Just Run

The first car passed me on the highway, it was Mrs. Garret from the other side of town, with the low population in Allen it’s understandable how everyone knows each other. 

Mrs. Garret gave a sweet old person type of smile. She was one of the cutest old women I’ve ever seen. Perfectly placed wrinkles, not so much that she looked like a prune who has been in the water for too long, but more resembling the sheet on your bed after you sleep in it. She always wore dresses with flowers and butterflies, wrapped around her neck was the same scarf I’ve seen a million times, I have never seen her without that scarf tied tightly around her petite neck.

Her car passed without me being able to wave good-bye. I shrugged as Mrs. Garret’s 1989 Dodge rolled down the highway, almost crumbling with every inch it took.

I walked for three minutes before I seen another car, it was Peace. Peace has been my best friend since I was two. I waved at her as she pulled the car over.

“Hey Hun, how much money for one night?” she joked, unlocking the doors, and gesturing me to go and sit in the passenger seat. I walked around to the other side of Peace’s new 2008 Ferrari she got for Easter. Her parents picked the randomest holiday, that Easter I got half a chocolate bunny, and she gets a car, yet another difference between me and Peace, she was rich and I was poor. Her parents were the richest people in Allen (which wasn’t hard, I mean the population was 400), mine were poor, all the clinic’s really start to do damage on our savings. 

“Twenty-two fifty a night, care to invest?” I said while I hopped into her car. She put the car in drive and sped on down the highway toward the police station, which by now was only six minutes away.

“Are you nervous at all?” Peace asked me with a serious tone in her voice. Why was I hearing this tone so much all of a sudden, it was becoming infuriating.

“Why do you think I am? I did one of these two months ago, Its going to be the same questions that I’ve answered a million times.” I said as I put my finger to my mouth and began chewing on the nail of my middle finger. 

“Then whats with that?” Peace said pointing to my stubby little fingers. Peace knew me well, it was a nervous habit I had had since I three years old. I slammed my hand down hard onto my thigh, pretending as if I had never put my painfully chewed nails in my mouth. 

“Thats what I thought” Peace grinned. Peace was smug, until she seen the police station. “Are you sure your okay with this?”

“Course I am, it’s just a little interview, how bad can it really be?” I said, realizing that was a complete lie, I knew it would be terrible, every time I talked about Carol was terrible. 

We drove into the parking lot of the Allen Police Station. There were three police cars in a row, which meant no one was out on patrol. They would all be in their offices. Waiting for some new and exciting problem to drift their way, the problem today however, would be me. 

Without a word I got out of the car and slammed the door, waiting to hear the howls from Peace. All I heard was the quite rumble of the car as it backed out of the drive way and sped off toward the city. 

The sight of the police station made me weak in the knees. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my head. I forgot about where I was, or what I was doing and I just went back to that afternoon.

Carol’s golden blonde hair was blowing in the silent wind that comes only a few times a year in Allen. Running through the meadow beside the old lumber mill, the long grass tickling our legs. Occasionally the grass would sway in a different direction, thats when Carol would grab her net and pounce. Carol had a great reaction time. She would swoop down her net in a matter of seconds, then proudly hoist up the green and black spotted frog. She smiled her flawless smile.

“Hey Jeana!” I swung around to see Henry Korz waving at me like a maniac. Henry’s plumb body was positioned securely inside of the first police car. 

“Hey Henry, going out for a patrol?” I asked, the short grass brushed against my exposed toes as I walked. 

Henry smelled like coffee and sweat, I could smell him as I leaned again the already opened window. 

“Not exactly, Darryl is creating a fuss again. Eleanor sounded so frightened on the phone, I sure hope everything is all right.”

Everyone in this town was on a first name basis, but I did not know Darryl or Eleanor as well as I knew others in town, they were quiet and usually kept to themselves. 

“But I really must go, good luck with the interview” he put the car in reverse and backed out of the police parking lot. He flicked on his lights and his car shot down the highway like a bullet. A silent sigh of relief escaped my lips, Henry made me somehow feel better about the interview. 

I turned and started walking toward the police station again. Suddenly my audacity melted away to show my true fear.

The police station was surrounded by overgrown bushes and leaning trees. It wasn’t in the best of shape, rusted poles and moss covered the roof. I swallowed hard. I felt the butterflies swarm in my stomach, they punched and kick at my heart and lungs, it hurt to breathe. 

I reached for the rusted door handle, suddenly time slowed, I could hear my heart beating in my ears, I could hear my quick solid breaths, but something different caught my ears, a gunshot.