Abyss (The Man in the Abyss 1)

Scene Two: Don't Pity the Ones Who Don't Need It

Scene Two: Don’t Pity the Ones Who Don’t Need It

Julie walks down the stairs with a fake smile plastered on her face. She just got done putting concealer under her eyes. She feels like she has to hide her prominent evidence of no sleep. Because bruised under eyes led to questions, and question led to confessions. And Julie doesn’t want to confess her reoccurring nightmare. She’s already in therapy four times a week, there’s no need for a fifth—or maybe even a sixth.

She greets her dad at the circular table next to the kitchen. He’s reading the towns’ daily newspaper. The headline today is ‘ANOTHER CHILD MISSING’ with a picture next to it of a little girl. Julie gulps, that little girl resembles the little girl she saw in her nightmare. Expect the little girl still had her eyes intact and teeth are not sticking out of her smiling mouth.

Her dad smiles when he sees his ‘little’ girl. Julie sits down next to him and pours herself a glass of orange juice.

“Hey kiddo.” He greets her with a ruffle of her hair. Julie fattens her hair back to its original place, and flashes another fake smile at her father. She doesn’t feel bad for pretending she’s happy, only because she’s almost certain her dad gives her fake smiles also.

“I made pancakes.” He tells her while gesturing to the plate in the middle of the table. As appealing as the fresh pancakes looks and smells, Julie couldn’t stomach food right now. She looks at her dad in a sheepish way.

“I’m not really hungry right now. Sorry dad.” She apologizes. Her dad looks down at the three un-eaten pancakes and looks back at her in almost a disappointed face. Julie regrets rejecting her dad’s offer. She seems to be doing that a lot lately.

“It’s okay, I’m sure Damon would eat them. That boy is like a human garbage disposal.” Her dad says with an awkward chuckle. Moments between her dad and her are getting more awkward by the day—probably by the hour now. Probably because of the unspoken question that’s been hanging in the air for many years now. What are we going to do now, without her?

If her mom was here everything would be better. A hundred times better. A thousand times better. She would fill the whole empty and depressing atmosphere with happiness and unconditional love. Her and her dad knows that too. It’s pretty obvious.

A few minutes of awkward silence between a father and his daughter, a vivacious knock on the front door makes Julie jump out of her seat. She tells her dad she’ll get. She opens the door and Damon comes running in her house.

“I smell pancakes.” He states excitedly. Julie laughs a little when he picks up a pancake and shoves it in his face. Her dad laughs with her at the boy who’s scarfing down their breakfast. Despite the father and daughter’s awkwardness, Damon has always made the situations un-awkward. That’s part of the reason she’s friends with Damon.

“Those were super good Mr. J.” Damon compliments as he gulps down Julie’s glass of orange juice. Julie smiles at his boy-ness, a real smile. The smile feels foreign on her face. Like she’s using a muscle she never knew she had.

“I’m glad you liked them. They were Julie’s, but she didn’t want them.” Her dad says with a smile on his face. Julie feels like her dad is actually smiling for real. The way he made ‘she didn’t want them’ sound was like she is snobby and ungrateful. A small spark of anger flares up in her. It vanishes when Damon looks at her again. He frowns then looks back at my dad with a smile. A smile she know all too well. A fake smile.

“Well Julie and I should be going now. You know…school.” He says with a hint of something Julie cannot put her finger on. But before she can do anything else Damon’s already grabbing her backpack and dragging her out the front door. Julie follows behind him as he opens the passenger door for her to climb into. She sits down on the cool seat and leans back as Damon gets into the driver seat.