Rory's Gone

I didn’t really know Rory but I remembered her being a quiet person, kept to herself, and seemed to want to keep it that way. But what I gathered about her from Baker was that she was kind, and often misunderstood by her shyness as being standoffish. But what I’ve learned in life is that the quiet ones tend to hold the most secrets. They go unnoticed in a crowd or group, and with this they hear everyone else’s business. So maybe she heard something she wasn’t supposed to hear. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and that was that…  

However, I still find it strange how she mysterious fell into the lake. When I talked to Baker yesterday he told me she was walking funny, stumbling actually, and had to go to the hospital. I don't know but I have this strange feeling her death wasn't an accident. Maybe someone was out to get her. But who? I don't know, and I have a feeling no one ever would. I guess Rory's secrets would be buried with her.

Ferris Wheels and Moonlight Kisses

While picking up broken tree branches and parts of splintered wood, I hear about the festival, and my mind immediately goes to Hal. Maybe I should invite him to watch the Little Mermaid with me, and then explain myself? Of course, I don’t know what I would need to explain per se. We all make mistakes and surely he knows I didn’t ruin the flower on purpose. Right? UGH. I don’t know. I tend to overanalyze everything, and I think that’s part of my problem. So I decide to go to the festival alone, and if I see him I’ll say something.

Walking into the festival there are a lot more people here than I thought. The sun’s setting over the city casting a shadows of pink, orange, purple, and red hues. it’s beautiful. My eyes go straight to the ferris wheel. I’ve never ridden one and it’s on my bucket list, as dumb as that may sound. As I walk toward it I see Hal, and he’s sitting by himself, but there’s a really long line. I decide to cut in front of everyone and jump on the ride to sit next to him. Somehow no one notices and I slip past the crowd.

My heart is racing as I realized I didn’t think at all about what I would say to him before cutting the line. Now I’m sitting next to him and he looks confused, but then he flashes his white smile and my heart melts. I’m such a sucker for a beautiful smile. I realize I’ve just been staring at him dumbfounded and my mind is searching for words, anything to say, but it’s like my mouth is glued shut. We're both staring at each other and I can’t seem to speak.

I manage to blurt out, “sorry” and kiss him. It’s the only thing I could think of, but he didn’t seem to mind. Then I apologize for being so rude, and he responds, “there’s no need to apologize I realized you were stressed, and didn’t mean to use the flower as a napkin. But I wanted to tell you when I saw you the last time that when I’m with you a feel like I’m on a cloud. My mind gets fuzzy when I see you, and I can’t seem to say anything intelligent, but I promise I’m smarter than I seem.” I laughed and said that I felt the same way.

We spent the rest of the festival together, walking around and watched the Little Mermaid. When the song ‘kiss the girl’ came on he kissed me, which was pretty cheesy, but I didn’t mind. After the movie I told him about the severed rat heads I found in my freezer, and he said I might want to find another place to live, and I told him I already was looking. He then said to me that I have the worst luck out of anyone he had ever met, and I agreed.

I was craving a pork sandwich so we went to get one and then watched the lunar eclipse while lying in the grass. Hal offered to walk him home since it was past 2 am, but I told him he better get home, and that I’d be okay. He then made a joke that I might have someone waiting for me in my apartment to chop my head up like the rats in my freezer. I laughed it off, but honestly the thought hadn't crossed my mind, but now terrified me.

Serial Killers, Rats, and Food

I was woken up to the violent streak of lightning that broke across the sky lighting up my entire room, and the extremely loud crack of thunder that followed shortly after. My eyes were crusted over, bloodshot, and puffy from the hours of crying about how I’ll never be able to get my life together. I scorned the only man who's ever shown affection for me, Hal, on accident, and now I’m all alone again (naturally), wonderful. I mean who mistakes a flower for a napkin? 

A low bellow came from my stomach followed by a growl that sounded like a cat who doesn’t want you to touch it, or it’ll scratch your eyes out. I haven’t eaten in almost 24 hours now, so I guess that’s only a natural reaction. I can’t even take care of basic needs for survival, like eating, but am I surprised? Not really. I get up to walk to the kitchen and stub my toe on the coffee table. Wonderful, I’m a clust too just add that to my list of reasons not to love, or date me. The light of the fridge washes over dark the kitchen illuminating my face and I’m greeted by an empty fridge, so I check the freezer. A rat falls out of the door of the freezer and scurries over my feet. SHIT. I leap back and fall onto my back screaming bloody murder. It runs into a hole in the wall and I’m surrounded in darkness again. How the hell did a rat survive in the freezer? How long had it been in there? How did it get in there to begin with?

I open the freezer again to find it’s filled with severed rat heads. What the hell. It’s the first night of sleeping in my apartment and I realize the person before me was a serial rat killer. I’m so deeply disturbed that I throw up. The thought of the rats heads, and the awful smell of death filling the kitchen I throw up again, but I decide to clean it up later. I’m still hungry somehow. So I get ready to go to Olive Garden because who wouldn’t want to eat at a restaurant that has your name? Maybe they’ll give me free bread sticks. Searching for my umbrellas I can only find the one with a hole in it, and my rain jacket follows suit with a giant hole that looks like it was chewed in the back. That damn rat. 

I walk to Olive Garden and arrive soaking wet, order a basket of breadsticks and some cream cheese ravioli pasta. They didn’t give me the bread sticks for free, and oddly enough cooked cream cheese with ravioli is super gross. The quintessential stalker song from the 80's comes on the radio in the Olive Garden, "Every step you take. Every move you make. I'll be watching you." and my mind immediately goes to the rat heads in my freezer. While choking down my food I think about finding a new place to live, because who knows what else might be hiding in that apartment. The thought of other severed heads, of animals, or humans, who knows, makes me shudder and the song really isn't helping much. I’m exhausted from the past week, which has been a complete disaster. So, I lay my head down on the table, and before I know it I'm fast asleep. 

It's raining bird shit (though I wish it were men)

As if it wasn't established already, but I'm complete and total mess, and now this city seems to be mirroring that. Why the hell is the river rainbow colored? I mean, I get the name but whoever did this is seriously twisted. It's like as soon as I get my life together I've thrown the universe out of whack, and something else has to take my place. Apparently the toxic sludge has been oozing out of the river and contaminating the plants. So I guess it won't be long until we're all crazy, at least I'll finally fit in. For some reason I'm still thinking about Hal, we've only met once and my thoughts are already consumed by him, which I can't let happen. I refuse to let him into my head and go psycho, so I'm going to forget him, or at least that's what I'll tell myself for now. My thoughts of Hal were halted by the giant glob of bird crap that fell from the sky splattering onto my freshly washed hair and dry cleaned shirt. "You've got to be kidding me?" But then another drop falls onto my face, and another... I look up to see the dark cloud approaching, a swarm of brightly colored Parakeets. Oh holy hell, all the sudden it starts pouring bird crap everywhere. For some reason I just stand there in the midst of chaos. Everyone is screaming around me and running for cover, and yet my feet remain firmly planted on the ground. I start hysterically laughing, which quickly turns into tears as I realize I'm destined for shit luck, which must mirror my dating life, and spirals into me thinking I'll be forever alone. I snap myself out of the dark, sad, and pitiful state I'm in and process that I'm still standing in the middle of a hailstorm of bird shit, and I need to take cover. This stuff could make me horrendously sick, which would be just my luck...

I take cover in Connie’s Coffee Shop, however, I realize I'm still covered in bird crap so I go to the bathroom to clean myself up, and then decide to order a coffee. The store is packed because so many people had the same idea to take shelter in the tiny coffee shop. I can barely move. I get lost in thought again thinking about Hal as I search for somewhere to sit. I see a tiny little chair in the very front of the shop. I figure I could watch chaos continue while drinking my coffee, and start to walk over to the chair. My mind wanders back to Hal, and as I'm walking I trip over a woman's bag. My body crashes onto the floor, and coffee spills everywhere. I lay there face down. I feel the embarrassment rise onto my cheeks. I'm profusely sweating as I do in uncomfortable situations and frantically look for a napkin, anything to clean this mess up. I'm so embarrassed I can't even think straight and reach for what I thought to be someone handing me a napkin, but I'm confused when I realize I'm scrubbing the floor with a white flower. I look up to see Hal's face, his charming white smile is no longer there as a look of confusion and sadness appear. I don't know what to say, the words are stuck in my throat, as I try to form an apology. My face resembles the color of a tomato now, as I look at him. He runs out of the store crying, and I realize that I have just made a big mistake.

The Mysterious Figures in the Park

I spirit down the street past Hallow Park to the bench where I slept a few nights before, remembering that possibly my keys were under the bench. They must have fallen out of my purse due to the of the giant hole in the side I failed to notice. I can’t believe that I didn’t think about the slit in my purse that traps most of the content in my bag, and realize that the cut had finally made it’s way to the bottom of my bag ripping through completely, and dumping almost everything out of it as I was walking. I really should have gotten that fixed.

I reach the park, but could barely see because of fog that swallowed everything around me. I couldn’t see worth a damn, let alone remember where that stupid bench was. In the distance, I could make out the bench but standing between the path were two shadowy figures. As I approached closer to the shadows a knot formed in the pit of my stomach. Something didn’t feel right, but I wasn’t sure what. It was eerily quiet until the silence was broken by the blast of one of the figures voices, booming as loud as the sound of thunder that’s followed by a violent streak of lightning.

I jumped what I’m sure looked like 5 feet into the air. The hair on my arms stood up, and my head jerked back violently. My whole body propelling into the air, falling like a rag doll to the ground, and landing on my back with a loud THUD. My head ached, and spine cracked. With the wind completely knocked out of me I violently gasped releasing air back into my lungs. Confused I lay on the ground for a minute or two as I try and process what had just happened. I didn’t understand what the figure shrieked at me so expressively, “Your great good fortune, true, it was your ruin.” Whatever ‘great good fortune’ he was referring to obviously didn’t apply to me.

I finally get enough composure to stand up, wobbly still, I make my way around the figures but keep my distance. As soon as my legs regain strength I sprint to the bench. Hurriedly I look underneath feeling the ground all around the bench. In the process of frantically trying to get the hell out of the park, I scraped my hands on the concrete causing little red cuts to form on the surface of my hand, and tiny drops of blood begin to flow out. I’m about to give up when my hand grazes against sharp metal. I rip the metal out of the crack in the sidewalk to discover my keys! Finally, I didn’t have to sleep on the park bench, I had never been more relieved in my life, or so I thought.

No Water in Sight and Still No Keys

I couldn't believe this was happening... This was hands down the worst week of my life. I lost the keys to my apartment, the power went out in the city, I had to sleep on a park bench, and now there's a water shortage? All I can think to say is what the hell is wrong with this city? Either I brought the bad luck to this place, or out of all the places I choose to move to I pick the shittiest one. Either way it doesn't matter all I know is that I need to find water, and fast. Everyone seems to have gone nuts like deranged rabid dogs or something. If I'm lucky I can find water and someone to help me find my keys. I'm sure there's someone who will be compassionate enough to help me even though I probably  look and smell like in inside of a trash can that contains spoiled milk.

I start walking in the direction of the Exxon Gas station hoping that they'll have water bottles left. I walk into the store and to the back aisle where they keep the gallon jugs, and packs of 6 to 12 water bottles. To my surprise there's only a one gallon jug left on the aisle as it looks like a barren wasteland, plastic wrappers littered the floor. There are even bite marks left on one of the shelves which gave me a strange sense of nostalga. I swallow laughter as I picture what must have happened here earlier. I imagine people clawing each other like the middle aged soccer mom's did in the mall back in my hometown on Black Friday that my mom forced me to go with her every year. I shudder at the memory and reach for the bottle as I see someone else reaching for it too.

I look up to see a man in a navy blue work suit, he's tall around 6 feet if I had to guess. He flashes a bright white smile and then apologizes saying I can have the water bottle. I'm almost lost in his beautiful smile, and have to think fast because now I've waited way too long to respond to him, so I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind, "Oh no it's fine why don't we split the cost and share it." To which he responds,"Are you sure? If you want then thanks!" So we walk up to the cash register side by side my hands are shaking, like they do when I get really nervous. I don't know why I was freaking out so much it's like I was in middle school again and didn't have the capacity to even speak to a boy. I'm a grown woman this shouldn't be so hard, but I am sleep deprived, so I'll blame it on that.

He takes the gallon jug from my hand and then pays for it even though I told him we could split the cost, but I didn't complain free water right? We leave the store and he tells me we should go check out Rainbow River. He had been to two more stores before this and was pretty sure we got the last bottled water in the city. On the way I tell him my situation, about losing my keys, and sleeping on the park bench. He chuckles a little, but then tries to hold back his laughter. I tell him it's fine, and begin hysterically laughing which quickly turns into tears. So I am standing front of a man I barley know crying my eyes out, and I'm sure he feels uncomfortable, but I can't stop. I'm still laughing but tears are flowing down my face. He starts to laugh and doesn't seem to mind my tears. He apologizes for laughing and hands me the ascot out of his navy blue suit to use as a tissue. I realized then that I had yet to even get his name so I introduce myself, and he tells me his name, "Hal South."

Waking Up on a Park Bench

I woke up in a sweaty daze, hands trembling, mouth dry, and lips cracked. I really needed some water. It felt as if I had been stranded in the desert for hours on end, only I didn’t get the benefits of feeling like I was in a mirage, everything was all too real and I still had to find my keys. The birds were chirping in the background as the sun began to form soft warm hues of yellow and orange highlighting the tops of apartment buildings. A sense of dread and exhaustion swelled inside of my chest. My heart hurt, eyes swollen almost shut, the blue veins visible enough to see spread like tree roots underneath my eyes. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what my hair looked like, it probably resembled the top of a raccoons nest. "Do raccoons even make nests?" I thought to myself. I realized that there was a blanket on me, but I have no clue where it came from. I was a mess, a complete, and utter mess. I wondered what my mom would say if she knew that I had lost my keys, wait I knew exactly what she would say, “I told you you're not cut out for the city Olive, the first night here and you lose your keys and your solution was to sleep on what a park bench instead of renting a hotel room? The city's already swallowed you whole and spit you back out, because even it realized it didn’t want you. You might as well just come back home.” Well, okay maybe I’m being a tad dramatic, even though I knew she wasn’t supportive of me leaving all that I had ever known, she would want to help, at least I hope she would...

I sit up on the park bench arms shaking I hear the, “crack, crack, crack,” of my spine. I stand up with a numbing feeling in my legs, I guess they must have fallen asleep. I reach over to fold up the black and white checkered blanket and leave it on top of the bench, and reach into my purse for a pen and paper to write a note thanking whoever put the blanket over me the night before. I rummage through my purse, but I’m only able to find an old crumpled up receipt to T.G.I Friday’s, but that’ll do. I write, “THANK YOU” in light blue ink, but the pen is fading out on the back of the receipt, and place it top of the blanket. I put a small rock on the note, so it doesn’t blow away in the wind, and then begin the journey to find my keys, but before I can even begin to set foot off of the sidewalk I'm approached by a short woman with bleach blonde hair, and bright blue eyes who looked to be in her early 20's.

As she got closer I saw the thick clumps of mascara that coated her eyelashes, and the dark brown eyeshadow, which I guess was an attempt at a smokey eye. She began to open her mouth to ask me a question but before she could utter a word, looking at the water bottle in her hand I yelled, “WATER! I need water!” I’m sure she thought I was a mad woman but I really didn’t care. Her face altered from a smiling happy-go-lucky look, to a look of sheer terror as I, this crazy woman she found sleeping on a park bench, reach for the bottle in her hand. Without any warning I snatch the water and chug the entire bottle within 10 seconds. We both stand there awkwardly not saying a word as the entire situation seemed rather uncomfortable. I begin to apologize and thank her for the water, but before I can say a word she asks in a sassy southern belle voice, "Well, now that you've taken my water I think you owe me something in return." I stand there dumbfounded as to what she means, her lips curl into a contorted smile, she tells me she's a writer from Southern Living Magazine and needed an interesting story for her boss, and of course I was the perfect candidate. So I responded apprehensively, "Well, you see, I'm not homeless, I just happened to lose the keys to my apartment last night so that's why I ended up on a bench." Her lips seemed to curl at the corners of her mouth in a twisted look of amusement at my story that I didn’t find funny at all but rather disturbing.