LILY

Truth Inside A Lie

I collected my thoughts and swallowed another sip from the half-empty liquor bottle. I swished it around in my mouth, feeling the burn in my gums and throat as I swallowed. I shook the bottle, watching its contents dance around. Tina's hand rested on my upper thigh. She patted it and then stood abruptly. I looked at her in curiosity, watching her disappear into the kitchen area. She emerged a few moments later with a fresh bottle in hand. She placed it on the small mahogany table beside me, kissed my cheek and sat back down on the couch.

"In case you get the urge to find an excuse to stop sharing. Liquid courage," she said. Her hand moved up my thigh and rested. This time, she did wink. I gave my best smile and patted her hand before clearing my throat.

"Thanks. Let's see, dark and stormy night, check. Favorite liquor, check. Lovely company, check. All seems to be in order."

"Byron, you're stalling. Careful, ya might lose this girl's interest," she teased. Her southern accent seemed thicker and slurred as she raised her glass.

"When I was young, there was a kid named Jack that I used to hang out with. He lived down the street. I'd walk over there after school on Wednesdays and Fridays. We'd play basketball on the corner of his house, using the quiet side street as needed. There was hardly any traffic because the road went down a few hundred feet but then dead-ended. There used to be a house at the end of it, but it had burned down years before. There were still large pieces of splintered wood and plaster in the yard, blackened but still littering the ash tinted grass behind this worn chain link fence. We would play ball, sometimes having to chase the ball into the busier intersection across from his house. Neither one of us were that damn good at sports, but we had a good time. Until the day of the accident, anyway," I said, pausing a moment to face her. She swallowed another sip and motioned for me to continue.

"There was an old Ford Buick that had come flying through the intersection, tires screeching as it skidded into the turn. The basketball had bounced towards the vehicle which, luckily for me, sent the car down the side street. I just froze and stared. The hood crumpled almost instantly when it slammed into the dead end sign just four or five feet ahead of us. The windshield shattered, shivers of glass sprinkling the cracked asphalt. I rushed over to check on the driver. My friend ran inside. My heart was racing and as I approached the driver side door, I noticed the guy wasn't even in the seat at all. He had launched head first into the chain link fence. His body was limp and his face covered in gashes from the force of the crash. It was hard to tell where the rust in the broken chinks of fence started and the blood began. He twitched twice, his face still stuck in the fence. Then he fell limp to the ground with a heavy, wet sound. I fought the urge to puke and wondered where the hell Jack was or his mom or dad."

"My God, that's horrible," she said. "How old were you?"

"I guess I was ten or eleven. I had just started middle school. Anyway, it seemed like at least half an hour before there was an ambulance on the scene. But, there were plenty of onlookers. At least twenty people had gathered in that time. There weren't even that many people that lived on my street."

"Everybody loves a good tragedy. An accident draws a crowd, unfortunately," she said.

"Honey, that's not the worst part, it was the fucking crowd that gathered. They seemed to come not just out of the houses, but from behind the houses. The bushes. There were seven that came from behind the piles of burnt wood in the deserted lot. They walked, almost in complete unison. Their mouths hanging open and their sunken eyes wide with shock. Some shook their heads solemnly. Most of them just pointed with a low collective sigh. My eyes tried to make out the details of their faces. I couldn't. Every time I tried, tears would start forming in my eyes. I shouted at them as they approached the body and they turned their pointing fingers from him- to me," I said.