Chapter 16
Less
than a mile down the road, they came to an old two-story house. The house might have been nice looking at
one time, but now it was just run down, with the dirty looking light blue paint
flaking off of its wooden exterior, the front porch sagging, and the shingles
on the roof peeling off.
The
house sat on a lawn of scraggly yellow-brown grass and no landscaping, only a
few snarled trees, some scrappy bushes, and patches of overgrown weeds. The front yard was littered with children’s
toys, beer cans, and cigarette butts.
An
uneasy feeling in her stomach, Taylor hesitantly followed Jaime and Brent up a
cracked cement walkway to the unsteady looking steps leading to the front
porch. The steps creaked as they
climbed up, but they didn’t collapse.
Brent
opened the front door, which creaked as well, and held it open for the girls to
enter the house. Tentatively, they did
so, finding themselves in a small entryway.
Almost
immediately, they heard a stampede of footsteps, as three small children came
tearing into the little foyer. The
children, two little boys and a little girl, stared up at Taylor and Jaime with
wide eyes.
“Hey
y’all,” Brent cried, ruffling the little girl’s tangled blonde hair. “Meet Taylor and Jaime.”
The
three kids said nothing, just continued to stare.
“This
here is my little brother Tucker; he’s nine,” Brent said, motioning to the
oldest, a boy with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. “And this is Cassie, who’s six,” he
continued, nodding to the little girl.
She was a cute child, with long blonde hair and angelic blue eyes. “And finally, we’ve got Austin. He’s just three.” Austin was also cute, with shaggy dark blonde
hair and brown eyes.
“Hi,”
Taylor said, forcing a smile down at the three.
Inside, she felt even more uncomfortable. Jaime just smiled at them and looked back to
Brent.
“You
wanna meet the others?” Brent asked.
“Sure,”
Jaime said with a shrug.
“Okay,
come with me,” Brent replied. He led
them up a creaking staircase to the narrow hallway on the second floor. They walked down it and stopped at a door to
their right.
Brent
knocked twice and opened the door. They
entered a bedroom decorated in blue. It
had bunk beds against one wall. On the
top bunk sat a teenage boy, tossing a dirty baseball up and catching it in one
hand.
“This
is my fifteen year old brother, Jimmy,” Brent introduced. “Jimmy, this is Taylor, and this is
Jaime.”
“Hey,”
Jimmy muttered, his dark eyes narrowing at them from under his baseball
cap.
Brent
led the girls out and closed the door behind them. He led them down the hall to the next room
and opened the door. Inside was a
girl’s bedroom, with another set of bunk beds.
They were unoccupied, but a girl sat on the floor, flipping through a
tattered magazine. She looked up when
they entered the room.
“This
is my sister, Brittney. She’s twelve,”
Brent said, motioning to the girl.
“Britt, meet Jaime and Taylor.”
“Hi,”
Brittney said, smiling at them. She had
light brown hair and brown eyes.
“Hi,”
Taylor and Jaime said in unison and then left, following Brent to yet another
bedroom. Inside was another girl’s
room, where a tall, bleached blonde girl about their age stood.
“Hey,
Brent,” she said, her green eyes narrowing at Taylor and Jaime. “Who’s this?”
“This
is Taylor and Jaime. I met them today
at the store,” Brent replied. “And
ladies, this is my oldest sister, Leanne.
She’s eighteen, like y’all.”
“Hi,”
they both said.
Leanne
nodded to them. “Hey,” she said. Then she looked back at Brent. “I hope you don’t plan on lettin’ them stay
here, cause Momma and Daddy’ll be home later this evenin’, and you know how
they don’t like no visitors.”
“I
know, Lee. Don’t worry, they ain’t
stayin’ long. They’re just waitin’ for
Joe to fix up their car. They was
travelin’, and it got a flat tire just outside of town,” Brent explained.
“I
see,” Leanne said, tossing her mane of blonde hair.
“Well,
come on, girls. You want somethin’ to
drink?” Brent asked.
“Sure,”
they replied in unison.
“Okay. Right this way,” Brent said, leading them
back downstairs. As they headed down
the steps, Taylor studied framed pictures hanging on the wall, all pictures of
the seven children. One picture in
particular caught her eye, but she didn’t have time to get a closer look, for
Brent and Jaime had already reached the bottom of the stairs.
Brent
led them into a cluttered kitchen, and they took seats at the worn kitchen
table, while he dug into a big, olive green refrigerator. He pulled out a two liter of Dr. K soda and
held it up. “This alright?” he asked.
“Sure,”
they replied. Brent nodded and dropped
a few ice cubes in two cups, then filled them with soda.
“Here
ya go,” he said, handing them each one.
Taylor
took a sip, trying not to make a face. The
soda was flat, and even though it had been in the refrigerator, it wasn’t cold
enough. She forced down another swallow
to be polite and set her cup down on the table.
Brent
poured himself a glass of the soda and sat down with the girls at the table. He took a long gulp from his cup. Setting it down abruptly, he grimaced.
Taylor
gave him a knowing smile, expecting him to comment on the flat taste the soda
had. But he did not. Instead, his face paled several shades, and
his right hand went to the left side of his chest, just like he had done back
in the grocery store.
“Brent?”
Jaime asked in alarm. “Are you okay?”
“Ch-chest
pain,” he gasped through ragged breaths.
He slumped down in his chair, his face twisted in pain.
Taylor
leapt up from her chair, sending it falling backward to the ground. “Where’s the phone?” she asked, looking
around the kitchen. She spotted one
hanging on the wall near the doorway and ran to it.
“Wait…
wh-what are you doing?” Brent asked weakly.
“Calling
911,” Taylor replied, picking up the phone.
“No,
don’t!” he tried to protest, but she was already dialing. As Taylor waited for someone to pick up,
Jaime rested her hand on Brent’s shoulder, trying to keep him calm. She knew instinctively that this time,
whatever was wrong with him was not going to pass in a matter of minutes, like
it had before. And it scared her.
***
