Alex awoke to the sound of rain hitting her bedroom window and instantly became uneasy. She pulled her pillow around her ears and attempted to block out the desolate noise and fall back asleep. Although the rain now sounded miles away, it was still audible.
"Dammit!" She growled as she threw her blanket off and jumped out of bed.
While carefully avoiding looking out the window, she stomped off into the bathroom and splashed her face with ice cold water. The bathroom mirror was cracked in the upper left-hand corner, but her face was completely visible. Her dark brown hair hung limp around her broad shoulders. It was longer than it had ever been, reaching way past her shoulders. Her angular face was tan, but unhappy; her mouth seemed to be in a permanent frown and her would-be pretty green eyes looked too experienced, too lonely for her young age. At 28, she was anything but carefree and happy. Alex was a very edgy girl. Some people would even call her obsessive.
She shook thoughts of those people out of her head before she quickly pulled a brush through her long locks and brushed her teeth. Now with that out of the way, she went out into her small living room/kitchen area and stood, with her hands on her hips, looking around.
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing to do in this place..." Alex frowned even more deeply and walked over to the table next to her couch. She yanked open its draw and found a tattered book inside.
Titanic. "You have got to be kidding me." Alex tossed the book back into the draw and slammed it shut.
She walked over to the small refrigerator and glanced inside, then opened the rest of the cabinets, closing each one after she looked in it.
"Nothing. At all. Fantastic." Alex sat heavily on the sofa and pretended not to hear the rain pounding on the sidewalk outside. Eventually, her growling stomach drowned out the rain and she was forced to go hunt for food.
She pulled on her dark green raincoat and stepped out into the hallway, slamming her door behind her. The "23" on her door swayed from side to side, but remained attached. She glanced in both directions before walking towards the main entrance of Wilshire Towers.
Before she made it out the door, however, she noticed a young boy wearing a rather large businessman's suit intently writing. She planned on sneaking past him, but he looked up from his clipboard as she eased open the front door.
"Can I help you Ms...?"
Her voice cracked as she spoke, "Alex....but everyone calls me Captain."
She inwardly scolded herself for letting that one slip. She was supposed to be starting a new life here, not trying to relive her old one.
"Alright, Captain." He smiled exposing a missing tooth. "Where are you going?"
"...I was going to get something to eat."
"You should go to Jorri Rae's. Just go left until you reach the end of the street, then take another left and it's on your right. They have really good waffles." He smiled again then went back to scribbling on his clipboard.
Alex slipped out of Wilshire Towers into the rain. Once again she took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself to forget everything. Soon enough she found herself at Jorri Rae's ordering a waffle and forgetting about the rain.
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The moment I saw her, I knew I had to say something. A series of lists ran through my head like a ticker-tape. Conversation starters, ice-breakers, casual comments. Talk about the weather. Talk about the food. Talk about her hair. No, don't talk about her hair, that's creepy.
ReplyDelete"Uh..." Oh, God, she's looking at me. She looks kinda nice. Not really pretty. Well, not really pretty anymore. She might have been once.
"That's a good book." That was so lame. She's smiling. Does she think I'm stupid? I am stupid. What was I thinking, coming over here? She's going to blow me off, wait and see. Damn, I'm an idiot.
"I know. I've already read it."
"Oh... Why read it again then?"
She shrugged and turned the paperback over to study the cover with a pleasant frown. "Interview with the Vampire" was blazoned across the front in red, curling script. "It's my favourite book."
I nodded. "Yeah. One of mine too." My feet shifted. I didn't mean for them to, they just did. It looked like I had to go to the bathroom. Or like I had some weird restless legs condition.
She looked down. "You want to sit?"
With you? Yes, please.
"Sam Marconi." I sat and held out my hand at the same time, dipping my wrist in the syrup topping her stack of waffles. She laughed and handed me the napkin, still warm from her hand.
"I'm Alex," she told me.
"My brother's name is Alex," I blurted, mentally slapping myself.
Alex laughed again, a sound that made me shiver despite the sweltering heat radiating from the kitchen at my back. "Well, you can call me Captain, just so you don't get us two confused."
I shook my head. "Oh, I don't think I could confuse you with him. My brother's a guy and you're... not. Yeah, you knew that already. Well, I mean, I hope you'd know that already. You've been you for, I don't know, I'd guess maybe twenty-four, twenty-five years... Er, maybe less, probably less, definitely less. Nineteen years? Please kill me before I do it myself."
Alex/Captain set her chin in her hand. "I'll let you do it. I don't like blood."
"But you're reading a vampire novel."
"That's different."
"Is it?"
Two and a half hours later, I had a number of reasons why vampires made infinitely better lovers, a list of books to read, and a date for Friday night.
*Yawn* Well that was a good night's sleep. There was a bit of ruckus going on outside though, like they were constructing something behind some building-like structure. Gave me the worst headache, that it did. Hmm curious, my Red Crested Bat potion bottle is empty...wonder what happened to it. Come to think of it, I don't remember anything after walking in from the rain.. ahh well, I'll investigate that later.
ReplyDeleteI still need to find a job though, so I'll head out as soon as I check Lt. Statone's updates on what to avoid. His posts have been so helpful. One of his previous, and perhaps most helpful posts was "Don't eat the chicken." I did just that and nothing happened! I feel bad for those blokes who ate the chicken though. They have no idea what that could do to them...not even I know actually, but who am I to question such authority? He is a lieutenant after all. Anyway, Lt. Statone is pretty much the epitome of safety precautions. Once you read about what's safe and not safe, it'll blow your mind! He's like an effing mind grenade!!! Awesomeness aside I have to check his website every day. And believe me if you think that's extreme or obsessive, it isn't.
I have a friend named Neb Theblam, completely obsessed with Macs and various other Apple products. We went to high school together and he would always have his computer out. This led to the belief that he was a studious person, always taking notes. He wasn't. Every chance he got, he was on MacRumors.com. But I digress, he's not important. He doesn't even have a blog character.
I began my quest though, deciding at the last minute to focus on losing weight rather than getting a job. Taking a jog on streets with popular food places seemed like a good idea. Along my jog, I noticed two people eating lunch while having a conversation. Although from my point of view the conversation seemed one-sided. One was blathering away while the other was eating up a storm. An odd bunch indeed. My next stop led me to the famous Jorri Rae's. I noticed a girl eating a waffle. I took a closer look...and determined she was eating a freshly baked waffle. Well, time to move on!
Ah I just realized the large structure protruding from behind a large building. It looks like a carnival, but nothing is lit or running. Guess it's a night carnival.
I thought I saw a handful of tenants (the new girl, Alex - and I think she was hanging out with Ethan's new roommate, that macaroni guy, whatever his name is; if she was, that kind of ruins my gay theory a little) tonight, enjoying themselves on the rides. Maybe I'll try one of them out.
ReplyDelete"Really, I don't mind. It was nice of you to try." Alex tucked the bear key-chain into her shirt pocket so its beady black eyes could peer out from over the top, mockingly. The stuffed elephant that I hadn't won watched our backs as we made a hasty departure from the booth.
ReplyDeleteI sighed and kicked a pebble. "Sorry my aim's not better."
She grinned. "I thought it was funny when you hit that guy in the arm."
"It was not!" I shouted. "He wanted to kill me! Did you see the size of his neck? It was wider than my torso!"
Alex shook her head. "I was too busy looking at the dart sticking out of his arm to notice his neck."
I kicked at a clump of grass sprouting out from a crack in the pavement. "There are those water gun things. I was always pretty good at shooting, well better than darts, anyway..."
Alex's eyes bulged and she swallowed audibly. "I don't think..."
"Don't be silly," I said, taking her hand and pulling her along with me, trying to ignore the fact that her fingers were squirming in mine. Am I doing something wrong? Should I let go? But I don't want her to think I don't want to hold her hand. I do. I just don't want to make her uncomfortable. Am I making her uncomfortable? Am I over thinking this? I know I'm over thinking this.
By the time I had made up my mind to drop her hand, we were already to the shooting booth, and it was her that pulled away from me. I turned to her as I reached into my pocket, pulled out my last five, and handed it to the guy in the booth. At least I'd already paid rent this month...
Alex was pale. Sweat shone on her face. She stared at the water guns. Her hands shook as she rubbed her shoulders and swayed on her feet like someone trying to keep their balance. "I have..." she croaked. "I have to go. I'm sorry," she whispered before running away.
I called after her, but she didn't come back.
"You gonna play?"
I frowned at the guy in the booth. "Can I just get my money back?"
He said nothing, just pointed to a sign on the wall beside the rack of prizes. No refunds.
I played and I lost and I went home empty handed.
AN EXCERPT FROM "The Adventure of the Missing Two"
ReplyDelete“Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, Doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them?”
- Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four
. . .
Two is an important number. It is the only prime number that is also even. In nature everything seems to come in twos. Light and dark. Positive charge and negative charge. Matter and antimatter. Male and female. So too in mythology. Heaven and Hell. Sky and earth. Mind and body. Life and death.
We have two hands, and two eyes, two feet, and two kidneys. There are two sides to every coin, and every argument. You need two people to have a marriage.
“Got a problem Mr. Alwyn?”
“My two’s been stolen,” I say before I look at my interrogator.
The boy has a thoughtful look on his face. He’s holding the same useless clipboard and wearing the same ridiculous over-sized suit as he was my first day at Wilshire Tower.
“Looks like a Mystery to me.” He says it with a capital M.
“You know,” I say, “You’re right. It is a mystery.”
“Are you a detective Mr. Alwyn?”
“Kind of,” I say. “A detective who only solves mysteries no one else cares about.”
“Well then this will be perfect! Who else would care about the location of your two?”
“Good point,” I say and I begin to wander off, unsure of my direction. The flip flop of Braxton Chamber’s clown shoes follows me like a cartoon echo of my steps.
“Except for me, of course!” He says. A serious look crosses his face. “Inspector Alwyn, can I be your deputy?”
“Detectives don’t have deputies, that’s for sheriffs,” I say, but the way he looks down at his toes and twists his mouth stops me from continuing. I wonder how many times he paced by my door that morning, waiting for me to exit, to notice what was missing, to enlist his aid in this very important mission. Possibly he had planned for the chance that I wouldn’t notice, had readied sly ways to draw my attention to the empty space on my door.
Well, I had nothing better to do.
I followed my odd guide on a wandering path through the building. As we explored I realized how little of Wilshire Tower I’d actually seen. Each floor had its own character. Seven was probably a full half of a foot lower down on the east end than the west end. On floor five I thought they’d installed new wallpaper, until I realized the green pattern was most likely organic.
Thirteen seemed to have its own floor plan entirely, as though the architect forgot about it until the last minute and had to improvise. This may not be so far from the truth, as the elevator doesn’t seem to go to floor thirteen. Instead we were forced to use the stairs, or at least the sixty percent of them that weren’t almost rotted through.
Luckily, Braxton knew which ones were safe. I waited before following him, watching him jump up the stairs nimbly and assuredly in a demented game of hopscotch.
On each floor we visited, Braxton would choose a room at random and knock – a surprisingly solid knock. Then he would wait, coughing importantly until the door was answered, when would squint his eyes and look up at the wary tenant.
“My associate,” he would say, “is missing his two.”
There might be a response, but even if there wasn’t he would go on.
“I’d just like to ask you a few questions.”
Next was the part where variations were allowed.
“Mr. Marconi,” he might say, “what is your favorite color?” Or “Mr. Oedkirk, have you frequented the antiques store lately?” Or "Captain Alex, were you aware that Mr. T is not, in fact, the official Fruit Loops mascot?"
. . .
So...you know how they always say that we will end up becoming like our parents? Well I just found myself fitting into that group. I remember getting in my patrol car a little before lunch time, I guess a little 20 minute coma and woke up at the shooting range. Now mind you, i'm a pretty damn good shot, but i guess with this freak-show comin to town I decided to get a little practice. Well, on my way back, that damn bus-driver pulled out in front of me and i clipped the hell out of him. I was forced up onto the sidewalk, and almost hit a poor girl on her way to get somethin to eat. Alex, her name was Alex. Cute girl, looked sad. I can't stand sad people. I gave the bus driver a ticket, but I saw him driving just as recklessly today. It makes me wonder whether i'm actually making any difference at all in Wilshire.
ReplyDeleteWell anyway no shots will be fired at the carnival, I hope. Just have fun but always stay cautious. I have put in a request to the city officials that they make kids under the age of 18 be accompanied by an adult, but that doesn't look like it will follow through. I think it is ridiculous that they give me the responsibility lowering the crime rate around here, and making people more comfortable, but they decide not to uphold any of my requests to make the town safer. It kills me. But anyway, stay safe. And let me know if you need anything at all.
Lt. Rocco Statone
"To Protect and Serve"
281-330-8004