by E. C. Bell
But that was two years in the future. He was still a jock when we ended up in the same gym class together. Up to that point, he had never paid any attention to me. But I’d noticed him, and that was the truth.
Three of the girls from my class started chatting me up, and I honestly thought that they really just wanted to talk to me. But hey, I was only fifteen and stupid as a stump.
“Come over here,” one of them said to me. It was Reena Wilson. “If you stand right over here, you’ll be able to see the boys change. We’ve done it tons of times. It’s fun.”
I looked around for the gym teacher. Didn’t know whether it was to make sure he hadn’t heard, or to figure out where potential protection was, but he had disappeared into his office, and we were the only ones left.
“I don’t think—” I started, but Reena laughed, cutting off my words.
“Come on, don’t be scared,” she said. “Their penises don’t bite.”
She laughed again, and then her two buddies joined in. Not wanting to look like a wimp, I finally tittered laughter, too. But really, all I wanted to do was get the heck out of there.
“Come here,” she said, and grabbed me by the right arm. One of her friends took my left, and that’s when I finally started to clue in. I struggled to free myself, but by that time we were so close to the entrance to the boys’ locker room, I could feel the steam from the showers, and could hear the boys’ raucous laughter.
“What are you doing?” I gasped. “Let me go.”
“Oh, they’re not going to hurt you,” Reena said. “They just want to see your tattas.”
“What?”
The girls laughed. “Your boobies,” the one holding my left arm snickered. “You know?”
“No!” I cried, and tried again to wrestle free, but they were strong, those stupid girls were, and they had me well and truly trapped.
They laughed even harder, and the one behind me—I think she was a cheerleader—grabbed my tee shirt and pulled it up over my head. Her friends dropped my arms, and my tee shirt from me, and then gave me a huge shove toward the entrance to the locker room.
“Your tits,” she said. “The boys decided it was time they saw your tits.”
I stumbled forward three huge steps, ending up in the middle of the locker room and a bunch of half-naked boys.
There was a moment of shocked silence on everyone’s part. All any of us could hear were the three bitches who’d thrown me in there, laughing their heads off as they ran away.
The silence in the locker room didn’t last long. Almost every boy in that room pointed at me as I tried desperately to cover my pathetic cotton bra and my stupid breasts with my hands. The boys laughed and jeered and pointed, calling me every horrible, evil name they could think of.
Only one of them didn’t join in. He stood silently and watched for the longest three minutes of my life, then came to my rescue.
“Leave her alone,” he said, taking my arm protectively. “Can’t you see she’s scared?”
That didn’t stop the rest of the jerks in that room, so he took me by the hand and led me out of the locker room and into the hallway, away from their jeering. It was empty, but there was only a couple of minutes before the bell rang, and that hall was going to be full of more of those boys and girls.
If I thought the laughing and jeering in the locker room had been bad, it would be nothing to what was coming up for me if I didn’t get away.
Before I had a chance to come up with any kind of a plan, my saviour stripped off his own shirt and handed it to me.
“Are you all right?” he asked, as I thankfully pulled his shirt over my head and on. I could smell his deodorant on the shirt, and something darker. Probably sweat.
“I think so.” My voice was shaking, but I couldn’t do a thing to stop it. It was all I could do not to puke on his running shoes.
“You don’t look like you’re okay,” he said. “Maybe go home, before the rest of the classes let out.”
My saviour was right. I was in my stupid gym shorts and his way-too-thin tee shirt, and those bitches who’d tossed me to the wolves were in the girls’ change room, waiting for me to return, so they could laugh at me some more.
So, I did what he said. Broke and ran all the way home.
I skipped the next three classes, and dropped out of gym the next day. And over the next three years I slowly oozed my way from a B student with a possible future to someone barely hanging on. But, I also had a boyfriend. I mean, you do whatever your saviour wants, don’t you? My saviour wanted to date me, shortly after the locker room incident, so I said yes. Gratefully.
Any guesses who my saviour was? Arnie Stillwell, stalkery ex-boyfriend extraordinaire. That’s who.
I TURNED AWAY from the locker room without going in. There was no way in the world I was walking through that door again. As I left the school, I decided not to take a brick—or anything—away from that place. I was glad it was being torn down. I just wished that there was a way I could blow it up, wipe it off the face of the earth all by myself.
But I didn’t have time to work out how to do that. I had to talk to my mom, first. About my dad and what he said.
As I threw the car into gear, I hoped I wasn’t going to wreck everything.
Just the school would have been enough.
Arnie:
Finally!
THE RED DOOR was new. Old lady Jenner must’ve painted it. I didn’t like it much, but it was better than the stupid fake dark green shutters. It was a trailer, for fuck’s sake. Who was she trying to kid?
I’d never actually been invited to the trailer. But I’d checked it out, more than once, when Marie lived here. I’d even dropped by a time or two after she left, just to make sure she was really gone. But I never had the guts to walk up to that door and knock.
“Laurel!” Roy called out his wife’s name and picked up speed down the walk. “I’m here to talk to you!”
“Hey, slow down,” I said. We were heading right for that red door, and I realized, almost too late to react, that Roy was going to step right through. “Shouldn’t we knock or something?”
“No,” Roy said. “We most definitely should not.” And then we were through the door and inside old lady Jenner’s trailer.
“Laurel!” Roy cried, swinging me around as he whirled, looking for his wife.
“Just a moment!” A female voice spoke, from a room down the hall.
Roy didn’t wait for whomever it was to come into view. “Where’s Laurel?” he cried. “I demand to speak to her, now!”
A skinny little old lady hobbled into view. She looked like warmed-over shit, but her eyes snapped angrily. “I take it you are Roy?” she asked, then frowned. “Are there two of you?”
She walked up to us and stared, hard. Her face softened in surprise.
“Well, I’ll be,” she said. “I’ve never seen that before.” She looked at Roy’s face. “Who is with you?” she asked. “I can barely make him out.”
“He doesn’t matter,” Roy said. “I want to speak to Laurel. Now.”
I had to say, I did not appreciate him saying I didn’t matter. So I snapped the last light string that was holding me to him and jumped away.
For a torturous second it felt like I wasn’t going to stay in the trailer. Everything wavered and shimmered, and I was pretty sure I was going to end up in Rosalie’s blood-soaked apartment, but I didn’t. I focused on the old lady’s face, and reached out to grab something—anything—that would anchor me to the trailer.
“How did you do that?” Roy and the old lady asked in almost perfect unison.
“I don’t know,” I gasped. I saw a small knapsack sitting next to the old lady’s couch. Somehow I knew it was Marie’s. Reached out with my mind—or something—and anchored myself to it. And I stayed. “But I’m here now, and I’m not leaving. Not before I see Marie.”
“Oh good grief!” Old lady Jenner’s mouth puckered angrily. “Are you Arnold Stillwell?”
> “’Fraid so,” I said, and smiled. “How do?”
“You have to leave before Marie returns. She isn’t ready to interact with you yet. You can understand that, can’t you?”
“I think we need to ask Marie about that,” I said. I sat on the couch, next to the knapsack, and felt even closer to Marie. “Where is she?”
“Not here,” the old woman said.
“Where’s Laurel?” Roy asked, his voice a high screech. “I need to see her. Now!”
“Laurel’s not ready to see you, either, Roy. Please. Can’t I convince you both to leave? I’d be happy to return to the cemetery. Meet you both there. We can discuss—”
“’Fraid not,” I said, settling right in. “It’s time for me and Marie to have a big old talk.” I looked at Roy. “Same for you?”
“You are correct,” Roy said. He didn’t settle in, not exactly. In fact, he sat like he had a stick up his ass or something, but at least he was sitting down. “Bring Laurel to me. This foolishness has to stop. It’s time for her to come home.”
I shut my mouth, content to let Roy work on old lady Jenner. I just wanted to wait until Marie showed up, now that I’d found a way to stay.
Worked like a charm, too. Especially when Laurel, who’d apparently been hiding somewhere, decided to make her big entrance.
She flounced into the room and glared at Roy. “I don’t want you here,” she said, then pointed at the door. “Go!”
Old lady Jenner didn’t look too pleased. “I thought you were going to let me handle this,” she said.
“I want him gone,” Laurel replied. “No more talking. He has to go.”
Jenner sighed big, like the whole business was tiring the shit out of her. “Fine,” she finally said. “We’ll do it your way.”
She turned to Roy and shrugged. “You heard her. She’s not ready to talk to you.”
“I don’t care,” Roy said. He stood—well, it was more like he levitated—and floated over to Laurel. “It’s time for you to come home.”
Then he reached out and laid hands on Laurel. I watched, fascinated by the way the tendrils of his light bound to hers so easily.
I had to learn that trick. I really did.
Laurel fought the binding, but it didn’t seem to do her any good.
“I don’t want to go with you,” she cried, as more and more of his light tied to hers, binding her to him so tightly she couldn’t move anymore. “Please, Sylvie, help me! I don’t want to go!”
I thought it was all over but the crying, to be honest. Looked to me like Roy had her and was going to drag her to the cemetery. But the old lady jumped into them—right into them!—and Roy’s tendrils of light began to snap off, one by one.
“Leave her alone!” the old woman cried. “Now! Or by God I’ll send you straight to hell!”
More and more of Roy’s light tendrils snapped, and this time it was Roy who cried out. Sounded like it hurt. Then he pulled away from the two women and staggered across the room.
“You can’t keep her here forever, you know!” he finally cried. “She belongs to me!”
Well, old lady Jenner didn’t react too kindly to that. She stood tall—well, as tall as a woman not five-foot-two could stand—and pointed at her front door.
“Get out,” she said. “Now.”
Roy slunk toward the door like a beaten dog, then glanced in my direction. “You coming?”
“Nah,” I said. “I’m good here.”
“Go with him,” old lady Jenner said. But I noticed she didn’t even try to walk toward me. Just stayed where she was, tied up in Laurel’s see-through body like she was holding the sobbing ghost upright.
“I’m not causing any harm,” I said. “Just sitting here.”
That was my plan. I was just going to sit in that spot and wait for Marie. And it woulda worked, too, if that shithead Lavall hadn’t shown up, wanting to know what was going on.
He came from somewhere in the back of the trailer, and I swear to God, if I could’ve figured out a way to kill him right there, I would have.
He was trying to steal my girl, after all.
But what burst out of my mouth was—“You killed me, you son of a bitch! You killed me!”
The words flooded out of me like they were the truth. And then I started to cry, which added to the whole “I’m not lyin’” vibe. The tears surprised me. I hadn’t cried much—at all—growing up, but there they were, dripping down my face and pattering all over the cheap lino that covered the floor of old lady Jenner’s trailer.
I looked at old lady Jenner—and I could tell she was buying what I was putting down.
“Is he speaking the truth?” Roy asked. “About that man?”
I don’t know if old lady Jenner even heard him, but Laurel did.
“He wouldn’t do such a thing,” she said. “He’s honourable.”
“I don’t think any of the people in this place are honourable,” Roy said. “Including the woman you are clinging to.” He took a step toward them, and then another when old lady Jenner didn’t react.
“I heard she helped the big one with the killing,” Roy whispered into Laurel’s ear. “Don’t trust her.”
Laurel turned her face away from Roy and burrowed even further into old lady Jenner. “Leave me alone!” she cried. “Quit telling me these lies!”
That was when old lady Jenner turned on him like a crazy guard dog. “That’s enough out of you,” she cried. “You are terrifying her, do you understand? Leave my house immediately! Do you hear me? Immediately!”
Roy looked horrified, and disappeared in a whirl of blue and grey. I boohooed even harder, but inside, felt nothing but joy.
Roy was on his own. It hadn’t worked out for him, so, fuck him. I had a plan and I was going to play it out and see what happened.
Old lady Jenner closed her eyes and dragged herself away from Laurel’s form a step or two. “You’re hurting me,” she said. “And he’s gone now.”
Laurel whimpered, but gave her some room. The old lady turned and gave me the eyeball. I wondered if she’d heard what Roy had whispered to Laurel, and whether I was in trouble. Decided to lay it on really thick, just in case, and boohooed a few more times.
She turned away from me and looked at James.
“What’s wrong?” James asked.
“I’m dealing with a bit of a situation here. Go to your room,” she said. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“But—” he said, like he was going to stick around and help or some shit. That was when she turned on him.
“I told you to go to your room, boy!” she yelled. “What don’t you understand?”
He looked at her with his frigging puppy dog eyes until I just wanted to kick the living shit out of him, but before I could move, he turned around and headed down the hallway. We all heard the door boom shut, and then old lady Jenner turned on me.
“What was Roy talking about?” she asked. “You tell me, right now.”
And I would’ve. The story—minus the part about her being involved—almost fell out of my mouth, and would have, if the door hadn’t opened at that moment.
Marie wandered in and then stopped, slack-jawed, right by the door.
“What is going on?” she asked.
It was a good question, since the trailer was chock-a-block full of ghosts at that moment.
Then she got a good—real good—look at me, and staggered and fell against the door.
“What’s he doing here?” she yelled at her mother. Then she turned on me. “Get out of this house!” she cried. “Leave my mother alone!”
Before I could say anything, old lady Jenner snapped to attention. “Calm yourself, girl,” she said. “He’s here for help.”
Then she looked at me, her eyes sharp, searching my face for a lie, so I put on my “sad puppy” face—that asshole James wasn’t the only one who could pull that off—and nodded at her. Kept my frigging mouth shut, because Marie was more apt to listen to her mother than she was
to me.
“You are here for help,” old lady Jenner said, pushing me to speak. “Aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” I said, trying to sound all overcome and shit. For a second, my lips twitched, and I was afraid laughter was going to burst out, but it was a sob, and I have to tell you I was just about as surprised as Marie looked at how real it sounded. “Please,” I said. “You gotta help me. I’ve been killed.”
I looked right into her eyes. “It was that James guy,” I said. Then I dropped down on the couch and buried my head in my hands. “He killed me. Help me prove it.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised at Marie’s reaction. After all, she could be a weak vessel where men were concerned, and that James guy was pretty far in her head, from what I’d seen.
She took a half-step toward me, and she looked like if she could’ve, she woulda killed me herself.
“You are a liar, Arnie Stillwell!” she cried. “Get out of here! Leave me and my mother alone!”
Stage Two
Hell Is Coming Home
Marie:
Face to Face with the Devil
HE WAS THERE. In my mother’s house. Waiting for me.
“Get out of here!” I pointed at Mom’s front door with a finger that shook so much it looked like I had palsy. “Get out now!”
“Marie, that’s enough.” Mom’s voice sounded calm—more or less—but it did nothing to get me to that same state.
“Why is he here? Did you bring him here? Did you do this?” I couldn’t take my eyes from Arnie, even though all he was doing was sitting on my mother’s couch and crying.
“Pull yourself together, girl!” Mom’s voice finally sank into my brain pan, past the fear and anger and loss that always surfaced whenever I even thought about Arnie. “This is not helping.”
I took a deep, shuddering breath in and then out. Tried to tear my eyes from Arnie’s sobbing face so I could look at my mother, but I couldn’t do it. He’d change, the instant I looked away. He always did. Just because he was dead meant nothing. Nothing.
