Strange Beginnings// j.p.

Chapter 1- Everything Changes

   It began like any other day in the small town of Englewood, Florida in the middle of August. It was hot, humid, and generally boring. I was working my shift at the Good Times Diner in downtown Englewood when I received the call. My manager had stopped me as I was carrying a tray of dirty plates back to the kitchen to be cleaned. 

    "There's a phone call for you in the office." She told me, taking the tray from my hands. "Thanks, Linda." I smiled and wiped my hands on the apron tied around my waist, making my way to the office. 

I sat in the desk chair and picked up the receiver, which dangled over the edge of the desk. "Hello?" I chimed into the phone and was startled by Abe's frantic voice in my ear. "Alessandra, mój mala myśliwiec, is that you?" His voice was shaky and panicked, his tongue tripping over the words of my childhood nickname. My little fighter, he called me in his native language, but it had been some time since I'd heard him use it. "Yeah Abe, it's me. What's wrong?" I asked, trying to soothe him. I knew that he was always paranoid about hollowgasts finding us, but I'd killed all the ones in the area a few years back. "You didn't answer the phone, and I can't reach Yakob. Why?" 

His accent was starting to creep back into his voice, something he couldn't control when he was feeling his strongest emotions. I held back my sigh and began to explain calmly. "Abe, Jacob is at work right now, so am I. That's why we couldn't answer the phone. Now, what's wrong?" "I need my key, Aleksandra, where is my key?" I knew he was getting freaked, using the Polish variant of my Italian name. "What key?" I asked, knowing full well what key he meant. "Don't play stupid with me Aleksandra, you know which key. My goddamned son put you up to this, didn't he? He's turned you and Yakob against me!" 

"No, he hasn't Abe. Did you take your pills after I left this morning? You know Franklin won't be happy if you didn't." 

"To hell with the pills! They've come after me, after all these years they've come after me! And what am I expected to do, fight them off with a damned butter knife?!?" His voice had risen in urgency, and I could hear the sounds of the house being upturned, a mess I'd have to clean when I got home. "Abe, listen to me. No one is coming for you, there are no hollowgasts left in Sarasota County, we killed them all. Now, I'll be off of work in a couple of hours. I'll bring Jacob over, cook dinner, and the three of us can watch a movie together. That sounds nice, doesn't it?" I tried placating him, but it didn't work. 

"No! Don't bring Yakob here, whatever you do! It's not safe, he could be harmed!" "He'll be fine, there's nothing there to harm him, or you." I tried to keep my voice down so no one in the restaurant up front could hear me. "No, no, no, there is! One came here, he found me, I don't know how, but he did! You keep Yakob away from here, I'll be fine, I can still fight. Cut out their tongues and stab their eyes, that's all it takes, I taught you that. If I could just find that goddamned KEY!" The key he kept talking about opened a huge locker in the garage, stock-piled full of knives and guns that Abe had collected over the years. As he grew older, and his mind admittedly began to deteriorate a bit, his son Franklin, Jacob's father, declared it wasn't safe for him to have all those guns in the house and threatened to take the key. I took the key and hid it in my room before he could, knowing I'd still need it one day. The key was in the pocket of my jeans right now, which were sitting in the employee locker room. "Fine, let Franklin have the key if he wants it. He can have my dead body too!" With that, he slammed the receiver down, and the call ended abruptly.

    I quickly called the Smart Aid where Jacob worked and asked to speak with him. I waited for about five minutes before I heard Jacob's voice through the phone. "Hello?" He asked, and I sighed in relief. "Jacob, thank God you could get the phone. I'm coming to pick you up, we need to go check on your grandpa." "Why? What's wrong?" I could hear the concern in his voice, and it was all I could do not to smile at the love he held for his grandfather. "Abe just called me, he's freaking out, thinking someone's there to kill him." I was greeted with a heavy sigh. "Alright, I'll tell Shelley I'm leaving. How soon can you be here?" "Give me fifteen minutes," I said, already moving to get up. "Alright babe, I'll see you then. I love you." He said, and I couldn't stop the giddy grin that came to my face. "I love you too." I hung up and rushed to go change out of my uniform.