Chapter 8
One week
later
It had been two weeks. For
two weeks, Brian had been locked in a room, tied down to a bed. For the first week, it had been in the
abandoned building; for the second, in the basement of Brendan’s friend
Sonny. Brian wasn’t sure which was
worse.
Both were terrible, that was for sure. But lately, Brian was thinking he hated the
new place more. Sonny’s basement was
dirty, musty, and smelly. Although
lately, Brian wasn’t sure which was worse – the stench of the room he was in or
the stench of himself. After all, he
had not bathed since the morning he had left Mexico City, where the last
concert of the tour had been held. Two
weeks was a long time to go without bathing, changing, or using deodorant. And it was definitely taking its toll on
Brian.
He longed for the heavenly feeling of warm, clean water dripping
over his body, the sweet scent of his Dove soap, the silkiness of his hair when
it was freshly shampooed. Now his hair
was stringy, greasy, and dirty, his face streaked with dirt and tears, his
clothes soiled and stained with sweat.
Sometimes, just a whiff of the odor rising from his body was enough to
make him gag. It was not only gross,
but humiliating as well.
But even his lack of hygiene was not as awful as his physical
condition. Brian could feel himself
getting weaker, from lack of food and exercise. Brendan came by every morning, with a small
amount of food for Brian. Then Sonny
would come in the evening with a small glass of water. And that was all Brian got. His stomach growled constantly, and he was
nauseous with hunger. What he did get
to eat provided little relief to him.
He now knew what it meant to be “starving to death”. He figured he would not take that expression
lightly anymore.
That is, if he got out of this alive.
***
“Hello?” Brendan asked, picking up the phone in his house.
“Brian! Hi, sweetheart,
it’s Mom. How are you doing?”
Brendan groaned inwardly, remembering what a mama’s boy his twin
was. After all, he was the one who had
written that sappy piece of crap, “The Perfect Fan”. This could be a tough act to pull off.
“Hi, Mom!” Brendan exclaimed with faked enthusiasm. “I’m doing great. How’s everything with you and Dad?”
“Oh, everything’s just fine here.
We’ve been a little worried about you though. I thought you would call when things wound
down after the tour, but I haven’t heard from you in weeks!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mom. Things
have just been hectic, and I haven’t had a chance to call,” Brendan lied,
mentally scolding himself for not thinking of calling his mother earlier. Of course sweet little Brian would call his
mommy and daddy as soon as he got home.
“Oh, that’s okay, honey. I
understand. So what have you been up to
that has you so busy?”
“Oh… just the usual stuff,” Brendan replied slowly, trying to
think of a good lie. Nothing came to
him.
“Oh, I know what you mean,” Jackie Littrell said, to Brendan’s
relief. “So how is Leighanne?”
“She’s good,” he said.
“And how about your babies?” she asked teasingly.
Brendan drew a blank.
Babies? And then, his eyes
resting on the little chihuahua sleeping on the floor across the room, he
realized what she meant.
“Oh, Tyke and Litty are great,” he replied. Litty Leigh, hearing her name, got up off
the floor and scampered over to her “master”.
Brendan glared at her, giving her a little kick as she pawed at his
leg. Whimpering, Litty slunk off with
her tail between her legs.
“That’s good,” Jackie said.
“So… the rest of the tour went fine then, I assume?”
“Uh-huh.”
There was a pause. Then
Jackie asked, “Is everything all right, Brian?”
“Sure, Mom, everything’s fine,” Brendan said reassuringly. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, I don’t know… you’re just being kind of quiet. Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”
Brendan rolled his eyes.
“I’m sure, Mom. I’m just tired,”
he said.
“Oh, okay. Well, I’ll let
you go then. Go get some sleep.”
“Okay, thanks, Mom. I’ll
talk to ya later,” Brendan said. He
waited for her to say goodbye and then hung up.
He sat there for a few minutes, just staring broodingly into
space. He knew he was going to have to
try harder to act more like Brian, or people would start to get
suspicious. And that couldn’t happen.
***
