The Understorey

I hoped for two things just then. I wished that it would snow soon and cover up all of my tracks and the cameras’ cords and I also wished that Mrs. Stevenson would keep her mouth closed to everyone about what I was doing because I could see her nosey ass peeking through the window at me.



It would be the most massive waste of time if she even told one person in Bramwell because that would mean it’d eventually be front page news and Jesse would shy away like a mouse in the walls. Well, I hoped for three things really. The third, bringing Jules home, tonight if possible. I’d go get her myself.



I strung the cords to the cameras through the living room and sprawled them onto the wood floor. I grabbed the third camera and walked into Jules’ room. The look of it knocked me breathless. Everything about it screamed Jules to me. Her bed was a patchwork of dark, rich fabrics, velvets, silks and satins, even a bit of antiqued lace. The bed frame was an antique as well, the headboard and the end board were a dark teal tufted silk framed with light green curved wood. Her wing back was in her reading corner. I remembered helping her recover the old fabric it was in with a loud colorful one. I told her it looked ridiculous but she said, “Trust me Elliott,” and when we set it in her corner she was right. She was always right.



She had this really interesting wool crewel rug of a giant crustacean between the bed and her bookcase next to the chair in her reading corner. Above the chair she hung the horn of an old gramophone she had turned into a lamp herself and along the windows she hung floor to ceiling paneled cream curtains with teal embroidery she said she got online from a store in Morocco. I called them her own personal taste of the ‘Marrakesh Express’.



The wall opposite the window held her dark red vanity table. This was where I wanted to set the camera. I could hide it easily behind the large heavy mirror. It would be easy to miss it because Jules’ room was wallpapered in a busy damask and the entire wall with the vanity and the door was peppered with gilded frames and monochromatic art. It also faced the window.



I ran the cord along her baseboard and out into the hallway continuing to the living room. I had begun downloading the software that came with the cameras an hour before and it was done.



I hooked up the cords to the hub that had a usb attached and started the program. I pressed record and it instantly began to take in the images. I could see all three cameras simultaneously. I adjusted two of the cameras as needed and when I felt satisfied with everything I left their home knowing I had done everything I could have done, for their house that is. I should have felt happy about it all but I didn’t. In fact, I felt ill. I couldn’t believe all this was happening to us.



When most teenagers were out goofing around on their Christmas Break, going to the mall, or driving to friends’ houses I was setting up my own private surveillance system to catch my psychotic ex-best friend and Taylor the pathetic stalker in the act of harassing my girlfriend, to get to me.



That was the hardest part to swallow. I knew why these things were happening. Me. What killed me the most is that I had no idea how to make it stop. It seemed as if there was no stopping it, I couldn’t even offer up myself. Jesse was the cruelest kind of monster. He didn’t want me to die, leave, perish. He wanted me to suffer. He wanted to take away everything that was dear to me and I knew that if I didn’t catch him soon that he wouldn’t stop at Jules. He would move on to my family as well. He had doled out every kind of punishment the insane could hand out and up until now I had pretty much taken it lying down. I would no longer do this. I decided that he needed a taste of his own medicine and from what I heard Judge Henderson liked to double the dosage.



That evening I called Jules and we chatted it up for close to two hours. At dinner my mom stared at me in disbelief.



“What could you possibly talk about for two hours? You guys spend every waking minute together. What’s left to say?”



“Mom, we entertain each other. It’s the most peculiar thing. She’s so much fun to laugh with.”



“I find that mighty sweet son but two hours is too long, I’m sorry. What if your grandma or Danny had called? We don’t have call waiting darlin’.”



“Okay, mom. I’ll shorten it up, promise.”



“Good deal baby,” she said ruffling my hair. “Your hair really is getting long.”



“Yeah, I’m thinkin’ about getting it cut soon, maybe before Jules comes home.”



“Why?”



“Because if she were here, she wouldn’t let me cut it.”



Only my mom and I laughed. Maddy and dad were immersed in their own conversation about how to properly construct a homemade kite. Sheesh, they were such nerds.



“You might want to keep it as long as possible since you’ll need it short when you’re in the fields for hygienic purposes. You know, sort of live it up.”



“You’re too practical mom,” I said, shaking my head. “No, I really want it cut, it makes me feel younger than what I really am. I’ve felt I’ve aged so much these past few weeks what with Jules being harassed and all.”



“Oh Elliott, my poor boy. You’ve been given challenges no one should carry, but I’ve noticed you do carry on and well, as if you were made of stuff greater than all other men. Yours is the most resilient soul I’ve ever met.”



“Oh no, mom. I am barely hanging on by a thread, the slightest wind and my thread might break.”



“You may feel as much but I assure you that thread might as well be a steel cable for all the strength that is in your heart. No, you are much stronger than you think.”



“Thanks mom,” I said standing up. I smiled at her and she took my hand in hers and squeezed it, reassuring me of all the things she felt.



I couldn’t wait to go to sleep, for several reasons. First, because I was tired of the ache in my stomach, chest and heart from missing Jules so intensely and second, because I was more than anxious to wake early and check the video for signs of the idiots. I was surprised at how well Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs kept their cool during this entire thing. If it were my kid, well, let’s just say I’d feel sorry for the maniac. I suppose I couldn’t blame them, they were doing everything possible to catch Jesse and keep Jules safe.



I climbed into bed, my muscles felt sore and used like I’d just run flat out for miles, but I knew it was only the yearning I felt for Jules. My tired body drifted off to sleep easily thinking of her and just as easily I shifted to dreaming about her, about the happiest times on our rock bridge.



The rock bridge, especially during the winter, was one of the most beautiful pieces of nature I’d ever laid eyes on. Even if I traveled God’s entire earth I would never see a hundred pieces together as beautiful as our marble slab, because it was our piece of earth, our own heavenly fixed mark. It was a place of firsts and I wanted it to be the place where Jules would first agree to marry me with no stipulations and I hoped it would be the place where we said I do.



The next morning, I woke with my feet hanging from the edge of my bed. Being six foot four had its drawbacks sometimes. I slumped onto my back, feet touching the cold wood floor and stared at my ceiling. December twenty-eighth, I said to myself. I needed to get a move on if I wanted to get Jules back by New Year’s Eve. I jumped up and hopped into the shower. I let the hot water cascade down my back and held myself up by placing both of my hands on the tiled wall in front of me below the shower head. I almost drifted back to sleep when my mom woke me by knocking on the door.



“Jules is on the phone. Do you want me to tell her you’ll call her back,” she screamed.



“No!” I shouted. I quickly turned off the water and wrapped a towel around my waist. I ran to the phone dripping water all the way. I was freezing cold, the farmhouse never got warm enough.



“Hello?” I panted.



“Elliott? How are you babe?”



“Uh, wet,” I laughed.



“What?” I could just see the furrowing of her eyebrows. “Why?”



“Because I was in the middle of my shower.”



She laughed uncontrollably.



“Why didn’t you just call me back later?” She asked, as if it should have been obvious to me.



“No way. I’m feeling sick without you and I wanted to hear your voice,” I said standing in a massive puddle of water, my wet hair dripping down my neck and shoulders.



“Finish your shower sweets. Call me when you’re done.”



“Okay, I guess this short conversation will tide me over until I’m done.”



“Bye Elliott.”



“Bye babe.”



I slipped and slid all over the kitchen floor and ran back to the bathroom to finish my shower. When I was done I sprinted to my room and tried to dress as quickly as possible. I needed to talk to Jules but I also needed to get warm again. I had showered so fast I didn’t have time to get warm from the water. I even put my coat on before picking up the receiver again.



How many times is she gonna’ let it ring? I asked myself. If you haven’t noticed, I’m not a very patient person. Her aunt picked it up. Jules wasn’t there, she said she’d be right back that she just ran to the store with one of her cousins. I told her I’d call her back later that morning.



“Crap,” I said slamming down the receiver.



I left the house in a hurry and nearly sped the short few miles from my house to Jules’. Don’t want Danny to pull me over.



I thought about what I’d do if I did catch the jerk on the video and we definitely needed to catch him on video as soon as possible because the rumor of Jules’ leaving for Mauch Chunk was bound to get out inevitably.



I pulled into Jules’ driveway and parked the truck. I was a little frightened to go inside. I was afraid of what I might find. I did what I had to and slammed the door behind me. I found the laptop still running and still recording which was a good sign.



All three cameras worked and I could even see my truck in the view of the camera pointed in the direction of Jules’ window.



I stopped the current recording and saved the files permanently. This was a lot easier than I thought it’d be, I thought, until I watched each video. I started with the one pointed toward her window inside her room since it was the least convoluted. I started fast forwarding and stopped at three seventeen a.m. There they were, in all their repulsive glory. I felt like throwing up. The rage was all consuming. I felt compelled to do things no sane person should think of. I wanted to pin him down, torture him, and murder him. I tried to calm myself down but it wasn’t working.



I jumped up and decided to try Jules again, this time she answered.



“Hello, hello,” she cheerfully said.



“Jules?” I said inadvertently panicked.



“What?” She pressed, nervous.



“I, uh, I checked the surveillance and saw them breaking in.”



“What did they do?” She asked stoically.



“I’m not sure, to be perfectly honest. I never finished the video. I couldn’t finish the video actually and I called you so you could stop me from doing something rash.”