Valarie
Chapter two
By: Amber Boles.
Tuesday, June 15, 1999 1:32 P.M.
Val sits in the front of the hot sweaty church. She decided not to say anything at the funeral. She barely knew them. Even though they were family.
The priest says some prayers. Family members tell stories. Others approach Val. Oh you poor girl. Orphaned. I'm sorry. The same shit. Different voices.
Uncle Tim is standing at the podium. Val's dad's brother. Uncle Tim says how great his brother was, how lucky His wife was, and how sorry he is for Val. He asks Val to say a few words about Timmy, he barely knew him. Val didn't know him any better.
Val clears her voice before speaking into the microphone. Nerves? "Um... Timmy was great." Lame. "He was my brother." Val's at a loss for words. "He reminded me of a squirrel. Energetic and swift." For the first time in a while, Val smiles. "He taught me how to play softball, and came to all my games." Val feels like crying. But she doesn't. "And when I was diagnosed with depression last year, he tried his hardest to make me smile. No one, but him, could make me smile." Val sits back down.
3:23 P.M.
Val stands in front of her house. Not hers anymore. The states. Crime tape still decorates the house. Why, she asks. Why would someone kill her brother? The breeze picks up, and Val's lifeless blonde locks sting her cheeks. She needs to leave.
3:29 P.M.
Val sits in her temporary room. In less than two weeks, she turns eighteen. Freedom. She thinks about what she saw before she returned home the day her parents and brother was slaughtered.
Behind her eyes, she saw blood stains on white carpet. Razorblades and screaming. She did not cry on the bus. She waited to get home before she called the cops. They were already dead, but they still sent an ambulance. She was whisked away in a cop car, and answered tons of questions.
Val's scared. What if she is next?
Wednesday, June 16, 1999 3:01 A.M.
Val can't sleep. She stares at the ceiling she can't see in the dark, and thinks. What if she is next?
8:34 A.M.
Uncle Tim and Aunt Sandra gave Val a place to stay. Val wakes up in a strange room. Not hers. Foreign. Empty.
Uncle Tim calls Val downstairs for breakfast. Val says she's not hungry, and asks to be excused. She need to go to the grocery store.
Uncle Tim hands her keys to a car. Not his. A new car.
"Whose car is it?" The key is strange. There were two cars. Neither Key looks like this one.
Uncle Tim chuckles and pats her shoulder. Val looks up confused. "It's yours. You can't take the bus anymore."
Val still looks at him confused. She doesn't move. She can't take it in all at once. She shows no expression.
"Go on. It's yours." Val twitches. She understands now. They bought her a car.
She almost smiles. Her lips part. "Thank you." She runs outside to see it. She hasn't been excided in a long time. But where is the car? Is this a sick joke.
In the drive way there are two cars, and a motorcycle to the side. They expect her to drive a motorcycle. Val doesn't want to look ungrateful, so she doesn't complain. When she was sixteen, she took the test and passed to drive a motorcycle. She never expected to drive one. Just in case.
She tried to remember how get going. She held the rear break clutch, and made sure the motorcycle was in neutral...
8:38 A.M.
Val drove the motorcycle with ease. She was a natural. No mistakes. No room for them. She wasn't going to be the next dead one.
She parks in the Wal-mart parking not. Wonders what to do with the helmet. She Takes it with her. Just in case.
She starts in the beauty isle. Shampoo and Conditioner. Ice shine. She picks up deodorant. Coco butter teen spirit. And a razor.
She gets sweet ham from the deli. American cheese. Sour dough bread. Oreos. Goldfish. Boo berry cereal.
9:11 A.M.
Uncle Tim waits for an answer.
"It's great," Valarie says. It's the truth. Wonders what to do when it rains. Wonders how safe it would be at night.
Uncle Tim grins. "I knew you would." He gives Valarie a tight squeeze. Meant to be a hug. Too tight.
Valarie puts her things away and rides the motorcycle to the 7-11 for gas. Hoping not to see Jet.
9:16 A.M.
Val walks into the gas station and puts twenty dollars towards gas. fifteen and a half gallons. No jet. Val is thankful.
Thursday, June 17, 1999 11:11 A.M
Val makes a wish. Wishes to live forever. Wishes, wishes, wishes.
Val walks to the cemetery where her parents and brother were buried in the family plot. Just enough room for Val. Val cringes.
She places the squirrel at the head of Timmy's plot, and the Orchid by her mother's headstone. Feeling bad she never got her father anything.
11:28 A.M.
Val returns to the plot with her fathers birthday present. In two weeks would have marked his thirty sixth birthday. A glob with a tee and a golf ball. A game. Get the ball to balance on the tee. Not very easy. She places it by the headstone. Someone will take it. Val is sure of it.
The soft unpacked dirt above their g raves gives Val chills. Val has to go.
Friday, June 18, 1999 2:56 P.M.
Val applied for a job. At red lobster. Val is a vegetarian. But she needs money.
Saturday June 19, 1999 8:33 P.M.
Red lobster calls at Uncle Tim's house. Val got the job. She starts Monday.
