Chapter 13

Chapter 13

            Katie Red and I waited in the house while Rickey went to the police station. Katie sat on the couch and flipped through a western magazine while Red and I sat at the dinky kitchen table arm wrestling. So far we were still on our first round, we had also started 5 minutes ago. Our faces were dark pink and our arms wobbled back and forth. With all my might I pushed down as hard as I could and was only a mere few inches from the bottom of the table when I put down my guard, Red seized the opportunity and flew my arm to the other side of the table.

“HA! I won!” he yelled.

“So what does it matter?” I said.

“Did you guys hear that?” Katie asked.

“Yeah, it was the sound of Red breaking my arm.”

“No, I think someone knocked on the door.” Katie said. She came into the kitchen with a white t-shirt under Rickey’s flannel. She looked out the window.

“There are people here!” she gasped and closed the curtains.

“Who?” I asked.

“News people.” She said peeking out the window.

            I groaned, let it go! What’s up with us that’s so great?

“Shut the curtains guys, but be careful don’t let them see you.” Katie warned.

            And so we spent the rest of the afternoon talking quietly and waiting for nosey people to beat it.

            Around 5 or so a small commotion stared. The reporters spoke loudly so to get their point across to Rickey as he walked up towards the house.

“Rickey Carmen! Is it true that you held the three fugitives in your home?!” a woman asked.

“No comment.” Rickey said.

“Is it true that you dated Katie Kennedy?!” a different person asked.

“Is no one’s life private anymore?” Rickey retorted.

“Are you financially supporting them?!”

“Look guys, I know it’s a slow news day but there’s definitely something more important than this.” Rickey said to them

“Mr. Carmen!”

“Look! All you better get off my property and beat it or I’m callin’ the cops!” Rickey shouted at them.

“But Mr. Carmen!”

“Get out’a here!!” he shouted again. After a while they left and Rickey came inside.

“You guy’s better be ready to go by sundown, the cops might be back or them news people.” He groaned.

“I’m sorry we caused you so much trouble.” Katie told him.

            He shrugged, “Why should I care? You’ll all be gone by tomorrow.” She sat down next to him. Whoever said that when people kiss in front of you it gets awkward, was right.

“Where are you guys headed to anyways?” Rickey asked.

“Well.” Katie said, she looked at me silently asking if we should really tell him. I nodded.

“California.”

“California?!” Rickey asked jumping up off the couch.

“Yeah what’s wrong with that?” Katie said defensively.

“You told me you were going to New Mexico.”

“No I asked if you could take us there.” Katie corrected.

“And how are you going to get to California?”

“By bus.”

“There’s no way you three could get on a bus without somebody recognizing you.”

“Then what do you suggest we do?” Red asked him.

            Rickey took the time to ponder the question. I stood by the window and watched the clouds rush by without anything getting in their way. Trying to get to California was like trying to race the clouds, hard, nearly undoable, and crazy. The door to the barn opened and closed and opened and closed. I squinted to try to see inside in the back of the bright red barn (which could quite possibly blind a small animal) and tried to make out the huge pieces of scrap metal which were somehow connected. It was probably an old jalopy.

“Hey Buttercup, what’s out in your barn?”

“Just a truck. It’s lost all its tires, I’ve been meaning to get it-“Rickey stopped now understanding what I was meaning.

“I’ll go get some tires.” He said gummily.

“Does it even start?” I asked him.

“It should I spent most of my free time trying to fix it up.” Rickey said.

Trying?

“All right you go down to the auto shop and pick up a few tires and we’ll wait here.” Katie told him. He shrugged and took his keys in hand and left.

“Want to see what’s on the news?” Katie asked.

“Sure.” Red said. I still remained at the window watching the distant storm come faster and faster towards the tiny house.

“Rickey Carmen was very secretive about Jenny, our news caster, who was at his home waiting for an interview along with many others. Let’s take a look at what he had to say about her.” the TV flicked to a new woman who was speaking momentarily when Rickey’s car pulled up behind them.

“All ya’ll better beat it before I call the cops!” he said.

“That’s not fair they skipped right to the ended when he got all heated up.” Katie complained.

“Well it’s done with now, and we’re leaving tomorrow so there won’t really be anything to hide.” I told her.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Wednesday

            The hard rain pounded on my face. As Rick, Red, Katie, and I each fumbled desperately to add the tires to the old truck the wind blew the cold rain into our eyes. The quick bright flashes of lighting gave us enough light with our flashlights to see. The freezing cold numbed our fingers and froze our bodies. The roof had tones of holes in it and with each gust of wind the rickety old barn would shudder. I felt bad for the animals that had to live in the dump.

“Hurry up!” Rickey shouted.

“What?!” I shouted back, I screwed in the last bolt and jumped up.

“Come on!” Katie shouted over the wind, I obeyed and the 4 of us ran back to Rickey’s house to take cover from the storm.

            We stepped inside the tiled kitchen and shook ourselves off like a couple of wet dogs. I peeled off my shirt and rung it out in the rusty sink.

“It’s the worst storm I’ve ever been in.” Red said.

“Then you haven’t been around much.” Rickey said.

            Inside the thunder shook the tiny house and with each gust of wind the house shuddered. You could hear each rain drop as if they were millions of tapping shoes. Outside the birds had taken cover in the shelter of the trees.

“When do you think it’ll stop?” Katie asked. I looked at her, ringing her hair out onto the floor not caring what anyone would say. We looked like wet puppies that had nearly drowned in the river.

“I don’t know, I heard it was left over from some big hurricane down by the sea. It might be a night maybe a couple of days.” Rickey told her.

“Days?” Katie asked.

“Yup.”

“Good thing we’re leaving in the morning.” I said knowing it was pretty rude, but I didn’t want to stay here any longer or Katie would get the wrong idea.

“Oh…yeah.” She said quietly.

“I’m going to bed.” Rickey told her after an awkward silence.

            Katie nodded and looked at the wet tile floor. Rickey took her hand in his and he led her out of the kitchen both dripping water on the floor.

“It’s literally like watching a soap opera on T.V.” I said to Red.

“Only you can’t turn it off when it get stupid.”

            I laughed, “It’s all stupid.”

 

            The next day when we woke up it was still pouring down rain. It was gloomy and not really happy with Katie and Rick. Although we were going to leave it took forever to blast off.

            There was a long heartfelt goodbye that Katie and Rickey were making, but taking forever in the process to do. They stood close to each other with their fingers intertwined. They finally came close to each other’s lips (completely unaware that Red and I were watching them). As their lips pressed against each other a quick flash of lighting and the thunder that sounded like the beat of a drum made Katie jump and they parted. Then Katie looked towards us and dashed to the car from the porch of Rickey’s house and hopped into the car.

            I drove out of his driveway and sped down the road leaving the tiny house behind with Rickey still standing in the mud.

            And with Rickey out of Katie’s way she could focus more on what we originally came all this way to do. Find a buried treasure!

            The rusty old truck took us pretty far considering the fact that it probably be the first truck ever invented. The truck rattled like it could fall apart at any second. It also wouldn’t go more than 50 miles per hour.

            By the end of the day we made it to the edge of Arizona. It was 1 in the morning and we were all pretty tired. I parked the car behind clumps of bushes and we all got out.  We laid one of our three blankets in the bed of the truck, then we used the others to cover ourselves. Before we all fell asleep we started to eat. We had all been trying to limit ourselves to two meals a day but we hadn’t eaten anything since we had left Rickey’s house.

“What do we got?” Red asked.

“Saltines and a few candy bars.” Katie answered. And she tossed him a few Hershey bars.

            After he took a bite from one he groaned.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I’m not really used to this junk food.”

“You kiddin’? This is like heaven on earth, I haven’t tasted anything like this in months.” Katie said to him.

“Give me the crackers instead.” He said. Katie gave them to him and he ate a few.

“You used to bad cooking?” I asked him.

“Naw, I don’t really like junk food.”

“But I’ve seen you eat it before.” I told him.

“Not this much.”

“You had one bite.” I told him, now it was getting to be a joke.

“It’s not just this, it’s like-he gestured his arms out-all we’ve been eating.” 

“Okay, okay” I said.

“That’s really weird.” Katie said.

“No it’s not, lots of people live without stuffing their faces of junk food.” Red told her.

“No,” Katie said, “That.” She pointed up towards the road.

            In the darkness of the night we saw a creature quick walking and being followed by waving lights. The creature would sometimes put its nose to the asphalt or stand for long periods of time just standing there. After putting its nose to the ground once more it howled to the sky and came running towards our truck. But the creature wasn’t alone, it was followed by people.

            The hound dog ran right past our truck barking and howling like it was on fire. Before we had a chance to move our truck, about 10 people had crowded around us, shouting at us.

“It was you!”

“Crazy punks like you should stay away from us!”

            Then two men pushed the rest of them aside and told them to go after the dog since it did run right past us. One of them was tall and lanky while the other was well built. They both wore a cream colored uniform with a six sided star over their hearts.

“It’s them, it’s them.” The skinny guy excitedly said.

“Don’t go jumpin’ to conclusions James.” The other said, then he directed himself to us, “How long have ya’ll been here?”

“Only about 30 minutes.” I answered him. I stood up in the bed and sat on the roof of the cab.

“Been to town?”

“Nope.” I answered.

“They’re lie’n” James said shaking his head at the floor.

“Cool it Barney Fife, we didn’t do nothin’” I said. His head shot up, but he didn’t say anything, “What do you want with us anyways?”

“We’re looking for a couple of thieves.”

“We didn’t steal anything.” I told him.

“So you wouldn’t mind if we checked your belongings?” the man asked.

“Nope.” James advanced but the other stopped him.

“Leave them James.”

“But-“

“It ain’t them, try to catch up to the hound.” So James turned and left.

“Some of us don’t take well to strangers.”

“Wonder why.” I said sarcastically. 

“So what was stolen?” Katie asked.

“Well at first it was nothin’ big, just a few petty things from the drug store. Then tonight, Arnold Creed’s truck was stolen and the very same truck was seen in a hit and run accident. Killed a teenager out on a date.” He stopped pulling a piece of leather from his pocket, “But, the killer’s jacket had gotten tangled up in a rose bush outside of Arnold’s house. So we put together a search group and tried to track him down with my hound.”

“May I see it please?” I asked from my perch on the roof. The sheriff leaned over and handed it to me.

            I turned the leather over in my hand. I sniffed it, the cloth still was faintly smelling of beer. It couldn’t have been Shaw’s…but it might have been. I gave the leather back to the man.

“You say we aren’t the ones who did it, how would you know?”

“Anyone would if they were in their right minds, James and all the rest of them aren’t. It’s like when you shut the drapes in a room, and the room is dark, you don’t know what is happening. But when you light a candle, you can see.” He turned in the direction the others had gone, “James and the rest just haven’t found the light. And anyways this isn’t Arnold’s truck, none of ya’ll are wearin’ leather-he leaned in- and you wouldn’t have time when you are on the run.”

            I raised an eyebrow, “What are you gonna do with us?”

“Leave you to your business.”

            I cocked my head, “Why?”

“People should have their freedom and do as they please and not be rotting away in an orphanage.”

            Apparently safety and food had gone over his head for this guy.

“If you go down the road a couple hundred miles or so you’ll come to a very tiny hick town smaller than mine, they have close to no outside contact with the real world except for us. You can bunk down there for a night, cheap too, and then you can be on your way.”

“Thanks.” I told him. We quickly threw everything into the cab and got in with it. I just hoped I wouldn’t pass out from exhaustion.

            Before we left the man put his hand on the frame of the window, “Good luck.” He said.

            I smiled and thanked him.

“By the way, my name’s David.”

“Thanks for letting us go, David.” I told him. I rolled up the window and started the car. David took a step back and watched as we drove out of the shrubbery and down the road.

            We came to the next town just like David had said, but what he didn’t say was that the hotel wasn’t going to be open. So we drove about 2 miles out of town. By the time I stopped the car it was around 4 in the morning. Red and Katie had already fallen asleep cuddled up together like a couple of puppies. So I got out and fell asleep between a layer of wool in the bed of the truck.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....

Thursday

 “Brady…Brady wake up!” Katie said.

“What?” I moaned from underneath the blanket.

“Wake up! If we leave now we could get to Cali by sundown.”

“Who calls California Cali?”

“That doesn’t matter, get up!”

“What time is it?”

“12 o’clock.” She answered.

“Ugh…Go away.”

She opened the back of the truck, “Wake up!”

“Go away.”

            She grabbed my ankle and began to pull on it, before I knew it Katie had me at the edge of the bed.

“Katie stop!” I pawed the bottom trying desperately to stay in.

She gave one final pull and I fell to the hard packed dirt floor.

“Fine, you go on without me.”

“Brady!”

            I didn’t move. I heard Katie walk away and then she came back, “Last chance Brady.”

“I want to sleep, scat.”

            I heard a pop and then Katie poured water onto my head.

“Hey!” I hopped up and wiped my face with the sleeve of my shirt.

“I warned you Brady.”

            I held up my arms, “All right I deserved that.” I looked at my sleeve which had now been covered in water and dirt, “But now my shirt is dirty.” I took it off, “My last clean one.”

“I have one that might fit you.” Katie said.

“Right.”

“It’ll fit you its Rickey’s”

“Fine, give it to me and get me a brush, my hair is messed up.”

            Katie went to the cab and tossed each one to me.

“Where’s Red?”

“He went down to the town to get some more water and food.”

“Oh, how much money have we got left?”

“He said we had about 45 bucks.”

“How much did he take?”

“I don’t know, 15 I think.”

“You figure we should divide what we have left?” I asked her as I tried to tame my cow lick.

“Why?”

“In case the one in charge of the money gets split up from the rest of us, so then the others won’t be left with nothin’”

“Oh, that sounds pretty good.”

“Yup.”

“Why’d you wake me up id red won’t be back for a while?”

“I figure we could go and get him.”

“Mmm-Hmm, you want your brush back, for your hair?”

“What’s wrong with my hair?”

“Um…” my mouth hung open while I held her brush out to her, “Well um.” She raised her eyebrows and put her hands on her hips waiting for an answer, “I-uh…your…hair…its.”

“It’s what?”

            I was having a miniature panic attack…what was she going to do to me if I told her the truth?

            She smiled, “I’m only kidding.”

“Right.” I said suddenly relived as she took her brush from me, “Gonna do another one of those ritzy braids again?”

“Not if everyone makes a fuss about it.”

            I lay back down on the bed of the truck and look up at the sky. It was so blue without a cloud in sight, yet there was still a slight breeze. I watched two birds flutter from tree to tree. Everything seemed so peaceful out here in the country.

“You’re not going to fall asleep are you?”

“No.”

“Good now get up and let’s go get Red.”

“Alright.” I got up and plucked the blanket from the ground and shut the back of the truck.

            We drove down the dusty road and met Red half way. He was carrying two paper bags like a house wife.

“Hop in June Cleaver!” I called to him as the dust settled around him.

“Haha right.” He said. He walked around the truck to the passenger side dropped the sacks in the back and got into the truck.

“One more day.” I said to them when I flipped the truck around. We all cheered as I drove down the road.