When We Were 8

by catt dahman

  “Stop, or I’ll cry again,” Tiffany said. She lugged her bags, claiming the room she always shared with Samantha. There were four small bedrooms, and the girls had always shared the same rooms in pairs since they were little and had first come there.

  Angel grimaced but threw her things into the room she always shared with Nelwynn. Since none of the other girls had taken her twin bed, she assumed it meant that Nelwynn and she might work everything out. She felt a little better.

  “They left us margaritas,” Samantha called from the kitchen. She pulled the blender from the freezer, gave it a few whirls, added some more tequila, and filled large plastic glasses that Tiffany rimmed with salt.

  Angel dipped a corn chip into a large plastic bowl of salsa she found in the refrigerator, grinned and said, “Meg is amazing with salsa. Damn, this is hot!” The salsa was chilled, filled with fresh jalapenos, cilantro, and bits of onion, and seasoned with lime, salt, and a tiny dash of chili powder. It wasn’t a fancy dip, but Meg had always made it for them with several cans of tomatoes, and they pretended it was gourmet.

  “It’s always hot. Meg makes it as hot as she can,” Tiffany laughed.

  “I think Cassie was bartending. Strong drinks,” Samantha licked at the salt and sighed with pleasure as she drank the tart mixture.

  “Look at the trash can. She must have been bartending heavily. I see tequila bottles, an empty bloody Mary mixer, and vodka bottle; Whitney and Nelwynn have been here. Is that rum? Meg must have made daiquiris.”

  “Since Saturday morning? They must be toasted by now,” Tiffany frowned. Since they had been in high school, most of their parents, except for Samantha’s, let them have a few drinks and when they came here alone, they often went through a few bottles over a full weekend, but this was a lot of liquor already consumed.

  “Strange. Okay, pour your glass full, and let’s take an extra glass each in case they have run out,” Jill suggested. “We need to change.”

  As soon as they changed into swimsuits and shorts, they grabbed two full plastic cups each and headed out the door, knowing that everyone else would be at the river swimming.

  Tiffany led the way down the trail, and they expected to hear their friends laughing and splashing in the water; they waited until everyone saw them and cheered their arrival, but as they got closer, they heard only a few angry voices.

  The first thing they saw was a small campfire on the beach. The second was Cassie, Meg, Nelwynn, and Whitney sitting on towels on the rocks and staring at something long, white, and large that lay across the jagged rocks.

  Jill blinked a few times and almost dropped her drinks. “Hey.”

  “About time you girls joined the party!” Cassie ran over and took two cups to share around with the others. Nelwynn took the other two cups and kept her eyes off Angel.

  “What’s going on?” Jill asked.

  Nelwynn bit her lip. “I didn’t know. Whitney and Meg kept talking about the stuff in the car trunk, and I thought it was more alcohol or something else, but hear them out. It isn’t what you think.”

  Jill exploded, “Isn’t what I think? What could I possibly think about the fact that you four have a fire on the beach and a naked man staked to the rocks?”

  Cassie gulped and said, “I told you that Whitney had plans and that Reggie was safe. For now.”

  “Who is he?” asked Jill.

  “His name is Ed. There’s an amusing story behind this,” Whitney promised.

  “I’m listening,” Tiffany said. She tapped a foot.

  She, like the other three, had seen sleeping bags rolled up and guessed that the girls had spent the night there beside the man fearful he might escape. A bag of trash showed that they had run back and forth for drinks and food.

  All four were tipsy, and Cassie was borderline drunk. Whitney gulped at the margarita, determined to catch up.

  “What did he do? Did he attack you?” Samantha asked. “Who is that?”

  “Ed,” Nelwynn said. She tried to look away from Jill’s angry face but kept turning back to her.

  Ed’s skin was burned in several places: red and charred. He was cut and bruised, and several fingers were twisted and broken; the only place untouched was his privates. Clearly, he had been tortured over the last twenty-four hours.

  “Shit. What the hell have you done?” Jill demanded. She paced and felt sick.

  “Have a drink and listen, ‘kay?” Meg asked. “Do you remember that after we had that accident with Rex and John, Mike told that story?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “I love Uncle Mike, but he fibbed a little. Maybe he knew something more and was protecting us, or maybe he didn’t know everything, but maybe he did fib.”

  “How so?” Tiffany sat down because her legs were shaking.

  “He said he took care of a pervert, remember? That was Ed’s brother, Josiah, who went missing, and we know or we can guess that Mike took care of him, right? It was a secret he kept to himself. But whatever perversion they like runs in the family. Ed was just as much a pervert as his brother, only maybe he was sneakier, or maybe no one told on him,” Cassie said.

  “Ed touched little kids, too?”

  “I didn’t,” Ed cried out to Jill.

  “Shut up,” Jill said. “If no one told, then how do you know he did? How do you know Uncle Mike didn’t know or tell us?”

  “Because I was one of the little girls he messed with,” Meg said.

  “No,” Jill’s eyes brimmed with tears.

  “Jill, Charlie would say I am easy and slutty because of what was done to me if he analyzed me. I know what boys say. I am easy. I always have this fear I’m worthless because of it, you know. I’m not worth any respect.”

  “You are,” Jill argued.

  Meg shook her head, “No. It’s probably why I do things like jump off cliffs and drive too fast. I should have told and had therapy, I guess.”

  “Why didn’t you tell?” Samantha asked.

  “I don’t really know. It’s why when Angel was raped that I reacted like I did. I couldn’t deal with it, and I almost told you that day. If Rex had raped me, I would have killed him right there in the park if I could have.”

  Cassie motioned with her cup and said, “Tell them what this piece of trash did.”

  “He touched me. He made me do things to him. I was five, six, and seven when he did it. He always got me when I was at my father’s office, playing outside. He’d make me go to the bandstand, and you know how it’s surrounded by trees and bushes, or it was until they were cut down.”

  “My, God,” Tiffany whispered.

  Meg said, “That was why I didn’t have many friends when we all got together that one day. I hated myself and was ashamed. You were the only person I talked to, Jill. I remember how I felt back then.”

  “Oh, Meg, damn,” Tiffany wiped away a tear.

  “It wasn’t just me,” said Meg as she looked at Whitney.

  “Yeah, it was me, too. Speaking of Charlie, he’d say that was why I drove myself so hard and never had friends. I was running away to escape twelve years of this guilt and shame,” said Whitney.

  A few weeks before the prom, Meg and I were talking and drinking, and it just came out. We told each other. Then, we told Cassie. The three of us decided to do this, but it was us, Meg and me. We planned it. Cassie only helped grab him, and we shoved him in Meg’s trunk and brought him here,” Whitney explained. “Nelwynn was just with us.”

  “You figured out who he was and how his brother was the one….” Jill began.

  “Yeah. We talked it out and put the clues together,” Whitney said.

  “You tortured him,” said Tiffany as she shivered.

  “Yeah, blame that on the booze. And I need a refill,” Cassie declared. She asked Tiffany, Angel, and Nelwynn to get more drinks. Tiffany was glad to get away from the beach for a while, unsure how she felt about what the other girls had done.

  The girls sat and watched Ed, wondering what to say and wishi
ng for the rest to return quickly. Jill thought they needed to talk this out as the full group of eight.

  “They’re crazy. Let me go,” Ed begged.

  Jill frowned and said, “Just shut up.”

  Whitney gave Jill a nod.

  Jill took a long drink, sighed, and asked, “Now what? Twelve years. That’s a long time to wait.”

  “We have college coming up, and if not now, then when? It’s time.” Meg glared at Ed. “And besides, we just recently connected the dots.”

  “But we can’t do this,” Jill argued.

  Cassie said, “Uncle Mike told us about people. We took care of John and Rex ourselves. Over the years, can you honestly say none of you have done things here? Bad things? Secretive things?”

  “We did Mike and Rex,” Samantha said. “That was bad.”

  “Sammie, be honest,” Cassie begged. “Tell us.”

  Samantha looked at a rock and shivered.

  “Sammie?” Jill asked.

  “Tell us,” Cassie asked again.

  Samantha gulped for air. “He was going to kill those kids.”

  “Who?” Jill asked.

  “Mr. Griffin,” Samantha spoke as the other girls returned with drinks and passed them around.

  Jill and Tiffany traded glances. Mr. Griffin had owned a cabin that sat a half-mile away, and from time to time, they ran into one another on the hiking trails. He had two little boys, both under age six, and each time they saw them, the boys were shy and withdrawn and always had black eyes, bruises, and sometimes broken arms.

  “I managed to get one of the boys alone for a few minutes and asked him some serious questions. He admitted Mr. Griffin, their dad, beat them for not behaving. If you recall, the Griffins had a baby that died mysteriously. Mrs. Griffin always had bruises, too,” Samantha told them.

  “He was beating them? Did he kill the baby?” Jill asked.

  “I think he did. He was vile. Remember how he cursed and screamed at those little boys? Samantha asked. “Right after Rex and John died, his wife found Old Man Griffin hanging, remember? Everyone said it was a drunken suicide, and no one cared he was dead,” Samantha said.

  “That’s right, Sammie,” Cassie raised her glass as if making a toast, “tell it all.”

  “But it wasn’t a suicide?” Jill asked.

  Samantha frowned and said. “What do you think? You can’t imagine what it took to get his neck in that rope, and Meg and I almost died from the work it took. We had to do it while his wife and kids were at the store getting supplies.”

  “Yeah. It was hard work,” Meg admitted.

  Jill’s jaw dropped. She had never imagined the truth and looked at Samantha and Meg with shock on her face.

  “But, listen, he had killed the baby, and it was a matter of time before he killed his wife and sons. He beat them. I couldn’t stand it. It was killing me to know what he was doing,” Samantha told them.

  Jill looked at Samantha a long time. She licked her lips and took a drink. “So you and Meg?”

  Meg nodded and said, “It had to be done. Uncle John did the same thing once, right? We saved three other lives.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Tiffany was hurt.

  “We didn’t want to involve you in case we were caught. I mean, you had no idea….” Samantha said.

  “No idea? That’s rich. Like we wouldn’t have helped or at least cared and been supportive. That’s not fair, Samantha. Meg knows I am always willing to do what I have to. Look at Jenny Jacobs.” Tiffany closed her mouth and covered it with a hand. Her big, violet eyes filled with tears.

  “Meg? The Jenny who caused you and Eric to break up and for you to have VD?” Cassie slurred her words as she asked. “I’ll be damned. You and Tiffany, huh? My, my, my but the truths are just streaming out, aren’t they? Pouring forth. Vomiting all over.”

  “Stop,” Jill muttered.

  Whitney said, “You’d be amazed at how many bodies are causing that cellar to stink. Yeah, I can’t say if I regret some of this or just don’t care.”

  “I’m shocked, I guess,” Nelwynn said, “and I understand, though, I think. I’m trying to, anyway. We did things. He deserved to pay.” She looked at Ed.

  “Just us innocents left, Jill, right? If we count Rex and John as accidents, kind of,” said Cassie as she laughed.

  “Damn, I need another drink,” Jill said.

  While some of the others went for more drinks, others sat and watched Ed again. Angel and Samantha brought jugs of premixed drinks and a basket of food, but no one took out the food.

  Ed had watched and listened and was only half-paying attention now that he was sure he was going to die. He didn’t know what to think of eight, beautiful young women who argued about murdering people. He didn’t think they understood that their actions were no better than anything he had done years before.

  He had stopped his bad behavior, but they hadn’t. Ed decided that this was what he deserved. He briefly thought that maybe he had already gone to hell and that this was part of his punishment.

  “It’s not like we ever did anything easily,” Meg said. “It hurt, and it was hard to do, but I can’t let other people hurt me or one of you. Or little kids. We’re a team of eight. We matter. They were very bad people, and we did the world a favor.”

  “They were bad,” Nelwynn echoed.

  “But we stopped! It ended. We can’t keep….” Samantha couldn’t finish her sentence. It had to be over.

  “I have nightmares,” Tiffany said, “but I did what I did. It’s not going to stop me from going to college, having a career, getting married, and having kids. Maybe we’ve made the world a little safer. Right?”

  “No, we’ve done bad things,” Nelwynn said. “We’re just as bad, but we think it’s okay because it’s not us. And I don’t mean it isn’t me too because Cassie and I have been talking about Reggie and what he did to Cassie’s dress and to me and Angel.”

  “Does he deserve to die?” Jill asked dully. “No. How can you say that and still go on with all this?” said Jill as she tilted her head at Nelwynn.

  “Because.”

  “Because?” Jill asked, “and do Andre, Reggie, and Julie deserve this?”

  “Did John? And Rex? I seem to recall you and your knife,” Cassie countered.

  “I had to!”

  “And we had to take care of your aunt?” Cassie pressed.

  Jill burst into tears.

  Tiffany sat closer and rubbed her back. “Jill? Your aunt? Didn’t she die of some heart thing?”

  Cassie giggled, “Some thing is right.”

  “Spill it,” Whitney demanded. “We have.”

  “Jill?” Cassie asked.

  Jill wiped her face and sighed as she looked at the ground. “When my grandma died, my mom didn’t get a picture or a ring or anything at all. My grandma had a house full of expensive antiques and so many pretty things, but my aunt swept in with movers and took everything. She didn’t give my mother one damned trinket. Not even a little picture of Grandma.”

  Tiffany nodded and said, “I remember. That was selfish and evil of her.”

  Jill sniffed. “Mom was depressed for months, and I thought…I mean Mom took care of Grandma, and Aunt Jean did nothing, and yet, she stole everything. Mom only wanted some little thing to have….”

  “Jill and I went over to Jean’s to supposedly mend fences and try to assure her that Jill’s mom wouldn’t take her to court. We upset her, and she started screaming. Her face was so red, remember, Jill?”

  “I remember.” Jill rubbed her eyes. Cassie was being cruel.

  “It wasn’t very difficult to take her heart medication away and let nature take its course. It wasn’t us so much as it was nature,” Cassie belched and grinned again. “She had it coming. I’d do anything for Jill. And I did. I don’t forget friendship.”

  “We didn’t mean to,” Jill said. “We didn’t, Cassie.”

  “Well, we did it all the same. Same as Billy and Tom,” Cassi
e replied. “We didn’t mean the first two. We didn’t mean the second two. Accidents, right? But the accidents just kept happening, but then, they weren’t accidents anymore, were they?”

  “Please stop,” Jill begged.

  “But Jill, you asked why Ed was staked out here on the rocks and being mistreated, didn’t you? Meg and Whitney told you.”

  “And then you made me tell,” Samantha accused Cassie.

  “It was time. Don’t you feel better now that everyone knows? Mr. Griffin deserved to die. Jenny deserved to die. Jill, your aunt deserved to die. Isn’t that right?”

  Jill wished she could hate Cassie for making them tell the truth, but it was time. They had to be honest.

  “All of this just happened. We didn’t plan things, right? I mean that one day I saw Ed, and the memories came back,” said Meg as she cried softly. “We didn’t mean to do anything, but then, we did. We didn’t plan it.”

  “But here he is,” Samantha said.

  “What did you plan?” Jill asked.

  “Nothing. We brought him here, we started drinking, and here we are,” Nelwynn said, shrugging,

  “I’m calling it bullshit,” Jill said. “You planned it. Meg, you did plan it. You and Whitney did. I didn’t plan Aunt Jean.”

  “You sure as hell talked about her heart problems the whole way over to her house,” Cassie said.

  Jill gave her a dirty look. She felt a wave of guilt, just as she had over the first two times. “All this time….”

  “We can’t let him go. Just like Rex and John. We can’t,” Angel said. She had been listening and remembered how she felt when she was raped. Imagining that Whitney and Meg were just little girls when they were molested set her teeth on edge. She was shocked to hear everything, but she also felt a deep anger over-take her. “Cassie just made us all confess. That’s all. We have to finish this.”

  Angel’s face was pale, and she brushed away sweat, but she stood and picked up the axe that the girls had used to cut firewood.

  Everyone watched her, the alcohol making them sluggish. They knew what was about to happen but couldn’t move.

  There was too information to process, yet Angel had already evaluated the situation on the beach. In fact, as soon as she had seen Ed staked out, she knew down deep that her friends needed her to help repay a very bad man.