"Can I head down to Violet's?"
Dad looked up from his piece of paper, a body lying on a metal table behind him. The body had purplish bruises up and down its body and pale, pale skin. It was a woman who's hair was brown and knotty. I looked away from the dead body to my father's brown eyes.
He looked down at Violet who had almost gone as pale as the body on the table. She gave him a weak smile, but it soon faded.
"This is Violet?" Dad motioned toward Violet with his pencil.
Violet nodded and diverted her eyes from the body. "Yessir, I'm Violet." But soon, trying as she might, her eyes fell upon the dead body.
Dad turned and looked at the body himself. "Don't be spooked," he soothed. "It's just a body; the soul has long gone."
Violet swallowed hard and nodded with even wider eyes. Dad looked back to me and nodded. "Yes, just come home when you feel, I don't have any plans. Violet, would you like to spend the night?" My dad always asked my friends to spend the night so I didn't have to.
Violet shrugged. "Actually," she said, finding her words, "Would it be okay if Raven spent the night with me in my treehouse?"
"Sure, why not?" Dad answered. He turned back to his paper he was writing on. He scribbled some notes. "Go on now, you girls. I have work to do that isn't for little eyes."
"He was going to cut her up?"
I nod. "Violet, that's his job. He can't help it, just like you said."
We were sitting in her little treehouse on top of quilts her grandmother had made. We decorated her little treehouse with blankets, candles, and paintings. We had food and drinks set aside in a corner and we were fiddling with string—trying to make friendship bracelets.
"I know," Violet said softly, "but that was a woman. Couldn't they have hired a girl who could cut up her same gender?"
I laughed. "She's dead, Vi. It's not like she'll care."
Violet's face went pale. "Oh God."
I laughed again and tied a knot in my bracelet, the red strings tickling my legs. "Calm down, Violet. Just don't think of it. Tell me about the town."
"The town?" Violet set her finished bracelet aside, already done. I wasn't even halfway through. I sighed and continued with my ugly, knotty bracelet. I couldn't tie a perfect knot to save my life.
"Yeah. The last town I was in—Denton, Texas—it said that there were seventeen murders in a span of one week once. It was a long time ago, so it didn't bother me, but how cool is that?"
Violet smiled and shook her head. "That's kinda like this town. A couple months ago, people started disappearing and then their bodies would be found in different places—pieces of their bodies anyways."
"Really? Did they catch the person that did it?"
Violet shook her head and glanced out the treehouse window into the dark woods beyond her house. We had ventured into the woods earlier when the sun was just setting, but once it got dark, we bolted for the house where her mother cooked us up some fried chicken and macaroni. It was amazing.
"Nope," she answered. "He's still out there. They have suspects, but this killer is good apparently. He's left not one trace of himself. Momma said they found another body cut up by the river just Thursday."
"That was yesterday."
Violet looked at me, scared. "Really?" She hugged a blanket close to her and ran her trembling fingers through her messy, yet pretty hair.
I shrugged. "What would some killer want with a coupla kids?"
Violet let out a nervous laugh. "Yeah, you're right. I shouldn't be so jumpy."
I nodded, but I wasn't paying attention. What would some killer want with a coupla kids? My question should've been: What would some killer want with anybody?
We wake up later than I normally do. Dad usually makes breakfast but Violet says her mother sleeps late and doesn't get up on weekends until around noon. So, we take our time getting dressed. Violet's hair is straighter than a pencil and mine is wavy. We curl our hair with her mother's iron and then head down to the square.
As we walk down the paved sidewalks around the courthouse, Violet tells me about the murders that have been going on. I try to listen as best I can, but the dream I had last night.
"Raven," Violet says, snapping her fingers in my face.
I blink myself into reality and see Violet's messily curled hair around her big pale face that holds her pink lips and blue eyes. The bright green trees around the courthouse illuminate her eyes even more and the brick courthouse makes the whole scene picture-perfect, even if the look on her face is weirded out.
"Did you hear any of that?" Her look turns from weirded to annoyed and she puts her hands on her hips. She sees something behind me and freezes. Quickly, I'm being pulled into the other direction.
"What? What?" I shout, fighting against her iron-like grip.
She pulls me close to her and whispers into my ear, "That's Brendan Dread. I have a major crush on him and he does not need to know. Every time I talk to him, I babble like an idiot."
I laugh and turn around. "Oh my." Yes, that is my reaction when I turn around and see Brendan Dread.
He's gorgeous from bottom to top. Let me elaborate: his hair is caramel brown and rustled just perfectly, his skin below that is a golden tan, his eyes are like a mixture of sexy and green like celery, he has a light dusting of freckles on the bridge of his nose, his jawline could cut diamonds, his mouth is set in a thin smile, he's wearing a white and blue baseball tee that makes me choke against his straining muscles, and he walks with such confidence, Martin Luther King Jr. would forget all about his dream.
Violet swivels me back around just as Brendan lands his eyes on me. "Seriously, don't stare. He's freakishly gorgeous."
I nod and turn the corner of the sidewalk with Violet. "That's the finest boy 1960 has ever seen."
Violet scoffs. "Don't you know it. His daddy works for the lumber company so they've got big money. He's probably headed down to the diner. He goes there over the weekends to get a bottle of pop and then heads down to the fields of play baseball with all his friends."
I nod, my mouth hanging open. Violet reaches over and closes it for me which spreads a smile over my face and makes me laugh. "Let's go to the diner," I suggest.
Violet looks at me like I've lost my mind and maybe I have. Of all times I've moved with Dad, I've only felt "in love" with one person and that was Johnny Jack. When I finally kicked up the nerve to talk to him, he pushed me down in dirt and poured his pop on me. I didn't care who I talked to then.
"Are you out of your God-forbidden mind? Brendan is like a king, and like kings, only his nobles can speak to him."
"Well, like humans, we would like to be nobles," I say and head ourselves down towards the diner.
As we round the corner, we see the bright red diner, lined with neon lights. But as we get closer, we see the police cars surrounding the front entrance and police tape blocking off the sidewalk.
"What?" I ask, saying what we're both thinking.
Violet leads me to the diner still, through the crowd of people outside the building on the outside of the tape, and to the front. I touch the plastic tape as if it'll hurt me.
Violet spots someone moving around the building inside and her face lights up. "Dane! Dane!"
A man perks up and comes outside, his slick black hair gleaming. He's wearing a black police officer suit with a shiny badge on his chest. He smiles when he sees Violet. "Vi! What are you doing here?"
Violet hugs the man and points at the diner. "We were getting some pop. What happened?"
"Hard to say," the police officer says, looking at the building. "It was another murder."
Violet gasps softly. "Same person?"
The man nods. He looks at Violet's hair and then to me. "Hi, you one of Violet's little friends?"
I nod. "I'm Raven." I hold out my hand and he shakes it.
"That's a new one. You new to town?"
Violet nods. "Yep. Her daddy's Mr. Simon. I was taking her to the best joint to hang out at."
The man nods. "Nice. I'm Dane, Violet's older brother. Well, I gotta go." He looks toward the building at an old man in a police uniform scolding him. "Boss ain't too happy. I'll see y'all around."
Violet hugs him one last time and says, "Bye, Dane."
We venture through crowd and onto the blocked street. The pavement radiates heat and makes my ankles warm. The sun beams down at us, morning forgotten. Violet's mother may be up now.
"Is that the same one your mom was talking about?" I ask Violet.
She shakes her head. "No. Momma said that murder was in a barn down on Robby Shack's place. This is new. Just this morning."
I shrug and then see Brendan walking over behind Violet. I watch him as he spots the diner, a confused look spreading over his beautiful face and then his eyes finding the back of Violet's head. I gasp and Violet says, "What?" and turns around just as Brendan stands beside Violet.
"What happened here, you know?" He asks her, motioning toward the building. I get a whiff of his smell—a scent only described as manly.
Violet opens her mouth, now words coming out. She shakes her head and looks from him to me. I step in: "Hey, I'm Raven, I'm new," I say before Violet takes a deep breath.
Brendan smiles. "I'm Brendan. You know what happened at the diner?"
"A murder," I answer. "Same one that's been going on."
Brendan nods. "I was supposed to pick up pop for my team."
I nod. "Yeah, we were thinking of grabbing a couple of bottles and heading to the pond to go swimming. This heat is unbearable."
"Swimming?" Brendan asks. He lifts his eyebrows and nods. "Could me and a coupla friends come? You got a pond on your property?"
I nodded. "There's one in the woods behind Violet's place. You can come if you want."
Brendan notices Violet watching us talk. He smiles at her. "I know where your house is. Dane used to live with you, right? He used to tutor me at the diner and we always stopped by his place so he could grab his stuff. I could pick up pop from my house and bring it down."
I nod. "Okay. We'll head home, get dressed, and then wait for on Violet's porch."
Brendan nodded and starts walking away. "'Kay, see ya."
