by Jack Hunt
The moment he said that, his chin dropped. “I didn’t mean that. I just…”
“Whatever, man. Listen. You don’t have to worry. I’m not expecting you to go over. I will. I just need you to keep watch.”
“So I sit here?”
“Yeah, that’s all.”
He groaned. “Uh, I don’t know, Alex.”
“Come on, man.”
He blew out his cheeks. “When?”
“My mother said she usually sees him leave around nine most nights.”
Eric glanced at his watch. “Well, we still have another hour and a half until then. How about we do this? You get the beers and we head on over to Kelly’s place?”
I offered him a look of confusion. “Why would I do that?”
“Because she’s having a party tonight. Remember? Yeah, her folks are out of town for the weekend. That’s why she was asking about you today. She wanted to invite you.”
“And you said?”
He screwed his face up. “I told her we’d be there.”
I threw both of my hands up in the air. “Oh my god.”
“What? You said you were into her.”
“I am. I mean.”
“Dude, you are twenty-one. Isn’t it time you got past that schoolkid crush of yours?”
“It’s not a crush.”
He leaned back in his chair taking another swig and spinning around in circles with an amused look on his face. “Oh no, then what it is?”
“It’s uh…” I scratched the back of my neck and searched for the best way to explain it to him but gave up instead. He grinned looking as if he had won some unmentioned competition. I could tell that if I didn’t agree he probably would have bailed on me. That was one area where we were worlds apart. He liked partying. I really never got into it. I avoided them for numerous reasons, as they usually ended up in fights, and all I needed was to have that on my record. No, I had to keep my nose clean if I was ever going to stand a chance of getting into the police.
Though the idea of that now was starting to feel like some pipe dream.
Trespassing on my neighbor’s property was a dumb idea. I admit it. But I had to know.
Chapter 4
The sound of heavy bass seeped from the partially open door as we approached Kelly’s home. She lived on one side of the cul-de-sac, while our home was directly across from hers. A line of cars clogged up the usually quiet street. There were clusters of people outside puffing on vapes as we made our way inside. Some guy was yakking on about chucking big clouds from his latest mod. The whole thing had turned into a sport. On the way over I’d seen a few of the neighbors peeking out from behind curtains. The party had only got started and it was already drawing attention. I didn’t imagine it would be long before the cops showed up. I looked back at my neighbor’s house, the lights were on behind the curtains but no one was looking out. Was he watching me from some other vantage point?
Upon entering the home, we were immediately greeted by Kelly and a couple of her friends. Eric handed over the beer like an entry ticket.
“Hello, ladies,” he said before he went into his usual attempt to win them over with some story about how we nearly got carjacked on the way back from picking up liquor. Of course they weren’t buying it. Kelly glanced at me, I smiled as I always did before hoping that the crowd around us would converge and swallow me up.
“Alex, I haven’t seen you around lately.”
And there it was. The question I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid. I was about to answer her when several people squeezed past us with red beer cups in their hands and some of it splashed out on my shirt. Great! The night was already starting on a great note.
“Oh shit, sorry, dude,” some guy hollered.
“No problem,” I muttered before diverting my eyes away.
I looked up to see that Eric had disappeared into the crowd. To say that I felt out of place would have been an understatement. I didn’t get the whole party thing. People rushing around acting like dicks, guys trying to impress the women and some girl tossing up her lunch in the corner. It wasn’t exactly my idea of fun but then what else was there to do at our age?
Kelly looked as if she was about to say something to me but one of her friends pulled her away. She looked back briefly before the crowd pressed in around her. I wandered around searching for a washroom to clean up in. When I found it, it was already in use.
“Hey, get the hell out of here.”
“Sorry.”
The guy yanked the door close. I stood there for a minute searching for a space in the crowded house that could give me a better view of what would no doubt turn into total chaos in a matter of an hour or two. Music too loud for a house this size shook the walls and caused my body to vibrate ever so slightly. I imagined Mrs. Walsh was already on the phone to the cops harping on about how the youth of her generation was never this wild. To be fair, it was pretty rare for our street to experience any noise beyond the sound of a leaf blower or lawn mower. Beside Kelly’s family and my own, the rest of the folks were retired, except for Mr. Strange. That’s what I called him initially because I didn’t know his name. In fact, I had no idea who he was or what the hell he did and after what I saw earlier, I was beginning to wonder if he was even human.
“Alex Flynn.” I felt a meaty paw on my shoulder and I knew immediately who it was. Kyle Fisher. When I turned I kind of expected to see him in his community service uniform as he’d been known to wear it even when he wasn’t on shift. He was just that kind of guy. Everything was a competition to him. Social interactions were a means of comparison and prime opportunities to minimize others to make himself look good. What probably didn’t help was when he wasn’t being a dick, he was actually a pretty cool guy. I know, it’s ironic but that’s the truth. Which is the reason why I usually entertained his asinine conversation.
He pressed his finger into my chest while holding a cup of beer in the other hand. Beside him, paying more attention to the crowd, were his buddies.
“Kyle.”
“So I hear you dropped out? What’s the deal with that?”
“Ah, just working through a few things at the moment. I’m probably going to return next year. Or I might just apply.”
He eyed me across the top of his cup with a mischievous grin. I was waiting for it. Any minute now I imagined he would announce to those around him that I had dropped out. Of course he wouldn’t do it in a way that would make people think he was a dick. No, this guy had perfected the art of subtlety. He could make others look stupid while making it seem like a slip of the tongue.
“And, eh, how’s that job going at the mall? What’s the name of that place?” He tapped one of his buddies and repeated himself a little louder. That’s how he did it. He knew the name of the mall. It was all about making me feel uncomfortable. Which was working. I clenched my jaw and regretted coming.
“Earth to Alex?”
“What?”
My thoughts were still locked on the pale blue glow that emanated from my neighbor’s room.
“So I heard a rumor through the grapevine they let you go? That’s gotta suck.”
I stared back at him blankly. How had he managed to find out so soon? Then I thought about Ben. He was a nose in for becoming a community service officer. No doubt it was him who opened his big mouth.
“Actually I quit. Yeah, wasn’t my thing, I’m actually thinking of going straight on through to the interview.”
“But you won’t have any experience.”
Kyle didn’t think that working as a security guard at a mall meant anything. It wasn’t like what he did was any different. His workload amounted to performing security checks around the campus, being the eyes and ears of the Sacramento Police Department and dealing with bike registrations and other administrative duties that were far from policing. Of course he didn’t see it that way. No, in his mind he was a full-fledged police apprentice.
I pretended to see someone across the room that I knew so
I could slip by him without having to endure any more of his verbal diarrhea. In reality I wanted to get a drink and find somewhere that was a little less noisy. I spent the next half an hour with my back to the wall watching the circus of idiots. Eric came over and tried to entice me to join him and the two twins that he’d managed to locate in the ocean of faces. I told him I was fine and reminded him that we would be heading back to the house in half an hour. He just gripped me by the back of the neck and told me to loosen up. I reeled back from the smell of alcohol. At this rate he would be drunk before we even got back. Then he would be of no use to me.
I got myself a cup of beer from a keg and threaded my way through sweaty bodies. I went upstairs hoping to find a bathroom to clean my shirt as it was beginning to reek like Eric’s breath. I’d never been in Kelly’s home before and it kind of felt odd to be walking through the home of someone I had admired from afar since I was knee-high.
Inside the washroom two people were getting it on. I rolled my eyes, closed the door and wandered down to the next room. There were so many people filling up the house that everyone seemed to be looking for their own little nook of solitude to make out or cause general havoc. I entered the next room and figured it was Kelly’s because of the way it was decorated. It was common for people our age to still be living at home, as the cost of living on campus or buying a place just wasn’t feasible while working your way through university.
I hesitated to go in at first and I probably wouldn’t have if it weren’t for what I saw through her window. I slowly moved toward the window to get a better view. My neighbor was at my front door. Holy crap! I was so caught up in watching him knocking on the door, then peering through the window that was at the side that I didn’t hear someone come into the room.
“Alex?”
I nearly jumped out of my skin. Swiveling, I found Kelly with an amused look on her face. She came closer.
“What are you doing in here?”
“Uh, I was…”
I looked back out the window and watched as my neighbor returned to his house. Out the corner of my eye I saw Kelly come up beside me. She was following my gaze.
“Is that him?”
“The new neighbor, yeah.”
She started to laugh a little. “You almost look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“No. I…” I trailed off.
“Did you do the same with us when we moved in?”
I was six when she moved in across from us. I remember the day quite clearly. A large truck pulled up along with a station wagon. She stepped out and well… I will save you the detour into what I was thinking that day. But let’s just say I was kind of hooked from day one.
“What are you doing in here?” I asked.
She laughed as if she needed to even answer that. From her side table she pulled out her cell phone. “I just came in to grab this up.”
I nodded feeling stupid to have even asked the question. I shifted the conversation elsewhere. “So are your folks away on business?”
“No, it’s their anniversary. They’ll be gone the whole weekend.”
I cleared my throat as she came closer and I caught the fragrance of her perfume.
“What about you? How’s your mom’s job going?”
“It’s going. She seems to like it.”
“How’s she… I mean, how are both of you coping?”
I breathed in deeply searching for words that would encompass how I felt. I’d heard the question countless times over the past three years. Death was a strange event that no one really knew how to discuss.
“Yeah, alright. I guess.”
“So Kyle was saying you got fired or something?”
I felt my collar begin to tighten around my neck. What was I thinking coming into her room? This was the worst place to get cornered.
“Ah, the guy has had it in for me since I started there. My car wouldn’t start.”
“So he fired you?”
I nodded affirmatively before looking back out the window.
“Sorry to heart that.” She paused. “Don’t you find it odd that we’ve lived across from each other all these years and yet we’ve rarely hung out together?”
“I suppose it is when you put it that way.”
Besides my birthday when I was a kid, the only other time she had been over was after the funeral. Her family had attended. I remember her staring at me as though she was trying to decipher what I was thinking or feeling. That day went by like a blur. People dressed in black, no one smiling and everyone standing around looking awkward as they nibbled on food from paper plates and extended their condolences. Yeah, it was strange that we hadn’t got to know each other better but then again we hadn’t really had much in common beyond the fact that we lived on the same road.
“We should hang out more,” she suggested nudging me with her shoulder.
Okay, where did that come from? I was about to respond when a fight broke out down below in the front yard. She peered out, opened the window and bellowed for them to stop but they weren’t listening. A large crowd had gathered around and was egging on whoever was scrapping beneath them. From above you couldn’t see anything except the backs of people’s heads as they leaned over to record it on their phones.
“I’ll go down with you.”
My words fell on deaf ears as she had already left the room. Now I might have been interested in what was going on if it wasn’t for the fact that across the street my neighbor had stepped outside onto his porch. Partially swallowed by the shadows, all I could see was his faint silhouette and the orange glow of a cigarette. Had he stepped out just to smoke? Or was he intrigued by the brawl? Or worse — was he looking for me? I stepped away from the window feeling the hairs on the back of my neck go up.
It didn’t take me long to get on ground level, as those who had been clogging up the landing were already outside and center stage to the fight of the night. It was always the same. Some chump drinks too much, then gets offended by the way someone looks at them. I elbowed my way to the front in time to see Eric take one hell of a right hook to the face. I should have figured it was him. Inviting Eric to a party was like tossing a grenade into a room full of people. He had no off switch. That applied to how he drank, talked to women or dealt with anyone who threatened him. For a small guy he was one helluva scrapper. I went to step in to help but felt Kyle’s hand on my chest.
“Hold tight, Flynn. They are big boys. They can work this out.”
“You had enough?” one of Kyle’s buddies asked.
Eric staggered to his feet. “Fuck you.” With that he spat a big glob of blood in the guy’s face and the brawl continued.
“That’s enough,” I said forcing my way past and pulling back the guy who was on top of Eric. But it was pointless. My attempt to end it was met by force as Kyle decided he wanted to get in on the action. Now both of us found ourselves throwing fists. A siren echoed, and before we knew it police had arrived and started breaking up the crowd.
“Break it up,” Officer Parker shouted over the top of heads. He’d known my father back in the day. Back then he was just a rookie. Someone my father was mentoring in his first year on the job.
“But it was just getting good,” someone hollered.
“I don’t give a rat’s ass. Shut it down and go home.”
The crowd started to thin out while the four of us sat on the edge of the curb nursing bruised and bloodied lips. Meanwhile Parker and a few of the other officers did crowd control. As we waited for the cops to finish breaking up what had been the shortest party in history, I saw the garage door on my neighbor’s house go up. An engine rumbled to life and a set of headlights flipped on before a black BMW with tinted windows eased out. I nudged Eric who was holding a tissue up to his lip. As the car came down the short driveway and wheeled around to head out of the cul-de-sac, the window on the driver’s side dropped ever so slightly. It slowed before the car rolled past us. Everything about this neighbor made me feel uneasy. I glan
ced down at my watch, it was a little after eight-thirty. He was leaving early.
As my eyes followed the rear lights down the road, Officer Parker obstructed my view.
“So any of you want to tell me what happened?”
“It was this asshole. He bumped into me.”
“I was nowhere near you,” Eric replied.
A few cuss words were exchanged between the two of them before Parker pointed at both of them.
He then shifted his focus to me. “And you, Alex. What the hell? I would have expected more from you. Your…”
I was waiting for him to say my father would be disappointed but he didn’t go any further.
“Yeah, Alex.” Kyle fist pumped his friend like an eight-year-old.
“Zip it,” Parker said to Kyle who immediately cast his eyes down.
“Where’s your mother?” he asked me.
“She’s working late.”
He nodded, one hand resting on his utility belt as he shouldered his mic and replied to a dispatcher. He was receiving some call about a disturbance.
“Listen, I’m going to cut you all some slack this time but if I get called out again, I won’t be so lenient. You got it?”
We all nodded like puppets. Eric and I returned to my house. I turned back and saw Kelly speaking to one of the officers. I imagined she wouldn’t be throwing a party for some time. Her parents were the kind of people who believed reputation was everything.
As soon as we were out of sight of the police and inside the house I immediately went into overdrive, who knew how long we had to get in and out.
Chapter 5
Eric sat in an alcohol-induced daze as I rushed upstairs to check that no lights were on in the neighbor’s house. My eyes scanned his driveway. The police had already left and what little remained of the party crowd had dispersed.
When I came back down Eric had his head back and was snoring up a storm.