In Plain Sight

I woke up again today still hoping that it all been just a bad dream. I wanted to believe that my childhood friend who had always been there for me was not dead. But, it wasn’t true. Eddie was dead and I never even got the chance to say goodbye.

Part of me hated him for robbing me of that. The last time I saw him was at the prom. I remember he seemed distant that night. Not that Eddie wasn’t famous for being distant, but it seemed different somehow. Being that I was on a happy buzz that night though I chalked it up to his recent break up with his girlfriend of the month. I should have known that wasn’t the case though. The details of the night were hazy since I’d had too much alcohol that got smuggled in by my then boyfriend Kerri, but one thing stuck in my mind. Just before they announced the last song, I caught Eddie in a corner arguing with someone on his cellphone. The flashing lights had highlighted the dark look in his eyes.

Then next thing I knew I had woken up on the floor of my bedroom with a massive hangover. I’d heard pounding and realized someone was banging on the front door. After that the details get a little hazier. I remember groggily opening the front door and seeing Eddie’s mom standing there. Her normally curled hair was in a tangled mess, and mascara ran down her face as she sobbed. She could barely breathe as she repeatedly asked me where Eddie was.

When I calmed her down I told her that Eddie was probably at a friend’s house and that he’d probably walk through the door any moment. After she left I texted Eddie about a million times. After two days it was apparent something was wrong. Months and months of investigation led to dead ends. They believed Eddie either ran away or was kidnapped. He took nothing with him, and even left his car. His car that he had always called his baby.

Now here I sat five years later still clinging to the hope that he was still alive even though I knew now he was dead. About a year after he went missing a body washed up on the Hudson River. They said the face was too mangled to identify, but Eddie’s clothes, wallet, and ID were on the body.

I stared out my window watching as the mailman dropped off my mail. It was nine in the morning. I was supposed to be dressed and on my way to work, but I couldn’t. At least not today, which was the fourth anniversary of Eddie’s death. Once the mailman was around the corner, I pulled on my beat up black slippers and walked to the mailbox. My hair was a disheveled mess, but it wasn’t like anyone would see me. Everyone was at work like they were supposed to be.

As I sorted through each letter I saw nothing but bills, credit card statements, and a magazine for L.L. Bean. As I turned to go back inside my slipper caught in a hole where I’d intended to up a street lamp, but never did. I didn’t even try to stop myself as I feel to the ground. I lay there in the grass for a few minutes crying. I was so glad none of my neighbors were home to see me having a meltdown in my yard.

“Damn you, Eddie!” I screamed.

“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!”

I pulled clumps of grass out of the ground and tore up the L.L. Bean magazine, which had a picture of a happy family on it dressed in matching sweaters. That’s when a little slip of paper flew out of the magazine. I froze mid shred as it sailed to the ground. It was a post card. It had Snoopy and Woodstock on it on top of Snoopy’s dog house. My breathe caught.

“It can’t be,” I whispered.

I snatched up the post card and turned if over. I gasped as I saw the familiar chicken scratch handwriting.

It read: I’m not dead. Meet me at our place, at six o’clock. I will explain everything then.

I sat there frozen for what felt like hours re-reading it over and over again. How was this possible? Eddie was dead. Is dead. This had to be some joke. Or maybe Eddie sent it before he died. But, he said to meet him. I began to get a headache thinking about all of the possibilities. I flipped over the post card back to the side where snoopy and Woodstock sat. Only Eddie would send me something like this. He always made fun of me for watching the Peanuts specials each holiday. And he had mentioned our secret place.

I shook my head, gathered my mail, and hurried into the house. There was only one way I was going to find out if Eddie sent that post card. Maybe I was walking into a trap, but I had to know. The meet time wasn’t until later on tonight, but I had to prepare. If this was some trap I wanted to be able to defend myself.

* * * * * * * *

Later that night about fifteen minutes to six all my confidence from earlier had disappeared. I sat in my beat up red Chevy a few blocks away from the meeting place. The sun was still up, but it was quiet on the street. I arrived early just in case it was a set-up. I figured if I watched the entrance I’d see them walk up. I gripped the steering wheel hard as my eyes roved around the area.

When it was about two minutes to six I quietly stepped out of my car and made sure not to slam it like I usually did. I felt my pockets coming across the handle of my pocket knife. In my other pocket was pepper spray. I took a deep breathe and headed into the woods.

It’s funny because as a kid I never once felt scared barreling down these woods to go meet Eddie. Now though I jumped at every snap of a twig. I shivered as a brisk wind blew through me. I zipped my hoodie cursing myself for not bringing a flashlight. The sun was starting to set.

The place that Eddie and I went to was called “Our Island.” We had found it back in middle school. We found it when both of us had been fed up with our parents and decided to run away together. The downside was we had to swim to it. In the summer time it was easy to just shrug off our shirts and shorts and dive in, but when fall came around we ended up having to build a bridge. Well, more like Eddie built it. He was always the crafty one and could build anything with some wood and tools. I on the other hand couldn’t even put together a bird house even if it came in a kit.

I gripped the pocket knife in my pocket as I neared the island. The bridge was still there. It was a bit rundown, and it was obvious some kids had been there because there were a few fast food wrappers around. I squinted my eyes. I could barely see across the island. It didn’t look like anyone was there, but there were plenty of places to hide on the island. If I knew Eddie he was lurking in the trees. When we were kids he used to jump out from behind one of the trees and almost caused me to pee my pants a few times.

I carefully walked across the bridge. It groaned under my weight. I could hear my heart beating as I went across. It seemed to go on forever until I reached the edge. I heard a rustle in the trees and contemplated running back to my car. Instead, I stepped off the bridge. I had to know. I needed to know. I walked a few paces and stopped. I heard another rustling and a crack. As I turned in every direction I felt like I was spinning. Until I came upon a shadow in between the trees. When he stepped out of the shadows all the air left my body. There he was. Eddie. From his shaggy blond hair, to his mischievous blue eyes. Tears spilled down my face.

“Hey, Jess,” he said, casually as if we’d only seen each other a few days ago.

“Hey?! That’s what you have to say to me! Hey?!”

“Whoa, Jess calm down let me explain.”

“Oh, you bet your ass you’re going to explain. Do you know how hard it was thinking you were dead? How many sleepless nights I sat around thinking you were in some maniac’s basement being tortured? Do you?!”

“Boy, you haven’t changed. Still loud as ever and a crybaby.”

My hand tightened into a fist.

“Goddammit! Eddie, I hate you!”

I flung towards him and started hitting him. Eddie stood there as I did.

“I hate you so much!”

I sobbed into his chest and he held me. I took in his scent. He still wore that dreadful cologne that smelled like skunk given to him by an ex-girlfriend back in high school.

“Shh, Jess its okay. I understand how you feel. I didn’t want to do this to you, but I had to.”

I broke away from Eddie and pushed him back.

“How is this possible? They found a body.”

“Yes, they found a body, but it wasn’t mine.”

“Then who’s was it?”

Eddie looked down, and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“I didn’t have a choice. I had to do it.”

“You had to?! What the hell did you do?”

Eddie looked at me. I could see pain in his eyes.

“It’s complicated.”

“Everything about you is always complicated, Eddie.”

“Yeah, well this time I messed up. Real bad.”

His voice cracked at the last syllable. I wanted to hit Eddie so bad, but I knew it wouldn’t help matters any. So instead I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself.

“Eddie, whatever it is. Whatever happened. You can tell me.”

“I want to, Jess but I’m afraid you’ll hate me for it.”

I barked out a laugh and said, “Eddie, I don’t hate you. Or rather I can’t hate you. You’re my best friend and seeing you now I feel so relieved.”

“Yeah, well this is something that may make you see me differently.”

“Well, I’m all ears.”

Eddie sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He opened his mouth to say something, but froze.

“Well?”

But, Eddie wasn’t listening. He was staring at something over my shoulder. I turned to look and that’s when I felt Eddie’s body crash into mine. We both fell with a thud into the sand. My mouth filled with sand, and Eddie’s knee was digging into my back.

“Mmff!” I shouted, trying to get Eddie off of me.

“Shh! Jess I need you to trust me, okay. What I’m about to tell you is going to blow your mind. But, not here. We need to get out of here it isn’t safe.”

Eddie let up and I smacked him across the chest.

“WHAT THE HELL, EDDIE?!”

“Come on,” Eddie said, impatiently.

He grabbed my wrist and practically flung me across the sand. Before I knew what was happening we were in the water.

“Eddie, are you crazy it’s freezing! We’re going to get sick.”

“Hurry, I think they saw us.”

“What? Who saw us? What the hell is going on?”

I glanced over my shoulder and saw darkness. As Eddie dragged me across the water I almost fell down a few times. When we finally got out we made a mad dash across the woods. I wasn’t sure what we were running from, but I had to trust Eddie. I had to trust that there was a reason for everything that had happened. At the edge of the woods, Eddie stopped so abruptly that I almost sailed right into him.

“Your keys,” Eddie said.

“What?!”

“Your keys. You drove here right?”

“Yeah, but — “

“Jess, give me the damn keys. We don’t have much time.”

I hesitated for a moment before slapping my keys into his palm.

“Where’s your car.”

“My truck is in the next parking lot over.”

Eddie stopped short and said, “A truck?”

“Yeah, so?”

Eddie chuckled and kept running. I kept up with him best I could. When we reached the car and got in a black SUV whipped out of nowhere and was heading right towards us. Eddie cursed and peeled the truck out of the drive. I slammed forward at the force, almost cracking my head on the dashboard. Once I got my seatbelt on I turned to see the SUV following us. Eddie swerved again causing me to hit my head against the window.

“Eddie, holy shit slow down.”

“Jess, you do realize we are in a car chase right?”

“Yeah, and you do realize we are in a residential neighborhood.”

“Don’t worry Jess I haven’t hit anyone yet.”

I sat back helpless as Eddie swerved around and kept turning sharply into narrow side streets. The SUV was still in pursuit behind us.

“Jess, don’t freak but we are about to fly.”

“What? Eddie if you mess up my- aaahhhh!”

I gripped the dash board as Eddie punched the gas and we jumped over the curb. For a few seconds we were airborne and then we came crashing down like an airplane out of control. Eddie punched the gas again, but something was wrong. The engine had stalled.

“Shit,” Eddie cursed.

My heart was beating fast. I opened my door and hurled all over the pavement. After I was done I stood up and got out staggering woozily down the street.

“Jess! Jess, stop hold on a second!”

I ignored Eddie and kept walking. I heard Eddie’s feet pounding behind me and he grabbed me.

“Let me go!” I shrieked, tears streaming down my face.

“Jess look let me explain.”

“No! I don’t want to know, Eddie.”

It was only partially a lie. In truth part of me wanted to know what the hell was going on, but a bigger part didn’t want to know. Especially if it had to do with Eddie being a killer.

“Come on Jess I didn’t want to involve you, but now you’re involved. So let’s go to a hotel near the turnpike and I’ll explain everything on the way over.”

“Are you kidding me Eddie?! No, I’m done. I don’t know what’s going on and maybe that’s better. Just go now and I can pretend you’re dead and not some murderer.”

“Wait, hold on now, Jess. I am not a murderer. Why would you even think that?”

“Then why are those men chasing you?! And why was there a dead body with your clothes and id? ”

“Like I said long story. Too long to say here where they might find and kill us.”

“Kill us? I’m not a part of this Eddie. They want to kill you not me.”

Eddie shrank back. I could tell he was hurt. I didn’t want Eddie to be dead, but I also did not want to be on the bad side of whoever these people were.

“Jess I’m only here because they’re after you too?”

“Why? What did I do?”

“It’s not what you did. It’s what I did.”

“Oh, great so you brought them with you and now they’re going to kill me.”

“No, it’s because I-“

“You what?”

“Nothing, please just get in the car Jess. Trust me.”

Trust him? For five years he’d been lying to me. Maybe even longer. But, looking at Eddie my defenses went down. Maybe Eddie was a bad guy and maybe he was telling the truth. But, if I did go home they were probably there ready to take me hostage. Either way I was screwed.

“Fine, but I want to know everything.”

“Get in and stay low. I know how to restart the truck, but if they are close they’ll here it and they have guns.”

“And I suppose you do too, huh?”

Eddie smiled and patted his side which I now saw had the imprint of a gun. Great Eddie had a gun now. I didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. As soon as Eddie got the truck roaring sure enough tires squealed and I heard men shouting.

“Jess we’re in for a bumpy ride. Hope you can control the vomit.”

“Don’t worry about me Eddie. Just make sure you don’t kill us.”

Eddie peeled the truck out onto the main road and we entered the dance of the car chase.

“Well now is as good as time as any to tell me now that we’re stuck in this truck together.”

Eddie swerved to miss an oncoming car and then made a sharp turn.

“Well about a month before prom when I was still dating Mitzi I was still in the impressing her phase so I took some of my mom’s money to buy drugs and alcohol you know to loosen her up a bit. She was kinda chatty when she was sober.”

I rolled my eyes. Mitzi didn’t need loosening up. I remember her being very loose.

“So mom noticed the money was missing and said I had to pay her back. So I tried to sell some of the drugs I had leftover to get the scratch to pay mom before she killed me. “

“Eddie you could have gotten a job.”

Eddie scowled at me and mad another sharp turn causing me to crack my head against the window for the second time.

“Gee, I didn’t think of that. I’m not that much of a moron. So anyway as I was saying I sold the drugs which was actually good money. So I decided to sell a little more you know to save up for college.”

I snorted.

“Look are you going to stop making faces and giving me attitude? I mean you are the one who wanted to hear the story.”

“Go on.”

“Right, well one of the jobs I went on didn’t go as planned. An old man caught me selling drugs to some prissy private school girl and started freaking out on us. The girl got scared and ran with the drugs. I ran after her because the dumb bitch hadn’t paid me and the old man wacked me on the head with his cane. I tried to tell him to just piss off and mind his own business, but he kept coming after me and then he pulled out his cellphone to call the police. And I…” Eddie trailed off.

“And you what?”

I looked over at Eddie. His face was tight and his jaw was set.

“Eddie, you what?”

“It was just one hit. I just knocked him on the bag of the head with a bottle and then he started bleeding. So I freaked and ran.”

“You ran?! You mean you just left him there?”

“Yes, but as soon as I was a safe distance I called an ambulance. He’s been in a coma the past five years. I was so afraid Jess. I was afraid that I would get caught so I ran. I did odd jobs, started selling more drugs, and got into some deep shit. But, I decided I didn’t want this kind of life so I wanted out, but they wouldn’t let me. Claimed I cheated them out of money that I earned. One of the guys who was selling with me wanted out to so we made a plan, but he had some issues and ended up overdosing. This sounds terrible, but I saw him dying as a way out. So I dressed him in my clothes, put my wallet with my id in his pocket, messed up his face so they couldn’t tell the difference, and made a run for it. Somehow though they found out I was still alive and for the last three months they’ve been on my tail.

I sat silently not sure what to think.

“You think I’m a bad person don’t you?”

“No, Eddie I don’t. I think that you should have thought about what you did though first. I mean Mitzi dumped you like a hot pocket.”

“Yeah, I know she was a slut.”

“Yet you loved her.”

“No, not love. I liked doing things with her, yes, but it wasn’t love.”

“You said you loved her.”

“Only because I knew I had no shot with the girl I really wanted.”

My face flushed as I remembered something. The night of the dance when I’d gotten home drunk I remember dreaming that Eddie was in my room. He stood over me and kissed me, then whispered that he loved me in my ear. Now I wondered if it wasn’t a dream.

The rest of the drive was silent. We had lost the SUV and after an hour of not seeing it Eddie was sure it was safe to rest for the night. When we reached the hotel Eddie didn’t say another word about prom, or the girl he did love. I knew there were bigger things to worry about, but I had to know. I mean I would have known if Eddie was in love with me right? We were best friends after all. I nudged Eddie lightly with my foot.

“Mmm!” Eddie groaned.

“Eddie!” I hissed. “Wake up!”

“Not now, mom just five more minutes.”

“Eddie!”

Eddie shot up and grabbed me around the neck. I gasped as we wrestled on the ground. When Eddie realized it was me his eyes widened and he let go. I gasped for breath as Eddie leaned against his bead breathing heavily and crying. I had never seen Eddie cry before. I leaned over and touched his face. He wrapped his arms around me and cried on my shoulder.

“It was always you,” he whispered.

I pulled back and looked at Eddie surprised.

“What?”

He caressed my check and said, “You, Jess. You were the one that I always loved.”

My breathe caught and I’m sure my face was as red as a tomato.

“T-then how come you never told me? I demanded.

“I knew I wasn’t good enough for you, Jess. You were smart, pretty, funny, and were always there for me no matter how much of an asshole I was. You always forgave me even when I didn’t deserve it.”

I wasn’t sure how to feel. All these years and I never knew how he felt. All this time I thought that Eddie was one of those guys. He was my best friend sure, but to me he was also the lady killer. He dated practically half the school or rather slept with.

“Jess,” he said softly.

“Why me?” I asked.

Eddie shrugged and said,” Why not?”

“Because you teased me all the time. You said I was too brainy and that I fell for guys who weren’t right for me.”

“Jess, I loved you because you weren’t like all the other girls. You scared the shit out of me. I knew that if I had been with you that I would have screwed you up. So I loved you from a distance. I knew that I wasn’t good enough for you.”

“That’s not true, Eddie. If you had told me…”

Eddie covered my mouth and said, “It doesn’t matter. We’re here now.”

I blushed and for the first time I saw what all those other girls saw in Eddie. I saw the bad boy who secretly wanted someone to change him. Wanted someone to love him. Eddie leaned in close to me and I leaned in. Just our lips were about to touch I heard a BANG! My eyes flew open and I screamed as I saw Eddie’s face. It was pale and his eyes were wide as blood trickled down his chest. Hands grabbed me from behind and bag was thrust over my head. I screamed and writhed until one of them hit me on the head with something hard. Then it all went black.

To be continued…