by Matt Kuvakos
***
Elliot’s hands might as well have been stone on the steering wheel. He wiped sweat away that was dripping down into his eye and took a deep breath. As he drove along the hillside roads toward Ricky’s home, the sun began to set fire to the sky with bursts of reds and oranges, as if the sun itself was shooting off fireworks between the clouds. Elliot flipped the visor down to shield his eyes from the glare, causing the polaroid of his childhood home to fall into his lap. His eyes moved away from the road toward the photograph as he stopped at a red light.
A memory of one of the neighborhood Fourth of July parties came to his mind as he studied the picture. For one day out of the year, everyone would set up chairs and bring out coolers, sitting outside by their garages, sharing food and drinks with each other. All day long, Elliot remembered anticipating the night, hoping the darkness would come quicker so the fireworks could start.
He felt that same anticipation as he sat at the red light waiting for it to change so he could get to Ricky’s house. He placed the photograph back in its place and glanced to the GPS on his phone showing he was close. He didn’t need the GPS much longer to tell him where to turn since there were protesters and police lined up along the road.
“Preacher from Hell.” Elliot slowed down, reading protestor’s signs before turning down a dirt road that had been barricaded by the police.
“This road is closed, sir as you can see,” the clearly stressed police officer said to Elliot as he rolled down his window.
“I’m his probation…”
“Get back, get back please.” The officer pointed to a few protesters trying to get by using Elliot’s car as a shield. “You need to turn around this is private property beyond this point.”
“I’m his probation officer.” Elliot pulled out his identification to show the police officer.
The officer tilted down his glasses to the tip of his nose and looked over the ID and back to Elliot as if he were selling him alcohol. “Ok, sorry Mr. Marisol. I remember being told you would be arriving.”
“No problem.” Elliot rolled up his window as protesters tried to come closer once they saw the barricade being moved out of the way. More squad cars pulled up at the same moment, bringing relief to the face of the one lone officer moving the barricade.
Elliot continued down the bumpy dirt road, shifting his truck back and forth. The bumpier it got, the further away from the noise he noticed he was going. Tall trees lined the sides of the road instead of protestors, and a creek ran beside the trees. Elliot saw the shadow of the house ahead, along with a few structures that looked to be teepees. It wasn’t until then he started to think of the phone call with the Governor the day before.
He couldn’t shake the threatening tone of the Governor’s voice from his mind. It wasn’t like he was holding a knife to his throat or anything, but it was more of an “I have snipers aiming at you from thirty miles away,” type of feeling. This was all out of his control, but the one thing he knew he still had to do and wanted to do, was conduct the interview as if Ricky were going to remain his client.
The engine of Elliot’s truck began to click and clank as he turned it off, leaving him in the darkness overlooking the farmhouse in front of him. There were five teepees to the left of the house, with a group of people gathered around a campfire in the middle. The glow of the fire brushed against their faces, revealing the fact that they were looking in Elliot’s direction. With the shift of the wind the light would disappear, covering their faces in darkness once again.
Elliot took another deep breath and cleared his throat. He wasn’t ever this nervous before meeting a client for the first time. He knew this was different, though. Elliot stepped out onto the soft earth and instantly noticed the stars stretched across the sky above him. For some reason, he thought of the mystery treasure chest he would get to pick a prize out of after a visit to the doctor as a kid. Each prize would be gleaming back at him, shiny and new. The stars beamed above him, a treasure he hadn’t noticed in a long time.
“We have front row seats in the universe.” A voice that sounded like a poem personified came from the dark porch of the house.
“Sure looks like it.” Elliot shifted his stance to face the house, away from the teepees. He squinted his eyes to try and see the figure talking to him. “Mr. Freemon?”
“Are there still protestors out by the main road?” The figure started to walk down the stairs of the porch to Elliot.
“There are. Are you Ricky Freemon?” Elliot asked again.
“I am.” Ricky extended his hand to Elliot.
“Nice to meet you, Ricky. I’m Elliot Marisol, your probation officer.” They shook hands. Elliot felt as if they were meeting in space itself with the thickness of the night and the number of stars looking over them.
“Come on inside. You can meet my family and then we can talk in the study.” Ricky placed his hand on Elliot’s back and led him toward the front door. Elliot was usually the one pushing to start talking in his introductory meetings, but he felt like Ricky wanted to. The house was simple with a warmth radiating within the walls.
“Riley?” Ricky called out as soon as they shut the front door behind them.
“Is he here? Come on, Wesley.” A woman’s voice answered from what Elliot assumed was the living room area.
“This is my wife, Riley, and two-year-old son Wesley.” Ricky motioned for Elliot to keep moving forward until he saw a blue eyed, blonde hair boy stumbling around, playing with a truck along the floor of the living room. Next to him was Ricky’s wife. She looked to be perfect for him. She had dreadlocks pulled up in a ponytail, revealing her ears that seemed to shine like the stars outside with piercings lining the lobe to the tip. She was wearing moccasins, torn jeans and a simple white flowy top.
“Nice to meet you.” Riley looked at Elliot and smiled warmly.
“Same to you, ma’am. I’m Elliot.” Elliot leaned down and shook hands with Riley. He then looked around the room, a little stunned to see normalcy in this man who seemed to be anything but normal. This wasn’t too surprising, though. He realized quickly in this profession that most crazy people were usually pretty average.
“You want to head into the study to start?” Ricky again placed his hand on Elliot’s shoulder. It was then when Elliot finally saw Ricky in the light. He first noticed his happiness. His eyes, one blue and the other brown, just seemed soft and inviting, almost as if he were about to cry.
“Sure, lead the way. Nice meeting you, Riley.” Elliot followed Ricky and waved to Riley behind them. They turned down a hallway and walked into what seemed to be Ricky’s office. Again, nothing flashy. Books were sprawled across the entire room, some opened and some closed. Each one representing a thought Ricky had at one point. There was a desk, but Ricky didn’t sit behind it. Instead, he sat on the floor where there was a fluffy rug, and invited Elliot to join him there. Smiling, Elliot agreed still looking over the room as if he was expecting to find clues to why Ricky did what he did. Elliot did see a wooden slab hanging on the wall with “John 14:12” burned into it.
“What verse is that?” Elliot pointed to the wooden slab while organizing his binder on the ground. Ricky sat Indian style and folded his hands in his lap.
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father.” Ricky shut his eyes and smirked. “My favorite verse and greatest reminder. Are you a believer?”
“No, no. I was only curious.” Elliot took out his notes, hoping to change the subject. “This is our first meeting and what I usually like to do, is to try and better understand the reasoning of why you essentially committed the crime. This helps…”
“God told me.” Ricky interrupted. His eyes remained closed.
“Can you explain this to me more?” Elliot highlighted the note already in Ricky’s file. I only do what my Father tells me to do.
“I alo
ng with anyone who truly believes can hear the voice of God. But you see, it’s usually not booming, but a whisper.” Ricky started to rock slightly as if he were going into a trance. “I woke up that morning to a whisper in my mind, saying ‘Ricky, you will raise a soul from the grave in MY name.’ that was it.”
“But the voice didn’t clarify it was the Governor’s daughter, right?” Elliot watched as Ricky continued to rock back and forth slowly.
“That’s right, but once my Father tells me something. I have to obey. He has and never will lead me to destruction.” Ricky said slowly opening his eyes. “You see, that’s the point of all this.” He spread open his arms and turned, looking throughout the room.
“The point of what?” Elliot watched Ricky still holding his arms out by his side.
“The point of life is to hang out with our Heavenly Father and accomplish what He has set out to do on the earth.” He set his arms down and chuckled to himself for a second. “It’s a simple concept really, and we all like to mess things up and over complicate. You know?”
Elliot had many questions to Ricky’s logic, but he stopped himself from asking. He needed to try and steer the interview a different direction. “You have an interesting life, Ricky. I want you to know that I’m a safe place to share your thoughts with, ok?”
Ricky nodded, shutting his eyes once more.
“With that said…”
“You’re searching for home.” Ricky’s eyes opened wide and met Elliot’s who was caught off guard. “You keep a photo close to you of what you think home is. Why?”
“What is this?” Elliot couldn’t help but smile even though he was becoming more nervous. He pictured the polaroid in his truck as if he were looking at it in front of him.
“Why do you keep that photo in your truck?” Ricky responded as if he knew what Elliot was thinking about. Elliot’s phone started to vibrate in his pocket, but he quickly silenced it.
“How did you know about the picture?” Elliot felt exposed even though it wasn’t anything bad. Again, his phone began to vibrate but like before he silenced it.
“God just told me.” Ricky flashed a brilliant smile. “I know you want to believe that I’m crazy. But, I assure you that I’m not.”
Elliot pushed aside his notes that he wrote out describing himself. “Ok, well I guess I keep that photo because it reminds me of good times. And when I think of good times, I guess that’s where I think home is. In goodness.”
“Absolutely. Tell me about a good time.”
Elliot readjusted his sitting position on the rug and cleared his throat. “Ok.”
Elliot’s interview routine was usually nothing like this. His stories were only professional, nothing too personal. Most of his clients would sit in front of him like zombies until he left. Elliot looked into Ricky’s eyes, and he felt at ease.
“Probably the last day I spent with my dad.” Hearing himself say that out loud to Ricky felt strange. “I was adopted. He raised me by himself.”
Ricky nodded and leaned back, resting on his elbows. “What happened on that day?”
“Nothing crazy. It was my last day in Phoenix before I had to come back to college here in, Montana.” Elliot pulled at the rug by his feet as he remembered that day. “We had steaks and beer for dinner.” Elliot smiled. “He made the worst steaks that day too. It felt like I was eating a tire that had baked in the sun for days.” Elliot looked up at Ricky and saw him lean forward, listening. “Like I said, it wasn’t anything crazy that happened, but it was…” Elliot wiped his nose at an itch that wasn’t even there. “It was the last time I felt some peace, I guess.”
Elliot reached his hand and rubbed his neck, pulling out the rest of his thought. “He wanted me to stay in Phoenix. Finish school out there. We had talked about that a lot. I wish I gave him a different answer.” Elliot shook his head slightly. He noticed tears glistening in Ricky’s eyes.
“So that photo doesn’t always bring up goodness in your heart?” Ricky wiped the tears away.
“No, a lot of the time it’s sadness.”
“I know I’m not supposed to, but I’m about to say a preachy thing to you. Our home cannot be found here.” Ricky pointed to the floor. “But, it can be found there.” He then raised his finger to the ceiling.
Elliot put his hands on his head and moved them along the sides as if he were trying to silence his thoughts. “That just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“Did it make sense that I knew about the picture in your truck?” Ricky smirked and shrugged while looking at Elliot. “I’m not trying to force anything on you, Elliot. This is only the mission that I was given since the very first day I set upon following Jesus.”
“If you’re just following Jesus, doesn’t it bother you that you’re known as a cult? I mean, you’re not like every other Christian I’ve come across.”
Ricky pointed to the wooden slab with the bible verse burned into it behind him. “That’s why that verse is my greatest reminder. I’d give up on this life if I forgot that. God knows we need a purpose.”
“Can I ask you a question then?”
“Of course.” Ricky straightened his posture.
“You said earlier that your goal is to accomplish the things that God wants. What are those things? Is this life nothing but a battle to prove one belief is right, and the others are wrong?”
“Like I said, we have over complicated things and lost track.” Ricky ran his hand along the edge of the rug until it reached the wooden floor. “God’s purpose on this earth is to love. Once we realize that love, then we can love others like Him, actually changing…”
“Ricky!” Riley’s voice screamed out from the front of the house. A loud crash and more screams followed from outside by the teepees. Both Elliot and Ricky ran to Riley and looked out the window to see the teepees on fire.
“I’ll call the police.” Elliot took out his phone, noticing the multiple missed calls from an unknown number.
“They’re already supposed to be here.” Riley picked up Wesley as if the ground was about to turn into fire too. They watched out the window as a group of shadows seemed to be attacking the others that lived out there.
“We have to stop this.” Ricky threw open the front door. He turned to Riley, “lock this.”
Both Elliot and Ricky stepped outside and stood, watching the chaos unfold in front of them. As soon as they turned toward the porch steps, “BAM.” A gunshot echoed throughout the valley, stopping the attack. Even the fire seemed to pause burning for a split second. Police sirens then screamed closer from the main road, finally seeing the flames.
“Elliot?” Ricky turned and saw Elliot hunch forward before falling down the steps. “Elliot?” Ricky moved next to him and saw what looked like black sludge leaking through his stomach. The flames of the fire grew and lit up the dark red, flooding Elliot’s body and soaking the ground beneath him. “He’s shot. He’s shot.” Ricky repeated under his breath as Elliot began to go numb.
Elliot didn’t feel or hear anything, but he could see the stars and smell the smoke of the fire. Ricky would appear in his face for a split second, screaming something, then he would vanish. Elliot only wanted to see the stars, the treasures of the universe as he died. He couldn’t believe that he was shot dead at the house of Ricky Freemon. If he could’ve, he would’ve laughed.
Instead, a rim of blackness began to close in on his sight. He held his eye on one particular star that seemed to shine brighter than the others. He thought maybe this was going to be his new home. He then heard his heartbeat within his ears, beating slower, deeper. His vision continued to close in on itself. Until Elliot was in complete silence and darkness, alone.
He then saw an image of his dad at one of the neighborhood Fourth of July parties. He was dressed in a black shirt, jeans and a blue baseball hat stained with dirt. He knelt down by the firework on the driveway and looked back at Elliot. “You loved watching these.”
“Dad?”
Elliot realized he could talk within this place. “I’m dead.”
His dad struck a match and lit the rocket in front of him. With a hiss, the rocket raced into the night sky and burst into bright purple sparks. He tossed the blackened match into the street and turned back to face Elliot. “I never let you light one, though.” He held out a match toward Elliot.
Elliot instinctively took the match and felt his dad’s hands. “You’re really here?” His dad pulled Elliot into himself and hugged him. Something shattered within Elliot’s heart, or what he could only describe as being his heart in this new place.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Tears soaked into his dad’s shirt that smelled like his spicy cologne, causing Elliot to cry more and squeeze harder. Elliot felt like he was only seven years old again.
“Sorry for what?” His dad asked.
“For not being there with you.” Elliot looked up at his dad, who looked younger then he remembered.
“You have nothing to be sorry for. I love you, but it’s time.” His dad handed him another match.
“For what?” Elliot looked at the match then back to his dad.
“To keep living. To start, again.” His dad vanished within the looming blackness of the void that Elliot remembered he was in.
Elliot reached and felt within the darkness hoping to find him again. “This is not home.” He didn’t want to be alone, anymore.
“Help me.” Elliot dropped to his knees within the blackness. “I’m ready.” He then saw a single firework within a spotlight beam in front of him. Written on it, in his dad’s familiar writing, it said. Remember to love. It’s the only thing that can burn away the pain.
Elliot struck the match his dad had given him and lit the firework. As it hissed, he began to feel a burning sensation across his stomach. He then heard a powerful voice growing louder in his mind. “I AM HOME.” The voice said as the firework shot up into the sky and exploded.
Elliot’s eyes opened to see that one bright star looking over him, along with Ricky who was bent over him in prayer.
“In the name of God, the King of the children under the stars. Breathe and live.” Ricky placed his hand on Elliot’s bloody stomach and began to feel heat searing across the wound. “It was you. It was you.”
I hope you enjoyed, Children Under the Stars. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the story. Please do not hesitate to leave a review, for it is much appreciated. Also, feel free to check out my first young adult novel, Addison’s Mark, the 2016 Silver Medalist for the Illumination Book Awards.
Thank you for reading.
You are loved,
-Matt
