A Hole of Lies

Chapter 27

Nancy stares at me with hatred in her eyes. But to my surprise, she whispers, "I'm sorry. I should not have left you in that tree. I knew city girls wouldn't be able to get down a tree like that, but I was mad."

And, just by the look on her face, I know she still is mad.

I try to whisper, "it's okay." back, but my words leave me. My tongue feels like it's cut off.

"Are you OK?" Nancy asks in disgust.

Again, I try to whisper something, but I can't. I feel my words in me, but its almost like they're afraid to come out, afraid of what they might do.

"Um..... Can you say something?" Nancy asks giving me weird side-glances.

I open my mouth. She looks at me suspiciously, expected words.

"Um, Mom? Marty? I think somethings wrong!" She yells, eyes fixed on me but turned to the door.

Marty and Mom come running in.

"What happened?" Marty asks.

"I.... I don't think..... I...." Nancy mumbles, eyes still fixed on me. They all look at me.

"She can't speak." Nancy blurted.

 "What?" Mom and Marty asked at the same time.

"Look." Nancy says.

I groan to show them.

"Oh my God. Did she fall from the tree?"

"That's how I found her." Mom answers.

"On her head?" Marty asks slowly and quietly, almost afraid.

"I found her on her back, but her head was bleeding a bit."

Marty closes his eyes. Then he leans down close to me and says," Say something. Please, just say something. Anything. Please. One word. Just one. " He's crying. "Please." He whimpers.

"You" I finally found a word. One word. But I want to say more. I'm not finished. But even this word was a slur.

"Yes?" Marty cries.

"Love." I try. It's supposed to be, "love." but it comes out differently.

Marty looks pleading.

"Me." I finish, trying to make it a question but failing.

"Oh, Julie. Of Course! Of course I do! I love you more than anything, Julie! You're my everything." Marty sighs with relief. Mom is thanking God. Happy tears run down her cheeks. But Nancy, Nancy is just sitting. Just sitting there, not doing anything.

"I.... want.... home..." I slur.

"Home? This is home, honey."

"NO..... what.... happened?"

"We think you fell. From a tree. You can talk! It's amazing! Nancy, don't you ever scare us like that again!" Mom scolds. But Nancy was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm .......hungry."

"Hungry? Okay, here." Marty leaves the room only to come back with a plate.

I stuff down the pancakes Marty brought. I already feel better. My words are coming back.

"Are you thirsty?" Mom asks.

I manage a weak nod. Mom comes back with a glass of water, which I chug down.

My throat isn't as dry and  my head isn't throbbing so much anymore, but it still hurts a lot.

"Marty?" I ask in a worn out voice.

"Yes, Jules?" He answers tiredly.

"What happened to Paul?" I've been holding that question in ever since we left. We never said goodbye to him. We just... left.

"Paul? Oh, well, Paul, you see, he um, he took off, too. I guess." Marty stumbles, trying not to let out too much.

"What do you mean??" I asked with a gasp.

"Oh, um. He moved, like us. He wanted to forget everything that happened."

"Forget about me, too." I mumble so no one can hear.

Another major question pops into mind. "Did you tell him?"

"Tell who what?" Marty asks.

"Did you tell Paul about.. about mom?" I'm almost afraid to ask, wishing I didn't have words again at this moment. But I have to.

"I- I'm  sorry. I didn't want to ruin my friendship with him." Marty says with a  bowed head.

I feel.... strangely relaxed. I'm almost....... happy. I don't know why, but knowing that my long lost father is out of my life, it settles me. And since Marty didn't tell Paul about Mom, Paul won't come here looking for her. But I still have to fight back.

"Marty, I think you've already ruined your relationship with Paul. I'm sorry, but you will probably never get in touch with him, he probably hates us, especially me, and we didn't even say goodbye to him!" I spit out the last part.

"You know what? You're right. The way Paul has been acting to me and especially you, I feel that he doesn't deserve us as friends! We have our own friends right here." Marty announces and side-hugs Mom.

But I still feel unsettled, even knowing that I'll never have to see Paul again. Another question starts to form on my tongue. "I have one last question." Well, that isn't true because I have millions of questions now, but those don't need to be asked.

"Shoot." Marty says, smiling.

"Okay." I say in a shaky voice. "Why did we move here?"

Marty's smile disappears. He doesn't want to explain.

"Please tell me." I push him.

"Alright, alright. I know, this place is a dump. And you probably hate it here. But, I only came here because, I heard... Jennifer lives here."

My jaw drops. My eyes grow wide. "Here? You said she lived in China!" I exclaimed. The memory of that conversation comes flooding back.

Since your mom died when you were three, you were so young, so Jennifer and I took you in. But it was too much for us so you went back to your dad. She left three years later, when you were six. SO you started school. I got the paper to fill in for your school, Well, Paul got it.. but... you know, how he was.. I couldn't put Paul. I couldn't put your mom, so I put me, and I didn't want to leave the mom part blank...because I didn't want everyone asking and I didn't want to have to explain everything... So the only solution was to write her name.......

"Yes, I know. She lived in China for a while, then met someone else, declared a divorce, and now I think she moved here. Elise, do you know? You were good friends with Jennifer."

Mom takes a deep breathe. "She lives here." She whispered.

Now it was Marty's turn to suck in his breathe. "She does?" Marty asked, obviously happy.

"Yes, but don't go visit her. She's busy, with her boyfriend, and...." Elise trails off, listening to what she just said. The word,"boyfriend" hangs in the air. I just realized this, but Marty and Paul do have some things in common. They both like to lie, and they both had wives who left them. But the good thing about Marty is that he stayed put, unlike Paul  who ruined my life forever. Or I guess that was Marty. One more thing in common: they both ruined my life.