Resurrection

by Michael Clements

  “We’ll make a place somewhere,” said Eva, sounding very hopeful. “Somewhere only we go. We have all the time we need. Well, not tonight, but you know what I mean. We’ll make a little cabin, and nobody will ever bother us.”

  Ethan smiled, but Eva likely didn’t see it. They agreed on a spot a few feet off the trail, only partially in view of the park. When laying out their sleeping bags, Ethan noticed they lacked pillows. We didn’t really bring anything else. He decidedly said nothing about it. Maybe Eva knows what she’s doing.

  “Damn it. Should have brought pillows,” she said.

  “Where did you get these sleeping bags anyway?”

  “When we were at the store, remember?”

  Yawning, Ethan answered, “Not really.”

  “We waited like an hour for people to come so that nobody thought we were alone. You were crying about it the whole time.”

  “Okay, fine fine fine.” Ethan remembered, but certainly wasn’t in the mood to hear his sister criticize him again. As they crawled into their beds, Ethan felt thankful his sleeping bag was rather large, but he couldn’t stand his head resting on dirt, so he scooted to the very end of the tent, resting his head on the fabric instead. It still didn’t suffice as a pillow, but kept him clean at least.

  “Goodnight, little brother,” said Eva, reaching out to hug him around the neck. “I love you.”

  He reciprocated the hug. “I love you, too.”

  Falling asleep came easy. His tired legs helped with that. Some hours passed, and he was deep in sleep. Sounds around him added content to his dreams. He had two dreams: one about being lost and completely alone in a huge forest that he had intuition was hundreds of miles large in every direction; in the second dream, he found himself sitting on a high branch, overlooking his home neighborhood, seeing people everywhere look for him, including Eva, who was inexplicably among them.

  He didn’t feel he missed anything important when Eva woke him up in the middle of the second dream. “Ethan!” she called, shaking his shoulder in a voice slightly above a whisper. “Policemen!”

  Ethan threw his body up, virtually flying out of his sleeping bag. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

  “No, get down! He’ll go away.”

  One quick glance, and he saw two officers searching around the park with flashlights. “Are they looking for us?”

  “Shut up!” Eva smacked him hard. She scurried into the bushes and piled leaves in front of them. Ethan followed, hating the filth he was accumulating.

  They waited patiently. Ethan slowed his breathing as much as possible. It took what felt like hours, because not only had the officers search for a long time, but they also paused to chat. Withholding the urge to simply breathe normally started to become impossible. Are they looking for us, or are they just looking around? He trembled violently every passing minute. Fortunately, mere moments before coughing, the officers left.

  “God that took forever!” said Eva.

  “No kidding.” He was first out of the hiding place. He made one attempt to scrape the dirt and water off, but gave up realizing the futility. Crawling back into his sleeping bag, he asked, “Now, can I go back to sleep?”

  “Well, duh. I was just giving you a heads-up.”

  As Ethan adjusted to a comfortable position, he relaxed his breathing. “Goodnight… again. I love you.”

  “Shh!” Eva smacked him twice.

  “Ugh… What now?” He opened his eyes, and without needing to look, a flashlight was shining on them both. Eva was looking directly at it, frozen as if petrified. “Oh…” He expected the officers, believing they had only pretending to leave.

  He was wrong. When he sat up again, a tall, lanky silhouette stood before them with a paper bag in his right hand. “You kids okay?” the man asked.

  “Um… Yes,” answered Eva. Ethan was too scared to speak.

  “Name’s Anton, but most people call me Pops. What’chu kids doin’ out here?”

  Ethan knew there was no getting out of this one. Eva was smarter, and stronger. He could only pray she had a plan to get out of there.

  “We’re running away from home. We think someone’s gonna kill us.”

  Pops approached them, then squatted. “Running from who?” he gently asked.

  “Our half-brother. He killed our mom, and now the state wants us in foster care.”

  “Foster care is better than living out in the woods. If someone’s tryin’ to hurt you, they’ll prob’ly get to ya if you’re not with somebody safe.” The man paused for a solid minute. Every second of that was more awkward than the one before it. “Well, I can understand why ya’d run away, but you’re gonna get sick and infected out here. Why don’t you kids crash with me a while? When the time’s right, I’ll take ya home.”

  “We don’t have a home,” Ethan finally uttered. “We don’t want to be around other people.”

  Eva smacked him again. “We’ll come,” she said, adding, “but only if you promise not to turn us in.”

  Pops nodded. “You can stay as long as you need, but I won’t let you be homeless again, understand?”

  “Then, we don’t want to go with you,” scorned Eva.

  “I won’t turn you in. I just said I ain’t gonna letcha be homeless.”

  “We don’t trust you!”

  “Look, sweetheart. Either ya come with me, or I will turn you in. Your choice…” He walked away.

  The twins looked at each other…

  –––––––

  They brought everything along. It was a ten-minute walk to the apartment. When Pops unlocked his door, Ethan checked Eva’s watch, seeing that it was almost five in the morning. He was a lot less sleepy than earlier. Pops lived in an area that appeared as if nobody was familiar with the concept of cleaning. The road leading to the building was busted up, no surrounding houses were well-maintained, and even at that late hour, people sat outside smoking and probably doing drugs.

  “This is my humble abode,” said Pops as they walked in.

  Ethan forced Eva to stay behind him as he surveyed everything. The apartment was also ill-maintained, but sufficed. That stench would require extensive adjustment over time. Neither twin said anything while Pops explained the rules of being there, which Ethan was hardly paying attention to. When Pops said something about them sleeping on the floor, Ethan’s body suddenly returned to sleepy mode. He stared at the carpet, slouched down, then passed out, caring nothing for his sleeping bag.

  This second sleep was dreamless. He hadn’t realized he was asleep at all until he woke abruptly. Faint gray-blue light poured in through the drapes. Eva comfortably slept next to him in her sleeping bag, while his had been placed over him. First thought was fear – fear that Pops might be as disgusting as Bryan, but Eva seemed untouched and Pops was nowhere to be found. Nobody coming in to take us away …, so at least Pops didn’t call the police on us, he additionally thought. Patiently, even fearfully, Ethan waited until his sister woke as well.

  “Breakfast?” Pops asked the twins when they sat up.

  Neither answered; instead, Eva leaned over and hugged Ethan, saying, “Good morning.”

  “Good morning,” Ethan copied. The uncertainty of where he was, or why he was there made him a bit frozen still.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” said Pops.

  Ethan could smell eggs and bacon. It couldn’t have smelled more appealing. Eva still held him, but he had her let go. Springing up, he charged toward the kitchen. “Are they done?” he said, swiping his hand across the stove.

  Pops smacked it away. “Wait, boy.”

  “Ethan, wait your turn,” the sister demanded.

  “Sit on my couch. I’ll bring you some food when it’s done.” Both children obeyed. Pops continued to speak to them from across the apartment. “Ya know, kids… I’m gonna be in a world’a shit if they find out you’re here.”

  “We know,” said Eva. A few minutes of silence later, Pops came into the room with two full plates. “We’
ll be quiet and stay away from the windows.”

  “You don’t understand,” Pops said, handing Ethan the second plate. Ethan was shooting him a suspicious stare, signaling that he hasn’t let his guard down. “People know me here. They know I don’t got kids. If they think I got kids in here, they’ll search the place.”

  Eva stopped eating for a moment to ask, “Just say what you’re trying to say.”

  “I’m saying that, unfortunately, you guys can’t be here when I’m gone. Durin’ the day. You can sleep here an’ all, but you gotta leave while the sun’s out.”

  Swallowing another bite, Eva replied, “But if we leave during the day, people will see us.”

  “I know. That’s why ya gotta leave before the sun starts shinin’. Every single day.”

  Ethan angrily said, “If we can only come when it’s dark, and we have to leave before it’s light out, we’re still homeless, then! Why even bother staying here at all?”

  “Hey, hey! You kids should be in a real home, you know. I don’t feel right helpin’ ya hide and shit. I’m only doin’ this ‘cuz you got somebody out there tryin’a kill you. Now, I don’t think that there’s even the truth.”

  Eva stood, looking dead into his eyes. “You know what, Pops? Look!” She was unzipping her pants and vehemently dropped them. Pops turned away immediately, but she demanded, “Look at it! See what it looks like?”

  Though he didn’t want to, Ethan didn’t even know what she was trying to show the man, so he looked. Pops shook his head, but he eventually turned around. What they saw was scarring surrounding Eva’s privates. Bruises, swelling, and even some cuts covered her skin everywhere, especially in that region.

  “No, God damn!” said Pops.

  “Yeah, exactly!” screamed Eva. “My own fucking brother raped me. His friend did, too. Over and over. He killed our mom because she wouldn’t protect him, because he keeps raping little kids and people are trying to kill him now. Isn’t that stupid? Yeah, it’s really fucking stupid.” Tears swelled up in her eyes, which stung Ethan’s heart to see. “Nobody protected me. Nobody protected us. So, grow some balls and just let us stay here until we’re fucking safe!”

  Eva lost all composure, collapsing to the floor, spilling her food and crying bitterly. Ethan dove at her with a fierce loving embrace, and he held her tight.

  “Damn, girl, I – I’m so sorry,” said Pops. He knelt down to clean the spill. “You guys can stay as long as ya need. I hear ‘bout fucked up shit like this all the damn time. It shouldn’t happen to little kids. I’m sorry. Please stay. Stay as long as you can.” He was trembling, which Ethan interpreted to mean extreme regret. “You know, my friends come over at night, and sometimes I gotta go drop some things off and shit, but I’m sure it’ll be okay. My friends won’t tell nobody.”

  Eva got hold of herself for the most part. She looked at him. “Good.”

  –––––––

  Pops stayed true to his word, but his word ultimately wasn’t good enough. For the remainder of the day, he had allowed the twins to remain in his apartment, killing time mostly by sleeping and eating because they didn’t have the physical or emotional strength for much else. Later that night, however, trouble had found them again. Come seven o’clock, two of Pops’ friends showed to drop off some goods, which was fine because they left immediately and the twins hid themselves for that brief moment. An hour later, though, five of his friends visited, and they were there for a solid visit. The twins had to come out, since the friends occupied every area of the apartment. The sole girl in the group raised serious issue with their presence there. Pops shocked stiff that they had exposed themselves, tried to play it cool. He lied to his friends about why they were there, and all seemed to accept the lie, but not the girl, whatever her name was. Sometime while Pops was in the bathroom, she used his telephone for only a few moments. Ethan and Eva both had seen her do it, and both knew it was only a matter of time before the police showed up.

  Eva had predicted it. She grabbed Ethan before he could ask what’s happening, she was forcing him to climb out the window. Dropping three stories was a feat he never accomplished, and Eva kicked him until he found a safe means down. Their belongings were already on the ground. Ethan figured Eva threw them out first. Once Eva was behind him on the ground, they collected their belongings, then she grabbed his hand and ran them both back toward the forest.

  After mere minutes, Eva said, “Wait… We can’t be here. This is where Pops found us. They’ll be looking for us here.”

  Ethan gave it some thought. “No, we need to stay here. Pops is still our only friend.”

  For the umpteenth time in just the past day, Eva smacked him. “Friend? We don’t need friends. Remember, we promised we wouldn’t trust anybody. Don’t forget that!”

  “We don’t need to trust him, Eva, okay? Look where we are right now, AGAIN! Of course we can’t trust him. But he’s on our side, right? We’re not God. We’re not invincible. We need people on our side, or we won’t survive.” His words were enough to silence Eva. He added, “Maybe Pops knows some people? Or places we could live? Something…”

  Eva looked away, seeming to ponder. “Okay,” she eventually said. “But we still can’t be here. We still can’t talk to him for a long time. People are gonna think he’s hiding us. We have to wait until people forget about it.”

  “That could be never!”

  “Yeah, or it could be just a few days after today. Doesn’t matter, we need to find somewhere else. I believe you about needing friends and stuff, but just not right now. Okay?”

  Ethan reluctantly agreed. He felt this mess would never end and that they would die very soon. The night turned out to be identical to the one before – endless searching for a base. This time around, after only an hour, they stumbled upon a derelict warehouse, lying in ruins amidst a field of tall, dead grass.

  “Looks like nobody’s been here for a long time,” said Ethan.

  “Yeah, but doesn’t anybody own it? The sign says ‘no trespassing.’ I think there’s probably a dog, too.”

  “Only one way to find out…”

  Carefully, they approached the building and entered. It was darker than darkness itself, but sufficed. Neither needed to verbalize the fact they both liked it. Eva suggested trying to find a light source, but Ethan didn’t care. When finding a light proved futile, they chose the softest ground they could feel and simply slept there. Even with sleeping bags, it would prove to be the most uncomfortable sleep they’ve ever had.

  It truly was.

  The place reeked, there was what felt like hay everywhere; literally everywhere, and it sounded like animals lived in or around the building because something endlessly rummaged around the place all night.

  Ethan wasn’t sure if Eva fell asleep that night; she unceasingly tossed and turned, snoring and moaning. She kept trying to cuddle up closer to Ethan, too. As the night grew colder, Ethan only became more awake. Every single sound that wasn’t their breathing alarmed him. Several times, he was certain he had heard footsteps nearby. Distant talking from walkers on the roads kept his attention until the voices faded.

  The next day they gathered every item that could possibly be of use while trying to remain hidden from passersby. Dead grass proved useful for sleeping on, which proper preparation proved, apart from sharp jabs every time they rolled over.

  “For now, our only job is to survive,” said Eva.

  Obviously, she was trying to be the strong one. Maybe it was because she was a few minutes older, but older nonetheless. Ethan didn’t want her to feel she was carrying the weight of two, so he came up with ideas as often as he could. For example, it was his idea to pick up spare change no matter how small, as well as eat bugs. Eva had the better ideas, though. She never allowed them to be too far from the warehouse, because if seen, they needed somewhere to run. Water was easy to come by; they just took from garden hoses of nearby houses that didn’t have cars in the driveway. Only two days in, and the situati
on was already becoming unbearable.

  Eva’s best trick to getting them into more populated areas was being clean. She over-emphasized the importance of being clean. Garden hoses helped with that part, too. “Being dirty is suspicious,” she told him. He had always recognized that people only stare when someone’s dirty or acting strangely. Stay clean and act normal – that was all it took. They stole underwear more often than clothes, because ‘stink comes from your underwear,’ as Eva put it.

  After what must have been four days, Ethan started to complain that they still hadn’t returned to Pops. Eva repeated herself in that they should probably wait weeks, or months, but Ethan would just not have any of it. Eva finally relented. They secured their belongings by hiding everything from obvious view, then returned to the man’s apartment late that night.

  Eva knocked loudly. Pops answered almost immediately.

  “Dear God in heaven…” the man mumbled to himself. “How did you two last this long?” He invited them inside, locking the door behind them.

  Ethan cut straight to it. “Look, we know you don’t want us to be here and stuff, but… Is there any way you could help us? Like, give us food sometimes or something?”

  “I can’t go along with this again. I almost got caught, ya know. I have to turn ya in.”

  Ethan stood in his space. “No! We want to be left alone, and we know we can do it now.”

  “Just look how skinny you guys are! This ain’t healthy…”

  Eva growled at her brother, “Shut up.”

  Ethan continued, “We know we can survive, okay? So, just, whatever you can do to help us… Please. What were you doing the other night when you found us? You said you were dropping things off?”

  “I said I do that sometimes. Never said that’s what I was doing that night. But…” The man’s posture straightened a little. His face read getting a good idea. “Maybe I could use your assistance… With my business.”

  Eva looked excited. “What?”

  “If you kids promise you’ll never do anythin’ to expose me, I’ll give ya a job. I never tell on you, you never tell on me. Kay? If you’ve survived this long, who knows, you might last longer. If you can trade my … goods … aroun’ town for me, I’ll give you all the food you can eat. Ya can’t live with me, but I’ll make sure ya have what ya need, if ya do this for me from now on.”