“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” – Lao Tzu
Black curtains and bedspread. Purple splattered paint on a black background. As I dreamt that night, my mind raced back to the first night I met Waterfall. Every detail, every tiny element, ran through my mind.
My brain started trying to figure out her personality. I had never questioned her style or personality because I was so traumatized by her all together. But as I slept, my mind made equations and situations, reasons and explanations, for the existence of Waterfall Jacobs. This was the fourth night in a row I had this dream configuration thing.
She dressed like the beautiful quiet shy girl who wanted to disappear when someone talked to her, but she hung out and preferred to surround herself with gothic and emo types. And after both of those personality differences, when anyone pissed her off she became the girl people want to test just to see if they can live to see tomorrow.
Now that I thought about it, it was unnerving how many different styles she threw together and still managed to be a heart throb. Every guy on campus wanted to be with her as much as the next, and yet none seemed to notice how unique she was.
When I awoke, Waterfall was sitting up in her bed staring at me strangely. It was still dark, and nowhere even close to time to get up for school. “What’s wrong with you?” I stretched and sat up as well.
“What exactly do you dream about at night?” she still stared at me like I was a creepy stranger.
“What do you mean?”
“This is the fourth night I’ve woke up with you saying my name. I always think you’re awake until I turn the lights on and you turn your head so you go back to sleep. It’s weird dude.”
“I don’t know, do I really do that?”
“Yeah, it’s starting to creep me out.”
“Guess I’m so used to saying it during the day I just started saying it at night too.”
“When do you say my name during the day if you’re not talking to me?!”
“Um, I talk to Sam about you a lot. And anytime I hear someone talking about you, I jump in to make sure it’s not a rumor starting. But that’s about it.”
“Thanks for the second one, but why do you talk to Sam about me?”
“Uh, I don’t know. You just seem to come up a lot.”
“How’s that? ‘Hey look! There goes a cat! Did you see what Waterfall was wearing today?’”
“No!” I laughed at her impression of Sam. I couldn’t figure out why, but Waterfall just really didn’t like Sam.
“Then how?!” she was laughing now too.
“I don’t know, you just pop up. Like the other day, Sam was talking about her favorite bands and stuff. She happened to name a few you told me you like, so I told her you guys have a little in common. Just stuff like that.” I shrugged nonchalantly.
“Okay, but that shouldn’t happen too often. You said a lot.”
“Well, Sam seems to want to talk about you a lot too. But nothing bad! Just you know, trying to get to know you without actually talking to you. Since you pretty much ignore her 24/7, she doesn’t really have any other way to.”
“Whatever. Either way, I wish you wouldn’t do that ‘cause I’m tired of losing sleep.” She laid back down and rolled over to face the wall.
“I’ll try to stop, but I don’t know if I can control what I say while I’m asleep.” I had to stop doing that. When was I ever going to stop embarrassing myself in front of her? But it doesn’t matter, forget I said that. I mean it! Forget it!
6:30 a.m., this early morning stuff was starting to get hard. why did the world have to be so cruel that it would make school start at seven in the morning? That’s right, I can think of a reason about as well as you can.
Same old routine, shower, teeth, get dressed, brush and blow dry hair, eat, and wait on Waterfall and Aura to get ready.
As I sat in my car listening to Basshunter, I noticed a truck parked across the street from the abandoned house just down the block. It was a beat up old Ford Ranger. Its yellow paint was faded and scarred beyond belief, the tires were patched and plastered until there wasn’t much tire left, and the windows had plastic taped over them.
A feeling of unease crept into me when I thought about it.
1.Someone has been sneaking around the house.
2.Someone took the air duct out from under our room.
3.Someone was taking pictures of Waterfall.
4.There was an abandoned house two houses away from ours.
5.A beat up, junky, old truck was parked in front of the abandoned house.
All these things seemed to be pieces of the puzzle in my mind, and the picture it was forming wasn’t looking good. Someone knew something, and I was determined to figure out what.
Jumping when Waterfall knocked on the window, I rolled it down to see why she couldn’t just open the door to tell me something. She tugged on the door and I realized I must have locked my doors while I was watching the truck.
I pushed the unlock button, and the locks popped up. She climbed in the car, and happened to say, “Hey, did you see that truck down by the old haunted house? It’s been there since about four this morning, at least that’s what dad said.”
I didn’t respond immediately because my eye was caught by a man walking out of the abandoned house. He was scrawny, with a pointy little nose and tight line for a mouth. As he swayed from side to side, the long, humdrum arms of his coat sliced against the cold frigid air in incessant strokes. His towering legs moved swiftly across the grass, closing distance between himself and the truck in four strides. A dark trench coat sway in a whirlwind around his knees, while his gray fedora hat sat perfectly still atop his head.
I nudged Waterfall when he climbed in the old pick-up. “You see that guy?”
“Yeah, what about him?”
“I don’t know, something just doesn’t feel right to me.” I watched him pull away from the curb and slowly putt away.
Aura didn’t come to school that day. Waterfall didn’t elaborate on it, she just said “She said she’s not going”. I reluctantly went to school without going back inside. I trusted Waterfall, and her word was all I needed to believe her.
The school day passed quickly. Even training went by too quickly. As I drove home from school, I noticed the yellow truck parked in front of the abandoned house once more. Waterfall had stayed for after school tutoring so I didn’t have to worry about her.
Aura came outside as I killed the engine in the driveway. “Hey Squirt! Waterfall didn’t come home?”
“Tutoring, how long’s that truck been there?” I couldn’t stop wondering about it.
“I don’t know, ‘bout four hours.” She clutched my arm tight.
“I’m gonna check it out.” I gave my bag to her, and as she went inside, I walked across the road and started down the block.
Copyright © 2011 Amanda Woodson. All rights reserved.