Chapter 4: My Last Peaceful Night

Chapter 4: My Last Peaceful Night

A Chapter by Zak Jones

I had blacked out. The next thing I remembered was waking up, tucked into my own bed, still in the front foyer of our new house.

“Y’er pretty lucky, ‘city-boy.’” The same grizzly voice that had been tailing me in the woods said.

“Wha-what happ-“I stuttered as I snapped awake and sat up.

“Well, you were exploring the woods alone in the middle of the night.” The man I now identified to be Sheriff Raditz replied, still wearing his dark sunglasses even though it had to have been after midnight.

“What were you thinking?!” Mom scolded as she popped me the in back of the head and put her hands on her hips and began to tap her toes, just like she-and probably all mothers-did when she was angry.

“Ouch! B-but, you shot m-“I started as I pointed to the Sheriff and gripping my right shoulder with my left hand.

“I shot the grizzly no more than twenty feet in front o’ ya. I waited and tailed ya after ya got outta the lake. I figured a ‘city-boy’ like yourself would get lost trying to find his way home.”

“G-grizzly? B-but how were you able to see?”

“I’ve got me a night vision scope on muh rifle. Just ‘cuz we’re up in the mountains don’t make us cavemen. That bear had been stalking you since the lake. Y’er lucky I was able to hit it with all that running around you did, that pissed the bear off.”

“I’m sorry, Sheriff. Thank you for saving my son.” My mom interrupted as the sheriff and I glared at each other. It wasn’t that I was being ungrateful for him saving me, he just didn’t have to be such an a*****e about it.

“No problem, Ma’am. Just keep y’er boy outta them woods by himself, especially at night.” Sheriff Raditz tipped his worn cowboy hat to her and left. Mom locked the door behind him and turned to confront me.

“Mom, seriously, you’re blushing.” I stated, trying to keep the subject off of me.

“Oh, shut up, Isaac. You’re in a lot of trouble, what were you thinking?” she yelled.

“Me and Ashley were-“Just then it hit me, Ashley was in the woods with that grizzly too. “Ashley! Is she okay?” I cried out as I tried to get up out of my bed. My mom held me down and reassured me.

“Ashley’s safe at home in bed. She stopped by here thinking that you must’ve beaten her home. She was waiting for you, but she received a call from her father demanding that she come home. Now why were you two walking alone?”

“We got separated…” I said, looking down in disgrace.

“Separated, huh? Is that what you were gonna tell the bear? ‘Oh, sorry, Mr. Bear, you can’t eat me right now, I'm looking for my friend, we got separated.’” She chided.

“Sorr-“I started.

“Sorry? You're just lucky that the sheriff tailed you like he did.”

“Seriously, mom, he’s gotta be like fifty.” I stated, now getting annoyed at the situation.

“And? I'm forty-five, Isaac. Anyway, that’s besides the fact. I’m-“ But the anger suddenly faded away from her voice and the red left her cheeks. “I’m just happy that you’re both safe.” She kissed my forehead, switched out the lights, and laid down into her bed.

“BEAR!” I yelled into the air. With a bark, Bear came running from the upstairs hallway, down the stairs, and hopped into bed with me.

“Damn it, Isaac!” I heard as Tyson rounded the corner with his little lantern. “We were playing!”

“Language, young man! What makes you think you can talk like that? It’s time for bed anyway.” My mother shouted. Tyson shot me a dirty look and slowly came down the stairs and climbed into his racecar bed. After such a long day, I was beat. I slept like a baby; and I’d be needing it, I didn’t realize that this would be one of the last good-night’s-sleeps I'd be getting for a very long time.

I awoke to the intoxicating aroma of pancakes, a smell I hadn’t had in what seemed like forever. I stumbled out of bed and winced as my bare feet touched to ice cold floor. I made my way a few feet into the kitchen, testing out my shoulder which now felt almost completely better. Half-awake, I opened a couple cabinets and found my allergy medicine.

“G-morning, city-boy.” Ashley said as she flipped a pancake.

“A-Ashley?” I exclaimed. I was so surprised that it was her that I stumbled backward over a box on the floor and fell flat on my butt. “…ouch.”

“Smooth.” She laughed. “Nice boxers, by the way.” She winked at me and continued cooking. I looked down and blushed as I realized that I was in just boxers.

“Uhhh, I'll be right back.” I said as I ran out of the room. I quickly threw on some clothes from my dresser, which still resided in the front foyer, and re-entered the kitchen. “Not to be rude, but what’re you doing here?”

“Making you pancakes, silly.”

“Well yeah, I can see that, but why?”

“I felt bad for loosing you last night so I came by this morning. Your mom was just leaving for work and let me in. Then Tyson told me about the Sheriff shooting that bear, although I doubt it was fifty-feet tall like he said. I felt so bad that I figured I had to do something to make it up to you.” She said, genuine remorse thick in her voice.

“Yeah, thanks for ditching me, jerk.” I complained as I sat down to eat the delectable pancakes she had just placed on the table.

“Oh, shut up. You should’ve kept up with me, city-boy. I didn’t realize I was leading a 7-year old through the woods.” She snapped back as she sat down with a plate of her own. She smiled at me and we dug in.

“What time is it anyway?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Like 7:30, I think.”

“Oh crap, what time does school start?” I asked, suddenly alerted to the fact that I was starting a new school here in Dreary Oaks too.

“It’s Sunday, dork.” She scoffed.

“Oh. Well, thanks for the pancakes.” I said as I sunk back into my seat. After finishing what may have been the best meal I’d ever eaten, that or I was just glad that last night hadn’t gone as terribly wrong as it could have, I rinsed my plate and said,

“Man, those were the best pancakes I think I’ve ever had.”

“Thanks! My mother taught me how to cook when I was a little girl.”

“So, what are your plans for me today?” I eagerly asked.

“You’re on your own until tomorrow.” She replied as she finished her pancakes.

“What? I thought you were my official Dreary Oaks sponsored tour guide?”

“Sorry. I have to run some errands for my dad. I just wanted to come over and make sure the city-boy was alright. My dad would be furious if he knew I was over here after last night.” She said with a grin as she rinsed her plate off and placed it into the dishwasher. “See you later.” She said as she gave me a hug and headed for the door.

“Bye.” I replied as I closed and locked the door behind her. I turned to see the mountain of heavy furniture and boxes. “Great.” I said as I realized I had the entire house to put together. I got straight to work. I took each of the bed frames apart and carried them piece-by-piece to our rooms on the second floor. The mattresses were a pain to carry alone, but I had our rooms all set up after just a couple of hours. Tyson, of course, was out in the backyard playing with Bear and no help at all, but the two of them would’ve just slowed me down anyway so I was relieved. After I set up our rooms and the guest room, I realized we were all out of stuff and I hadn’t even filled the entire second floor. I let out an accomplished sigh and plopped down onto the couch in the living room for a second. Tyson came thundering into the house with Bear and they both plopped down onto the rug in front of the couch. Tyson switched the television on and immediately let out an annoying whine,

“Isaaaaac, why isn’t the TV working?” he demanded.

“I don’t know, probably because I haven’t hooked up the cable yet.”

“Well why not? Have you just been sitting there all day?” he complained.

“Um, no. While you were outside I unpacked all of our stuff.” I responded, irritated. He stopped complaining as he realized how much I had actually done. “But I guess I'll hook up the cable real quick.”

A few minutes later, I had all of the TVs in the house hooked up to cable and my laptop in my room connected to the internet.  I went back down stairs and Tyson and I watched a couple of movies on TV. I told Tyson that the wiring in this house might be a little buggy since no one has lived here in a while and told him that the fuse box was in the basement. Around ten o’clock I put Tyson to bed and even told him that bear could sleep in his room until he got used to the new house. As I was leaving Tyson’s room, I heard mom come home downstairs.

“Hey, mom!” I greeted as I came down the stairs.

“Oh, hey, Isaac.” She replied as she hung her apron on the coat rack by the door.

“How was work?” I asked as I gave her a hug.

“It was really good. Everyone at the grocery store this morning was really friendly. And working for Mr. Wilson at the dinner was good as well; I had a great time.” She replied. “And look at this house! You did a fantastic job, Isaac. Thank you.”

“Well, you were working all day, I figured it was the least I could do.”

“Well, thanks, sweetie. Now I'm off to bed, and you should be too, you start school tomorrow.”

“Okay, goodnight, mom.” I said and we went upstairs. I showed her where her room was and then proceeded to mine. I wasn’t quite tired enough to go to sleep yet, so I started to play one of my video games for a little bit. Around eleven or so at night I was really doing well in my game. Suddenly, however, the power started to flicker. My game got reset and didn’t save my progress. “Son of a b***h!” I yelled and threw my controller across the room into a couple of blankets I had folded on the floor. As soon as I did, the power went completely out. “Juuuust peachy.” I cursed, knowing I should’ve just kept calm. I realized I had forgotten to put a flashlight in my room, so I felt for the door and started down the hallway. As I got a few feet from my door, my childish fear of the dark kicked in. my heart began to race and I thought that I heard creaking coming from the third floor directly above me. “I’ll get it in the morning.” I assured myself as I turned around and headed back for the safety of my bed. I laid awake for a while, not able to fall asleep. No matter how much I tried to settle myself down, I felt like someone was watching me. Not to mention I continued to hear the blasted creaking from the third floor. I rolled over and looked at my clock, 11:53. I knew I had to get some sleep before school tomorrow, but I was having a tough time doing so. As soon as I'd start to drift into sleep, I'd hear a loud thud from upstairs, almost on cue. Then, it would stop, I’d listen and for about fifteen minutes I'd have silence. But then the noises would start up again. At this point I knew I couldn’t be just imagining it, and I knew it couldn’t just be the wind. Although, I hadn’t been brave enough to go up to the third floor yet, so for all I knew there could be a window wide open or even a homeless person living up there. As I again started to drift asleep, I was interrupted by a loud thud. This time, however, it was followed by distinct footsteps. And also unlike before, this time they seemed to be getting louder, almost like they were starting to come down the staircase. My heart pounded and I broke out into a cold sweat as the footsteps reached the bottom of the staircase. I was already regretting taking the room closest to the third floor when one-by-one the footsteps started walking down the hallway near my door. My heart was practically beating out of my chest and I was paralyzed with fear. I gripped my chest and prayed to God that he would protect me. Then, the footsteps suddenly stopped a few feet short of my door, and I almost instantly fell asleep.

 “Get up, silly!” I heard as I woke up. I opened my eyes to see Ashley’s smiling face in front of mine.

“Don’t you ever knock?” I joked as I sat up in bed.

“Damn, you look terrible. No offense.” She said as she started to fold some of my clothes I hadn’t put away yet.

“Thanks. And yeah, it was a rough night.”

“What happened?”

“Just…had trouble falling asleep in a new house.” I replied, trying not to sound suspicious. She gave me an understanding nod and went back to tidying up my room. I crawled out of bed and made my way over to the bathroom connected to my bedroom (now I remembered why I chose this room.) I turned on the shower and felt the water, which was already at a comfortable temperature. I hopped in and practically heard a sizzle as boiling hot water shot onto my chest. “Damn it!” I yelled as I leapt out of the shower and tried adjusting the temperature again. Try as I may, the water would never get to a comfortable spot again, it would go from scalding to ice cold with no in between.

“You okay?” Ashley hollered through the door.

“Fine!” I yelled back, checking my chest in the mirror to make sure I hadn’t received a burn. I finally admitted defeat and gave in to the old house and took an icy cold shower, half expecting the water to scald me yet again. Afterwards, I dried off and hung my towel on the towel rack besides the shower. I wiped the steam from the mirror and brushed my teeth. I wrapped the towel around my waist and walked back into my room. “Mind getting out for a sec?” I asked as I noticed Ashley was sitting on my bed.

“Get over yourself, I'm not looking.” Ashley replied with a smile and turned over onto her stomach on my bed. I tossed my towel into the clothes hamper and got dressed. I wore my usual: blue jeans, a V-neck shirt, and a hoodie on top. I was already used to the cold air of Dreary Oaks, Chicago isn’t called ‘The Windy City’ for nothing. “You look spiffy.” Ashley said as she rolled back over.

“Heh, thanks.” I replied. “How far is school?”

“Like ten minutes. Are you ready?”

“Yep, let’s go.” I replied as I grabbed my keys and phone off of my bedside table. I opened my bedroom door for her and she jokingly curtsied with her skirt and walked through. We walked downstairs and as I shut and locked my front door behind us, I saw through the window beside the door that all of the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen were wide open again. I pondered this for a moment, but figured it was probably Tyson looking for his favorite bowl for cereal. Then I locked the door and we began walking. “Thanks for putting away my laundry, by the way.”

“You’re welcome. I figured I'd try to help your momma out as much as I can. Since my mom, I’ve had to take up motherly duties around my house” She smiled.

“Well, thanks I really appreciate it.” I commented. “Oh, did you see Tyson this morning? I totally forgot to get him ready for school.”

“Don’t worry, I got him ready. He left just before I came into your room.” She responded with a wave of her hand.

“Wow, what would I do without you?” I joked.

“Spiral into depression, I'm sure.” She winked at me. We had a good laugh and continued the short walk to school. Being in a town of not more than a couple thousand people, there was only one school, divided into wings. The west wing had ninety-or-so elementary and junior high children that the Baker twins, Florence and Floretta, taught. The east held the high school. Needless to say, the high school was tiny compared to Chicago. This one only had one teacher for each subject and probably only about one hundred students total, with maybe twenty in my senior class.

Ashley and I slid into homeroom seconds before the bell shrieked and took two empty seats in the back of the classroom. The eyes of the twenty-or-so other students were glued to us the entire walk to our seats.

“Alright, class, first things first today. As you’ve all noticed, we have a new student joining us today.” The homeroom teacher started. I'd always hated that, teachers know the new kid is shy, why exploit it? “Why don’t you stand and tell us your name, honey?”

“Uhh, hi. My name is Isaac Palmer, ma’am” I complied. I sat back down and Ashley prodded me with her elbow for looking so stiff.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Palmer. My name is Mrs. Lawrence.” She replied as she wrote her name on the board. “Let me just take attendance and you can all be off to your next class.” She pulled out a small clipboard and began. I tried my best to pay attention to names, but they went quick, I had a feeling that Mrs. Lawrence already knew who was here and who wasn’t.

“Lauren?”

“Here.”

“Tyler?”

“Here.”

“Brandon?”

“Present.”

She finished the list and wished us a good day. She told me that if I had any questions, not to hesitate to come and ask her. I did notice though that she didn’t call Ashley’s name.

“Hey, Ashley, why didn’t Mrs. Lawrence call your name?” I asked as the bell sounded and we stood up.

“She knows she doesn’t have to, I’ve never missed a day of school in my life!” she boasted.

“Wow. You're cool.” I said, my voice full of sarcasm.

“Oh, shut up and let me see your schedule.” She snapped back. I rifled through my pockets and presented her a folded piece of paper. “Oh, poo.” She said as she opened it and compared it to hers.

“What is it?”

“We don’t have any classes together.” She frowned.

“Well, I guess I'll see you after school then.” I smiled. She nodded and walked off. I was trying to be brave, but this was the first time I was going to meet any other kids my age since we arrived in Dreary Oaks. I hunted down my first class, Calculus, and sunk into a seat towards the back of the room inside.

 “Hello, my name is Mr. Sanders. Mr. Moore is sick today so I’ll be your substitute. Mr. Moore said for you to just have a study hall and prepare for his lecture on Chapter 5 tomorrow.” Said a young, slightly manic looking man at the front of the room. Mr. Sanders sat in the chair behind the desk and began reading the newspaper. I sat quietly at my desk and read my textbook, too nervous to talk to any of my classmates who were all just talking amongst themselves.

“Hey, you’re Isaac, right?” I heard. I turned and saw that the student to my right was looking at me, awaiting a response. “I’m Brandon.”

“Yeah, I’m Isaac.” I responded.

“Well welcome to Dreary Oaks, man. You're from Chicago, right?”

“Yep.”

“Cool, what’s it like? Most of us around here have never been to a big city.”

“Eh, it’s alright, I guess.”

“Oh, c’mon. The city life must be awesome!” he replied. As the excitement grew in his voice, the rest of the class grew quiet and gathered around us. It seemed everyone was interested in the ‘city-boy.’ I began to tell stories of huge skyscrapers and riding the metro. I hadn’t considered that most of these kids had probably never left Dreary Oaks. Mr. Sanders even lowered his newspaper to listen.

“What’re you doing after school, Isaac?” the girl named Lauren from homeroom asked.

“Oh, nothing as far as I know.” I replied.

“We should hang out so you can tell us more of your stories!” she suggested, followed by a couple of other students agreeing.

“Heh, okay. We could have a bonfire at my house after school if you guys want.” I replied, overjoyed that I was making some more friends.

“Sounds great, we’ll come by after school.” Brandon added on.

The bell rang and we all continued to our next class. I had Ancient World History with Mr. Brenner, English IV with Mrs. Martin, Advanced Computers with Mr. Ashlock, Physics with Mr. Allen, Government with Mrs. Dudley, and last but not least, art class with Mrs. Lee. After school, Ashley and I met up and made our way back towards my house.

“So how was your first day?” Ashley asked and she walked with a slight skip in her step.

“It was pretty uneventful. Oh, but a couple of kids from my Calculus class said they were going to come over for a bonfire after school.” I remembered.

“Oh? Who?”

“Um…I think their names were Brandon, Lauren, and there was a quieter kid…Tyler I think his name was.” I replied.

“Oh.” She responded.

“That okay?” I asked, noticed that she had lost the skip in her step and the smile on her face had faded.

“Yeah. They’re my best friends…were anyway.” She said with her eyes fixated on the ground.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I can cancel if you want.”

“No, it’s okay!” she replied as she faked a reassuring smile. We walked into the backyard and noticed Bear desperately trying to get through the back door to us. I opened the door and he bolted passed me and went straight up to Ashley, who then began petting him.

“Oh, I see where his loyalties lie!” I hollered after Bear who then began frolicking in the grass. Ashley teased at me and I said, “We’re gonna need to go get some firewood.”

“Thanks, captain obvious.” She replied. I rolled my eyes and we walked into the woods bordering my yard and began to snap low hanging branches off of trees. After a couple of trips, we had plenty of firewood, nicely stacked in a pile near the house. I set the branches up in a teepee shape and placed stones around it in a circle to make a fire pit. We went and found some short logs and placed them around the circle as a place to sit.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked, noticing that Ashley was being totally quiet.

“Yeah, I’ll be okay.” She replied, again faking a reassuring smile. Just then, my phone chimed. I had a text message from Brandon saying, “We’re out front.”

“You can wait here if you want.” I said to Ashley. She nodded and sat down, somberly staring into the fresh crackling fire.

As I turned the corner of my house, there I saw Brandon, Lauren, and Tyler walking up. I waved them over and they followed me to the back yard. We sat around the fire and they all warmed their hands in front of the flames. I chuckled to myself at how stereotypical the three were. Brandon, the football jock, who reminded me a little bit of Freddy Jones from Scooby Doo in appearance; Lauren, the rebellious scene girl who’s looks had most of the girls in school jealous; and Tyler, the obvious marijuana smoker.

“So, Isaac, what’d you think of Dreary Oaks High? Pretty lame, right?” Tyler asked.

“Nah, it’s not so bad. I liked it better than my old school.”

“Really? Didn’t you go to some huge school with thousands of people?” Lauren added.

“Yeah, Chicago has always had trouble with its public school system. Classes of way too many kids, teachers who just don’t care, and gangs that consider certain hallways their ‘turf.’ I sure don’t miss it.” I explained.

“Wow, that sucks, dude.” Tyler responded.

“Ha, how’d you turn out to be so normal?” Brandon joked.

“Beats me.” I joked back. I felt like a loser, but hearing them call me normal put a big grin on my face. In Chicago, I was always the ‘quiet smart kid who thought he was too good to talk to anyone else,’ when in reality I was quiet because I was too nervous to say a word to someone I didn’t know. The grin on my face quickly disappeared when I glanced over at Ashley and noticed her miserably poking at the fire, trying not to draw any attention to herself.

“So, Isaac, there’s a party at my house tonight. No alcohol or anything, it is a school night, but just for fun. You wanna come?” Brandon offered.

“Oh, uh…I don’t think I can make it tonight.” I nervously replied.

“Aww, why not?” Lauren protested. Thinking on the spot, I replied,

“I promised Ashley that we’d watch a movie together tonight.” I noticed Ashley look up in surprise and smile at me out of the corner of my eye, then she continued to poke at the fire.

“Ashley?” Lauren asked as she looked over to where Ashley had been sitting. It was weird, the three went from being my happy-go-lucky new friends to seeming as though they had made a mistake.

“Yeah?” I replied, confused at the situation.

“O-okay, man.” Brandon intervened. “We’ll catch you at school tomorrow.” They stood up and left, very quiet, very strange. I heard a small whimper. I turned and noticed that Ashley was in tears. I sat next to her and gave her a hug,

“Forget them, we’ll have a good night without them.”

“It’s been like this ever since my mom died. No one will even make eye contact with me. It’s like they’re afraid of my dad or something.” She said, slowly starting to cry more and more.

“Your dad? Why would they be scared of him?” I asked, even more confused.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She stated. She stood up and started to walk away.

“Ash-“I started, but before I could finish she started running towards her house. She slammed the door behind her and closed the shades on the windows beside the door. “Well, that went well. C’mon, bear.” I sighed as I put out the fire and we went inside.

After a knock on her door, three calls, a text, and even tossing a pebble at her window, I got the vibe that Ashley really didn’t want to talk right now. I decided I'd kill some time by going ahead and decorating our house for Halloween early. I noticed some other houses already decorated on the walk home and it put me in the spirit (no pun intended.) Halloween had always been a favorite for me, but in our cramped apartment, we had never gotten to decorate very much. Realizing that we hardly had any decorations, I was a little bit bummed. I put the fake zombie climbing out of the ground near the porch and the generic tombstones with each of our names on them in the yard near the mail box, it wasn’t much but it showed some spirit (pun intended.) I took Tyson down to the grocery store where mom worked, although she had already finished her shift and gone on to Mr. Wilson’s dinner, where we picked out a pumpkin to carve. I wanted so badly to buy everything we would need to turn our house into the scariest one on the block, if it wasn’t already. Even though it was just a grocery store, they still had a small Halloween aisle with decorations. They had zombies that lung towards you as you pass them by, ghosts with fog machines in their mouths, and lots of fake spider webs; but for now, a jack-o-lantern was the only new scary addition to the Palmer household.  I decided to pick up a few door locks for our bedrooms as well; hopefully they’d keep out whatever was up there on the third floor. On the walk back I was pleasantly surprised to see several other people out decorating their yards at least a little bit for the holiday. I had seen movies with streets decorated to the point of feeling like an entirely different world and I had high hopes that my first Halloween out of the city would resemble one of those nights.

           Even when I was young, I had never liked to get my hands dirty, so naturally I was thankful when Tyson demanded that he be the one to de-gut the pumpkin. We carved a typical jack-o-lantern face, but with a spider above its right eyebrow and a little bit more terrifying of an expression. As night fell, I placed the pumpkin on the porch and placed a lit candle into the base of it. Still a little bit bummed by the day’s chain of events, I decided to go ahead and put Tyson to bed. He protested at first but calmed down when I said Bear could still sleep in his room. After getting him all tucked in and the sleep timer set on his cartoons, I meandered my way back to my room, got undressed, and laid in bed. I had the television on, but I wasn’t watching it; all I could think about was trying to find a way to make Ashley feel better. I was wide awake at first, but suddenly I felt feint. Not sleepy, but more like I was going to blackout. I tried to fight it at first, but it overwhelmed me.


© 2013 Zak Jones


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Added on October 23, 2013
Last Updated on October 23, 2013





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