The Wrong Side Of The Tracks (Leighton)

by Amanda Austin

  She sat with her legs crossed in the thick green grass in front of her Aunt Sandra’s head stone. This was only the second time she had ever visited her grave. A few summers ago her Grandma had brought her to the cemetery; they spent the afternoon planting flowers around her Grandpa and Sandra’s head stones. The flowers they planted had died off long ago, and her head-stone was surrounded with thick grass and weeds. Alex looked a few rows over at her Grandpa’s huge headstone, which was well taken care of and surrounded by fresh flowers and shook her head to herself.

  “Jesus,” someone whispered from behind her, snapping her back to reality. Alex jumped and spun around to see where the voice came from. It was two o’clock in the afternoon, she had no reason to be jumpy, but cemeteries have that effect on people.

  A tall man stood behind her, he had to be around her parents’ age, but he was dressed like a grungy teenager. His hair was shaved short, and his shirt sleeves were pushed up revealing his collection of tattoos. He had on ripped, grease stained jeans, and a black hoodie with some band’s logo that Alex had never heard of across the front. He had the same broad nose and chiseled cheek-bones Karter flaunted, and the James’ trademark green eyes.

  Alex shifted her weight nervously from one foot to another and twisted the ends of her hair. She finally spoke since he obviously wasn’t going to. “Hi, I’m Alex. Sandra was my Aunt.” He stared at her coldly, his expression not changing. He turned to leave and Alex called out to him, “I’m friends with Kenzie and Karter.”

  He called over his shoulder, irritated, “I know who you are. I’ll just come back another time.”

  Alex rushed after him, “Wait! Please, I want to talk to you.”

  Omar turned back around and took a step towards her; instinctively she took a tiny step back. If he beat up a pregnant girl he supposedly loved, who knows what he was capable of doing to her.

  “We don’t have anything to talk about.”

  Alex tried to bargain with him, “I know you probably don’t like my family, but don’t take that out on me. I just want to know about her life, and what she was really like. Not the diluted Raker version, the real version.”

  After a long awkward silence Omar nodded without making eye contact and walked past her to Sandra’s headstone. He sat down in the grass, and gestured for her to join him. Alex sat back down on the grass she had flattened earlier careful to keep an arm’s length distance between them. If she had learned anything in the last few weeks it was that adults were amazing at appearing to be something they weren’t. Even though he didn’t appear to be dangerous, she wasn’t taking any chances.

  She waited a long time waiting for him to start, but he didn’t speak. He just stared at the headstone, as if he were in a trance and had forgotten she was there. Finally she cleared her throat and decided she was going to have to take the initiative.

  “So, how did you meet Sandra?”

  “She was friends with my sister. They were taking some art class together at the community building. Since the day they met each other they were inseparable, she was always at my house.” He chuckled a little, “At first I couldn’t stand her, you know the whole prep-school girl with a rich daddy thing. But, she kind of grew on me. She was so alive and free, she did whatever she wanted. If she wanted to have peanut butter and fluff for dinner, she did. If she wanted to go swimming without any clothes on, she did. If she wanted to walk out of school and get drunk instead, she did. Then, one night we were all drinking, and I let my guard down. I kissed her, and she kissed me back, and she was my girl from that day on.”

  “We were living the good life for about three months, partying like crazy causing raucous every night. Then everything hit the fan.”

  He stopped talking a squinted off in the distance. Alex felt like she was losing him so she tried to reel him back in. “You mean she got pregnant?”

  Omar swallowed hard and nodded, he rubbed his eyes furiously, and then he began talking again. “Her father hated me. But they couldn’t control her; she was such a free-spirit. If she wanted to see me, then she saw me, regardless of how many times he forbade her from going back to The Boxes. Her Mom was just sweet and innocent, kind of clueless. She had a ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policy, she didn’t want to know what was going on. In her eyes Sandra could do no wrong. But she went to war with her Dad every day.”

  “Because she was dating you?”

  “Yes. I think there was more to it though. Sandra was just too scared or too embarrassed to admit it. There was something else going on in that house that she wouldn’t talk to anyone about. Her Dad drank a lot, and he had a crazy temper.” Omar cleared his throat awkwardly, “Sorry, that’s probably not the kind of stuff you wanted to hear.”

  “No. Keep going. I want to hear everything, the good stuff and the bad stuff.”

  “Well like I said everything hit the fan. We found out Sandra was pregnant and we both started freaking out. She was so scared to tell her parents, but she didn’t have the heart to get an abortion. Being sixteen and pregnant then wasn’t anything like it is now. Back then your parents whipped your ass; they didn’t get you your own TV show. Then one day she showed up at my house all excited, she said she told her parents and they had found a family to adopt the baby. As it got closer to her due date, we both started having second thoughts. We didn’t want to give up our baby, my Mom said Sandra could move in and she would help us. When Sandra told her Dad she wanted to keep the baby, he went crazy, and they got in a huge fight. He told her not to see me or my family anymore because he thought we were the ones convincing her to keep the baby. And then on top of that he had the nerve to call the police and say I left bruises all over her, when he was the one that did it.”

  Omar had started talking so fast, Alex could barely comprehend everything he was saying, and his voice was getting deeper and angrier.

  “Wait, you didn’t choke her?”

  “Why would I choke my pregnant girlfriend? His crazy ass did, because he had already cashed the checks from the adoptive family. They were paying him a load of money for our baby; I guess the lady couldn’t have kids or something. When Sandra said she changed her mind he freaked out, he didn’t have the money to pay back the family. Then he forced her to tell the police I did it, to try to keep us apart.” Omar was obviously getting upset talking about this, and Alex felt like she had to comfort him, she owed him that after all the hell her Grandpa put him through.

  “That makes sense, I believe you. I found a note in my Aunt’s old room. And your version of what happened fits the note way better than my family’s version of what happened. But why did she lie to the police the first time she talked to them?”

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t there. She was probably scared of him.”

  “After the whole police thing I didn’t see her for like a week. I talked to her on the phone a few times, I tried to get her to come back to The Boxes but she was acting crazy. She was threatening to leave Leighton. Then I lost contact with her completely, she stopped calling, stopped going to school, and when I tried to go to her house to see her no one would even open the door for me or tell me where she was.” Omar’s eyes were coated with tears. He sniffled and stood up and turned his back to Alex. She didn’t know what to do or say, she had never even seen a grown man cry and she had no idea how she was supposed to comfort him.

  He turned back around, and Alex stood up to face him. In barely a whisper she asked, “Then what happened?”

  Omar’s tears passed and were replaced by a distant dead look in his eyes, the same one that she seen every time she looked her Grandma in the eyes. He cleared his throat and spoke in monotones like an emotionless robot.

  “I got a letter from her, she said that she had the baby and they took it from her. And she couldn’t bear to see me, or anyone else for that matter. She said she couldn’t stand the thought of spending the rest of her life without our daughter. That night she was dead.”

  Alex realized what he was saying, and the t
hought chilled her to the bone. Her own Aunt, who was resting about six feet underneath her, had chosen to be there. She took a deep breath and squinted into the distance like Omar had done to her earlier. Now she understood why it was so hard for him to look at her.

  “I never told anyone about the letter. Not even my sister. I don’t think Alessandra should be remembered like that.”

  Alex nodded in agreement. He didn’t have to worry about her telling a soul; after she left the cemetery she was going to completely erase it from her mind. She couldn’t even fathom saying it aloud, let alone the damage it would do to her Grandma and Dad if it ever got back to them.

  “Then why did you tell me?”

  Omar busied himself lighting a cigarette and then finally he replied. “If Alessandra just did what her family wanted her to do, her life would have been a piece of cake. She would have had whatever she wanted, never would have met me, never would have gotten pregnant, and she would probably still be here today. She went against the grain, and her family made her life a living hell because of it. I know you’re friends with my niece and nephew, but are they really worth it? Look at everything your Aunt lost, you don’t want to wind up in the same boat. Your family will have their way one way or another.” He winked at her and as he began to turn away he added, “The Rakers always do.”

  Alex watched him walk back across the grass towards an old beat-up truck parked on the side of the road. From a distance he could have easily been Karter’s twin, except paler and he didn’t have huge hair. Actually the only thing that was similar was their faces, but he carried himself and spoke like Karter. They both had thick, hard exteriors. But if you got under those shells you would see that theirs were just a little harder and thicker than most people’s because they needed them to protect their hearts, which were a little bit more fragile than most people’s.

  HURRICANE ‘TRUTH’

  Alex's Grandma drove painfully slow back to her house. She pulled down the visor and checked her makeup in the mirror, rubbing away her smudged black eye liner. Her eyes looked swollen and sunken in, she felt like a train wreck you see on a rehab show. All of the drama in her life was wearing her down, slowly chipping away at her.

  "Are you okay sweetie?"

  "Yeah, I’m just tired."

  "I'm worried about you; you shouldn't be dealing with all this stuff on your own. Have you thought about going to talk to somebody?"

  "Like a therapist?"

  "Well, no like a counselor. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you. I think you just need to talk to an adult that's not in the middle of this mess that can give you advice."

  "I don't need a shrink Gram. I need the adults in my life to come clean."

  Her Grandma cleared her throat nervously as she navigated down the long driveway, "I don't lie to you Alex."

  "Oh are we going be honest with each other again? Okay, let's play the honest game again," Alex sneered sarcastically.

  Her Grandma pulled into her parking spot and turned the ignition off. She sighed loudly, indicating she was preparing herself.

  "I found an adult to talk today Grandma, and you know what he did help me a lot."

  "What are you talking about?"

  Alex turned to her, her eyes full of tears, through her clench teeth she growled, "You lied to me."

  "I did no such thing. I told you we were going to be honest with each other..."

  "Oh my God, ENOUGH! You knew Sandra was pregnant. Someone paid you and Grandpa a lot of money to adopt her baby."

  Her Grandma's expression quickly changed from concerned to angry, an emotion Alex had never seen from her before.

  "I'm sick of being called a liar! I did no such thing. Who the hell has been filling your head with more bullshit? That woman from The Boxes?"

  "No." Alex paused for a moment, "Omar."

  Her Grandma looked out the window for a minute shaking her head, "Why would you sit down and talk to someone who beat up your own Aunt? And believe him over your family?"

  "Why would you lie to me about Aunt Sandra's baby?"

  "I didn't know she was pregnant!" her Grandma screamed, startling both of them.

  "Omar said a man and woman were paying Grandpa a lot of money to adopt the baby, because she couldn't get pregnant. You didn't notice thousands of dollars you didn't have before?"

  "What part of this don't you get Alex? Your Grandpa was a selfish womanizing asshole! Do you really think I would have had access to our bank account? And even if I did notice anything strange about our finances, do you think I had the right to question it?"

  Alex stared at her dumbly, it was the first time anyone had come out and said anything about her Grandpa like that, except for Omar. She had always suspected he wasn't a ray of sunshine by the way people talked about him, but she never would have expected her Grandma to snap and say anything bad about him. She still wasn't sure whether to believe her or not, but a tiny part of her was proud of her for finally sticking up for herself, even if it was fourteen years too late.

  Her Grandma climbed out of the car, "Is this why you begged your parents to let you come over here? So you could interrogate me some more? I need to go lay down. I've had enough excitement for today Alexandra." Alex watched her unlock the front door and slam it behind her. She waited about five minutes to give her time to get upstairs and into her bedroom, and then got out of the car and went into the house.

  She stood in the kitchen listening for a moment to make sure she had gone in her room. Then she made her way down the hallway to her Grandpa's study. Her Grandma's house was like a time capsule. Whenever anyone left, their space was basically sealed off and never touched again. Just like Sandra's bedroom upstairs and Davis's bedroom he shared with Keri across the hall. It wasn't hard to snoop around for evidence from fifteen years ago, because half the stuff in the house hadn't been touched in fifteen years.

  She jiggled the brass door knob on the study and nothing happened. It wasn't locked or the knob wouldn't turn at all. After a few more minutes of unproductive jiggling she threw her bodyweight against the door. There was a loud crack as the heavy door swung open; the woodwork had swollen the door casing around the door. The room smelled musty, and just like Sandra's room all the furniture was covered with a thick layer of dust.

  She plopped down in the office chair behind the big oak desk and began opening the drawers. Alex wasn't sure exactly what she was looking for, but it obviously wasn't in the top drawer with the pens, pencils, and other basic office supplies. The only thing of interest in the top drawer was a key, but that was probably just a spare house key. The second drawer was full of tax forms, she found the form dated 1991, but nothing seemed out of order. Besides it was probably safe to assume her Grandpa wasn't going to claim money he made from selling Sandra's baby as part of his income. The next drawer was full of forms and legislature from his terms as mayor, obviously not a drawer he would stash proof of Sandra's baby in.

  Alex sat back in the chair and closed her eyes. She tried to think of her Grandpa, but couldn't picture his face. She was so young when he passed away. On holidays and birthdays he was always there, but never really there. He didn't talk much, just sat on the sidelines smoking cigarettes and reading newspapers and books. He was scary to a little kid. He hated "horseplay" and was constantly shouting at her not to run in the house or to lower her voice. The last time she seen him before he died she went home crying hysterically because he had spanked her for going into the wine cellar. Her parents were irate because they didn't believe in spanking their children. Alex sat up and opened her eyes. The wine cellar. When she went down there she shrieked because he scared her, she didn't realize he was down there. He was standing at the table going through what looked like a metal shoe box full of papers, and when he seen her he slammed it shut and spanked her and dragged her upstairs. Of course the answers she was looking for weren't going to be in his filing cabinet or his desk. They were going to be stashed away where no one would find them. Like in a
secret box no one knew he had in the wine cellar.

  As she pulled the study door shut she heard the cordless phone in the kitchen's shrill ringing. Alex rushed to the kitchen to pick it up before her Grandma came back down stairs to answer it.

  "Hello," she answered breathlessly

  "Alex?"

  "Yeah, who's this?" It definitely wasn't Kenzie's raspy voice on the other end, it sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

  "Ugh, Camryn." She hadn't spoken to her since the day after LVL when she invited her to the diner.

  "Oh, hi."

  "Are you still mad at me or something? You haven’t talked to me in like two weeks."

  Alex snorted; Camryn Rollins was the least of her worries. Since LVL she had gotten arrested, grounded, met her dead Aunt's baby-daddy, and found out her Mom was a lying whore. How cute of Camryn to think that she was affected by her petty high-school drama.

  "No, I just have had a lot going on, family stuff. How did you know I was here?"

  "I called your house phone since yours is off, and your brother gave me this number."

  "Oh."

  "So, what’s up? How's your new man?"

  Alex giggled; she did miss Cam a little. Not that she didn't love Kenzie; she just needed space from Kenzie's family. She was in a love-hate relationship with her brother, her Mom was Sandra's best-friend, and her Uncle was Sandra's baby-daddy. It was just too much to deal with right now. Talking to Cam reminded her of the good ole days when the biggest ordeal in her life was which one of them was going to go out with goofy Nate. They chatted for a few more minutes about all the high-school drama Alex had been missing out on, then they decided to hang out.

  "Why don't you come over here tonight?"

  Alex could picture Cam wrinkling her nose like she was grossed out, "To your Grandma's?" She knew she could sneak out and go to Cam's without any problems, but she had ulterior motives. She had to get into the safe in the cellar, and Cam would be the perfect partner-in-crime. They use to go on missions all the time, sneaking beer, hacking people's Facebook accounts, following Cam's Dad when they thought he was cheating on her Mom; finding the safe and breaking into it was right up their alley.