Cranberry Lane

by Laurèn Lee

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  Wayne bent down and picked me up like a father cradling his child. He carried me to a car hiding under a willow tree and put me in the backseat so I could stretch out.

  I could see the police cars now and the high-pitch shrill of the sirens was deafening.

  “How are we going to get out of here?” I screeched.

  “Don’t worry. Everything will be okay”

  Wayne turned the ignition, but kept the headlights off. Two police cars now parked outside the trailer where both Wayne and I had been only minutes ago. One officer had his flashlight out and started shouting in cop code into his radio.

  Another office patrolled the perimeter. He had a flashlight in one hand and his gun in the other.

  “Wayne?” I called out.

  “Hold on. It’s about to get real bumpy.”

  29

  Wayne

  Serenity whimpered in the back seat and I couldn’t believe I’d gotten myself in this situation. The only way out of the trailer park had been blocked off by two cop cars and the respective officers. There’s no way we could get out of here unscathed… Unless, we made sure the cops wouldn’t be able to follow us out of the park.

  Of course, they’d call for backup, but we’d be long gone by the time it arrived. We needed a distraction, though. We needed a diversion to lead the officers away from the willow tree currently shielding us.

  And then, it hit me; I could use my phone with the vocal recordings to draw them in another direction. I whipped out my burner, wiped it as well as I could, picked a voice recording and tossed it out of the car window as far as I could throw.

  “What are you doing?” Serenity demanded with urgency.

  “It’s just a burner, don’t worry. I have a plan.”

  She looked incredulously at me, but I had no time to explain. I held up a finger to my lips signaling to her I needed silence.

  “Hey, you hear that?” One officer asked the other.

  The officers appeared short and portly, much different than the city cops back in our neighborhood. It’d work in our favor if we ended up having to escape on foot; they’d never catch us.

  “I think someone is over there,” the other responded. “Anyone out there? Are you okay?”

  I’d chosen the sound of a baby crying. Who could ignore the sound of a wailing infant out in the middle of a field in a trailer park?

  “I’m going to go look, back me up, okay?”

  “Sure.”

  The two officers stealthily jogged to the field, one led the search, the other prepared to take the flank if necessary.

  “They’re gone!” Serenity gasped. “Go, go, go!”

  I didn’t need to be told twice. I put the car in drive and hit the gas so hard, the wheels spun out and dirt launched into the air behind us. I sped so fast from under the willow tree I accidentally hit one of the patrol car’s side mirrors.

  Oops.

  “Hurry! They’re running back to their cars!”

  I tossed a gun back to Serenity and she screeched at the sight of the hard, cool metal.

  “Shoot the tires!” I ordered.

  “What?” she screamed back.

  “Shoot the goddamned tires so they can’t chase us!” I bellowed.

  “I, I, I’ve never used one before.”

  “It’s not hard, just aim and shoot!”

  I could see her hands visibly shaking, but she rolled down her window anyway. She stuck her head outside the car like a retriever on a warm summer’s day and I used my left hand to cover my ear.

  Two shots rang out: one missed completely, and I heard the other hit one of the cars with a distinct PING.

  “Did you hit the tires?”

  “I don’t know!” she cried. “I don’t think so!”

  “Try again. Keep it steady.”

  “Okay,” she quivered.

  Three more shots. The sirens sounded behind us, but once I looked in the rear-view mirror, I knew they wouldn’t be following us. Serenity had hit at least one or two of the cars’ tires and the officers stood outside the cars, radios in hand and defeated looks plastered across their pudgy faces.

  We’d almost reached the main road when a few residents started coming out of their trailers to see what had been going on. Luckily, even if any could manage to remember this car or plate number, by tomorrow morning, it would have a fresh coat of paint and different plates.

  Once we turned onto the main road, relief flooded my chest and I knew we’d be okay.

  “Wayne, what in the actual fuck just happened,” Serenity asked, regaining some of her normal sass.

  “I’ll explain everything when we get back to my place,” I promised.

  “Uh, no. You can tell me right now.” I thought I heard her stomping her feet in the back seat.

  “I promise once we get back to my apartment, I’ll pour you a nice strong drink and we can talk. Okay?”

  “Whatever.” She pouted.

  I took us back to Ronnie’s garage so I could stow the car inside until tomorrow when I’d come in early and work on its new disguise. My car was parked in the lot, ready to take us home.

  “Where are we?” Serenity asked.

  “What does it look like?” I tried to hide my smile. The girl was always so sour, I had to give it back to her when I could.

  “This is not how I planned on tonight turning out.” She sighed.

  “You and me both,” I agreed.

  “You still need to tell me why you were in that trailer park and why you have a gun and this old car.”

  “Patience, girl. Jesus.”

  She huffed and puffed and crossed her arms across her chest. Even with her hair ruffled and dirt covering her clothes and face, she still managed to take my breath away… But, only a little bit.

  She plopped down onto the passenger seat in the front next to me and looked at me intently. It felt like she was trying to read my mind. I looked away first.

  “Ready?”

  “For what? You to choke me again?”

  “No. To go back to my apartment so we can talk.”

  “You know, Wayne, for future reference, I like a guy to buy me a drink before he decides to choke me,” she huffed.

  “Yeah, all right. Maybe next time.”

  The clock read 10:59 and I knew Sammy would be wondering when I’d be home. However, I’m sure seeing Serenity walk in the door with me might help lighten his mood.

  We pulled into the parking lot by my apartment building and I could see our living room illuminated by the television screen. Sammy waited up for me as he usually managed to do. Even if it was a school night.

  I unlocked the door and Serenity followed me inside. I didn’t have a phone to destroy, but I made sure to put my backpack into the closet in my bedroom.

  “Serenity!” Sammy said. I could nearly hear the smile in his voice.

  “Hey, kid.”

  “What’re you doing here?”

  “I wanted to see you, duh!”

  “Actually, Sammy, Serenity and I need to talk about something important.”

  Sammy looked wounded. “What about?”

  “Nothing major, but we would like some privacy if you don’t mind.”

  “I live here, too.” He pouted.

  I sighed.

  Teenagers.

  “It will only take a little bit, then you can come back out, okay?”

  “So, you’re like ordering me to go to my room?”

  “Please, Sammy?”

  He stormed out of the living room and into his bedroom. His door slammed behind him and caused our fish tank to shake like the glass of water in Jurassic Park just before the T-Rex made its entrance.

  “Okay, spill,” Serenity demanded.

  “Don’t you want that drink first?”

  “Can’t you talk and pour at the same time?”

  “Touché.”

  She followed me into the kitchen and watched closely as I poured two rotund shots of bourbon
into each of our glasses. We clinked glasses and she finished her three-finger portion in one single gulp.

  “Uh, okay. Want some more?”

  “Duh.” She held out her glass for another serving.

  “Sit down?”

  “Wayne, you’re really stretching this out as far as you can, huh?”

  “I’m not. I just think you should sit down.”

  “Okay, I’m sitting. Happy?”

  “Sure.”

  “Now, tell me why you were at the trailer park so late.”

  “I was working a job.”

  She snorted. “What kind of job? Aren’t you a mechanic?”

  “I am, but this was for a different job. This one was far more dangerous,” I replied.

  She stared at me and motioned her hand in a circular fashion. “Go on.”

  “If I tell you this, you need to promise me you won’t tell anyone else.”

  “Or, what? Are you going to kill me?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Jesus Christ. Just tell me. My lips are sealed.” She dragged an invisible zipper across her pouting mouth.

  “I’m a hit man,” I said slowly.

  Serenity burst out laughing and I think a little bourbon even came out of her nose. “You’re a what?”

  “I kill people for a living and you think that’s funny?” I sighed.

  “You’ve gotta be shitting me? You really think I’m going to believe that?”

  “It’s true. I was there tonight because I was hired to kill those guys in the trailer where I eventually found you.”

  “Wait a minute, back up. You killed that guy I tripped over?”

  “Sure did.”

  She stopped laughing and her eyes nearly doubled in size. “How?”

  “Well, he was far too big for me to strangle so I hit him with a deadly dose of narcotics in the form of a dart.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “Not in the least bit.”

  She chugged the rest of the liquor in her glass and continued to question me. “Wait. You said ‘guys.’ There were more there?”

  “Yup. Four others to be exact.”

  “You killed four men tonight?”

  “Actually, it was five,” I confirmed.

  “And, this is what you do for a living?”

  “It’s my full-time gig, so yeah.”

  “Does Sammy know?” she whispered.

  I nodded. “He does.”

  She looked back at his still closed bedroom door and shook her head. “You’re such a fucking liar.”

  “What?” I asked taken aback.

  “You heard me! You’re a fucking liar!”

  “Serenity, what are you talking about? I just told you the truth.”

  “I’m not talking about tonight. I’m talking about your whole goddamned life. You act like you’re such a great father figure to Sammy and that you got your life together after leaving Cranberry Lane, but you’re no different than who you were back on the lane. You’re the same!”

  She started pacing and I stood to try to comfort her, but she pushed me away.

  “I am a good guardian to Sammy. My job has nothing to do with how I’ve raised him,” I said calmly with my hands up, trying to surrender.

  “You’re paying for all this shit,” she said as she spun around. “With money earned from killing people.”

  I didn’t know what else to say. I’d hoped she would have understood and accepted my lifestyle. I mean, she is a drug dealer. Not the same, of course, but not innocent either. Then, a thought occurred to me.

  “Wait a minute, Miss Perfect,” I began. “Why were you at the trailer park?”

  “What?” she asked, taken aback.

  “Yeah, get off your high fucking horse and tell me why you were there tonight.”

  “It’s none of your business.” She sneered.

  Sammy opened his bedroom door and peeked around the corner. “Can I come out yet?”

  “No!” Serenity and I simultaneously shouted.

  “You guys suck,” Sammy said and slammed his door again.

  “Tell me, princess. What business did you have in the trailer park, huh?”

  “Screw you, Wayne.” She grabbed her purse and made for the door.

  I grabbed her arm, a little more forcefully than I intended.

  “Get off me! Jesus, you think you can just do whatever you want to other people, don’t you?”

  “You weren’t so ungrateful when I was saving you all those times!” I shouted back.

  “Saving me?” she chided. “Tonight, I needed someone to save me from you! You almost killed me!”

  “I didn’t know it was you!”

  “Let me go!” she whined.

  I couldn’t let her go. My mind told to loosen my grip and let her leave, but my body held firmly. I pushed her up against the wall in the living room sending the fish tank quivering again.

  “I’m not going to let you go,” I growled.

  “Yes. You. Are.” She seethed.

  I continued to hold her arms at her side and against the wall. Our noses nearly touched, and I could feel her warm breath on my face. I could see the glimmer of sweat on her temples, but she still smelled sweet and succulent. My pulse raced, and other parts of my body grew rigid.

  She squirmed against me, which only made me hold her down harder. She struggled against my grip, but I wouldn’t let her go. I needed her. I wanted her. I desired her.

  “Please,” she asked more resigned. “You’re hurting me.”

  “Serenity,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

  I put my head down on her shoulder and loosened my grip. My chest rose and fell tediously against her.

  “It’s okay,” she whispered finally.

  When I looked up to her face she returned my gaze with hungry eyes, craving something within myself. Without another word, I pushed even harder against her and against the wall and pressed my lips to hers.

  I slipped my tongue inside her mouth and heard her moan softly. My entire body ignited with desire. I’d never felt this kind of intensity before. I never knew this kind of hunger was possible. Serenity had opened the door to something new and I wanted more.

  She broke away from the kiss and nibblde on my neck, now causing me to moan. I wanted her so badly I could barely breathe. I wanted to consume her. I wanted to feel every part of her against me. Our embrace felt as though we were estranged puzzle pieces finally being placed back together.

  She stopped teasing me and I heard her breathing madly.

  “I have to go,” she said quickly.

  Without another word, she left my apartment. I stood in the dark for some time, hoping, waiting for her to walk back inside.

  30

  Serenity

  Wayne held me against the wall and I wished more than anything I was strong enough to push him off me. I felt completely and utterly betrayed. Here, I thought he was this amazing and pure guy, all the while he murdered people in cold blood. How could he flip the switch so easily and transform to loving big brother to murderous hitman?

  I thought I knew him. I thought we were one in the same, but we weren’t. I never hid who I was. He did.

  And, then, I stopped resisting. I couldn’t fight him anymore. Even though he’d lied, it didn’t change the fact that I felt deeply connected to him. It was possible for him to be both a killer and a lover as insane as it sounded.

  He pressed his lips against mine and I swore my heart skipped a beat. I hated him and in the same breath I felt as though I was falling for him, too. I couldn’t think. All I could do was relish the feeling of his body against mine. Confusion washed over me. I needed to get out of here, but I also never wanted to leave.

  Eventually, I pulled away. “I have to go,” I whispered.

  I left Wayne’s apartment and felt dizziness swirl within my head.

  What the fuck just happened?

  I walked home alone; Wayne had nearly begged to come with me to ensure I’d arr
ive home safely, but I declined. I needed to think and sort out my thoughts. At this point in my life, I didn’t need to fear whatever may lie within the darkness on Cranberry Lane, luck had been on my side. I’d survived a near sexual assault at the bar, Joey attacking me and a killing spree with cops surrounding us as the cherry on top. A walk home by myself? No problem.

  I snuck in our decrepit apartment and felt thankful Ma was passed out and dead to the world. I knew I looked beyond disheveled and didn’t want to have to explain myself to her. Especially, since I didn’t want to talk to her at all after what happened this afternoon.

  Water called to me and I knew my body needed sustenance besides alcohol. I poured myself a tall glass of tap water and the metallic taste didn’t even make me flinch; I was that thirsty.

  My stomach grumbled, and I realized water wasn’t the only thing my body craved. So, I rifled through our empty fridge and settled on finishing the box of generic pizza logs I’d bought from Aldi a few months ago. They were in the freezer the whole time, so they had to still be good, right?

  While I waited for the microwave to zap my food, I noticed something different about the kitchen. In the corner by the window stood a vase of wildly colorful carnations. I knew they couldn’t be from Joey, so who were they from?

  “To my dearest Regina,

  I hope you enjoy the flowers. I wanted to give you something as beautiful as you are to me.

  With love, Jerry xoxo”

  Well, there goes my appetite.

  Who really was this Jerry guy and what did he want from my mother? Couldn’t he tell she didn’t have much to offer? Something didn’t feel right about all of this. I pulled out my phone and opened the Facebook app. I searched for “Jerry” and a few came up. One guy I recognized. I’d seen him around town dealing with some sketchy people. What could a guy like this want with my mom? There was no way he’d ever get Ma’s information from a her doctor. How did he find her?

  The microwaved pinged loudly and I paused for a moment to see if Ma had woken up. Once I’d concluded she wouldn’t be coming to see the cause of the commotion, I sat down at the table and dipped my pizza logs into the mediocre marinara sauce which had expired by now.