by A C Bell
“I know. Thank you,” she said sincerely.
“No problem.”
He shifted his weight on the pintail skateboard he was using to slide beneath the car and directed his flashlight toward the rocker panels. All in all, Adeline was meticulous with taking care of this car. Tiny flecks of surface rust had started to grow here, as they had in other spots, so he sprayed some of his dad’s homemade rust-remover and scrubbed at it with a Brillo Pad until the metal was clean.
“Alright, everything looks good.”
Adeline grabbed his ankle with her good hand and rolled him out. The glaring brightness of the sun disoriented him after the shade beneath Farrah. Adeline held out a hand to help him up and snickered when she saw his grease smudged face.
“Filthy. Don’t you ever shower, Pete?” She teased.
Peter smeared his greasy hand down her cheek, leaving a sticky streak.
She pursed her lips to hide a smirk. “Thanks.” She wiped her cheek with a rag with a laugh, then handed it to Peter so he could do the same.
“So, what now?” He asked.
“Now the fun part; Washing.”
They rubbed Farrah down at a nearby do-it-yourself car wash until she was sparkly and new, and then they decided to get a well-deserved lunch.
“I like Bud’s” Peter offered.
Adeline shook her head. “I’m not in the mood for burgers.”
“Charlie’s Pizza?” Hope bubbled in his chest, but Adeline glowered. “What? You only got food poisoning there twice.”
“I’ve only been there twice.”
Peter exhaled a dramatic sigh. “Alright, where do you want to go?”
“How about the Chinese place on Wayden Street?”
“I could go for some Chow Mein, as long as you buy me some Wontons.”
Adeline laughed. “Deal.”
The Green Panda was tucked between a cigarettes store and a little whole foods joint on Main street.
"So, you won't go to Charlie's, but you'll go to a place called the 'Green Panda'?"
It was getting chilly so Adeline pulled her jacket tighter around herself. She couldn’t zip it up with the sling. “Green is Lucky in Chinese culture,” she explained.
Peter smirked, having already known that, and held the door open for her. Adeline slugged his arm as punishment for his smart mouth as she passed and Peter gripped his arm amidst pained chuckles. She packed quite a punch.
“Hello, how are you today?” said the middle-aged woman behind the counter.
“Hi, Mi Su,” Adeline said with a broad smile.
While the two of them chatted, Peter stepped up to the counter and peered through the plexiglass at the options. Indeed, the Chow Mein looked delicious. Adeline’s phone chirped and she stepped away to look at her text, so Mi Su took Peter’s order. He looked over his shoulder at Adeline. She was frowning out the window, phone still in hand.
“Adeline? What do you want?” Peter asked. He stepped over to her but she still didn’t notice. Something was wrong. He glanced at her phone but scolded himself for trying to snoop, so he instead tapped her shoulder. “What’s up?”
She jumped and spun, clutching her phone close to her chest. “What? Oh, nothing. Ready to order?”
He let it go. When Adeline didn’t want to talk, she didn’t talk. But she always came around. Adeline ate a large helping for lunch and when they finished eating, she waddled to the door with a distended stomach. Peter dashed outside.
“I’ll race you to the car!” He taunted, knowing her competitive side would rear its head. She grumbled something he couldn’t hear over the street noise. She was halfway across the lot when he reached the car and spun around to face her.
“What’s the matter–”
His insult was drowned out by the blaring of a car horn, just like it would have in a cartoon. Both burst into laughter and Adeline gripped her gut. Peter’s laugh died when a black Buick pulled into the lot, swerving close to the row of parked cars. Peter squinted at the freaky mask the driver wore, with large rotting pointed teeth. They sped straight for Adeline with no sign of slowing down. Adeline, for whatever reason, stayed put and stared it down. Peter lunged and pulled her away. The car veered away and out the lot with a loud screech, but not before Peter caught the license plate. Or, he would have if there was a plate.
He turned back to Adeline, who had visibly paled. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. It was probably an early Halloween prank.”
“No one’s laughing.” He studied Adeline. She avoided his gaze and marched around him to get into the car. She was gnawing on the inside of her cheek, an obvious tell that she was bluffing. “Adeline, what was that?”
“Nothing, Pete. It’s fine.”
Peter sighed and watched her climb into the car.
✽✽✽
Maybe it was hypocritical of me not to tell Peter what was wrong, but it felt like telling him would be breaching Nikki’s privacy. This was about her, after all. The dorm was still empty when I returned. Nikki was probably with Justin and I wondered if she would crash in his dorm tonight to avoid me.
I pulled my laptop onto my bed. The driver in the Buick had been wearing the same mask as the guy at the bowling alley. I wasn’t sure how to go about finding a specific mask online, but I started by making a rough sketch on a notepad. Once I had something tangible to go off of, I started my search on popular online shopping sites. After browsing for a good hour and finding nothing, I decided to take a different route and googled local costume shops. A large conglomerate called Party City went to the top of my list. With such a wide stock, odds were good that they carried something like this. My list of possibilities began expanding and I was contemplating ways to narrow it down when my search came to an end.
A place called Eccentric Bros had a banner at the top of their site that showed various oddities around their shop. One such image was of a man wearing the very same mask with his arms stretched out in what was probably supposed to be a frightening gesture. The blue hoodie ruined the effect. I took note of the address and made plans to stop by tomorrow until I realized their hours started and ended later in the day than normal businesses. They would still be open for a few hours.
After this afternoon, the sight of any black car made me jump. Once, while crossing an intersection, a dark blue hatchback pulled out of nowhere and nearly hit me. I had to pull over for a few minutes to calm down. By the time I found the address, I felt like a tightly-wound mess.
Eccentric Bros was difficult to miss. A giant faceless reaper stood in the protruding section of the window, his skeletal hands holding his scythe posed to swing down on passersby. I would have to tell Nikki about this place, if she didn’t already know it was here. Halloween was her absolute favorite time of year. She always made her own costume.
Instead of a jangling bell, an electronic spooky laugh greeted my entrance to the shop. The stench of plastic and rubber was almost chokingly potent. The place looked bigger on the inside and was cluttered with just about anything you could possibly need to make a Halloween costume and they also sold novelty items from sci fi and fantasy movies. I stepped around a life-sized mannequin of Darth Maul, noting his iconic crown of small horns, and mused how much Peter would like this place, too.
Over in the right-hand corner, I spotted a purchasing counter. A gray-haired man with a ponytail and an eyepatch was ringing up a middle-aged woman who appeared to be purchasing a very small Hunchback of Notre Dame Esmeralda costume. I was impressed they sold something that old. I remembered dressing up as Esmeralda when I was little. Aside from the pair, the store was vacant.
I toured the aisles looking for the mask, passing several aisles of clothing and an aisle stacked with a wide assortment of fake weapons. Peter would definitely love this place. Finally, I found an aisle full of helmets, wigs, and masks, and there, in the middle, was the mask I needed. The unnaturally wide grin caused wrinkles in the blotchy discolored skin around the mouth and eyes. Teeth this sharp an
d this rotten would probably give dentists nightmares. I grabbed one and maneuvered back to the counter. The man probably wouldn’t just give me the information because I asked real nice. I needed a plausible reason to be asking. Pulling everything Nikki had ever told me about acting from the unused parts of my brain, I quickly thought up a story and a persona.
“Hello,” I chirped in a sing-song voice, stepping up to the counter. The man pulled his attention away from the crossword he was working on and I flashed him a wide, doe-eyed smile. He was easily in his fifties and I wondered if the eye patch was legit. Was he one of the acclaimed “Eccentric Brothers”.
“How can I help you?” He asked.
“My name is Lexi. I was wondering...” I paused and chewed on my bottom lip for a moment, as if hesitating. “This is kind of embarrassing. I kinda have a secret admirer.”
“Oh?” An amused glint sparked in his eyes.
I nodded and displayed what I hoped looked like a coy yet excited grin. “It was, like, a few days ago. I was doing my homework and someone tapped on my window. So, I looked outside and found a folded note on my window sill and this guy was waving, but I couldn’t see his face. I think this guy knows how much I just love horror movies, because he was wearing this mask.” I accentuated the word ‘love’ with an ecstatic hand gesture before setting the mask on the counter. The fact that I loved horror movies seemed to shock the man, who must have assumed I would be into chick flicks, given my “personality”.
“One of our less popular items,” the man noted.
“I was hoping, is there any way you could, like, see who bought this recently?” I chewed on my lip again, looking hopeful.
After a few moments of consideration, he smiled. “Sure. I should still have the receipt stubs.” While he bent below the counter, I sighed. Lexi was exhausting. And a little annoying. A shock of real hope jolted through me when I noticed a video camera in the corner above him. When he straightened with a little plastic binder of receipt stubs, I plastered my peppy, excitable face back on.
“Oh, a video camera!”
The man released an ebullient chuckle as he flipped through receipts. “Between you and me, it doesn’t actually work, so I’m afraid I can’t show you who your admirer is. It’s really just to ward off any attempts at thievery,” he said. I deflated a little but kept face. “Here we are. There has only been one purchase for that in the last few days.” The man set the receipt on the counter and pointed to the name. I felt my mouth fall ajar. “So, you know him?” The man smiled. He seemed so pleased at the prospect of bringing two lovebirds together that he didn’t realize that the name upset me. I knew the name on the receipt, alright; Adam Parker. My father.
7 Behind a Shadow
Sleep refused to visit me. A nauseating anxiety kept my stomach roiling and I just stared at the wall, pleading my brain to just shut off and let me rest. Eventually, I drifted off only to wake early the next morning and have the anxiety return. Then an idea struck me; I was notorious for sleeping in late, so it stood to reason that whoever had an eye on me wouldn’t expect me to be awake yet. If I couldn’t sleep, maybe an early morning run would help relieve some stress and allow me to nap when I got back. Not being able to play tennis or anything with my arm in a sling was making me antsy anyway.
Nikki’s body formed a hill under her covers. I was glad to see she had come home. I stepped lightly so as not to wake her and dressed in shorts, a tee, and a hoodie. I made sure to leave my cell phone on the nightstand so that I would be unreachable and left a note for Nikki in the bathroom so she wouldn't worry about my absence. There was no one in the hallway, so I pulled my hood on and kept my head low so no one would recognize me from a distance, just in case.
The sun was starting to peek out from behind the trees, setting the red and orange leaves aflame and bathing the campus in soothing hues of pink and orange. The chilled morning air was crisp and refreshing on my skin and as I jogged. The tension in my veins melted away. I wasn’t particularly sure where I was going and knew I should pace myself, but I let my feet pound into the sidewalk, carrying me swiftly across campus. Only once I reached the far end did I stop to catch my breath.
I sat on the edge of a brick planter surrounding a tree. The corner dug into the backs of my thighs uncomfortably. My breaths came heavy, my lungs burned, but the pinching pain began to subside as I relaxed. When I felt confident I could run again I started heading back at a slower pace. Now that my mind wasn’t bogged down by stress, I tried to think things through.
Using my dad's name on the receipt for the mask was clearly an attempt at mind games. Choosing Dad instead of any other significant name meant this guy knew how Dad had died. Such a cheap shot was probably meant to convince me that this guy knew everything about me, but he could have easily googled me and found it in an old news article. I'd debated telling the police about the lead, but with no surveillance footage in the shop, Dad's name on the receipt would only lead them back to me and I already knew I was involved.
So, the big questions; Who was Nikki’s stalker and how long had he been following her? Justin was right that she’d started acting secretive after school started. Was it Raiden? He seemed nice, but he was my only real lead. Could he really be the one who almost ran me over? Thinking about it was making me crabby and wasn’t getting me anywhere.
I stopped at a drinking fountain outside the admissions building and soothed my throat with tepid water. After years of spoiling myself with filtered water, I grimaced at the mineral taste of it and vowed to bring a bottle of water with me on my next run. Unready to return to the dorm, I leaned on the wall and let myself breathe. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the nearby door opened. Now I was jumping at doors? Perfect.
"Well good morning, Adeline," a gravelly voice greeted. Slade sauntered in my direction. His shirt had a skull with a snake for a tongue and he held a brown paper cup in one hand. A symbol on the cup indicated it was made from recycled materials and was from a place called “Olaf’s Organics”.
"Hey," I said with a smile. I pointed to the coffee cup. "I had no idea you were a health nut."
A corner of his mouth quirked up in a crooked smirk. "I'm allergic to certain pesticides. Eating organic food is the safest way to avoid them."
"Oh. I didn't know people could be allergic to those,” I mused. Now that I wasn't moving around, I could feel goose bumps crawling up my skin and tucked my arm under my sling for warmth. Sweats next time.
"Look at that; You're already learning and it's not even eight in the morning. The American education system isn't as far gone as people fear. Are you always up this early?"
I shook my head. "I just felt like going for a run."
"Oh, so you're a fitness nut." Slade tipped the last of his coffee into his mouth and tossed the cup in the recycle bin behind him, then pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
"I think it's good to stay in shape. You know, I don't think eating healthy cancels those out," I said, pointing to the cigarette he pinched between his lips.
He chortled, a deep, warm sound. "It's not supposed to, but I'll wait if you prefer." He slid the little paper tube back into its slot.
"Much obliged." I smiled.
“How’s your arm?”
“Stiff,” I mused. "So, why are you here so early?"
"There was a problem with my tuition. Raiden’s, too, but he said he had something to do this morning."
My stomach fell. If Raiden was Nikki's stalker, did Slade know about his friend's extracurricular activities? Would he help Raiden if asked? Just like Raiden, Slade seemed so genuine, but someone was behind this, so until I figured out who it was, could I afford to trust either of them?
“Any idea what?”
A bemused smirk brightened his features, casting dramatic shadows across his face in the slanted light. “No clue, I’m not his sitter. Why?”
Anxiety bubbled in my gut again and a creeping feeling crawled up my spine, paranoia working to convince me I was being watche
d now that I didn’t know where my only suspect was.
“How well do you know him?”
“I’ve known him a long time.” Slade looked amused. “Careful Adeline, your inner detective is showing.”
An alarm dinged in the back of my mind. Was he just using an expression, or was that somehow a reference to my dad? Had Raiden told him? Slade’s expression dimmed when I didn’t laugh at the joke.
“Everything okay? Did something happen with him?”
"Sorry, I need to get back.”
"Alright.” Slade looked unconvinced but let it drop. He drew his cigarettes from his pocket again as I left.
✽✽✽
My arm was well enough to take my sling off a few days later, though I was trying not to do too much with it just yet. Work was becoming a surprisingly desirable distraction rather than a necessary nuisance, even on a day like today when every lane was full. I was wearing down from not sleeping well. The first half of my shift, I worked with Tim and Gracie. Gracie smacked her gum at the front desk while I manned the floor and offered assistance to anyone who needed it. None of the lanes were glitching tonight, thankfully. By the time Lorraine arrived to replace Gracie a few hours later, most of the lanes had cleared.
“Hey, Adeline!” She waved at my approach. She’d worn red lipgloss to match our red uniform shirts, which complemented her olive skin. She set her backpack out of view behind the counter. A heavy textbook in the bag made a quiet thump against the plastic laminate.
“Hi,” I said with a smile. “How are classes going?”
She winced. “Can you explain why I need to take Algebra for an art degree?”
“Aw, that bad?”
Lorraine folded her arms on the counter and rested her chin on them. As she shook her head, the scent of her lavender shampoo wafted my way. “I don’t suppose you know anything about math?” Her voice was muffled comically with her face hidden.
“I have a better idea. My friend is a math whizz.”