Geff and Jerald

Unmarked Paths

We put on our coats and headed out the door. "Have you ever considered how long this is going to take?" Jerald asked me. "Eh, I don't really care. I just came to see Jane and Gabe. But wow. You should really meet them. Gabe's one of those 'detective' guys. He likes to solve mysteries." I said. We kept on walking down the gravel road, and eventually it turned to dirt. "You sure you know where you're going?" He asked. I shrugged. "She said down the dirt road, along the cornfield. Happy?" He seemed happy. Oh, yeah. I forgot. He doesn't know the whole 'corn boy' story yet. I had nothing to worry about. But either way, we got there. "Hey, you actually came!" It was Gabe. He seemed happy to see us. "Come on in!"

"Hey, Jane! Your boyfriend's here!" I heard a groan from upstairs. "Is that, uh, normal?" I asked. 

"Eh. Dunno." With that she came downstairs. "Hey, Geff! You're finally here! And I see you brought someone with you." 

"Yup. Jane, this is my brother, Jerald. Jerald, Jane."

She shook his hand. "Pleased to meet you," Jerald said politely. "Don't be a gentleman. And wow! So tall. She looks up towards the towering Jerald. He was about a head bigger. "Anyway! you guys hungry?" She asked. I was a little hungry, but my stomach growling reminded me it's lunchtime. "You know what? Sure. I haven't even eaten yet." So she took us to the kitchen, where her parents were. "Hey, Jenny. Are your friends here?" It was her mom. "Yeah. Is the 'thing' still in the pantry?" Her mom nodded. Then Jane disappeared into a dark closet full of food. When she was gone, her mom got slightly closer to us. "Hey." She was talking to me. "You're Geff, right?"

"Yes, ma'am."

She made sure no one was watching. "You know, my daughter likes having you around." Immediately after she said that, Jane burst out of the pantry. "Mom!" Her face was filled with embarrassment. "I brought the thing I promised you. She set a pie on the table. I tried my best to stare at the pie and not her face, which was still kinda pink. Jerald was already licking his lips. "Well. What are we standing around for??? Let's eat!"

(*burp*)

I stabbed my fork into the last piece. "One word, Mrs. Thomas. WOW." She seemed satisfied. "Well, I am very glad that you liked it." She cleaned up, and Gabe showed us upstairs to his room. "Here's where it's all done," he said. I looked around. His room was in the attic. "I don't actually, see anything." He looked behind him. "Huh? Ohhhhh yeah. Almost forgot!" He gave us a gesture that I'm guessing meant 'follow me'. So we followed him into this closet that had a secret trapdoor under the hamper that led to another room. Slowly climbing down the ladder, the chute got darker and darker. Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, we approached upon a new room with concrete walls and carpet. The room was full. And not like ordinary full. Like FULL, full. Papers and missing posters were scattered everywhere, file cabinets with folders inside, and more. Gabe found his way to a stack of cabinets and grabbed a folder. "I try to keep everything as organized as I can put it. And so far, there hasn't been any issues in a while." He stacked the folders and put them in their corresponding drawer. Shutting the drawer Gabe snagged a random plate from his desk. It had a pile of good-smelling spaghetti and meatballs on it. He sat on a rolling chair and passed by us. "How do you even get by in this place?" There was a bulletin board with many papers tacked onto, some tied with red yarn. Watching him shove the plate into a microwave, he got up and stood in front of the bulletin board. "I try to find people related to Jackson Alexander. Can't seem to find any suspects, though." He stayed quiet and moved some tacks around. After scrambling everything up, he stopped and turned around. "You know what? That doesn't matter. You came to find out about my painless feet." He wiggled his toes. "What do you mean, by painless?" He sighed. I never told you the true reason my mom left."