Disturbia

Posted on Thu May 4th, 2023 @ 7:45am by Alonzo Blazevic & Ethan Thompson

667 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Bangor or Bust
Location: Millinocket, Maine
Timeline: 25 AUG 2010 - 07:00 p.m.

Batman and Robin, the dark knight and his boy wonder. Was that how this was supposed to be from now on? The two had been driving around in Alonzo's Pontiac Vibe after Alonzo had managed to gain at least somewhat of a temporary foothold on Ethan's trust. The teenage boy had seen something so grotesque that Alonzo wasn't the least bit surprised that evening while driving around that Ethan had nodded off, his head uncomfortably against the glass window, but the peacefulness only lasted a few hours.

Ethan had begun to make noises in his sleep. At first Alonzo ignored it as a boy dreaming about some girl, but that clearly wasn't the case. He was running. Terrified and running in his sleep. "Hey, kid. Kid" Alonzo said. He wanted to reach over and shake the boy, but Alonzo's parents had been firm when teaching him to drive that eyes did not leave the road and two hands were on the wheel at all times.

It did not matter in a few moments anyways because after a snarl or whatever it was, Ethan sprung back to life with a sharp and sudden jolt looking as though he had one hell of a nightmare. Alonzo knew it was worse than a nightmare. It was reliving what had happened to his folks.

Screw it thought Alonzo disregarding his driving instruction. He reached over and placed a hand on Ethan's shoulder. "Hey," he said softly. "I can't keep driving around here all night. In an hour or two, I'll be struggling to keep my eyes open and I doubt you have your driver's license."

He came back to consciousness, driven by fear, like a cattle prod right to his heart and for a moment, he couldn't focus, so swamped was he in how much of his life was gone. The words filtered through, even if it took a minute to process, and he responded without thinking. "Dad was going to start teaching me on my birthday," he said. The pain of that lanced through him as he sucked in his breath. Not helpful, he thought. So he did what he did in track. Shook off everything except the moment. Focused. "I don't have much cash but if we hit an ATM, I have some saved up. Maybe get a room somewhere?"

Alonzo laughed at the suggestion. "I'm not taking your lunch money," he said to Ethan. "Besides, I'm not taking a fifteen year old boy to some skeezy ass motel. That's how you end up with Chris Hansen knocking on your door with camera crew. I don't want to strike someone's perverted thoughts. People are quick to jump to conclusions these days."

"So where then," Ethan asked as he considered how to make himself comfortable within the Vibe. "We just pulling off and going to sleep?"

"I prefer not to," stated Alonzo. "How do you feel about churches?" It seemed like a reasonable refuge. Somewhere safe. They wouldn't turn them away, would they?

"Churches," Ethan said. "That's fine. Spent half my life being dragged to church. Sermons were boring but they always had good food afterwards."

A smile crept across Alonzo's face. Being stuck with a fifteen year old boy wasn't his idea of a fun road trip companion, but at least Ethan had a sense if humor albeit overshadowed by trauma. "Then that is what we will do. There's a church not too far from here a few blocks over. We can head there and hopefully they are feeling charitable because I could use the rest and hopefully some food too."

Ethan settled back in his seat, watching the road slide by, and let the comment pass. Needing rest was typical of old people and while it was hard for him to understand, it would give him a chance to read for a bit. Alone time which made a lot more sense than sleeping. But the food thing? That sounded good. Breakfast had worn off hours ago.

 

RSS Feed