Window in the Earth Trilogy

by Fish, Matthew

  “Fuck,” Alex says as he shakes his head, “I’m sorry, I just saw you in the hallway. We’ll I’ve seen you a couple of times in the hall. It…”

  “It’s flattering, really,” the girl replied as she reached for the notebook. She began to flip through the pages. “Do you mind?”

  Alex did mind, but the girl had already started going through his work without awaiting a reply. His only concern was that some of the pictures were not exactly what someone would consider normal, or, at the very least, tasteful. “Go ahead,” he finally replied, despite the fact that it was too late.

  The girl began to laugh loudly. She had to bite her bottom lip to keep herself from drawing attention to the drawing she was looking at. Alex buried his head in his hand, his elbow rested against the table. He knows what picture she is looking at. On the lined paper page was an unflattering drawing of Ms. Carol from remedial math naked and being fucked from behind by a giant bear wearing a pair of sunglasses and smoking a joint. Ms. Carol’s face is one of both rapturous enjoyment and pain as her sagging, aged breasts spread out beneath her like an oil slick on water. The bear, however, looked as though he had better things to do.

  “Ms. Carol…,” the girl said, attempting to stifle a fit of laughter, “God, I hate that bitch.”

  “I…,” Alex began, trying to compose himself, “I got issues.”

  The girl turned another page, staring into an intricate drawing of a city that had been left to decay, plants having taken over.

  “I’d say you have talent. Plus, some of this shit is hilarious.”

  “Thanks,” Alex responded, surprised.

  The girl turned to the picture of herself. She stared at it for a moment, “I hate to ask, but can I have this?”

  “Yeah, definitely,” Alex quickly replied, taking the notebook and carefully tearing the page free from its metal-ringed binding. He handed the picture over to the girl.

  “Thank you,” the girl replied as she met Alex’s gaze. She allowed her stare to linger for a moment before she continued, “I’m people watching here. It is something I do, I suppose. I try and look at people and imagine what their lives must be like. Like, what they do when they get home, or what they are thinking at that moment. Sounds stupid, I know. I do it a lot.”

  “Doesn’t sound stupid at all,” Alex replied. It was the truth—to him it was the most interesting thing he’d heard since he had been forced to come to the school. For a moment, he was happy to be there.

  “Kate,” the girl replied as she held a hand out to Alex. “Kate Hoopes.”

  “Alex Hawke,” Alex said as their hands made contact for the first time. The touch of their hands felt electric to Alex. He began to feel an instant rush of butterflies in his stomach, like some kind vital line had just been connected.

  Kate allowed her hand to stay in Alex’s for longer than what would be considered customary. Alex wondered if perhaps she felt the same strange connection as well.

  Suddenly, the table began to shake. Alex’s plastic cup of Coke fell over to the side, spilling its contents upon the table. Then, the entire cafeteria followed suit. All the tables began to shake and windows shimmered in the early spring sunlight like water. Then, after a few more moments passed, the shaking stopped.

  “What the hell was that?” Alex asked as he saved his notebook from the oncoming flood of soda.

  “Small earthquake I suppose,” She answered, looking about the room. She let out a small laugh as she watched the confused people in the cafeteria attempting to regain their composure. “Sorry, I like to watch people. I didn’t mean to laugh.”

  “Honestly,” Alex added as he watched some of the same assholes that had been insulting him trying to clean themselves up from the food spills, “it’s pretty fucking funny to me.”

  Kate grabbed the notebook from Alex’s hand. She turned to the very last page and wrote her phone number into the book. As the bell rang out for the end of the period, she handed back the notebook. She wordlessly walked off, looking back once to see if she had gotten Alex’s attention. Of course, she had.

  Chapter 2

  Alex made the short walk home from Bailey Alternative to his small apartment home a few blocks away from downtown Springfield. For the first time in as long as he could remember, Alex felt happy. A sense of hope had grown within him—the knowledge that there was someone else out there just like he was. A little screwed up, most likely, but that was part of the beauty of it all. He wanted to know her quirks, her troubles. The undiscovered her is a concept that now fascinates him. He had had this idea in his head of who she might be, however, the reality was much more fascinating to him. He wanted to learn, to peel back the layers and discover what lied beneath.

  As he entered the front door to the small apartment, he was greeted by his mother. She was standing in the kitchen, a glass bottle of Corona already in her hand and half-empty.

  “How was school?” she asked as she puffed on a cigarette.

  “Better,” Alex replied. He knew that she did not really care, just as long as he stayed out of jail or wasn’t suspended. Either situation would severely hamper her drinking.

  “Good to hear.”

  “You going out tonight?” he asked, although he already knew the answer. It was as if they were playing this little game where they asked each other these rudimentary questions and neither of them really cared what answer was.

  “Billy’s gonna pick me up in about an hour or so,” his mother answered as she took another drag from her cigarette. “You do your homework, all right? I got some dinner in the fridge for when you’re hungry.”

  “Yep,” Alex said as he made his way to his room, shutting the door loudly behind him.

  Things had been this way since his father left. He didn’t necessarily blame him. After all, mom was on a downward spiral way before he had taken that job in Chicago. He had even offered to move the family up there, so that they could all be together. Alex actually had wanted to go—his mother, on the other hand, was already sleeping around with other men and getting plastered on a nightly basis. A move to Chicago would have put a stop to that. In a way, Alex was more angered at his mother for staying rather than his father for leaving.

  Alex popped in his earphones to his Sony Walkman mp3 player and began to listen to his mix as he stared up at the ceiling from his bed. Outside, the sun slowly faded away, leaving behind a red evening glow. He heard the front door shut. His mom had left for the night and she would not be back till early morning, if at all.

  Alex removed his earphones and dug into his jeans to find his cell phone. He held it out before him, debating whether to place a call. He flipped to the last page of his notebook and eyed the number nervously. He started to dial, but then accidentally punched in a wrong number. He cleared the display and hesitated again. Kate had wanted him to call. He did not know why he was being so weak about actually doing so. He shook the doubt from his mind and dialed the number quickly before he could convince himself otherwise.

  After two rings, a familiar voice answered, “Hello?”

  “Kate?”

  “Yeah,” she replied, although she sounded upset.

  “Alex,” he said as he nervously ran a hand through his spiked hair, allowing the tips to glide against his hand repeatedly. “It’s Alex, from lunch.”

  “I know,” she said, sounding somewhat distant.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah,” she said robotically, and then, for a second, she let slip a sniffle. “No, honestly. I’m sorry Alex; things here are kinda fucked right now. I know you probably don’t want to hear this—Christ; I’m making a horrible impression on you right now, aren’t I? Listen, just… let’s just talk tomorrow.”

  “Hey,” he interjected. “I don’t mind. Do you need someone to talk to? I really don’t mind. Honestly, on my end, I am just lying here in bed because my mom is out drinking with some douchebag and I have nothing going on. Nothing at all….”

  “I like you,” she a
nswered. “I want to talk to someone, but I don’t want you to think I’m a train-wreck. I mean, I am a train-wreck. I just don’t want to screw this up already.”

  “Talk to me. I promise nothing you say will screw things up. Besides, I like the sound of your voice. It’s beautiful.”

  “Thank you… that’s sweet,” Kate said, sounding somewhat more relieved and more like her normal self. “It’s just that… me and my dad got into a fight. See, my mom died last year—cancer. “

  “I’m sorry….”

  “It’s okay—it was a long time coming, really. She fought to the end, she really did. I was there for pretty much the whole ordeal. My father, though, he couldn’t handle it. He couldn’t deal with the stress, or the situation, or whatever-the-hell-it-was he was going through. I wasn’t angry at the time—I just, I guess, expected him to be stronger, you know?”

  “I understand completely; after my father left, I expected my mom to be more supportive, maybe even grow up a bit and start to take control of her life. Instead, she just started drinking more, letting it get worse.”

  “Exactly—my father just tuned out all the bad news. When she was dying in the hospital he didn’t even go. I was the one that called him and told him that it was time and that she was going. He said he had business to attend to and to tell her goodbye. I was so fucking angry. After all they had been through together; all he could think to say was ‘Tell her goodbye,’ like none of it mattered. Still, I thought it was just grieving—people act strange when they’re upset. I figured that was just his way of dealing with it. I was still angry, but I tried to let it go.”

  “I’d imagine that it’s a hard thing to let go of,” Alex replied, the entire situation reminded him so much of his own that it scared him, in a way. Why are people forced to live such broken and fractured lives? “I am sorry that you had to go through that on your own… that must have been so difficult. I couldn’t even imagine.”

  “Well, tonight, he’s going out. With someone that was supposedly ‘just a friend’ whenever my mother was sick—a friend he was with more than he was with my mother in her final days,” Kate said, an outraged tone in her voice. “So, I said that he never loved mom. That he should have been there, he should have been the one to say goodbye. She cried when she found out that he wasn’t coming. Her last hours were spent crying with me attempting to comfort her. She was the one that kept saying it would be okay. She was the strong one, dying, while my father hid like a coward.”

  “God, that’s… that’s terrible.”

  “He hit me,” Kate admitted, quietly. Then the sound of sadness in her voice returned once more. “He slapped me across the face, pushed me down to the ground and left.”

  “I am so sorry,” Alex replied, his sadness turning into anger. “He shouldn’t’ve done that. He should have never done that. You should get out of there; you shouldn’t be forced to live like that.”

  “He’s the only family I have,” she sobbed. “I turn him in and I go into foster care or some shit like that. I just have to wait it out—just two more years and then I can be on my own.”

  “That’s terrible,” Alex added. He felt deeply saddened for Kate, for her situation. It seemed so unfair to him, then again, so much in life at this point seemed so desperately unfair. “I wish things were different.”

  “I ran away from home for a few weeks. Living off of what little money I had saved up,” she said as she paused and let out a heavy sigh. “When they found me, they returned me home to my father; he told them it was the stress of my mother dying of cancer—that’s how I ended up at Bailey.”

  “I got into a fight when I was at Central,” he confessed, hoping that she would not look down upon this revelation. “It was stupid. Some kid was at a bar and saw my mother there and said that she was a drunk and a whore really loud in front of a cafeteria full of people. The sad thing is it’s true—I just got so angry I punched him in the face without even thinking about it. The worst thing is, I wasn’t angry about what he said, but I was embarrassed by the fact that everyone knew. Just the thought that people would hear, and tell other people, then everyone would know. I know it sounds stupid.”

  “It doesn’t sound stupid. I would have done the same thing.”

  “It’s just stupid to me now because I don’t care what anyone thinks—I’ve learned that from the whole experience.”

  “I don’t care what anyone thinks anymore, either—well, maybe you… I care what you think,” Kate added, hesitating, as though she was putting something out there that she was unsure of saying, hoping to not be left dangling at the edge, ready to fall.

  “I care what you think, too,” Alex replied, “Thank you for telling me everything. I care about you.”

  “Thank you,” she said, sounding happier. “I like the sound of your voice. I don’t think I mentioned that when you said so about me earlier. I’m glad I didn’t let you go.”

  “I am, too.”

  Alex and Kate talked for a few more hours. Mostly about life, and not all of it was sad. They shared memories of better days, talked about the memories they might make in the future—if they had a future. They shared their interests: movies, music, and the small aspects of life like the changes in season. Alex was a fan of spring. Kate was in love with fall. Both agreed that winter, aside from the days when it snowed, was a useless season. They laughed. Alex was happy to hear her laughter. He then, all at once, realized why his picture of Ms. Carol was so funny to Kate, for it must have been a long time since she laughed, truly laughed. They finally let each other go at nearly one in the morning, both of their cell phones threatening to die on them.

  “I’ll see you at lunch tomorrow?” he asked.

  “I’ll be waiting in the glass hall.”

  “Goodnight—take care of yourself.”

  “Thank you, Alex—goodnight.”

  Chapter 3

  Alex was ecstatic when the bell finally rang for the end of remedial math. He packed up his belongings and shoved them beneath his arm as he rushed out of the room and past other students as he headed toward the glass hallway. There, leaning against the glass, was Kate, her smile spread widely across her face as she nodded to Alex. Together, they walked into the cafeteria. They stood silently in line, got their food, and sat at the same corner-table, far away from all the other students.

  “Draw anymore pictures today?” Kate asked as she reached over for Alex’s notebook. That day she was wearing a red short skirt with black skin-tight leggings that come to her knees, and a red shirt with a circle-shaped frowning face on it and crossed-out exes for eyes.

  “Just one,” he replied as he turned to the appropriate page. The drawing showed Kate standing upon the moon. However, the moon was not in the sky, yet in an ocean of water, its brilliant glow reflecting in the sea. Surrounding Kate and the moon were various buildings of downtown Springfield, some of them heavily damaged.

  Kate gasped. “It’s beautiful.”

  “I had a dream about it… well… you… after we got off the phone last night,” Alex replied as he remembered the strange and vivid dream from the night before. “You were balancing on the moon like it was a giant beach ball in the sea, but it wasn’t the sea… it was downtown; at least, I’m pretty sure it was.”

  “It’s amazing. How long did this take you?” she asked, still fascinated by the piece.

  “Part of economics, most of remedial math,” he replied with a short laugh, “About two hours, a little less.”

  “That’s amazing—you really have some talent,” Kate said as she reached into her black shoulder bag that sat beside her on the floor. She rummaged through the contents for a moment, pulling out a large leather-bound book. She slid the book over to Alex. “A gift for you… in exchange for the drawing of me you did yesterday—and for being there for me.”

  Alex unlatched the button latch on the black book, opening it and flipping through the blank, textured art pages, stared in amazement at the craftwork of the bound book, �
��Thank you, no one has ever gotten me something this nice.”

  “It was my mother’s,” Kate continues, “She used to draw in her free time. She was pretty good, too. I got her this for her birthday her last year. She never got a chance to use it.”

  Alex placed the leather-bound sketchbook back down upon the table, moved by Kate’s statement. “I can’t take this; you should keep it.”

  “I want you to have it,” Kate replied, “Just promise me that you’ll give me a few of the drawings that you do in it.”

  “I’m honored,” Alex said quietly as he placed a hand to the warm leather. “What about you, do you do any drawing or anything?”

  Kate laughed, and then smiled. “I… well… I play some guitar… poorly… and I like to read. I don’t really have any talents, per se. I guess some people are born with no talents. It lets us appreciate those that do.”

  “I’m sure you have a talent, you probably just haven’t figured it out yet,” Alex said, “I think that everyone has some form of talent. They just have to come across it at the right time to find it.”

  “I like that idea.” Kate smiled. “I was wondering…”

  “Yeah?”

  “Would you be interested in me?” Kate asked, looking nervous.

  “I am,” Alex answered.

  “Would you be interested in being with me?”

  “I would definitely be interested in being with you,” Alex answered. This was far more than he had expected, to find someone so interesting to him, and interested in him, made all the bad luck that he had gone through in the past wash away like grains of sand on a beach.

  Kate leaned in, balancing herself on her awkward sitting position on her chair, and Alex felt her soft lips against his own. Her lips lingered upon his for a moment, which seemed to stretch on to an infinite amount of time. Then, the table began to shake, just as it did before. Soon, the entire cafeteria followed suit. The sounds of students shouting, their surprised reactions as their meals went tumbling down to the floor, filled the air. Alex and Kate were completely oblivious to what was going on about them, locked in their own embrace—to each other they were the only thing that mattered at that moment.