Michael and Tanya were seemingly the perfect couple. They’d met in high school. She was a cheerleader and he was captain of the basketball team. They had started dating during their sophomore year and were now seniors. After a long hard winter, one of the worst on record, the spring had come and thawed the frozen wasteland that was Maine. With the spring renewal came the knowledge that in a few short months they would be graduating. It was a prospect that held both extreme excitement and intense fear for the both of them. Theirs was still a very young love, though they’d been dating for two years they had never really faced any challenges in their relationship. They went to the same school and shared most of the same classes, but now they were going to be heading to college. Michael had been offered scholarships to play basketball at several schools including Vermont and Michigan, but had decided on the University of Connecticut. It was a great program that still kept him relatively close to home and to Tanya who had chosen to attend Johnson and Wales where she was planning to enter their Bachelor’s Degree program for Culinary Arts. The closest campus was in Providence, Rhode Island. It was a good school which would give her a leg up in the competitive world of food services.
It was a warm Saturday morning in April with only a few fluffy clouds overhead. The chances of rain were low and the couple was lying on a blanket near the river. Michael was propped up on his elbows looking down at the water. A canoe with what appeared to be a father and son passed them by and on the far bank a man was sitting in a chair fishing and drinking. Mostly he was drinking.
“So what do you want to do today?” he asked, stealing a glance at the beauty that was his girlfriend.
“I don’t know. My brother has something with his Tae Kwon Do class and my parents want me to go with them,” she sighed.
“What time is that?”
“About four.”
“Well, that gives us,” Michael glanced at his watch. “About six hours.”
He rolled over onto his side and placed his hand on her thigh.
“That gives us plenty of time,” he smiled slyly.
She put her hand on his in either a gesture of love or in an attempt to prevent his hand from roaming too far from its current location.
“Did you have something in mind?” she asked, knowing exactly what he was thinking, but wanting to hear him say it anyway.
“Well, my parents are out of town this weekend. They went up to my grandparents’ camp in “The County” to get away. So we could always go back to my place. Who knows, maybe they left the liquor cabinet unlocked.”
“You know I can’t drink today. I’m going to be with my parents later and I’m sure they wouldn’t appreciate it if I showed up reeking of booze.”
They were startled by a sudden noise in the bushes behind them. They both leaped to their feet, Michael slightly behind Tanya as a large dog burst through the shrubs. His tail was wagging and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth as he came running up to the frightened couple. Michael started to laugh and began to pet the seemingly friendly dog.
“How’s it going, boy?” he said to the dog and then turned to Tanya. “The way we reacted you would’ve thought this was Cujo.”
One look at Tanya showed that she was not in the least bit amused by the situation. Michael stopped laughing.
“What’s wrong, Hon?” he asked.
“Seriously? You don’t know?”
He shook his head. “No, I guess I don’t. Care to enlighten me?”
“It could’ve been anything coming out of those bushes and where were you? You looked like you were about the jump in the river and leave me here to fend for myself. What if it had been a rabid dog or an escapee from Shady Acres?”
“Ok, so now I know. The next time a rabid golden retriever or a drooling schizo from the mental hospital comes chasing us down by the river I’ll make sure that I jump in front of you. Is that what you want to hear? Now, come on. Let’s just go back to my place before you have to go to your brother’s stupid Tae Bo thing.”
He reached over and grabbed her arm just above the elbow. She yanked her arm away and turned her back to him.
“I know this is some big joke to you, but it’s not to me. Starting this fall we’re going to be going to different schools in different states. If I can’t trust you to protect me from something while we’re standing side by side how can I trust you to make the right choices when we’re not?”
“Is that seriously what this is about? Come on, Tan, I love you! You know I love you! I’m going to come visit you every weekend at school!”
“You say that now, but then some weekend there’s going to be a frat party or something and you’ll put it off for a week and next thing you know you’re sleeping with a sorority girl who’s trying to make it with the whole basketball team.”
She folded her arms over her chest in a protective gesture. Tears were already forming in her eyes. She knew she was being childish, but these feelings had been building up and she felt that if she didn’t express them they were going to begin to fester and cause irreparable damage to their still blossoming romance.
“Come on! I won’t even be a starter freshman year!”
She whirled on him, a look of fury in her eyes. The tears were still glittering in them, but sadness had taken a backseat to anger.
“That’s your answer? Forget it! I’m going to the car. When you get the blanket folded you can drive me home. I’d rather be there with my family than here with you right now.”
Tanya stormed up the hill without so much as a look back over her shoulder at him. Michael just stared after her, blindsided by her anger. He reached down to pickup the blanket, turning as he did so looking out over the river. The fisherman was still in his chair, fishing pole now set aside. He seemed to be waving at Michael who waved back and then crumpled the blanket up and tucked it under his arm.
“Hope you enjoyed the show,” he said, not loudly enough for the man to actually hear.
He turned and headed up the hill to where his car was parked. The man across the river was pulled out of his chair from behind and dragged into the bushes, shielding him from view. He screamed, but if Michael heard him he gave no indication. The dog, tail still wagging, looked from the river and then to Michael as he disappeared over the rise. Realizing that no one was going to give him any attention now he ran back to the bushes from which he’d originally emerged. He stopped briefly to sniff the remains of his former owner before running off.
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The drive to Tanya’s house was filled entirely with silence. Tanya stared out the window, moving her leg when Michael tried to place his hand on it. When he tried to speak she simply turned on the radio and continued to watch the scenery as it passed by. When he pulled into her driveway Michael started to get out to open her door.
“Don’t bother!” she snapped, removing her seatbelt and opening the door for herself.
She started to close the door, but then leaned her head back into the car.
“When you think of someway to fix this give me a call. Until then I don’t want to hear from you.”
She slammed the door and jogged up the walk to the front porch. Michael watched her go until she vanished inside and the door closed behind her. He then backed down the driveway and into the road, narrowly missing getting hit by a speeding sedan.
“Learn to drive! Jerk!” he said and began the drive to his house which would be empty until Sunday evening. “Who knows? Maybe the liquor cabinet will be open. I could use a drink.”
As Michael drove down the shady side streets that would take him to the large house that his parents owned on the outskirts of town he was surprised at the lack of people. Normally there would be a few cars driving slowly through town heading to the golf course, or the grocery store, or even the movie theater in Augusta. He didn’t see any kids outside tossing a baseball around or any dad’s in the backyard starting a grill for lunch. There were no girls rolling in the lush green grass or any mothers taking advantage of the bright sunlight to work in their flower gardens. The town seemed lifeless.
“Creepy,” he said to himself and changed the radio from the bubblegum pop station that Tanya had it set to. “It’s like a George Romero movie.”
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“Mom? Dad?” Tanya called as she entered the foyer of the small split level where she lived.
The windows on both sides of the front door let in a flood of light, but the curtains must have been drawn in the rest of the house because it was filled with darkness. The smell of that morning’s coffee still hung in the air as she entered the kitchen and opened the fridge. She grabbed a cold diet soda and closed the fridge behind her. She walked to the island in the center of the kitchen and opened the top of the drink, taking a long sip before noticing the note in her mother’s neat handwriting. She picked the note up after setting the drink down on the counter and read it.
Tanya,
We know you weren’t very interested in going this afternoon and probably had plans with Mike. So we decided to take Charlie out to lunch and then a movie before going to his belt ceremony. We’re going to see that new animated 3D movie. He’s wanted to see it and we thought you wouldn’t mind. There’s stuff that you can microwave for lunch and we should be home in time for dinner. Love you. See you tonight.
Love,
Mom and Dad
Tanya crumpled the note and threw it in the garbage, fresh tears now in her eyes. She wiped them with the back of her hand and picked up the soda before heading up the stairs and into her room. She closed the door behind her and set the drink down on her nightstand before collapsing, face down, on her bed. She pulled the pillow over her head and began to cry. So much for a perfect Saturday with her boyfriend.
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Michael was a short way from his house when he heard a chopper overhead. He tried to look up at it out the window as he drove, but couldn’t spot it. He pulled over on the soft gravel shoulder of the road, leaving the car running, and got out. He shielded his eyes against the bright sun and found the low flying helicopter as it circled a forested area a few miles from his home. There were others that were also making their way to the area. A few of them appeared to be news helicopters, but at least two were military.
“That’s weird,” he said. “I wonder what’s going on over there.”
He got back into the vehicle and hit seek on his radio trying to find a news station that would let him know what was happening in his small town. He pulled back out onto the road and sped off toward home. He didn’t bother to look into his rearview mirror, but if he had he would’ve spotted a man coming out of the woods in a blood stained t-shirt and ripped jeans. His hair was a mess of blood and the rich soil of the forest floor. He had an axe in one hand, but it was dragging behind him as if it were an afterthought.
As he pulled into the U-shaped driveway that led up to his house he continued to notice the relative absence of people in his neighborhood. He saw a dog running off behind a nearby house with something in its mouth, but he hadn’t gotten a good look. As he exited the vehicle and ran up the front steps he realized that though the sun was still shining more clouds had appeared and some of them had a gray hue.
“Maybe we will get that rain after all,” he said to himself.
Little did he know as he unlocked and opened the front door that a thunderstorm would be the least of his concerns in a few hours.
*******************************************************************************To Be Continued
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