Benny Rodriguez; 1962

Benny's Dad

May 14th, 1972

It's been a couple of days since I've talked to Skylar and she hasn't tried contacting me so obviously, she doesn't want to be friends anymore.

Jordan has called me twice but we haven't really said much. He wants to hangout sometime next week since he doesn't have any games or practices so I told him we could hangout at my house.

I've been going to the sandlot all week and it feels exactly as it did when I first came here. They're all acting just like they did before and some of them are actually letting me play in their positions but I think Benny just wants them to bat.

"Catch it!" The ball comes my way and I catch it and throw it to Bertram and he throws it to Timmy.

We get Squints out and he throws his glove down but picks it up and trades Yeah-Yeah for short stop. Benny took Yeah-Yeahs place and Yeah-Yeah took squints.

Yeah-Yeah hits it straight to Benny and gets out.

Ham hits the ball and it goes over the fence, just like the last time we let him hit. Apparently they haven't let him hit even since he hit it over the fence last time, when we had a campout.

"Ham! You idiot, now we can't play no more."

"Oh whatever. At least Smalls didn't try climbing the fence again."

"Everyone, go home! We'll play some tomorrow."

"Bye guys."

~~~~~~

We get home and I get on my bike and convince Scotty to ride around with me. I show him Jordan's field, his house, the park, and we even find this hill where you can basically see the entire town.

We see Skylar at the park but she doesn't really say anything. She sort of just glanced my way and when she did, she started reading again. Whatever.

We get home and eat dinner, which is burgers from the diner, and we both lay on the couch and watch tv since it isn't that late. We both end up falling asleep watching Bon Voyage!

~~~~~~

Mom shakes me and Scotty awake and tells us to go to bed. We both slowly trudge to our rooms, mumble a 'goodnight' and go straight to our rooms. I change into pajamas and lay down in bed.

He's chasing me.
He's holding a knife.
He's smiling but he doesn't look happy

My dad.

I'm running away from him into a field of corn. I hate corn fields, they terrify me just because of him.

"Come back here."

"No!"

I lose him for at least ten minutes before he picks me up and we're all of a sudden in a room with fingerprints on the walls.

Blood.

"Leave me alone!"

"No."

"What do you want from me?"

"I want you to suffer just like I did when Lexi died."

"I said I was sorry, there's nothing else I can do!"

Suddenly I wake up with sweat all over me and I'm breathing heavy. I can't believe what I just dreamed. I haven't had a dream that bad in a while.

I grab my blanket, open my window, throw the blanket up there, and climb. I get up in my roof and lay there, looking at the stars.

"We really need to get a better sleep schedule."

"What time is it?"

"Three o'clock in the morning."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Wow."

"Why are you up?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I asked first." Got me there

"Bad dream, you?"

"Same."

"That sucks."

"Yep."

Suddenly someone pulls into his driveway and he looks just as confused as I do until a man gets out of the car.

"You shouldn't be here."

"And you shouldn't be on the roof at three o'clock. If your mother knew, she'd kill you."

"She wouldn't care even if she knew."

"Well, I brought Dani but she's asleep in the back seat."

"Okay, put her on the couch and leave."

"Only way I can leave is if I have her with me, you know that."

"You can leave without her."

"Nope, sorry bud."

He turns around and looks at me and I quickly look back up at the sky.

"Oh, look. We've got a watcher! Nothing about this neighborhood has changed."

"Everyone is in a better state of happiness because you're gone. You're not around to be an asshole to everyone."

"Ouch, that hurt. I've told you that I'm sorry. What else do you need?"

"You're not actually sorry. I don't understand why you took my sister away from me when she was literally a newborn."

"She deserved better and I knew where it was."

"Whatever."

"Get in bed son, we'll talk about this some more tomorrow. It's late."

"Fine, goodnight Bella."

"Goodnight."

I stay sitting in my roof while he climbs back into his window and his dad stands there, looking at me.

"Do you have a problem?"

"Don't pop an attitude with me."

"Then stop staring at me, you're not my boss in anyway." I suddenly have a hatred towards this man and I don't even know him.

"Why? Can't I just examine the little whore that my son is talking to?"

"Don't call me that! You don't know me and you obviously don't know your own son. Shut your fucking mouth before I get my mom, or worse, my step dad." They really wouldn't do much, probably just argue

"Whatever kid."

He gets back in the car and lays his seat back. I just sit there with an emptiness in my heart. I hate him. I don't like being called a whore. I've been called a whore way too many times in my life and I'm not gonna let some old man who I don't know call me that and let it bother me.

I climb back into my window and lay down in bed. I stare at my ceiling until sleep consumes me and this time, I don't dream.