Slaughter House

Chapter 1

-Joel

When I was eight years old, the man who had been avoiding being my father flipped his truck coming back from his ex-wife's place. They say he died right as his busted up Ford wrapped around a tree.

It wasn't the kind of death anyone was expecting, especially Ma.

She had just got done throwing his shit into the front yard when we got the call that his body had been found.

Ma was normally a very calm, collected type of person even after finding out that my old man was cheating on her with his ex.

The clothes in the yard were a formality.

Folks were over-concerned with how Ma handled his death. Well, she didn't have anything to handle. She had dissolved all feelings for him when she found out he betrayed her. Any time she was asked about it in public she would answer with a surly "Not every death is a tragedy."

I wasn't sad, I was almost a little annoyed that he had died. After all, it's hard to miss someone who was never around in the first place and seeing the burden his death put on my mother almost made me hate him.

Hating something that never existed was a strange feeling that, even now, I don't understand.

My vision narrowed back into focus on the yellow lines in front of me. My lungs were heavy taking in the hot summer air. Even in early morning, the humidity was almost too thick to breathe. Sharp winds darted through the tall pine trees along both sides of the road blurring them together as I drove. It was hypnotic but luckily, a deep pothole every few feet would lift my drooping head.

As I pulled into the school's parking lot, students were dotting the courtyard all the way up to the doors and their rusty entrance way signs. It wouldn't kill the school's budget to clean the place up a bit, but hey, a little rust probably makes these farm kids feel right at home.

To an extent, it even comforted me despite just moving here a couple of years ago. Seeing anything that wasn't old or slowly rotting just didn't seem to fit in.

Sliding out of the truck, I spot a crowd of students hovering over a single newspaper being held by the tiniest girl in Blackbell. Grabbing the shoulder of someone in front of me, I gently pushed them to the side to catch a glimpse at the black and white paper.

"Dammit Joel! you can't just be shoving people damn!" A boy in some beat up jeans cursed.

"Shut up, Earl! You don't want this here black boy on yer ass do ya?" Another hick laughed.

I sighed as Opal's eyes peeked over the paper "Hi Joel, thank goodness you're so tall or I couldn't see you!" she giggled "Could you please read the headline for me? I haven't been able to see it yet." She was a sweet little black-eyed girl with teeth as crooked as a pine tree in a tornado.

Opal, even on her tippy-toes, was probably only four feet tall, so my face was nearly parallel with the ground trying to read the paper.

BODY FOUND IN BLACKBELL SWAMP

'A local man searching for his dog happened upon the body yesterday. The Blackbell Police Department has stated that the body had been naturally decomposing leading them to believe this murder is not linked to the ones earlier this year. However, one strange circumstance surrounding the victim is that the body was filled with over eighty sets of children's teeth. Authorities will not release the victim's identity out of respect of the family left behind.'

"You don't need to hear about this crap, Opal." Earl coughed digging around in his pants pockets for what I assume to be his momma's homemade cigarettes.

There were few things that Earl and I could agree on but keeping little Opal in the dark was one of them. She was just too gentle to know about these things, with everyone around trying their best to shelter her, I don't want to be the one who slips up and makes her afraid of the world.

"It's nothing Opal," I said "just some man who lost his dog."

"Well, that's just no good. I hope he finds him." Opal frowned letting her top tooth slide over her bottom lip. 

"Me too." I said wiping the sweat from my forehead. 

From the corner of my eye, a dingy blonde head of hair ducked outside one of the school's fences. It was the perfect spot to sneak out. Plenty of bushes to cover you and it neighbored a thick patch of woods.

Stepping quickly away from the group, I managed to make it over the fence myself with few seeing me. I locked on to a stained red cap and my hand shot forward grabbing the blonde by his collar.

"Ya know, class is the other way right?" I smiled.

Cricket slouched further down in his flannel until he slipped right out of it. He certainly wasn't one for conversation, especially when he gets caught breaking a promise.

"What happened to no more doing bad stuff, man?" I asked tossing his shirt back to him.

His bony fingers wrapped around the thin fabric tightly as he stood there bare-chested, his ribs sticking out farther than usual.

"Whats life without a little something sweet?" his voice was raspy and hollow.

I cringed. That must have been a direct quote from the self-proclaimed notorious dealer, Candyman.

"You promised you wouldn't see him anymore." I spoke sternly reaching for him. He took a step back and pulled his shirt over his head.

"He's dangerous Cricket" I pleaded "I know he doesn't seem like it but you can't trust people like that."

"Everyone is dangerous, Joel. You. Me. Even that blind girl at school. Every single one of us. A complete threat to the other."

I shook my head. He was always saying weird shit like this, I always thought it was just the drugs but from the way he was shaking, I could tell he wasn't high. He was desperate for one.

The bell for homeroom rang, shattering the silence with the sound of a raging church bell. I put out a callused hand one more time. Cricket tilted his head to the side as he always did. I think it's almost automatic for him to hide the fact that his chin stuck out on one side. It was one of his habits that he has had since we were ten.

It helped me believe that the old Cricket was still in there somewhere.

Cricket stared up into the morning clouds. I'm not sure how much he saw considering he didn't make an effort to cut his hair or even push it from his face but when his eyes laid on mine again, I could tell.

He'd be walking back to the schoolyard with me.

I could also tell by the footsteps behind us that I had ruined a meet up. 

Though, I had no idea who he would have been meeting.