Chapter Two: Same Faces, Different People
(NOTE. 'This is Sign Language.'
Uncle Paul died on Daryl's fourteenth birthday but I didn't find out until a week later during one of Will's drug-induced rages. Daryl was at school; I'd made him promise me he wouldn't drop out. He was my only outlet to the outside world. I couldn't even leave the backyard.
At some point I think I'd developed a small crush on him, knowing nothing would happen because I wasn't pretty like the girls I sometimes saw on TV. I wasn't smart, or talented. I had no redeeming qualities. No one would ever love someone like me. I was told every day. Mama and Shane probably gave up on me, because they never came for me.
The only way out was death.
After my second failed suicide attempt, Daryl promised to get me out. Now that Uncle Paul was gone, Will was too drunk to keep tabs on me all the time. I could run to the police. And tell them what? I couldn't hardly talk anymore. My writing was so horrible it was hard to make out.
"Cal? You here?" Daryl called, throwing his school books in his room like he always did. I knocked twice on the closet floor. Will had locked me in before he left this morning. Daryl undid the various locks and opened the door. He gasped, "What happened?!"
"Got in the way." I whispered, slowly standing up. my head had been smashed through a window and dried blood made my hair stiff. We were used to seeing each other bruised and bloody, so I didn't understand why this time was so different.
"I'm gettin' you outta hare. C'mon." We'd barely gotten to the door when Will stomped in, eyes bloodshot and twitching angrily.
"The hell ya goin', boy?" he inched his way closer, beer belly jiggling like a bowl of jelly. I couldn't control myself and laughed. "Somethin' funny? Huh, lil bi.tch?!"
"Don't call 'er that, ya worthless fu.ck!" Daryl nudged me towards the couch. They were going to fight and I knew who'd win. I closed my eyes, waiting for it to be over. I opened them again and what I saw shocked me. Will was out cold, slumped against the fridge. "We need to find Merle. He'll know what to do."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
I remember almost nothing after that. I was found on a beach down in Florida by an elderly couple, who took me to the police station. I had a note pinned to my bloodstained shirt, explaining who I was and where I came from.
It took a couple days before I was able to leave the hospital and Mama was contacted. She brought Shane along, and he cried the moment he laid eyes on me. He was so much bigger, more stronger, than Will or Daryl.
"Careful. She seems almost afraid to be touched." An officer told them. "She won't talk, either. Doc says it's post-traumatic stress disorder."
"Oh, my poor baby." Mama cried and Shane hugged her. They took her out of the room to talk, and Shane sat in a chair across from me. He looked so much like Daddy.
I burst into tears.
"Hey, don't cry!" he handed me a box of tissues and I stared at it, willing myself to stop crying. Before I was punished for breaking the precious rules. I wanted Daryl. Why did he have to leave? He promised he would always be with me, no matter what.
Liar!
Mama and Shane took me home early the next morning. The front lawn was packed with news reporters with cameras, and I cried when they took pictures. One woman tried touching my arm and I freaked out; Shane had to carry me inside kicking and screaming.
Christmas came and went. Mama was growing impatient with me because I refused to talk and one day when Shane had friends over, someone suggested Sign Language. Every day after school, Lori Davis came over and taught us how to Sign. I learned quickly and could sign so fast that Shane and Mama often told me to slow down. And then came the day when I was ready for them to know what I'd been through. Mama wanted Sheriff Grimes to be there and I agreed.
"This man, Will. Can you remember what his last name was?" Sheriff Grimes asked, and I shook my head. I knew, I just didn't want to get Daryl or Merle in trouble. They had done enough getting me out of that place. "And what about your Uncle? What happened to him?"
'Died. Well, that's what I was told. He was probably killed in a knife fight or something.' I signed, shrugging my shoulders before telling them about the day I was taken.
When I was finished, Mama and Sheriff Grimes went to the kitchen for coffee.
'Stop staring at me like that.' I glared at Shane.
"If anyone ever tries to touch you 'gain, you lemme know. I'll make 'em regret it. No one will ever hurt you again." Shane promised and I climbed over various pillows and a knitted blanket to give him a hug for the first time in close to six years.
Shane left for college as soon as he'd graduated high school. He and Rick were attending a police academy several hours away and would visit whenever possible. Mama began homeschooling me after three failed attempts in the public school system. Because of my helping Daryl with his school work, I graduated a month after turning sixteen.
Every night I had horrible dreams involving Will and Daryl, with either Daryl ending up dead or Will lying in a puddle of booze drowning in his own blood. Sometimes Uncle Paul would make an appearance with that belt of his and I woke up either screaming bloody murder of crying hysterically. I hoped to one day find Daryl again, to see what had happened when he came back without me. Will would have been absolutely furious with him.
Shane and Rick graduate from the Academy at the top of the class, and with honors. Mama and the Grimes' plan a huge party, inviting lots of friends and family members. It's several hours after the dinner when Lori tells me she's pregnant and that it's Rick's.
"I don't know what to do. My parents'll kill me; I've barely even passed any of my classes. And Rick's still got a world of opportunities. I can't do this to him."
'You guys were gonna get married anyways, right?' I asked. Over the years, Lori and I had grown pretty close. Besides Daryl, she was the only friend I had.
"Well yeah, when we both had careers and steady incomes." Lori whispered. We were hiding in the bathroom, hoping to escape the rowdy bunch of men and half drunk family members.
'Tell him. He has the right to know. Everything will work itself out.'
"You're right." She sighed and checked her makeup in the mirror.
"Hurry up in there!" someone banged on the door, and I rolled my eyes.
"Shut up." I mumbled. It was something Daryl had often whispered when Will called for us. I still missed him, but sometimes days would pass without a single thought of him. And it made me feel guilty. I didn't want to forget the one person who made life bearable in the darkest of times.
Twenty minutes later, I overheard Rick telling Shane he wanted to propose to Lori on her birthday, which was only several days away. Sheriff Grimes had offered the two office jobs down at the station and they were scheduled to start in a week. Things were working themselves out, like I'd told Lori. But not for me. My nightmares were only getting worse and I couldn't eat anything without getting sick. Mama was busy at work, too busy to notice how thin I was becoming.
Lori was caught up planning for a wedding as well as getting ready for the new baby. She'd ended up dropping out of college and got a job as a waitress. Shane and I had been asked to be Maid of Honor and Best Man, which we agreed to right away. The day of the wedding, Lori was six months pregnant and very irritable. The ceremony went as planned and we were just leaving the church when her water broke.
Carl Ross Grimes was born the next day, at nine pm. Because he was three months early they kept him in the NICU. Once his jaundice cleared up he was discharged and sent home. Lori was still sore from the emergency c-section; she'd had complications delivering naturally. Her mother stayed to help out for the first month, and had to go back to Atlanta before she lost her job. Rick was promoted, and shortly after, Shane was as well.
A week after Carl's first birthday, Rick and Shane were transferred to the station in Macon, an hour's drive away. I spent weekends with Lori, helping with the housework and a never-ending pile of laundry. One Sunday night, I was waiting for Mama to pick me up. It was unusual for her to be so late and I was starting to panic when the phone rang. It was Shane, saying he would be over with some bad news.
Mama had been driving to the bakery downtown when some drunk driver ran a red light, smashing into Mama's car. She died on impact and felt little to no pain; Shane and Rick had been the ones on duty to recieve the call. Ambulances arrived first; Rick saw Mama on a stretcher, her face barely recognizable in the black body bag. Shane was looking the car over when he realized who it belonged to and would have killed the drunk man if he hadn't been held back.
Mama was buried beside Daddy and the baby she lost before Shane was born. I moved in with Shane, and he got a bigger apartment. Mama had left the house to us in her will, as well as her trust fund. But we couldn't stay in that house for more than two days without losing ourselves in memories, so we packed everything up to put in storage and sold the place. Some of Mama's more ignorant family members told Shane to lock me up in an institution. He kicked them out of the funeral home and made it known he wanted nothing more to do with them. That night though, I was worried that maybe he would send me away.
"What's wrong? You've been actin' weird ever since we got home." Shane asked after we finished eating supper.
'You aren't going to send me away, are you?'
"No. Never. You're here to stay, so I can keep you safe. So long as I'm alive, you'll never be sent away. And even then I'll have somethin' planned. Don't you worry your pretty lil head." he hugged me and we spent the night watching movies on TV. When Shane went back to work several days later, I found I didn't really have anything to do. I began crocheting and quiltmaking, and spent the next four years establishing my own online business. Baby quilts and blankets were my best sellers, bringing in the most profit. I donated alot of the money I made to local charities, the hospital, and schools. Several news stations and newspapers interviewed me, and I had Lori translate for me. I was contacted by producers in Hollywood who wanted to make movies about my life, but I declined. I didn't want everyone knowing my name.
"Is there anything else you would like to say? To anyone in particular out there?" the female news reporter asked me near the end of my last interview.
'There is, actually. To the one who risked his life getting me out of that prison, I hope you see this. I still think about you every day. You helped me in ways I can't explain. Thank you for being there, for bringing me to my family.' I smiled and listened as Lori spoke. I wondered how Daryl was doing for the past week. If he'd kept his promise to stay in school, if he ended up on drugs like his brother. Who had he turned out to be? I wanted to know.
Lori, Carl, and I went out for lunch and ran into Sheriff Grimes' brother, the other Sheriff Grimes. He was retiring soon. He planned on Rick following in his footsteps as the new sheriff. Once Rick was in charge, I would ask him to search for Daryl and Merle. There was no doubt in my mind the two of them would have broken a few laws over the last few years. I knew Merle would definitely show up, because he'd been in juvie, a number of detention centers, and spent six months in prison. He could be a real asshole.