hear her steps

CHAPTER Four

Rat gives up after three burgers and they leave without paying. Scout works part-time at the Big Dipper Diner as a buser (she used to be a waitress but changed positions after she threw salad on a woman complaining about too much ranch). The manager likes Scout because she introduced him to her weed dealer so he always turns a blind eye to free burgers.

Afterwards, they wandered to the skatepark across the street to see if any of the skaters would let them borrow their boards. But the skaters learned not to after Scout accidentally snapped one in half after tumbling down a hill at high speed and breaking a thumb (she threatened to sue them but nothing ever came up of it, she later mentioned something about a “settlement” but Morgan knew it was all bullshit).

They had resigned to lounging around the playground while Rat fought off his food coma until the parents chased them away when Scout and Morgan started flicking the dried mulberries from the bushes at children. Then Scout drove them around for a while in her car, doing circles around the perimeter of La Estrella, where the roads were more windey and much darker and more thrilling to drive at high speeds as they skid a bit over the rainwater with thunder rolling in the distance, playing old tunes until she ran out of gas.

By the time Morgan gets back home, it’s much later than usual but it doesn’t really matter because Dad works from night to early morning during the summer when it’s cooler. Since he’s not there, Ophelia is supposed to make dinner and enforce curfew. But Ophelia’s passiveness combined with Caspian and Morgan’s more rebellious moods results in frozen TV dinners and late night rendezvous that Dad was none the wiser to.

Both Morgan and Scout live in the more affordable, less “glamorous” part of town, the eastside of La Estrella. The houses are older and more run-down, with faded paint, missing roof tiles, and unkempt gardens filled with weeds and patches of dirt. They’re at the end of the cul-de-sac, with Scout’s house directly across from Morgan’s. Scout only lives with her mom. Her house looks more run-down but Morgan’s house is more cluttered, with Caspian’s bike laying across the brown yard, a broken birdhouse that Dad never fixed after a previous storm tore it down, and Ophelia’s abandoned, feral succulent plants littering the porch.

At the very end of the cul-de-sac is a bench. It was built by Dad for Tara, before Tara left, of course. No one really sits there anymore, although Morgan often sees Scout smoking there. Beyond the bench and the houses is the thick forest that encompasses La Estrella.

Scout pulls up outside of Morgan’s house. Rat lives in the northside and they dropped him off earlier, with his mom yelling and asking where the hell had he been. It’s rare that Scout and Rat are separated, but Morgan always savors the moments when it’s just her and Scout.

“You good?” Scout asks.

“What?”

“I’m asking, are you good?”

“Yeah. I always am.”

“Good. I always want to know that my main girl is alright, y’know?”

“Yeah.”

“Your dad home?”

“Nah. Not for a few more hours.”

“Cool. Won’t get in trouble. Didn’t keep track of the time, sorry about that.”

“It’s alright.”

“Have fun today?”

“Yeah.”

“Your brother home?”

“Dunno. Don’t think so. Living room light would be on if he was.”

“Ophelia’s here though, yeah?”

“Yeah. That’s her car.”

“Cool. Cool, cool, cool.”

Scout starts to light a cigarette, but quickly switches to weed. She knows Morgan hates the smell of cigarette smoke.

The two of them sit for a while at the end of the cul-de-sac. The rain starts to pour harder and Morgan watches the drops rivet down the windshield. The wind howls loudly and the car sways.

“You ever want to get out?” Scout asks suddenly. Her tone is weird. She’s not looking at Morgan. She’s looking into the forest.

“What?”

“Of here,” Scout turns to Morgan. “Do you?”

“I dunno. I guess.”

“Hm,” Scout ponders. “To where?”

“You know.”

“Tell me.”

“To my mom.”

“Where’s she now?”

“Dunno. Last I saw she was in Spain. Pamplona she said. At least, that’s where the postcard was from.”

“Hm. Sounds familiar. Learned about it in Spanish I think. They’ve got bullfighting there, biggest in the world. Bulls running all up and down the streets, people have to escape because they’ve boarded up all the doors and windows and there’s nowhere else for them to go but to run straight and try to stay ahead or risk gettin’ gored. Y’know?”

“Yeah.”

“So you’d go there? To Spain?”

“I guess. Where would you go?”

“The ocean.” Scout says this with absolute resolution. “Back to the Pacific.”

Morgan holds her breath, hoping that Scout wasn’t about to go on another hour-long tangent of her hitchhiking journey to the ocean, but she doesn’t.

“Where’d you think Rat would go?” Scout asks.

“Hm. Nowhere. He’d stay home and play games.”

“You’re probably right. Lazy bastard.”

“Or, nah. He’d probably want to go to the ocean too.”

“Probably. I have him a seashell from my trip and he still keeps it. Drilled a small hole in it and hangs it from his keys.”

“Yeah, I seen it.”

“You still got yours?”

“Yeah. In my room. In my small box, with other postcards,” Morgan says, feeling a little guilty that she’s not keeping it on her like Rat.

“I got you a nice one. Pink like creamsicle. The man who sold it to me said that he fished it from a shipwreck. Hold it to your ear and you’ll hear the ocean, he said. So I did and thought I could hear it so I brought it back. But when I came back I can’t hear it that well. Just sounds like an echoing, y’know? Nothing like the ocean.”

“It’s still cool, though.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s cool. Just not like the ocean. Anyways,” she flicks her blunt out the window. “I see my mom staring. You see her?”

Morgan can just barely see the outline of Scout’s mom from the kitchen window. It looks like her hands are on her hips.

“She’ll be mad.”

“Bet. Better go before she comes draggin’ me. Me and Rat’ll be out by the river tomorrow, if you want to join. Rain’s stopping so the river’ll be full and Rat wants to try fishing.”

“Sure.”

“Bring extra socks. Last time Rat forgot and he got sick because he sat around with soggy socks for the rest of the day. Dumb bastard. Wouldn’t last a day without me.”

“I’ll bring extra.”

“Good. Now get going.”

“Bye,” and Morgan gets out of the car, watching as Scout pulled into her house across the street.

The rain is heavy and she hurries to the porch.

“Fuck,” Morgan mutters, feeling her empty pocket.

She forgot the house key in her room. She could just ring the doorbell but Ophelia never answers the door. She probably wouldn’t be able to hear the ring over the rain anyway. Instead, she makes her way to the back. The backdoor is usually left unlocked because the gate is so hard to open after Caspian broke it last year. It drags loudly against the floor as Morgan pushes it bodily open.

The house is dark inside. She can hear the tv on upstairs so she knows Ophelia is in her room.

Morgan tries to make her way to the kitchen without tripping on anything, ripping off her damp hoodie and tossing it on the couch and kicking off her mudtracked shoes. Caspian’s dirty football uniform, Ophelia’s film DVDs, Dad’s photography books, a wayward vaccuum and three pairs of shoes. The family isn’t very well-kept, if the front yard wasn’t enough evidence.

There isn’t much in the fridge, just some noodles and vegetables that Ophelia was supposed to prepare. Morgan opts for a frozen tv dinner instead. The one time that Morgan used the stove, she managed to burn spaghetti in a boiling pot and the memory scarred her from ever trying again.

She unwraps her meal, frozen dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets and crinkle cut fries, and tosses it in the microwave.

A flash of lightning illuminates the house. She glances outside the window. The rain will probably wash Ophelia’s succulents away.

A booming thunder echoes and a large flock of crows scream out of the forest into the night. The forest always scared Morgan. When they were younger, Ophelia would always take her and Caspian out into the woods to explore but Morgan would always start crying and they would have to go home, with Caspian calling her a baby and Ophelia trying to console her with a bit of chocolate. She vaguely remembers that Ophelia would ask her why she was scared but Morgan never knew why. Even now, she couldn’t quite put it into words. But part of it was the darkness. A cold, gripping darkness that she always felt out there.

BEEP. BEEP.

Morgan jumps at the microwave, tearing her eyes away from the forest. She pulls her food out and sits at the kitchen table, munching on some extra popcorn that Ophelia brought back from the theater two nights ago while waiting for it to cool down. Ophelia brings home so much popcorn that the kitchen seems to have a permanent, stale buttery smell.

She almost finishes eating when she hears a car screetch, a loud hum of music, and yelling outside. She glances out the window. Of course it’s Caspian.

She recognizes the car too. Bobby Kentucky. She hates that Caspian is friends with him.

There’s at least four other people crammed into the car, football players and their girlfriends. She doesn’t see Valentina. Caspian stumbles out of the car and waves as the car peels off, the passengers yelling obscenities playfully out the window.

There’s a fumbling at the door and she hears a small clank and Caspian cursing as he drops the keys. He finally manages to get the door open and trips inside. He gives a grunt in Morgan’s general direction as greeting.

“Dad’s not going to be happy.”

“What?” Caspian says, shrugging off his rain-soaked letterman. He rarely takes it off.

“You reek, you know that?”

“I do?” Caspian sniffs his letterman before tossing it on the couch.

“I can smell alcohol from here.”

“Oh. Whatever.”

“Dad’s gonna to be pissed.”

“Oh shut the fuck up, Morgan. He’s not home ’til later anyways. And I already know you’ve done worse.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, shut it.”

Caspian opens the fridge and gives another curse after peering inside. “Wasn’t Ophelia making dinner?”

“Supposed to, yeah.”

“God fucking damnit.” And he takes two TV dinners and begins microwaving them before heading back over to the living room and turning the tv on, flicking between channels until he finds a sports one and gives a large belch.

Caspian is Morgan’s older brother, the middle sibling in the Cho family. He’s the same age as Scout and Rat, seventeen, about to become a senior next year. And he’s somehow wormed his way into Bobby Kentucky’s little circle of friends because Bobby Kentucky is the quarterback and all Caspian cares about is becoming more than a benchwarmer during his last year in high school.

Caspian is the type of person with a very average appearance and height who tries to use his personality and intimidation to make up for it. It’s gotten worse ever since he’s started hanging out with Bobby Kentucky. Scout and Rat also hate him.

“Why did you fuck up Timmy?” he calls from the living room, not taking his eyes off the screen.

“What?”

“Heard you beat his ass.”

“Maybe.”

“Don’t do that shit,” he says, coming back to the kitchen, vaguely threateningly, serious. “Just don’t.”

“Why?”

“Cause I said so.”

“Cause you suck up to Bobby, huh?”

“Listen-”

“Scared I’ll ruin it for you?”

“Listen. Just don’t, okay? Just screw off somewhere else, okay?”

“Whatever.”

“Just fuck off with Scout and Mouse, alright?”

“Rat.”

“What?”

“His name is Rat.”

“Fucking whatever. Just mind your own business, or I’ll tell Dad.”

“Oh, sure. And I’ll tell dad that you were out late yesterday at the gym, huh? Not out with your girlfriend?”

Caspian’s face scrunches. “Shut up. Fine, I won’t say anything.”

They’re both in each other’s debt. Caspian and Morgan have a type of relationship that Morgan doesn’t have with Ophelia because Ophelia just doesn’t care. Morgan knows that Caspian isn’t out late at the gym like he tells Dad, he’s out with some girl who Dad doesn’t even know about. Caspian knows that Morgan helped Scout and Rat key Mrs. June’s car after Mrs. June lectured the trio about being too noisy, but he never told Dad about it. Morgan knows that Caspian is out drinking a lot and Caspian now knows that Morgan got into a fight with Timmy Kentucky. But nether of them will tell Dad.

His food finishes and he moves off back to the living room but stops at the doorway. “Do I really smell that bad?”

“Yeah. Mouthwash.”

“Yeah, yeah. Before Dad gets back. When’s he back again?”

“Dunno. A few hours? Your face is also really red.”

“Shut up. Didn’t even drink that much.”

“Like a pomegranae.”

“Shut up, I can’t help it. It just happens.” And he retires back to the living room with another belch.

“Can I watch?”

“Whatever.”

Morgan throws her empty platter away and brings the bag of popcorn. She sits at left side of the couch, opposite of Caspian. He snorts and mutters about something happening on the screen. Morgan doesn’t follow football, but she likes watching the players tackle each other. Caspian holds out his hand and Morgan holds out the bag and he grabs a handful of popcorn as they watch.

“You wanna try some?” Caspian holds out the can of beer.

Morgan contemplates. She knows that Dad would be livid if he found out. Not even Scout lets her drink. But how bad could one drink be?

Caspian watches as she takes a sip than lets out a wolf-like laugh when she spits it out.

“C’mon, at least keep a sip down.”

Morgan makes a face and forces down a mouthful. It’s too carbonated and it tastes bad and it burns going down.

“It’s gross.”

“You don’t drink it for the taste,” Caspian scoffs, taking another swig with another belch.

Caspian curses at the screen as she falls into a fuzzy sleep.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter