Keeping the Tarnished (9 page)

Chapter Seventeen

Hero

Johnny

The chicken coop had a certain charm to it. Johnny often felt the coop was cleaner than the shack of a house. The building was a good size for a chicken coop. The paint on it was old. There were several layers of paint including an avocado green, a red, and a white layered one on top of the other. On certain boards, all three colors were present as the layers began to curl from years of exposure.

The chicken wire was secure all the way around the outside enclosure so the chickens could exit the building without being threatened by stray cats, coyotes, and skunks.

Johnny sat on the north side of the chicken coop with his back leaning on the outside wall of the building. In his hand, he held a hatching chick. Its tiny beak had been working vigorously in an effort to break free. Johnny had been lightly breaking tiny pieces of the shell, attempting to assist the exhausted hostage. The boy smiled as he gently peeled the white membrane off the tiny bird’s beak so it could breathe. As he looked at the tiny hatchling, a shadow appeared over him. His heart began to race as he looked up.

“Just what the fuck do you think you’re doin’!”

Johnny couldn’t see the man because the sun was directly behind him, but he knew it was his father and immediately looked toward the ground beside him.

The man reached down and grabbed the boy violently by the hair. He pulled the boy viciously to his feet with two hands full of hair.

Johnny accidentally dropped the hatching chick as he was pulled rapidly to his feet.

“What the fuck is this you ignorant piece of shit?” the man asked as he slammed the boy’s face into the side of the coop. He continued to maintain a strong grip on the boy’s hair.

Johnny watched helplessly as the man raised his left foot high, and smashed it down on the hatching chick, crushing it to death.

“No!”

Johnny shot out of his bed and began looking all about the room. The space was well lit. He hadn’t remembered that he went back to bed after his morning with Jackson. His heart raced as he remembered the chick and his father. His eyes, wide and wild, searched the room for some sort of clarity. It didn’t make sense, he knew his father was there, and there was no talking himself out of it.

He bolted from the bedroom door and ran down the hall. He flew down the stairs like a fox fleeing from an angry pack of hounds. His feet hit the stairs so hard as he descended that it sounded like someone was beating down the front door of the house. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he stopped instantly. He held the rail, searching the room for an explanation.

Breathing hard, he felt reality slowly slipping back into his psyche as the living room and its surroundings were gradually offering a comfortable sense of familiarity.

Although he wasn’t completely convinced his father wasn’t there, he began to reach the point where he could rationally dissect a situation and pull the reality from it. That was when he saw her.

Graye was on the couch in the living room with Bryce. They were cuddled up on the rich dark leather piece of furniture, reading a book until the boy had come racing down the stairs like a madman. Graye’s facial expression was that of obvious concern. The boy had obviously startled her.

“Johnny? Sweetie, is everything okay?” Graye asked as she sat the book down on the couch.

Johnny stared at the woman. The boy was obviously relieved his father wasn’t there, yet part of him was humiliated that the two had witnessed this incident.

Rapidly, he blurted the first excuse that came to mind. “I, we didn’t let the dogs out this morning. I need to let the dogs from their pens.” Johnny studied Graye’s face, hoping his answer would satisfy her need for an explanation.

Little Bryce sprang to her feet, shrieking, “I wanna go too!”

Johnny knew the dogs had been sprayed by a skunk the previous night, and also knew it was best if they remained penned until the stench was tolerable. However, nothing else seemed to come to mind. He could tell by the way Graye was watching him that she was still a little startled.

“Well, let’s not let them out just yet, but if you two would like to go check on them, I think that would be a good idea,” Graye said as she looked down at her daughter. She gently kissed the little girl on the forehead and began to stand up from the couch.

Johnny was standing at the bottom of the staircase. He was looking at the floor and had placed his hands in his shorts pockets.

Graye walked toward him and gave him a hug.

“Are you okay?” she asked lovingly.

Johnny imagined that Jackson had shared what little information he had gathered that morning about the boy’s painful past with his wife while Johnny had been asleep.

“Yea, it was just a bad dream, I think.” Johnny looked at the concerned woman as she pulled away and placed her hand behind his head, lowering his head to hers. She kissed him on the forehead, the same way she kissed her own children. Johnny smiled and instantly he felt better.

As he pulled his hands from his pockets, he looked over at Bryce.

“Let’s go check on them dogs, little buddy,” Johnny said to the messy haired little girl. She jumped off the couch with an enthusiastic smile and ran across the living room to Johnny and her mother.

“Well, let’s go, buddy!” the little girl shrieked and laughed. The two began for the front door.

Hand in hand, Johnny and Bryce walked down the porch stairs and headed in the direction of the big red barn. Johnny turned to see Graye watching from the open screen door. The large door was still open on the side of the big red barn. Jackson’s truck was gone, Johnny believed he must have been called out again. Johnny looked down at the little girl and smiled.

“You know these dogs smell real gross?” Johnny asked with a huge smile as they approached the barn.

Bryce suddenly stopped walking and began pulling back on Johnny’s hand. Johnny, watching the small girl, noticed her facial expression change rapidly.

“That’s not one of our puppies!” Bryce yelled loudly. As Johnny looked up, he saw a most horrific sight as a ravenous-looking coyote had exited the barn and was attempting to run toward them. The animal was having extreme difficulty as it would stagger a few feet and then nearly fall down. Its mouth was gaping as if it were choking on something. It would randomly snap at the air as if it were biting at invisible flies, and was making high pitched yipping sounds as it attempted to get closer to Johnny and Bryce. Its eyes appeared to be unable to focus on the two, and its mouth had bloody saliva dripping from it.

Johnny heard Graye scream from the front porch,
“Run! It’s rabid!”
He saw the woman come running down the porch stairs frantically and hoped she would reach Bryce before the crazed coyote did. Bryce was now crying as the animal was almost upon them.

“Run, Bryce! Run to your mom!” Johnny yelled as he ran in the direction of the coyote. He watched her run to her mother screaming as Johnny ran toward the animal, waving his hands and yelling loudly.

The coyote lowered its head and had a death-lock stare on the boy with its bloodshot, sunken eyes. It was filthy, covered in feces and dirt, and the front of its mouth was badly injured, as if it had been smashing its muzzle into rocks or cement.

Johnny was relieved to see Bryce reach the safety of her mother as he saw Jared, startled by the commotion, running out the front door of the house in his pajama bottoms.

As the animal found its footing, it attempted to lunge at Johnny, but it merely fell to its side, snapping at the grass and weeds. The coyote was obviously weakened by the disease, but it was still capable of inflicting deadly damage as it managed to find its footing again. It snarled and snapped at the air, concentrating on Johnny once more.

Johnny turned and ran in the direction of the barn in an effort to divert the animal from the family. As he raced inside the open door with the clumsy coyote in pursuit, he could hear Jared yelling his name over the barking dogs. It was then he saw it: an old shovel next to the dog pens to scoop up the waste.

As Johnny ran for the pens, the coyote seemed to become discombobulated due to the loud barking. Johnny grabbed the shovel and turned to the animal.

The coyote nearly fell on its side again as it bit its own leg multiple times very rapidly.

Johnny raised the shovel above his head, and brought it down with all his might on the animal’s skull. With a sickening thud, the animal’s suffering was over.

As Johnny attempted to mentally digest what had happened, Jared appeared in the doorway. “Johnny!” the boy yelled loudly as he ran toward Johnny and the dead coyote.

“Yea,” Johnny replied in a shock-like trance, although his response went unheard.

“Holy shit! Dude, are you okay? Did that thing fucking bite you?” Jared grabbed Johnny’s shoulders with both hands and looked at him eye to eye.

Johnny shook his head no, and motioned that they head for the door to escape the deafening noise of the barking.

Both boys looked at the dead coyote as they walked entirely around it, as if it at any moment the animal would resurrect itself. As the boys exited the barn, Graye came running up without Bryce.

“Johnny! Jared! What, what the hell happened? Where is it?” the woman asked as Johnny watched her attempting to catch her breath. She saw the dead animal through the doorway by the pens. Although Johnny recognized he was having severe difficulty processing the situation, he instantly noticed the look of absolute turmoil that fell upon Graye’s face. Her jaw dropped as she stared past Johnny and the dead coyote. Johnny reluctantly turned to see what the woman was looking at.

Sunny, one of the yellow lab mixes, was dead. Her throat looked like it had been ripped out, and blood covered the cement flooring of her pen. The two animals must have fought through the pen’s fencing.

Johnny watched as Jared noticed his mother’s expression and turned his gaze toward the inside of the barn too. Jared saw the dog and was instantly devastated.

“No!” Jared yelled out as he bent over with his elbows to his knees and his hands covering his eyes, and let out a wailing of cries. The boy continued to yell “no” as he cried uncontrollably. Johnny watched helplessly.

It was clear to Johnny that Graye was torn between her frightened daughter crying on the front porch, and her boy bawling at the sight of his dead dog. Johnny was beyond thankful to see Jackson’s truck pulling into the drive.

Chapter Eighteen

Stars

Johnny understood why no one had spoken anything of substance the entire time they were sitting at the dinner table. Jared’s eyes were still bloodshot, and he had spent the majority of the day curled up on the couch. There was no denying that Sunny was Jared’s favorite dog. Seeing her like that must have been traumatizing for the young man. The family attempted to comfort the distraught teen, but it wasn’t until Johnny offered to play a game in the basement that he finally got off the couch.

Johnny felt as though he were basically interrogated by Jackson, as the man repeatedly asked the boy if he had been bitten, scratched, or even touched in any fashion by the rabid animal. The remaining dogs were now officially quarantined. Although they were vaccinated, Jackson said he would take no chances because he had seen the horror this illness could inflict.

The coyote was in the cooler, and Jackson would be taking it to the appropriate destination in the morning.

After Johnny gave the best description he could offer of the awkward behavior exhibited by the coyote, Jackson assured the boy he was completely positive the results of the testing would prove the coyote was sickened with the deadly disease—rabies. The man claimed there had not been many cases of rabies reported in the area, and seemed surprised no one had noticed the animal lurking around the barn or country back roads prior to the attack.

Graye had hugged Johnny not long after the event as she quietly sobbed and repeated her thanks and appreciation.

He couldn’t consider himself a hero. Johnny felt that his failure to identify the animal as an actual threat was partially responsible for Sunny’s death, and Jared’s turmoil. When he’d initially seen the emaciated and horrific-looking animal, he was certain it was merely a cruel device set into motion by his ailing psyche.

Johnny felt horrible for Jared, but he couldn’t find the words to communicate that effectively. As he watched his friend get upset off and on throughout the day, he never once felt that Jared was weak for being upset, and this confused Johnny. He knew if he had ever cried in front of his father, he would have been called several names or something worse.

Johnny only felt sympathy for his friend. He also felt sad that Bryce had had to witness the chaos the coyote had inflicted. He knew this day would be a day that stuck with her for the rest of her life.

***

Dinner had been served late, and it was already dark outside by the time the family finished up. “May I be excused?” Jared asked as he looked at his mother. He hadn’t touched much of his spaghetti and bread.

Johnny looked at Jared’s nearly full plate. His friend typically had a healthy appetite; he knew the boy’s nerves must have been preventing him from eating.

“Yes, sweetheart, you may,” Graye replied as she looked toward her pathetic looking son. He hadn’t changed out of his pajama bottoms.

“May I be as well?” Johnny asked.

“Yea, bud, you’re good too,” Jackson replied as he gave the young man yet another appreciative look.

As Johnny set his plate in the sink on top of Jared’s, he turned to follow him from the kitchen.

Little Bryce was sleeping at the table. It appeared the day had been a long one for her too, as she was simply too tired to partake in family supper.

Johnny retreated to his room upstairs.

He was wearing his boxers and the t-shirt he slept in. Sitting on his bed, he stared out the window, studying the roads leading to the house. The day had been a major setback for him mentally, and his mounting paranoia prevented him from curling up in bed and attempting to sleep.

He knew that logically his father had no idea where he was, but something within him continued to insist that there was actually a reason to remain hypervigilant.

The boy was, however, thankful that the morning conversation with Jackson, and the incident in the living room with Graye and Bryce, had been completely overshadowed by the coyote and the death of poor Sunny. As he continued to watch the roads for headlights, he once again heard the whimpering of the puppy. This was almost instantly followed by the sinister sound of his father’s truck engine. He raised his hands to his ears. “Please just stay away.”

The boy heard a knock on the door. He turned to the door as Jared stuck his head in.

“Hey man, can I come in?” Jared asked from the doorway.

Normally Johnny would not associate with anyone while in his underwear. Tonight, however, he knew Jared more than likely needed to talk, and there was a pair of shorts on the bed.

“Yea, dude, come on in.” Johnny turned from the window and began putting on the shorts while sitting down. The sounds were gone. The room and the world outside were serenaded by wildlife, but not puppies or old truck engines.

Jared entered the room, walked toward Johnny, and sat on the bed.

“You lookin’ at the stars?” Jared asked as he looked to the window as well.

Of course Johnny was not going to admit that he was suffering from paranoid delusions of his father driving to the farm and finding him.

“Yea,” the boy replied as he finished pulling up his shorts.

“Well, come on, there’s a better view from out here.” Jared pushed up on the window to open it further, which lead out to the roof above the front porch. He put his arms and head through the window and slowly inched his way out of the room onto the roof. Once there, he sat with his legs crossed and gazed up at the stars.

Johnny was soon to follow, carefully climbing onto the roof. The air outside was still hot and thick, and the night was totally alive with the sounds of crickets and other insect life. The sky was clear, and every star seemed visible in the atmosphere.

“Dude, I’m glad you’re here,” Jared said as he continued looking skyward.

“Me too, man,” Johnny replied. That simple comment made Johnny feel welcomed, as the two young men were basically inseparable after not even a week. Johnny assumed the week had been eventful and overwhelming for everyone involved, not only him. He was thankful he had a friend he could goof off with and get his mind off of everything else.

As Johnny became accustomed to the normality of a functional family, he grew more frustrated with his mental instability. He felt if he could mend his mind he would be completely happy, and nothing would hold him back from achieving complete fulfillment.

“I’m sorry about Sunny, Jared,” Johnny said as he looked over at the stargazing mourner.

“Yea, me too,” the boy replied quietly.

As the two sat on the roof, enjoying the Louisiana summer night, Johnny noticed Jared watching him from the corner of his eye.

“What are you so scared of, man?” Jared asked suddenly, catching Johnny off guard.

“What?”

“I just think you’re scared of something. You act like you’re scared of something out there.” Jared laid back on the roof with his hands under his head.

“Nah man, I’m just lookin’ around I guess,” Johnny said as he too began to lay his head backward on the roof to look at the stars. The boy was basically forcing himself to momentarily halt his surveillance.

“There’s so many millions of stars out there. It’s like we’re nothing,” Jared proclaimed in a dark tone of voice. “Do you ever just feel like it’s all pointless, like there’s no reason for us to even be here?” Jared pondered out loud.

Johnny looked at Jared, unsure of how to respond. “I think you’re gonna do great, man. I think you’re gonna do something awesome. You’re not pointless,” Johnny responded with the only words that came to mind.

Jared yawned loudly and closed his eyes. “Man, oh man, am I beat,” Jared said as he yawned again. “I really hope you can sleep tonight, dude. I would probably have nightmares about that damn coyote acting all crazy,” Jared continued quietly.

Johnny turned his head to the side and looked at Jared. He felt comfortable around his friend, and felt like maybe Jared could help him get some answers, especially since the boy brought up the topic of dreaming. “Do…do you ever feel like your dreams just, like, continue even if you think you’re awake? Or like you’re in two places at the same time?” Johnny asked, but as soon as the words left his mouth he wished he wouldn’t have said them. He felt a mounting sense of regret arising from his gut, erupting into an anxious overflow of nerves.

“I guess I don’t follow, Johnny. But you shouldn’t put too much into it. There’s been a lot happening here lately. You’re staying in a new place, you’re around an entirely different group of people, and you almost got ate by a psycho-ass coyote. Don’t stress about it.”

Jared’s kind words brought some comfort to Johnny, but he was still afraid his father was desperately searching for him. Even more, Johnny was afraid of what his mind would conjure during the night if he found sleep.

***

Graye

Graye reached over and gently grabbed Jackson’s hand. She looked seriously at her husband. “If he hadn’t been there…if Bryce had been playing by the barn by herself. It…it all happened so fast, and if Johnny hadn’t been there,” Graye said, as her eyes began to swell with tears, again. She felt her throat tighten.

“I know, I know, honey. We owe him so much.”

Graye felt her husband’s callused hand slide atop of hers.

“He’s supposed to be here, you know that, right?” the woman continued as a few tears escaped her eyes. She gently ran her finger over her husband’s blistered hand. He had buried Sunny very deep in the ground because he didn’t want wild animals digging up the carcass and causing his family further trauma.

“I know he is,” Jackson replied, lifting his wife’s hand to kiss it.