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Authors: J.D. Lawrence

Marilyn (9 page)

BOOK: Marilyn
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TWENTY-FOUR

 

Thorny bushes and nettles dragged themselves across the sides of the Jeep like clawed fingers, as they sped down a narrow back lane that looked like nothing but a dead end. Elwood reduced his speed, avoiding raised concrete and the carcass of some poor, dead animal that got caught up in the storm.

'So, tell me some more about Jack,' Elwood requested, his voice raised above the noise of the storm and car engine. It was almost a shout.

Marilyn coughed away the salty stickiness from the base of her throat.

      'He's always hungry, eats us out of house and home, forever scoffing.' She laughed with a smile, her eyes lit up. 'I swear he should be twenty stone. He's eight, coming up nine in October. I've been thinking that I'm going to take him back to the city, to the zoo for his birthday, plus that way he gets to see his friends, and that bastard of a father of his,' she finished, with a scowl.

     'He loves the zoo, mainly the tigers and the lions, but he loves all animals. I've always expected him to grow up to be a vet or a zoo keeper. He'd be great at it, too. The last time we went, the year before last, he took over fifty photos of just the lions.' She laughed.

'That sounds like a good idea, taking him to the zoo for his birthday, I mean. Robert loved the zoo as a kid, too,' Elwood added, remembering the good times. 'We went every summer until he was fifteen, I don't know how the hell he didn't get bored.'

     Marilyn cracked a smile.

'June loved taking Robert out to new places, every other week she would plan something new and exciting for us to do as a family. She really was one hell of a woman, beautiful, and the best mother and wife a father and son could ever wish for,' he declared with reverence, opening up about June for the first time.

     'How long were you married?' Marilyn asked with curiosity.

'Thirty-two marvellous years, and I wouldn't change a single day of it.’

     Marilyn paused to take a look at the road. 'Do you mind if I ask how she died?' she asked carefully.

     'The big C. Ate her from the inside out, ruined her, took everything away from her, from the three of us,’ he spewed with contempt.

     'I'm so sorry, Elwood. I really didn't mean to pry,' she murmured regretfully.

'Hey, come on, don't worry about it.' He smiled, rubbing at her knee. 'It's been a long time.'

     'You and Robert were lucky to have a woman like June. I'm nothing like her. I'm really not the best mother, look at me!' She raised her arms with her palms facing the roof. 'Look at the situation we're in because of it, I mean, who falls asleep and lets some crazy kidnap their own child?' she snapped heatedly.

'You stop talking like that, you hear? I don't want to listen to you saying those things,' he voiced like a school teacher scolding a child.

'It's true, Elwood. I was a terrible mother and wife. I was never there for Jack when he wanted me. I missed countless birthday and countless Christmases because I was so fucking selfish, always working.'

     'Come on now, Marilyn, don't talk like that, stop being so hard on yourself,' he answered back.

Elwood took a tight right turn off the back road. 'What was your job?'

'I was a nurse, always on call. I'd go to different hospitals in different cities, for sometimes weeks at a time. I never really got to do anything with Jack, with me being away. That's why I wanted to make a big fuss of his birthday this year and do something special for him, just the two of us.' She sighed. 'Twice a year, I'd get called on a three-week course, which was usually hundreds of miles from where we lived. I was consumed, nonstop. I'd talk to Jack on the phone most nights, when I had a chance, if he was awake. But what good is a voice on the end of a phone hundreds of miles away to a child? They want someone there with them, to tuck them in, to read them a bed-time story, to tell them that everything is going to be OK when they wake up in the dark frightened and alone. I wasn't there for any of it.' Her voice closed into a tearful whisper.

Elwood shuffled in his seat and stretched his legs as much as he could.

'He won't remember any of that, Marilyn. It’s now that counts. It's when you find him and take him home, and show him that everything's all right. That's what he needs. That's what he will remember.'

She compromised with her silence, pulling the sleeves of her coat into her hands. 'I remember when Jack was five,' she continued effortlessly. 'And he had a sleep over, two of his friends stayed. I stayed up with them all night, we all talked and made up ghost stories, played hide and seek.'

She cried, she let it all go for a moment, she didn't wipe the tears away, these were not drops of sadness. They were the after-effects of happy times, once past and gone. She needed to feel them on her skin, she let happiness trickle into her pores and into her mouth, swallowing the salty, content taste.

'We made a den in the living room out of our old cushions and blankets, we even made a sign to hang up outside, “No grownups allowed”. Apart from me, that was. I was the exception to the rule. Jack fell asleep in my arms, and I watched him sleep for hours. He was so innocent and peaceful, like an angel. I never wanted to let him go. In the morning, he told me how happy it made him that I was home from work, that I had a chance to play and spend time with him. I've missed some of the most important parts of his childhood, but I was there for that one night, and it meant so much to him.'

'Does Jack have any brothers or sisters?' asked Elwood.

'No. After Jack was born, there wasn't enough time in the day to think about that. Howard and I had talked about it a few times, you know, in passing, but we both knew it was never really the right time in our lives.'

This time she cleared the tears from her face.

'What about you, do you have any other children?'

'No, but that's not through lack of trying, mind you. June always wanted a little girl, I suppose most women do, it just never happened for us. We were blessed with Robert, and I'm thankful for that.'

Marilyn sank in her seat, the fleeting smile passing from her lips.

'Do you think we'll find him, Elwood?'

'Of course we will.'

TWENTY-FIVE

 

Rupert John Russell threw the remnants of the cold coffee and congealed sugary gloop down the back of his throat, swirled it around his mouth and swallowed. He thumbed the blind open and watched, just like he did thirty seconds ago, and thirty seconds before that. 'Come on, you bastard, where are you?'

He bent down under his desk and dragged out one of many cardboard boxes, full of office decorations that he had been too lazy to set up. He foraged through, pulling out a hand-carved crucifix that he had picked up on one of his summer vacations.

     'Boss?'

'Jesus Christ, Davies. Don't you know how to knock?'

'Sorry, boss, just I've got some news, that's all.'

R.J. Looked at Davies impatiently, waiting.

'Well. Spit it out, what is it?'

'Oh, umm. Yeah, sorry, boss.'

He cleared his dry throat with a gargle and splutter.

'I've got hold of Peters and Torrance, they're gonna keep an eye out.'

'Good. Good work, Davies. What did you tell them?'

'I didn't give much away, Sheriff. Just made up some bullshit like you said, boss,' he said, proudly.

'Good, what about Brewer and Langston, you get a hold of them, too?'

'Sure did. They weren't impressed. Said you're leading them on a wild goose chase.'

'They did, huh?' he replied with a slight grin. 'Well, fuck them both. Are they out there now, setting up a roadblock?' he asked, turning and placing his mug on his desk.

Davies scratched his head with a muddled look on his face.

'I assume so, boss. I told them it was important and to get it done as soon as possible.'

'Good work, Davies. I'm proud. Now. I want you to have a look at the power supply,' he uttered, his hand stroking his face, covering his mouth. 'I want to see if we can’t get some sort of alternate power running to get these computers working. I want to see who this fucker is. I want to see his face.'

'Sure thing, Sheriff. Anything else you need me to do?'

R.J. thought about it.

     'That'll be all, Davies. Thank you.'

     'OK.' Davies turned to leave. 'Hey, boss. What's that?'

R.J. looked down at the carving in his hand.

     'This? Nothing, just something I used to believe in a long time ago, that's all.'

Davies left as quietly as he had entered, his head held high.

 

 

TWENTY-SIX

 

'I hope we're getting double pay for this bullshit, Brewer,' Langston rambled, scrunching up his tiny nose and mouth on his enormous, unsymmetrical face.

'I'm freezing my fucking balls off, and that sheriff has got us sitting here like chickens ready for the slaughterhouse. Can't believe the cheek of that bastard, sometimes.'

The two men sat in the police cruiser at the edge of town, about a hundred yards from
'Argyle's Garage and service station'
. They watched the old puddles ripple and scatter across the street, under tyres and down storm drains, and new ones form.

     'Yeah, well. At least it isn't your day off,' Brewer snapped. He was a portly chap, with a receding hairline. 'I should be the one calling the shots here, I mean. Before that fucker got sent here from wherever the hell he came from, I was in the running to be sheriff,' he snarled, angrily. 'I don't know who the fuck he thinks he is, bossing us around, with his stupid faggot name.'

'True that,' Langston agreed. 'You think this fucker will even show? I mean, you got to be bat shit crazy to driving about in this shit storm.'

'Who knows? Probably not, sheriff's probably talking out of his ass, just wants to see us suffer,' Brewer grunted miserably, with a tinge of hatred. 'Where the fuck is Argyle, could he be any slower?'

'I think that's him.' Langston pointed. 'Jesus. He looks like a drowned rat. Poor guy.'

'Well, at least it ain't us out there. Last thing I want is to spend my day here soaking fucking wet.'

'He must owe you some big favour, huh?' Langston questioned.

'I looked the other way when Argyle was fined for parking, saved his lazy ass countless times.'
They watched as Argyle took three spare cars and a towing truck from his garage and parked them across the main street, bumper to bonnet all the way along, starting from his garage and ending at
'Toby's convenience store'
,  blocking any possible way in or out of the town from the east.

Brewer threw a mocking smile and a half-arsed wave of appreciation at Argyle from inside the cruiser.

'Whatya know, the son-of-a-bitch pulled through.'

Together they sat, huddled in the front seats of the cruiser, warming themselves up on the heaters, and sipping coffee from a Thermos flask.

The pair didn't say much to each other after that. They sat, waiting for the fight to be brought to them, wondering if it would ever come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TWENTY-SEVEN

 

Marilyn and Elwood passed bunches of crippled trees and blocked roadways, often slowing down to avoid the treacherous traps left unintentionally by the might of the storm. Streams of cloudy rain water filled the road, obstructing their route occasionally, but not stopping them, just adding considerable delays to their already tight schedule.

Their constant back and forth chit chat kept them awake and alert.

      'When she died, my whole life spiralled out of control,' Elwood started. 'After losing both Robert and June, I kinda hit the bottle pretty hard. I was drinking first thing in the morning, and last thing at night, and I ate less and less,' he said candidly, without fear or equivocation. 'It was the easiest way out, especially when you have no one around to tell you any different. I started waking up not knowing where I was, I had cuts on my hands and face from falling, not that I can remember any of it... Hold on, Marilyn.'

Elwood accelerated, charging through a fathomless plashet that cloaked their vision completely as it washed its muck over the windshield.

'Then, one day. I got upset, upset and angry, really angry, the angriest I have ever been. All I can remember is picking up my bat and I.. I woke up surrounded by smashed glass and splintered wood, things broken left and right. I had a nasty gash on my forehead, blood on my knuckles and cuts on my fingers. I had even busted up our wedding photo.'

'Oh, Elwood.' Marilyn reached over, resting her arm on his shoulder.

'After that day, I promised myself and June and Robert that I would never drink like that again. God knows, they would have never wanted to see me in that state,' he ended, licking his lips, looking for his flask.

They stayed quiet for a tick, watching the ephemeral carnage and ruin on the longest stretch of straight road they had come across so far.

Marilyn touched on her childhood and upbringing, eventually bringing Elwood up to speed.

'We met at eighteen, Howard and I, you could say we were childhood sweethearts. He was so loving and caring, he was like no other man I had ever met. He was gentle and passionate and took an honest interest in things I had done, things I wanted to do, and supported me when times got hard.' She remembered, 'My parents loved him almost as much as I did. I was married at twenty-two but already obsessed with my new career, putting my home life second place in my priority hierarchy. At first, Howard was over the moon at my success, throwing parties and special dinners each time I got a promotion or a raise, but then it became too much for him, and I was too blind to see that, too blind to see the strain it was putting on my marriage.' Her voice was weak and strained. 'We stayed together anyway, for Jack's sake, which I know now is wrong, and we shouldn't have done it. Children have a sixth sense when it comes to things like that. Jack knew, he could feel it, the atmosphere at home was a tough one, when I was there anyway, which wasn't often. ‘Howard,' she sniffed, 'Was… is a teacher. A maths teacher. About a year ago, I suspected him of having an affair. His phone calls to me become less and less frequent, and when we did talk, his voice was empty and forced and didn't really have all that much to say to me. I ended up taking a week off work to spend time at home with Jack and Howard during the summer holidays. But Howard kept making these awful excuses to leave the house each day and he would come home late every night.' Her voice grew louder, fierce. 'I could smell women, well… perfume on his shirts, he must have thought I was an idiot.' She calmed herself the best she could. ‘Anyway, I confronted him about it and he admitted to it. He had been having an affair with his colleague Linda for eighteen months. I was stunned how casually he admitted it. Not hiding or bending the truth, he had no shame.' She said rapidly, ‘I threw him out straight away, but not before I had said my piece. I worked the notice on my job, taking extra hours to save a little bit of money for me and Jack.' She sank into her seat and her voice slipped into a timid whimper. 'We were alone now. I guess I never learn. It was my job that destroyed my life. I should have just quit when I saw the great big flashing warning signs, but I was blinded by my own stupidity and ambition.'

Elwood listened intently. There was a moment of silence as he took off his glasses to rub his old, tired eyes, and clean the lenses.

'Marilyn, you can't keep blaming yourself. It's not fair to you.' His well thought out speech was interrupted, indefinitely.

'Look, there. A sign. Can you see it from here?' he asked, urgently.

Elwood pointed his bony finger at the windshield, aiming at a signpost just showing itself in the distance.

'I see it, I see it. I can't read what it says, though.'

Marilyn squinted her eyes, they both did. An odd habit that people do without thinking. She wormed in her seat, eagerly.

'There, there. I see it. Hang on, it says… Town four miles.'

 

BOOK: Marilyn
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