Beginning

Don't be sad; The world may not forgive you, but I do. Don't be sad; You may not forgive the world, but I forgive you. Tell me; What must I do to earn your forgiveness? -Frederica Bernkastal

Summer, June 1983

 

The sounds of a wet thud can be heard throughout the room. The smell of blood thick in the room and everything in it is spattered with blood; the ceiling, the walls, his clothes. Over and over, he lifts the bat and hits the object in front him- a body of a girl. Face and body beyond recognition.

He stops in to take a breath, wipes at the tears falling from his eyes (when did he start crying?) There's a mixture of emotions in him right now: anger, sadness, betrayal.

Because he trusted her. No, that's not right. He still trusts her, even now, at this moment. Even if she can't talk.

But he was a fool. He took her kindness for granted and it got him nowhere.

The shrill cries of the cicadas are the only thing that can be heard right now; the only thing besides his own labored breathing.

He can still hear her voice. But that’s impossible; she’s no longer speaking. No longer breathing. She never cried. Never showed any emotions because she didn’t have any to show, even when she repeated those words to him over and over.

If she didn’t cry for him, why should he cry for her?

Hadn’t he suffered enough?

He starts swinging the bat again. Swings at the body in front of him. His arms ache; the metal bat in his hand a heavy and constant weight. He can't feel his right arm, but he keeps swinging it, up and down, up and down.

He's not going to let her hurt him anymore. He's not going to let anyone hurt him anymore.

---

 

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry...”

Kasey groans in annoyance in his sleep. Who kept apologizing and why? He could tell it was a girl, but to whom it was for and why he doesn’t know.

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry...”

Well, whoever she was apologizing to needed to accept it. Whatever she did wasn't so bad that they couldn't be forgiven for it.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

He feels someone shake him and then hears his mother's voice. "Kasey, we're almost there. C'mon, get your stuff together."

Kasey stretches, watching as their plane gets ready to touch down. They had been on the plane for a good few hours and he’s finally looking forward to getting off. But even after they touch down, it’s still a long drive to the house they will be moving into.

His father, who had been at the house for a week now, is there to pick them up from the airport. His parents greet each other with a kiss and his dad gives Kasey a quick hug and a pat on the shoulder.

"Ready for a new start, Kasey?" The boy gives a non-committal shrug, and the family packs the few luggage they have in the car and drive towards their new home.

Their house lies miles past the city, past the long fields of wheat and corn and into the country, where they are greeted by a sign that says 'Welcome to Torii Falls.'

'Yeah, welcome indeed.' Kasey thinks with a sigh. 'This place looks boring already.'

The house they are moving into looks pretty big, he has to admit. It’s a huge two-story house, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and large empty area downstairs. They really don't need a house that big, but with his father being an artist, his dad wanted a big area that could work as his studio.

Pulling up in the driveway, Kasey notices a red car sitting in the driveway and an old man standing next to it. Once the man sees the family, he quickly goes to greet them.

"Oh, Mr. Kirkpatrick, glad to see you're here." His father shakes the man's hand, then motions to his son and wife. "This is my wife, Anita and my son, Kasey."

Both give a quick hello and Mr. Kirkpatrick, along with Kasey's father, gives them a tour of the house.

"They've been helping me clean up and moving all the big stuff in. Heck, they even hung up the clothes and put up the dishes." His dad explains when his mom asks if he did the work all by himself.

Kasey is surprised. "You guys really rolled out the red carpet, huh?"

"Well, it's been a long time since this sleepy little town has had any new people move here. I, for one, welcome new faces. I know the kids at school will get a kick out of you."

"Oh that reminds me," his mom says, coming from the kitchen. "I didn't see the high school. Where is it?"

The old man laughs. “That's because there isn't one."

"What?"

"Well, our town is so small and has so little students that they're all in one school. Grade school through high school all in one place.”

"Man, I knew this town was small, but not that small.."

“Haha, but don't worry. I'm sure you'll get along fine with them. There are a few kids around your age.”

His mother smiles at her son. “I'm sure Kasey will get along with everyone, won't you?”

“Yeah, I'm sure I will.” He answers though he doesn't believe it.

---

 

Kasey's first day at school- for a lack of a better word- is interesting. He introduces himself to his new teacher (“It's nice to meet you. I know our school is small, but I hope you like it here.”) and together they walk to the classroom.

It's not a large building, but he can see how the teachers have tried to modify it. Drawings and paintings hang from the wall, drawn by the younger students. Pictures of the students who had graduated in the previous year were in a display case.

The teacher lets him walk into the classroom first and that's when he gets his first surprise: A chalkboard eraser full on chalk dust falls on his head.

The class breaks into laughter and the teacher, instead of getting upset, just looks exasperated, like she deals with this often. She looks across the classroom and her eyes fall on a young girl with light brown skin and curly black hair. “Stephanie?”

The girl slowly stands up, trying to hide a smirk on her face. “Yes, ma'am?”

“While I appreciate your enjoyment for traps and pranks, I'd like it if you wanted until after I introduced the new student first.”

“Yes, ma'am.”

“So everyone! This is Kasey Martinez.  he and his family are from the city, so do your best to make sure you do your best to make him feel welcome, okay?”

A loud reply of “Yes!” comes back and Kasey finds his seat next to a girl named Reyna Russell. The school work isn't too hard and when it comes the subject that was being taught Kasey learns that he's far ahead compared to the other students.

Which is how he finds himself being an unofficial tutor to Reyna and another classmate, Teagan Sullivan. She’s currently trying to figure out an equation, with Kasey's help, while Reyna’s finishing the last of her schoolwork. The bell rings for the last class of the day and with it, the end of the school day. Teagan leans back in her chair and stretches, yawning loudly.

“Finally! School took forever to end today.” She leans over to look at Reyna's work. “Wow, you're done with that already?”

The other girl laughed and nodded. “Yep! Kasey's a good teacher, isn't he? Isn't he?”

“Sure is. After a while, he can probably be good enough to replace the teacher.”

Kasey shrugs. “I'm not that good guys c'mon... Every time I help you two, it reminds me how much I don't know.”

Teagan packs her books in her book bag and smiles at him. “Well you know, if you're going to tutor someone, you have to know the subject three times better.”

“Why am I helping you anyway?” Kasey asks her as they walk out the room. “Aren't you in a grade higher than me?”

“Details, details. They don't matter.”

“Oh, yeah. That reminds me: are you gonna be free this weekend, Kasey? Are you?” Reyna asks.

“Why what's up? Gonna take me out a date or something?”

The girl's face turns right red. “It's nothing like that!”

“It's not? Then why is your face all red?”

“It's not!”

Teagan rolls her eyes. “Stop teasing her, Kas. We're wondering because if you are, we're going to show to you around town. You know, see the sights.”

Kasey thinks for a moment. “Well, this week my parents and I are going to going to a funeral. But I'm free next week. The only places I really know how to get to is the school and home.”

“Alright, then it's settled. We'll show you around next Saturday!"

---

 

“You're spending the day with Teagan and Reyna today, right?” His mother asks during breakfast and Kasey nods.

“Yeah. They said they could show me around town. I don't really know it.”

“Honestly. You've been here a month and you've haven't learned the town yet. You and your father, I swear...”

“I haven't really needed a reason to.” He tries to explain, defending himself. “I just go to home and school.”

The doorbell rings and Kasey jumps up to answer it, eager to get away from the lecture he can tell is about to come from his mother. “That's probably Reyna. I'll see you later, Mom.”

“Alright. Oh, do me and favor and thank Reyna for the pickles that she made for us.”

“I will.” He promises and sure enough, Reyna's there, a rather large picnic basket in her hand. What the heck did she bring that big thing for?

“It's for later,” She says and Kasey looks up at her, a little surprised. “You had your question written all over your face.” She explains. “You always make the weirdest expression, you know that?”

“I don't,” Kasey all but pouts. Though he wonders if it's a habit he picked up from his dad; his mother says the same thing about his dad.

“You didn't have to wait for me, though. I know where the meeting spot is.”

“It's not a problem. I'm sure you would have done the same thing for me.”

“Nah, I would've left you.”

“Huh? Would you really? Kasey, you're horrible!”

At her face, Kasey can't help but laugh. “I'm lying. Of course, I'd wait for you.”

They meet up with Teagan at a crossroad and the girls' show him around town. They run into a few people and it surprises him that people know him.

“Oh, you're the Martinez boy, aren't you?” is the most common comment he hears during the day.

“Why is it that people know my family when we've hardly been out?”

“Oh, it's because you're famous.” Teagan laughs, amused at his confusion. “We don't get many new people moving here. In fact, I think you're the first new family to move here for a while, so all the elders here are excited by it.”

The girls' take him near the woods, where they walk to a church. It's a bit small, but otherwise, it's well kept and with it being on top of a hill, it gave a great view of the town below.

“This is the Furino Church,” Teagan tells him. “Remember it, because there's going to be a festival here next week.”

“A festival?”

“Yeah, like you know, a carnival. It's gonna be fun and the whole town comes!”

“Oh, you three are here already? That was rather fast.” a voice says behind him; one that he's gotten familiar with, given the pain she puts him through on a regular basis. And indeed she turned to see Stephanie and another girl, a dark-haired girl name Erika Furino.

“Furino....Oh, this is your family's building?”

“That's right! Its official name is Furino Methodist Church. But everyone just calls it the Furino Church.”

Stephanie Halloway and Erika Furino are two of the younger classmates in their one-room school and he knows that the girls are best friends, often arriving and leaving school together. How quiet Erika got to be friends with such a loudmouth like Stephanie is a mystery to Kasey.

Stephanie, Kasey quickly learns, was an absolute demon. She placed tacks in his chair, tripped him with a jump rope, hit him with an eraser with a rock in it, and tied his shoelaces together when he fell asleep in class. All in the span of one month.

“Don't try anything dirty today.” He says towards Stephanie. “I've got my eye on you.”

The younger girl laughs. “You're a bit of a neanderthal. So it wasn't that hard at all to keep tricking you like that.”

“You brat.. Can you even spell neanderthal? Quit using big words like that!”

“It's not a big word! Why are you coming onto people's property and just helping yourself? You need to ask the owner.”

“It's public property! P-U-B-L-I-C!”

“C'mon you two. Food's gonna get cold if you keep bickering with each other!”

“Food?” Kasey turns his head toward where a picnic table is and true enough, there is a table that's crowded with food. “Ah, so that's what the basket was for, right?”

The group sits down and it's a large spread of classic summertime food: rolls, hot dogs, potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans, and potato chips.

“Whoa... who cooked all of this?” Reyna slowly raises her hand, and Kasey has to admit he's impressed by the sheer amount of food she cooked by herself

“Tea helped with the other half, though. I couldn't carry all of this by myself.”

“Kasey didn't even bother to help you? You're not a man at all, are you?” Stephanie mocks and that's all it takes for the two of them to start bickering at each. He steals the last hot dog from her and in retaliation, she elbows him sharply in the ribs.

Playful arguing aside, it's a fun day. After stuffing their faces, everyone helps clean up before parting ways. Since Kasey and Reyna live in the same direction, they end up walking home together. With the sun setting and the cicada chirping in the background, it sets the mood for a relaxing afternoon.

“So, did you have fun today? Did you?” Reyna asks as they start heading down the hill. He smiles at her and gives a thumbs-up.

“Of course! And I got to have some of your delicious cooking!”

She blushes at the compliment. “Heh, thanks. Do you mind if we stop somewhere? Do you?”

“Nope! I'm not ready to go home anyways.”

“Great! Then follow me!”

 

---

 

They walk to what looks like an old construction site, except that it's now a junkyard. Trash is piled everywhere and Kasey can't see what Reyna wants to be here in the first place.

But yet, she does, humming happily to herself. “It's been a while since I been here. I wonder if they added anything new. I wonder?”

“Anything new? What on earth can you find here?”

“Tons of stuff! I'll be right back! You can wait here if you want.” She says before darting off towards the bottom. Kasey tries to follow her, but ends up slipping on a piece of wood and falls right on his butt -hard.

He decides to give up on that trek, not having the energy to help Reyna dig through a bunch of rubbish. He leans back on some a stack of planks, content just listening to the cries of the cicada's when he hears the sound of a camera click from behind him. Surprised, he jumps up and turns to see an older man standing there, looking slightly apologetic.

“Sorry, sorry! Didn't mean to scare you!” The man laughs. He's of medium height, with short brown hair that's under a hat and glasses. A professional-looking camera rests in his hands. “James Tennent. Nice to meet you.”

Kasey frowns at him. “Isn't the polite thing to do is ask to take a person's photo?”

“Ah, sorry about that. I normally take pictures of birds, so I suppose I'm not used to asking to for photos.”

“Pictures of birds?”

The man nods. “I take photographer for a wildlife magazine. It's a few weeks for the summer. You were looking so picturesque in the sunset, I just had to take your photo.”

From the bottom, he hears Reyna call out to him. “I'm almost done! Just give me a second!”

“What's your friend doing down there? Looking for something?”

Kasey shrugs. “Who knows.” Then adds as a joke, “She probably looking for that body she chopped up.”

Mr. Tennent looks surprised, then freezes for a moment. Kasey thinks he might have gone too far for a joke and starts to apologize when the other man says:

“Yeah, that was a horrible incident. They're still missing the right arm, right?”

Kasey is the one to freeze now, mostly out of shock. But before he can say anything about it, Reyna comes running up towards him. Tennent excuses himself, waving at the two before he leaves.

“So, what did you find anything you liked?” Kasey asks on the walk home. Reyna immediately goes into what Kasey has dubbed her ‘cute mode’, where she does nothing by claim how something is super cute, even if it’s not. (But he doesn’t say anything on that because she’s not the only one with weird hobbies in town.) Today’s cute item is a Colonel Sanders mascot.

“But it’s buried under a bunch of junk. I have no idea how I’m gonna get it out.” She whines.

“I’m sure we can figure out something. I help you find a way.” And that sends Reyna into an excited mode, and though Kasey doesn’t want to ruin his friend’s happy mood, the question comes flying out of his mouth of its’ own accord.

“Hey Reyna, did something happen here?”

“Um...I know that they were trying to build a dam here...but I don’t know much about it.”

“Do you know if anything happened during its construction? Like an accident or something?”

“I don’t know.”

The reply was short and straight to the point. And it left no room for further questions. She must have seen the uneasiness on his face because she added: “I lived somewhere else ‘till last year, so I don’t know anything about that.”

“Oh, you transferred here, too?”

“Uh-huh. That’s why I’m saying I don’t know. Sorry.”

Kasey shakes his head. Whatever happened, it’s clear that Reyna doesn’t want to talk about it, so for the moment, he lets it go. They come to the crossroad where they have to separate.

“Anyways. I had fun today. See you tomorrow at school.”

“Yep, see ya!”

“Yeah, that was a horrible incident. They're still missing the right arm, right?”

Kasey feels a chill run up his spine. At any rate, whatever had happened, only the cicadas and their cries knew.