My Movie (Part 2)

After thirty straight minutes of Johnny begging, Daniel persuading, and me looking forlorn with puppy-dog eyes, we finally coerced their ever-agreeable mom, who had just pulled into their driveway, to drive us to the mall. We just told her we wanted to get Molly something for her birthday, even though that’d already been bought. But we needed a way to purchase the technological wonder with our hard earned cash, so it seemed justifiable. My hard earned cash.

Their mom had always been especially nice to me. Whenever we camped outside near Daniel and Johnny’s house she always brought some snacks to our tent just to make sure we were okay and that we wouldn’t starve to death out in the great wilderness. She often gave Johnny some cookies or chips or some such goodness to provide sustenance as he bounded out the door to begin our daily hangout. In a weird way she became almost a second mother to me, even though I never ventured inside her house.

She was a little reluctant to drive us to the mall as she had four little ones at home that she needed to take care of. She said she’d take us if Daniel promised to take all the little ones out to the pool for a few hours so she could take a much-needed nap. Daniel readily agreed and we piled into the cramped minivan.

The mall Babbage’s was mediocre at best. Bins filled with bargain videogames snaked haphazardly around the sales floor, creating a virtual labyrinth. The off-white wallpaper was peeling and the light gray carpet curled up at the corners. The place was mostly a dump, but because I could only convince my parents to take me there once every two months- if I was lucky- trips to Babbage’s felt like trips to the circus. Johnny and I ran wildly through the cockamamie aisles while Daniel wisely asked the store manager about purchasing the system and game. Johnny and I pretended we were John McClane in Die Hard and fired our “guns” at each other from behind the cover the bargain bins provided. Daniel thanked the sales clerk, scooped up his purchase and yelled at us, “Come on fat-heads let’s go. I think Mom caught the rest of them.” Their mother was herding the four little ones back outside after what must have been an exhausting chase.

On the way to my house we could barely contain our eagerness. We stumbled over each other’s words with our excited chatter.

“Oh man, this is going to be sick.”

“I call Oddjob by the way. I totally get to play as Oddjob.”

“Yeah right! I get Oddjob. You can be Xenia.”

“No!”

When their mother finally dropped us off at my house, and secured Daniel’s promise to take the children to the pool in a few hours, she peeled out of the driveway so quickly that smoke rose from her tires. She must have been desperate to be rid of us, to get all the screaming children out of her car. Laughing and joking, we walked toward the front door, expecting it to be unlocked. It wasn’t. I attempted to step through the doorway but ended up running directly into the door. I remembered suddenly that today was Friday, and my mom had taken my sisters to some play in Richmond. They wouldn’t return until very late. I was supposed to go hang out at Joseph’s or with Daniel and Johnny until Dad came back at about four-thirty. It was one in the afternoon and we needed to play now. I turned around sheepishly, holding my face where it had smacked the door. “Okay, I just remembered I can’t get into my house until four-thirty or so…”

“What are we supposed to do now?” Daniel threw his hands up in the air.

“We gotta play some stinkin’ Goldeneye,” Johnny said.

“I have no idea. I mean we literally can’t get into my house.”

“I have an idea,” Jonny said. We turned to look at him. Daniel put his arms down. “We could play at our house. Dad doesn’t get back until five at the earliest usually.” Johnny spoke softly.

“I don’t know, man. Dad would get really pissed,” Daniel said with some hesitance.

“He doesn’t have to know. We could play until four then run back here and keep going.” He was getting more excited as he talked. I could see the more he spoke, the more he believed his own argument. “Daniel,” Johnny said, glancing at his brother, “Has Dad gotten back before five any time in the last month?”

Daniel thought for a second. “I guess not.”

“There you go.”

“I don’t want to get you in trouble. Seriously, it’s fine. We can just hang out for another few hours and come back here at four.” For some reason I felt sure that things would not go well if we went to their house. Rambunctious though I was, I was not a rule-breaker and I never liked going against any kind of authority.

“No. It will be fine,” Daniel said, looking off at something, nothing, absentmindedly probing a bruise on his upper bicep. “And more than that I’m tired of us always having to hang at your house. You should at least see our room and be able to say that you have been there before. It’s not fair that you can’t come over and I’m sick of Dad always controlling everything. If Mom had a say-” I opened my mouth to protest again; he cut me off. “No. I’m serious. It will be fine. Nothing’s going to happen. We’ll be out of there hours before he’s even thinking of coming home.” Daniel’s face shifted. His eyes usually a deep, ocean blue seemed grayer, like storm clouds poised to devastate the tranquil surface of the waters. His face was hard. The smile that always hid in his face, waiting to spring out in a second’s notice was decidedly absent. I was afraid of that look. I didn’t know what it meant and I didn’t want to argue with him.

Johnny, evidently oblivious, seemed glad his brother agreed. “Okay, it’s settled. We can leave at four. That’ll give us plenty of time to get out before Dad gets back.”

After a few more stalled seconds, Daniel glanced at my troubled face and his rigidity fractured. An impish grin broke across his features as the storm receded in his eyes. “Yeah. I’ll race you butt cracks.” He broke off running in the direction of his house. Forgetting my apprehension, I scooped up the bag with the game and scampered off after him with Johnny close behind.

Johnny, unhindered by a Nintendo or weak stomach, reached the house first. I truly did not want to enter the house, but I chose to swallow my trepidation and bury it deep inside myself where it wouldn’t get out, at least for a few hours. I stood on the front porch breathing heavily. Their four younger siblings were running and rolling around in a giant blonde pack in the front yard. Daniel came gasping behind us, playfully shoving the youngest boy Jimmy to the ground. Daniel held him there for a minute while the little boy laughed and struggled. Jimmy’s brother and two sisters leapt on to Daniel’s back in an effort to free him. They collapsed in a giggling heap. Daniel stood up and picked Jimmy, who had a particularly nasty bruise on his left leg, off the ground.

“I’m coming, I’m coming. Let him in,” Daniel said between gulping breaths.

Johnny spun around, clipping his heels together like a soldier. He stood straight-backed, imitating a British Royal Guard. He gravely opened the door, then bowed, “Welcome, my liege, to the Château de Johnny.”

I stepped over the slightly raised threshold into the foyer. I felt as if I were being shown a well-kept secret. I tried to enjoy the moment but Daniel and Johnny dragged me up the creaking, wooden stairs to their shared room. “We can give you a full tour later, maybe. Right now we’ve got some Goldeneye to play.”

“Daniel, is that you?” Their mother’s voice drifted from the kitchen.

“We’re just gonna hang out in our room for a little bit,” Daniel said.

“All right but remember you need to take those wild children of mine to the pool.”

“I know. I will after dinner,” Daniel called back, tugging on my arm.

Their room was immediately to the right at the top of the stairs. Johnny threw open the door, revealing a very messy, very modestly sized room. On the faded taupe walls hung posters of movies such as Lethal Weapon 3 and Jurassic Park, as well as pictures of iconic videogame characters such as Link and Mario. Two disheveled beds, shoved into each of the backmost corners of the room, barely peaked over the mountains of clothes strewn across the floor. Sunlight snuck through the single window, landing sublimely on their small television into which Johnny feverishly began plugging in the videogames.

“She’s not much to look at,” Daniel apologized, carving out a small spot of floor from beneath the rubble, exposing brownish-white carpeting. “But she’ll do.” I cared not at all and happily plopped myself down and reclined comfortably against the clothes.

“Let’s do this mess.” I said, situating myself.

Daniel laughed and clapped me on the back. The old television sputtered to life and we eagerly began our cinematic adventures in Communist Russia.

*                        *                        *                        *                        *                        *                        *

“Double kill!” Johnny bellowed as he managed to fire a rocket launcher through a small window, striking both Daniel’s character and mine simultaneously.

“Lucky shot.”

“Lucky, my butt.”

We had been playing incessantly for over three hours. “Hey guys,” I said, finally taking notice of the time. “We need to go. It’s almost four thirty and… we should go.”

“Aw, come on. I’m winning.”

“No, he’s right. Let’s go, Johnny. We can start a new one at his house.”

“You guys are such cheaters.” Johnny reluctantly turned off the Nintendo, scooped everything into a cardboard box that was lying next to his bed, and we headed downstairs.

As my foot touched the last step, we heard the crunch of gravel drifting from the driveway.

“Dad’s home,” Johnny and Daniel’s mother called from the living room. I could almost hear the orchestral hit that accompanies something startling in scary movies.

Without hesitation Daniel shoved me into a nearby coat closet. “Wait here,” he said in a low voice. I tried to pull the door shut, but a coat hung over the top of the door and it was impossible to pull the door all the way closed. Panic gripped my stomach and wrung it like a wet rag, pushing the acid to the top of my throat. I pulled the door toward me as tight as it could go. There was still a crack large enough to see through. I prayed it wouldn’t be too noticeable.

Within seconds, the front door burst open, flooding the semi-dark room with sunlight. Temporarily blinded, I held up my hand to shield my eyes. A hulking, backlit shadow filled the doorway. As my eyes adjusted to the brightness, the dark mass slowly began to take form.

Leo was a huge man, well over six feet tall and easily two hundred pounds. His blonde hair was only slightly receding and was peppered with just a touch of gray. He stared at Johnny who still held the box with the videogames. “What is going on here?” He spoke so softly and deeply I almost couldn’t hear him. His voice rumbled like a far-off approaching storm.

“Nothing, sir.” Johnny looked down.

“Are those videogames, boy? I told you those promote nothing but sin.”

Johnny didn’t look up. Their father’s voice rose angrily. “I thought I told you to never bring any of that trash in this house.”

Before Johnny could answer, Daniel pushed past him. “It was my idea, sir. I just wanted to play something fun for once. I convinced Johnny to do it with me. It was just for a few hours. It wasn’t a big deal… sir.” Daniel was staring straight at Leo. The storm clouds had returned to Daniel’s eyes. They crackled with blue light and his jaw was set. His face became like stone.

“Not a big deal?” Leo smashed his briefcase on the wooden floor, splintering the wood and skittering papers across the floor. “So breaking my rules isn’t a big deal? Opposing the head of the household isn’t a big deal?” Leo took a step toward Daniel; I tried to slink farther back into my closet but I needed to hold the door closed. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t move. The horrible twisting motion in my stomach was getting worse. A dark, shapeless fear squeezed into my body. Johnny stepped haltingly toward his father. Daniel made a slight waving motion to stop him. Johnny faltered, looking on helplessly as Leo bellowed again, “Are you listening to me, boy? You’ve broken my rules; you’ve destroyed the sanctity of my household. This is not a place for that filth, this is my house.” He was inches from Daniel’s face. “You deaf, boy?”

Daniel looked directly into the man’s wild eyes. “I’m listening. And you’re wrong, sir.”

Leo roared, swinging the back of his hand across Daniel’s face. Daniel stumbled backwards, holding his nose. Their mother, hearing the shouting, rushed into the foyer. “Daniel!” she screamed, upon seeing her son. “Are you hurt?” She rushed to the fallen boy. Before she could reach him, Leo shoved her so forcefully she slammed into an end table, flopping to the floor.

Daniel sprang back up, wiping his lip. “Don’t touch her, you bastard. She’s my mother!” He was screaming now. I stared on helplessly afraid, unaware that I had let go of the doorknob and the door slowly creaked open. Johnny stood paralyzed.

“She’s my wife and this is my house, boy. You watch your tongue!” He grabbed the box of videogames from Johnny and threw the whole thing at Daniel. The heavy box soared through the air and collided with Daniel’s unprepared stomach. Daniel crumpled instantly, folding in a broken bundle on the stairs. The floorboards under me creaked. Leo spun furiously around. “What-?” The closet door was almost completely open.

Before Leo could say anything else, I flew past him for the open front door. I ran out that door faster than I’ve ever run before. I ran, crying, with snot streaming across my face until I came to my backyard. I fell to my knees and vomited. Flashes of Daniel’s face erupting in vomit and blood, as his weak stomach ruptured from the force of the blow, tore across my mind like an electrical storm. I vomited again.

* * * * * * *

Daniel was in the hospital for almost three weeks. I found out later that the doctors thought he had died once, but somehow he came back. The blow had caused his stomach lining to tear and Daniel’s father, realizing what he’d done, had rushed him to the hospital immediately, ultimately saving Daniel’s life. Leo told the doctors Daniel had accidentally fallen down the stairs while carrying the box of videogames. Just goes to show doesn’t it? Videogames are so dangerous. They never questioned Leo. Daniel didn’t deny the story and his condition was severe enough that nothing was outside the realm of possibility. Daniel’s mother skipped the next couple of weekly ladies’ book club meetings she was in the habit of attending, and then returned as if nothing had happened. She said she’d had the flu.

I struggled for weeks about whether or not to tell somebody about what I’d seen. I mean of course I wanted to help Daniel and Johnny, but I was afraid. Several times I tried to tell my dad what had happened that night, but I always faltered. What if their father found out? Would he do something to me? More likely he would hit Daniel again, or Johnny. But then he had taken Daniel to the hospital. Maybe it was over. Maybe he would try to be better now.

Johnny had told me about what happened to Leo in the Gulf. He had found out from his mother. Leo’s two best friends had died at the very end of the war when an Iraqi missile hit an American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Leo had been returning from a routine reconnaissance mission and he had seen the missile strike their barracks. Evidently, he had run into the wreckage attempting to pull his friends out. There was nothing to find. Immediately he had requested a transfer to inactive duty, and he had never been the same since. I almost felt sorry for him. There’s no way he meant to hurt his son so badly, he’d driven Daniel to the hospital, right? If I lost Daniel or Johnny who knows what I would do? I decided not to tell my parents. Not yet.

By the time Daniel returned to Redfields it was nearly time for school to start again. I was caught up in the whirlwind of finishing my summer reading and my mother taking me shopping for new schoolbooks and clothes. I hadn’t watched any movies and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to. Somehow they felt like they carried more weight than they had a month ago. I hadn’t really seen Johnny at all. I was also a little scared. I didn’t know what I would say to him, what I could say to him. He hadn’t come back to the pool recently and I certainly wasn’t going to knock on his door or call his house, fearing I might run into his father. I simply avoided confronting what happened and decided to wait until Daniel could come back to be with the brothers again.

At four on a Friday afternoon, a week before school was to start, Daniel called the house. “Hey man. You trying to go camping in the woods for a night?” I was so surprised at his tone and just how normal he sounded that I didn’t say anything. Daniel must have noticed. “It’s okay. I’m fine. Seriously. We can talk a little more tonight? Okay?” I told him sure, that’s fine and that I’d love to reunite the trio, I couldn’t think of anything else to say. “Great. See you in a few hours. Can’t wait.” He hung up.

We met up to go camping about three hours later. Initially apprehensive and nervous, I was flooded with a sense of cheerfulness at seeing my friends again. Daniel moved slowly, and I could tell his stomach hurt with every step. But when he saw me, he smiled anyway. “Hey man. It’s so good to see you.” His smile melted my fear further, sending it dribbling down somewhere inside of me.

“It’s great to see you too.” I turned to Johnny. “Dude, I’m sorry we haven’t hung out in awhile,” I said, feeling somewhat ashamed. “I’ve been pretty busy with finishing up summer schoolwork and everything else.”

“It’s okay.” Johnny seemed relieved. I realized he must have been as reluctant as I was to bring up what happened. “I was pretty busy too.”

“But now we can celebrate a little bit. Before you guys start all this school mess again.” Daniel put his arm around Johnny and me. “I love you guys.” He looked me directly in the eye. “Seriously.” Apparently noticing my discomfort, Johnny broke the mushy tension quickly with a resounding clap on my back. “Let’s go get our camp on!”

We ventured deep into the nature trail, making our own path through the thickening foliage. Within minutes of being together, it felt as if nothing had changed. Daniel was certainly weaker and slower than before, and everybody was maybe a little quieter than a few weeks ago, but it was normal. We were back. I was reassured, thinking that everything would be okay. We could pretend it never happened and never really need to talk about it. I was glad I hadn’t told my parents or anybody else. What good would it have done anyway? Daniel seemed fine. Things must have gotten better at his house. With this in mind, I tried to help Johnny set up our cheap canvas tent. Daniel sat and caught his breath. We wrestled with the beast- its tent flaps struggling to escape with the light wind and its poles slipping out of the earth at every opportunity- for a good twenty minutes. When I became buried deep in the canvas sprawled all over the ground, I suggested that it might be manlier if we slept directly under the stars. Tents were for pansies anyway.

It quickly grew dark and we soon lay staring off into the great expanse of twinkling blackness that was above us. The trees melded into each other, creating an inky black wall around our little clearing. We huddled together for the warmth that the mangled tent should have provided, talking and laughing. Johnny kept trying to convince me that sixth grade was a hellish existence. “The eighth graders, they beat you up, for no reason. Just because you’re new to middle school you will get stuffed in lockers or thrown down stairs.” He made a rapid shoving motion. “I’m just glad I survived.” He exaggeratedly wiped his brow. I laughed, believing none of it. I asked Daniel what he thought about his upcoming first year of high school.

“I’m not worried about it.”

“Not at all?” I asked.

Daniel rolled over slowly and looked at me. “Nope. I don’t think I’m going to have anything to worry about.” He rotated back over and looked back into the dark sky. “I don’t think I’m going to have to worry about much of anything.” He said it with such finality, such resolution, as if he had just decided something. I lay there, trying to understand what he was saying, but I didn’t get it. How could he not be worried about entering high school?

“That’s probably because you’re so dumb you’ll fail out anyway,” Johnny said. He laughed, elbowing me in the ribs until I sort of half-chuckled in half-hearted agreement. The conversation stalled.

There were several seconds of tense silence. “Sometimes I wish Dad would just leave.” Daniel turned to us. “You know? Like I understand that he brings in money and stuff but I mean, I can work too. And Mom could find work, I’m sure. I don’t know.” I didn’t know what to say. Daniel continued, “I just wish she would leave him, but she just… can’t. I guess.” Daniel stared straight up at the stars.

“Is there nothing you could do?” I asked. “Like tell the police or something?”

“You think they’d believe me? Mom’s got some kind of Stockholm Syndrome. Loves Dad no matter what he does to us or her.” Daniel threw his hands in the air.

“I just feel like you could do something.” I trailed off, unsure of what to say.

Daniel stared angrily up into the blackness as the fire slowly smothered. “Let’s go to sleep. I’m getting too tired to talk to you idiots anymore.”

Johnny shrugged, seemed confused and gave me a strange look before rolling over. They were asleep within minutes. I lay there, listening to the brothers snore lightly- competing with the hoots of the owls and chirps of the crickets- and I couldn’t help feeling as if something had changed. I didn’t know what it was, though I thought I might know why. It was altogether too much for my dulling brain to work through, however, so I simply resolved not to worry about it and to just start tomorrow anew. As I drifted off I couldn’t help thinking that moment would be a great opportunity for a slow camera pan out.

* * * * * * *

The Saturday before school started came entirely too quickly. I hadn’t been able to hang out with Daniel and Johnny any the last week, and I was getting frustrated. I had called their house several times, but either nobody answered or their mother would answer, always saying that they couldn’t hang out, that they needed to do something or weren’t able or some sort of excuse. She was vague, but seemed apologetic. I didn’t understand, but I was eager to hang out with them one last time before we had to start our dreary school year.

That night, as our family was driving home from a dinner party with some family friends, I could feel the precious final minutes of summer slipping through my fingers, and I leapt out the van door as soon as we pulled into the driveway, headed toward Daniel and Johnny’s house. It was almost ten at night. My mom tried to catch me, but quickly gave up. She must have assumed I was just heading over to grab Daniel and Johnny and would bring them back in a few minutes.

Nearly to their house, I realized just how dark it actually was. I could no longer see the road in the suffocating blackness. I stopped for a few seconds to allow my eyes to adjust. I was standing right outside their house. There were no lights on and the house appeared to be yawning in its slumber. I hesitated. How could I approach their house? On previous nights I had stood outside their window and thrown a couple of rocks to get their attention. But now, I was afraid. The terrible internal twisting had returned.

But I needed to see them, so I willed my stomach to unknot and crept cautiously toward their window in the oppressive silence. How could there be no noise? I felt the grass for a rock, without actually looking down. My head was turned toward the door and my muscles were coiled and ready to spring into action at the first sign of danger. I felt a smooth stone with my fingers.

As I scooped up the pebble, I looked above me for a second and was taken aback by the intensity of the stars. I had never seen so many stars. The canopy of shadowy blackness was on fire. It was as if the dark sky simply could not contain the immense number of ethereal lights.

I looked back to the door, remembering my fear. I threw the pebble against the window. Silence. I found and threw another pebble. Silence. I felt the worry and I could feel the rag slowly twisting in my stomach. I knew that if they were not upstairs, Daniel and Johnny would be down in the living room where their main television set was. I stole around to the other side of the house, hoping to quickly glance in the window and check before heading home.

I hoisted myself up on the windowsill so I could get a better glimpse. I saw Daniel standing in the middle of the room. He wasn’t looking at the television, but its flickering light caused his shadow to dart across the dark walls. He stared at something just outside of my vision. As I raised my hand to rap on the window, I suddenly saw what he was staring at. The light switch flipped in the hallway leading to the living room, illuminating the bulky outline in the doorway.

The shadow spoke to the boy. The thick glass of the window muted the sound, and I couldn’t make out words. Daniel responded just as coolly as he had the night he’d been beaten. Whatever Daniel said angered the immense shadow and it stepped toward him. The light from the hallway settled upon the livid, contorted face of Leo. My heart wrenched violently inside of my chest. He said something; his voice was louder now. Daniel responded yet again with surprising dispassion. Leo, infuriated, marched toward Daniel, undoing his belt; he passed in front of the window I was crouched under.

—-

Originally hailing from Charlottesville, Va., Jordan Breeding is now a senior English major at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. After taking his first creative writing class in the fall of 2011, he immediately fell in love with writing short fiction. His first story “My Movie” was loosely based on some experiences he had back in elementary school (don’t worry, it’s an extremely exaggerated portrayal). The story won recognition with the International English Honor Society “Sigma Tau Delta” for excellence in undergraduate fiction. When he’s not writing prose, the majority of his free time is spent playing guitar with either his independent rock band Skyward, or the on-campus Campus Crusade for Christ worship band.