Part 7 - burly
Welcome to my life - Izzy DeRosa
Oh my god, think I nearly died.
SOPHIA SAT ON THE CHATAU window sill, opposite JJ. Her head pounding of thoughts from the least few days, her foot tapping on the wooded floor. She was startled awake by the sound of the rooster.
JJ brought it upon himself to tell Pope and Kiara about the adventures of the morning. "And we were right here like this," He backed up against the wall. "And all we hear is bam! Bam! Bam! Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside, all right? And I'm just looking at them too like- wait first off look at this shit" he walked over to the group and ruffled his hair, piece of paint dropping out.
"That's dandruff. Disgusting." Kie murmured, scrunching her nose in disgust.
"Okay, thank you" Pope pushed him away.
"Look at that alright, that's paint! At that point, I was just like..." He looked into the distance remembering the trauma, "waiting for death."
"Oh, okay, so you saw the guys who shot at us right? Did you get a good description of them?" Pope asked, trying to set the story straight."
"Anything helpful."
"Anything that we could bring to a police report?"
"Burly." JJ spoke, turning around to pope with finger guns.
"Burly?"
"Yeah, you know like-"
"That's not very helpful." Kie sighed.
"Okay, well, no, like the type in my dad's garage. I mean you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers. I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers." He paused to take a hit from his cigarette. "They're square groupers."
"They're square groupers. Like narco square groupers? Like Pablo Escobar square groupers?" Pope questioned, making a useless attempt at making sense of the blonds words.
"Yeah, man."
"You guys, not everything is a kingpin movie."
Pope let out a small sigh at JJ's dramatics "Okay, what does this square grouper look like?"
Sophia pushed up of the window sill and moved to stand next to John B, "maybe late to mid thirties? Brown hair"
"See? Helpful!" Pope gestured, causing JJ to roll his eyes.
"You weren't there." JJ mumbled, talking another hit from his cigarette.
"You don't know what to look for!"
"Dude!" JJ exclaimed, "I wasn't taking little mental Polaroids the whole time. I was under duress okay? But i can tell you...I can tell you by the way that Ms. Lana was screaming... that these guys are serious, serious hombres man."
"JJ," Sophia beckoning him over. JJ turned and made his way to her. He put his hands on her shoulders. "It's a heavy vibe right now. I'm not liking this very much"
She got up and gave him a hug. JJ's breathing slowed as his body relaxed in her hold.
"Okay but why would they want the compass?" Kie asked.
Pope shrugged, "it's a piece of shit, you couldn't pawn it off for five bucks if you wanted too. No offence John B I know it's in your family-" before Pope could finished he was cut off.
"The office" John B anounced. A look of weariness in his features.
"What?"
"My dad, my dads office." John B spoke, wandering around the room looking at the compass. John B made his way to the office, the others trailing behind. "He always kept the office locked because he was worried about his competitors stealing his royal merchant research. We all used to laugh at him all the time like he was actually going to find it, but now that he's gone I just kinda...left it as he kept it."
"Yeah for when he gets back." Kie said in a fake reassuring tone.
"Yeah..." he trailed off, John B opened the door and the office was revealed. There was piles and piles of paper and random books he must have been looking through before he went missing.
"I've slept over here like six hundred times and I've never seen this door open."
John B rummaged through some of the papers before spotting a notice board hanging on the wall. It had pictures of people who once owned the compass. "Here, look, this is the original owner, right here."
"Okay Robert Q. Routledge. 1880 to 1920. There's the lucky compass right there," he pointed out a man in a black white photo wearing a naval suit. He pointed to the lucky compass which must have been hitched to his belt.
"He must have died in the war?"
"Actually, um...he was shot after he brought it...then the compass what shipped back to Henry, He was killed in a crop-dusting accident when he had the compass. When he died the compass was passed down to Stephen. Stephen had the compass with him when he died in Vietnam." John B moved his finger along the timeline.
"Let me guess, he died in action right?"
"Sort off... actually he was killed by a banana truck in- in country. Anyways after that stephen passed the compass down to him- my dad." John B pointed to a photo of him and his dad when he was a kid.
"Hm, sounds like there's a reoccurring theme."
"Yeah, you have a death compass." Pope pointed out.
"I do not." John B rolled his eyes in irritation.
"Yes you do." Sophia deadpanned, "you have a dearth compass. Let's give it to Rafe!"
"Wait you have a dearth Vader compass?" JJ chuckled at his own joke. JJ and Sophia stood giggling before John B dragged them back to the subject at hand.
"look my dad used to talk about this compartment in here." He twisted the compass until there's was a click and it opened. "Soldiers used to hide secret notes."
"What's that?" Kie questioned, she looked towards the compass to see a word written on the inside.
"That wasn't there before, that's my dads a handwriting!" John B exclaimed, he showed the compass to the others. The compass had the word Redfield carved into it, unhelpful due to the fact that Redfield was one of the commonest names in the county.
"How do you know that?" Pope asked, worried his friend was bringing himself false hope.
"Can I see it?" JJ asked, John B held the compass up to him. "I think it says, red- rou- red-"
"It says Redfield, love" Sophia smiled.
"Oh. Okay." JJ laughed awkwardly.
Pope suggested that it was an anagram to be solved but kie gave him a quick look to say shut the hell up. "How can you concentrate with that thing constantly crowing at you?" He asked snidely, he referred to the cockerel. He continued looking through papers on the desk.
"JJ and Soph love the rooster!"
"I love the rooster."
John B's rooster had been crowing since they entered the office, maybe the rooster was a guard chicken to the office.
The group bounced ideas off of each other before John B noticed a noise outside, he looked out of the window to see a black pick up truck pull in. "Guys, guys! Someone's here."
They all flocked to the window. Two men hopped out of the truck- the square groupers.
"Guys is that them?" Kie asked, her voice filled with fear. "Is that them?"
Sophia's breathing sped up, if the bad guys caught them... they were toast. "JJ, where's your gun?"
JJ muttered a 'i told you so' to John B. John B rushed up behind him and slammed him up against the wall. "JJ. Hey, look at me, where is the gun?"
"Gun? I- uh- I cant-"
kiara rubbed her eyes in despair, "Now you don't have the gun, the one time we need the gun?" she whisper shouted.
Sophia came up behind John B and spoke to JJ softly but sternly, "JJ, where did you lastly have the gun?"
He looked over to her and she nodded encouragingly, "it was in my backpack and then I-"
"Backpack-" John B repeated.
"On the porch," JJ remembered, "It's on the porch."
"John routledge!" One of them called.
"Where's the compass?"
"Where you at, boy?"
JJ left the room, Sophia ran over to the window hopping to open it and get out but it was painted shut, "Kie, get something to open the window with. Anything, knife, rock, anything." JJ was back in the room before the door could shut. "They're on the front porch."
"Come on!" JJ rushed.
Kie found a knife and gave it to Sophia, she hurried away at the the paint until the seal broke. She lifted the window up, by now the men were thudding hard on the door. They all rushed out of the window and into the chicken coop. Gross but effective hiding. There was a gunshot causing Sophia to squeeze her eyes shut.
It didn't help that the chickens kept clucking loudly.
"Do something pope, shut him up!" JJ hissed.
"What do you want me to do?"
"I don't know," Kie mumbled on the verge of tears. "Pet it or talk to it i don't know."
Pope went to grab the chicken but he blew out his wings and crawwerd even louder, Pope shyd back into his corner, "you do something." he nodded towards JJ.
JJ grunted and leaned forward to grab the chicken. Crack. In one swift movement JJ snapped the chickens neck. The rooster lay limp in his hands, "I'm sorry." He whispered.
Through the cracks of the coop Sophia could see the smaller one of the square groupers turn his head to the noice of the chicken, he walked half way to the coop and stopped. "Ratter, what the hell are you doin?! Let's go."
The square groupers retreated from the coop and got into the truck, driving away. Once the truck was out of sight they wiggled out of the coop. They all gave out a collective sigh.
"We need to bury BobChicken Jr."