Richard Hale - Frozen Past

She nodded once.

John said, “Ask your brother if he got the same thing.”

“Alright,” she said. “Thanks guys.”

They said bye and Luke and John headed home. Luke hoped they could keep her safe.

Ellie locked the door behind her and headed up the stairs to her room. She felt a little better after talking to Luke and John, but she was still frightened out of her mind. It took everything just to keep climbing the stairs. All she could think about was turning around and telling her mother the whole story. She even stopped midway and started to turn around, but Luke’s words rang in her ears. We stick together. No secrets. She still wasn’t convinced they were doing the right thing.

Walking down the hall she passed her brother Patrick’s closed door and remembered John and Luke wanted to know if Patrick got the same friend request. She started to knock, then heard a noise. Her brother was two years older than her, and at sixteen, was insanely private. He had warned her not to bother him when his door was shut and she knew he could be mean and cruel. She hoped one day he would grow out of his mean streak, but she knew it wasn’t any time soon. The way he chose to tell her about Bentley proved that. He was an ass and at times she hated him with all her heart.

She decided she didn’t care if he got mad, she needed to know. She knocked softly and waited. Usually he would yell through the door at the person who had the nerve to bother him in his domain, but the only thing she heard was the strange noise. She tried the doorknob and it turned so she pushed the door open slowly and peered in.

He was facing away from her seated at his desk and she gasped as she saw what he was watching on his computer screen. Two naked women engaged in something she’d heard about but never in her life had she imagined. He had headphones on and the noise was coming from them. He seemed to sense something behind him because he turned quickly, ripping the headphones off and pressing the power button on the monitor all at the same time. The look on his face showed shock and anger, and then he grinned.

“Enjoying the view?” he asked.

Her mouth hung open and she forced it shut, backing out of the doorway. She was too embarrassed to even remember what she had wanted and there was no way she was sticking around anyway. She shut the door, heard him laughing behind it, and headed for her room where she closed her door softly and sat on the edge of her bed. It had been a hard week.

Two weeks passed and Luke almost forgot about Bentley and the Facebook link.

Almost.

Ellie, of course hadn’t, and she brought it up periodically, but Luke thought at least it wasn’t on her mind 24/7.

No other messages had been sent and nobody received any new friend requests. It was as if the person dropped off the face of the earth.

It had snowed and melted twice over the last two weeks and now they were expecting another blizzard today. Virginia hadn’t seen this much snow in over a century. Everything was icy and slippery, and the roads were covered in dirty, brown slush. All the parents were grumbling about the cold, and the heating bills, and the driving, and, especially the school closings. Luke couldn’t understand how anybody could be upset about the school closings. His dad pointed out that even though they didn’t have to go to school now, they would have to make it up at the end of the year, which meant their summer break would be shorter. Luke didn’t care. He just wanted out of school now, at this exact moment, and it didn’t matter what had to be repaid later.

Luke, John, Jimmy, and Ralph, the kid who live three doors down from Luke, were walking home from the bus stop when Patrick, Alan, and Paul ran past and pelted Jimmy with slush balls they had made from snow in the gutters. Ice, dirt, and oil ran down the inside of Jimmy’s shirt. Jimmy froze with his shoulders hunched, and Patrick ran up and shoved another one down the back of his shirt. Jimmy lost it.

“Hey you dick heads!” Jimmy cursed, and grabbed Patrick by the collar as he turned to run. Jimmy yanked Patrick backwards and he came off of his feet, landing on his butt in the street with an audible thud. Patrick, who was 3 inches taller than Jimmy and a year older, looked stunned, then pissed. Alan and Paul laughed at him as he slipped and fell again trying to stand in the icy road. Jimmy stood over him with his fists balled up at his side.

“Get up!” Jimmy yelled.

Patrick finally got his footing and stood over Jimmy glaring down at him. “I’m up.”

“What the hell was that?!”

“Just having a little fun, Dickhead,” Patrick said and shoved Jimmy in the chest.

Jimmy stood his ground. “It wasn’t fun for me!” and shoved back.

John moved closer and Luke could see the anger growing in him. Paul and Alan sensed it and starting walking toward the group again. They were no longer laughing.

Patrick, looking uncertain, glanced around quickly. He seemed to shrink a little as Jimmy refused to back down. “Easy, Besner. We were just having fun.”

“I don’t care. It was wrong, man!” Jimmy pushed his face into Patrick’s. “Tell me why I shouldn’t pound you into the ground right now!”

Patrick seemed to regain a little of his courage. “Because you’d lose,” Patrick said coldly.

“Bullshit!” But Jimmy made no further move.

“Hey!” Luke said, “Patrick, back off! You’d be pissed too if we had done the same thing to you.”

“Shut up, Harrison!” Patrick said. “You stay out of this.”

“No,” Luke said. “None of us are staying out of this. You back off.”

Patrick looked at John who nodded and never took his eyes off of him, then at Jimmy, and finally at Luke. Paul and Alan kept their distance and it looked to Luke like they wanted no part of it, though they didn’t leave.

Patrick put his hands up and smiled. “Hey, no problem. I’ll be the man. This is me backing off.” He took two steps back. Jimmy wasn’t so easily swayed. He took two steps toward Patrick and started to say something but Luke yelled at him, “Jimmy! Enough!”

Jimmy stopped and turned to look at Luke as if to say ‘you’re just an eighth grader ,’ but then his brother grabbed his arm and said, “Come on, Jim. It was just a joke. Let it go.”

Jimmy stood for a minute and then seemed to relax a bit, letting John pull him away.

“Don’t do that again,” Jimmy said finally, and turned, walking off.

Patrick shrugged, joined his buddies and they left in the opposite direction. Nobody looked back. Luke knew the next snowball fight, if there was ever going to be one, would be bad.

That evening at dusk, they all played kick the can in the snow storm. The game was something their parents had taught them, and though it was old and dated, they all loved it. Most of the kids from Cotton Court were there including Luke’s sisters Katy and Deana. Ralph, the kid from three doors down, along with his little sister, Marsha, was there too. She was twelve and he was thirteen. Ellie came over from Willow Branch court along with Paul and Alan, but Patrick didn’t show. Ellie said he was locked in his room, and though she didn’t tell Luke why, she refused to knock on his door. Finally, the three new kids at the end of the court showed up and Luke learned their names were Cece, Ashley, and Chad. Cece was the oldest at fifteen, Ashley was fourteen, and Chad, eleven. They seemed alright but couldn’t play kick the can for crap.

The game had been an almost nightly ritual ever since Luke moved here in the third grade. No one ever seemed to tire of it and it was especially good at night. With the snow falling, it was even better.

John had just kicked the can (which in this case was a red rubber ball) and freed all the prisoners. Jimmy, who was ‘it,’ chased it down and hurried back to base hoping to catch some slow runners. Everybody made it into a hiding spot in time. Luke and Ellie were currently hunched down in a hedge at the side of Luke’s house and they smiled at each other in the dark.