by T. Nixon
Simon looked at him for a few seconds and said, “I was invited.”
Brads face was hard as stone, his jaw clenching as he started Simon down. The remark seemed to hit a nerve. After a few seconds of silence Brad burst out in an angry laugh, turned and started walking down the barn isle. “We’ll see how long that lasts,” he called over shoulder.
We watched until we were sure he was gone and then turned and looked at each other. He was smiling, of course, while I stood there in shock, trying to figure out what weird full moon had taken over the people I once knew.
“I- I’ve never seen him like that,” I stammered.
“It’s ok,” Simon said pulling me to his chest. “It’s not your fault. He’s just being a papa bear.”
“He not though,” I said pulling away a bit so I could look at his eyes. “I’ve known him as long as I can remember, and he’s never been anything but sweet.”
He pulled me back into him. “People change, Victoria, even when we don’t want them to. Sometimes they have a reason and sometimes…” Through his chest I could hear a sadness. It was slight but so different from his usual charm. I wondered if he was thinking of his Uncle Chester. If he had been happy once, maybe even fun.
“I guess,” I replied, my voice heavy with doubt, “but Brad has never been this way until now.”
“Give the bloke a break,” he said looking into my eyes. I looked back at him for a few seconds before looking away, still doubtful. He didn’t know Brad like I knew Brad. I had known him all my life!
WE WERE fortunate enough to go about the rest of our afternoon without further interruptions but no matter how hard I tried I was on guard. I tried to enjoy my time with Simon but the encounter with Brad would not leave me, it would not be put on the back burner.
When the time came to say goodbye I suggested we go back to meeting at the tree. I could tell he wanted to protest but I wasn’t having it. There was too much strangeness going on around the farm, there was no point in meeting him at all if I couldn’t stop waiting for the next surprise visitor. He finally agreed after some convincing, kissed me gently goodbye, his hand cradling my face, and walked off into the woods.
I walked through the barn and made sure everything was in order for the evening. When I felt good that the horses had what they needed, I switched off the light and slid the door open where I nearly ran into AJ. My heart beat hard in my chest as the adrenaline flowed from the startle.
“You scared me,” I said as I tried to calm myself down.
“Oh, sorry,” he said distractedly. He did not make eye contact, instead brushing by me and into the utility room.
“Hey!” I called after him. He did not respond. I waited several minutes for him to emerge and tried again when he stepped into the aisle. “AJ,” I said firmly.
“What’s up Vic?” he asked with a hint of annoyance. “I’m in the middle of something.”
“Brad was acting very weird today. He came in here and was being very,” I searched for the right word, “aggressive to Simon.”
“Sounds like he doesn’t like him,” he retorted.
“It was weird,” I said with exasperation in my voice. Surely AJ would understand? “I doesn’t matter if he doesn’t like him, I’ve never seen Brad be rude like that. It was not like him.”
“I don’t know what to tell you Vic,” he said impatiently. “A lot of people didn’t like Alyssa, sometimes that’s how it goes.” This time he made direct eye contact. Message received AJ.
He walked past me, clearly the conversation was over. Frustration turned to anger. “You said yourself he was different AJ,” I called after him, not caring who heard. “I didn’t stop caring because of Alyssa,” I added. I saw his head turn a little but he didn’t break stride. He just kept walking, pretending he hadn’t heard me. Asshole!
I grabbed the barn door handle and pulled it shut as hard as I could, grunting as I did so. I stomped all the way back to the house, pounding out my anger on the gravel and then up the stairs to the back door. I yanked the door open and then closed it hard behind me. I stopped suddenly when I saw Cherry’s stunned face looking at me from near the sink.
“Oh, Vic!” Cherry startled. “Is everything ok?”
“No!” I responded automatically. “I don’t know what’s gotten into everyone around here but Brad is being rude and AJ’s being a jerk and I’m sick of it!” I stopped and took a few hard breaths.
I glanced at Cherry, her face held an expression of mixture of shock and curiosity. Then it hit me that I had just thrown a tantrum in front her! Immediately I felt a knot in my stomach, I looked at the ceiling and shook my head as if doing so would erase this whole day.
“Let’s talk about it,” she said as she walked to the table. She pulled out a chair for me and then sat down herself.
I sat down reluctantly. My anger still burned, and I was in no mood to be polite.
“AJ I can understand, but I would like to know what’s going on with Brad,” she said with a tinge of concern, “I don’t want him being rude to guests.”
“He’s just probably looking out for me,” I parroted Simon even though my gut told me that wasn’t the case. “Why would AJ be ignoring me? I haven’t done anything to him?” I couldn’t hide the accusatory annoyance in my voice.
“AJ has been dealing with his own things,” she said calmly and patted my hand dismissively. “Tell me more about what Brad said.”
I sighed and gave her a short version of what happened in the barn. I was able to stop myself from telling her about all the other weirdness but that was mostly because I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. Now I was exhausted and really just wanted to take a bath and lay down. Cherry studied me a minute, chewing the inside of her lip, her mind at work.
In the silence I decided this was as good a time as any to excuse myself. “I’m sorry for storming in here the way I did, I’m just frustrated and tired. If it’s ok with you I think I’m going to take a bath and try and relax.”
She regarded me a minute before nodding and giving me a forced smile. Something was calculating in her mind, but I did not have the capacity to care. I just wanted to be alone. I felt bad for being rude, for getting so upset about everything and also, for not caring as much as I should about it all.
Upstairs I soaked in warm bath. I turned on the overhead fan and let the water run a slow steady trickle just to mask any noise that might occur in the house. I didn’t let myself think about anything. I focused on how the water felt, warm, soothing softness. I focused on the sound of the water falling from the faucet into the filled basin of the tub. I watched the water ripple. It seemed to move in slow motion. As the water moved in tiny waves towards the edge of the tub my mind wandered to thoughts of AJ.
I thought of us as kids; running through the grapevines playing a version of hide and seek. We would laugh and run and fall into a pile of two. We rode our bikes on the quiet twisted roads of the mountains- once even riding all the way to town. Nothing was weird then. We would argue over normal kid stuff like cartoon plots. His hair was always short then. Closely trimmed to hide his curls. So much had happened in a few short years, it made being a kid with AJ feel like a lifetime ago.
◆◆◆
THE REST of the evening was quiet. Cherry had called up the stairs to tell me goodnight, but it felt like an afterthought. Not that I minded, I wanted to be left alone. My threshold for drama was higher than I wanted, especially after coming from a normal family.
After a night of fitful dreams, I awoke to a bright sun. Out of habit, I reached for my cell phone to check the time. I slapped my stupid, no signal receiving phone on the nightstand and laid there for a few minutes. After a little bit I managed to force myself to get up, threw on my usual uniform of faded jeans, my favorite Billie Eilish t-shirt, and pulled my hair into a ponytail. I went through my morning routine- teeth, face wash, and a peek out the window. The yard seemed ominously quiet. It wasn’t unusual as most of the workers were busy by this ti
me of the morning, but for some reason, it seemed extra quiet.
I shrugged off my feeling and went downstairs. Cherry wasn’t around, not that I was surprised. I made some toast and headed out to the barn. While doing my chores I kept looking over my shoulder, feeling like I was hearing things when nothing was there. I chocked it up to hyperawareness due to everyone acting so strange.
When the time came to meet Simon, I wandered up the path. As I was getting close, I thought I heard shouting. I stopped in order to hear better but there was nothing. In any case, my steps got a little quicker and I tried to tune my ears to sounds outside of the leaves crunching underfoot. Just as I was about to get to the break in the trees where they opened up to the meadow, I heard a definitive shout. This time I ran, as I knew there was something going on, and it sounded like it was coming from near the tree.
What I saw when I hit the meadows edge stopped me in my tracks. Brad was stalking Simon around the tree. He was about to say something when I started running towards them yelling at Brad to stop.
“I’m warning you,” Simon said with anger in his voice and hard eyes.
“Warning me what?” Brad asked with a crazy laugh. “You think I’m scared of you kid? Your family has ruined my life!”
“What are you talking about?” I yelled.
Brads eyes turned to me. His mouth curled into a snarl as he said “how could you associate with a Harris? After all I’ve done.” He shook his head in disgust. He was crazy haired and wild eyed. His face was a deep red and breath smelled strongly of gin.
“What are you talking about?” I yelled with heavy breaths.
Brad spat “this has nothing to do with you,” and shoved me out of the way. The force of his push knocked me off balance and as I tried to recover my foot caught on a protruding root and I fell sideways to the ground. Immediately I felt pain shooting through my right ankle which was still lodged under the root.
Simon threw himself at Brad, knocked him down and they rolled a few feet. Simon was quicker than Brad, straddled him and lodged a punched before springing away like a deer. I watched, feeling helpless, as Brad rolled over, lifted himself onto his hands and knees and began crying as he crawled to a mound of dirt near the base of the tree.
He cried several deep sobs before sitting back on his heels, grabbing up handfuls of soft dirt and pine needles as he did. Simon slowly backed towards me as Brad let out an animalistic scream, his mouth to heavens, fists clenching tightly with dirt forcing its way through his fingers. “I give up!” he yells to the sky, then sobs some more. “You win, James,” he says while closing his eyes. “I’m so tired of fighting a losing battle with you,” he says while pounding the ground, “and you’re dead! You’re dead and you still keeping winning.” He clawed at the dirt.
Simon helped me untangle my foot and held my arms while I scooted over to lean on the tree. A terrible pain shot through my entire leg though my ankle and foot are numb. Simon held tight to me.
“I gave my life to Cherry and she would have given me hers if you hadn’t come along,” he yelled at the dirt. “You wooed her with fantasies of the farm and travel. But who was there when you were off in your other life? Huh!?”
I felt Simon tense every muscle, as if he was a cat preparing to strike. I looked at him, but he was laser focused on Brad. His eyes were nervous and his breathing quick.
“I got used to you because Cherry never shut me out of her life. I hated seeing her with you, but as long as I could still be around her I was ok. And it broke my heart to see her happy with you. When you were around!” he pounded the earth, allowing his anger and pain to flow through his arm, his fist, and into the dirt. “She didn’t worry when you were gone when you flitted off to that- that place. But she should have! Oh yeah, you didn’t think I knew the truth about you, did you?” Brad laughed maniacally. “Of course I did! I knew everything that went on with Cherry.
“I only wanted to keep her safe. To keep her from getting hurt. Even if she didn’t love me the way I loved her.” A sob filled his throat for a moment, and then the rage returned. “When your trips to the other world got more frequent, I knew what was coming, even if Cherry didn’t. There was no way I could let you break her heart.
“I had to, I had to,” Brad cried. His eyes turned towards us, blurry with wet, his face and hands covered in dirt, his left eye swollen and red. “He was leaving all the time doing who knows what, WITH who knows who,” he pleaded. “Nothing but pain has EVER come from knowing James Harris! I made the pain go away,” his shoulders drooped. “I just made it go away.”
Simon and I were motionless. The shock of what we witnessed had us frozen. It took a few seconds before I realized I wasn’t even breathing. I looked at Simon who’s eyes were narrowed, jaw hard with clenched teeth as he listened to Brad confess to murdering James Harris. I swallowed hard, unable to speak. Suddenly, so much made sense. Why Brad was out of sorts since the day I discovered the meadow. And why he hated Simon, a relative of James, and resented me for bringing him around the farm.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Brad move.
He was raising his head, lifting his shoulders. Gone was the blubbering of a few seconds before. In its place was an animal with nostrils flared and eyes filled with hate as he realized he had unleashed his biggest secret. Before I could process what was happening Brad was on his feet and lunging towards us.
With equal quickness, Simon shot up and ran off to the right. Whatever plan he had failed as Brad did not follow him but instead ran to me, grabbed me up with barbaric strength and locked his arm around my neck. I felt the tightening below my head and searing pain in my leg all at once. I struggled, clawed at his arms and hands but every movement I made only increased his grip.
Everything instantly slowed down. In this state of slow motion I saw Brads face, red and sweaty with the effort it took to take my life. Visions flashed behind my eyes, though I could still see him. As my chest heaved for air and my hands clawed at his I felt myself growing weaker and weaker.
It felt like forever before Simon intervened, though I’m certain it was immediate. Brad was knocked off balance, taking me with him and tightening his grip even further. I heard yelling, from within Brads chest and also from without. I closed my eyes and heard a violently loud crack. In my mind’s eye I saw AJ’s face as it had look when we were about to kiss in the meadow. I heard him say my name. Then all went black.
THIRTEEN
Islowly blinked my eyes open. It took several seconds to realize I was not still in the meadow. The room was dark, only the glow of a corner lamp helped my eyes adjust from blurry to clear. I focused on a wooden beam running across the ceiling and realized I was on the living room couch. Was it all a dream? I lifted my head to sit up and immediately regretted it. I reached a hand up to rub my aching neck. Even the slightest pressure hurt. As if getting a cue from my head a dull ache began to emanate from an ankle, slowing crawling its way up my leg.
I heard hushed talking from the kitchen, one voice I recognized and two that I didn’t. I strained to listen better but could only pick up a few words that indicated Cherry was talking to the police. Again? Hadn’t we just been through all that? I groaned.
“Oh! She’s awake, who wants to go check on our patient?” Cherry said. Her voice reminded me of the day we left my home in Sacramento. Smooth but garnished with gravel.
Both Simon and AJ responded in the same instant. I couldn’t see what was happening, but I heard two sets of footsteps on the creaky old barn wood floor. I opened my eyes as Simon kneeled beside me. AJ stopped at the foot of the couch. Simon brushed my hair back.
“What happened?” I asked.
“It was AJ,” Simon said while turning to look at AJ. “He showed up just in time.”
“AJ?” My head was still fuzzy.
“Yep,” AJ stated bluntly. I couldn’t see him but based on the tone I imaged he was stone faced.
“What? How?” I was having trouble understanding how it all came togeth
er.
“I didn’t like the way Brad had been acting,” AJ replied. “He was so quick to get mad about things, and man, he hated Simon. It just wasn’t like him. The way he would talk about you sometimes…” his voice trailed off. “Anyway, I saw you heading up the trail and,” he swallowed, “I followed you.”
The room was quiet. “I watched the whole thing from behind a log. Brad admitting he killed Mr. Harris,” he paused. “I can’t believe it,” his voice cracked. I realized Brad had been a big part of AJ’s life, and I ached for how painful all this must have been for him. “I saw him attack you and I just grabbed the nearest thing I could find and ran.”
“He knocked him out,” Simon added. “And not a moment too soon.”
I tried to sit up so I could see AJ’s face. As I rose my head grew fuzzy and throbbed. I had no choice but to lay back down with a groan.
“Ok,” said Cherry, her candy coated voice floating across the room. “I think it’s time we let her rest.” She appeared right next to me, bent down and placed her hand on my cheek. “I’m just so happy you’re ok,” she said with a tremble in her voice. “There is a lot for all of us to process and the police will want to ask you some questions.” She ran her hand over my hair and then stood up.
“Simon, you’ll sleep here tonight, we have plenty of extra rooms,” she said.
“If it’s ok with you I would prefer to stay close to Victoria,” Simon replied.
Cherry considered for a moment and then said “sure. I’ll bring you a pillow and some blankets.”
“Ma’am?” a voice said from the kitchen. One of the officers I presumed. Without a word Cherry went into the kitchen to speak with them.
“I better get going,” AJ said, his voice had returned to stone.
“Wait,” I called to him and reached out my hand. He hesitated before he walked over and tentatively placed my hand in his. “Thank-you, AJ,” I said quietly. His hand tightened, strong and secure. I had a vision of that hand in a monster grip around a piece of wood, striking Brad and saving me from death.
