Chapter 2
Gideon
Will the noise ever fucking stop? The one thing I never missed while I was away was the constant fucking noise from next door. How can someone be awake all fucking hours of the night? The house next door was constantly roaring with life no matter what time it was, no matter who they were fucking disturbing with the loud music and screams. Last night was no different than every other weekend night since I’ve been home. The music started early, the screams and laughter came next, the thick clouds of smoke came last and if you tried hard, the putrid stench of alcohol wafted through the air.
I finished with the meat cuts early and had to bring the trash out. I should have known there’d be a group of them sitting on the back deck, like always. The same four people grouped together away from the other party goers. Not the cause of the screams and laughter, but definitely the smoke and stench. The redhead lives there and unlike him his parents are respectful, unless they are away which is usually nine times out of ten.
Always on the redhead’s left is the smaller guy out of the bunch. Scraggly brown hair and long scrawny arms. He’s quiet and calculating, always hanging on to the words spread around him. Then there is the girl. Her hair is crazy curly, her skin white as a ghost. Her stare is daunting, and in the daylight I can see the haunted look in her eyes. She was always between scrawny and the beast, either that or in his lap completely. He was the biggest teenager I’d seen in a while. Bigger than some of the men I served with in Iraq. I watched them like I was trained to do, always taking in my surroundings, being ready for the fight. The fight that still raged a war inside my head.
I heard the whispers as soon as my door opened. I felt her stare against my back as I made my way to the trash bins. He’s a murderer. He’s weird. He’s a recluse. All things I’ve been used to since my return. They’re right; I’m all of those things. I am a murderer, but not in the way they’ve been told. I am weird, and I am a recluse. They think my minds been clouded by the war but it’s far from it. I’m not crippled by the things I saw, I’m stronger, but no one else will ever know it. They see what they want to see and nothing else.
I live by myself in solidarity, and I like it that way. I leave my house only when needed, and in all reality that doesn’t equal out to much. My basement is my gym, the TV feeds me my news, and once a month I manage to make it to the twenty four hour Walmart right here in town. There are less people at two o’clock in the morning. The rumors stick to a low, and I can shop my way through the store without all of the penetrating eyes and hushed whispers.
When I saw the girl get carried away by the beast I thought it was finally over. The music died down and people started filing out of the house in succession. It was quiet for what seemed like a few hours, and for once in a long time I managed to actually shut my goddamn eyes.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
My eyes fly open as my heart starts pounding. My hand instantly grabs for the gun on my bedside table, ready to spring into action.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I drop to the floor and crawl over to the window military style. My eyes lift just enough above the wooden plank to give me visual on the outside. My heart rate slows down and I raise myself up into a standing position as my eyes laid sight on the girl next door. It’s just her. She looks angry, livid, but poses no immediate threat of danger. I put the gun back in its usual spot and continue to watch out the window. Okay, so maybe I’m a tad bit fucked up.
I watch as the scrawny guy answers the door and she belts him hard across the face. Her voice only seems to get louder and louder. I crack the window open just a little to try and get a better listen.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Adeline. What the hell was that for!” the scrawny guy yells, holding onto his bright red cheek. Addy, Adeline, her name is beautiful. It’s not the first time I’ve heard it, read about it, or wrote it down in a series of notes.
The redhead steps out next and suffers the same fate as the first boy. Adeline packs a mean punch. I watch in awe as they yell back and forth, until finally she almost doubles over in pain. My heart lurches as I watch her try to catch her breath. My feet itch to move in her direction. The medic within me wanted to help in a time of need as I watched her body crumple over, and fold in pain. I knew she was having some sort of panic attack. The redhead runs inside in a panic and comes outside thrusting a bottle of clear liquid into her waiting palms. Her head tips back and for a fraction of a second I manage to see the brokenness eating at her soul inside. She chugs the liquid until its empty, until she’s swaying back and forth on her feet. No doubt the alcohol has already taken effect on her tiny frame.
I watch until she finally sits down, and the two guys follow in suit. I watch for seconds, minutes and hours. She stays in the same spot, almost all day. The two boys next to her moving around every once in a while, shifting from inside the house and out. They supply her with more drinks, hand her more joints, and watch as she slowly fades into a stupor. Hours later her head falls back and the shallow breaths floating through her lungs have her chest rising and falling at an incredibly slow pace. The redhead and scrawny boy retired hours ago leaving her to sleep all alone on the back deck, only returning at dusk to drape a thin blanket across her shoulders.
My body feels stiff as I finally force myself to leave and cook myself dinner. I step into the kitchen with Adeline at the back of my mind, and come face to face with Max’s frowning face.
“I’m sorry boy, I didn’t forget about you.” I lean over to pet his head as he lays unamused at my feet. “I’ll get your dinner started boy.” At this I swear I get an eye roll. Max was my inherited dog from my parents. Max their precious St. Bernard came along with the house in the will. I swear all he does is eat and sleep. Getting him to go outside is an actual struggle and in a way he seems to be exactly like me. He’s a recluse in his own sense, maybe that’s why we get along so well or maybe it’s just the fact that I give him his dinner every night and an extra piece of steak for dessert. About an hour later I take a seat at the dining room table and take a bite of my steak and potatoes. Max eats quietly on the floor beside me.
I check the time and realize it’s already ten o’clock. I look around and bask in the silence. Its ten o’clock at night and house beside mine is completely silent. I finish my meal and bringing the empty dishes to the sink. Wrapping up the trash I pace by the kitchen window and notice Adeline is no longer outside… finally. She must have gone inside after sleeping the whole entire day off. I open the door with Max hot on my heels and take the short walk out to the trash bins. I hear a short bark and watch as Max’s huge furry body runs off to the front yard. “Max! Hey!” I call after him. I’m confused when he doesn’t come trotting back to me.
“Max, Come here boy!” I let out a whistle and walk my way around the side of the house. In the darkness I see his body in the middle of the yard. “Max!” I call again but he doesn’t budge. He lets out a short bark and stays put. The closer I get the more I begin to see the picture in front of me. Max is hovering over a body. It’s not just any body, it’s Adeline. My legs move at record speed. I land on my knees right beside her, immediately checking for a pulse. She’s still breathing, but it’s immensely shallow.
I scoop her up in my arms and carry her inside, Max hot on my tail. I manage to get the door shut and locked behind me as I weave my way through the house to the back bedroom on the left. I place her on the bed and take in her appearance. Her sweat soaked hair is sticking to her pale forehead. The T-shirt covering her small frame has what seems to be throw up splashed across the front of it. Grass stains mar her knees and palms, and black mascara runs in streaks down her cheeks. Max hovers over her like a body guard as I try to pry the sweaty clothes from her body and get her changed into something new. I grab an old T-shirt from my drawer and attempt to put it on her. Her body is limp mostly, but every once in a while she wakes.
“Jaimie?” she whispers. Her voice is low, almost childlike. I lay her backward and cover her body with a clean sheet. Her body looks frail and fragile in the middle of my large king sized bed. Max jumps up to lay beside her and I instantly scold him.
“Max! No, you know you’re not allowed on the furniture!” I talk to him like he’s a child, like he can understand me. The way he looks back at me tells me he does but is unbothered by it. I attempt to move his huge massive body, but he nips at my hand, moving closer towards Adeline. In her sleep she turns on her side, her tiny hand imbedding itself deep in Max’s long fur. Hmph. I guess it’s decided then. “Fine boy, you win. But only for tonight.” He rolls his eyes and takes up residence in the spot closest to Adeline for the night. Fucking dog.
I grab a free pillow off the bed and make my journey to the living room. It’s ironic, it’s my house and yet I’m the one having to sleep on the couch. It feels like hours have gone by with the darkness and silence surrounding me completely. My thoughts are consumed with the girl sleeping in the room just down the hall. I can’t help but wonder what the cause of her pain is. Why she could just sit outside for hours and drink herself into a stupor. How messed up could someone seriously be to drink their lives away? She seems so young to already be addicted to drugs and alcohol but I guess this day and age anything is possible. Knowing who her mother is, things slowly begin to make sense.
And who is Jaimie? She spoke his name more than once when I was in the room with her. My thoughts run rampant in for hours on end until finally my body tires out and my eyes become sleepy. The thought of a sleeping Adeline in my house still resides in the back of my mind. The last thought I have before sleep finally takes over is that it’s going to be a long fucking night, a very long fucking night.
∞∞∞
I wake the next morning to the sound of the bathroom door shutting. The switch of the lock on the inside echoes down the hall. I reach for my gun and come up empty handed then realize I’m still on the couch. There’s not an intruder in the bathroom, it’s just the girl from last night… Adeline. I wait in silence for her to finish and make her way back into the bedroom, no doubt confused as to how she got there. The sound of my feet padding down the hallway is the only sound in the entire house. I come to a standstill in the middle of the bedroom door frame. Adeline sits cross legged on the bed, Max’s head draped in her lap. The two little white pills and glass of water I left in the night stand are gone.
“Adeline.” My voice comes out gruff and catches her be surprise. Her eyes instantly snap to mine, the hand petting Max stops midway above his head. She stays frozen for what seems like forever.
“Did we…did I.” her cheeks flush as she tries to continue her question. “Did we have sex?” she nearly chokes out. Her cheeks are redder than a fire engine.
“No, we did not.” her shoulders slump as her small thin hand comes up to rest against her forehead.
“How did I get here?” she asks. Max lifts his head to the sound of her voice as if answering her question himself.
“I found you out in the yard.” Max takes that exact moment to let out a bark and send me an angry stare. “Max found you out in the yard. I brought you inside, cleaned you up and let you sleep.” I nod in Max’s direction and turn back to find Adeline’s eyes piercing into mine, waiting for answers.
“Did you…see me naked?” she blushes crimson red as the words rush from her round heart shaped lips.
“I only removed your dirty clothes to replace them with something clean while I washed the others. It was nothing more than that.” I assure her and turn to leave.
“Wait!” she calls at my back. I come to a halt. I slowly turn around and face her small pale frame. “What’s your name?” she asks me, and yet I know she already knows. The whole freaking town knows who I am.
“Gideon… Gideon Wellfleet.” It takes a while for her to speak once more.
“Thank you Gideon, for helping me.” she smiles, but not before long it falters. In an instant she runs past me with her hand over her mouth, spilling all of the contents in her stomach into the toilet. I wince at her retching and can remember a time or two way back when I had done the same. Maybe not to the same extent but it is all in the same. I leave her to her misery and make my way to the kitchen. At the sound of pans and pots banging around Max finally emerges from the bedroom.
“Oh so now you want to come out, huh?” I say as he makes his way over to his empty bowl. “You get to sleep in my nice clean comfortable bed all night long next to a pretty girl, and then come out here and get your food handed to you.” He sighs in agreement.
“Man sometimes I wish we could trade places boy.” I scramble up some eggs and bacon, while Max chows down his dog food and silently waits for me to throw him an extra slice or two. Adeline emerges into the kitchen sporting fresh clothes and a clean face. The raccoon eyes she had earlier are no longer there, only to be replaced with dark under circles. She’s had a rough night but, hopefully she learned her lesson.
“Take a seat.” I gesture to the empty seat at the table, but she timidly shakes her head no.
“Oh no, I can’t stay.” She tucks a wayward hair behind her ear. “My mom, she’s probably looking for me by now. I should get going.”
“You should really eat something, you might still get sick on an empty stomach, and whatever food you eat will probably soak up the rest of the alcohol in your system.”
“No it’s okay really. I really have go, my mom’s probably going bat shit crazy by now. Thanks for… everything.” She leans down to pet Max one last time and whispers something into his smushed face. I watch as she hurriedly opens the door and makes her escape. I’m left to decipher her last words. I know a lie when I hear one.