Bloody Story 1987

Page 3

There are dark images of a boardwalk, bright lights only adorned the rides and the shops in vibrant neon colors. Clown faces jump around the shops and on the carousel, some mask others actors. The beach appears around me like I teleported, it's still dark, more so than the boardwalk. The waves of the ocean are lapping against the sand and splashing a little deeper than I wanted to go. It's lonely here, deserted but the feeling was intense. It's quiet though, calming and a relief until something falls from behind me and I turn. There's a body lying face up in the wet sand, a torn up guard uniform covering it. Walking closer there's clearly bite marks and deep scratches here and there on the body. He's not bleeding but his body looks fresh, it reminded me of a drained buck on a documentary our dad used to make us watch.

Opening my eyes, waking up from a nap I saw the ocean, looking from the window to the woman behind the steering wheel I registered the music flowing through the car, my mom was the spitting image of what I considered to be a strong woman, her tears dried quickly after divorcing our father. To my side was Michael, my fraternal twin, thankfully we looked nothing alike nor had much in common, he was quite dull feeling, to me at least. My younger brother sat in the front passenger seat, now that one was a bit different, young and considered cool and stylish, he spent too much time at the mall and reading comics until late in the day. Looking down and moving my hand I touched the soft fur of Nanook, the large malamute our mom got for Sam two years ago, a giant puffball who's honestly the least threatening thing in existence.

I was pulled from my mind when I heard the storage trailer behind us hit a bump and bounce. I took a glance behind me, it was fine but I was a very, very cautious person so it was out of habit I checked on things like this. I turned back around to listen to everything that was happening, "We're getting close..." I looked back out the window as Sam spoke up slightly disgusted, his face probably scrunched up from the smell, "What's that smell?" It really wasn't an awful smell in any sense, I listened as our mother replied with a large inhale of the salty air, "Ocean air!"

"Smells like something died." I reached between the door bar and Sam's chair to knock against his head and get him to be quiet, "Guys, I know it hasn't been easy... the divorce and now the move... but I think you're really going to like living in Santa Carla..." I waited but there was no reply. "Just give them a few weeks mom, they'll learn to love it here." They looked very unconvinced. She smiled at me from the rear view mirror then looked at the boys, "How 'bout some music." She turns on the radio to immediately be met with country music, "Keep going." She nods and switches it again, it's an easy listening station she finds next, Michael responds quickly after only one note is rung out, "keep going," Mellow Yellow. "Keep going."

Mom laughed out as she tried convincing them to listen, "Wait. Haight-Ashbury! The summer of love! 'Mellow Yellow.'" I huffed my own laugh out before chiming in along with my brothers, "Keep going!" We all laugh as mom turns the dial to a current rock hit station and the boys relax, finally okay with the station that was selected. I looked back outside, waves of water crashing against each other in the water not too far from our car and a large billboard, it was very eighties looking, 'welcome to Santa carla' in large bubble letters with designs inside of them, it even showed a picture of the boardwalk on the large print that welcomes newcomers like my family. I stare at it as we drive past, the back of the board even had graffiti to go with it, bright red letters in spray paint littering the metal boarding, 'Murder Capital of The World.' I look over realizing I wasn't the only one to see those dripping words, "Mom? Are we really moving to the murder capital of the world?"

"What now, ohh look at that we need gas..." She turned slightly looking at each of us with a quick glance through the rear view mirror, "What about food? Are you guys hungry?" Michael and I looked at eachother, Nanooks fur in our line of sight, "That was quick." I nodded to him as our little brother spoke to her, "Yeah, I could go for some food, what's on the menu?" At the moment besides her weirdness I thought of chili fries.