by L. D. King
“Okay, men! It’s all on us! Suck it up! Pick it up! Move it on! Grab it, lift it! Tote it down the line! Be a good boy, make it quick, make it clean. We have to be there on time, ‘cause the train is coming down the line! Get it there, don’t be late! On top of it all, don’t forget, to smile and make sure you tip that hat!”
Stan picked up Rosie’s suitcase and started walking towards Teddy’s house, not saying another word about the girl’s suitcases.
From Jerry’s house it was a fifteen-minute walk to the bus stop. It was only six minutes to Teddy’s house. The guys grabbed their girl’s suitcases and they started walking, and stopped at Teddy’s house.
From the street, they could see that the front door was broken, hanging open. They left the suitcases with their backpacks on the sidewalk. Cautiously, they walked to Teddy’s front door. The guys were in front, the girls following. They carefully stepped through the open door into the house. Jerry took over. With an authority to his voice, he told everyone what he wanted them to do.
“Guys, I don’t like this. The door has been deliberately broken in. We need to be careful.” Everywhere they looked, they could see that everything was beat to hell. “If Teddy or Cori are here, we need to find them quickly. If we don’t find them soon, we need to be out of here in ten minutes or less. With or without them, we need to get the hell out of this house as quickly as we can. I don’t want to run into whoever did all this and I don’t want to stay around this house any longer than I have to. Something bad has happened here. I don’t want to miss the bus, either, so we can’t stay here long — ten minutes, max.”
He pointed to his friends as he issued commands. “Stan, take Rosie go upstairs and see if they are up there. Mike, take Jennifer and go to the back of the house where the kitchen is. Check every room that you find. Open any closed doors. If we don’t find them, we’re out of here. Mary, come with me. We will go out back to look. We need to be back on the sidewalk in ten minutes or less.”
He looked around to make sure they were ready. “Okay, everyone — be careful. Let’s go look for them. If you find them hurt, call out. If they are here, I want them found. Either way, I want to be out of this house as fast as we can — again, ten minutes, no more.”
Everyone split up, looking for Teddy or Cori. Other than everything being all shredded or ripped up, Teddy or Cori were nowhere to be found. In less than ten minutes, everyone was back on the front porch. Jerry questioned everyone as they returned.
“Anyone see them?”
“No, Jerry, nothing, other than that everything was all beat to crap, there is no one in this house,” said Mike. “We didn’t see them, not even his mother’s cat.”
“Us either, Jerry,” said Stan. “There is nothing but torn up stuff everywhere. This place is starting to creep us out. We need to get away from here, now.”
“Ok, everyone make sure you have all your stuff. Guys, you know the drill, grab your ladies’ suitcases. Let’s get to the bus terminal. Mike, sing it to us.”
“Okay, men! It’s all on us! Suck it up! Pick it up! Move it on! Grab it, lift it! Tote it down the line! Be a good boy, make it quick, make it clean. We have to be there on time, ‘cause the train is coming down the line! Get it there, don’t be late! On top of it all, don’t forget, to smile and make sure you tip that hat!”
Teddy and Cori were going to be left behind. No one knew where they were or what happened to them. As they were looking, what they did find were teeth, fingernails, hair and blood, but no bodies. They would have to worry about them later. They had a bus to catch.
On the way to the bus terminal, everyone was pretty quiet. Arriving at the terminal, they could see that the bus was scheduled to be there in a little less than eight minutes, if it was running on time. They walked into the waiting area with their luggage.
The waiting room at the bus terminal was small. Tourists and locals alike were waiting for the same bus. They walked around the terminal looking for a place to sit. Finding none, they went back outside to sit on the steps. None of them had spoken much since leaving Teddy’s house. Mary was sitting next to Jerry with her arms around him. After they sat for a few minutes, Mary was the first one to speak.
“What we just saw at Teddy’s house was kind of weird… scary, don’t you think, Jerry? And Raymond told me last night he stopped at Kathy’s house on his way over to my party. He said that Kathy’s house had been busted up, too. Everything was on the floor, broken. It kind of sounds like Ted’s house.”
“It sure does, but right now I don’t really want to talk about it. All I want to do is get out of town. We need to leave all of this behind for a bit. We can’t let it ruin our trip. We planned this vacation to have fun. This isn’t the way I wanted to start it.”
“Do you know what worst thing was at Teddy’s house?” said Mary. “The scratches. They were all over the walls, the floors… the doors, too. They were so deep it looked like something with big, strong claws made them.”
“I know,” said Jerry. “But I don’t want to think about it anymore.”
Jennifer was listening to them talking about Teddy’s house. She asked Mary, “What are we going to do about them? We can’t just do nothing. We should do something. Maybe we could call the police. We could tell them what we saw?”
Mike jumped in to the conversation. “Jennifer, if we call the cops, they’ll want us to come back to Teddy’s house. They’ll ask us all kinds of questions, and they’ll want us to write down what we saw. They might make us stay in town for a few days while they check things out. That will ruin our trip.
“Yes, they’re our friends; and yes, we’ll miss them, but as far as I’m concerned, since we didn’t have anything to do with it, the only thing we could tell the police is that we were there after it happened. If we don’t want this trip to be all screwed up sitting in the police station filling out reports, we need to stay out of it. Maybe someone broke in and trashed the place. Right now all I want to do is get out of this crap town for a while. There have been too much hinky shit going on. We can talk to the cops when we get back. We don’t know anything about what happened. It might not be anything serious.”
“I know, Jerry,” said Jen. “But if it was my house and I was missing, I’d want everyone to do whatever they could to find me. I feel like we ought to do something. Did you guys see the fingernails and teeth and the hair on the floor in the blood? That was the scariest part of the whole thing.”
Stan had been quiet since they left Teddy’s house. He was sitting holding Rosie’s hand as she stood next to him. His face was expressionless. He was staring straight ahead, at nothing. After holding Rosie’s hand for a while, he mumbled to Rosie, “Baby, please sit next to me. I need you to hold me right now. You’re my best friend, and I really need you to sit next to me. Please?”
Rosie sat next to Stan. She leaned in and pulled his body to hers. They sat there until the bus arrived, and everyone was able to get on board.
The 45-minute ride to the train station was uneventful, other than the bus being full of tourists. The group sat up front, close to the driver, and after a bit Jerry began to talk to him.
“How’s your day going so far?”
The driver gave a shrug.
“Have you seen any of the houses around here all torn up?”
“Well, as a matter of fact, yes, I have. I live over on Old Wood Road. Two days ago my neighbor’s house was torn up and my neighbors were gone. We couldn’t find them anywhere.”
“You look tired.”
“The bus company’s running with a really short shift. A whole bunch of drivers and mechanics didn’t show up for work. I’ve been putting in a lot of overtime the last couple days to help keep the buses running. And it’s not just the drivers. Police are missing from work. The fire department is short staffed, too. If this keeps up, we will have to cut back on the number of buses we run. I also heard that the trains into the city are packed when they run at all. If they come, they may not be on time.�
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The bus ride was good for Stan. Rosie was able to sit next to him. She held his hand the entire trip. The simple act of holding his hand allowed Stan to unwind from what he had seen. While holding on to Rosie, the trip allowed him to settle his nerves. Towards the end of the ride, they were talking to each other. Rosie was even able to get Stan to laugh at her jokes.
The bus stopped across the street from the train station. The walk from the sidewalk to the train platform was about three minutes, or maybe five to six minutes if you had a lot of luggage to carry, or if there were a lot of people trying to cross.
Everyone that had been on the bus got off with them. It seemed that everyone wanted to go to the city. Today it took them nearly six minutes to get across the street and into the train station with everything. They made it with only about five minutes to spare.
The platform was crowded. The six of them were lucky to find six seats together. Stan sat down with Rosie next to him. They were talking amongst themselves when Rosie spoke up.
“Damn, I’m glad that we are off that bus. It stunk like a homeless guy. It was foul. I didn’t think that ride would ever end. There were people crammed into every space available. From where Stan and I were sitting, I had to look at an old man’s sweaty belly swaying in front of my face. I hope the train will be better.”
“Come on Rosie, you know the bus from East Norwich at this time of year is always full of tourists. They spend every minute they can on the beach. They don’t think twice about how bad they smell. I guess they believe that once they get home, they will take a shower then. We think it’s worse because we just don’t like them.”
“Okay, you may be right. But they do smell. They could rinse off a little, at least, before they get on the bus. The East Norwich buses are old, and the AC on most of them has been broken for years. The windows don’t open right. It was nothing but stinking, stale air and sweat.”
Jerry was listening to Rosie prattle on about how the tourists smelled. He was nearly at the point where he was going to bust out laughing at her. He knew that if he did, Mary would be pissed at him, so he smiled and kept his mouth shut.
As the train pulled into the station, Mike rose from his seat, holding his hand out to Mary to help her stand. With a snickering smile on his lips, he commanded the guys: “All right, boys. We’re here to pack and tote our ladies’ luggage. So let’s get after it. The faster we get on the train, the faster we can get to New York, Then get a cab to Harlem. Then we can dump these suitcases full of rocks. The train is only gonna be here for a quick minute. We need to get on that train quickly, before the doors close. We need to hurry. If you have to push a tourist onto the tracks to get ‘em out of your way, do it.” They all laughed.
Mike, not wanting to be left out, bent over and picked up Jennifer’s luggage. With a song in his voice he started the cadence.
“Okay, men! It’s all on us! Suck it up! Pick it up! Move it on! Grab it, lift it! Tote it down the line! Be a good boy, make it quick, make it clean. We have to be there on time, ‘cause the train is coming down the line! Get it there, don’t be late! On top of it all, don’t forget, to smile and make sure you tip that hat!”
Stan was having a great time listening. As Mike sang, Stan began to laugh. Rosie was tired after all that had happened, between Cori and Teddy’s disappearance, the smelly tourists and all. She snapped at Stan, “Just get on the damn train! I’m tired of being with all of these tourists. Cori and Teddy being lost is not helping me, either. I just want to get to the city and start having fun.”
Mary and Jennifer were steering clear of this one. They were too busy laughing at the guys. Jerry wanted to stay out of it, too. While everyone was getting on the train, Mike kept singing.
“Okay, men! It’s all on us! Suck it up! Pick it up! Move it on! Grab it, lift it! Tote it down the line! Be a good boy, make it quick, make it clean. We have to be there on time, ‘cause the train is coming down the line! Get it there, don’t be late! On top of it all, don’t forget, to smile and make sure you tip that hat!”
The rest of the trip was uneventful. They made it to Grand Central Station. From there they caught a cab to their hotel in Harlem. They climbed the stairs to their rooms so they could drop off their luggage.
All six of them were tired. It was a long trip for them. Several of them were lying on the beds. Jerry spoke to the ceiling: “Damn, I’m glad that is over. Now we can rest a minute. Right now I’m so hungry that I could literally eat a horse. Did you see the hot dog cart on the sidewalk? Let’s all go back down so we can get a dog. That should hold us until we can find a better place to eat.”
Mary turned up her nose at the idea of a hot dog. She stood and looked at Jerry. With one hand on her hip, pointing her finger at him, she said, “Jerry, your idea of a meal really lacks something in the romance department. Girls like to be wined and dined, you know.”
Now Jennifer stood. She looked down at the boys. She raised her arms, bent at the elbows, her hands turned up she just shrugged her shoulders at them. She told them.
“You boys would eat dirt if you were hungry. You don’t have any idea what real food is. You don’t have any idea what real romance is. I’m not sure if you’ll even get a kiss tonight before we go to bed.”
Rosie held her hand out, pointing her finger at the three boys. “I’m letting the three of you know right now that for now, I’m good with a hot dog, but we’d better have a guarantee of a better meal later tonight. That means cloth tablecloths and cloth napkins, not those paper ones from the hot dog cart. I want my dinner served on fine china, not the cardboard trays they serve hot dogs in. If I don’t get what I want, I will be very unpleasant when we get back here.”
Stan was the first to speak. “Okay, guys. Let’s get a hot dog before the cart leaves. I’ll tell you all about my plan for dinner tonight while we eat our dogs.”
They left the rooms, going down the stairs. Ten minutes later, with hot dogs in hand, the girls waited to hear what Stan’s master plan was for dinner.
Between bites of her hot dog, Rosie asked Stan, “All right, big man. What’s your plan to get us a better meal than these coneys?”
“All right, here’s my plan. We’ll have to walk a little way to get there, but it’ll be worth it. Not far from here is one of the best Italian restaurants in Harlem. The food is so good that they don’t open until seven in the evening. That gives us about an hour and a half to get there. While we’re waiting, we can play laser tag for half an hour or so while we’re waiting for the restaurant to open. What do you think?”
“Stan, that sounds just like guy stuff,” said Rosie. “What’s in it for us if we go along with this?”
“Rosie, the restaurant is right across the street from the laser tag place. I don’t want to just stand on the corner like a fireplug waiting for it to open. Come on, let’s go. You girls will have fun.”
Jerry was the first to speak up. There was mustard on his lips and a grease stain on his shirt. He looked at the girls. “Whatever we do, we only have about five hours before it gets too late to do anything. I really don’t want to be out here late at night. Stan says the laser tag store is about three miles from here, if we go by the street, but that he knows about a shortcut cutting it down to only a mile. That should only take us 30 to 45 minutes to walk.”
Rosie was puzzled about this. She’d been dating Stan for a few years, but he’d never said anything to her about an Italian restaurant in Harlem, let alone about a shortcut. Pushing her hair back out of her eyes, she looked at him.
“Stan, how do you know so much about all of these places? You never mentioned it to me.”
“Well, I had just graduated the seventh grade. My parents heard of a way to get rich quick. To make their plan work, we had to move here to New York. They sold our house in order to get as much money as they could, and moved us to Harlem. We lived about three blocks from here. I was in the eighth grade while we lived here. My parents worked all the time, and left me to fend for
myself when I wasn’t in school. They fed me, I had a place to live, and they bought me clothes. They did everything but spend time with me. They were going to get rich. When I wasn’t in school, I ran all over Harlem. My parents’ plan lasted about a year before they went broke. It was all a big scam. They got played. We moved back to East Norwich less than a year after we left. When we got back to town, they were broke. We’ve lived in a rental house since then. They moved back in time for me to start the ninth grade. That’s how I know so much about this part of the city. It was my playground.”
Mary looked at Stan, then at Rosie. None of them had ever heard this story before. She walked over to Stan, placed her arm around him and hugged him. Turning to everyone, she said, “I guess Stan knows all about Harlem, including the shortcuts. So let’s get moving! I’m still hungry. I want real food.”
“Okay, everybody, the shortcut is over here,” said Stan. “Follow me!”
Each of the guys held his girl’s hand as they walked towards a subway station entrance. The sign over the stairs said that it was abandoned, no entry allowed. Stan, of course, ducked under the ropes, past the sign, and down the stairs to the platform.
It was about two o’clock when they went down the stairs. The sun was shining brightly as they descended. Inside the subway, it was like being in a cave. There were very few lights. Because this station was abandoned, some the lights were broken or burned out. To have more light they all opened the flashlight app on their cell phones. Each girl tightly held her guy’s hand. It was so dark that the girls were getting worried that this might not be a good idea after all. Rosie was the first to voice her opinion.
“Stan, are you sure this is a good idea? This place doesn’t even have all its lights on. Are we safe down here?”
“Rosie, this subway tunnel is as safe as it’s gonna get. If the subway were running on this line, it would be different. They’d have all the lights working. We’d be dodging subway cars. They haven’t kept up with the maintenance on this line because the city abandoned it. There are still some lights working. With our cells, we’ll be able to see fine. We’ll only be in this tunnel for about a half a mile. It’s not that far, really. Come on, let’s get going; we’re wasting time just standing here. I’ll lead the way. Rosie, hold on to my hand. I’ll keep you safe. The rest of you guys can follow us.”