, you didn’t do anything illegal.”
He patted me on the back lightly and went to his room upstairs. While he did that, I decided to go check on Luke. I turned to Melanie, “I’m going to go check on our little prisoner out there.” As I got up to go out to the shed, she said, “Don’t hurt him. He’s just there until my dad’s partner and chief get here.” “Don’t worry, I won’t touch him. I just have some questions.” My legs were still weak and I felt like I was walking on a boat. Melanie came and helped me until I could walk normally. I got to the back door and asked her to stay there.
The shed was used as Melanie’s dad’s workshop. He would carve beautiful wooden furniture like his wife’s rocking chair and Melanie’s bed frame. He was very good at what he did with wood and also as a cop. When I got there, Luke’s hands were cuffed up around a support beam above his head. The shed was only 8 or 9 feet tall at the peek of the roof so the beam was only about 6 feet off the ground, just high enough so his arms were bent slightly. He looked at me with the eyes of forced hatred, which I knew was just a sorry attempt at intimidation. I walked in and pulled up a nearby chair Melanie’s dad had just finished. “So Luke, looks like you got the short end of the stick, didn’t you?” He didn’t say anything; he just looked off to the side so not to look me in the eye. “You know those guys don’t care about you right?” There was still no response from him, so I continued more sternly. “You’re going to juvi for assault and Robert and his little pose aren’t going to bail you out. Hope your mom received a good tip from her client last night. Heard she's making house calls to lonely guys around town.”
“Shut up about my moms!”
“Ok, one, your not black. Two, your not a gangster. So with those things cleared up, talk like the inbred, red blooded, white trash, American red neck you are.”
“You don’t even know me or my moms!”
“Your mom’s what?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Nope, sorry, think you forgot a noun in there somewhere.”
“What do you want from me?”
“An explanation! What possible reason do you have to hate me?”
“Melanie is Roberts girl.”
“What do you care? It’s not like she has a thing for you or you’ve got the hotts for her. Actually, with as much as you do for Robert, people might start to think you’ve got a crush on him!... You are straight aren’t you?”
“Ass.”
“Hey, I just call ‘em as I see ‘em.”
“So, you screw her yet?”
“That’s for me to know and you to never find out!”
“So you have…” I picked up some duck tape from a near by table and put a piece of it over Luke’s mouth in the middle of his sentence. I didn’t need him guessing and finding out that we decided to wait. That would just be one more bullet to add to their "bully gun". “Have fun talking to the police about how much you love to kiss Robert’s butt.” I left him there to simmer in his own anger, hoping he would unload on the cops and not get bail. I came back into the house as Melanie opened the door for the Police chief and his guys. Her dad came down the stairs and greeted the chief. Then he turned to me and waved me over. “Nick is the one who got attacked. Nick, tell them what happened.”
I wasn’t really sure where to begin. “Well, sir, I don’t honestly remember much but what I do remember is that I brought Melanie home from dinner. I walked her up to the door and… well, anyways, I turned around and got blindsided by a paint ball. Next thing I know, Robert is rushing me with a bat so one thing leads to another and I finished the fight. Then every thing went black. Where did the paramedics take Rob and Don?”
The chief replied, “The hospital right down the road. They’ll be fine, we just have to finish talking to you and Luke out there and then take Luke in.”
“What’s going to happen to Rob and Don?” Melanie asked.
“After they have recovered and the hospital releases them into our custody, they’ll go to jail until their court date.”
I then had to know, “How long do you think they’ll get?”
“Well, considering it’s not their first offense, probably somewhere from 6 to 12 months, but we need to finish questioning. Did they provoke you earlier, yesterday perhaps, or even earlier in the week?”
Melanie answered, “He interrupted our dinner tonight. He made a huge scene about needing to talk to me but Nick wouldn’t let him near me. The store manager and a waiter threw him out.”
“Did, he make any threats or anything like that?”
I took this one. “He went to take a swing at me but the manager stopped him before he could. He then told me that it wasn’t over and he was waiting for me, but when we left he was no where to be found. Guess he was waiting for us here.”
“Alright, well I think that’s it for now. If we have anymore questions I’ll let you know.” The chief said to Melanie’s father, “So now we have to talk to Luke. Where is he again?”
Melanie’s dad answered, “He’s cuffed out in the shed. Here I’ll take you to him.”
They walked out back and disappeared into the darkness as I turned to Melanie. She looked at me with a thankful expression, glad that I was ok. I didn’t know what to say but I was glad to hear she did. “So what do we do now?”
“Well, the mood here just got a little too ‘Law-and-Order’ for me. I say we get out of here.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“What would you say if I said I wanted to make sure I didn’t permanently damage Rob and Don?”
“I’d say I’ll go just to see Robert in pain!”
I had to smile, “I’ll Race you to the car.”
Before I could get a response, she was already out the door and half way down the walkway. I unlocked the door and as she got in the passanger side, I slid across the hood dukes-of-hazard style. I got in the car and started it. The drive there was filled with jokes of how bad Rob would be. It took us about 5 to 10 minutes to get there but it was real easy to find a spot to park. When we got there, we walked right into in to a realm of chaos with nurses and doctors running around like a flock of birds with nowhere to go. I reached out and grabbed the first person I felt, which ended up being a nurse who had set up Robert and Don in their rooms. The first thing out of my mouth was, “What happened here?” The nurse was on the verge of tears. “I… I did all I knew. I… I need this job. I don’t want to be fired. I…”
“Whoa, calm down. Listen…” I looked at her nametag, which said Jenni. “… Jenni, I need you to look at me. Alright? look at me. Now calm down and focus. What happened here?”
“I set those two boys from the assault case earlier tonight up in their rooms. I left to go get them some medication and when I got back they were gone.”
Melanie piped up, “Were their names Robert and Don?”
“I think so, yeah.”
At that point I knew if they weren’t here they were coming back after me. And this time, for blood.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Chapter 4: On The Road Again (new)
I had blacked out and had no idea where I was. When I opened my eyes, I was on a greyhound bus with Michael and his sister Rose. At first I was confused but thing’s seemed too familiar. Was I dreaming? I had to be. There was no way I had gone from Melanie’s front yard to a grey hound bus early in the morning with my best friend and his sister. Once I had looked around, I got this strange sense of déjà vu.
Mike and Rose were sitting in the two seats behind me talking. Mike was shocked, “What do you mean you don’t like chocolate? You’ve always liked chocolate!”
“No I haven’t.” Rose replied in a calm “sure-of-yourself” kind of way
“Hey Nick, Hasn’t rose loved chocolate before?”
“Yeah Rose, remember when we were little and Mike and I talked you into eating that whole party size bag of mini Hershey bars? You said you loved chocolate so much, you could eat that whole bag in 10 minutes.”
“Yeah, we were like 7 or 8. You must have been 5 or 6. Remember?” Mike added.
“And you’re shocked that I don’t like chocolate? Really?” Rose said sarcastically.
Mike and I looked at each other and laughed like oh yeah, that. As I said these things, I realized I wasn’t making myself say these words. That was strange because I knew I was dreaming but I couldn’t control what was happening. Just then, a big football player, from a high school team that was on the bus with us, came up to us and started hitting on Rose. As soon as I saw him, I realized what this was. It wasn’t a dream. I was reliving a memory. All of this happened last summer when we went to Sedona for a day trip just to check out shops and go swimming in local rivers. The player introduced himself, “Hey, I’m Chet. I’m the wide receiver of that AWESOME FOOTBALL TEAM BACK THERE! GO COUGARS!” He yelled back to his teammates. The guys yelled back, “WOOT WOOT!!” Mike and I looked at each other and tried to hold back our laughter. Rose wasn’t impressed though. The bus driver yelled back at them, “Hey! Keep it quiet and SIT DOWN!” “Sorry sir.” Chet said and took a seat across the isle from mike. He continued to flirt, “So what’s your name?” Mike intruded and stuck out his hand, “Name’s Mike. Nice to meet you.”
“Not you, dweeb, her.” He knocked mikes hand down. “So what’s your name?” Wrong move for him because Rose lost all interest as soon as that happened. She was quick on her feet, though. “A secret.” She said in a flippant manner.
“Oh, I see how it is. So what do I have to do to get your name?”
“Steal the passenger list.” She never made eye contact with him. At this point the rest of the team was giggling at Chet’s utter failure.
“Ooooh, Cold!” I said to her with out thinking.
Chet started to get mad. “Hey, I’m trying to be nice here. At least you could return the favor!”
She finally looked at him straight in the eye and said, “Since you can’t take a hint, I’ll spell it out for you. I’m… Not… Interested… Got it?”
At this point, Chet was ticked. He stood up and took a step towards her. “Hey, slut…” Mike stood up and put his hand on Chet’s chest “Hey, that’s my sister man!” Chet hit Mike’s hand away again. “DON’T touch me.” I stood up now to defend my friend. “Hey douche bag, Go sit back down!” “Nick, I got this.” Mike said, cutting me off. The bus driver piped up again, “Hey, I said SIT BACK DOWN, or I’m gonna stop this bus and throw all of you off!” Mike replied to the driver, “It’s ok sir, Chet, here, was about to go back to his seat.” He stared Chet down until he walked away. “Eh, she’s not worth it.” Chet said as he sat back down. The rest of the ride there was filled jokes and car games, laughing at what had happened and talking about what we were going to do.
When we got to our destination, we headed straight for the nearest shopping center. It was early and we had only eaten snacks on the bus. So, needless to say we were hungry. We found a McDonalds and we decided to eat there. Mike opened the door for Rose and let me go in before him. We were looking at the menu when Rose realized she had left her money at home. “Ah, crap.” “What is it?” I asked. “My money is at home. Guess I cant go shopping with you guys.” Mike jumped in, “Don’t worry about it. I just got paid so all your stuff is on me.”
“Really Mike?”
“Yeah don’t worry about it.”
“Thank you. You’re a great brother.”
“Love you sis.” He winked at her and we ordered breakfast. As we sat down to eat, Mike thanked me for this trip. “You know, man, it was really great of your parents to buy us these bus tickets. This is going to be an awesome day trip.” Rose added, “yeah thanks, This will be a nice hoorah to add to the scrap book.” She had been putting a scrapbook together since Mike and I first started to really be friends and hang out a lot. It started because she had a crush on me that, to my knowledge, was just a phase. Now it stood as a memento to all the good times we three spent together throughout our lives. “Yeah, today is going to be fun. Are you still putting thing in that old binder?” I asked. “Yeah. Ticket stubs from movies, concerts, fairs. You name it; it’s in there. I’ve got a bunch of embarrassing pictures of mike in there too.” She smiled and looked at Mike. He was shocked and adamant about taking those photos out. “You didn’t! Not the ones from 8th grade graduation!?!”
“Yep, those are the ones!”
I interjected, “Oh the ones taken when Bobby convinced him that there was nothing wrong with the sprite he had brought even though it tasted like alcohol?”
Rose was laughing, “Yeah and then he got super drunk off of that 2 liter and decided to go streaking across the backyard.”
“And then Ms. Laurence had to tackle him, as he was running butt naked, just to stop him! Hahahahaha…”
“Alright guys knock it off.” He wasn’t very amused.
I continued though, “I remember having to convince her not to call your parents and trying to prove that Bobby was the one who brought in the vodka. That was a fun night.”
“Yeah, mom still doesn’t know what happened that night, AND I would prefer it to stay that way!” Mike said looking at Rose. She replied, “I’m just happy to have something over you.” She smiled and kept eating her pancakes. “Yeah I’m sure you do.” Mike said as he continued eating as well.
The rest of the day consisted of shopping, Mike buying Rose the thing’s she wanted, at the cost of some thing’s he wanted, and swimming at the river.
When we had gotten to the river, we ran into the Cougars. Chet and his gang were already drinking and swimming. They must have been on their own because there were no coaches or teachers around, not even on the bus. Mike saw them and turned to Rose, “Ah great, do you want to find another spot?” She saw them and said, “Yeah lets go.” But before we could leave Chet saw us and yelled out “OH HEY! IT’S OUR FRIENDS FROM THE BUS!” He started to get out but one of his friends tried to stop him. I couldn’t hear what was said but the friend knew it was a bad idea. Chet continued to get out though. “No man I got this. I’m not tha-drunk. I can still, *hickup* walk.” I turned to Mike, “Let’s get out of hear before he makes it up the hill” but it didn’t take him long. We got about 10 feet from where we were before he caught up to us. “Hey,” the alcohol on his breath was over powering, “I jus wanna say, ‘m srry, *hickup* fer what I did on th-bus.” He was really slurring his words together but he seemed genuine. “I was bein ‘n ass ‘nd I apologize.” Rose looked at him then looked at the group of friends, all staring on, down by the river. “Why are you the only one completely drunk out of all your teammates?” She asked. Chet replied, surprisingly honest, “when th-guys saw you geton th-bus, they bet me 10 beers that I couldn’t get yur number. Dumb bet, I know.” He was obviously ashamed of what he had done and Rose just stood there thinking. Mike and I were looking ate each other wondering what she was going to do. It was a tense 2 minutes, at least, of just waiting and wondering. Finally, after some deliberation in her own head, she said, “Apology accepted.” then grabbed his face and kissed him really quick. Mike and I were TOTALLY shocked, and we heard a few of Chet’s friends whooping and hollering down by the river. She kissed him for about 10 seconds, then let him go, turned around and walked away. Mike and I were speechless. We looked at her, then at him, then had to run after her. Chet just stood there in shock, trying to make sense of what just happened. “WHAT was THAT?!?” I asked emphatically. “What? He was sorry. Plus I like the taste of Heineken.” “WHAT?!?” Mike exclaimed, “HOW the HELL Do you know what that tastes like?” “Your’s are not the only secrets I keep from mom.” She said and kept on walking. We didn’t know what to say. I thought Rose was such an innocent girl until then. We kept on walking until we found an open space where we could swim just the three of us. We had fun, and that night, when we had to leave, we all got on the bus, tired beyond belief, and headed home.
Two things I came away with from that day was how much Mike cared for his sister and how much I didn’t know about Rose. It was brief and a fleeting thought, but I had almost asked her out that weekend. She was secretly rebellious but loved her family and if it wasn’t for her being my best friends sister, and the fact we practically grew up together, I might have tried. All in all, though, that day was one of my best memories.
As I closed my eyes on the bus, listening to Mike’s horrible singing voice serenading us to the tune of Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac, the world faded away, as blackness engulfed my being. Panic gripped me, but I didn’t know why. I was fighting for my life in my mind and didn’t know who my enemy was. I heard a voice calling me. Could it be the threat, the one trying to kill me? I couldn’t see anything but I felt sharp pains in my head, side, and neck, as if someone was stabbing me. Then things started to lighten up just a little bit, and there, out of the darkness, came my enemy.
Mike and Rose were sitting in the two seats behind me talking. Mike was shocked, “What do you mean you don’t like chocolate? You’ve always liked chocolate!”
“No I haven’t.” Rose replied in a calm “sure-of-yourself” kind of way
“Hey Nick, Hasn’t rose loved chocolate before?”
“Yeah Rose, remember when we were little and Mike and I talked you into eating that whole party size bag of mini Hershey bars? You said you loved chocolate so much, you could eat that whole bag in 10 minutes.”
“Yeah, we were like 7 or 8. You must have been 5 or 6. Remember?” Mike added.
“And you’re shocked that I don’t like chocolate? Really?” Rose said sarcastically.
Mike and I looked at each other and laughed like oh yeah, that. As I said these things, I realized I wasn’t making myself say these words. That was strange because I knew I was dreaming but I couldn’t control what was happening. Just then, a big football player, from a high school team that was on the bus with us, came up to us and started hitting on Rose. As soon as I saw him, I realized what this was. It wasn’t a dream. I was reliving a memory. All of this happened last summer when we went to Sedona for a day trip just to check out shops and go swimming in local rivers. The player introduced himself, “Hey, I’m Chet. I’m the wide receiver of that AWESOME FOOTBALL TEAM BACK THERE! GO COUGARS!” He yelled back to his teammates. The guys yelled back, “WOOT WOOT!!” Mike and I looked at each other and tried to hold back our laughter. Rose wasn’t impressed though. The bus driver yelled back at them, “Hey! Keep it quiet and SIT DOWN!” “Sorry sir.” Chet said and took a seat across the isle from mike. He continued to flirt, “So what’s your name?” Mike intruded and stuck out his hand, “Name’s Mike. Nice to meet you.”
“Not you, dweeb, her.” He knocked mikes hand down. “So what’s your name?” Wrong move for him because Rose lost all interest as soon as that happened. She was quick on her feet, though. “A secret.” She said in a flippant manner.
“Oh, I see how it is. So what do I have to do to get your name?”
“Steal the passenger list.” She never made eye contact with him. At this point the rest of the team was giggling at Chet’s utter failure.
“Ooooh, Cold!” I said to her with out thinking.
Chet started to get mad. “Hey, I’m trying to be nice here. At least you could return the favor!”
She finally looked at him straight in the eye and said, “Since you can’t take a hint, I’ll spell it out for you. I’m… Not… Interested… Got it?”
At this point, Chet was ticked. He stood up and took a step towards her. “Hey, slut…” Mike stood up and put his hand on Chet’s chest “Hey, that’s my sister man!” Chet hit Mike’s hand away again. “DON’T touch me.” I stood up now to defend my friend. “Hey douche bag, Go sit back down!” “Nick, I got this.” Mike said, cutting me off. The bus driver piped up again, “Hey, I said SIT BACK DOWN, or I’m gonna stop this bus and throw all of you off!” Mike replied to the driver, “It’s ok sir, Chet, here, was about to go back to his seat.” He stared Chet down until he walked away. “Eh, she’s not worth it.” Chet said as he sat back down. The rest of the ride there was filled jokes and car games, laughing at what had happened and talking about what we were going to do.
When we got to our destination, we headed straight for the nearest shopping center. It was early and we had only eaten snacks on the bus. So, needless to say we were hungry. We found a McDonalds and we decided to eat there. Mike opened the door for Rose and let me go in before him. We were looking at the menu when Rose realized she had left her money at home. “Ah, crap.” “What is it?” I asked. “My money is at home. Guess I cant go shopping with you guys.” Mike jumped in, “Don’t worry about it. I just got paid so all your stuff is on me.”
“Really Mike?”
“Yeah don’t worry about it.”
“Thank you. You’re a great brother.”
“Love you sis.” He winked at her and we ordered breakfast. As we sat down to eat, Mike thanked me for this trip. “You know, man, it was really great of your parents to buy us these bus tickets. This is going to be an awesome day trip.” Rose added, “yeah thanks, This will be a nice hoorah to add to the scrap book.” She had been putting a scrapbook together since Mike and I first started to really be friends and hang out a lot. It started because she had a crush on me that, to my knowledge, was just a phase. Now it stood as a memento to all the good times we three spent together throughout our lives. “Yeah, today is going to be fun. Are you still putting thing in that old binder?” I asked. “Yeah. Ticket stubs from movies, concerts, fairs. You name it; it’s in there. I’ve got a bunch of embarrassing pictures of mike in there too.” She smiled and looked at Mike. He was shocked and adamant about taking those photos out. “You didn’t! Not the ones from 8th grade graduation!?!”
“Yep, those are the ones!”
I interjected, “Oh the ones taken when Bobby convinced him that there was nothing wrong with the sprite he had brought even though it tasted like alcohol?”
Rose was laughing, “Yeah and then he got super drunk off of that 2 liter and decided to go streaking across the backyard.”
“And then Ms. Laurence had to tackle him, as he was running butt naked, just to stop him! Hahahahaha…”
“Alright guys knock it off.” He wasn’t very amused.
I continued though, “I remember having to convince her not to call your parents and trying to prove that Bobby was the one who brought in the vodka. That was a fun night.”
“Yeah, mom still doesn’t know what happened that night, AND I would prefer it to stay that way!” Mike said looking at Rose. She replied, “I’m just happy to have something over you.” She smiled and kept eating her pancakes. “Yeah I’m sure you do.” Mike said as he continued eating as well.
The rest of the day consisted of shopping, Mike buying Rose the thing’s she wanted, at the cost of some thing’s he wanted, and swimming at the river.
When we had gotten to the river, we ran into the Cougars. Chet and his gang were already drinking and swimming. They must have been on their own because there were no coaches or teachers around, not even on the bus. Mike saw them and turned to Rose, “Ah great, do you want to find another spot?” She saw them and said, “Yeah lets go.” But before we could leave Chet saw us and yelled out “OH HEY! IT’S OUR FRIENDS FROM THE BUS!” He started to get out but one of his friends tried to stop him. I couldn’t hear what was said but the friend knew it was a bad idea. Chet continued to get out though. “No man I got this. I’m not tha-drunk. I can still, *hickup* walk.” I turned to Mike, “Let’s get out of hear before he makes it up the hill” but it didn’t take him long. We got about 10 feet from where we were before he caught up to us. “Hey,” the alcohol on his breath was over powering, “I jus wanna say, ‘m srry, *hickup* fer what I did on th-bus.” He was really slurring his words together but he seemed genuine. “I was bein ‘n ass ‘nd I apologize.” Rose looked at him then looked at the group of friends, all staring on, down by the river. “Why are you the only one completely drunk out of all your teammates?” She asked. Chet replied, surprisingly honest, “when th-guys saw you geton th-bus, they bet me 10 beers that I couldn’t get yur number. Dumb bet, I know.” He was obviously ashamed of what he had done and Rose just stood there thinking. Mike and I were looking ate each other wondering what she was going to do. It was a tense 2 minutes, at least, of just waiting and wondering. Finally, after some deliberation in her own head, she said, “Apology accepted.” then grabbed his face and kissed him really quick. Mike and I were TOTALLY shocked, and we heard a few of Chet’s friends whooping and hollering down by the river. She kissed him for about 10 seconds, then let him go, turned around and walked away. Mike and I were speechless. We looked at her, then at him, then had to run after her. Chet just stood there in shock, trying to make sense of what just happened. “WHAT was THAT?!?” I asked emphatically. “What? He was sorry. Plus I like the taste of Heineken.” “WHAT?!?” Mike exclaimed, “HOW the HELL Do you know what that tastes like?” “Your’s are not the only secrets I keep from mom.” She said and kept on walking. We didn’t know what to say. I thought Rose was such an innocent girl until then. We kept on walking until we found an open space where we could swim just the three of us. We had fun, and that night, when we had to leave, we all got on the bus, tired beyond belief, and headed home.
Two things I came away with from that day was how much Mike cared for his sister and how much I didn’t know about Rose. It was brief and a fleeting thought, but I had almost asked her out that weekend. She was secretly rebellious but loved her family and if it wasn’t for her being my best friends sister, and the fact we practically grew up together, I might have tried. All in all, though, that day was one of my best memories.
As I closed my eyes on the bus, listening to Mike’s horrible singing voice serenading us to the tune of Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac, the world faded away, as blackness engulfed my being. Panic gripped me, but I didn’t know why. I was fighting for my life in my mind and didn’t know who my enemy was. I heard a voice calling me. Could it be the threat, the one trying to kill me? I couldn’t see anything but I felt sharp pains in my head, side, and neck, as if someone was stabbing me. Then things started to lighten up just a little bit, and there, out of the darkness, came my enemy.
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