by Mitch Goth
Bobby’s car squealed and rattled its way back across the town and to Cady’s house. Nobody said much on the ride back. No one could think of anything to say. No remarks, no questions, no words.
Cera, Mike, Taylor and Nate went quickly inside to wash the blood off of them. Bobby stayed outside and stared at the disaster that’d become of his Impala. Cady walked apologetically to his side.
“Sorry about your car, Bobby,” she said with a frown.
“The UN better buy me a new one.”
“No promises.”
At that, Bobby began to laugh.
“What?” she wondered.
“This night, man,” he replied. “It started out like any other, I was out in a graveyard singing to the dead folks, and now look. My car is destroyed, I’m missing part of my ear and I may have seriously injured my leg jumping out of an abandoned factory.”
“Then why are you laughing?”
“I don’t know. I guess, if I saw something like this in a movie, I’d laugh, so why shouldn’t I do it now? That’d be kinda hypocritical. Besides, I made some friends out of it.”
“Yeah,” Cady smiled, “I guess you did. And you also happen to know a badass assassin now.”
“Cady, I’m going to tell you the same thing I told the Chevy Vega rusting in the downtown park. Nobody will need your skills for anything ever, but can you drive me home?”
“Sorry, but after tonight, I might have to stay in my house for the rest of my life,” she chuckled.
“I certainly don’t blame you,” Mike came into the conversation as the remainder of the group came out of the house.
“I can drive you home,” Taylor offered.
“That’d be great,” Bobby replied with a warm smile.
“You guys shouldn’t leave yet,” Nate suggested, “we should probably all be here to tell the cops what happened.”
“What’d I say about cops, Nate,” Mike said.
“Come on, it’s all over now, what are we going to do, just never call them?”
“Nate,” Bobby said, “I just cut a guy in half with an antique shotgun. No cops.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Nate groaned.
“They wouldn’t believe us if we told them,” Cera added.
“It could compromise my cover,” Cady pointed out.
“As much as I hate to agree, any law trouble could get me booted from my college,” Taylor spoke up.
“Somebody I do need to see though, is a doctor,” Bobby said. “I don’t think I can stand out here much longer.”
“Come on, I’ll get you home,” Taylor limped over to him and they helped each other meander their injured selves across the street and to her car.
“Bobby’s gonna get some ass,” Mike grinned as he watched her car disappear down the road.
“Shut up, Mike,” Cera chuckled.
“I’m just saying,” Mike said. “But it probably won’t be right away,” he looked at his watch, “it’s a little late for that.”
“Or a little early,” Cera pointed to the horizon, which was red with the oncoming dawn.
“Well how about that.”
“This has easily been the longest night of my entire life,” Nate remarked as he stared at the brightening horizon.
“You understand the irony in that, right?” Mike laughed.
“I do. I don’t care.”
“I do have to say, Cady,” Mike turned to her, “you throw one hell of a solstice party.”
She smiled.
“So, Cady, how many people have you killed?” Cera inquired.
“Cera, come on,” Nate objected.
“It’s fine,” Cady assured. “It’s been a while that I’ve done this, Cera. I don’t really know.”
“That’s not what you like to hear,” Nate sighed.
“You guys are gonna look at me a little differently now, aren’t you?” she wondered nervously.
“Be more insecure, Cady,” Cera replied. “You’ve been our friend for years. Sure, being a UN assassin has got to be the biggest secret someone’s ever hidden from their friends, and the idea of you killing people is gonna take some getting used to. But what are we going to do? Avoid you forever just because your job involves murder?”
“I’m sorry, I forgot you’re a psycho,” Cady laughed.
“Hey,” Mike shrugged, “it’s better than being a prostitute.”
“And I think we’d still be friends with you if you were a hooker,” Cera added.
Cady turned to Nate. He looked up at her, but said nothing.
“What about you?”
He continued his silence and instead turned away and walked towards the house.
“We should let you guys be,” Mike said. “But don’t worry, he’ll get used to the idea, just like we do, and just like I’m sure Taylor and Bobby will.”
“Thanks, Mike,” Cady patted him on the shoulder. “You’re sure they will?”
“I’ll make them if they’re not,” Cera nodded at her friend with a devilish smile. She then turned to her brother, “Come on, Mike, let’s get home. Now that the sun’s coming up I don’t like the look of the clouds.”
With that, they departed to their car and gave their friends a wave and a honk before rolling away. That just left Cady and Nate, who’d sat down on the stoop of Cady’s house. She walked over and sat beside him, not sure what to tell him.
“How could you not tell me about that?” he wondered.
“They made me sign something,” Cady explained. “If I told anybody outright I’d be put in prison. I think they’ll make an exception for tonight though. You’re not mad are you?”
“No,” he sighed gloomily. “I guess I’m more surprised you could do something like this and not have any of us catch on. I mean, I’ve been around you almost every day for four years.”
“They’re very secretive in getting me places, fast too. I usually did it at nights, I’d leave right when everyone went to bed and be back before morning. Some days I’d just say I was going camping or something with you guys and I could be gone for like a week,” she laughed, but she saw he found no amusement. “You’ve got to know I’m sorry. I would’ve told you if I could.”
“It just needs a little time to process, Cady, that’s all,” Nate assured. “But promise me something like this won’t happen again.”
“I promise it won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“I just do. If you still doubt it, I’ll retire. If that’s what it takes for you to be comfortable, I won’t hesitate.”
He looked up at her, “you don’t have to do that. I trust you,” he gave her a small but meaningful smile.
“They might make me retire after this anyway,” she chuckled again, and this time Nate gave a small laugh as well.
“So how’d they even find you?”
“I guess they knew I took all those self defense and karate classes when I was younger.”
“Younger? You mean the classes you took when you were like six?”
“Those are the ones,” she nodded. “Along with those as past experience, I fit their criteria. I wasn’t overly popular, I didn’t stick out in a crowd and I had an open schedule. They brought me with like twenty other people under the pretense of taking an advanced fighting class and I excelled at it, so they enlisted me. They said I could do it in a way that wouldn’t effect my life immensely, which it didn’t, minus some lack of sleep. And they paid pretty well too.”
“That’s insane,” Nate laughed.
“It’s true though.”
“That’s the insane part.”
As they both laughed, Cady looked up and caught another look at something she noticed earlier. The shattered bay window in front of her house.
“How do I explain that?” she wondered.
Nate picked up a loose brick from her walkway and tossed it into her living room through the gaping hole. He turned back and smiled at her while she just looked at him, confused.
“The old folks,” he chuckled,
“in all their anger, tossed a brick through your window.”
“Blame Cera?”
“Blame Cera.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she snickered.
Just then, a small roll of thunder came through and rain started pattering down on them. Cady got up, but Nate stayed sitting.
“Come on, let’s go inside,” Cady said.
Nate didn’t move.
“You know,” he said, “Bobby told me something tonight. He said I should take time to enjoy the rain.”
“Why’d he say that.”
“He said I worry too much, and I think he was right. I need to slow down a bit, you know, enjoy life a little. Even the rain.”
She sat back down next to him.
“Why the revelation?”
“He asked if I knew the rain storm was going to be my last would I hide from it or go out in the middle of it. That got me thinking, what if that time in the kitchen yesterday was the last conversation we ever had? I wouldn’t be okay with that. And, even though the fact that it’s something that Bobby said makes me kinda hate it, I’ve gotta love it. Because I know now that I’ve got another chance to make a better last conversation than that one, I’m gonna make every one last. I love you, Cady Steward, and I sure as hell don’t want to lose you. But the thought of it all ending like that is worse than the thought of losing you. For the longest time I’ve worried about our future too much to really appreciate what we have in the present. And God damn it, I just want to learn how to stop worrying.”
“And love the Cady?” she smiled.
“Don’t Strangelove me, I’m being serious,” he reciprocated the grin. “If tonight has taught me anything, it’s that I should spent more time enjoying the time I have with you. Because, through some act of God or Canadians, that time could end.”
“I love you too,” she leaned against him and was quaint with enjoying the rain with him. “I think Bobby was onto something here, this pretty nice.”
“It is isn’t it,” he nodded. “Damn you Bobby Berrer.”
They laughed and wrapped their arms around each other as the rain came down harder. And together they watched the sun rise from the depths of the horizon and end the shortest night of the year and the longest night in each of their lives.
Epilogue
Cady Steward was given an honorable discharge from the assassins program and was able to retire with full benefits. Let that sink in, she retired at age eighteen, and I’m talking like forever. Not one of those retirements that ends after a deadbeat child moves in and the parents needs to go back to work, it’s full-fledged forever. Isn’t that some shit.
Nate Bray eventually married Cady and they had their wedding at Mawsynram, India, the rainiest place on earth. The day of their wedding was the driest day of the year in that region (suck it Bobby). He later wrote a memoir about the solstice experience. It was never published as all the major publishing houses dismissed it as, ‘complete bullshit’. Nevertheless, the two of them lived out their days happily retired.
Bobby Berrer went on to sell his family heirloom blunderbuss and used the money to open a joint music and tea shop, Bobby’s Vintage Records and Herbal Tea Chalet. It went on to be a Fortune 500 company. He now drives a Ferrari. A bulletproof, heavily armored and reinforced Ferrari.
Mike Aldrin continued practicing his throwing abilities and was drafted by the NFL the following year. He played for ten season before retiring and purchasing a used car lot in Arizona to fulfill his secret life-long dream of selling quality pre-owned sedans to retirees.
Taylor Lankin did end up completing her degree in journalism. And some time after that she went on to work for CNN. Her first assignment was to research the rise of a brand new business chain juggernaut, Bobby’s Vintage Records and Herbal Tea Chalet.
Cera Aldrin was discovered by the UN shortly after Cady’s departure and was enlisted as her replacement. Over the course of her life, Cera toppled sixteen highly oppressive regimes and received the Congressional Medal of Honor as well as the Nobel Peace Prize, going down in history as, ‘the craziest human being to be a recipient of the award’.
The gas station attendant made a miraculous full recovery from his gun shot/explosion wounds and went on to win the lottery…twice.
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About the Author
Mitch Goth resides in his hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin. He currently plans to attend Antioch College in the fall of 2013. When not writing, he spends his time investigating the paranormal and indulging in a good book or movie.
Acknowledgements
First off I would like to thank the whole of my Senior year AP Chemistry class, for it was day dreaming my way through a particular portion of that class that brought me the idea for this book in the first place. Secondly I would like to thank…shit, I don’t know. To be perfectly honest, this was one of the few stories I’ve ever written that has been mainly a solo effort. My beta reader quit on me, I have high doubts my family knows anything about this book, same goes for my friends. This was an odd story to write, not to say it wasn’t fun, but it was certainly different from all the others. So, to wrap all this up, I’d like to thank whoever feels they contributed in some way to the creation of this book, because seeing as I don’t really know who did, I guess it’s all about how you feel.