by Mettey, Tim
We sat in silence eating our food.
“Andy got our food for us for free?”
“Yes!” I said a little too loudly.
“Well, that sure was nice of him.” She smiled, but then went back to reading her planner.
We continued to eat in silence. Right when I had worked up the courage to tell her about my conversation with Andy, she said, “Nicholas, we are moving about two hours from our hometown this time. It’s a pretty nice town, and the school is incredible.”
The doorbell rang. Cora jumped to her feet, nearly knocking over her chair.
“Cora, it’s Andy,” I called to her before she reached the door.
“Andy’s here?” Cora asked as she opened the door. “Good evening, Andy. What can I do for you?”
“Hello, Ms. Keller. I’m here to take Nick out for, you know, one last night of fun!” His words were like fingernails going down a chalkboard, causing me to wince at each word.
“Last night of fun?” Cora said, sounding surprised. She opened the door wider so we could both stand in the doorway facing Andy.
“Mom, I told Andy that we’re moving.” I didn’t look at her, fearing that her look would turn me to stone.
“Yeah, we’re going to have a little party for Nick,” Andy chimed in.
Cora paused for a moment. It seemed like the longest couple of seconds of my life.
“Well, okay. You boys have a great time. Nicholas—”
I looked up at her.
“Make sure you are home by 5 a.m.” She smiled and winked.
“Don’t worry, Ms. K. I’ll get him home early enough.” Andy laughed, grabbed my arm, and pulled me out the door.
What just happened? Why didn’t she send Andy home and then lecture me about how she was just trying to protect me? This had to be some sort of test and I had just failed miserably.
Then something else popped into my head—we are moving two hours from our hometown. Cora is moving us closer to our hometown, the one place she insisted we always had to stay as far away from as possible. With the entire country to choose from, she chose a place only two hours away. What was going on? My head began to hurt thinking about Cora’s sudden change of personality and rules. I turned my attention back to Andy.
“I know you’re not having a party for me. You’ve only known I was moving for a couple of hours.”
“Did I say have a party? I meant crash a party!”
“Whose?”
“Marshall Jenkins!” He grinned mischievously.
“Wait a minute. He’s a senior, and the last time I checked, we were lowly freshmen.”
“We aren’t exactly going in,” he said with that same grin.
“So what are we going to do, just sit on the stairs and watch them? Oh boy, I think I’d rather pack.”
“Nick, leave it to me. We’ll have fun. Trust me!”
The night was extremely hot and muggy. The clouds that covered the sky trapped in the heat, making it unbearable for an August night. The humidity was stifling. The thick dark clouds hid the remaining light from the sunset and any light from the moon or stars. It became dark quickly.
The thirty-minute walk to Marshall’s house took a lot less time than usual because Andy would randomly ring the doorbell of houses, which resulted in a mad dash not to get caught. The darkness that the clouds provided helped, because before people answered their doors, we were running down the street, swallowed by the night. It was very childish, but fun. I had missed out on all of this type of stuff over the last five years.
Marshall’s house had cars everywhere—in the front yard, in the driveway, and up and down the street. All of the lights were on in the large two-story brick home. Andy ducked down and ran toward the back of the house. I followed him. Andy was hiding behind two large bushes along the back fence where the light of the house didn’t reach.
“So what now?” I whispered.
“I was just making sure they were all in the backyard.”
“Why?” I asked, not sure if I really wanted to hear the answer.
“Because when we smear this toothpaste on their car windows,” he said as he pulled out two tubes of wintergreen toothpaste from his pocket, “I don’t want any interruptions.” He handed me a tube and smiled like he was filming a toothpaste commercial. “It helps fight plaque and bad breathe and cleans even the dirtiest of senior trash.” He laughed and ran by me.
I followed him to the front where he started smearing the toothpaste all over the car windows. I pretended to smear toothpaste on some of the cars, but only the ones farthest away from the house and Andy. My stomach was hurting horribly, like I had an ulcer burning a hole in it. I was scared of getting caught, which I knew had something to do with how I was feeling.
Andy moved over to a car I recognized, Marshall’s black Mustang. Getting back at Marshall for all of the stuff he did to Andy over the years was the real reason why we were here. Getting to prank all of the other cars was a bonus. Andy hated Marshall. He had tormented him for years. And to make matters worse, they had been good friends and neighbors when they were younger.
Andy was like an artist moving around Marshall’s Mustang so fluidly, so gracefully, not missing a spot. The wintergreen paste made the car sparkle. I could smell its faint scent in the air. Then Andy started to put some type of round pink circles all over the car. I was too far away to tell what they were, and I was not about to get closer to find out. I ran back to the bushes at the side of the house to wait. A couple of minutes later, Andy joined me.
“What did you put on Marshall’s car?” I asked.
“Bologna!”
“What?”
“Bologna! I thought it would complement the toothpaste, and it did! You know bologna polka dots are the new rage in automotive design,” he whispered. We both laughed silently.
I turned my attention toward the party in Marshall’s backyard. I found myself envious of all those people having a good time together. How fitting. I was in hiding, watching everyone else live life to the fullest. Just like my life. Hiding . . .
Marshall had an incredible deck that covered the entire back of the house, a huge grill, and a hot tub that could easily fit twenty people. Beyond the deck was a regulation-sized basketball court, and beyond that was a huge lake. There was a dock with two large ski boats. Most of the party was either in the lake swimming or on the dock watching. Someone suddenly yelled, “Skinny dipping!” from the deck. A group of guys pulled off all of their clothes, ran naked toward the lake, and jumped off the dock into the water. A wave of laughing and screaming came from the lake.
Andy looked at me like he just had a brilliant idea with the light bulb still shining above his head. “I’m going for their clothes!”
Before I could stop him, he was over the fence. He was like a human vacuum, grabbing every piece of clothing he passed. He was halfway across the back deck when someone shouted, “Look!” from the dock. He was nearly to the other side of the yard by the time they started getting out of the water. He threw the clothes over the fence, hopped over, and disappeared.
I sprinted to the front of the house. Andy was running down the middle of the street, dropping clothes as he went. I ran up to Andy, grabbed him, and pulled him into a side yard a couple of houses down from Marshall’s. We slid down into a ditch. Andy was terrified. His face was frozen with fear and he was shaking violently. He was breathing hard, but not loud enough to drown out the angry screams coming from Marshall’s front yard. They had just seen their cars and they were mad!
“Let’s go!” Andy whispered to me in a shaky, out of breath voice.
“No,” I said. “We need to stay here to see which way they’ll go before we move.”
Cars began to leave one at a time. We waited for twenty minutes. Only two cars remained in the driveway when we finally popped our heads out of the ditch. Andy had calmed down, but he was still shaking.
The last two cars roared to life, and in front of them was a large group of guys. I c
ould barely make out how many there were from where we were hiding. This had to be the search party to track us down.
“We should have run when we had the chance,” Andy said. “We would have made it.”
“Maybe, but they would have seen us,” I said very confidently.
“What do you care? You are moving!” He was right. I would have been gone, never to see them again.
“Well, you were nice enough to throw this great going away party for me. I had to thank you in some way.”
Andy flashed a nervous smile. The engine of Marshall’s Mustang roared, sending a wave of panic through Andy. His expression changed back to fear, but I didn’t feel scared at all. I was calm. I was in complete control, but I didn’t know why. I was usually a worrier and this was definitely a time to worry.
The angry mob, minus the torches and pitchforks, got into the cars. Both of the cars went in opposite directions, very slowly down the street. I could feel Andy starting to get up. I easily pinned him down with my arm, making sure he didn’t try to run. He squirmed for a second and then stopped.
The car passed by us slowly. Beams of light came from inside the car searching for us. They were almost out of sight before I let go of him.
“Gosh, Nick, next time you want me to stay, just say so! There’s no reason to crush me,” Andy said, rubbing his chest.
“Sorry, I thought you were going to run for it and blow our cover.”
“Well, we better start running now before they come back!” he said.
All of the houses in Marshall’s neighborhood had fences in their backyards, so we could only run from front yard to front yard. Then we could duck into the woods at the end of his street.
“Nick, you have to admit that this is one night you’ll never forget.”
“Yeah, seeing you run down the middle of the street with those clothes was pretty funny. It looked like you had just robbed a laundromat!”
We stopped jogging after a couple of minutes and walked for a while, making sure to stay close to the fronts of the houses to try to stay hidden. Up ahead I saw the woods. We were only about ten houses away when I heard the familiar growl of Marshall’s Mustang behind us. We both began to run as fast as we could. If we made it to the tree line, we would be in the clear. The car was not far behind us, and they were gaining on us quickly. The car accelerated. I realized that they were not on the road anymore, but in the front yards. They didn’t want to catch us; they wanted to hit us!
Andy was now down by the street for some reason, making him an easy target. I was closer to the front of the houses. The car lunged forward to hit Andy. Suddenly my muscles tensed hard, jerking my body toward Andy with an incredible burst of speed. I was moving as fast as the Mustang, maybe even faster. I yanked him behind a large tree. In that moment, Andy’s body was like a rag doll. It moved without any resistance. He had no choice but to do as I wanted.
We kept sprinting toward the tree line. A second later, I heard a sound like an explosion. I turned to see that the car had hit the tree head-on. Pieces like shrapnel from a bomb went flying in different directions. The Mustang was wrapped around the large oak tree. They had swerved to hit us and hit the tree instead.
Andy had already made it into the woods. I stopped. I had to make sure they were okay. The Mustang’s doors swung open, and one by one everyone stumbled out of the car onto the lawn. No one looked really hurt; they had some scratches but that was it. Porch lights from several houses flicked on. I ran into the woods to find Andy.
“Hey, Nick! Over here!” He was leaning against a tree. “What were you thinking? Did you want to get caught?”
“No, I was making sure that they weren’t hurt.”
“Hurt? Are you kidding? They tried to kill us! Did that slip your mind?” He looked disgusted, then turned and started to walk.
We walked in silence for most of the way home. He was mad at me for checking on Marshall and his friends. I would have tried to make him understand, but I was preoccupied with wondering how I had saved him from getting hit by Marshall’s Mustang. The question lingered in my mind most of the way home. My muscles were still sore from the sudden explosion of speed.
Five minutes from my house, Andy stopped and turned to me. “Well, have a nice life, Nick. Stop by Rukker’s if you’re ever in the neighborhood.”
“Sure, if I’m in the neighborhood,” I said. He smiled and walked off.
I turned toward my house where I knew Cora would be waiting for me. The lecture about how I had broken the rules would be horrible. I wasn’t scared about being hit by the car, but walking through the front door made me sick to my stomach. Maybe I should have let the car hit me to save me from what lies ahead.
FACTORY
CHAPTER THREE
I opened the door very slowly, careful not to make a sound. I was praying Cora had fallen asleep while she was waiting to kill me.
“So how was your night?” Cora’s question sent me flying across the floor. “Wow! Someone’s jumpy!” Cora was standing in the kitchen door, staring at me with her arms crossed. I couldn’t tell if she was mad or not.
She turned and walked into the kitchen. I followed her. Cora was packing the last of the glasses into a box.
“We went over to Andy’s house,” I said.
“Well, that sounds fun, but I thought there was going to be a party.” She didn’t turn to face me. She just continued packing.
“Oh yeah, after Andy’s we went over to a friend’s house for the party.”
“Oh, okay. It sounds like fun. You should go up and try to get some sleep. I put your toothbrush in the downstairs bathroom, and the inflatable bed is already set up in your room.”
“Thanks,” I said, dumbfounded. I escaped to the bathroom and shut the door. Why didn’t I get in trouble? I thought as I was brushing my teeth.
The inflatable mattress was in the middle of my dark, empty room. It was comfortable, but I still couldn’t sleep. The ceiling was staring back at me as hard as I was staring up at it.
The next morning came too early. The alarm clock was buzzing a loud, obnoxious buzz. The clock on the floor said 4:30 a.m. Cora must have set it for me.
I was sick. I didn’t want to sit up too fast because I was sure I would throw up all over the floor. How come I was always sick? You would think that I’d get used to feeling this way, especially after waking up like this every morning for the last five years. I used to tell Cora about being sick, but it happened so frequently that I just accepted it as part of me and saved her from all the gory details.
The sickness forced me to lie very still, making me unable to move in fear of getting sicker. I searched along the side of the inflatable bed for the only thing that helped me feel better, the only way I could cope with this horrible morning curse. My hand hit something that made a familiar, soothing rattling sound. My Tic Tacs. I popped three into my mouth, and the cool mint flavor started to make me feel better almost instantly. I sat up. On the floor next to me I saw a pair of khaki shorts and my favorite orange Izod shirt that Cora had bought me before school started last year. She must have laid them out for me last night after she was done packing the kitchen. I put my clothes on slowly and deflated the bed, still feeling kind of sick.
I could smell Cora’s coffee brewing. The smell turned my stomach, making me feel worse, but I was used to it now after waking up to that smell for the last five years. I’m positive that Starbucks has made most of its money from Cora.
I tenderly ventured down to the kitchen.
“Hey, sleepyhead, how did you sleep?” Cora was leaning against the kitchen counter, drinking her coffee and looking over her planner.
“I don’t think I slept.”
“Do you want something to eat?” she asked.
The question turned my stomach, again making me grab a couple more Tic Tacs. “No, I’m fine, thanks.” She knew I was sick. That’s why I had a fresh pack of Tic Tacs next to the bed. She knew me well. “Cora, do we have anything else to put into
the truck?”
“No, I did it all last night. Just grab the stuff in your room and anything you have in the bathroom. I’ll grab the coffee maker, and we will be on our way.”
I walked back upstairs and got the deflated mattress, my clock, and the clothes I had worn the night before. I grabbed my toothbrush from the downstairs bathroom and walked out of the house. I didn’t notice last night when I was brushing my teeth, but I had used the same toothpaste Andy had used on the cars at Marshall’s party. This brought a smile to my face.
Cora was already outside. She was hooking up the light to the towing trailer for our old Ford truck. “Nicholas, just throw that stuff in the back of the moving truck.”
I shoved the stuff in the small space behind the passenger seat and walked back over to where Cora was standing. She took my hand, closed her eyes, and said in a whisper, “God bless this house and the people who will live here. Please guide us, and may we have safe travels to our new home.” She squeezed my hand and just like that, we were off. I always wanted to ask her why she prayed the same prayer, but I figured it was something between her and God.
We were leaving town right as the sun rose. The truck bounced every time it hit a crack. The constant jarring reminded me of how my mom used to rock me and sing to me before bed when I was small. I reclined my seat, put my feet up on the dash, and let the truck rock me to sleep.
I was suddenly surrounded by darkness, the same darkness that haunted all my dreams. It was a suffocating, never-ending pressure that covered my entire body, not allowing me to move. I was paralyzed as usual, but this time it was different. The darkness was the same suffocating pressure, but it was like a black smoke surrounding me, not the usual nothingness. I sucked the thick putrid smoke into my lungs. My muscles tensed to fight against it, to expel it out of my lungs. During my struggle, I could feel each muscle in my body pushing against the darkness, and there was a bitter acidic taste in the back of my throat. My lungs seized, and I spit the putrid smoke out, gasping for air.
“Nicholas, are you okay? Wake up! It’s just a dream, hon.” Cora was shaking me with her free hand. I took a deep breath. The truck air burned my lungs. I gagged, almost vomiting into my lap.
