The Things We Couldn't Forget

Chapter 21.

I turn to leave the room when I notice the closet door on the far wall is ajar.

I walk over to it, holding my breath as I pull open the door.

I don't know what I had been expecting, but it wasn't what I found.

The closet is empty all but for one hanger in the center of the rack that my own coat now hangs from. Below it...my boots are in the floor of the closet, standing side by side.

I'm done with this.

Done with wondering what's going on around here.

Now I'm just pissed off.

I shut the closet door and go back downstairs. I clean up the mess of plates and bowls in the kitchen and the coffee table as well. It feels good to keep my body moving. Focusing on something mundane keeping the madness at bay for a little while.

I scrub the carpet in my parent's room, getting rid of the mess I'd made in the floor when I'd thrown up the other day. I put everything in the whole house back into place and commit it all to memory.

I will not be forced to question myself again. I take painstakingly long to move through the whole house, but when I'm done, I'm confident that I know precisely as I'm leaving it all.

I check myself for my keys, my cards, and my phone that I switch back on as I walk outside. I stop at the door and triple check that it's locked before I head out to my car.

I reach for the handle when again, a note is shoved into the space.

"LEAVE NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE."

"Who's there?" I shout into the openness around me. "What do you want?" I scream, tossing the note away. "Why can't you just leave me alone!"

My screams are echoed back to me, just my own voice filling the void of silence around me.

I get into my car and lock the doors, leaning over the steering wheel to catch my breath. I know it's all connected, and somehow, I'm connected too.

I can't let this be like last time.

I can't stand by and watch it play out on the tv and huddle and hide away from the world. I've got to do better this time. I can't let it all go the same way as before.

I take a few more deep breaths and then I sit up, not looking at my hands as they shakily put the car into reverse.

I turn around in the yard and drive down the long driveway and when I reach the main road I see a beaten up old white pickup truck parked on the side of the road just passed my drive.

I don't get to get a good look at it because as soon as I come to a stop, it's tires are squealing as it pulls out into the road and then quickly accelerates away up the road in the opposite direction.

A right would take me towards town, a left, towards the truck.

I yank the wheel to the left and peel out onto the road, the back end of my car swaying back and forth until it finds purchase in the ground beneath it and levels back out.

I'm speeding trying to catch up to the truck but it's going so fast. The back taillight is out and there is no license plate. But that's all I can tell.

I pursue the truck for as long as I can but I loose it by the time we hit the highway. It's like it just vanishes.

Reluctantly I make a U-turn and head back into town. It's early, but there is hardly any other cars out on the road and when I pull down the long downtown street there is practically no one walking around.