Dollars

The Sequel to "Silent Nights, Whispers of Truth."

   PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS THE SEQUAL TO "SILENT NIGHTS, WHISPERS OF TRUTH", DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE ALREADY READ PART 1. OF THE STORY.

 

 

 

    Sattie was not on my mind. My recent ex, Laura, was. I kept playing memories of her over and over through my mind... the guilt of leaving Sattie like that and trying to forget Laura so quickly was beginning to take its toll on me. I was barely sleeping, I was going through nearly twice as many cigarettes as day a before.

    I sat on a log in the small local forest, mainly a place for walking dogs, but very few ever came through. I waited impatiently as the line rang over and over. Laura never answered her phone.

    “Hi! It’s Laura! You know what to do!” Laura’s ended and the boring automated voice ensued, “Please leave a message at the tone, to leave a call back number ”        

    I ended the call and sighed loudly, I played around with the touch screen on my new phone for several minutes before getting up and making my way out of the forest. I constantly tripped over the lose pact ground and scattered branches. I Felt like having redbull... I could have easily walked to the shell station that was only a few blocks away but I decided instead to walk all the way to the other end of town to the 7-11. Maybe the walking would help me figure out what the hell I was going to do about this mess I was getting into. Everything was becoming too much. I felt like I was going to snap and do something I would regret, or regret even further than I already did.

    As Is made my way out of the forest I saw a woman through the trees walking along a parallel path about 100 feet away. I didn’t really look at her for very long, I assumed she was in her late 30's or early 40's, but as she turned she looked much younger, more like 20's.

    “Hey you got a cigarette?” she hollered down the path, cupping her hand around her mouth in an attempt to make it sound louder, her other hand clutching the leash of her ridiculously small puffy dog, and simultaneously had her fingers wrapped around the neck of a large container of something.

    I reached into my pocket as she walked over, “uh, yeah. why do you ask?”

    “I don’t know you just look like the kind of kid who would, you look pretty pissed off about somthin’... holy s**t you do!” she exclaimed as I handed her a cigarette, she laughed a little and smiled “my judging skills are dead on today. Lighter?” She said gesturing with her hand.

    I handed her my lighter and pulled out a cigarette for myself as well. She lit the cigarette and handed my lighter back, I did the same. The woman positioned herself to sit along the log on which I had just been. “Yeah... well I guess so.” I said, chuckling.

    “Yeah... what’s your name?” she asked, taking a toke off the cigarette.

    “Dillon,” I said nodding my head slightly, “your’s?”

    “Kendal. Want some lemonade?” She said this, pushing a large 2 liter container of lemonade along the log towards me.

    “No im okay. What’s your’ dogs name” I said, leaning down and scratching its head.

    She replied but I can’t recall the name of the dog, something fitting for the little creature though. Almost certain it began with a ‘P’. To which she added, “So what’s got ya’ wonderin’ through the forest?”

    “Oh just... thinking. This girl, Sattie, I was at her house and ”

    “Ohhh... I see.... you tappin’ that s**t.” She said in a joking tone. Laughing a little.

    I wasn’t entirely sure how to respond so I just sort of looked around. “Yeah.” was all I managed to say.

    She laughed. “Oh, well... you be nice to her.” she said, smiling, “so am I the first one you told or have you told all your’ buddies.

    “No it’s sort of been going on for a while now... that’s what im thinking about. The last time I was there it just... didn’t go well.” I explained.

    “Didn’t go well? Like you didn’t.. Or she didn’t ”

    “No, no not didn’t go well like that. That part went fine. I tried to say something to her and it came out very wrong and she got really upset.”

    “Oh... well she’s a young girl she’s very emotional, she’ll be fine after a while... maybe. I can’t say for sure. But don’t worry about it too much, okay?”

    I couldn’t help but worry about it despite Kendal’s advice. “Yeah I guess...” At about this time, another woman, walking her dog, approached on the path that led to us, and a man walked by the end of the path up ahead.

    The woman passed quickly, giving us both a smile. “Hi.” she said.

    Kendal and I both responded with forced smiles and hellos. Instantly Kendal’s small dog lost its mind and ran off towards the man at the end of the path and his dog, barking wildly.

    “Hey! Get the hell back here, (dogs name)!” Kendal called out.

    I Stood and ran after the small dog, cigarette still in hand, stepping on its leash, forcing it to stop. “Sorry.” I said, laughing slightly. The man just shook his head.

    “No its fine.” he said.

    I Grabbed the leash and made my way back to Kendal, who had already put out her cigarette and begun to walk towards me.

    She received the leash happily and smiled, “thanks! Well I gotta get back to my apartment now, it was nice talking to you... remember, you be nice to her!”

                   ●          ●          ●

    By the time I arrived at 7-11, my feet like hamburger meat, my ankles were sore, and due to my recent heavy smoking habits, I was very winded. I Blazed through the door with haste, raising slight alarm from the stereotypical Indian man working behind the counter. After I neared the back of the store however and calmly opened the energy drink refrigerator, he settled down and continued scribbling on a piece of paper.

    Walking back I noticed packages of dry uncooked spaghetti in the isle I passed down. I chuckled to myself a little, thinking of Sattie tangled in the sheets. Then the rest of the nights memories flooded me and I was once again overcome with sadness. Approaching the counter, I looked over the cashiers shoulder seeing the small sign that read “coming soon! New camel crush!” wondering what those would be like made me desperately want cigarettes. I attempted to set the redbull down on the counter without paying much attention. Unfortunately I was a little to far away and I missed the counter by an inch. The energy drink fell into the box of candy that stood on a shelf just in front of the counter. I acted like I wasn’t extremely embarrassed and picked it back up. I set it on the counter (successfully, this time.) And retrieved my money from my back pocket.

    The cashier seemed annoyed when I handed him a ten for the overpriced three dollar drink. He fumbled through the register for several moments until he finally handed me six ones, and some change.

    I was prompted to leap over the counter and bash his skull in with whatever blunt object I found lurking mysteriously behind the counter at the 7-11 for no apparent reason. And since I was already murdering the fella’ I might as well steal some cigarettes as well...

    But one can only dream.

                   ●          ●          ●

    My phone screamed annoyingly from my pocket. I clamored to get it out in time to see who it was. The screen read “Laura.” I answered almost instantaneously.

    “Hey Laura. What’s up?” I was nervous that my tone was a little too exited.

    “Um, nothing. I just saw that you called earlier so I called you back. I would have answered but my mom was right there and you know how she is.” she said, forcing me to breath a sigh of relief in the comforting knowledge that she wasn’t just ignoring me.

    “Oh, well I just wanted to talk to you... you know. See how Louisiana was going, when you’re getting back.”

    “Oh... its good, and I get back in 5 days now. Is that all you wanted to talk about?”

    “Well,” I hesitated... in reality I had made the decision to call her but had never actually planned out what I was going to say. I started several sentences but couldn’t see where they were going. “I just wanted to tell you missed you.” I shut my eyes in anger at myself for letting the words slip out so plainly. I waited for what seemed like an eternity for her reply, but in reality it was probably just an instant.

    “I miss you too Dillon!” She said this in a very cheery voice, I could tell by her total lack of seriousness that she obviously misunderstood the way in which I intended the words to sound, she had interpreted it as an I miss you from a friend. This often happened with Laura, she never picked up hints. It aggravated me sometimes.

    As usual, I didn’t explain, I just let it go and hoped she would figure it out eventually. Also as usual, I began to think about Laura, and for reasons unknown to me, this almost always led me to think about Mellisa. I always thought about her... no matter how many women I encountered or spoke to or had feelings for. Mellisa was in my mind. Even after she moved, even after I found out she had cheated on me. To me she was an exhilaration of the soul, and that’s all I could ever think about. I would often find myself yelling at my own feelings for not hating her. I obviously should hate her... she broke my heart, she cheated on me. But I couldn’t stay mad at her even for something so atrocious. I barely even heard the ever weakening and more saddened voice of Laura vigorously attempting to rise a response from me. Mellisa’s smile and laugh drifted through my mind, my memories of her played repeatedly in my head and...

    “Dillon? Dillon why are you ignoring me?” she waited, “Dillon!” I heard her voice becoming strained and her emotions boiling.

    “What? Oh, sorry.”

    I heard a click and the line went silent.

    It took every last once of my will and strength to restrain myself and refrain from hurling my phone with all of my power down the road and watch it impact the hard concrete road and shatter into a thousand sweet perfectly shaped tattered plastic and metallic pieces, spreading and bouncing in a distinct pattern across the road, running after and pugnaciously stomping on the already desolated shards of cell phone.

    As in 7-11... one can only dream.

    I slipped my phone into my back pocket. Almost as soon as I did this, it once again began to ring. I answered hastily without reading the contact in the hopes it was Laura calling back.

    “Hello?” I said excitedly.

    “I know im a big deal but you don’t gotta act like a school girl over it, bro.” He chuckled to himself.

    “I thought it was someone else. What’s up Sanders.” I said flatly.

    “Now that’s the total lack of excitement that every man should have. Me and James and Mellony are gonna hang out, maybe go to Denys. You in?”
 
    “Uh... well I can’t really hang out just yet but I can meet up with you at Denys or somethin’. You think you guys will be there at like...” I looked around me for a moment, “like 1 o’clock or somethin’?”

    “Yeah man, we can pull that off. See you there, bro.” Sanders said as if he was doing something else, then hung up. I was bothered by the fact that he hung up without me saying anything back. It was Sanders though, and he was just like that. Whenever I thought of Sanders I thought of “Seinfeld” because I knew his last name, Sanders, but I never found out his first name, and I never took the time to ask. I sort of liked having a friend who’s name I didn’t actually know. I do not know why.

                   ●          ●          ●
                    
    I walked in front of the gas station that continued into the parking lot of Denys. The day had grown slightly more chilled although the sun was still out and there were virtually no clouds in the sky. My hood was up and my hands were tucked firmly into my pockets. I was somewhat distressed that they may not have been there due to Sanders distant and nondecisive response. Looking up from the ground, I scanned the windows along the front of the establishment hoping I would see them in one of the booths. I caught a glimpse of what looked like the back of Mellony’s head and the Side of James’s face. Although I wasn’t sure of it because of the glare on the reflective window panel as it stood almost directly opposite of the sun.

    I entered Denys and straighten my back and looked around in hopes they would see me.

    “Dilly!” Mellony called out, I could see her arms flailing in the air.

    I strode over to the booth they sat in, putting down my hood and unzipping the front of my sweatshirt along the way. Mellony sat with her back against the window, parallel too the table and her feet on the booths seat with her knees pulled up. Sanders Sat near her feet and James opposite them both across the table.

    “Hey, bro.” Sanders said as he ran his fingers through his thick blond hair.

    Mellony simply smiled at me.
    
    “What’s up Sanders?” I said without looking at him as I tapped James’s shoulder, prompting him to scoot over in his seat.

    “Not much, not much.” he replied as I sat down.

    “So,” Mellony said, leaning forward and shifting into a normal position in her seat, “how’s say we go get f****n’ stoned after we get done with food, or something?”

    We all replied with general agreement.

    James raised his arms in the air and spoke in his thick British accent. “Hey? What about my f****n’ Hello?”
    “Hello,” I said, smiling, “bro, you’ve lived here like a year and that damn accent hasn’t faded one god damned bit.” I said laughing.

    “Aye. P***y magnet.” he said, pulling the front of his shirt out with two fingers and letting it go.

    “Hey,” Mellony said, “right here?” she moved shook her head back and forth with her eyebrows raised.

    “What, did you have a better reason to ride me like a good ol’ American cowgirl?”

    “Yes. I was very drunk.” she spoke rather defensively now.

    “That’s what they all say.” He laughed at his own comment.

    “Yeah James that’s because the only chick who would f**k you is drunk.” I interrupted

    “You’re mother wasn’t drunk when we made you.” James retorted.

    “One, that’s not even funny, two... yeah James that’s amazing, you fucked my mother when you were like a one year old. And didn’t you live in f****n’ England?” I began to laugh at James, “and your’ education system is supposed to be better, yet the pump out the same f*****g d*********s as this country.”

    “Yeah well my country is great at bullshit, bout’ I hundred time’s better than this s**t-hole.”
He said, grinning.

    “True. There’s that issue of the f*****g ocean though.”

    “Aye, just a big f****n’ pond. Big f****n’ pond.” he repeated.

    “Will you two shut the f**k up?” Mellony said as she was cracking up.

    “Yeah whatever, it’s not like...” I trailed off as I saw a familiar face walk through the door. She turned and caught my eye, her face lit up and she walked towards us. As she neared I raised my hand and gestured to her, looking around at everybody. “Tamera.” I said very plainly.

    “Oh, yeah sorry bro. Forgot to mention Tamera was coming.” Sanders said. I could see that he was pleased with his failure to mention Tamera would be showing up by the smug look on his face.

    “Dilly! I haven’t seen you in like a month!” Tamera exclaimed as she squeezed herself in the seat next to me, wrapping her arms around me in a huge hug and sneaking a kiss onto my cheek. This forced everyone to act as if they hadn’t noticed when in reality they did and they also thought it was strange. The all knew of the exact nature of Tamera and I’s last encounter. I could clearly see that passing images of Tamera and I’s writhing naked bodies drifted mindlessly through their skulls.


    The waitress approached. “Have you decided what you’ll be having?”

    I can’t remember exactly what everybody ordered other than Sanders ordering Salisbury steak with something, Tamera simply ordered water, and I declared that I wasn’t really hungry.

    James’s eye gestured were repeatedly prompting me to look at how attractive the waitress was, especially for one that worked at Denys. I looked, and nodded at James in agreement. Tamera and Mellony shook there heads and rolled their eyes virtually at the same time.

    The waitress thanked us, confirmed our order and walked away. James’s eyes lingered momentarily.     

    Mellony’s phone began to ring midway through the meal. She glanced at the collar ID and informed us that she would be taking this outside.

    I watched Mellony as she spoke on her cell phone, I practically ignored the chattering of Sanders, James and Tamera. By the expressions that would arise of Mellony’s face and the occasional glance she’d give me through the window, I could easily gather that it was Sattie speaking to her on the other line about the previous night.

                    ●          ●          ●

    Several hours had passed since the meal. As we all left Sanders house to venture off and find a new form of entertainment, Mellony pulled me aside.

    “Dillon,” she said imperatively, “Sattie called earlier, she’s way f*****g upset and she told me what happened and frankly im a little bit pissed off too.” Her tone was riddled with anger.

    “Mellony she took what I said the wrong way, I didn’t mean to have ti come across that way..” I slowly trailed off and looked down at my feet as Mellony shot daggers at me with her eyes.

    “Yeah, whatever.” Mellony said sternly, “what happened doesn’t matter, but you really hurt her feelings, and if you want to keep it that way and never speak to her, fine. If you don’t want that... than go fix it.” she said this in a very low tone, I was the only one who heard her. She turned and walked away without saying another word.

    I continued to stare down at my feet, I knew she was right.

                       ●          ●          ●

    By the time I reached Sattie’s house, it was sunset. I noticed that her parents still weren’t home. I approached her door and knocked several times.

    No answer.

    I repeated for an entire minute before finally just turning the knob and letting myself in the house. As I entered I heard the sink running on full blast and crying echoing from the kitchen. I slowly entered with caution. When I entered I saw the sink running over dirty dishes and Sattie crouched in a bath robe, crying, and attempting to wipe up milk off the floor, while avoiding cutting herself on the shards of glass from the broken cup. She looked like one of those people who had just been pushed over the edge. I Stood and watched her for several seconds. Suddenly I heard a loud noise erupt from Sattie as she clutched her hand, a large piece of glass protruded from the outer edge of her hand, blood streamed down her wrist.

    I rushed over as fast as I could and took a hold of her, grabbing her wrist. She jumped in surprise.

    “Dillon... what are you...” she trailed off.
    
    “It doesn’t matter. Are your okay?” I stood her up by her shoulders. “Here come on.” I lead her to the counter where paper towels were and unraveled several sheets. The glass hadn’t penetrated too deep into her hand but it certainly looked very painful. She cried audibly. I used one of the paper towels to wipe tears from her face. I placed my hand gently on the side of her face. “Hey, hey... Sattie listen to me. You’re gonna be fine.” I stroked the side of her face with the back of my hand, and cleared the hair away from her eyes with my thumb and just stared at her. She starred back with her beautiful green eyes.

    She nodded quickly and continued starring into my eyes with a distraught but relieved look. I reached down to her hand and gently held it still. With my first finger and thumb I softly pulled the shard of glass out of her hand. Her face cringed slightly when she saw the slight stream of blood begin to flow form her hand, I quickly put pressure on it and wrapped the paper towels around her hand.

    “Hold those there okay?” I said, looking deep into her eyes. She once again nodded. “Do you have a broom and a dust pan... and a... like a paper bag?” I said gesturing with my hands.

    “Um... yeah.” she said opening the cabinet under the sink that was next to her and pulling out a paper bag, “the broom and dustpan are over there...” she said softly, pointing over next to her refrigerator.

    As I passed the fridge I saw numerous pictures, nearly all of them were photos of Sattie at various stages in her life. She was beautiful in every one of them.

     I began to sweep the glass into the dustpan. Sattie watched me for a few moment, her arms
crossed and her head dipped down, biting the nail on her thumb. I emptied the glass into the paper bag and carried it to the garbage can next to the fridge.

    “Why didn’t you just use the plastic bags on the counter?” she said quietly and distantly.

    “Because plastic tears easily and somebody could cut themselves if they go to push trash down with their foot or something.”

    “Oh...” she said even more quietly than before.

    I sighed and moved quickly towards her, she looked up in surprise. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight and close to my body. My Head rested on her shoulder. After several seconds her arms wrapped around me as well and embraced me. I heard her again on the verge of tears.

    “I’m so sorry Sattie. You mean so much to me, I didn’t mean to hurt you like that. I’m sorry..” now tears were streaming down my face as well.

    I heard her sniffling and letting in erratic gasps of air as people often due as their tears subside. “I know Dillon... I know...” she whispered into my ear.

    I pulled my head back and looked straight at her. “You’re all home alone, why are you wearing makeup?”

    “I was hoping you would show up.” she smiled and laughed at herself. The dimming sunlight shone through her window and highlighted the features of her face amazingly. Even though she had just been crying her eyes out, I had never seen her looking so beautiful.”

    “Sattie you’re amazing.” I said very plainly, cracking a half smile.
    
    Still embracing me, she shook her eyed and sniffed slightly to clear her nose, smiling she spoke, “I know... you should start paying me.” I laughed.

    “Paying you? What, do you have a new job I don’t know about?” I said smiling brightly and swaying her back and forth in my arms.”
    “Yeah, I’m a stripper now.” she said, throwing her head back, laughing and displaying her fantastic smile.

    I began to laugh hysterically. She raised her eyebrow.
    
    “What now?” she said through her own light laughter.

    “Well if that were true the 7-11 guy gave me a bunch of ones, so id be able to pay you.” I began laughing even harder.

    She squinted her eyes and gave a half smile while still laughing. “What?” she said in an awkward tone.

    “You pay stippers in ones.” I stated, smiling and gesturing with my eyes as if to say “duh.”

    She raised her eyebrows and chuckled a little. “How does my guy know how to pay strippers?”

    “Everybody knows that.” I said, bringing my face in and resting my forehead against hers.

    “I didn’t.” Sattie said.

    “Well...” I paused, “you aren’t everybody.”

    She blinked. “Well then who am I?”

    I starred back at her for a few moments, my eyes drifted up and down every inch of her face. I leaned my face in and kissed her sweet lips tenderly. My face backing from hers, I opened my eyes. She beamed at me with glee.

    “Somebody.” I said.

.....................

To be continued.

Author's Note

Again, this is a sequel. Other than that, tell me what you think. Thank you =]

Reviews

[Tessa]

I agree with what everyone else is saying. I don't really have anything new to contribute... I'm very unoriginal. Watch the grammar and spelling. I love the way you show the emotion, not just tell it.

Oh! Something new! I'm a little confused about why the story is happening in past tense. I think it would be so much more powerful in present tense. Are you planning on ending it in a way that demands the past tense?

[Nely Amorim]

it's progressing smoothly, you do have a very good style with the emotional aspect of writing, i wonder if you have the full story formatted already in your mind? is there a dramatic ending or a surprise coming our way? I'm very interested in finding out. excellent read so far :)

[Dani California]

I really am enjoying this story Dillon. I get the feeling that Sattie is way more signficant than Dillon realizes, or perhaps he does realize. More so than any of the others. You capture affectionate moments and loving gestures beautifully! Truly! My heart starts to speed up when he starts stroking Satties hair or carressing her face... you see... I'm a complete romantic. :) And you write it well! If my emotions get caught up in what I'm reading, then you have done your job as the author.

I find your strongest points are the romantic and sensual parts of your story. The dialogue is also good, but your strength lies in the emotions.

Once again, I am being forced to wait to continue.... big sigh. lol

Great work so far my friend! Kudos!

[Here's What I Say]

Oy vey. 3 girls. One man.

When Dillon spoke about Laura, the most I detected from him was a bit of annoyance. Sure, he misses her, but she's one sandwich short of a picnic basket when it comes to his emotions for her, you know? As for Mellony, it was one of frustration; why does he care about her when he knows she cheated? He may be obliged to hate her, but she doesn't. As for Tamera...she would be like Sattie if I didn't get a feeling he was in love with her.

From the way he talks about Sattie, there is something significant about the way he feels about her. He cares for her so much. If he didn't, he wouldn't have cared quite so much when she got upset in the first story. Listen to the way he talks to and about her. There's tenderness in his voice when he helps her with her hand and it turns to a familiar playfullness that he just doesn't have with those other girls. He enjoys her presence. When he looks at her, he savors what he sees. From the way he described the other girls, I didn't feel that chemistry at all. Sure, I know he's got SOMETHING with these other girls, but it doesn't tug my heartstrings the way his feelings for Sattie do...whatever those feelings are. But it's much more than what he has with these other girls.

Obviously, there were some spelling errors, but nothing that a quick check in the dictionary can't fix. Lovely job, Dillon.