Chapter 6
At school, Daniel noticed how everyone spoke in hushed whispers as he walked by, and the laughter that was so commonplace seemed to die down when he neared. What bugged him the most was that no one admitted they were acting strangely, illogically thinking that by not doing or saying anything out of place, they would give the impression of normality. The entire world was watching him, yet it didn’t want to admit it.
As hard as he tried to concentrate on his schoolwork, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. His racing thoughts treated his brain like road kill; what was the purpose of the letter? Where is my mom? Will I ever see her again? Of course not… not alive, anyways. Why was my father murdered? By who?
“Daniel, do you need to sit out for a little bit?” Said Mr. Hardman, who doubled as a P.E. coach on B days, “You seem a little out of it.”
“Oh, yeah. Sure.” Daniel said, passing the basketball to Steve and jogging off the court. He took a seat on the bench and used the hem of his shirt to soak up the droplets of sweat that accumulated on his forehead. Samantha Felix came and sat by him on the bench, wearing a pair of white basketball shorts and her favorite jacket. Samantha was not only the one girl good enough to make the advanced P.E. class, but she constantly out-sported the sportiest of the sports; proving to everyone that she was not one to be messed with. Some guys have been somewhat jealous of her belittling skill, and looked upon her with eyes of contempt, but to everyone else, it was just a bonus to her bewitching good looks.
“Tough day, no?” She said, addressing Daniel.
“It’s been a little weird,” Daniel admitted
“I’m really sorry for your loss, everyone knows.” She said, placing a tender hand on his shoulder.
Daniel tried a smile, “I kinda guessed the word had gotten out; everyone was acting really weird today, but you’re the first to confront me about it.”
“I know it’s not the same, but when my parents went through their divorce, I just wanted people to talk to me about it, and feel sorry with me. They all pretended like nothing was going on, and it was tearing me up inside. I have no idea what you’re feeling, but it must be terrible, and, well, I want you to know that I feel sorry with you.” She said, moving her hand from his shoulder to just above his knee. Daniel was stunned; he never knew about this caring side of Samantha. Sure, he had a crush on her, but being the shallow boy he was, it was more of an infatuation caused by her striking good looks and athleticism.
“Wow…thanks.” A flustered Daniel managed to muster. If he could have slapped himself for giving such an un-smooth reply, he would have.
“I think your taking this really well, and I admire your courage.”
Courage? What courage?
The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Samantha perked up, “Well, I guess I’ll get going. Seeya around, Daniel.”
A Genuine smile crept up on Daniels face, “Yeah, seeya around.”
As Daniel stood up, Steve shot his last hoop and ran over to him, “Dude, Samantha Felix. What was that all about?” He practically grinned his face off, “Are you two an item or something?”
“Phff, I wish” Daniel said. “She was just feeling sorry for me.”
“Interesting, you’ll have to tell me about it later. Look, there’s something urgent I need to talk to you about. Skip the bus, let’s walk home.”
“Ok, but we might have to run so I can make it back in time for my violin lesson.” Daniel said, referring to his 4:00 class. While Daniel and Steve didn’t live on the same street, they lived close enough to each other they still referred to themselves as neighbors.
“We’ll see.” Steve said, a shadow of seriousness veiling his face
Daniel was slightly shaken by Steve’s sudden solemnness. Steve was the kind of person that could be entertained with small piece of string, and won class clown his freshman, sophomore, and junior years. Daniel doubted whether Steve would be this solemn if the president was decapitated.
“Oh…okay.” Daniel said.
They took the outside door to the gym and started walking down the sidewalk. Many of the kids at Mayfield High walked home, so there was a decent amount of kids going in the same direction as them. Slowly, the students started dwindling as they took different paths to make their way home, and after about five minutes, the two walked alone, surrounded by large alfalfa fields bordered by neglected barbed wire fence and covered by a layer of crusty February snow.
“Okay, I think we’re clear to talk.” Steve said, glancing around the surroundings, “As insane as this must sound, I thought I would give you a heads up. I was at the Greasy Monkey yesterday when I overheard these guys talking. I’m pretty sure they admitted to murdering your dad and kidnaping your mom, and I think we might be in a lot of danger."
"And you didn't tell the police? what were you thinking?!" Daniel hissed.
"You know how long it takes me to process things," Steve said, "I didn't think anything of the conversation untill they were already gone, and I was too concentrated on my Seasame Chicken that I didn't get a good look at them. I would have looked like a nutcase if I went to the police."
"Fine," Daniel said. He had no idea why everyone loved that Seasame Chicken so much. "Why would we be in danger?"
Seemingly out of nowhere, a white Cadillac with orange tinted windows pulled up to the side of the boys, and two thug-like men wearing black pinstriped pants and bright orange suit jackets came out and roughly shoved the boys inside the car. Daniel kicked at the air and tried to wiggle free, but to no avail; the men had iron grips. Daniel felt a folded rag on his nose and mouth and quickly distiguished a sickly sweet smell radiating from the rag, like rotting fruit. Then everything went black.
