The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (33 page)

An Unpleasant
Decision

Monday, November
22
^nd
,
4:03 pm…

Anthony Herrera liked to
think of himself as somewhere between tough and stoic, not bully or
some reckless idiot. The kind of guy who could go out on a limb by
himself and be ready for whatever the world threw at him, and still
keep a level head. He didn’t want to be too needy or overly
emotional or easily hurt. Rather, he strove to be the type of guy
that could, with minimal direction, take whatever came his way good
or bad, and have neither elicit much of a response from
him.

“
Be even keeled at all
times” was his motto, a motto he tried to live by every minute of
his life, a motto that didn’t work all the time.

Regardless, he went on
conducting his behavior in that very manner. He didn’t want to be
like other people. He’d seen too many people lose their cool and
make horrible decisions as a direct consequence of their lack of
control. He’d vowed a long, long time ago he wouldn’t be like them.
His ultimate goal - never do anything rash,
ever
. He didn’t want his emotions
ruling him, clouding his judgment, causing him to make some huge
error, because of what he felt inside, before realistic thought
applied itself to the issue. He’d never strive to be a crusader of
any cause or a maverick in any walk of life. He would watch, listen
and evaluate, and make sound decisions rooted in fact and
fundamental reasoning. He would move slow and show much restraint.
He would apply it to nearly every aspect of his time on earth. It
was, he believed, the only way leading toward his achievement of
his foremost goals, his greatest chance of success in whatever it
was he’d decide to do when he got older.

Of course, he hadn’t
figured out what those lofty achievements or penultimate goals
might be yet, but still, it seemed like a good way to live life. Be
safe, be cautious and don’t get burned.

He wanted very much to
keep it that way, and try he would…

…
Until something came
along that he just couldn’t abide. It was something capable of
sparking a more instinctual, more primeval part of himself - a
threat to a member of his family. Though he’d never known such a
basis reaction was seeded further within him than any childhood
notions of how an adult should live. It was, nevertheless, there
and it came to life like fire to a matchstick. It burned bright. It
shone the way. The obvious conclusion spawned in his mind and the
gears began to turn as he stood there, staring at the creepy,
white-skinned classmate of his sisters. He’d noticed the challenge
in her eyes, the unnerving undertone of her words, lightly
sprinkled with what felt like malice, even malcontent. All bullshit
aside, his mind was made up. It was time to investigate, time to
build a case. If that little twisted girl had scared Elena, then he
was going to find out why. If she fucked with him, he was going to
scare her back.

He’d finished his homework
somewhat quickly. All he really needed to do was study for an
Algebra II exam he was going to take the following day. Since he
didn’t have much trouble with the section this time around, he felt
relatively confident he would ace it. He just needed to brush up on
a few things and would be through with it in less than half an
hour.

His Dad had come home not
that long after, peering into Anthony’s room. He was still dressed
in his slacks, shirt and tie from his meeting. He had asked how
everything had gone with picking up the girls from school, to which
Anthony replied, everything was cool and smooth. His Dad merely
nodded, looking over the mail he held in his hand, only
half-listening. He must’ve grabbed the correspondence from the
dining room table where Elena had left it when they’d arrived home
after their short walk from the girls’ school.

Anthony just waited in
silence for his Dad’s reply. This was the usual between them – keep
it easy and get shit done, all the time.

Then his Dad looked up and
said, “Thank you, ‘T’, you did well today. I’m glad I can count on
you when I have to in times like this. It makes me feel comfortable
when things get a little strained around here, you know? I like the
idea of you stepping up.”

“
No problem, Dad. It was
nothing,” he replied, the compliment duly noted and filed
away.

“
Good,” began his father,
“I’m gonna see about scheduling dinner and then I’ll be in my
office.”

“
Cool.” His Dad made to
leave, but Anthony prompted, “Hey, Dad…?”

His father stopped and
looked back into the room, his eyebrows arched slightly.
“Yes?”

“
Is it cool if I go up the
street for a bit and check something out at the top of the hill
real quick?” Anthony crunched up his face at the total vagueness of
the question, not sure, if his Dad would go for it.

“
Like what, you wanna go
and check out the new construction they’re doing up
there?”

“
Something like that,
yeah.”

His father smiled and
shook his head. “Just be back in an hour, we still have some shit
to do tonight before your mom gets home from work,
alright?”

Tony knew this to mean
there were chores – dishes, laundry, etc. – his father liked to
have everything done before his mother came home. He was adamant
about having the house in order, so she could just come home and
relax without having to worry about domestic crap any more than she
needed to. His father took special care of his mother, especially
since she’d accepted her new job, a job that turned out to have a
lot more stress attached to it than they’d first anticipated. So,
since his father worked from home, he took it upon himself to make
his mother’s home life as simple and uncomplicated as he possibly
could. Anthony admired what his father was doing for the woman he
loved. He respected him even more for it, because it was his Mom
his Dad was spoiling.

“
Yeah, no problem, Dad, I
don’t even think it’ll take that long.”

“
Ok, see you in a bit
then.” With that his father left, closing the door behind him as he
went.

From his desk, Anthony
glanced out of the window, noticing how dark and windy it looked
outside, despite it being hours before evening.

Man, Dad, must be a little
distracted today if he didn’t even mention wearing a sweater or
something warm on a day like this
, thought
Anthony has he picked up his thin, black jacket, rather than the
bulkier coat he usually wore in weather like this. For some reason,
he felt he might need a little more range of motion for the
duration of his short expedition.

He walked from his room,
turning left down the hallway and then right as he approached the
bathroom he shared with his sisters. He continued down the passage,
passing the girl’s room and made his way to the front
door.

He was just about to reach
for the doorknob when Elena’s voice chirped behind him. “Where are
you going?”

He jumped slightly,
startled at the unexpected inquiry. “Out,” he said, taking the last
step toward the door, grabbing the doorknob and made to
leave.

“
Why are you going out
when there’s a storm –,” she began, but was cut off by her
brother.

“
Look, I have an idea and
I want to check it out, but I don’t want you or Mikalah tagging
along alright,” he voiced it in a rush, failing to recapture some
of the poise he’d had a few seconds before.

“
Why?”

He turned and looked back
at the nine-year-old. He knew, the moment he closed the door, she
was going to run down the hall to her room, get her jacket and
follow him. This was something he couldn’t allow. At least, until
he knew a little more about he was already beginning to suspect. He
turned around facing her fully. His face set serious, an expression
he knew she wasn’t used to seeing.

“
Elena, you are not going
to follow me. I have an idea, but I need to search for more
information, before I’ll be ready to talk about it. Now, you are
going to wait until I come back, ok? I promise I will explain what
I am doing at that time. I promise. Do you understand?”

“
But –“

“
No ‘buts’, Elena, I don’t
want you or Mikalah to get hurt and that’s final! Stay!
Here!”

With that, he spun on his
heel and stepped out into the growing wind and cold, closing the
door with a heave.

At his back, Elena stood
there, just beyond the portal to the living room, stunned to the
very bottom of her feet, to the very tips of her fingers. Her scalp
was tingling, her eyes bulging out of her head. All the while,
Anthony’s reply played repeatedly in her head…

“…
do not want you or
Mikalah to get hurt…”

“…
do not want you or
Mikalah to get hurt…”

“…
do not want you or
Mikalah to get hurt…”

She had been right after
all. Her brother had indeed made a decision about something earlier
that afternoon, something big, something dangerous. Again, she felt
herself shiver, though it was a balmy 72 degrees in their
house.

This had nothing to do
with the temperature.

The wheels of something
huge had just begun to spin.

She could feel
it.

~~~~~~~~<<<<<<{ ☼
}>>>>>>~~~~~~~~

Worth a Shot

Monday, November
22
^nd
,
4:14 pm…

Anthony reached the bottom
of the stairs and stepped onto the sidewalk. With a jerking motion,
he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He did a quick search of
his digital phone book and made a call he never thought he’d make
in a million years.

He glanced around as the
electronic representation of a phone ringing toned in his ear,
hoping the number of the person he was dialing hadn’t changed. It
had been nearly seven years since he’d last called it.

The wind continued to pick
up as the day progressed. Now, with the sun waning, dark, ominous
clouds could be seen above, ever-more menacing with each passing
gust. All about, leaves and small branches were swirling around the
parked cars in the street, whirling and swooshing up and down
Milbur Drive. Even, back and forth, from one side of the street to
the next. It was as though the currents of air were a part of some
gigantic slow-moving vortex.

Then: “You gotta be
kidding me, Anthony, are you actually calling me?” said the voice
on the other end of the phone, extremely incredulous, on the verge
of insult.

Well, I guess the number
is
still
the same
after all…

“
Yeah, Drew, it is me,”
Anthony replied, warily, not sure if this was a good idea after
all.

“
After all this time, you
just decided to up and call out of the blue?” the sarcasm was
beginning to leak toward anger in the other’s voice.

Anthony knew this wasn’t
going to be easy. “Well, sort of yes and no.”

“
What kind of stupid ass
answer is that?” Now, the sarcasm had a forged an edge.

Anthony knew his long lost
friend from elementary school still held a grudge. He blinked a few
times, willfully keeping his own anger at a simmer. This thing he
had to do was too important to let ancient differences resurface
and ruin what he’d planned. “Look, Drew, I wanna say that
everything that happened back in the day, happened a long time ago
and shouldn’t be this big, idiotic road-block between us,
especially if neither of us really cares about it anymore,” he
ventured, hoping to cross the necessary bridges between them as
swiftly as possible.

“
That’s you’re ‘olive
branch’, enough time has passed, so we can both ignore what went on
back then? Is that what makes it easy for you? Yeah, let’s just
pretend it never happened. What kind of fucking idiot do you think
I am?” There was real anger in his voice now, but also
hurt.

Anthony knew this was the
real crux of the issue - Andrew still felt hurt by what happened
way back in the fifth grade. “Drew, ok, man, I’m sorry I told on
you, alright,” began Anthony; letting some of the frustration he’d
tried so hard to suppress seep into his voice. He was angry with
himself for letting Andrew get under his skin so quickly. “What the
hell else did you want me to do, man? You sneaked half a quart of
Jack Daniels onto campus. You were about to let dumb ass second
graders get drunk off it! Do you realize how dangerous that could
have been for them? You stupid jerk, I saved you from hurting some
innocent kid real bad, saved you from the real trouble you would’ve
been in and the guilt you would still be carrying today if you had
hurt someone. You might’ve killed them, if I hadn’t stopped
you.