Shoot Me Down

Part 20

I grin as Caleb’s face loses all color again. “I’m not crazy!” He shakes his head, stops his pacing. “You know what, its fine. The job is next week, and then I’m out of here. I’ll move somewhere else.”

            “You’re still doing the job?” Nakia says disbelievingly. “After all of this? After killing her drove you insane. You think you’re seeing a ghost, Caleb. You’re nuts. And frankly, I don’t feel at all bad for you. You deserve it…”

            Caleb is across the room before I have time to blink. Whatever Nakia had been about to say is cut off as he grabs her by the throat, slamming her backwards against the wall. The soda can crashes to the ground at her feet and rolls away. The plate shatters on the hardwood.  She lets out a strangled shriek as he growls in her face, “You are not on her side. You are on my side. We’re going to do the job like we planned it, and then we’re going to get out of here.”

            Nakia is gasping for air, frantically clawing at his arms. But Caleb is perfectly still, his arms shaking with the effort of pinning her to the wall. I run forward almost blindly in my panic, striking out at him, my hands swiping uselessly through his back. I can’t do anything to help her, I go right through him. He’s still yelling in her face, “Larry thinks you’re going to crack! He thinks you’re going to tell the police what happened, but not me. No! I defended you. I said you weren’t weak, you just needed some time. Tell me I’m right.”

            Nakia’s face is going red, her scream dies in her throat and her struggles become weaker. Caleb screams, “Tell me I’m right!”

            She nods, still gasping, and I jump forward when he releases her. She slumps, falling through my arms, crashing to the ground, knocking her head on the floor. She stays there, curling her knees up to her chest, whimpering. I crouch beside her, and this time my scream is filled with an animal rage. The living room lights flicker once, and Caleb backs away nervously, retreating to the kitchen. A lot of good I am.

 

I’m on my hands and knees beside her now, blinking back tears. What good am I? I can’t communicate with my own parents. I can’t even save my friend. All I can do is jump out and yell boo. But when that stops scaring people, what am I supposed to do?

            It’s three o’clock in the morning, and there’s a noisy poker game going on in the den. I don’t know how Nakia is sleeping right now. There’s too much noise. Throbbing base rap music, clinking beer bottles.  The boys laugh loudly and slam cards down on the table.

            I retreat to the corner to listen, staying clear of the clouds of smoke that wreath them. Larry is in fine form tonight. He laughs manically, raking in the chips, telling his friends they’re losers. They all lean back in their chairs like it’s nothing, but I see a muscle jump in Caleb’s jaw. He shakes his head and snags a cigarette from the pack that Derrek holds out, shoving it between his teeth, and inhaling the smoke deeply to mask the anger seething beneath the surface. Caleb doesn’t like to lose. Mentally I pit him against his friend. Who is the more psychotic one? Who would win if they decided to go at one another?

            “So.” Larry exhales in a long stream, and smoke trickles out from between his thin lips. “You went over to the house today, right?”

            Caleb flicks the ashes from his cigarette into his empty beer can. He shrugs. “Yup. They’re leaving for Toronto next weekend.”

            A slow, unpleasant grin spreads across Larry’s face. “For the entire weekend?”

            “As far as I know.”