Lake Side View #2 (story)

You can read the first part here.

I was sitting in the grass when they found me. I knew the eldest of the boys, but the others looked...well, they looked like mere children really. My brother’s age and he was just a kid. I didn’t understand what he was doing dragging them into this. But back then, I didn’t know many things, I suppose.

I knew the oldest one, though, I’d seen him around my father’s shop, always lurking by the counter, but only when I or my brothers were in the shop. When my dad came in, he used to scuttle out of the store and make like he was never there. I didn’t know what he was doing, at first. I thought he was maybe looking to steal something. Russell had that look in his eye. Mean and unpleasant, like he might bite you if you went too close. So, I always stayed away. And when I realized the reason he was there was in fact me, I stayed even further. I never told my father, though. And in the time since, I’ve wondered why. So many times, I have lain awake, staring up at the sky and wondering...what might’ve happened if I had said something. If maybe the outcome would’ve been different. But what’s the sense in thinking that?

I was reading by the lake, like I sometimes did when the weather was warm and the shop was quiet. My father didn’t like me going off on my own, gallivanting, as he called it. Not because he was worried something bad might happen to me, but because he had no one to help out in the shop sometimes and that drove him so mad. But I was sixteen then, I was alright because by then, dad was already training Carl to take care of the shop. Ever since we were little, we had our lives carved out in front of us. Carl, the eldest, would take over dad’s shop when he was old enough. It was family business and to be honest, dad always loved Carl best of all. Then, there was my sister, Angie, who was the apple of dad’s eye. She was an angel to him, though unruly. She always got in trouble, but by the time of our story, she was already married to the equally difficult heir of a very prosperous family of merchants. They were a few cuts above us. Angie did really well for herself. And then, there was Daniel, who was thirteen and a real troublemaker. But by the time he came around, mom and dad were already so weary from three kids that he got away with most of his tricks.

Then, there was me. There was nothing special about me, really, but Russell had somehow got it into his head there was. I wasn’t the heir to some great fortune, I didn’t have any womanly talents, really. I wasn’t a great beauty, certainly. But there was no arguing with Russell when he got something into his head. He was a very strange boy. About my age, I think, but a stray. A scrubbed-up stray, but a stray nevertheless. A child of the streets, born and raised in the dirt and the violence. You could see it, by the look in his eye. There was something menacing in there, something wild.
And whereas I’d been able to keep away from him until then, that afternoon there would be no escape. I looked around me and saw how the park had grown quiet. I always sought out the quietest spots, by the lake, where the light was just right and there would be no children to bother me.

No one to help.

The other kids were strays, like him. I didn’t stand up, because I knew they’d stop me, so I figured I’d stand my ground.
‘You can have this, though it’s not too valuable,’ I said, touching the silver necklace my mother had given me the year before. But I knew, even before I looked into Russell’s eye that he wasn’t looking for that.

‘How courteous of you.’

His speech was slurred, like he thought he knew the words, but he wasn’t very sure. Who teaches a stray the proper words? Who even cares if he learns how to speak at all?

‘Really, I have nothing else of value.’
‘No? Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?’

He grinned wide and I had to bite my cheek, so that he wouldn’t see my disgusted smirk. Three of his front teeth were missing and the ones that were left were almost brown and hanging askew.
‘Yes, I swear I don’t.’

But even as I said the words, I knew I should’ve listened to my dad that day, I should’ve stayed home. But I didn’t and in a way, it seemed fitting. My father always told me I’d get myself in trouble someday. And I did.

I like to think I’ve forgotten most of what followed. I mean, it’s been so painfully long. But I always remember one thing. Russell’s foul breath on the side of my neck, his dirty cheek against mine. And sometimes, when I’m walking in the park around dusk, I still feel it, like a cold breath of disgusting air against my skin. Like the park remembers that day, too. And I suppose it does. After all, they hurt her too that day.

‘What should we do with her?’

‘I say we leave her.’

‘We can’t leave her.’

This last one was Russell, I felt certain. Just as I felt his eyes burrowing into my bruised body. Because for Russell, it wasn’t enough and he needed to take more. I’ve thought about this for a long time, and I understood something that should’ve been clear a lot sooner. He hated us, he hated my dad, my family, not just me. He wanted everything we had. I suppose he thought it would be unfair to leave me like that.

‘She’ll rat us out. She knows my face, for sure. I ain’t going to jail for this bitch.’

I could tell the others were scared. They were tough, or at least, they thought they were. But I told you, they were just kids deep down, and they knew they were going too far. I don’t think any of them wanted to go through with it, they were afraid of what might happen if they did and so, they hesitated. But in the end, it turned out they were afraid of Russell more.
I lunged at the first one who came towards me with all the strength I had in me. It was one of the kids, must’ve been thirteen, fourteen maybe. Not older than Daniel, definitely. And one of the last things I remember thinking was that Daniel would never behave like this. Much later, I saw him here again. He was with a little girl and an older woman – his family, I suppose. He was much different, no longer a stray, and from certain angles, he even seemed respectable. He was still missing one eye, though, from where I got him that day.
The only one I didn’t hit at all was Russell himself. They were holding me too tight. It was a bit like being paralyzed. Russell dug his fingers into my hair and yanked as hard as he could. And I couldn’t move, but the others moved me anyway.

When I was a little girl, my father sometimes took us to see the sea. And I used to hate it, because then, I’d have these terrible nightmares. I’d wake up screaming, dreaming I was caught underwater and I couldn’t breathe. Nobody bothered much about teaching me how to swim. And I always used to be so afraid that one day, I’d slip off the pier and plunge into the cold water.
And yet, all I remember from that afternoon isn’t the not breathing. It’s the darkness. That horrible heavy blanket of tar that falls over your eyes and no matter how much you blink, you just can’t seem to open your eyes.

There was darkness in my life for a long time after that. I watched and I saw a lot, more than I would’ve liked to, at times. I slept among the kids with needles in their arms, sometimes. I sat with old people, grieving for their lost loved ones, who were utterly alone in this world. Many things happen here, if you have the eyes and the time to see them. And I had all the time in the world.

And then, one day, I saw Will for that first time, and knew I wanted to sit close to him, always, because he somehow kept the darkness at bay.

To Be Continued...

Cheers for reading.