Katie Bug

And Then There Were Three

Kate and Martin had spent the next couple days in an awkward silence; small talk wasn't even an option at this time. What would they even say to each other? Martin decided that he wanted to work on the shed at a snail's pace, in three days he had only gotten the rebar set. It was just a few weeks before school was to start and Naomi was off at her cheer for tots camp.

She stood in the kitchen looking out the sliding glass door watching her dad. He was staring at the square hole in the ground. How many more times was he going to take the rebar out and dig more? Jenny had been texting her all day, the fight that started at dinner that night with her mom and grandma had snowballed and now her and her mom were fighting. She glanced out again, he was back to digging again. "Fuck it." She mumbled under her breath as she opened the glass door and headed towards her dad. It was hot outside, close to 100 degrees she thought. As she got closer she saw the toll it was taking on her dad. He had shed his shirt hours ago and was pouring sweat.

"Dad?" He turned breathing heavily and smiling. "Katie Bug, what are you doing?" She looked at the hole, "I could ask you the same thing." Turning he looked at the hole again, an incoherent grumble escaped him. Turning back to her he said, "You first Katie Bug." "I'm going to go hang out with Jenny." He stopped and lifted his sunglasses, "What?" the smile faded from his face. "Sounded like you said you were going to go hang out Jenny?" Kate sighed, "Dad, she's having some trouble..." He interrupted her, "Yeah? Get turned down by another one of her friends dads?" He snapped "Dad.." She said still sounding reasonable. "Have you lost your fucking mind Katie? That girl is trash." He barked. Kate's voice rose a little, "Dad I know, but.."

His hand was dirty and hot. The bear paw shot up and grabbed her jaw, pulling her into his face. Startled Kate shoved him away, "What are you doing dad?" He dropped his hand, "Smelling your breath. Are you high?" Kate narrowed her eyes at him, "Fuck you." She turned and stomped out of the backyard. When she put the car in reverse rocks flew up, pelting the garage door.

Martin stood in shock for a moment, he blinked a couple times. Did his daughter really just say that? Throwing the shovel down he charged into the house, and straight up to her room. Frantically he opened her closet, taking a moment to rifle through it. He shuffled and shifted the books and papers on her desk. The random bag on the back of a chair was quickly dumped out. Then he turned to her dresser. Grabbing the top drawer he pulled it out and turned it over dumping the contents on the floor. He repeated with the second. When he got to the third there was a heavy medal thump. He tossed the drawer onto her bed and knelt down to inspect the object.

Kate pulled up to the park, Jenny was sitting on the curb. What a mess, she was crying and her makeup was smeared down her cheeks. "Jenny?" She called, getting her attention. "Kate." Jenny wailed as she ran to Kate hugging her and sobbing. They sat and talked for a while. "Well I suppose we can go to my house, get drunk and forget all the bullshit." Kate said. Jenny nodded, "That sounds great."

When the girls pulled up to the house Martin's truck was gone. "Is your dad coming back any time soon?" Jenny sniffled as they got up to the front door. Kate turned to her, "I don't know, why?" Jenny shrugged, "Just wondering." She threw her keys on the table beside the door and marched over to the fridge. Opening it she peered in, thank God her dad had recently picked up drinking. They didn't usually drink beer, but why not. "Why don't you get changed, I'll meet you out at the pool with some beers." She said to Jenny. She turned into the bathroom as Kate went in to her room. She pulled open her drawer to pullout her clean swim suit and it wasn't in there. "What the hell?" She muttered as she opened the next drawer. It was sitting on top. She shook her head and yanked it out.

Jenny was already in the pool, her sunglasses on the top of her head. "When it gets a little darker, can we turn the lights on?" Jenny asked. Kate looked over at the sun, it wasn't quite setting but it was starting to turn into evening. "Sure. Here." She passed Jenny a beer. Taking it she wrinkled her nose and tipped the bottle back. The worst it tasted, the faster she drank.

The sky was just turning dusky now and Kate turned on the underwater lights for Jenny. Jenny was now on her 5th beer and already noticeably inebriated. Jenny started to wail again. Kate slipped into the water and went out to her. "What's wrong Jenny?" Kate asked softly as she pulled Jenny's tube to her and slowly started to spin it. "You're such a good friend Kate, and I've always been a shit one." Her dramatic sobbing was getting on Kate's nerves. "Why do you say that?" Jenny scoffed, "I can think of a couple things! When we were little, I told my mom you pushed me out of the tree house on purpose. Just so Naomi would only be able to invite me over to her princess tree house!" Kate strained a smile and stifled a laugh, "That's not that bad." Compared to the fact that she did push her out of the tree house on purpose, it really wasn't. "And that night Riley came to hang out with us, Naomi really had to stop me from trying to sleep with him after you fell asleep."

Okay even Kate could admit it, that one stung a little. Poor Riley. "It's okay Jenny you were drunk!" Kate said soothingly as she turned Jenny and started playing with one of Jenny's curls. "I'm the one that told everyone that you slept with Riley. I also told everyone that you slept with Jake." Kate started shushing Jenny. "None of that makes you a shit friend Jenny." Kate slowly started wrapping Jenny's hair around her hands. Jenny let out a sniffle and said in her little mousy voice, "It doesn't?" Kate lowered herself to Jenny's ear. "No. But you shouldn't have messed with my dad." Jenny's eyes widened in terror and pain as Kate jerked her off the tube by her hair and plunged her head under the water.

Jenny's small, drunk, malnourished body was no match for Kate. She flailed and kicked trying to get her feet off the tube and under her to regain control of her body. Her brown eyes pleaded with Kate to stop, and at last she screamed large air bubbles. Kate held on to her as she took in a mouthful of water, she jerked slightly as the last bits of water filled her lungs. The whole time she never stopped looking at Kate. Kate gently unwound Jenny's soggy curls from around her hands and straightened them out. "What a waste, my dad was right. You really were trash."

Kate came back to earth and looked around. Shit, this is why we always have a plan. She carefully pulled Jenny out of the pool and laid her on her towel. It almost looked like she was just relaxing. Kate paced in the kitchen, what did she have? The basement, it was dad's odds and ends space, maybe there was a roll of plastic down there or at least an old blanket.

The basement was poorly lit and a little nasty. Maybe dad's next end of summer project should be a facelift for the basement. Kate thought back, she never had really been down here before. She opened the flashlight on her phone after checking it, still nothing from dad. He must be really pissed. As she rummaged through the shelves she started to think that there wasn't anything there she could use. Then she spotted an old patchy blanket, as she grabbed it a metal box crashed to the floor from inside it. Kate jumped, it had scared the hell out of her. When she picked it up the items inside slide from one side to the other, it was kind of heavy for its size.

Carefully she opened it. They were Polaroid photos. She moved to an emptier shelf and set the box down so she could use the flashlight feature to look at them. Her breath caught in her chest. They were photos of women, some Kate's age, some a little older. And she noticed there was a pattern. There was always two. The first the woman was bound, looking terrified or crying with her make up smudged all over her face. The second was of the same woman with a crude garrote twisted to a sick capacity. She didn't understand, she flipped through the photos, there were dozens of women. Then she found a single photo, without an after photo. It was her mom, in their pre-remodeled bathroom, in the tub and she was crying.

"Katie Bug, what are you doing down here?" She jumped. Her father's voice was straight in front of her, he was just on the other side of the metal shelving unit. His eyes were coldly on her. "Dad?" She whispered. With her hand trembling ever so slightly she pushed the tin over to his side of the shelf. She cleared her throat and whispered, "You have some explaining to do.". Those cold sad eyes of his peered down, his eye brow lifted slightly as a smile twitch in one corner of his mouth. The now softened look returned to his face. His bear paw came up to the shelf level with her eyes and gently placed the hunting knife she'd use to kill Riley down. "You first Katie Bug." His voice was cool and low as ever.