Chapter 8

In this chapter we meet the girl Thomas accidentally hit on his ride home from work, and witness a strange noise in his backyard that spooks both him and his mother.

Thomas was thrown from his bike into the street, skidding on his hands and knees. The sharp rocks on the road sliced open a shallow wound on his chin. He could hear his bike clatter to the ground, the wheels spinning in the air, and the girl groaning in pain. His brain was scrambled, and his body was racked with tremors, unsure if he should get up or just lay there in pain. The road-rash on his hands stung and burned, and he felt like he had knelt in a puddle of nails, his knees stinging even through his pants.

“Gggh….” The girl was collapsed on the sidewalk, the bike sitting next to her, it’s front wheel still spinning.

“…S**t…!” Thomas hissed, shoving himself up onto his burning knees and crawling over to the girl.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

She looked up at him, dazed and confused. “I…I guess so…”

“I’m so sorry…I didn’t see you at all. I don’t usually ride home at night…” He sounded like he was making excuses. He had no idea what to say to let her know how genuinely sorry he was.

She slowly got up and brushed herself off.

“You look more injured than I am,” she said.

It was true. Thomas couldn’t see any terrible injury on her, other than some dust on her clothes and some blood on her left hand. She helped him up.

“Are you okay?” she asked him.

“Um, yeah, I guess…”

“You’re…bleeding.”

He put a hand to his chin and felt the cut.

“Oh…It’s fine. I was just on my way home, I’ll get a bandage. Um…Are you sure you’re okay? I really really feel terrible about this…I’ve never hit anyone, and…I just don’t know how to say I’m sorry I guess…”

She laughed lightly, relaxing him a little. “I’m fine. I was just going to a job interview, I’m sure they’ll have bandages I can buy there if I really need them.” She down at her hand, which was stinging terribly. There was a long, bloody scrape, lined with dirt and rocks from the sidewalk. "Looks like I do."

“I scuffed you up before your job interview…I’m so sorry…!”

“It’s fine…really.” She brushed more of the dust off of her jacket and pants. “See? Good as new.”

Fortunately, she really didn’t seem to be very injured. It probably helped that she was wearing long sleeves and long pants.

Then he realized what she had said earlier. “A job interview? It’s past 9:00…”

“I know…” She seemed to get very fidgety on this subject, looking down at the sidewalk instead of at Thomas. “She made an exception…I…Well, I really needed this interview tonight.”

Thomas was still puzzled, but he didn’t know this girl at all. He felt like asking why tonight? But she was obviously uncomfortable about the subject (which seemed extremely odd. A lot of strange people lately).

“What’s your name?” He sort of blurted out the question without meaning to.

“Umm…Hannah.”

“I’m Thomas.” He held out his hand. She hesitated for a few awkward seconds, and then quickly shook his hand, stepping back afterward. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and looked up shyly at him.

“I’m sorry…I need to get to Geil’s, or I’m going to be late…”

“You’re going to work at Geil’s?”

“Yeah...Is that strange?”

“No, it’s just…I work there too.”

“Oh…Well…I guess I’ll see you later then.”

She quickly walked away.

“Um…Okay…”

He didn’t understand it. First the Beverly Hills girl in line at Geil’s, and now this weird teenager he’d never seen before acting nearly the same way. Was there something in the water?

She was probably just acting strangely because she hit her head. Anyone would act strangely after that. The interview thing was weird, but she must have something important going on tomorrow.

He lifted his bike upright, checking it for damage before mounting it again and starting once again for home.

***

His mother noticed the cuts right away.

“Oh my God, what happened?”

“I fell off my bike. I kind of…ran into this girl…She’s ok-”

“You hit someone?!”

“She’s fine, mom. We talked. I told her I was really sorry. It’s never been this dark on my rides home.”

She sighed. “Alright. I’ll get you a band-aid.”

His mother wasn’t one of those super over-protective moms, but she cared a lot for her only son. Since her husband and her parents had passed away, he was really all she had, and she didn’t intend to let anything happen to him.

That night, he heard the strangest noise he’d ever heard. It sounded like something out of a horror movie; like fingernails grating steel while someone screamed in terror. And it sounded like it was right in his backyard.

He cautiously got out of bed and peered out the window.

The moonlight cast eerie shadows that danced under the slightly cloudy sky. There was a slight breeze shifting the tree’s off in the distance, but otherwise nothing moved in the shadows.

Then he heard it again.

This time it was further in the distance, more north and away from town.

He figured it must be some animal with a hoarse voice; possibly a desert fox. Those weren’t entirely uncommon in this area, and they did have strange barks. If one were to get sick, that noise is probably what it would make.

Shaking off the suspicion, he returned to bed and pulled the covers up to his shoulders.

Silence haunted his dreams.

***

He waited for his mother at the table the next morning. She got up around 8:00, a couple hours before he went off to Geil’s and she left for the hospital.

“Hey mom, did you hear that weird noise last night?”

“Yes, what was that? It must have been some sort of animal. I don’t know what makes that noise though.” She entered the kitchen and poured herself and her son a glass of orange juice, then proceeded to place two pieces of bread into the toaster.

“Do you think it could have been a fox?”

“I suppose. Something wrong with it’s voice, though.”

“Mmhhmm.” He took a sip from his orange juice.

“It scared me, to be honest.”

“I know what you mean.”

As he took another swig of juice, the phone rang. He got and intercepted it on the the third ring, answering politely.

“Hello?”

“Tommy?”

It was Linda. “Yeah, hi! What’s up?”

“Hey there. I know this is really short notice, but could you do something to help me out tonight?”

“Sure, I guess. What is it?”

“I need to change your shift from 3:00 PM to midnight for a while. We just got a new girl, she could use some training. You’re the sweetest person I have on the team, and she seems very…well, skittish I guess? I figured you’d be willing to help out. You don’t have to outright follow her, just sort of keep an eye on her, and if she needs help with something, you can assist. Cruise was put on the afternoon-to-night shift for the next couple days. I switched your schedules. I think he’d scare her.”

“Yeah, I understand that…But why did you hire her if she’s like that? I thought grocery stores needed ‘happy people’?”

“I guess she’s tried everywhere to find a job and couldn’t get accepted. I figured we could help her out a little bit. She’s only on from 6:00 to midnight Monday through Thursday, anyway. We won’t be losing much.”

“Alright. Is this Hannah, by any chance?”

“How did you know?”

“I ran into her last night.” He laughed lightly. He didn’t intend to choose those words, but they fit perfectly. Linda wouldn’t understand how literal this idiom was, unfortunately.

“Thank you so much, Tommy. I’m sorry to do this to you right after yesterday. I know that was hard on you.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I lived.”

She laughed. “I’m glad. I’ll see you at 3:00 then.”

“Sure. Bye Linda.”

“What was that?” his mother asked as he hung up the phone.

“I got a shift change. There’s a new girl.”

“The girl you ran over.”

“I didn’t run over her, mom…Besides, she’s obviously fine.” He rubbed his own wound on his chin, thinking back to the incident the night before. He wondered if Hannah really was okay, or if she was just saying that. She seemed to want to get away from him pretty fast. I wonder how she’d react when she realized he was to train her.

The weird thing was she didn’t seem to dislike him. She seemed honestly concerned about his well-being after the crash. As well, while it was very dark out, he could see her face, and she didn’t look at all disgusted by his presence. She looked worried, partially for him, and maybe for something else, he didn’t know.

He looked at the time. It was 8:15.

“What time are you leaving then?” asked his mom.

“My shift starts at 3:00. I think I’m still gonna go by the coffee shop, though, to see Taylor and all them.”

“Okay. Well, I guess I won’t see you until late.”

His mom got off work around 7:00. He probably wouldn’t see her until the next morning. She was always asleep by 10:00, and he was coming home at midnight.

He gave her a hug before leaving.