An Infinite Sorrow (5 page)

  Stan waved back.  "Rich, this is my friend Liz.  The grumpy one standing by the door over there is Alice.  You'll get used to her."

  Liz ran up to Rich and gave him a hug.  "Yay!!  Hug the new guy!!!"

  "AAAAAA!!  What are you doing?" 

  "HUGS!!!"

  They all walked into the school together.  Stan showed them where their first class would be.  Again, all of this seemed familiar.  Ms. Care seemed nice.

  "Congratulations, Richard.  You got a perfect score on the pop quiz.  You must have been ahead of this chapter at your old school."

  "No ma’am. Actually, we were two chapters back." 

  School seemed to end quickly.  Alice offered to give them all a ride home, which Rich quickly accepted.  It was two miles to walk to his house.  As they were driving, something caught Liz's eye.  "Hey, there's my cat!!" 

  Alice slowed the car down.  "What?"

  A small, black cat was running into Dark Falls Cemetery.  The cemetery was huge, and darkness seemed to hang over it. 

  Alice stopped the car.  "You don't want to go in there.  Are you sure it's your cat, Liz?" 

  "I'm sure.  I know."  She got out of the car and ran into the cemetery.  Alice turned to the back seat.  "Rich, go after her.  I'm worried."

  "Sure."

  Rich got out of the car and walked through the gates.  "Not again.  Again?"  Rich wondered what he meant by that.  This had never happened before.  He had the weirdest feeling of déjà-vu.  Alice was walking up behind him.  "There she is.  She's fine."

  "Thank God."

  "You seem awfully worried about someone you met an hour ago.  Love at first sight?  Wouldn't be the worst thing for her right now….  Her dad recently passed away." 

  "I don't know about love at first sight, but there's something..." 

  Suddenly, Liz took off running, ducking in and out of the tombstones.  For a moment, Rich thought she was playing tag with someone, but then he saw the figure encased in shadow.  It was chasing her. 

  Rich and Alice took off after her.  Suddenly the figure wasn't behind Liz, but was in front of her.  A few seconds later, it wasn't a human figure, it was the cat. 

  She was chasing the cat. 

  "What the hell is going on here?  Did you see that?"

  Alice ran ahead of him.  "I don't know what I saw.  We have to help her."

  Liz was still running. "Dang, I can't get her to stop.  I caught her once but she wiggled loose.  Help me." 

  "Here, Kitty!  Here kitty, kitty…."  Alice was trying to coax the cat over, but to no avail.  They didn't even have anything to feed it. 

  As the cat passed one of the headstones, Stan walked out and grabbed it.  "Hey guys, what are you doing all the way over here?

  Rich felt the need to step in front of the girls, but he didn't know why.  "Liz was trying to catch her cat.  We saw it by the front gate, and it just took off.  Wouldn’t stop for anything.  She couldn't catch up to it."

  "Such a cute little thing… and so easy to lose…  So easy to get hurt..."  Stan was squeezing the cat way too hard.  It hissed and tried to break free.  "So...squirmy..."

  "Stan, what are you doing man?"

  "Nothing.  Here you go."  He stiffly handed the cat to Liz and then started walking into the graveyard.  Alice took a few steps toward him.  "Hey buddy, where are you going?"

  "I'm not your buddy, bimbo.  You and your little friend need to stop going where you shouldn't.  Something could happen."  He walked off into the distance.

  Rich just kept looking in his direction.  "So weird…  He's acting like a totally different guy than I met today."

  Alice threw her hands up in the air.  "He's acting like a grade A jerk.  Come on Liz, let's get out of here."

  A thick fog seemed to roll over the graveyard.  The sky seemed darker than it should have been.  Rich could hear things moving around in the darkness.  "Aaah...guys.  I think we should get the hell out of here.  Something's..."

  Rich was pulled into the fog, and vanished with the slightest hint of a scream. 

  "AAAAHH!!  Rich!!!"  Liz ran toward where he had been. 

  "Liz, wait!"  Alice got half a step in her direction before she also vanished into the fog, screaming.  Liz stood there, surrounded by cold darkness.  The cat hissed.  "Guys...not funny…  We should go now."  Silence was her only reply.  She panicked as she realized she was completely turned around.  She had no sense of how to get out of the cemetery.  She was trapped. 

  Alice's shattered body flew out of the fog at her.  The collision almost knocked her out, covering her in Alice's blood.  Through the stars obscuring her vision, she could see a dark figure emerging from the fog.

  "Answer the question."

  "W...what..."

  It picked her up by the throat, licking the blood from her face.  "What is the answer to the question?"

  The hand squeezed with impossible strength.  "Give!!" 

  "I don't know...can't...breathe...please."

  "Now you sleep, whore.  Rot in the ground."

  Liz was effortlessly tossed into an open grave.  Fresh dirt rained down on her, being shoveled into her face.  "NOOO!!"

  "Eternal sleep!!!"

  The casket full of spikes slammed shut, crushing her body.

  Liz blinked.  She was in the cemetery with Rich and Alice.  Everything was fine.  Part of her wanted to start screaming her brains out, and part of her was ok.  It was like what had happened to her was less real.  "Rich, I just saw..."

  She stopped.  He looked at her, confused.  "What Liz?"

  "Nothing...  Nothing at all."      

*****

  They pulled up to Rich's house.  Liz gave him a little hug.  "It's weird, I feel like I know you from somewhere.  Hope the rest of your day is less weird."

  Alice stuck her head out of the window.  "We can give you a ride for the rest of the week if you want, since you’re in a new town and all.  Just let me know.  Feel free to let one of us know if you need anything.  Ciao!"

  "Thanks for the ride.  Later." 

  "Oh wait, you forgot your quiz."  Liz handed it to him.  "Richard Spoller.  That's a strange name.  Is your family from anywhere in particular?" 

  "America.  We are definitely goofy, normal Americans, all the way from America.  Can you believe it?"  Both of the ladies were giggling as they pulled away from the house.  Rich felt pretty good.  It had been a decent day overall. 

  As he entered the kitchen, Aunt Rose was cooking. Matt was asleep in his room, and mom was at the table writing something.  "How was your day, sweetie?"

  "I owned it on a test, made friends with some cute girls, and chased a cat through a graveyard." 

  "Well, I guess you had quite the adventure then.  Tell me more about these girls."  Rich could tell he had piqued her interest because she had stopped writing. 

  "No way…  Not getting into that subject with you today.  What are you writing?"

  "A letter to your father.  The counselors say it's good for his recovery."

  "Can we see him?"

  "We can go for a visit in sixty days."

  "A visit?  How long am I going to be stuck in this town!?  When are we going home?"

  Aunt Rose dropped some peppers onto a skillet.  "Hey, this is my town!" 

  Mom continued writing.  "It doesn't work like that, Richard.  It's not like he can pass a quiz and be ok. It's going to take time.  And there is no home, I won't move back into the house.  I don't care if it's free."

  "Damn!!"  Rich stormed out of the kitchen into his room, and slammed the door.

  He plopped down on his bed, his mood ruined.  He really didn't feel like doing anything.  Finally, he found himself looking at some old family photos.  "All I'm doing is freaking out even more."  He was right.  Maybe tomorrow he'd ask Liz out for coffee or something.  "No, then it becomes
relationship coffee
.  Or, she could say ‘no’."  Rich turned to his image in the mirror.  "Or Alice would want to come, which would ruin the whole point.  Maybe I should be asking Alice?  But then the whole list of problems is the same in reverse." 

  "Why don't you just ask Stan while you're at it?  You'd have a lot more fun, Richie, if you'd just go with the flow, take a chance."

  "I know, right?!"  Richard said to his image in the mirror.  "I should take a chance once in a while." 

  "But you do take chances.  So, what's this all about?"

  Rich pointed at the mirror.  "What?"

  His mirror self held up his hands.  "This?  You realize you’re cracking up, right?"

  "I am not."

  "Look man, you need to go into the kitchen and explain to your mom that you're having two-way conversations with yourself, and get some help.  Before you hurt someone…  Your dad likes to hurt people."

  "He does not!  He's sick!!"

  "tHeY sHoUlD lOcK yOu uP wItH hIm!!!!"

  A huge, clawed figure jumped out of the mirror and pulled him in.

  "YAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

  Rich jumped off of his bed.  He must have dozed off looking at photos.

  "Richard?  Are you yelling in here?"  His mom stuck her head in the door.

  "Bad dream.  Everything is fine.  Sorry about earlier."

  "This is a nice room.  Don't you like it?"

  "The room is fine.  The whole house is fine.  The town is fine.  It's just not my home."

  "Home is where you make it.  You might be surprised."

  She gave him a little hug and then left him to his solitude.  "Yeah, I might be surprised.  Surprised to death…."

  The next month sort of flew by, and things settled into a nice, grey routine of doing almost the same exact thing every day.  Go to school.  Do good.  Be bored for seven hours.  Meet up with friends.  Go do one of the only four or five activities for teenagers to do in a town this size.  Go home.  Eat.  Sleep.  Go back to school.  This most adventurous thing he'd managed in Desolation Falls so far had been chasing that stupid cat through the cemetery.

One late afternoon after school let out, Alice plopped herself down right next to Rich.  "So...I think you should ask Liz out."

  "Um...ok.  Why?"

  "Because she's been following you around like a puppy since she met you, and you want to but you won't for some reason, and at this point it's just getting pathetic.  So ask her."

  Liz was talking with Franklin, a football player they had been hanging out with since Stan went nuts and vanished on them.  Rich pointed.  "Ok then, why don't you ask out Franklin?"

  "Oh no...  You men folk cause too much trouble.  I can't figure you out.  I haven't got the time to break in that numbskull right now.  Besides, I would like to move away from this place someday."

  "Wouldn't we all..."

  "Not Liz, she says Desolation Falls is the only place that's real."

  "Interesting…" 

  Alice waved.  "Hey, Franklin, come here. I have something to show you."

  "He he, now you're talking, babe."

  "Oh, grow up jerk."

  They walked back to Alice's car.  Rich meekly walked up to Liz.  He wasn't ready to do this, but perhaps he never would be.

  "Umm...hi, Liz.  Well...um...what are you...um..."

  "Yes."

  "Yes what?"

  "Yes, I'll go on a date with you.  Be at my house tomorrow night at 8 so you can meet my mom.  Wear something nice.  We're going to dinner and a walk in the park.  You'll have me home by 10.  No funny business.  Understand?"

  "Ha!  You haven't planned this out or anything, have you?"

  "Trust me. This is probably the twenty fifth version of the plan.  Just go with it."  She gave him a little peck on the cheek.  The others were coming back.  Alice and Liz gave each other quick thumbs up.  Rich rolled his eyes; he had been duped.

  "Nice, so you both planned this out?"

  Alice laughed.  "Hey, I'm just looking out for my friend.  Remember, be a gentlemen.  No hanky panky in the champagne room, understand?"

  Liz gave her a little shove.  "Hey!  You know me!"

  Rich wasn't ready to let it go.  "So why did you want to go out with me?"

  "What?  You asked me."

  "Right, with a lot of prompting from Alice.  Why was the plan for me to ask you out?"

  Liz smiled.  "So, you wouldn't have asked me?  We forced you?"

  "Hey!  Don't change the subject."

  "Ha ha.  You seem nice.  I wanted to know more about you."

  "There's not much to know.  What you see is what you get."

  "Nonsense.  There has got to be tons to know!  Where were you born?  What's your favorite food?  What's your family like?"

  Rich thought about that first question.  Where were you born?  For some reason, he felt his pulse speed up as he realized he didn't have a clear answer.  Rich was pretty happy overall, and tried to let it pass.  "So, what should we do to finish up the evening?"