Hallie stood in front of her mirror in her bedroom and sighed. She’d just jumped out
of the shower and dried her hair. For some odd reason, it was just flipping out all over the
place. She cursed as she ran her curling iron over a bump in her hair, trying to flatten it.
Running her hair brush through her barely shoulder length light brown hair again, she
pulled it up into a little ponytail.
“Screw it. A ponytail will have to suffice for today,” she said, wrapping a yellow
rubber band around her hair.
“Hallie!” he mother shouted from downstairs. Hallie stepped out of her room and
walked quickly down the stairs.
“Yeah?” she said to her mom. Cate stood beside the island in the middle of the
kitchen floor, looking at her daughter pathetically.
“I just got back from the grocery store and I forgot to get coffee for your father. You
know that he’ll probably have a conniption fit if he doesn’t have coffee for tomorrow
morning. Could you drive out to the store and grab a can?” she asked. “I just don’t have
the energy to go back right now.” Hallie shrugged.
“Sure. Where are the keys?” she asked, looking around on the counter tops where
her mother usually tossed them.
“On the hook by the door.”
“Okie dokie. Let me get my sandals on and I’ll go,” she said, crouching down to
look under the kitchen table for her sandals. After finally finding her worn old adidas
sandals beside the couch in the family room, she skipped through the kitchen.
“Bye, mom.”
“Bye, honey. Thanks!” she said as Hallie rounded the corner. Hallie grabbed the
keys from the hook on the wall and opened the door to the garage. She pressed the garage
door opener button and climbed into her mother’s beige ‘97 Cherokee. She turned the
key in the ignition and pressed the button on the garage door opener, listening to the door
creak and groan as it was being raised. Hallie flipped through all the radio stations and
finally settled on one that was playing “Rag Doll” by Aerosmith. She pulled out of the
garage and slammed on the gas, missing the feeling of driving fast. She rolled the
windows down and then turned on her lights, noticing that it was getting a little dark. In a
few minutes she was pulling into the parking lot at the local IGA.
Walking into IGA, she suddenly remembered that Ike worked there as a bag boy.
She had to laugh as she saw that his uniform consisted of jeans, red polo shirt, and an
apron which had “Angus Pride Beef” written across the front of it. She grinned and
walked toward the back of the store where the coffee was. After picking up a big can of
Folgers, she walked briskly through an isle and to the cashier who Isaac was bagging for.
He smiled when he saw her.
“Hey, Hal. How ya doin’?” he asked, putting her coffee into a plastic sack and
giving it to her after she’d paid for it.
“Oh lovely. Mom just wanted me to get dad some coffee so he wouldn’t go insane in
the morning.”
“Ah, I see. Taylor’s the same way with coffee. He drinks it like there’s no
tomorrow.”
“Speaking of the little freak, tell him I said hi, will ya?” she said.
“I’m sure it will thrill him to death.” Hallie laughed.
“I don’t think that I’d go that far,” she said. Isaac’s mouth curved into a knowing
half smile.
“I would.”
As Hallie opened the door to the Jeep, she was still thinking about Isaac’s comment
in there. She was almost positive that what was going on between her and Taylor was
nothing more than innocent, adolescent flirtation. Honestly, she didn’t expect it to go
anywhere. Most of the time when things started out like this with her, the guy got to
know her better and realized that she wasn’t exactly all that he’d been hoping for and
more. She barely even considered what they had more than a friendship. Sure, she found
him attractive, but she found a lot of guys attractive. That didn’t mean that she wanted to
marry all of them.
Hallie started the vehicle and back out of her parking space, and then drove out of
the parking lot and onto the high way. It was deserted except for a car behind her. She
couldn’t make out what color it was or anything; it’s lights were shining in her mirrors. It
was a car, though. That much she knew. Hallie stuck her arm out the rolled down
window and motioned for them to pass her. She wasn’t comfortable going that much over
the speed limit. In response to her action, the driver sped up and turned their brights on.
Now she could see even less out of her mirrors. Hallie switched lanes and waited for
them to go on ahead of her. The didn’t. They switched into the left lane with her.
Hallie exhaled loudly and took note of her surroundings. Trees lined both sides of
the highway. She was about five minutes away from her house. She decided that the best
thing to do would be to tough it out and just continue speeding until she reached her turn
off. She switched back into the right lane and pressed on the accelerator, succeeding in
pulling a few feet away from the car behind her. She hoped that they would just back off
and realize how really unfunny the joke that they were playing on her was. Instead, she
felt a sharp bump. Her eyes opened wide as she realized that the car was rear ending her
and probably doing some damage to her mother’s vehicle.
“Son of a bitch,” she whispered, pressing the accelerator peddle to the floor. The
Jeep lurched a few feet ahead of the car behind her. About three minutes until she
reached her turn off. Once she got there, there was no feasible way that they could follow
her and not be seen by someone. There were houses lining both sides of the road.
Hallie watched in alarm as the car switched lanes and sped up to where she was. She
looked at the passenger side window, hoping to catch a glimpse of her assialant. The
windows were tinted rather dark. Damn. She gasped as the person rammed into the side
of the Jeep, sending her halfway into the grass and almost into the trees. She kept
going.
Pulling back onto the highway, Hallie began going very slow. She could easily see
her turnoff from where she was at. The person remained behind her. Right as they pulled
over to the side of her, preparing to hit her again, Hallie stomped her foot on the gas and
watched in her rear view mirror as the person over did it just a shade and ended up
almost running off the road. She breathed a sigh of relief and turned quickly
onto her lane and down it a quarter of a mile. As she pulled into her garage and turned off
the automobile, she rested her forehead against the steering wheel, unable to believe what
had just happened to her. She was still breathing hard and gripping the steering wheel so
hard that her knuckles were turning white.
The door that led from the kitchen to the garage opened and her mother stood there,
looking at her.
“Hallie? Are you coming inside, dear?” she asked. Hallie shook her head yes.
“Yeah, mom. I’ll be in there in a minute.”
“Honey, are you all right?”
“Yeah, mom. I’m fine. I just had a close call on the highway.”
“Oh,” her mother looked down to her hands and then back at Hallie. “Well, those
things happen to the best drivers. Don’t let it discourage you.” She walked back into the
house and shut the door behind her, leaving Hallie in the dark garage. If only Cate knew
just how close of a call it was.
*** *** ***
Hallie trudged up the stairs to her locker. She had to hand it to this school. The stairs
were keeping her somewhat in shape. They got easier to climb every day. She had to go
up three flights of them to reach her locker every morning.
On one of the walls at the top of the second flight of stairs, a bright green piece of
paper caught her eye. She scanned the paper and grinned. There was a school dance in a
couple of days. That was something she must attend. She loved dances. There was just
something magical about the loud, booming music and low lighting, not to mention a
person of the opposite sex to get close to, that appealled to her.
Upon reaching her locker, she noticed a post-it note sticking to it. She plucked it off
her locker door, dropped her backpack, and began to read the sloppily written note.
Hal,
Did you see the things about the dance on all the walls? Before you
even ask, yes, I am dragging you to it, and yes, I suppose you can
have the honor of dancing with me. That is, if you can wrestle me
away from all of my other female admirers.
Love, Tay
Hallie rolled her eyes and laughed, opening her locker. She reached
into it and grabbed a pad of yellow post-it notes she kept on her
top shelf and a pen. She scrawled a response back to Taylor.
Tay,
Well, you know, I had planned on going to the dance anyway, but if you
want to tag along, that's just fine and dandy by me. After all, I just
might need you to pull all of the honry males off of me! I mean,
there's only so much of me to go around.
Hallie
She pulled the piece of paper off of the pad and walked a few steps
across the hallway to his locker. She stuck it to the door right at
her eye level. Smiling, she retrieved her books and went to her class.
At lunch time, the four teenagers meeting outside by Noelle's
car had become routine. As Hallie walked outside, she saw that Noelle had
already pulled the car around to the front of the school and was waiting.
Hallie pulled open the passenger side door of the backseat and climbed
in.
"Hey," Noelle said, grinning.
"Hola," Hallie said, grinning. "How goes it?"
"Ah, not too awful," she responded, smiling. "You?"
"Other than almost being run off the road last night, I'm just
peachy," Hallie said. Noelle put the car in park and turned aorund in
her seat to look at Hallie.
"What do you mean?" she asked, her eyes wide.
"Literally! Someone in another car came up alongside of me and
tried to bump me off the road," Hallie said. A look of amazement
crossed over Noelle's face.
"Wow, Hal, that's crazy! I've never heard of something like that
happening in a town like this. Usually the only thing that is
remotely destructive that happens in this town is toilet papering
houses and covering cars with shaving cream at Halloween." Hallie looked
up to see Taylor and Ike walking out of the school and toward the car.
"Don't mention it to Taylor or Ike, please. I don't want to make
a big deal out of it," she asked. Noelle shrugged.
"Sure."
Taylor climbed into the backseat next to Hallie as Isaac took his
place with Noelle in the front seat, giving her a quick kiss.
"All right, here comes the big question again. Where to today?"
Isaac asked as Noelle pulled away from the curb. Taylor shrugged and
looked at Hallie.
"Do you have any suggestions, you horny male magnet, you?" he asked
grinning. Hallie laughed.
"I don't care. Noelle you choose. You're the one driving," she said.
"We've got leftover pizza in my fridge at home that I can warm up,
if you want a change. There's almost an entire large in there." Isaac
looked back at Hallie and Taylor.
"That's okay with me. How about you two?" he asked. They both
nodded.
"Great. Then it's to Elle's house we go," Isaac said, busying
himself with searching the air waves for a good song.
Noelle's house was smallish, yet nice. It was white and had black
shutters and a carport; no garage. Neatly trimmed bushes lined both
sides of the driveway and a large oak tree stood in the corner of the
lawn, casting a cool shadow over the front yard. Although it wasn't a
bad looking house at all, (a little modest, yes, but not bad) it didn't
look like the type of house that Noelle would live in. Hallie thought
about how her house dwarfed this one and felt that she wouldn't be in
too big of a hurry to invite them all over to her house to hang out.
She was afraid that Noelle might be a little intimidated and embarrassed.
Noelle was the one that offered to host them all for lunch at her
place, though. It must not bother her.
As they all walked up the gravel driveway to the front stoop, Elle
pulled a set of keys from her purse and unlocked the front door.
Entering the front room, Hallie noticed that the house smelled like
a mixture of fabric softener and apples. It was a homey, welcoming
scent that set Hallie at ease immediately. Obviously, it set Isaac at
ease too. Right as they walked in, he headed to the corner of the front
room where the couch was and sat down, kicking off his shoes and
reaching for the remote control. Taylor took a seat at the other end
of the couch while Noelle went into the kitchen with Hallie at her
heels.
The kitchen was old fashioned and small. A small table with four
chairs surrounding it was in the corner. One entire wall was lined
with cabinets with a fridge on the opposite wall with a microwave on
a small table beside it. It was simple, yet efficient. Nothing more
was really needed.
Taking the brown Pizza Hut box from the fridge, Noelle looked up
at Hallie and said, "Do you need something?"
"Yeah, um, where's your bathroom?" she asked, shifting her weight.
Noelle smiled.
"It's down that hallway there and the last door on the left," she
said, turning on the oven. Hallie smiled greatfully.
"Thank you," she said rushing off in that direction. After doing
her business, she washed her hands and walked out of the bathroom.
There were three other doors in the hallway.
One was open and was
obviously Noelle's mother's bedroom. A quilt covered a queen size
antique bed and a matching chest of drawers and night stand sat
against the opposite walls.
After opening the second one and finding that it was a linen
closet, Hallie's curiosity got the best of her and she opened the
third shut one to find a small bedroom. A single twin bed covered in
a lavender comforter sat in the corner. A full length mirror was
screwed to the wall beside her dresser which held a mirror on top of
it. Make-up compacts and purfume bottles were scattered on the surface
of a night stand next to her bed. Posters of Aerosmith, Daria, and
the movie poster from "Tommy Boy" were taped up on her walls.
Something shiny and silver hanging on the wall from a thump tack
caught Hallie's attention as she went to walk from the room. It was
army dogtags. She turned her head slightly and flipped one over to
read it. The name "Raymond Christopher Maris" was dented into them. Hallie thought for a moment.
It didn't sound even vaguely familiar to her. Shrugging, she walked out
of the room and into the kitchen. A look of relief passed over Noelle's
face.
"Oh, thank god. I've had to pee ever since you broght it up." She
rushed off toward the bathroom. After doing her own business, Elle
walked down the hallway, then noticed that her bedroom door was open.
Smiling, she gripped the doorknob in her hand and pulled the door
closed. "So, is the pizza ready?" she asked, walking the rest of the
way into the kitchen.
