Rewrite Redemption

by Walker, J. H.

  I left a note and took off at a slow jog towards her house. I didn’t even argue with myself about it. I wasn’t going to stay long. I just needed to see if she had returned yet. Since I was overwhelmed with guilt for pretty much everything bad in the world, I figured that if A.J. was back, at least I could cross one thing off my list.

  Disappointment punched me in the gut the second I turned onto her street. I felt nothing, not even a trace. When I reached her house, I detected a whiff of her essence, but not her. I collapsed on the curb for a moment, just trying to get a grip.

  An impeccable, white BMW idled in the driveway, but the house was dark. Angry voices came from the back, and I snuck along the fence to investigate. They got louder the closer I got. Before I could peer over the fence, I heard a voice that made my skin crawl.

  “Get your worthless ass into the car, Ivan, immediately! This play date is over.”

  “But I—”

  SMACK!

  I reached my spot just in time to watch Ipod get backhanded to the ground by a burly, severe looking man in a pin striped suit and a flat top.

  Lex launched herself at the man’s back, hanging on, as he turned and tried to shake her off. “Leave him alone, you stupid son of a bitch! My mom will sue your sorry ass.”

  The man dumped her to the ground sneering, “Your mom is the one that alerted me to this untenable situation, you little slut. Your mom threatened to sue me if he got you pregnant. So get the hell out of my way.”

  “Lex, don’t,” Ipod begged, blood pouring down his face.

  Bummer toss of the dice, Dude…a frickin drill sergeant for a father. I wanted to jump the fence and cream the SOB, but I didn’t want to complicate things. So I stood there, watching the scene unfold, trying to have forethought. I figured I’d move if it got really serious.

  “You’re a cruel, sadistic sicko!” Lex hissed at the man. She kicked him, making him wince.

  He glared at her with hatred in his eyes, took a wider stance, and drew back his fist.

  “Yeah, you want a piece a me? Go for it, freak! Go ahead and hit me,” she taunted him, thumping her chest defiantly. “You don’t scare me…”

  I searched for a foothold, ready to fly over the fence.

  He started for her and then stopped abruptly, clenching his fists, breathing loudly through bared teeth. When he stood his ground, I stayed put. It was none of my business. I knew that. But if he laid a hand on her, he deserved any damage I could bring down on him. Ipod seemed stunned, but Lex was fearless. I was impressed.

  “Bring it on! I’ll jam your balls so far up your torso it’ll take a brain surgeon to get them out!” She stuck out her chin, daring him. Then she spit on his polished shoe.

  He looked down, whipped out a white handkerchief, and wiped off his shoe. He slowly raised his head, anger pouring off him like steam.

  She got right up in his face. “My dad’s a lawyer too. We’ll see what he’ll do to your sick ass in court.” She was bouncing from foot to foot as if she was going to launch herself at him.

  The man glared at her. Then he slammed his fist into an open hand. “Get in the car,” he snarled at Ipod.

  Ipod was trying to stop the flow of blood down his face with his shirt. He had a black eye, that was really starting to swell. He started to get up and staggered erratically to one side. “Father, I—”

  “Shut up, you cretin.”

  “Just get out of here and leave us alone!” Lex hissed.

  “Lex, don’t. I need to go.” Ipod wavered and then dropped to the ground.

  Lex ran to him and kneeled, cradling him in her arms. She brushed the hair out of his eyes and wiped the blood off his face with the hem of her shirt.

  “Get up and act like a man!” his dad barked. He leaned down, shoved Lex aside, and yanked Ipod to his feet, holding him tight by the upper arm. “I wondered where you went every night. I thought you were a fag, you little runt. Now I know you’re just a spineless wimp, hiding out in a tree house with a couple of pathetic, little girls. I would have had you in military school years ago, if I hadn’t thought they would just toss you out on your worthless pansy ass.”

  “Father, I—”

  “The van is waiting at the house. This is a done deal, Boy. We’ll see if the military can make a man out of you.”

  “You’re going to pay for this!” Lex hissed. She wiped the tears from her eyes, smearing Ipod’s blood across her face.

  The man let out a blood-curdling laugh and smacked Ipod to the ground again without even watching him fall. He crossed his arms and sneered at her. “Yeah, and who’s going to make me? You? There’s a lot of clutter in this world, girl. The military does a good job of cleaning it up.” He turned to Ipod. “Get a move on, Boy.”

  “I need my stuff—”

  “You don’t need stuff in military school,” the man barked, yanking Ipod to his feet. “You’ll be part of a machine, now, Boy, stripped down and efficient.”

  “You can’t do this!” Lex yelled, holding on to Ipod’s arm.

  The man cackled, sadistically. “You have no power here, you little bitch,” he sneered. “I’m in control.”

  He grabbed Ipod by the hair, causing Lex to give up her tug of war. Ipod winced, and stumbled along beside his father to the front yard.

  Lex just stood there, tears streaming down her face. She wrapped her arms around herself and fell to her knees, sobbing. “I’ll fix this, Ipod, I promise,” she called after him.

  I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut. I could only imagine what she felt like, to say nothing about Ipod. I ran along the fence to the front yard and watched as the man shoved Ipod in the back seat, slammed the door, got in the front, and gunned the engine. Ipod’s anguished face looked back as the car drove out of sight.

  I returned to my spot, torn about what to do. I saw Lex’s shadow pacing back and forth against the shades. Should I try to be there for her, revealing my role as a stalker? Or should I just go home and mind my own business? That jerk was Ipod’s father, after all. I cringed. I thought of my own dad and the complaints I had about him. All of my bitching about getting grounded. My dad was a frickin saint compared to that psycho.

  I sat down on the rock and tried to have forethought. If I just appeared out of nowhere, it might really freak Lex out. If she saw me as a stalker, I’d lose any cred I had with her. I’d busted ass trying to look trustworthy. I certainly didn’t want to blow it now. I decided it was best to just go to school tomorrow and see if she’d let me help then. Maybe with both A.J. and Ipod gone, she’d be open to a little assistance.

  After grabbing a quick hit of the maple in the front yard, I took off for home. When I got there, a light was on. Someone was home…my dad, not my mom, because her purse would be on the counter. She must have stayed with Devon. The door to their bedroom was closed. I figured my dad was sleeping. I hoped he was sleeping.

  I nuked a pizza and watched TV, trying to tune out all the madness. When TV didn’t work, I took another shot at my bass—using headphones so I didn’t wake my dad. After majorly sucking at anything I tried to play, I put the guitar away. Then I just stood in the shower, trying not to think. Finally, at about two, I fell asleep and stayed that way until morning.

  I opened my eyes to white cloth as if I was encased inside a coffin. Still groggy and now panicked, I flailed out my arms, hitting something rough and scraping the skin off my knuckles. I sat up to be bounced back down by the sheet that was pinned tight a few inches above me. Heart pounding, I kicked it off—juniper and blue sky. I was still in the past, which was disappointing.

  But it was better than a coffin.

  I scanned the campsite to make sure I was still alone. I was. Using a corner of the sheet to wipe the blood off my knuckles, I took a deep breath. I pulled energy from the tree to heal the abrasions on my hand. Then I crawled out of my nest and high-fived myself in my head.

  I’d done it.

  I’d slept through the night without incident—no freak-out, n
o nightmares, no mountain lion eating me for dinner. Of course I was still in the past, but at least I was in one piece. Surely, it wouldn’t be long now before I returned home.

  The day was stunning. The cloudless sky was Easter egg blue, and the mountain valley sparkled with color. The scent of campfire filtered out from my clothes when I moved, along with the sweet smell of chamomile.

  Pleased that there were still hot coals under all the ashes, I fed last night’s fire some dried grass and twigs. Soon I had a blaze going. The sun might have been up, but it was early, and I shivered in my smoky hoodie. Warming my hands, I figured I’d wait until the fire took the chill off, and then I’d go catch some breakfast.

  So I sat, watching the flickering fire, thinking of home and all that had happened in the last week. I had little snippets of concern from time to time about my situation. But mostly, I was just content…surprisingly so. Lex would be proud of me.

  When the morning chill evaporated, I loped down to the water and retrieved my fishing poles. Digging up a couple of worms, I speared them on my hooks and decided to forgo any pretense of fishing like a regular person. I sat cross-legged on my cottonwood balcony, holding a pole in each hand. I focused. Humming softly, I pulled energy from the tree and sent it out into the water, calling the fish to me.

  Within thirty seconds my first line was jerking, and before I could pull it in, the other one almost jumped out of my hand. I yanked them both in like a Kung Fu guy with nun chucks. I wished Ipod and Lex could have seen that. I was the fish whisperer! I was the freakin Harry Potter of the Rocky Mountains.

  Take that, Sloane Cheney!

  I had two really big ones this time. I cleaned them, filled them with sage, and laid them on my fire-pit grill. Then I gathered all my stuff together. When the tingle came, I wanted to be ready. Then, with nothing else to do, I just sat there waiting to go home.

  After a while, I began obsessing about just not going home at all. What if I was stranded forever? If that happened, the sooner I found civilization, the better. Of course, there might not be any civilization. In the eighteen or so hours I’d been there, not one jet had broken the silence. Denver International was a huge airport. Planes flew out in every direction. On this trip, my problem was the when.

  I stacked some more wood.

  When the fish were done, I had breakfast. I took a hike and climbed a couple of trees, but other than that, I just lazed around the campsite. It was when I was eating the chocolate almonds and a few peanuts for lunch, that it hit me.

  If I got stuck in the past, I’d never have chocolate again. I’d never have a lot of things again…like bathrooms and showers and air-conditioning and TV and computers and phones and the net and music and Pop Tarts and pizza. What did they have in the olden days?—dirt, germs, dirty water, and gross food. I really didn’t want to stay in the olden days. I stacked some more wood. I hoped I wouldn’t be there long enough to need it all, but it helped to keep busy.

  Soon, I ditched the hoodie. It got so hot mid-day; I decided to go for a swim. I wanted to wash the smoke out of my hair in case I got home early enough for school. I put some trout to the side of the coals for a slow cook, so I could wash off the fishy smell and be clean for the rest of the evening. Then I gathered up my stuff and took it all down by the water. I wanted it to be close in case the tingle came. It would suck to pop back home naked.

  I stripped down and waded into the cool water. The first few moments were shocking, but I soon acclimated. It felt wonderful. I used Lex’s shampoo and conditioner to wash my hair, and then I swam around for about an hour, just lazing in the sun. Lex would flip when I told her I went skinny-dipping right out in the open. I dove deep, pulling myself along the bottom of the creek bed and feeling the soft river rock. I was coming up for air when I heard them.

  I froze, and a chill ran down my naked spine.

  There were two voices, both men. I swam towards the bank, making sure not to splash, deeply regretting my skinny dipping idea. I could hear them perfectly—sound carried so far out there in the middle of nowhere.

  “Well, looky there, Edgar, somebody done made us some grub.”

  “That’s right neighborly of them. Gimme some of that, Joe. Don’t hog the whole thing.”

  “Hold on…it’s still hot. Dang it! Get the plates.”

  “Hold your horses.”

  “You see anybody?”

  “Nope. Seems like somebody just up and left us some supper.”

  “What about the chief?”

  “He can catch his own food. Umm, this is good.”

  Shaking, I scrambled to dress, my wet body sticking to the clothes. My fingers were cold and stiff, as I fumbled with the buttons on my pajama top. The last thing I needed was to be caught naked by a couple of…ohmygod. I wrung out my hair and wrapped it around my head, quickly pulling on Ipod’s hat. I sat down on the root and yanked on my socks and a boot, fumbling and dropping it. Then I got it on the wrong foot. I hurriedly switched and pulled the Velcro tight on both of them. I figured I might need to run. I really hoped I didn’t need to run.

  “Umm umm…that does taste fine.”

  “What do you think happened to the fella what cooked this fish?”

  “Probably saw us comin’ and took off. Don’t matter. There’s wood a plenty for days. Looks like we got ourselves a campsite.”

  Bummer! Any minute, they’d come down to the water. I took my folded sheet and put it under my pajama top in front, like a belly, to hide what there was of my breasts. Then I pulled on the hoodie in spite of the heat and buttoned it up all the way. Grabbing my pack, I crept along the bank, keeping low, toward an outcropping of rocks about twenty feet away. I snuck behind the bushes making myself as small as possible.

  When I reached the rocks, I let out a quiet breath and crawled between two huge boulders. Standing, I could peer out over the rock behind some brush, see the campsite and the water, and yet remain hidden. Teeth clenched, I inched up to peek at what I was up against. I couldn’t believe it. I’d gone back far. I’d gone back real far.

  I was in a freakin, olden day’s western.

  I’d heard two voices, but there were three men: two scruffy cowboys and a big, muscled Indian. I stood there, watching the whole scene like it was a movie. It was just too bizarre to be real. The cowboys weren’t old, but they were so weather beaten it was hard to tell their ages. Their clothes looked like they’d been slept in for, like, months.

  The one, who’d been called Joe, was skinny and wiry and had dark beady eyes—so black I wondered how he could even see through them. He kept darting those beady eyes around my campsite, as if he was looking for anything else the former occupant might have left. When he grinned, it was truly frightening. He was missing several teeth and had brown stains around his mouth from the gross stuff he kept spitting around my campfire.

  The other guy had a hawk nose, massive eyebrows, and long, dark hair tied back in a ponytail. He was huge and hulking and looked like someone you didn’t want to mess with. If he was in my time, he’d be wearing an old army shirt with the sleeves ripped off and have a million tattoos. He’d own a Rottweiler and have a boatload of guns.

  I pulled my hoodie close around me.

  They wolfed down my fish in two minutes flat—the slime balls. When they were done, they wiped their hands on their clothes and unloaded their horses. They were absolutely disgusting. Neither man had ever seen sunscreen or conditioner, obviously. Their hair looked like it had been hacked off in chunks with a knife. The two cowboys shuffled down to the water, leading their horses. They took a drink and then sat down on the bank, pulled off their boots, and put their feet in the water.

  The Indian followed. He didn’t say a word to them. He just took a drink—upstream from their dirty feet, I noticed—and headed back up to the campsite.

  The Indian was young…maybe mid-twenties. He was tall and lean and his arms and legs rippled with muscle. He had a long straight nose, jet black hair, high cheekbones and dark, obs
ervant eyes. A curved bow and a quiver of arrows hung over one shoulder and leather pouches hung from his neck and waist. He wore a deerskin loincloth, a beaded necklace, leggings, and moccasins.

  He moved fluidly through the campsite, making no noise at all. He knelt down to check out my footprints. Lex’s slipper boots had rubber, grippy stuff on the bottom with stars cut into the heels. I’d walked all over the campsite with them.

  No doubt he’d never seen that kind of footprint before. After studying them for a while, he followed them to my sleeping place, kneeling down to examine the bed of sage. He scanned the campsite carefully…looking for the person who wore those boots. And that was me.

  My heart began to race again, and I struggled not to hyperventilate. I felt totally trapped. I was totally trapped. There was nothing I could do, and damn it, no way I could make myself just freakin beam back home. All I could do was watch…and wait for him to find me.

  He followed my tracks down to the cottonwood that stuck out over the water. He picked up my fishing poles and studied them. He touched the end of the safety pin and jerked as it pricked his finger. He had to struggle to break the fishing line and seemed astonished at how strong it was. He broke off the part of the stick where it was attached, pulled out a piece of leather, and wrapped it around the hooks and line. Then he put it in the pouch at his waist. He walked back towards the campsite, scanning the ground. All this time, he said nothing to the cowboys who were lying on the bank with their feet in the water.

  I just stood there, breathing in and out; thinking now would be a good time to feel the freakin tingle. And just as I had the thought, that my heart was beating so loud, surely he could hear it...

  He froze with his head to the side like he actually did.

  He arched his eyebrows, and he turned and looked straight at me. In a flash, he had an arrow in his bow. Crouching low he crept towards me. I sank down between the rocks, my heart going wild. I clutched my bag close and ducked my head, trying desperately to be invisible. I didn’t even hear his approach; he was so quiet. But I sensed him.