Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (7 page)

My, God, Darell, he’s gonna kill you. He’s
actually gonna kill you. Just don’t look back, he’s probably far
behind me. Damn it, Jose, I wish you would hold your hand out
farther...

Jose wailed, “Darell, he’s right behind you.”
Darell gave Jose a shocked look.

“Oh, gee, thanks for telling me that. You
sure know how to keep hope alive,” he screamed in sarcasm.

“Just jump,” yelled Jose. The train moved
faster and faster.

“I can’t.”

“Yes you can, just imagine you’re Indiana
Jones or something, or some bull-shit like that,” screamed Damen.
The sweat formed like acne on Darell’s face, and his speed allowed
the insects to fly upon his image, and smack his face. The bugs
started to stick to his sweaty cheeks, and so Darell wiped some of
them off, including the beads of sweat, and tried to run as fast as
he could, away from his menacing father. “Darell, just imagine,”
Damen added. Darell’s eyes widened, pretending he was a superhero
running away from evil. This caused his legs to move with greater
speed, and instigated courage to kill the fear he was feeling.

“Get back here now, you little son of a ...”
shouted his father. He ran behind Darell, closer than Darell’s own
clothes were to his body, and grabbed onto his shirt.

“Come on, man, just grab my hand,” Jose said,
holding out his hand in a dangling fashion. The train’s movement,
its shaky body, allowed Jose’s hand to fly all over the place, and
not aim correctly toward Darell’s.

“You’re not going anywhere with these two
losers,” his father yelled, trying desperately to get a better grip
on Darell’s shirt.

Darell grabbed onto Jose’s hand and his
father grabbed onto his shirt again, but with a better grip. The
train started to move faster and faster as the sun began to rise,
and admit more heat toward Darell’s sweaty face. But then, Darell
grabbed ahold of Jose’s hand and jumped onto the train, causing his
shirt to rip from his father’s grip. The father fell and rolled
into a ditch by the railroad tracks, causing stones of all sorts to
fly into the air, like an explosion. He got up immediately and
yelled out in a high-pitched voice, “You’re never going to become
an actor and you know it. That’s not what you want, Darell.”

Jose flipped the bird to him, and the father
still yelled out Darell’s name over and over again. Darell started
to cover his ears, he couldn’t take that sound of his dad, that
lonely, depressing tone of his name, coming from the man he thought
was his hero. But then he uncovered his ears and heard nothing but
wind blowing from the outside, and the sound of the train’s body
hitting each stone that it ran over, and bobbing back and forth
over the track. The sound of his father was gone, and so was
Darell’s fear; hope showed itself through his eyes.

“Yes, we made it,” said Jose. A yawn came
from his mouth suddenly, causing his arms to be thrown up in the
air in a stretching motion. “Well, if you guys don’t mind, I’m
gonna get some shut-eye. After all, it’s going to be a long time
till we reach Chicago.”

“Me too, I’m kind of tired myself,” yawned
Darell. He covered the ripped part of his shirt, to protect his
skin from the morning frost that was in the compartment still, and
then looked at Jose and Damen. Darell saw some confusion in Damen’s
eyes.

“Darell, why did you tell your father the
reason for this trip?” questioned Damen. Jose bunched up some
mailbags together to make a pillow for his head, but Damen still
stared at Darell, awaiting a reply.

“What?”

Damen gave a smile; he knew Darell was
playing off his question. Yet, Damen exuded some anger as he said,
“Darell, your father didn’t know that you wanted to be an actor, so
don’t play it off like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Like
I asked, why did you tell him?”

“I didn’t tell him, I wrote it in the
letter.”

“Okay, could you tell me what else the letter
contained?” asked Damen, seeing that Darell looked puzzled. He then
remembered that Darell was a little bit slow when it came to
remembering, or putting sentences together. He just didn’t like to
listen. “What else did you write in the letter?” he asked again,
but more specifically. He tried not to get upset at him.

Darell started closing his eyes slowly as he
answered, “Nothing else.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright ... just checking.” Relief washed
over Damen and a small grin came onto his face. The sound of the
wind allowed him, as well, to start feeling some tiredness, some
heaviness to his eyelids.

“Wake me up when we reach Chicago,” Darell
mentioned while his eyes stayed shut.

Damen lay down and closed his eyes, but still
didn’t forget about Darell’s words. “Alright,” Damen said to
him.

Damen slept only for two hours when he was
awakened by the sound of screeching coming from the train tracks
below. He watched as the countryside went by, it was like he was
watching his life change right before his eyes. He looked as if he
was in a time machine, watching the wonders of life pass before
him, changing their structures, forms and allowing themselves to
take on new textures to his eyes. He watched as the towns became
cities and the trees became buildings. To him, this was the
beginning, the beginning of his dream. The countryside became
highways and byways, and the cows that grazed within the long
stretches of green pastures turned into cars being parked at gas
stations. This was all new to him, to his mind’s eye, and it made
him tired, sleepy; it overwhelmed him so much that his mind told
him to rest and wait till he reached his destination. He fell
asleep into the day that became night to him. He fell into the
dream state of fame that Jose and Darell already began.

Chapter Four

“I’ll ask you once more... whose idea was it
to go on this trip?” Darell’s father asked as Maria turned to face
her parents. The sun was up, fully showing its heat and causing a
glare to hit Maria’s young face. She knew she was in trouble for
knowing about this plan, this mission of her friends, and keeping
it a secret, hidden away in her soul. Maria looked out at the
horizon, scared of her parents, terrified that she knew a mode of
truth was stretched by her not telling about her friends’ escape,
and blinked her eyes once. She concentrated on this horizon,
beautiful as an angel’s wing, and suddenly looked at the
cornfields, that literally were on all sides of her town. Her
neighbor’s house, which stood about a half a mile away, stuck out
in her sight and made her want to crave it. She wanted to run to
it, knowing about this harm that she put herself into, but knew
that it was too far away, out of her reach to go to its safety. She
saw two men walking toward her house, moving at a fast pace,
talking to each other with a loud tone. The judgment, the trial was
about to begin, and Maria was not prepared with her testimony, her
words of truth that she did not want to speak. The two men came
closer to her porch, and through their silhouettes, Maria saw that
it was Damen’s and Jose’s fathers, coming with grand speed.

Damen and Jose’s dads showed up to this
trial, this mission of finding the truth about their sons’
whereabouts. The courthouse, which in reality was the front yard of
Maria’s home, was such beauty to her sight, but now its appearance
was ugly, distorted by her fright. Maria’s mother stood on the
porch, staring at the fathers, and then looking at Maria’s
terrified but innocent face. She felt that Maria knew where their
sons were, but for some reason, she didn’t want to speak it, tell
it to them, she didn’t want to reveal where the boys went. Yet, as
a mother, she had to get the truth out from her, steal away the
secret that her daughter was keeping and show it to the fathers, in
order to please them, make them feel comfortable, and make their
worries go away. Her mother took off the yellow apron that she wore
around her waist, and took a rubber band from her red hair; she
wanted to get comfortable before she asked her daughter the big
question. Stepping down to the stairs Maria sat on, the mother
moved directly in front of her to block out Maria’s view of the
fathers and their threatening eyes.

She grabbed Maria’s hand, very, very gently,
and caressed it, like a newborn baby: very delicately. The men
waited for an answer from this girl, showing impatience in their
faces. “Maria?” asked her mother.

She looked up slowly at her, realizing the
fathers were directly behind her mom, and showed tears toward
her.

“Maria, answer him. If you know where they
are, then please, tell us.” A flock of birds flew over their heads
and landed in an oak tree that stood in her front yard. Maria
listened to their music, to their chirping sound, and tried to only
concentrate on the birds’ voices, instead of this moment she didn’t
want to have in her memory. But the birds flew away, left their
nests, and Maria couldn’t concentrate on anything else. She longed
for some sort of diversion or trance, which would allow her to
leave this moment behind, and only concentrate on that one thing.
She looked about, listening with her ears for any chirping from
crickets, or any barking from dogs, but nothing came to her ears,
or eyes. The only thing that she captured was her mother, Darell’s
father, who stood with anger to his posture, and the other two
dads, who still had confusion to their eyes.

“What’s this all about? I have to get back to
the fields soon,” asked Damen’s father with a voice of confusion.
He didn’t even know that Damen was missing, and his voice proved
it, made it clear to the rest of the Dads.

Darell’s paps was too impatient to wait for
Maria to answer her mother; he wanted the truth immediately. So he
pushed the mother out of the way and demanded in a loud manner,
“Answer me, Maria. Did Darell really do this?”

“What’s this all about?” Mr. Rodrigo asked.
He didn’t know that Jose was missing either, so he and Damen’s dad
stared at Maria in a puzzled fashion, a perplexed way.

“Yeah, if you woke us all up this early,
Pete, it better be extremely important... Could we please hurry
this along? I got a lot of things to do right now,” Mr. Schultz
said, looking at Darell’s dad with confused eyes. Maria looked
frightened, she didn’t want Mr. O’Conner to tell the rest about
their sons’ escape from Ridge Crest; her eyes showed terror to her
mother’s mind.

Pete put down his gun that he ran after
Darell with, and stared at both of the fathers with a smile, a
small grin that meant he knew something they didn’t. “It is of
importance, Jack, it’s about our sons. Did you know our boys went
on a little trip to New York?” asked Pete. He looked at Maria with
sinister eyes; he wanted her to finish the rest, through his evil
stare, but Maria was too afraid to say it orally. Pete touched his
gun, rifle, his weapon of sport, and showed Maria what he was
doing. He wanted to scare her, place mental retribution in her
mind, so she would think that he would kill her if she didn’t speak
the truth. Pete still waited for the reaction from Jack Schultz
first. He waited, looking at his eyes, and began to widen them, as
if he was in shock that Damen’s dad didn’t give a reply to his
question. Since he didn’t see any reaction coming from him, he
looked at Mr. Rodrigo, and waited for the same thing.

“What ... what do you mean, New York?” Jack
Schultz finally asked in a surprised voice. “What do you mean, how
the hell could Damen get to New York with your sons?”

Mr. O’Conner went on the highest step of the
porch, and looked out at the morning dew, on the tall weeds
standing right next to him. Before he replied, Maria looked down at
the porch and began biting her nails, started to show her
nervousness through her nervous habit. “Yeah, your boys took my son
to New York. And you know why? To become a frickin’ actor.”

“What do you mean our boys? Damen never
wanted to become an actor. It was probably your son, Darell’s,
idea. Right now, my son is probably somewhere around the Valley
fishing,” defended Jack. He defended his son, his pride, and stuck
up for them in an angry voice.

Jose’s father was still confused. He didn’t
want to realize his son’s ambition, his dream, and his running away
from Ridge Crest. But, he jumped into the argument and shouted in
tumult, “My son would never want that either, he’s a fisherman.”
Mr. Rodrigo was in denial, in hiding about his son’s ambition; he
didn’t want to accept it. His anger grew even more, along with the
rest of the dads, when he realized he couldn’t argue with Jose
about his dream, only because he wasn’t there anymore to have a
chance at the battle. The fathers lost control, charge, and that
allowed their anger to get the best of them. In a way, they weren’t
only aggravated about their sons leaving, but they were aggravated
about not being able to stop them from going, escaping their
grasps. The only dad who wasn’t that upset at this trial, this
case, was Maria’s. Her father just stood at the top of his porch,
watching this argument, like someone staring at a boxing match
getting ready to begin.

“What are you trying to say? Are you trying
to say it was my son’s idea?” Mr. O’Conner questioned. Pete was so
aggravated, so out of it, that he wanted to let them know he still
was in charge of his son’s life. But the thing was, in reality, his
son was in control now, and this caused an extremely high anger to
contrive in his mind, and their minds.

Maria slowly looked away from her mother and
stared at the fathers in back of her. But suddenly, she looked back
at her parents. The fear of the argument was too frightful to show
her presence to the fathers.

“Listen, your boy probably just ran away and
wrote you a fake letter,” mentioned Mr. Schultz. Jack didn’t want
to believe that his son Damen ran away with his own free will to
guide him. Yet he did, and the realization of that was slowly
sinking into his head, as well as the other two.