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My voice so much closer now, he stilled, then peered over his shoulder. “Hey, looky there. No longer afraid.” He turned around and waived. “Hi, I’m Kelly.” He blinked. “Holy shit. I just told you my real name.” His eyes were golden-brown and shined when he smiled.
I had yet to learn about ‘road names’ but was honored with his honesty.
Nibbling on my bottom lip, I mumbled, “Hi.”
Teasingly, he took a step forward, his hands in the air to not spook me. “And your name?”
Believe it or not, Da never explained why I was to be quiet, or that I shouldn’t talk to anyone but him, and since singing was allowed, I opened my mouth… “My name is Elleora.”
“Nice to meet ya! Your accent is badass. Where are you from?”
I looked to the right. I looked to the left. “Here.”
“Talking like that? Colorado? No shit.” He wiped brown hair from his sweaty forehead. “Hey, who taught you to sing so beautifully?”
Over the next couple of weeks, Kelly was never invasive, only asking casual questions. He never asked who I lived with or why I was on the skittish side. In fact, since I was quiet, he did most of the talking. We spoke of music. Well, he told me of the kind he liked. He hadn’t heard of any of the artists I mentioned from my tapes. Kelly spoke of the man who I had seen with him—his Da—and how his parents had nicknamed him BoySon. I thought it was sweet and I understood both words.
When he spoke of his Old Lady, also his fiancé, he was his most handsome. The love he had for her was something I suddenly wanted, with how it lit up his face. Kelly was so proud he was soon going to surprise his Old Lady with this house he was ‘fixing up’.
“Remodeling?”
He winked. “That’s right.”
He was also very passionate when speaking of his biker life, that he was like a ‘VP’ to his father. He told me how important his ‘cut’ was to him.
All of it reminded me of Mammy and how much she missed her Da’s biker life.
Not telling Da I had made friends with our new neighbor had been a mistake. One that would start an avalanche in my life.
It was mid-morning when I said goodbye to Kelly through the fence. I didn’t know Da had come home early from work for something he had forgotten. That’s why I was shocked when I stepped back inside the house and was suddenly yanked to the side. Hidden behind the open curtains, Da had my back to his chest. His one arm wrapped around my neck was wrenching my head back due to me being taller than him now.
He sneered in my ear, “Is he a part of her family?”
The sliding door shut.
“W-What?” My heart thundered. “W-Who—What family?”
We awkwardly moved as one while he wrestled the curtains shut to not be seen. He yelled, “Is he from Ireland?”
I was so confused. I simply had no idea what was happening. All I knew was I was now being dragged up the stairs and into my room.
Standing by my bed, knowing I had majorly messed up, but not sure how, tears poured from my eyes. “Da.” I looked at the door he was shutting. “Wait.” The door locked from the outside. “What have I done?”
Da didn’t answer. I only heard him run down the stairs, then get on the phone in the kitchen. He said, “We have a problem.”
Nothing. I heard nothing from him, nor received food for the rest of the day. Not that I could’ve eaten, I was so upset. With the sun long gone, I sat by the window in my dark room and cried, comprehending my isolation had begun again.
I watched Kelly coming in and out of his house, bringing out old wood and taking in new. He was working so hard for his fiancé. My friend was a good and sincere person. I was going to miss talking to him, dearly.
I was going to miss him dearly.
Suddenly, from the side of his house, I noticed movement in the dark shadows. I must have been so upset that I didn’t notice them until now. There were two men, in suits, one peering around the back corner of the house, watching Kelly. When he went back inside the house for a moment, they each pulled out a gun and held them by their sides.
I’d watched enough TV by this point to know this was an ambush of sorts. That’s why, no matter how angry Da already was with me, as soon as Kelly started to come back outside, I banged on the window and screamed, “Bad men! Bad men!”
Kelly looked up at me, awareness quickly crossing his face. He looked to where I was pointing, then ducked as a bullet shot through the air. I didn’t hear a discharge, due to the silencer, but I was grateful it had missed.
I jolted when Kelly was suddenly returning fire. He had retrieved a gun, so quickly, from the back of his jeans while using his doorway as cover that I had missed it.
