+1+ clocks
I didn’t get much sleep that night; actually I didn’t get any sleep that night.
My eyes kept going to the closet where I’d hidden the cookie jar. What was in the cookie jar.
Fuck this
I got up and pulled on my O'Connor camping polo, cursing as my arms ripped the sleeves. I shrugged it off and walked to the welcome center. It’s almost 4 am so I crash on the old couch in front of the fireplace.
I knew I was being ridiculous. I was over worked and had probably taken one too many benzos, maybe I was just having hallucinations ? That was one hell of a hallucination though.
I get three hours of sleep before Jerry inches out of the backroom holding tight to his walker. He grunted a good morning to me and didn’t ask why I was sleeping in the welcome center.
For the first time Jerry and I have a meal alone together (sans Logan). It was a frozen burrito and we didn’t talk but I figured it counted as bonding time.
Then, it was back to work.
Back to normal.
Normal.
Logan shows up around eight but it was quiet for the most part. Most of the guest were queuing up for excursions to the luxury mall in Reno, to conquer the Sierra Nevada or the golf club.
That’s how I got stuck babysitting the Coleman’s kids. Mrs. Coleman went shopping and Mr. Coleman went into town for lunch (at Ty’s I suspected).
I hadn’t really spent a lot of time around kids at home, since it was usually just me and my mom. I figured since I was a big brother now I should probably learn.
The Coleman’s had one of the Deluxe cabins. It was two stories and all wood with the kind of counters and appliances my mom showed Dominick in her Home and Garden Magazines.
The Coleman’s were pretty okay people. Mrs. Coleman was a
hedge fund manager and Mr. Coleman was a Hollywood producer. I’d never imaged
people so influential could be so . . . normal looking and nice.
If only they knew who was carrying their bags and watching their kids.
Other than breaking up fights and letting Mark win at Grand Theft Auto it was the easiest deal I’d had all day.
“My turn”, Anna yelled from the stairs
“No”, Mark whined, “You don’t know how to play”
“I don’t want to play. It’s my turn for the TV and I want to watch a movie. Isn’t it my turn, Cillian ?”
She was looking at me with these large brown eyes, on the brink of tears. It’s not like I enjoyed letting an 11 year old beat me at a video game, it was that Mark was beating me.
I sucked.
They didn’t have Xbox in lock-up. Well they didn’t have Grand Theft Auto.
Mark folded his arms realizing I was going to give into her.
“Sure, for a little while.”, I decide.
Mark didn’t fight me on it, because I think he kind of looked
up to me. I don't think they had a lot of tough guys who looked like me for a babystitter, so I guess that made me cool.
I guess having one TV in the house was roughing it to these kids. Anna smiles and jumps up to hug me around the neck. I really didn’t know how to react but she was a cute kid so I let her hang on for a while. Mark rolls his eyes as Anna puts in the DVD and the opening credits began to play.
“I’m not watching this.”, Mark says, “It’s a fairytale, fairytales are for girls.”
He stormed out, probably to find his iPad or Nintendo DS.
Anna was fully immersed as the words ‘Sleeping Beauty’ scrolled across the screen.
“That’s not true”, Anna says as if I was the one who had thrown a fit, “Mom says fairytales are happy stories and happy endings are for everyone.”
I nodded not really agreeing or disagreeing with her. Either way I ended up falling asleep on the couch, waking up just moments before the Coleman’s arrive home.
It was the easiest 200 bucks I’d ever made, and maybe kids weren’t that bad.
I even agreed to babysit again.
+++
For the first time I was dreading the end of Logan’s shift.
When he would lock up the register and drive down the path to go home for the
night. Jerry would pop a Tylenol 3 and it'd just be just me alone in my cabin.
Since it was after hours I hung out in the makeshift gym near the Deluxe cabins. The gym was only for guest but I had a lot of shit to work out. I pumped 90 pounds till I forgot about my hallucination and bench pressed till I forgot what a loser I was.
I keep my fist tight, I just want to fucking hit something. Hard.
I kept hoping that damn cell phone would go off and somebody would need my help, but nothing.
The lights in the gym shut off on a timer. I had no where else to go.
+2+leavemybody
I took my time walking back to the cabin. It was a harder to find at night, the only thing to guide me being the moonlight and stars. Which by the way where huge out here in the middle of nowhere.
I squared my shoulders before walking in to the cabin and flopped right on the bed, my eyes trained on the ceiling.
I jumped as something moved in the corner of my eyes.
Fuck
It got out, I knew
it. It wasn't a hallucination.
That damn moth.
Cause it was a fucking moth.
I swallowed two Benzos and grabbed a glass Coke bottle off the floor for protection.
The movement I had seen was coming from the closet where I had hidden it. But it wasn’t a movement so much as it was a flickering light coming through the cracks in the wood.
I creaked open the closet door, the blood in my veins pulsing as I reached in and grasped the jar.
It hadn't escaped
The creature was sitting almost gracefully at the bottom with its legs bent, one at an odd angle. One of its pale hands rested on the glass of the jar. Slowly, in sort of a push pull motion the creatures wings were moving, slowly producing a warm purple light between them.
Just the sight of those thin shiny black wings made my hand shake. I thought of the dry cracked rustling of the grasshopper’s wings.
Suddenly the creature looked up at me and hissed, I dropped the jar.
I shielded my eyes as the jar hit the floor and the glass spread everywhere. The creature tried to get to its feet and run, but its twisted leg prevented it from making it two inches.I reached for the Coke bottle again when I realized something.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a creature
A girl, well not exactly a girl either. She had a small waist and noticeable curves that her long black dress clung to. She had shoulder length wavy black hair and pale flawless skin with a familiar faint sheen. Her narrow eyes were a dark purple.
Oh, and she was six fucking inches tall.
“S-sorry.”, I say for lack of anything to say really.
Her eyes grow wide as if she can't believe what I’d just said.
“Are you—“, I start
She hisses at me again and I wonder if she even understands me.
“Okay”, I finish
I moved my hand to cover my mouth, because there was no way in hell this is happening. She must have misread my movement because she drags herself farther away as if she thought I was going to touch her.
She was only able to move a few inches before collapsing running a hand over her bent leg. She sneers back at me. After all I did hit her with a calendar.
“So, uh, you got a name ?”, I asked
She just rolls her eyes and folds her tiny arms.
“I’m Cillian O’Conner”
She raises an eyebrow like she was supposed to be impressed
or something. Most people in this town were. So probably not a local or sports fan. Duh, not a local. Fuck.
“Can you even understand me?”
Her eyes shift around the cabin, which is still cluttered with the previous tenants shit. She points to a sharpie rolled under the bed.
Not that I should be taking orders from a—well it---I do it anyways. I give her the marker and
she leverages the marker against her shoulder and draws what looks like an open
triangle on the floor. Then crosses the center.
“A ?” , I say.
She moves on to the next letters.
P-R-I-L
April
“Bullshit”, I say when she finishes.
She seemed shocked that I had called her out. Or offended
that I had cursed around her. Her hideous black wings open wide , her
expression tightens. My anxiety goes into overdrive at the wings.
Then she sticks her middle finger up at me.
Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.
"Bullshit", I say again
I grab the lantern off the tableside and set it next to her. The light illuminates the Playboy Bunny Calendar she is sitting on top of. The stretched out blonde bunny has the words “APRIL” printed next to her, she is wearing bunny ears and not much else.
“Tell me your real name”, I insist.
She looks pissed and turns lazily to the side, her arm around her stomach. She looks around and finally sits up looking at the green mini fridge and then back at me.
I suddenly remembered that I had kept her in a jar in my closet for almost 2 days.
I look around for food. There was nothing but junk food which she sneered at, finally I forced open the green mini fridge pulling out one of Jerry’s yogurts I stole and a slice of McGill’s Honey Turkey. I find two plastic spoons and placed a spoonful next to her, along with a slice of Turkey.
In the process of doing so I had to stop myself and realize what the fuck I was doing. I was having a midnight snack with a fucking—
“Wait so, what are you anyway”, I ask
She slips a hand into the spoonful of black cherry yogurt bringing it to between her lips.
She narrows her eyes and begins to slowly flutter her wings again, the light between them reappearing. She rolls her eyes at me with one finger still in her mouth; I guess that was supposed to be my answer.
For the first time I take a really good look at her. There is a gash on her forehead from where I had—hit her with the calendar. Through her dress I could tell her leg probably not be turned in that direction.
The way her skin seemed to shimmer was a little to
familiar, just like--
It could not be a coincidence that she had the same unbelievable beauty and odd sheen as Ty and Ty’s daughters.
Right ?
“Okay look maybe I can take you home or something. I’m guessing you are somehow involved with Ty.”
She was biting her lip and seemed like she was really annoyed with me. Like I’m the one who invaded her privacy.
“Can you help me out here ?” I beg.
She folds her arms. Fine I decide I’ll just take it over to Ty’s, maybe she know something about all this. Or I'll get there and she will think I'm crazy.
Fuck, maybe I am crazy.
I decide to risk it.
I pull on a pair garden gloves and take two big swallows of air and scoop the creature up closing my hands around it. I felt a light flutter in my palm and I realize there was a hole in the gloves where my bare skin touched its. . .
Fight or flight kicks in and I drop her.
“You idiot”
I ‘m shocked at how
deep her voice is. It was coming from somewhere in the folds of the comforter
on the floor. I watch as she slowly surfaces.
“You could talk this whole time?”, I was on my knees as she surfaced in the dingy comforter.
“Yes”, she says as if it was so obvious.
“So, maybe you could. . . make yourself bigger--er ---normal size and I could take you to a hospital or. . .”
“No”, she’s patting down her hair, “I won’t Enchant myself and parade around like that blonde twit Thistle or Tirney”
Thistle. I kept the blonde’s name repeating in my head.
“Why not ?”, The hell was this girls problem ?
“Because Cillian”, I didn’t expect her to use my name, “I don’t want to practice mating with you”
I opened my mouth closed it again and then said nothing out of confusion. She was being matter-of-fact but I think she wanted to catch me off guard.
“What ? No I don’t want to… wait does this mean that… I mean—I Just want to take you home. I mean this is kind of freaking me out. What the hell is going on here ?”
“Afraid”, she asks fluttering her wings again
“No”
Yes.
She tries to stand again and falls. She seems to be mentally going over her options and then decides to acknowledge me.
“You can’t drive to where I live, we have to walk.”, she snaps at me like I should already know that.
“How far away do you live?”
“I can’t say . . . I’ve never walked it. It’s across the lake”
I stand up hoping this is some kind of dream or prank
I take my work phone out of the Velcro holster and put the holster on the ground. Her eyes narrow like I’d flicked her off or something.
“Just get in so I can –uh—carry you”
She limps into the holster and I attach it to my belt again.
This entire moment was what my old prison mate would have called surreal.
“Careful, big guy”, she chides me as I open the cabin door
I walk carefully to the lake. It’s dark and quiet at the other end of the lake a few young drifters are having a party. A redhead smiles at me and waves.
I wave back at her deciding maybe I’ll stop by on my way back, if I make it back.
I unlatch one of the rowboats and make my way across the lake. Once we reach the other side April starts instructing me into the woods behind the Deluxe cabins.
I jump every time I think I hear a rustle in the woods, much to April’s chagrin.
“Careful”, she barks but is slightly amused, “They are just tiny insects. How can you be afraid of them”
I stop
How did she know about me and the insects?
We come across a man-made creek with a tiny bridge going over it. The creek was small enough for me to jump over. . . but I guess if I were smaller.
“Stop”, she orders, “I can make it from here”
“Are you sure. Couldn’t something . . . I don’t know. Eat you”
Her eyes narrow, but I think she knows I was joking.
“I can make it from here”
I unstrap the case and she crawls out. In the distance I can hear a party going on and it smells a lot like. .
“Ty’s”, I say.
I walked forward and in the distance I can see the backdoor of Ty’s Restaurant
“Leave”, April says, “Or I’ll sic my insect friends on you”“Am I dreaming?”, I say.
“No, not yet. Anyways”, she says and disappears into the grass.
I make my way back to the lake and stop by the impromptu party the Drifter kids are throwing. There is beer and girls. I can tell these rich girls want a lower class bad boy to tell their friends at home about.
I can be that boy
I would be that boy for the blonde I now knew as Thistle.
If. . . she was a girl at all.
Fuck
Despite everything that's happened tonight that little blonde ballerina keeps spinning in my head.
For the first time I fall asleep peacefully.
I pretend like everything else that night didn’t happen.
AN
Fun Fact #1 So I think when I first wrote this iPads weren't really a thing. . .
Fun Fact #2 In the original version April talks the whole time recently I wrote out because of reasons.
This scene with April and Cillian first meeting was the very first thing I wrote. I pieced chapters 1-4 and 6 around this.
Chapter 3 gave me a really hard time because I had to write "stuff" before they meet. My solution ? I wrote how Cillian got the cookie jar he traps her in.
Story Telling 101 : need to fill in space ? Write about a prop.
Muse : This is not T-DOLL
LiLe : Really ? We look good in pink.
Meta : Um, LiLe. Have you been up to something ????
LiLe : Maybe ?