Zax held one green head in his large hand and bit into it like it was an apple. The slightly bitter, earthy taste, along with the crunch, was just what his palate craved. He finished the cabbage in short order.
Instead of devouring the next one, he decided to rummage through the remains and find what else might still be worth eating.
Green onions grew like bushy grass down one row. The heads had all gone to seed, and the stalks were somewhat fibrous. A pungent odor emitted from one of the bulbs as he uprooted a few and squeezed it with his fingers. It was fresh enough to eat, but right now, Zax wasn’t in the mood for onions.
He discarded the green onions and discovered a row of turnips and carrots. Carefully unearthing the roots, he quickly found a turnip worth eating, as well as several carrots.
Brushing the dirt off the turnip the best he could, Zax then chomped into it. The turnip had a taste similar to the way the earth smelled that it grew in. Then, a peppery, somewhat aromatic flavor basked over his tongue. The taste was absolutely delightful.
After finishing the third turnip, he ate the carrots, and then his strange hunger felt satisfied for the first time since his arrival.
There was some leafy lettuce emerging in the new part of the garden. Curiosity more than desire motivated him over to it. The lettuce was delicate and didn’t offer a lot of flavors.
Deciding it was time to go, he brushed the dirt from his hands. Zax looked over at the farmhouse and wondered who lived there. The humble old house had seen better days as it sat underneath the glow of the moon.
Farms in the past often times had dogs. Thankfully, this farm either didn’t have any or the ones that were there were fast asleep. Nu-Mans and dogs didn’t get along at all. His blaster would easily end any threat an encounter might present. But he’d rather it not come to that. The noise would create too much attention, and Zax needed to remain hidden until the mission was complete.
His belly full and the end of the day pulling his eyelids toward sleep, Zax left the farm and headed to a cozy looking cave about an hour’s walk away. There were enough turnips and carrots remaining for him to make another trip if he so desired.
Chapter 16
Cole was in his room on the internet, scrolling through Daily UFO Sightings, a website devoted to the latest, greatest alien reports and a bunch of other pseudoscience topics. This site had been featuring photos from Mars taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover for the past several months. At first, some of the photos showed what could be construed as ancient artifacts of a remnant of civilization. Then some photos were interpreted as showing life of some sort. It started as fossil remains. One photo seemed to show an alien figure peeking from behind a large rock. Another showed a strange animal that was a cross between a lizard and a ferret. Another looked just like a crab. The funniest was the one that had what looked exactly like a squirrel. Cole laughed and laughed when he saw that one. Realistically, he didn’t believe any of the photos sent back from Mars proved anything about ancient life, or life of any kind for that matter, on the angry red planet. He still enjoyed perusing the photos, looking for the next big laugh.
KQKY played in the background. The DJ, Chunker, had a thing for the Alice Cooper band. “Under My Wheels” ripped from the radio speaker. Cole had listened to the words before and wondered if it was a revenge song from an angry lover. I'm driving right up to you; I guess that you couldn't see; But you were under my wheels. Sounded violent.
There were many songs with strange lyrics. Some didn’t seem to make any sense and were only put in to flow with the music. The strangest song of all he had heard was one named “Timothy.” Three guys were trapped in a mine with no food to eat. When they were finally rescued, there were only two. The singer lamented: Timothy, where did you go? And: God, why don’t I know? That was the only toe-tapping tune that sung of cannibalism he was aware of. Hopefully, there was either ketchup or mustard involved.
Three hard raps sounded in the distance. It came from the living room. Someone was at the front door. It was near 8:30 p.m. and a little late for visitors. Not that Cole’s dad had many friends come over on a school/work night to begin with. UPS usually dropped packages off in the back. His dad normally told him to be on the lookout for a package when he’d ordered something, and that hadn’t happened.
Cole rose and heard the same sequence bang against the front door a little faster. Whoever was there, was getting impatient.
“I’m coming, okay?” he said to himself.
A quick trip down the hall and into the living room brought him to the front door. The three panels of glass at the top of the door allowed him to see Brennon Davis had decided to pay him a visit. Great. Things were about to get real. Cole knew the day would come where he’d have to step up and face his adversary like a man or chicken out and be known as some weak loser.
Their gazes met through the window.
Brennon narrowed his eyes, and then looked past Cole to either side as if he was looking for someone else.
No, my dad’s not home. Butterflies took wing inside Cole’s stomach. How was he going to handle this? What if he just didn’t open the door? That was sure to work, but then he’d have to face Brennon at some point where there would be no door between them. Cole could only imagine the story Brennon would tell how Cole was too much of a pussy even to open the door.
His mind drifted back to a time when he was five. One of his front teeth was loose and destined to come out. He could wiggle it back and forth without much pain, but the root insisted on hanging on. The few times he tried to push it to the limit to get the root to break, the pain became unbearable, and he had to stop. By the third day, the tooth started to annoy him. He couldn’t even concentrate in class, because as he worked the tooth back and forth with his tongue, all he could think of was getting it out.
When he got home, his dad finally drove home the point that Cole just had to suck it up and yank it out in one swift, hard jerk.
Standing in front of the mirror by the bathroom sink, he did just that. The root breaking sounded horrible, and there was some momentary pain. He saw the tooth between his fingers, and blood dripped into his mouth. The experience hadn’t been nearly as bad as he had imagined, though. In fact, he’d wished that he’d done that sooner.
Cole again stood in front of a mirror; this one in his mind’s eye. It was time to rip out the proverbial tooth.
Taking a deep breath, he stiffened his back and raised his slumping shoulders. The door came open with a twist of the knob and a quick pull.
Brennon stood there dressed nicely but with the front of the right side of his shirt untucked, and looked down on him. The wind blew from the right, blowing long strands of blonde hair partially across his face. His eyes were red like they were irritated or he had been crying; with a wild uncertain look like a mixture of hurt and panic. Again, he looked past Cole and about the living room. “Where is she?” His words slurred a bit when they left his mouth.
Of all the questions Cole thought he might have to face, this was one he hadn’t anticipated. “What? Who are you looking for?”
“Don’t play dumb with me. Charlotte! Who else did you think I’d be looking for?”
Cole did feel a little stupid for not connecting the obvious dots. But the farthest thing from his mind was that Charlotte would be over at his house today. “Charlotte’s not here. Why would you think that?”
Brennon brushed the underside of his nose with a knuckle on his right hand. “She was here last night.”
“We had a science project together. Her mom brought her over here.” Things were going better than expected. Brennon seemed like he didn’t come here to settle a score.
“Are you telling me the truth? Because if you’re not, things are really going to go bad for you.” The way Brennon had said it, it sounded more like things were going to go bad for him if Cole were telling the truth.
“Seriously, man. Charlotte’s not here.”
Brennon wilted, looking like someone h
ad opened a valve and let all the air within him out.
Several seconds of silence passed. Cole thought about inviting him in but didn’t want to draw this encounter out any longer than necessary. He didn’t want to give opportunities for conflicts to arise. “I did speak to her earlier, on the phone.”
“You did?” Brennon said, sounding confused. “Where was she? What did you talk about? Did she say where she was going?”
“Look, uh, last night she said she’d like us to become friends. Get to know each other better, you know.” There, he said it. He wasn’t going to sugar coat the situation for Brennon’s benefit or his own, for that matter. There was now a reason for an ass-whipping to ensue, and he was just going to have to deal with it.
“Whatever.” Brennon raised his hands in front of his chest and spread them apart. “Can you tell me where she is?”
“Well, yeah. I was supposed to call her, later on, tonight, but she called me right after baseball practice and told me that she had to go to Amy’s house to study. We didn’t say a lot more than that. So, she’s over at Amy’s.”
Brennon’s head dropped back, and he closed his eyes and slowly shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense.” The words were low and meant only for himself.
“Have you tried to call her?” Cole asked.
“Yeah. The calls just go to voicemail. She did go to Amy’s, but she left before seven. Amy told me that.” Brennon sounded very tired at this point.
“How did she get home? Her mom is at the gym with my dad tonight.”
“She didn’t go home. I was going to come here first because I thought she was playing a trick on me. But then I decided to go by her house first. Nobody was home.”
The butterflies in Cole’s stomach vacated, leaving a hollow pit of dread and despair. “So, she left Amy’s on foot?”
“Yeah. She was going to meet me at the bus stop in front of that old baseball field in Amy’s subdivision. I got there at seven. She wasn’t there.”
Now the story was out in the open. Charlotte didn’t have any intention of studying at Amy’s. She was going to meet with Brennon, the day after she’d told him that she wanted to change her old self-destructive ways. But none of that mattered one little bit right now. “So, what? She’s missing? Tell me she’s not missing,” Cole said, his voice panicked.
“I don’t know what’s happened to her.” Brennon sighed deeply. “I’ve run the scenarios in my head a million different ways. Maybe she changed her mind about meeting me tonight. Called another friend or called maybe even Uber. But if she did, she didn’t go straight home.”
“What should we do? Call the police?”
“I don’t know what we should do. She’s really not missing at this point. It’s only been about two hours since she left Amy’s. I was hoping that maybe she was with her mom, but you said Mrs. Meadows was with your dad.” Brennon brought a finger to his mouth and began to chew on a nail.
The breeze changed directions and blew in a slight hint of alcohol to Cole’s nose. “Hey, man. You been drinking?”
“So what if I have?” Brennon said, his eyes half-open.
“You’re not old enough to drink, you big doofus. If the coach finds out, you’ll get kicked off the team. You might even be expelled from school,” Cole said. If Brennon had been drinking, was there something the boy might be hiding from him? Brennon did seem genuinely upset, though. Cole was just so confused right now he couldn’t control the direction of his thoughts.
“The last thing I’m worried about right now is baseball,” Brennon said. Whatever funk he had taken refuge in appeared to have ebbed. “I’m just wasting my time here now.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m not sure, right now.”
“You need to call her mom.”
“I don’t have her number. Do you have it?”
“No, I don’t. But my dad’s with her at the gym. I can call him. Come in and close the door,” Cole said and headed for the kitchen without waiting for Brennon to respond.
He picked up the telephone and dialed his dad’s number. The call connected on the second ring.
“Hey Cole. What’s up?”
“Dad, are you still with Charlotte’s mom?”
“No, I’m on my way home now. Why?”
“Uh, I wanted to know if you had her phone number?”
Mark Rainwater nervously chuckled. “No, I don’t. I…I haven’t had the nerve to ask her for it yet. Why do you want her number?”
“A friend of mine called and asked if I had it. So, I thought I’d ask you.” Cole did his best not to open the door for more questions. And, so far he hadn’t lied either.
“Well, sorry, I don’t. Is something wrong?”
“Not that I know of, dad. Look, I gotta let them know you don’t have it. See you when you get home.”
“Okay, bye.”
“Bye.” Cole pushed the off button on the phone and set it on the counter. He turned to Brennon, who stood in the front foyer, being careful not to encroach into the living room. “He doesn’t have it. But, he’s on his way home. I expect Charlotte’s mom is going home too.”
“Yeah.” Brennon bit down on his bottom lip. “I guess the right thing to do is go over there and see if Charlotte’s at home. If not, I’ll have to tell Mrs. Meadows the whole story.”
“Man, I hope you’re blowing this way out of proportion. Maybe Charlotte’s at home and hid from you when you came by. Maybe she’s not answering her phone because she stood you up and didn’t want to deal with it right now.”
“Maybe, and I hope you’re right. But that’s just not the Charlotte Meadows that I know.” Brennon pointed at Cole. “If she calls you, you’ll call me and let me know, right?”
“Sure, man. But promise me that if you find out where she is, you’ll call me.”
“What’s your number?”
“Three-two-six; three-four-two-eight.”
Brennon pulled out his cellphone and punched in the numbers. Coles cellphone rang in his bedroom. “There, now you have my number.” He turned and opened the door, showing himself out without another word spoken.
Cole watched the red Mustang GT back out of his driveway and onto the street. The GT’s tires spun and slightly shrieked as it shot out of the hole.
Blonde haired, blue eyed baby Jesus. Please let Charlotte be okay. It took a few seconds before Cole realized the irreverence of his mindless prayer. Then, he figured that God was big enough to understand his state of mind and would forgive him. A loving God would do that.
*
Cole was on the internet searching various social media pages of Charlotte and some of her closest friends, looking for clues as to her whereabouts. So far, all he found were the usual narcissistic ramblings people posted in order to attain a measure of relevance to the rest of the other nine billion people on the planet.
The rumble of his dad’s truck engine came from the carport and died. Cole sprung from his chair and made a beeline for the kitchen.
His dad entered with gym bag in hand and hung the truck keys on the keyhook on the wall. Cole’s thoughts must have been written on his face, because his dad asked, “What’s wrong?”
Cole didn’t really want to go into it all. A big part of him thought he and Brennon had overreacted to the situation. If Charlotte was okay and playing some sort of mind game with Brennon, this could turn around and get her in trouble for lying to her mother about going to study at Amy’s. Yes, Cole was well aware that Charlotte had lied to him too. He could forgive her of that, if her story was trustworthy enough. But he didn’t want to get her in trouble. The relationship was too fresh to let something that small derail the whole thing.
“Cole?” his dad said, cocking his head to the side and giving a wary eye.
“Sorry, Dad. I hope it’s nothing.”
“Okay, me too. Now, what’s going on?”
After a deep breath, Cole said, “The reason I called you earlier for Mrs
. Meadows’ phone number, was to give it to Brennon Davis.”
“I thought he and Charlotte had broken up?”
“Yeah, but they were supposed to meet tonight. It’s a long story we don’t need to go into. Charlotte lied to her mom about where she was going tonight. When Brennon went to pick her up, she wasn’t there. Brennon wanted to call her mom to find out where she might be.”
“She certainly wasn’t with us tonight. Did you try looking online for Lori’s phone number?”
“Yeah, but the one I found didn’t work.”
Mark sat the gym bag on the floor and rubbed his chin. “So what you’re really saying is that no one has heard from Charlotte for a few hours.”
“Just a little more than two.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Mark said, “Son, I don’t think you have a lot to worry about. When men and women, or boys and girls, have problems, all kinds of things can happen. This sounds more like a boy-girl thing than anything bad happening to Charlotte. I mean, it’s only been a couple of hours. Don’t you think you and Brennon are overreacting a bit? You’re both emotionally involved with her.”
Leave it to his dad to always look on the bright side of things. Still, his words did bring relief to the wild fears Cole’s mind had grown and nurtured. “You really thinks she’s okay? When Brennon went to pick her up, she wasn’t there.”
“Cole, the mall is still open. There’s a good chance she had someone else pick her up and take her there. I don’t think you should worry yourself sick thinking that she’s missing.”
“I guess so,” Cole said, trying to make himself believe only that.
“Why don’t you go and get ready for bed? In the morning you’ll see things through different eyes.”
“Okay, Dad. I will.” Cole started to leave, but then said, “Oh, how was the gym? Did you like it?”
Mark’s face brightened. “Yeah, I did. It was good to get out and be around other people. There were a lot of people there around my age. Man, that Lori Meadows is in good shape. She can ride a stationary bike for forty-five minutes straight. I had to give that up after fifteen minutes.” He rubbed his inner thighs. “That seat is going to take some getting used to.”
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