by Hamel, B. B.
“You ever stay here?”
“Not… no. Not really. But it’s not that simple. There’s a reason I’m staying with him.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Which is?”
I open my mouth to tell her then close it again. It takes me a second to work up the nerve. “I feel safer with him.”
“Ah,” she says. “I see. Is this that thing you told me about?”
“Yeah. It is.”
“Well then.” Luanne leans closer to me. “People should go fuck themselves.”
“I agree.” I grin at her.
“But stop paying that man rent. You hear me? You’re helping him out and he’s helping you. No need to keep paying rent.”
“I guess you’re right. I guess me paying rent means I’m not officially living with him and we both sort of want it that way.”
“You’re living with him though. Might as well accept it.” She leans in again. “Are you two… you know. Sleeping together?”
“Luanne!”
“I’m just asking. You’re a pretty girl. He’s a gorgeous man. I’d gladly let him into my bed if he asked, though I doubt he’d be asking.”
“I’m not having this conversation.”
“Seems like you are.”
I turn away, shaking my head. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight, hon. I’ll tell everyone you’re celibate, okay?”
“You’re a doll.”
“Bye now.”
I wave and leave, laughing to myself a little bit. I shouldn’t be surprised people are talking. Summersville really is a small town. I get mostly the same old customers every night. Sometimes there are new people coming through, truck drivers and the like, but mostly it’s the same old tables and the same old faces.
Not that I mind. They tip the best they can and Luanne’s fair about her pay. I’m happy and they’re mostly nice.
But I get it. They want to talk. My situation with Erik isn’t exactly normal. I mean, how many girls do they know that ran away from a cult? I bet they can count them on one hand.
I don’t want that to be public knowledge though. I consider going back in and telling Luanne to keep that to herself, but I don’t think I need to. I think she already knows.
I walk down the street, whistling to myself. It’s after ten. The diner’s open all night but I had a good shift tonight. I’ll do the late shift tomorrow then I get a day off. That‘s how it works, you do the late shift, and then you get a day off. Everyone takes their turn, even Luanne.
Some cars drive past as I’m walking. They don’t go fast since people around here know the night gets really dark and the roads can be dangerous. Deer mostly, but people too.
One car drives past but it suddenly comes to a stop. I stand there and look over my shoulder at it, confused. It’s a minivan and it just sits in the middle of the road for a second before turning around. It rolls toward me slowly on the opposite side of the street before swerving closer.
I start walking fast. My heart’s racing as the van pulls up really slow closer to me. The windows are tinted dark and I can’t see anything inside. The driver’s side slowly rolls down and I nearly start running as Mark looks out at me.
“Hi, Kim,” he says, his voice low and harsh. “Want a ride?”
“Leave me alone.” I’m walking quick, moving fast.
Mark laughs and swerves over as another car passes by. I want to scream and beg them to stop but they just keep going. He swerves back.
“Come on, Kim,” Mark says. “My little wife. Come back to me. Your mom’s here, you know.” He leans back and I see her in the passenger seat. Her face is ashen and pale but she smiles at me.
“Hi, honey,” she says. “Mark’s right. Get in the back. Let us drive you home.”
“You’re not going to take me back to Erik’s house,” I say, walking as fast as I can now, legs pumping. “Just leave me alone, okay? I don’t want this. I don’t know why you keep doing this.”
“You know why, Kim. The world depends on you. It depends on what I have to say. And I need you to make me a child to pass down my wisdom. Don’t you get that, Kim? You can carry the chosen one, the child of the future.”
“Kim, he’s right,” Mom says. “It was supposed to be me but I’m too old. You’re perfect, Kim. You’re young and fertile.”
“You don’t even want me,” I say, horrified. “You want my ovaries. You want me to be some baby vessel. And then what, when I give you a child? What then?”
“Then you rejoin the community and work for the greater good,” Mark says.
“You’ll be a part of something,” Mom adds. “You’ll be the mother of the future.”
“I don’t want this.” I start running. They speed up and keep pace but I’m sprinting hard.
“Kim!” Mark shouts. “Get in the van, Kim! I need you, damn it. You’re my wife!”
“Kim, please!” Mom’s pleading breaks my heart but I don’t slow down.
I need to get to Erik. It’s the only place I’m safe, the only place they won’t come after me anymore. I think they’ve been scared away enough to know better.
But they’re still here, which means they’ve been waiting. I bet they’ve been following me, watching me. And now they think this is their chance to do something.
I’m too far from home. I’m too far from safety.
I sprint harder. I’m breathing rapidly, my heart’s racing, my chest is burning. My legs feel heavy. I haven’t run like this in a long, long time, but I keep going. I need to get away. I swerve away from the road and cut through a lawn. I hear the engine rev and the tires scream as the van picks up speed.
They’re trying to cut me off. I scream with frustration as I make it to the next street and the van appears.
I run. I’m not thinking, I’m just moving. There’s only escape, only getting away. I’m so scared, so, so terrified, but I can’t stop.
If I stop, they get me.
I want to throw up. I want to pass out. But the house is getting closer. Two blocks now, just two blocks.
The van pulls up beside me and turns. It nearly hits me and swerves, narrowly avoiding a fence. I scream and dive into a lawn before scrambling to my feet and running again.
“Get her!” Mark screams. I hear the van doors open and people pile out, running after me.
I look back. Oh, god, oh, god, it’s Mom, Kerry, and Melanie. They’re all here, they’re all coming for me. Mark comes after them, bringing up the rear, the van left with its lights on and the engine running on the side of the road.
They chase me. Melanie is fast and she’s catching up. I hear her scream in rage and frustration but I think I hear a little bit of giddy joy. She’s enjoying the chase, I realize with horror. She thinks it’s just another game, just another thing to do to make her feel special and in control.
One block. I run and scream, hoping, praying Erik can hear me. I can see the house up ahead and the porch lights flip on. I hear Melanie scream again, this time with rage, but she’s so close to me.
I make it to the lawn. I make it and take one step before I feel something hit me from behind.
I slam into the grass. My face gets a mouth full of dirt and my nose smashes against the ground. My head bounces and I groan with pain.
Melanie’s on me. She grabs me, turns me around. She’s straddling me, eyes wide with hate and rage and glee. She pulls her fist back and gets ready to hit me as the others appear, coming up around her.
“Melanie!” Mom shouts.
And then a blast tears open the evening.
It’s so loud. My ears are ringing after it’s done. It takes me half a second to realize that it was a gunshot.
Melanie’s staring straight ahead, her face afraid. She slowly gets off me and backs away. The others are staring with her, all of them staring at the house, all of them looking like they want to run but are too scared to move.
Mark joins them and comes to a stop. He has an angry smile on his face as he steps in front of his h
erd of women.
“What you gonna do?” he asks. “You gonna shoot me dead?”
I get up slowly and see Erik standing on the porch with a shotgun. He walks down the steps and aims the gun at Mark, putting the butt against his shoulder.
“This is the fucking South, you idiot,” Erik says. “And you’re on my property. There are about ten laws that all but beg me to shoot you dead right here and now. And not a single jury will ever convict me.”
Mark’s expression wavers. He takes a step backwards. “That’s bullshit.”
“Go ahead. Come closer. Find out.”
The men stare each other down. Mark waves again before turning away. “Come on,” he says. “Another time.”
“Fuck you!” Melanie screams. “You fuck. You bitch! You stupid bitch! You’re not worth it!”
Mark grabs Melanie’s arm and pulls her away. The others follow and Erik lowers the shotgun. Once they’re far enough away, he bends over and helps me up. “You okay?” he asks.
“I think so.”
“Come on. Your nose is bleeding.”
He takes me inside and leans the gun against the wall next to the front door. He takes me into the bathroom and cleans me up gently, his hands kind and soft.
“Annie still asleep?” I ask with a cotton wad up my right nostril.
He laughs. “Yeah, she is. Even a shotgun doesn’t wake that girl up.”
“Of course.”
He smiles a little but there’s anger in his gaze. “They ambushed you on your way home.”
“Yes, they did.”
“I thought it was over.”
“I did too.”
He sits down next to me on the bathroom floor, leaning our backs against the tub. He takes my hand in his and holds it for a moment.
“We have to stop it,” he says finally. “We have to do something. I can’t keep threatening them away. Eventually, I’ll kill one of them, and I don’t know what’ll happen then. I can’t risk being taken away from my girl.”
“I know.” I bite my lip. “I can go.”
He stares at me. “Go?”
“I can leave. It’s the only solution.”
“Fuck that.” He pulls my face toward him and kisses me. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“You mean it?”
He nods. “I mean it. But I am going to the sheriff. I know you don’t want it, but I have to.”
I hesitate a long moment before nodding. “Okay. I don’t think we have another choice.”
“No, we don’t.” He kisses me again. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”
“I hope so.”
He holds me close against him and I feel safe. Even if I’m not sure everything will work out, at least I feel safe in his arms.
22
Erik
“Erik Black for Sheriff Pine.”
The bored receptionist in the local Summersville uniform looks up at me. She’s older but pretty still with blonde hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. “You got an appointment?”
“I do.”
She types on her computer and nods. “There you are. Sorry about that. Go ahead and take a seat, he’ll be with you soon, I hope.”
“You hope?”
She shrugs a little. “Small-town sheriff’s office. Just how things go.”
I smile and nod then take a seat.
It wasn’t easy getting an appointment with Sheriff John Pine. Small-town places like this don’t have a lot of time to talk directly with their constituents. There are probably five people in total working for the Summersville Sheriff’s Department, maybe six if you count the janitor. They need every man and woman working the beat.
But fortunately, I was a detective once upon a time. I dropped that casually, which opened some doors for me. That’s how I got this appointment at all.
I expected to talk to the locals directly after firing that weapon in the neighborhood. But nobody came to the house, nobody even mentioned it. I guess it’s the South and someone firing a weapon in a residential area is more common than I realized. Or at least people aren’t going to call the cops on me for it.
The receptionist ignores me, typing on her computer, reading a magazine. I sit around for nearly a half hour until a tall man with a wiry beard and short hair steps into the station.
“Hi, Sheriff,” the receptionist says.
“Hiya, Linda. Any calls?”
“Nothing important.”
He grins. “Good.” He glances over in my direction. “You that Chicago boy that made an appointment?”
I stand up and nod. “Yes, sir. That’s me.”
“All right. Come on back, let’s have that chat you want.”
I nod to Linda and follow him back into a small, cluttered office. Two mugs sit on his desk, both of them half-filled with old coffee. He sighs as he sits down.
“Long hours, shit pay,” he says. “And an understaffed department. It’s heaven out here.”
“I hear you. Wasn’t much better in the city, believe it or not.”
“I believe it. Got more problems there.”
“Everywhere’s got problems, Sheriff.”
He smiles at that. “Don’t I know it. So what can I do for you, Detective?”
“Former detective. Just call me Erik.”
“All right, Erik.”
I hesitate a moment. I rehearsed this in my head but now that I have to actually say the words…
“I’m having a problem that I think you can assist with. It’s complicated though and I think you might not believe me.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Go ahead and try me. Let me be the judge of that.”
“Okay. I have a tenant named Kim. She ran away from a cult in California, and her former cult members followed her here to Summersville. They want her back and aren’t taking no for an answer.”
Pine gives me a long, hard look. “I can see why you thought I might not believe you. Are you fucking with me, son? This some kind of joke on the small-town cops?”
“No, sir,” I say. “I’m not that kind of man. I wouldn’t do that.”
“All right then. Tell me the full story.”
So I do. I tell him what I know, starting with when I met Kim and ending with the present. It takes a bit and he has to answer a call midway through, but he listens at least.
When I’m done, he lights a cigarette. He offers me one, but I decline.
“Nasty habit,” he says. “Not a normal thing for me, but that was one hell of an interesting story.” He takes a long drag. “How much truth was it?”
“All of it was true, sir. You can verify some of it. Speak with Luanne at the diner. Talk to my neighbors, they’ll have heard the shotgun go off, some of the yelling and fighting.”
“Truth be told, folks don’t much like talking to the sheriff around here.”
I smile at that. “I had the same problem in Chicago.”
“But I’ll ask around. And if I find your story somewhat checks out, what do we do from there?”
“I’d like it if you could help with my problem. Find where Mark and the others are staying and ask them to head out. Something like that.”
“We could do that,” he says slowly. “But that’s not a small thing. That can have repercussions, so to speak, if it’s aimed at the wrong individual. Get my meaning?”
“I do, sir.”
“All right then. I’m going to look into your story. I’m going to look into you as well. If I find some truth, I might help. But if you can get me more proof…” He trails off.
“I hear what you’re saying, sir.”
“I’m sure you do.” He leans back in his chair and takes another long drag. “Really now. How much of that story is true? Cults in California?”
“Sir, as far as I know, it’s all true. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. And the girl… she’s sheltered.”
“You’ve been helping her out?”
“I’m trying.”
“Good for you. Not a lot of folks would.”<
br />
“I like to think that’s not true.”
He laughs and takes another drag. “Yeah, maybe people are better than I give them credit for.”
I stand up and extend my hand. He shakes it with a bemused little grin.
“Thanks for your time,” I say.
“Gotta admit, I haven’t heard a story like that in a while. Hard to stop you once you got rolling.”
“I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”
“No, you’re fine.” He stands and drops the cigarette into one of the half-finished mugs of old coffee. It sizzles and goes out. “Come back with more proof. And I will be looking into you.”
“Please do.”
He nods a little and I leave. I smile at Linda and wave as I head out.
The sheriff’s office is a short drive home. Annie’s at daycare today and I took a half day at work to come here. I have a few minutes so I swing by the diner and find Kim behind the front counter, pouring coffee.
“Hey,” I say, sitting down.
“Hey, yourself.” She comes over. “You talk to him?”
“I did.”
“What’d he say?”
“He halfway believed me.”
She looks surprised. “I expected him to throw you out.”
“I did too, but I guess I’m very convincing.”
She laughs at that. “Okay then. What now?”
“Well, he wants more proof.”
She chews her lip. “That could be hard.”
“Could be. But I have an idea.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s a little dangerous.”
“Oh, of course.”
“Think you’re up for it?”
“Let’s talk tonight.”
“Okay.”
She hesitates before leaning across the counter and kissing my cheek. I must look surprised because she winks at me. “What? People are talking anyway, might as well give them something to talk about.”
I laugh as she turns and walks off. Luanne catches my eye on the way out and grins at me, giving me a little thumbs-up.
Well, all right then. I guess Summersville knows about my complicated relationship with Kim.
Not the worst thing in the world. Hell, maybe it’s the best thing.