Descendants

by King, Stephen

  He made calls for over an hour and I pretended to be busy. I pushed a broom around the show room, straightened a stack of boxes and moving supplies. I wanted to stay out of his way; I wanted him to notice me; I wanted the feeling I had again when I helped him to his feet. But I was patient, I knew we would talk again, but there was a…need. When he finally spoke again, it was like thunder, I practically jumped out of my skin.

  “Well, that was a waste of time,” he said, shaking his head.

  “What was?”

  “I was calling around to see if there was any way I could get a tow truck out here to haul me away. But apparently there isn’t a rig big enough in town to come and get me, let alone someone to work on the engine.”

  “Who did you call?” Like I knew any of the mechanics or garages in town.

  He waved his hand in front of his face like he was shooing a fly.

  “Whoever the operator put me in contact with…I can’t remember. But it looks like I’m stuck here for awhile. Do you think there’s any chance I could stay out in the parking lot for a couple of days?”

  I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to please him, but in the back of my mind I kept thinking what if the boss suddenly came to town and saw this huge, rusted out RV sitting in the parking lot? I’d worked so hard on the facility and I had nowhere else to go. If he fired me, I was stuck out in the middle of desert with less than Marty had; at least he would have a roof over his head. He must’ve of saw the worry working across my face.

  “Look, man, I don’t want to get you in trouble. I can pay you, you know. I’ve got money, I can pay for a storage unit, or something. It’s just…me and my kids, we’ve got nowhere else to go.”

  “Kids? You’ve got kids out there? It’s gotta be 120 degrees and your truck almost blew up…”

  “They’re fine, they’re fine, they’re sleeping. We usually sleep during the day because of the heat, and they’re not in any danger. Look, we just really need the help right now. We’ve got nowhere else to go.”

  His eyes were glassed over and shiny, tears ready set to spill down his cheeks, his jaw grinding with worry.

  I let them stay.

  ********

  To think, I thought I could save them. I should have killed them when I had the chance.

  ********

  Marty insisted that he pay me two months’ rent on the largest storage unit we offered, which was a 5 x 15, and rented for $80 a month. He paid the bill with a grimy handful of ten dollar bills and he hugged me after I rang him up and gave him his padlock and locker assignment. I watched him as he walked back out to the trailer and climbed inside, the dark of the doorway seeming to swallow him. I went back to my new profession of playing computer solitaire and wishing my internet connection wasn’t dial-up.

  After I closed up for the night, I walked out to the RV and gently tapped on the door with the intention of inviting the Wilcox family to my apartment for dinner. Being on a limited budget, my pantry was fairly bare. But I had bought a steak and a few boxes of mac ‘n’ cheese the last time I was in town. I put the steak on the broiler and the pasta to boil.

  It was after dark when the three of them knocked on my door. I let them in with a smile and a nod. Marty greeted me with a huge bear hug. Generally speaking, I’m not much on physical contact, but I felt so comforted by Marty for some reason that I didn’t mind.

  “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you having us to your place, Salias. It’s rare we meet such kind people, especially since we’ve been living in Arizona.”

  I motioned for the three of them to sit down on my threadbare couch. The two children stared up at me in utter silence. They looked like they were identical twins. A boy and a girl, their hair was bleach blonde, their skin the color of milk. But what was most striking about them were their eyes. They were a light sky blue and they didn’t seem to have pupils. Like their father, I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off of them, almost like they were mentally commanding me to not look away. Finally, Marty broke the spell.

  “So how long have you lived in Arizona, Salias?”

  “Huh, not for very long, just about a month now. I’m from California originally.”

  “Really? Me, too. I’m from Santa Monica. How about you?”

  “I’m from all over the place really. My parents gave me up for adoption when I was a baby and I got shuffled around a lot. Group homes and foster families all over the state. I came out to Arizona for this job. I thought I would make a fresh start of things, ya know?”

  “We felt the same way. Before we moved out to the desert we were living in Colorado. That’s where I met the twins’ mother.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, where is she?”

  “Honestly, I have no idea. We were staying just outside of Boulder in the bus, and I woke up morning and she just wasn’t there. At first, I thought she just went into town to get some groceries. But then when she didn’t come back, I figure she’d decided that she’s had enough of us and decided to move on.”

  “Man, that’s horrible. How could a mother do that to her kids, her husband? I mean, I know I don’t know her…”

  “No, you’re completely right, Sal. I thought what Melinda and I had was something special. I honestly thought she was the love of my life. Well, I guess I was wrong about that.”

  “When did you two have the twins?” I said motioning towards the two statue like children sitting a few feet away from us.

  “Oh, the kids aren’t mine. You know, at least not my biological kids. But I love them like they are. But, you know, they weren’t Melinda’s kids natural children, either.”

  Whoa, I couldn’t help but think that was more than a little strange. I mean, I’d heard about mixed families, but at least one of the parents was the natural blood parent of the children. I couldn’t help but think that maybe these kids had been kidnapped long ago and maybe their parents were still worried about them and looking for them. I know if I had a child or children that had been taken from me I would never stop looking. Obviously, Marty saw the concern on my face, or perhaps he was so used to telling this story that he simply anticipated the reaction his story would illicit from people.

  “Oh, hey, man. I kind of know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that maybe I’m some kind of pervert or something, and I can tell you nothing’s farther from the truth. Melinda may not have been the kids’ biological mom, but she is their sister.”

  “Sister?” I said, confusion still evident in my voice.”

  “Yeah, sister. See, the kids, their parents died when they were just babies, and at first, they went to Melinda’s oldest sister, Maggie. But Maggie had all kinds of issues with her own family and all, so she passed them off to one of her aunt’s and uncle’s. But the problem with that was they were pretty old and sick, so next they handed the twins off to Melinda, and she ended up caring for them the longest. She was around them for five years. She met me a few years afterwards and then she took off on me.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, the kids are kind of just like you. Getting bounced all over the place. Never knowing a real home. But I’m trying to change all of that. I’m trying to give them a sense of permanence, a sense of home.”

  “Even if home is an RV?”

  “HA! Yeah, even if the home is an RV. But, you know, the kids have gifts, too. Things the world needs to see.”

  The oven timer dinged and I excused myself from our conversation and busied myself in my small kitchen. Once the table was set, I invited them all to my small dining table. Both Marty and I dug in like two men who hadn’t eaten in days. To be blunt, I’d been skipping my fair share of meals due to my current financial restrictions, and I could only imagine the last time Marty had had a proper meal. He was a strong and well defined guy. Not, you know, like he went to the gym five days a week or anything like that. It was more like he’d spent a lifetime doing nothing but working outdoors, and his muscles had developed from spending ho
ur-after-hour hefting and moving things. But you could tell that he’d missed more than a few meals over the recent weeks, perhaps making sure that the kids had enough to eat before he fed himself. Despite their oddball family connections, it was obvious to me that he loved the twins very much.

  As Marty and I shoved bloody pieces of steak into our mouths, I noticed that the twins were doing nothing but staring down at their plates, toying the food with their forks but not eating any of it.

  “Is there something wrong with your food, kids?” I asked, not able to keep the hurt out of my voice. I wanted them to like what I had prepared for them. I wanted them to like it so much that my stomach began to clench with anxiety and worry. Why did I care so much? I had just met these children, and the fact was, I was never much of a kid person to begin with. Even when growing up in the group homes, I always preferred the company of the couch lord and staff as opposed to my roommates and surrogate brothers and sisters.

  Marty wiped his mouth and quickly swallowed his last mammoth bite of food.

  “Oh, Salias, don’t worry about them,” he said as he cleared his throat. “They have a special diet. Mostly organic fruits and vegetables, fresh meats. I guess I should have told you about that before we came over.”

  Growing up in California, I’d known more than my fair share of vegetarians. I even worked with one girl at Wendy’s who was a vegan and would lecture customers every time they ordered a burger, or chicken strips, or even the chili, which I wasn’t sure had anything resembling meat in it. She only lasted two weeks when she finally blew her top at this couple from Texas after they told her to mind her own fucking business, which was a real shame because she was a seriously hot piece of ass. And, no, I knew I didn’t have a chance in the world with her, but getting to look at her all day during my 7 hour shift sure made my day go by just a little quicker.

  “Oh, hey, kids, I’m really sorry. If I had known I would have made something else.”

  Like what I had no idea, the only thing that I had that could have been deemed organic was a bag of Granny Smith apples I had picked up because they were on sale. The kids said nothing to me, their faces and strange eyes still nothing more than blank canvasses.

  “No worries, man,” Marty said as he grabbed one of the plates of the twin who I thought was a little boy…I still hadn’t figured out what the sex was for either one of them. Marty scraped the untouched food onto his plate. “It’s not like any of this is going to go to waste, right? I’ll just feed them once we get back to the RV.”

  Taking Marty’s lead, I scrapped the other child’s food on to my plate and dug in and they both quietly sat and watched us eat, never taking their eyes off of either one of us.

  ********

  The days of Marty and the kids staying at the storage facility turned from days into weeks and then into months. And to be honest with you, I can’t remember when I had ever been as happy and more content with my life. Ollie from the gas station still stopped by to take me into town to do my grocery shopping, although he wasn’t as big of a fan of Marty as I was.

  “Just imagine if the owner came by and saw that you had some hippie motherfucker living at the place.”

  I merely nodded at his angry outbursts and told him he was right, of course. But the thing was, I don’t think the owner would have given two shits about Marty and the kids. They’d paid their rent moths in advance and that was all he really cared about, whether we were renting units or not. I couldn’t tell Ollie this, though, because he had his own version of how the world should work and there wasn’t a chance in Hell that I was going to change his mind about it. But I didn’t have to try and change his world view, because the twins did that for me.

  One night, Ollie had really gotten himself worked up about Marty living on the property. You know, not like he had a leg to stand on, you know. It wasn’t his property, it wasn’t his job to maintain it, and I made sure to let him know that as he ranted and raved. No, he was going to confront Marty and give him a solid piece of his mind no matter what I said. When we arrived back at the storage units, I started to quietly unpack my grocery bags and Ollie marched over to the RV and started banging on the aluminum siding demanding that Marty open up this instance. But instead of Marty answering the door, it was the twins. Ollie stared down at the two of them, as usual, their faces were completely blank and didn’t look the slightest bit afraid of this massive, angry fat man filling their front door.

  For several minutes, the three of them stared at one another in complete silence and then the strangest thing happened. Ollie sat down on the asphalt in front of him and they joined him, none of them saying a single word to one another. After I finished putting away my groceries, I tentatively walked over to where the three of them sat and took a look at what exactly was going on. The twins and Ollie were sitting in complete silence, the twins wearing their typical nothing expression. But Ollie, Ollie looked like he was under the influence of the most powerful narcotic ever taken by a human being. His sagging face was awash with what you could only describe as nothing but pure joy. His eyes were glazed over and unfocused and he was smiling from ear-to-ear. I’d known Ollie for the better part of six months, and never once had I ever known him to smile, not once, and for obvious reasons. Virtually every tooth in his mouth was green with rot and decay. But at that particular moment, under the euphoric power of the twins, he simply didn’t care.

  I left the three of them sitting there and wandered back into the office. It was almost time for me to close up shop and I still needed to sweep and mop the showroom and then close out the register for the day. But just after I had finished mopping, Ollie wandered into the office, his hair disheveled, his ruddy face sweating rivers. Once he made it to the front counter, he practically collapsed his full weight on top of it.

  “Sal,” He said, his voice barely above a whisper, “I’d like to rent a unit.”

  I gave him a quizzical and slightly annoyed look, mostly because I had just balanced the till. I collected myself, though. Business was business and I was here to fill rentals.

  “Sure, Ollie,” I said in my best pitchman TV voice. “What size unit were you looking to get into?”

  “I don’t know,” he said dreamily, as if his mind was somewhere else entirely. Maybe some far off place where his every wish and desire was being fulfilled. “One that’s big enough for me to fit all my stuff in and live in.”

  “Um, yeah. Maybe an 8X10 then?”

  “That’s fine.”

  Never in my short life had I seen such a quick change of heart. Not that I minded because I would now have the four most important people in my new life in Arizona more or less living under the same roof. For the first time in my life, I was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, I was finally going to be happy.

  ********

  So many screams and just five units down. They must have found the strippers from Lou’s Cabaret. It’s a shame, Diedra was really nice. It won’t be long now, not long at all.

  ********

  After Ollie moved in, things really started to get moving and changing around the facility. Virtually everyone that Ollie came in contact with through his job at the gas station got an earful about his new rental. The tow truck drivers, the drug addicts, the booze hounds, the strippers. Anyone who came to buy a pack of smokes or a six pack of beer before heading home for the night heard about the twins, and within a week of hearing about them and then meeting them, they would rent a unit from me and move into it with all of their worldly possessions. The twins were building a community out here in the middle of the dry waste of the Arizona desert.

  “What is it about them?” I asked Marty as we toured the fully occupied units. I asked because despite the devotion these new followers felt for the twins, I had yet to feel the magnetic, charismatic aspects of their personalities.

  “You know, Salias, I think the thing is maybe they just know you too well. Maybe it’s a respect thing…”

  “Or a lack of respect thing,
” I said glumly.

  Marty laughed heartily and slapped me on the back.

  “Trust me, my friend, it had nothing to do with lack of respect. When Melinda first introduced them to me they didn’t speak to me for months. They always just watched me. I mean, every time I walked into a room they were in, they wouldn’t take their eyes off me. I had to admit that it freaked me out a bit. Gave me the herb-jeebies like you wouldn’t believe. But eventually, they started talking to me, especially after Melinda left and I was what they had left as far as family was concerned. But trust me, they’ve told me on more than a few occasions about how much they like you.”

  Marty’s little pep talk managed to put my mind at ease. I’d been an outsider most of my life, the kid who was always picked last at any kind of sport, or didn’t receive a Christmas present from the Christmas angel and Toys for Tots program. But I didn’t want to be left out when it came to what was happening here at EZ-Storage. I wanted to be front and center for everything that was going on and what could possibly be going on and not just the guy who had to collect rent for the units at the beginning of every month. Thankfully, this newly formed community of what most people would consider the town lowlifes didn’t consider me that. To them, I was vital and important part of the operation.

  Whenever I would tour the facility grounds and pass the open fool-up doors, I would be heartily welcomed inside. The drunks would offer me a beer, the dopers would offer me a toot or a puff of whatever they were cooking, and the strippers…well, their offers were always the ones I looked forward to the most. Back in my old life in California, I was never considered what you would call boyfriend material. I was the type of guy who had to shell out $100 to get laid the first time and all of my subsequent sexual encounters were handled in the same manner. With the strippers, though, anytime I came to the three units they occupied, they beckoned to me and then rolled down their doors the minute I entered and fulfilled every fantasy they or I could think of. And they didn’t do these things as a means of bargaining or barter. They merely wanted to give me pleasure.