Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (5 page)

“It won’t be the same without you,” said
Damen. He gave Maria a huge hug while wishing she would give him a
kiss.

She then opened the screen door and said,
“Don’t worry, you won’t miss me that much.” As she let go of
Damen’s hand, he knew her touch wouldn’t be felt by him for a long
time. He cast a sad look toward her, a look of depression.

Jose walked in front of Damen, causing him to
lose sight of her, and said, “No ... that’s just it, we will miss
you.” He gave her a tight hug. “I’ll return for you soon, Maria, I
promise you, baby,” Jose whispered into her ear as Damen looked
away from them and tried to distinguish his pain, and jealousy. He
looked at Maria only for a second and imagined him kissing her
again.

She looked at both of them and said, “Listen,
I want you to do one thing for me, while you’re out there.”

“What’s that?” Damen asked, seeing the porch
light come on again at the same time.

“Alright, Mom,” yelled Maria. She opened her
front door and began to enter through it.

“Wait, what is it that you want us to do?”
asked Jose. Maria stopped halfway in the entrance, and turned
around.

“Oh, don’t change. I want you to promise me
that you won’t change out there... I heard that California can do a
lot to a guy, especially a friendship.” Jose and Damen smiled
toward her, like they couldn’t believe she’d said that. Finding it
funny and cute of her, yet she still had a point.

Jose looked at Damen and said, “Don’t worry,
we won’t change at all. We promise you.”

“Alright, goodnight, and goodbye for now.”
She looked at them staring at her, and wanted to end this moment,
this painful reality, that soon would be a memory, fast and simply.
She wanted to end it so she wouldn’t feel the pain anymore and,
most of all, would win her fight to keep her tears in and hidden
from them. “I guess, keep in touch,” Maria whispered. She went
through the entrance, all the way, and closed the door behind
her.

Maria’s tears came pouring down her face,
watching Damen and Jose walk off her porch and into the night; she
wanted to go with them. Her tears showed that she wanted so badly
to go with them, but her mind said “no.” She walked upstairs to her
bedroom and looked out of her window, to see if she could spot Jose
and Damen from a distance. Maria looked out into the night, past
the forests and fields, saying to herself, “I just hope you don’t
break that promise...”

Damen and Jose finally reached Jose’s house.
As Damen shook his hand, he said, “Alright, make sure you wake up
at 5:00 sharp, tomorrow morning.”

“I will. I’ll see you at the train station,
man.” Jose then walked in his house and left Damen standing in the
night, alone.

“Hey, Jose,” Damen whispered in a loud tone,
right before he was ready to close his door. Jose turned around and
stared through the night at Damen. The moonlight was the only help
in seeing Damen’s silhouette, his figure. They stared at each
other, not seeing their eyes, but only their shadows, and suddenly
looked around at the scenery. The way the trees shined against the
moonlight, and the way the countryside seemed so intriguing,
allowed them to realize that they were leaving it behind; that this
was the last night they’d see of Ridge Crest. Jose looked at
Damen’s silhouette again and wondered what he wanted.

“Yeah?”

“You really think we’ll make it out there ...
you know, in Hollywood?”

“I don’t think so, I know so. We’re going to
be bigger than any movie star that ever stepped foot in Hollywood,”
Jose answered with a proud smile. Before he walked into his house,
he turned around and asked, “Oh, Damen, I’m all out of cigarettes,
could you bring a carton with you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, but as soon as we get to California,
you and Darell get some for yourselves.”

“Alright, thanks, and goodnight...”

“Goodnight,” said Damen. A smile grew upon
his face before he walked away from Jose’s house: a smile of
hope.

When Damen reached his house, he walked out
back, to his yard, and sat down on the grass. Staring at the stars
and feeling the warm air blow against his body allowed him to close
his eyes and talk to God. He always talked to God, either in the
Valley, at night, or in his backyard, at dusk, and that caused him
to question his prayers. He wondered if God would hear his prayers
in Hollywood the same way he heard them in the Valley, or in Ridge
Crest. The thought caused him some sadness. So, Damen asked for a
sign—a shooting, bright, bright star in the sky, which would
symbolize God being with him at every moment, wherever Damen might
roam. But, he couldn’t ask for a normal shooting star, only because
shooting stars were very common, so it had to be a grand sign: a
sign that only he would see. Yet, no sign came to him that night,
so Damen got up from the ground, dusted his pants a bit, and
entered his house.

He right away wrote the letter to his
parents. Damen then packed his book bag full of dirty clothes and
made sure he packed his money safely at the bottom of it; but
still, every so often, he would stare out the window of his bedroom
and wait for a sign from God. He put the bag under his bed and
tried going to sleep, but a great excitement, mixed with fear, was
inside his mind and allowed his eyes to stay opened. He turned to
his window again, which was facing the right side of his room, and
gazed outside at the stars that twinkled in the sky. Damen then
smiled and realized that he was going to be a star, even though God
didn’t send a sign through them. He realized, they were all going
to be stars of Hollywood, and they were going to shine the
brightest, and the longest. He slowly closed his eyes and dreamed
about flying over the big Hollywood sign, and saying out loud, “I
made it.” That, alone, was a good-enough sign.

His mother came into the room, just after he
went into the dream state, and kissed him on the forehead. She
heard him mumbling something in his sleep, and tried to make out
what he was saying. After a few minutes, she decided to give up on
the search for the words Damen muttered, and slowly walked to his
bedroom door. She was halfway out the door when suddenly she heard
Damen say in a clear tone, while his eyes were closed, “We are
going to make it.”

Chapter Three

Damen was awakened from his dream state at
4:00 a.m. on the dot by the sound of a drumbeat, due to the
raindrops falling onto his windowsill. He jumped out of his bed and
walked slowly down the hall, to the bathroom. He didn’t want to
wake up anyone; after all, he knew his father would be up very
soon, so he had to make his escape fast, short, and very simple.
Brushing his teeth, combing his hair, and rushing over to his
backpack, every so often, to pack little things that he didn’t want
to leave behind—this made him exhausted. But, through the
exhaustion, he knew he had to be fast, or else his father would
stop him, would throw a wrench in his plan, and make it impossible
for him to attempt leaving this town again. Damen looked out at the
night, through his window to his bedroom, and stared at the stars,
at how they were beginning to fade, due to the sun’s birth. That
caused him to create fear in his mind; it was almost time for his
father to awake. He picked up his pack and tiptoed over to his
parents’ room, walking very, very slowly so the floor wouldn’t
creak and wake everyone up. Damen stood there motionless as the
thought of his father waking up and asking, Where do you think
you’re going? You’re not going anywhere, appeared in his mind.

He saw his parents through the light of the
electric fly-catcher that hung outside. Sounds of zaps were heard
by the deaths of small, disgusting insects that took a wrong
detour, and suddenly Damen saw his mother beginning to move. Since
the window was open, and knowing that the sound from the fly
catcher could be heard like a loud echo, Damen knew they would wake
up because of it. He walked, very slowly, and attempted to close
the window, and keep the flies’ deaths away from the ears of his
parents. He reached over to the window and slowly began to push it
down, when out of nowhere he heard a voice say, “Thank you,
sweetie, they were bothering me too.”

Damen was afraid to turn around and see whom
the voice was, feeling the darkened room shadowing over him; but he
had to see what thing made that noise. So he turned around, and saw
his mother smiling at him, with her eyes closed. “You’re welcome,
Mom,” he whispered. He walked back toward the door, and turned
around to see his parents, his loved ones. Feeling a sense of
sadness, for leaving so quickly, he whispered, “I love you, Mom,
and I love you too, Dad.” He wanted so badly to run over to the bed
and say goodbye out loud, but he knew he couldn’t. Damen knew if he
did, then he could never leave, never escape; he felt, inside his
soul, that once his father was awakened, he would never be able to
survive the escape.

He walked across the hall, to his brother’s
room, and stood motionless by the doorway also. He said his
goodbyes in a low tone and began walking away from the door; that’s
when he made a creaking noise in the floor, by his steel-toed
boot’s pressing against it. Damen stopped for an instant. The noise
was loud and very drawnout. The darkened hallway gave Damen a sense
of fear, terror; he knew he’d made a loud noise, and if anyone woke
up, he wouldn’t know, only because his vision, his sight, was
obscured by the dark. Yet, he still turned around to see if he’d
woken up anyone, especially Greg.

Damen saw Greg still in the bed and felt a
pure feeling of relief. So he left the doorway and walked down the
hallway. Suddenly, he heard a voice ask, “Where do you think you’re
going?”

He stopped in his tracks and turned around in
slow motion; the darkness was the only one who saw his fear. His
fears of the voice coming from his father ran through his mind as
fast as the rain hit the roof of his house. Damen closed his eyes
when he faced the direction that the question came from; he didn’t
want to show his fear-filled eyes to the creature, the monster that
was going to stop him from going. Before he opened his eyes, he
replied, “I’m going to Sugar Valley.” Damen’s new tactic, of lying,
was the only other option. Maybe he could escape still, without
confronting the truth about his leaving.

“At this time in the morning?” the voice
asked. Damen opened his eyes, very slowly, and saw Greg.

“Oh ... it’s just you,” said Damen in a
relieved tone. A smile came on Greg’s face, but he didn’t know that
Damen was leaving for good. He just was happy that he’d scared the
living hell out of him.

Greg always scared Damen, and always treated
him like an outcast to the family. The only thing that he was good
for was telling Damen to follow his dreams, and he didn’t even know
what dreams they were.

“Where are you really going?”

Damen looked across the hallway at his
parent’s room, and slowly, quietly asked, “You promise you won’t
tell Mom or Dad?”

Greg followed Damen’s eyes to his parents’
room, and thought that he was acting very strange at this time in
the morning. So, he said in a sarcastic fashion, “I promise.” They
both started to walk down the stairs, while Greg still awaited a
reply.

Damen reached the downstairs and walked into
the kitchen when he said, “Well ... I’m going to try to make my
ambition come true.”

“Oh, really? Well, if Dad wakes up, he’s
gonna stop your ass from making anything come true,” Greg laughed.
“Come on, seriously, where you going at this time in the morning?”
Greg then opened up the refrigerator and grabbed a carton of milk;
the light from the fridge reflected off of Damen’s face, and Greg
turned around to stare at him, waiting for a reply still. Suddenly,
Greg saw seriousness in Damen’s eyes, a type of seriousness that
only could be shown through a person’s heart, but instead, it was
showing its presence through his eyes now.

“I am serious, that’s where I’m going. I’m
going to California,” Damen replied.

Greg felt that this moment was getting too
corny, too soap-opera-like, and tried to add some sarcasm to the
conversation, to strike down the seriousness, and mellow out the
words. “What, are you going to try to become a movie star or
something?” Greg asked in a joking manner, pouring himself some
milk in a small glass at the same moment. He didn’t want Damen to
say “yes,” but Greg’s joking came to a halt, ended, and stopped for
good when Damen opened his mouth; and his words were nothing but
words of importance.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m going to try
to do.” Greg looked at him in shock.

Greg didn’t want his little brother to go, to
end their relationship and travel away from Ridge Crest for good.
Yet, in a small way, he did, he felt that Damen was serious enough,
and he saw that Damen really wanted this. For all that, Greg still
didn’t want him to go, so his best tactic, the best thing he could
do at a time like this, was ask the one question that would be the
last question. “You can’t be serious, Damen ... you serious?”

“Yeah ... I’m very serious, and I have to go
now.”

Greg dropped his glass of milk on the floor;
the shock caused the glass to fall from Greg’s grasp, and allowed
him to just stare at Damen and totally forget about the mess he’d
just created.

“Damen ... are you coming back home ever?”
Greg asked in a loud way while stepping over the broken glass to
get closer to him. “I mean, wow, I mean, hello, Damen, this is kind
of a moment thing.” Greg concentrated his eyes on him, watching his
eyes, and how they already gave away the answer, they’d already
replied to his question, but Greg wanted to hear him say it. “So,
are ya?”

“Listen ... Greg, I don’t know what I’m gonna
to do. Just please, please, don’t tell Mom or Dad. Promise me you
won’t.” Damen then placed a letter on the table, next to a fruit
basket filled with bananas, and waited for Greg to promise.