Fledgling [On Hold]

Part One, Chapter One

PART ONE

One

I sat in the car with my wife and son, who celebrated his fourteenth birthday yesterday.  Our car was packed beyond belief, all for a two-night camping trip on Washington Island in Wisconsin.  The highway’s traffic was dense, bumper-to-bumper, as police merged the three-lane highway into one.  As we inched closer and closer, at a snail’s pace, we started to get more and more eager, both to be moving freely again and also to see all of the excitement that was wreaking havoc on transportation.  We finally reached the bottleneck and crept along for several hundred more feet, until baring witness to the accident.  From where I was sitting, I could see it all, but luckily Kathryn couldn’t see it from the passenger seat, nor could Blake in the row on the other side of the car.  

As I inched the car forward, I saw the young woman laying on the ground, and noticed how she looked so serene and yet, so damaged and mangled.  There was no shortage of blood around her decimated body, but it didn’t look like it came from any specific point of her body.  The blood stamped the ground, beginning to seep into the tire tracks that those cars nearest to her made.  Her limbs looked relaxed, but there was something eerie about how her limbs were outstretched, as if perfectly positioned.  I saw her blonde hair and still being, and was immediately taken back to the worst day of my childhood.  

My father was driving me around in his squad car.  I still remember the looks I would get, a mere twelve-year old sitting in the passenger seat of the police vehicle.  I felt like I was on top of the world, looking down at everyone we drove past.  Over the radio came a request for my dad, the lieutenant, to head to Overpass 41 where a girl was found on the shore of the ravine below.  “Adler, we need you at 41, they found a body,” the voice said before the radio went back to static.  Without replying, my dad turned on his lights and sped down the road to the crime scene.  As we approached, the parade of red and blue lights gleamed out below the rising moon as police flooded the scene.  My dad pulled the car onto the shoulder and gently continued down the hill, getting close enough to trudge to the body, but positioning the car so it was difficult for me to see it.  I looked around the woods that the highway was carved out of, the dense trees making a curtain of foliage, reducing visibility to only a couple feet once inside the forest.  

I leaned my seat back and looked up at the ceiling of the car.  The stains, tears, damage, all having their own history.  I began to think of the people my dad would pick up and escort to a prison somewhere, wondering how he ever made it through the day and still be able to come home, happy to see me and my sister.  As I sat in the silent car, all I could hear was the sound of voices outside and the static and occasional code come across over the radio that sat on top of the dashboard.  Glancing out the windshield I saw cops running down to the epicenter.  It was evident that something had happened... I just hadn’t the slightest clue as to what.  All I could hear was someone screaming “no,” over and over again.  

Did they catch the person who they were looking for?  I sure hoped so...

Someone’s voice came across the radio.  “We have an ID,” it said.  I hadn’t heard the voice before, it wasn’t one that would always talk to me when I would be at the station with my dad.  It continued, “Emily Adler.”  The radio went back to static silence.  I leapt out of the car and started to run down the hill.  My dad’s friend, in his black uniform ran towards me as soon as he heard the door of the car close.  

“Emily!” I yelled, crying out for my sister.  He tried to stop me but I kept pushing him away, crying and screaming for my sister, my best friend, to come back to me.  Holding on to my arm, he pulled me closer to him and wrapped his arms around me, eventually forcing me to give in.  I went limp and crumbled into him, sending us both onto the muddy ground.  Rain started to fall onto us, soaking us within no time.  I saw my dad at the bottom of the hill crouching over Emily, yelling out like I was.  The police around him tried to pull him back, but he wouldn’t budge.  

Some time had passed, the sun was now well hidden on the other side of the earth, and I saw my dad slowly meander up to where I was laying in the grass and mud.  Still crying, he pulled me close to him.  The officer that had stopped me stood up and took his watch off.  Wrapping it around my wrist, he told me that time was on my side, and there was no taking that away from me.  I know he was trying to tell me that I would feel better with time, but the way he said it was contradictory.  My sister’s time was just taken from her, how could I know that someone wouldn’t take my time away?  He fastened the buckle, gave a sad smile to my dad, and walked back down the hill.  I knew then, from that day on, what I wanted to do with my life.  

Horns beeped behind me as a construction worker knocked on my window.  I didn’t hear him, or Kathryn, or Blake, tell me to keep driving.  I was completely entranced by the body on the ground, knowing that to this day, my sister’s murderer is still out there, nowhere to be found.  I looked back at Blake sitting in the rear seat as I stomped on the gas pedal to resume the flow of traffic.  He had no idea how much the world could hurt him, rip him out of the realm he knows and loves away from his family, his friends, everything.  I can’t imagine him on his own in this world.  I can’t let go of the innocent boy he is and is supposed to be, but I know once he is making his own life the world will corrupt him: morph him into the savage, barbaric person that everyone is deep down inside of them.  Everyone gets corrupted, even if we never realize it.  We all always bend who we are for certain people in our lives.  Sometimes this is good, but nobody ever sees the good changes... it is the bad ones that stand out and are noticeable.  

I wondered how much longer I could keep him away from the horrors of the society we live in, how much longer I would have him before I lose him to the world.  Looking back in the mirror, I saw the excitement in his eyes as we approached the dock for the ferry.  He was fourteen and still had that glimmer in his eyes that I had to give up at twelve.  He saw the ferry approach, and knew it was just a matter of time before our adventure begun.  That’s all everything ever is... just a matter of time.