Cheshire CatA Chapter by Alyssa
Chapter 4: Cheshire Cat
It was almost dark when I stepped up onto the porch and opened the door. I saw Dad and Junee sitting down at the table with half their food already eaten; I heard the clatter of the china lightly hitting the plates. "Little late aren't you hon?" My dad said holding his fork with a piece of juicy, delicious, mouth watering pork on it. "Hi Desi!" June said with a small red juice mustache. "Hey Juni, Oh yah, sorry it takes a while to get back from that meadow we were at." I put my keys on the counter and pulled my hair back in a low ponytail, washed my hands, and sat down across from dad. "Those boys your age?" He asked before taking a gulp of his coke. "Yah, well two were, and one was Cody's older brother." I said eagerly helping myself for the stuffing, and spilling some on the table. "Cody? Which one was that, the one that had that big smile smeared across his face?" "Um, did he have medium length dark brown hair?" "Uh… yah that’s the boy. You know him at all?" Uy, enough with the interrogations... "Kind of, I met him at that souvenir shop, and we bumped into each other at the ice cream shop, that’s when he invited me to go four wheeling." I took my first bite of the pork; I could hear the hallelujah chorus. "Oh yah how did that go?" "It was fun, never went that fast before." I drank my coke too fast and it made me hiccup. I put my right hand over my chest, making a pained expression. "What you got on your hand?" Wow, he was sure being nosy tonight. I looked down at my hand not clear on what he was talking about. I saw the seven numbers in black ink across my hand and remembered. "Oh, that’s Cody's number... we had fun today, so we want to hang out more this summer, is that okay?" He looked up startled that I would ask such a question. "What? Of course you can baby, you can do whatever you want this summer, just don't cause any trouble." He ended that with raised eyebrows, pointing at me with his fork, and then winked. His plate was empty and so was June's so took them and brought them to the sink to start to wash. "Well, looks like I can't do whatever I want this summer." June said clearly annoyed about what happened earlier this evening. "June sweetie, its different for you, your eight years old, you don't get that much independence yet babe." "Yah I know, you told me that on the way back from the ice cream shop." She said with a sigh. I finished the remains of my stuffing and corn and washed my dishes in the sink. June went and through herself onto the couch, she was slowly sinking into the cushions. I looked again at the red line under her nose. "Ey, Mario. Let's wash off that mustache huh?" I took hand and dragged her off the couch; it was like I was pulling her from quick sand. "What are you talking about?" She said baffled, so I stood behind her with my hands on her tiny shoulders and led her to the mirror in the bathroom. She burst out laughing. "I do look like Mario!" She went on her tiptoes to get a closer look with an amused smile. I washed off the red underneath her nose and let her go take a shower. The shower here was so small, you barely had elbowroom, but Juni was small enough. I went to go put on my PJs but a voice stopped me. "Hey Des, don't get changed, I’m getting fire started for a campfire tonight, put some bug spray on ’kay bud." He was halfway out the door, and there was a dark blue sky behind him, the stars were all out. "Alright." I sounded excited. I love campfires. Especially when there are smores. I went to my bedroom and went in the small closet to get a big red hoodie, and gray sweatpants. It was colder out now, and I didn’t want to get bitten at all so I obeyed my dad and put on some bug spray. The smell of bug spray was always strange to me, not a good or bad smell, just plain weird. I pulled out my hair tie letting my waves fall over my shoulders and put on my favorite knee high winter boots that had comfy wool inside. June just got out of the bathroom with wet straggly hair. "June, we're going outside to have a campfire, get ready we'll be outside. Oh, and put some bug spray on, keep you mouth closed when you do it this time." I said with a chuckle. I scavenged through the cabinet for marshmallows, gram crackers, and chocolate bars. They were all there, Dad must have bought some today. I grabbed it all and went outside to sit with dad. As I crossed the grass, the loud chirping of the many crickets sounded through my ears. I went to the fire that was already growing; my dad was a natural at this stuff. "I brought smores." I said holding up the marshmallow bag with a smile. "Nice Des! Here’s a stick you can use, I’ll be right back I need to get some spray on." While I was alone I set up all the smores stuff on the table and stuck a marshmallow on my stick, placed it over the fire and watched, spinning my stick every so often. The fire crackled and fumed, sparks flying into the night sky. I looked deeper into the fire, lost in thought, and noticed two sparks that were still, which struck my attention. I studied them, giving them a closer look, and realized they weren't sparks; it was coming from the woods. My heart speed accelerated and only one thing emerged in my mind. That wolf, with the same golden eyes. But it was so far away, maybe a good fifty feet into the woods. It could just be fireflies or some form of my imagination, I have been scaring myself lately about that wolf, like with the dream. I blinked once and they were gone. Yeah, I’m diffidently losing it. I wish my mind would just forget about that stupid wolf. "Desi! Desi you got the smores?" I heard June’s feet running closer behind me through the grass. She scared the living hell out of me; I jumped and nearly fell off my chair, letting go of the stick and the marshmallow, which fell into the fire. “Uh, yah... Juni they're over here." I said breathlessly. "You okay? I scared you didn't I?" She said quite proud of herself. "Hah, yah you got me." I picked up my stick and put another marshmallow on, this time I just burnt the whole thing. The fire engulfed it, I let it spread till it was all burnt and then blew it out. I Set it up as a smore and bit into it with a crunch. Dad came back down and took a seat next to June. "I was thinking tomorrow Des me and June would stop by at Bob's place, I haven’t seen him since last summer. His niece is with him too for the summer with her parents, she's around Junes age, so you don't mind if we're gone for a while do you? You could always come, but... I don't think you'd have a lot of fun." Bob Stanley was one of my dads best friends, he knew him ever since he was a teenager coming down here. And being around my dad busy with him and Juni busy with his niece, he was right I would probably get bored. "Yah dad that’s fine, go ahead, ill figure out something to do." I heard loud blowing noises beside me and saw June struggling to blow out her flaming marshmallow, I grabbed her stick and blew it out for her. "Alright if you say so." When it got late I went inside and took a hot shower, I put the pretty Indian beaded necklace on that I bought and went into bed with June. And soon enough I closed my eyes to more nightmares. I woke up to the sound of rain crashing hard onto the roof. It sounded like marbles instead of rain. Juni was surprisingly still sleeping, so I must be up really early. I went to the kitchen and I found my dad was also still in bed. Squinting at the clock, it was 5:00 in the morning. I Stared at it in disbelief for about thirty seconds, went to the window and saw the loud pouring rain. The mountains weren’t even visible through them. There was no way I would be able to fall back asleep. I sighed and opened the fridge, pouring myself a glass of milk. I gulped it down quick, my mouth was so dry. Not sure what I wanted to do next, I stood there for a minute fiddling with my hair and decided to go out on the porch to watch the sun rise. I slipped into my hiking boots, threw on my jacket and went our to sit on the whicker bench. It was still dawn, and I suddenly remembered what Cody said, that at 6:25 the sun rises. I had an hour and twenty five minutes to see the sunrise. I sat there for a while watching the rain get lighter and lighter till it was coming to a stop, where there were only trickles coming down. So with nothing else to do I walked out onto the muddy grass and went to take a walk down the deserted road to Great Sacandaga beach. I walked slowly, enjoying myself, taking in the mystical smell of after rain. It was so muggy and damp, but I kind of liked it in a way. I started to see the beach emerge at the bottom of the dirt road hill and when I reached the sand it was all darkened to a brown from the rain. I sat on the big tree log laid out for a bench and looked out at the lake. The water had mist fogged over in a layer, and was completely still, except in this one spot not too far out from shore, probably a snapping turtle. But out of the water came out an arm, and then another in a form of a backstroke. Then I noticed a head that I thought was the snapping turtles shell. That was the last thing I was expecting in the water, who would go out swimming this early? And plus, the water was probably ice cold. The person flipped over on his stomach and started swimming towards me, not showing any notice that I was there. When it got shallow enough he stood up, and oh my god he was completely naked. I immediately looked away from him by instinct but found myself turning back, focusing on the region above the waist. He had a really nice body, he was muscular but not in a bulky way. His hands were covering his face wiping his eyes as I sat there not sure where to look and what to do. So I cleared my throat loud enough so he could hear. He moved away his hands right away and looked around anxiously till his eyes rested on me. It was Cody. "Ah! Desiree, uh-um." He said while covering himself up with a Lilly pad, quickly stepping back into the water. "Uh- hi... Cory." I was stunned, I tried not to laugh in embarrassment. "What are you, uh, doing here so early?" I asked, trying to hold back a smile, I knew it didn’t work. “Uh... I just went for a, a swim... I like to go out early, before everyone else comes." He said laughing nervously. He was now chest deep in the water. "Oh, so you can swim in the nude huh?" I ended with a light chuckle. "Yah... you should try it sometime, I mean, I’m not saying now, but later, I mean not-you know, like by yourself." He was scratching the back of his head nervously. "Okay I'll consider it." I said chuckling off the awkwardness. "Um, can you hand me my towel?" He said with furrowed eyebrows pointing to the white towel hanging on a low tree branch. "Sure." I got up and waited for him to swim close enough. He grabbed it as I quickly faced the other way and walked back to my log. When it was wrapped around him he sat down next to me, feeling a little more comfortable than before. "So do you do this every morning?" I asked, looking over at him. He was looking down at the sand. His wet hair dripping. "Yah, pretty much. It’s a good way to start the morning, wakes you right up. But enough about me, why are you down here this early?" "Oh, well the rain woke me up early, and I couldn’t go back to sleep, so after the rain I went down here." I looked out into the sky with the mountains. It was slightly brighter then before, but not yet close to sunrise. The clouds were still lingering in amongst the dim sky. "Are we ever going to stop bumping into each other? I mean hey I like to, but not like that." He said half-heartedly. "Hah, yah ditto." It was silent for a little, but it wasn't a bad silence, it was relaxed. We were listening to the birds beginning to chirp their morning calls. "Boy do they talk a lot." Cody said looking up at the pine trees. "Yeah, and they all have a different tune, they repeat it over and over... you'd think their throats would be completely shot after a week or so.” "Yeah." "I always thought it would be cool to be a bird, you know to be able to fly." "Hmm,” He looked up to the trees, water droplets slid down his neck, hitting his shoulders. “Makes you wonder what it feels like.” Then he turned to me. “So uh, what are you doing today?” “Well, actually nothing yet. My dad wants to take June over his friends house today.” “Oh, so then… I think its safe to say that you will be kidnapped by Cody today.” He flashed a white smile. We looked out ahead of us at the mountains and the sun slowly peaked out behind them, lightening up the sky. Cody stood up, still with the white towel wrapped around his waist. “Hah, I’m fine with that. You want to meet up later then?” I stood up too, and looked up at him with my hands in my sweat pant pockets. He was looking around as if someone called him. “How about I pick you up in a couple hours, okay? I uh, need to get dressed.” He said looking down at his attire. “Yeah, Alright, I’ll see you later then.” I gave him a smile and headed back up the hill. Hearing ruffling through the trees behind me. I lightly ran my way up to the cabin, trying to get there before dad would wake up wondering where I was. I reached to a stop at the porch catching my breath, and walked inside. The clock said it was 6:37 in the morning. My dad would usually get up around 7:30. Man do I have a bad judgment of time. Happily remembering that the rain had stopped, I kicked off my boots and put my jacket on the sofa, then slowly opened the door to me and Juni’s room. As I was carefully pushing it towards the inside, the wooden door screeched with every slight push. I felt my face scrunch up, worrying on waking up June. Once I got my body’s width just through the door I saw June asleep, facing up with one of her hands over her face and the other stretched out on my side of the bed. Shoot. Every step on the wooden floor creaked while I was trying to tip toe my way toward the bed. I was still cringing, nervously watching June. I wasn’t even sure why I was making this a big deal if I woke her up. I could just simply say I went to the bathroom or something, but I didn’t want to deal with all the questions. Or maybe I enjoyed the challenge? Yeah, that was probably it. I got to the side of the bed and reached out for June’s hand, picked it up and placing it onto her chest. She gave a small groan and turned onto her side facing away from me. I slid my way under the covers and found I was really tired anymore, so instead I turned onto my side and reviewed earlier today, and how I bumped into Cody again, in the weirdest way I could have imagined. I pictured him holding the lily pad and an uncontrolled smirk widened on my face. I detected that I had fallen back asleep when my eyes opened later that morning around nine. Cody was probably coming to get me soon, so I rushed to get dressed, scarfed down my waffle, and brushed my teeth. My hair was a tad tousled, so I brushed it quick and left it down. My dad was noticing my disheveled behavior. “Going somewhere today?” He asked trying to be indifferent. He was at the table with a cup of coffee. I was washing my dishes and June was playing with Bo on the couch. “Uh, yeah I’m hanging out with Cody and his friends today.” I didn’t know if his friends would be there, but I said it to not have it centered on Cody. “Alright, that’s fine, you two have fun. Be careful now, he’s a stranger.” “You know I‘m careful.” “Yes, you are hon, but you never know, you‘d be surprised what some people can hide from yah in this tiny ol‘ town. And if your gonna be dating anyone too, just keep a look out.” “You don’t have to worry about me dating.” I knew what he was getting to. “I might. Hey if your dating this boy you can just tell me, I won’t bite him.” He put his mug down and looked at me with focused eyes. What he said surprised me, and annoyed me. “I’m not dating Cody dad, heck I just met him yesterday, relax. I can have guy friends can’t I?” I knew that question would make him guiltily defend himself. “Of course you can bud, I was just curious, I’m your father-“ “I would tell you if I had a boyfriend dad, don’t worry.” I jumped up onto the counter by the sink and gave him and adored smile, shaking my head left to right subtlety. I couldn’t be mad at him for long, his troubled face looking at me made me worry I was being too harsh. No matter how annoying he can be; I convinced myself that It was touching that he wants to know every little detail. I heard a honk outside. Cody was here; I jumped off the counter and grabbed my phone. I felt my dad’s head following me as I strode across the room. “I’ll see you guys later, have fun at Bob’s.” I said and I leaned over and gave June a kiss on the head and hugged my dad. “Bye Desi.” I heard June say as I was closing the door. I waved and shuffled down the damp steps. A dark blue 81 Chevrolet pickup was pulled into our driveway that had chipped paint on the bottom of the sides. I could see Cody through the sky’s reflection on the window with a content look on his face. When I got over to the passengers side I opened the door and hopped in. "Hey Desiree.” He said heartily through his throaty voice. “So where are you kidnapping me to?” I said teasingly while fastening my seatbelt. "Not sure yet, we'll see where we turn up." He said, turning and gave a smile. "Ahh I see..." He backed out of our driveway, putting his arm on the back of my seat. "So how do you know where I live? I didn't even give you directions..." I asked curiously. "Oh, well I know this town like the back of my hand." He explained while looking out at the road, holding the wheel with his right hand. "Okay, but that wouldn't matter though would it? I mean you may know this house, but how did you know I was staying in it?" My amused curiosity was more obvious now. "Well, I saw your truck as I was driving by it." He seemed a bit un-easy when he tried explaining himself this time. That didn't seem like the right answer, he was keeping something from me, but I let it go, he clearly had no good explanation, and I wasn't going to force that on him, it's not really that big of a deal, I guess. "Oh, alright." I said trying to shake it off. I absently studied his face while he was looking towards the road. As if he felt my eyes on him, he quickly glanced at me. "Des this all can be explained some other time okay?" He said spreading his fingers out on the wheel. I noticed he called me Des and it made my mouth curve up a little. "Okay." I said trying to sound reassuring. I didn’t want to get in his business, I guess the mystery was well intriguing anyway. "So what you feel like doing today? ’Cause I really didn’t plan anything." I thought about that for a few moments, while he occasionally looked over at me to see if I was still thinking. "You know, we should do something... rebellious, you know? Like spontaneous." The idea couldn't be more perfect. For some reason seeing Cody made me want to break the rules, to be careless. I looked over at him and his eyes lit up, I pressed the car light that was above his head jokingly like the light bulb that popped up over people’s heads in cartoons. He laughed. "I have the perfect thing we can do." He turned to look at me, and his mouth curved into a mischievous smile. "What?" I asked anxious. "Billy Red." He said through a wide smile. "Who's Billy Red?" I asked, my eyes furrowed. "The grumpiest old grizzly bear you‘ve ever seen. You see, Billy Red only has a soft spot for one thing." "And what’s that?" This sounded good already. "His cat, Tutu." He chuckled saying its name. "Tutu?" I asked with raised eyebrows. "Yep, so I’m thinking we could spray paint her when he goes inside for a beer or something, he comes out, she's bright red and blue!" "Wow, that’s pretty rebellious. You sure its not going too far?" I was worried he wouldn't deserve a prank like this. “Oh no not at all, this is the guy who always comes to the shop when I’m working… he just sits there, talking crap about my family and stuff to himself like I'm not even there.” Cody said with an innocent agitation. “He spits tobacco in my cash register every time I leave to go to the bathroom." His face cringed with disgust reflecting on the memory. "That is disgusting. Why does he hate you so much?" I had a surge to find justice. "No idea, he treats everyone like that, but my family the worst out of all, particularly me. Who knows why, he's like I said the grumpiest old goat I have ever met." Cody was driving in a daze now, his expression emotionless but his eyes looked in deep thought, like my question really got him thinking. "Oh I’m sorry Cody…" I felt bad. It was hard to see him looking upset. The way his eyes looked tortured, like this man's behavior really made a big impact on him. I looked over at him, scanning the profile of his face with a sincere, worried expression. He looked over and noticed my expression and snapped out of his daze. “Des, come on don't worry like that. It's fine, I’m fine... no need to worry about me, I can take care of myself you know. He's just being Billy Red that’s all. I'm used to it, its no biggy." He ended with a shrug. He loosened his grip on the steering wheel, the veins in his hands were prominent. "Yah, I guess your right. Well he's getting what he deserves now." I said biting my lip with pleasure, and a smirk. "So what’s the plan?" "Hmm, let me think..." He looked out to the road with concentrated eyes. After a few minutes he said something. "Alright, so here's what I got, we are going to stop by at the gas station, and get some spray paint. We'll pick that up, and head over to Billy's. When we get there he'll be outside on the front lawn with Tutu, he always is. I will go into the back window and make some sort of noise so he will go inside to see what it was, while you have cat nip in your hand for the cat. When the cat comes over to you, we'll both get the colors and spray it quick. That’s when we get the hell out of there and hide in the woods." I watched him as he talked with an animated face, with all the hand movements and facial expressions and sometimes grabbing the wheel quick when he forgot to steer it. “Awesome, lets do this!" I couldn't take the tension no more, as Billy would walk back outside to see his favorite kitty in the whole world vandalized like some sort of city alleyway wall. Brilliant, and he deserved it. "That’s the guy that was there when I came into your shop!" I whispered with a surprised tone. I was holding onto a small tree trunk and Cody was on my right, leaning on one. He looked good in the woods, like he could live in it for days if he wanted to. He bended with it well. "Yep that’s the guy. And there’s Tutu." He whispered and pointed to the snowy white fluffy cat that was lying out in the sun. "Okay, so I’m going to the back, when you see him go inside, take out the cat nip so she can smell it." He threw me the catnip and I slid it into my hood pocket. "I'll be with you in a sec!" He winked and ran farther right. I saw him leave the woods and the sun was beating on his dark brown hair, making it gleam. He disappeared behind the house. I didn't take my eyes off of Billy Red, who was furrowing his eyebrows sitting on a wooden stool, holding the magazine close to his face trying to read something. Less than a minute later, there was a loud CLASH. A smile grew on my face as I saw Billy jump in his skin and snap his back with alert. "What in God's name..." He mumbled as he grudgingly pulled himself up and walked into his house cautiously. I immediately sped off to the front of the house. I noticed Tutu was about to follow him so I quickly took out the catnip and tossed some her way. The cat turned around befuddled because some of it has landed on her back. She squinted at me grumpily with her smushed face. When she caught the smell, she licked her lips and began to pace towards me while I held the catnip out in my hand like a bowl. I heard Cody’s running footsteps through the grass behind me. "You got her!" He cheered as he handed me the red spray paint as he had the blue. We sprayed stripes along her back, giggling and snickering. She reminded me of that Cheshire cat from, ‘Alice and Wonderland’ for some reason. The cat paid no attention since she was too busy enjoying her little snack. My heart was racing in a rush, Billy Red could walk outside any second now. As soon as every spot was covered we ran for it into the woods, we stumbled our way onto the dirt ground behind some brush to peak through with relieved chuckles. We saw Billy appear at the threshold, and saw his eyes widen with horror. His mouth was wide open and his face was boiling red. "TUTU? WHAT THE HELL HAPPEND TO YOU?! He was looking all around him with sharp movements. His fists were clenched to his sides. "ROTTON KIDS, ILL GET YOU FOR THIS." His voice was infuriated and confused and shocked all at once, so was his face. He went to his neon cat and lifted it up, looking at it horrified, and held it to his face. When he put her down, the side of his face was striped red and blue. I covered my mouth to block my burst of laughter. I looked to Cody and he was doing the same, only by pressing his lips together with as much force as he could. His eyes were wide with surprised amusement. Billy Red must have heard the beginning of my guffaw and looked up our way with a hand over his forehead. My heart leaped. "Come on!" Cody breathed and grabbed me by the wrist, dragging me towards his truck. Boy can he run fast. I could barely keep up, I was almost being dragged on the ground. On our way to his truck I could feel the danger in the air, as if it was chasing us, and it felt good. We Laughed over the crunch of branches and leaves as we ran over them, our laughter didn’t go deep yet, it was light and breathy. We jumped in the car quick as Cody did a u-turn and drove off like a bolt of lightening down the road. I was buckling my seatbelt as he was driving. We both burst into laughter. "That worked out perfectly! What did you break in there?" I asked through hard laughs. "One of his glass cups, it looked like a shot glass." He said his mouth wide. "Nice, did you see his face?" I said animated. "Yeah! He looked like he just seen Bigfoot in his front lawn." He chuckled. I laughed at that, it was true his face was priceless. “Yeah and his face looked like a raspberry… that was crazy, how do you feel?" I said nudging his shoulder. "I'm feeling good." He simply said looking over at me, flashing a charismatic smile. © 2009 AlyssaAuthor's Note
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Added on March 31, 2009Last Updated on December 28, 2009 Related WritingPeople who liked this story also liked..
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