by Megan Linski
*
Toledo is a beautiful city, but Marcus happened to live in the most disgusting part of it. The only reason I know where he lives is because Rosemary had to drop off something at his apartment a long time ago. I remember I wouldn’t let her go alone. Thank God he wasn’t home so we had to leave it on his doorstep. But hopefully this time, he would be.
I stopped my car in front of the dilapidated apartment building. I’m pretty sure the only neighbors Marcus has here are the rats. The sky is overcast, grey, making the crumbling hole with the broken windows and wrecked doors look even more disgusting.
I swing my backpack over my shoulder and climb the dirty carpeted stairs, going to door number 6. I raise my hand to knock, but then pause. It was unbelievable that the city still allowed people to live in these conditions. Was he even still here?
I had to try. Hammering my fist upon the door, I cry, “Marcus! Open up, or I’ll bust this door down!”
“You can go ahead and try, boy, but you can’t break that door anymore than it already is,” Marcus says through the wood, and a fury rises within me when I hear his voice. I want nothing more than to take and beat him, but I can’t afford to lose my temper. Not now.
“You need to let me in. It’s important,” I say, trying to keep the anger out of my voice.
“If you’re asking about the girl, I told police I don’t know where she is! Now go away!” He’s lying so badly you can hear it through the door.
“I’ve got something for you,” I say, and I shake my bag. A clinking sound rings within. “I’ll make it worth your while.”
There’s a pause. Then the door unlocks and Marcus glares at me, his face red as a tomato. “Now you listen here, boy,” he says, and his eyes glance to my bag. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do-”
“I just want to make a bargain,” I say. I shake the bag again and the clinking makes his eyes widen. “Get in so I can shut the door,” he grumbles and I oblige, making sure I have a tight grip on the bag.
I didn’t think anything could look as terrible as the outside of the apartment, but I was very wrong. Ragged curtains darken each part of the room, illuminating couches with rips and holes, tiles ripped up from the floors to reveal stains and what looks like a pile of week old vomit in the corner. Bottles and cups lie everywhere, along with cigarette butts and rotting food. A television mindlessly blasts public television, flickering in and out every few seconds. A horrible smell, one of mildew and mixed human odors, reaches my nose and I nearly gag. But I breathe through my mouth lightly and say, “I know that you know what happened to Rosemary. It’s written all over your face. The cops might have not been able to get it out of you, but I will. And I’m not leaving till I get answers.”
“I told you, I don’t know anything. If that’s what you came here for, you’re wasting your time,” He sits himself down on a mouse-chewed lounge chair and burps, wiping off his snotty nose.
“We both know that’s not true.” I put my backpack on the table and unzip it, slowly pulling out five bottles of...
“Liquor,” I tell him, and immediately I’ve got his attention. “Made in the 1920’s. Unopened, unused. Still has the dust on it.”
“Where’d you get that?” Marcus asks in a whisper, acting like I’ve found the Holy Grail.
“Never mind how I got it. It’s all yours, if you can tell me where Rosemary is.” I turn the bottles towards him and wait, leaning on the table.
He licks his lips. He then looks away, saying, “You might as well leave that here. I don’t know what happened to her and I don’t care, and you’ll get in trouble if you take that back with you. You’re underage. I’ll call the cops.”
“I don’t give a damn what happens to me,” I say viciously. I take a bottle and throw it against the floor. It bursts open, splattering liquor and glass everywhere. Marcus screams, throwing his hands up in the air. “What did you do that for? That was one of the best makes!”
I lift up another bottle. “I’ll keep doing it until you tell me where Rosemary is!”
“You ain’t getting nothing outta me,” he hisses through his teeth. I smash another bottle and he lets out another scream.
Sweat starts forming on my neck. I’m running out of bottles. If this doesn’t work, I’m sunk. I break the neck of a bottle and take a drink right in front of Marcus. It burns my throat, makes my eyes water and tastes disgusting. I have no idea why he wants it so much. But then with Marcus maybe he’s drank so much that he needs something this powerful just to feel it go down, just to feel alive. “Good stuff,” I say, shoving down a cough. “Wouldn’t you like a drink? No? Guess not.”
I go to tip over the bottle, start spilling it all over the floor. But before I can let one drop fall, he bursts, “Alright! Alright, give me one drink! One drink! Then I’ll tell you!”
“You’re not getting anything until I know! Now tell me!”
“ALRIGHT!!!” he roars. He jumps off the chair and says, “Jack called me up last week one evening.”
“Jack? Your brother?” I say, and my heart starts pounding.
“Yes. He told me he was coming back to Lousdale, to get his daughter back,” Marcus growls, not taking his eyes off the booze.
“Do you know where he’s headed?” I ask.
“Not sure. But if I had to guess, it’d be back to Detroit.” He looks at me. “That’s all I know, no lie. Now are you gonna keep your word?”
I’m already starting to head out the door. “Thanks for the info. It’s all yours.”
“You’d better watch yourself, boy!” Marcus calls after me as I shut the door. “Jack doesn’t mean to hurt nobody, but he’s the craziest mother you’ll ever meet this side of Lake Michigan. You’d be better off running away from him than towards! Forget about your girl. There ain’t no woman that special.”
“I guess you wouldn’t know.” I slam the door and then start running down the steps back to my car. Rosemary was with Jack, which meant that she was still alive and that he didn’t want to hurt her. But the longer Rosemary was with him, the greater the chance that he would lose control, which meant I had to find her. And it had to be fast.
Chapter Four
He had to pick the rest stop in the middle of nowhere. Away from the highway, surrounded by nothing but flatland, making it impossible to hide. It consisted of nothing but two bathrooms and a vending machine. I was on my own.
“Be quick,” Jack told me as he uncuffed my hands and turned into the men’s bathroom. “We have to leave soon.”
I shook my hands, grateful to have the cuffs off, slipping off my jacket to put it on the bench beside the door. I nodded at him and pretended to head into the women’s room.
Once the door shut behind him as he went into the men’s, I bolted. I got out the door, spinning in circles. Nothing but flat farmland. It was a horrible place to run. But I had to try. I headed to the car, opened the driver’s door and looked for the keys. No good. He wasn’t that dumb. The highway was a mile off. Could I make it?
I had no option. Running as fast as I could I turned towards the interstate and started booking it. My breathing was already labored from my fear, and my lungs swelled up in my chest, fit to burst. What would happen if he caught me?
Don’t think that. This is just like racing with Noah, I thought, and as I remembered his name a pang shot through my heart. Me and Noah are just having another race, and he’s right behind me. He’s not going to win this time. He’s not going to win.
That wasn’t Noah behind me. But Noah was faster than Jack, and I could run almost as fast as he could, which meant maybe I could beat him. I push my body faster and faster, leaping off of my toes to make my strides longer. As the highway nears, I feel a bit of hope. Can I make it?
“ROSEMARY!”
The roar of the dragon rings in my ears and I cry out as I stress my body to its limits. I glance behind me, see the flaming red eyes, the yellowed teeth clenched in fury. Go, go, faster, faster! Don’t let him catch you
!
Jack is gaining on me. He’s faster than I thought. “Please, no!” I scream, and I put on one last burst of speed but it’s no use. I’m exhausted. Before I know it the weight of the entire world is tackling me down to the ground and slamming me into the dirt.
“Get off me!” I scream. I slap him across the face, hard, and then try to dig my nails into his eyeballs. It does no good. He grabs me and pulls me to my feet, keeping a firm grip. “Stop this! Stop this right now!” Jack starts shaking me roughly. “You stop!”
It feels like an earthquake is running through my body. I hear things crack as he jolts me back and forth. I feel as if my neck will snap. “Are you done trying to run? Are you done?”
I let out a whimper and he stops shaking me, breathing erratically. Sweat is running down his face and he grabs the back of my neck, saying, “Do you think I’m that stupid? Do you honestly think that I’m an idiot? I knew you were going to try and escape!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” I say, terrified he’s going to shake me again, and this time do permanent damage. “I had to!”
“You don’t have to do anything but stay put, that’s all I ask of you,” he hisses. “I should’ve known better than to trust you. Not yet.”
“What are you going to do? Keep me prisoner until I give in? I won’t!” I say, shouting into his face.
He starts dragging me back towards the car. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Rose.”
“Is that a threat?” I ask as he opens the passenger door.
“I’m not trying to hurt you,” he says, bracing himself against the door. “But I don’t think you understand the situation. Things aren’t what you think they are. You need a reality check.”
“Excuse me? I’m the one that needs a reality check?” I ask him. “You’re the crazy maniac who kidnapped me. Don’t even go there.”
“We’re not discussing this anymore. We’re done.” Jack reaches over, brings out a menu and throws it on my lap. “Here. We’re going to get dinner. I hope you’re hungry.”
I look at the pamphlet and roll my eyes, crumpling it up and throwing it out the window as the car starts to roll. “I’d rather starve before I’d eat anything you gave me.”
“I wish you’d stop being so stubborn,” he says angrily. “This would be so much easier if you didn’t fight me on everything.”
“What else did you expect? That I’d be a docile little girl who did everything you wanted her to?”
He sighs. “No. I guess that would be unreasonable.”
“You took me away from everything I cared about. You took me away from my mother!” I shout.
“All of that was for show,” he says. “It’s going to hit you hard, but soon you’re going to figure out that it wasn’t real, Rosemary. This life with me, it is. And soon you’ll see.”
“I don’t want to hear any of your crazy babbling. I’m sick of you,” I say. I turn away from him and the car falls silent as we get back on the highway. I knew I shouldn’t be speaking this way to someone who was my jailer, but what else did I have to lose? It was a stupid plan, but I hoped that somehow my words would sink into his brain and hopefully set me free.
*
I pull off the road into the nearest rest stop. It’s quiet save for the chirping of the birds and the sounds of the whispering wind through the trees. I hate having to stop, but I need to stretch my legs. They’ve been cramping up and going to sleep for the past half an hour, and if I wait much longer to move them I’ll hardly be able to walk later.
I go in circles around the rest stop three times, taking time between jogging and walking. When I’m positive that I’ve gotten enough exercise I go inside to look for a drinking fountain to quench my parched throat. I haven’t eaten or drank since I left this morning, and my hands are starting to shake. I’ll have to eat soon. I grit my teeth in aggravation. Why did my body insist on slowing me down when I had such an important job to do?
As I stand up and wipe my mouth I notice somebody left behind a jacket on the bench near me. Walking over, I pick it up and recognize that it’s the same jacket I bought Rosemary a few months ago, back when we went to the Toledo Mall after visiting Marcus. But was it hers? I lift the jacket to my face and recognize beneath the freshly washed cotton a faint smell of perfume, one that she always wore. I smell it again and I’m positive. This is Rosemary’s. She had been here, and not too long ago. I clench it tighter to my chest, longing for it to be her. She was so close! If only I had driven faster...
At least it meant I was going in the right direction. Clinging to the jacket I start running to my car. I had time to catch them, where ever they were going. I just had to hurry.
Something crunches underneath my foot as I run. I stop and look down, noticing a crumpled up piece of paper. I go to step over it but as I do so there’s a weird tingling in my stomach. Bending down, I pick up the paper but my heart falls as I realize that it’s not a note, just a menu for a pizza place named Frank’s Town.
Frank’s Town. That sounded ridiculously familiar. Where had I heard it before? Then it clicked. Rosemary was always talking about Frank’s Town Pizza. Whenever I took her out for pizza anywhere else she constantly went on about how Frank’s Town was the best in the world and how it was the only good thing about having to go see her dad, because that was the only place he was allowed to see her at without a lot of supervision.
I bite my lip. Maybe I’m getting desperate. Frank’s Town was a ways away from Detroit. If I go there and I’m wrong, I’m losing valuable time. But what exactly was I supposed to do? Scour the entire Metro Detroit area until I found her? That would take months without any leads.
I hit the steering wheel in frustration. It takes me two seconds to decide. I get off at the next exit and turn east. Looks like I’m going to get pizza.
*
In ten years, nothing about this place had changed. There was still the smell of baking bread and tomato sauce wafting through the door. The small salad bar was still in the corner, the grapevine wallpaper hadn’t been replaced, and it still only had thirteen tables. Even the coloring I had done as a child was still hanging above me and Jack’s “regular table.” But even at the same time as it hadn’t changed, it was completely different. This wasn’t home anymore. Even though I had been here hundreds of times, I might as well have never been here at all. Not after what had happened today.
The only people in here are Jack and I. It’s so late at night that they’re an hour away from closing. I see a waitress grabbing menus and silverware as we sit down in the same seats we always used to. Jack and I didn’t even have to ask each other. We just did it.
“What can I get you to start off with?” the waitress asks, glancing back and forth to both of us. This is the same woman that used to wait on us ten years ago. All of it is making my head spin. “Just water,” I tell her.
“I’ll have coffee, Dolly,” Jack says, taking the menu from her lightly.
The woman’s face becomes confused. “Wait a minute...” she peers at my father’s face, then lights up. “Jack McGowan, is that you?”
“It sure is!” Jack says, laughing. He shakes her hand and she turns to me. “And beautiful Rosemary? The last time I saw you, you were no taller than my hip!”
Jack glances my way, and I know it’s time to act. “It’s me,” I chuckle nervously. “Just out for dinner with...dad. We haven’t been here in forever.”
“Then I’m guessing you’re gonna be wanting your usual, right?” she asks, holding up a notepad.
What was my usual? I have no idea. “Uh...give me a minute to look over the menu,” I said, holding it up fairly. I bury my nose in its pockets but cannot stand to read over the sound of my father and Dolly gossiping and catching up on the times.
“What brings you back around here?” Dolly asks.
“Oh, you know. Rosemary just decided to come visit, and we were in the area so we figured why not stop in,” Jack smiles.
The lines on the page ar
e so blurry I’m wondering if I need glasses. Shutting the menu with a snap, I stand up. The conversation halts and both look at me. Forcing out a laugh, I smile at them and say, “The usual sounds great. I’ve got to go to the bathroom, sorry...”
I walk as fast as I can away from the table and into the one room bathroom. Locking the door, I sit on the toilet and begin rocking back and forth, my hands in my hair. I can’t do this. Smile at the waitress and act like nothing’s wrong, act like I was out for a visit with dear old dad. How did I expect myself to sit another half hour at the dining table, when freedom was no more than a few words away?
“Rosemary? You alright in there honey?” Jack asks as he pounds on the door.
Gasping for air, I squeeze out, “Yes Dad! I’m just not feeling well...I think it’s because I’m hungry!”
“Well we’ve come to the right place then,” he chuckles. “Don’t take too long, food’ll be out soon!”
I stand up. I have an idea. When we go to say goodbye after the meal I’ll hug Dolly, and then whisper to her that I’m in trouble. It’ll be so natural that Jack won’t even notice. Then she can notify the police, and they’ll find us in no time. I wash my face and fix my hair. I have to appear as normal as possible, so Dolly doesn’t think me insane. I plaster a smile on my face and step out of the bathroom.
I can’t do this, I think as I see Jack smiling at me from the table, giving me a friendly wave as I draw closer and closer. I’m about to have dinner with my kidnapper of a father. This is insane.
Dolly comes out to refill Jack’s drink and she’s smiling at me as she does so. She has no idea what’s going on, even now. I can’t do this, I think once again, but as soon as I do so I hear another voice whisper beside me, Yes you can. Noah’s watching out for me, staying by my side. I need him to give me strength, to get me through the rest of this. Pretending he’s right beside me dissolves some of my fear. Noah would never let anything bad happen to me. I sit down and force myself to be still as I look at the tablecloth, the paintings on the wall, anything so long as it isn’t my father.
