The Post Sunday Experiment | COMPLETED 2020

Chapter 2

Bang! Ody slammed the door of his small bedroom. The sound was so deafening that it shook the entire apartment building. Throwing his bag across the floor, the components of his backpack dumped out all over. The peeling paint and cobweb-covered corners scrutinized him rummaging through his drawers and bags searching for it.

Dumping the clothes out of his dresser and throwing whatever he could find about the room, he hunted for the one thing he had left. All the time, he begged himself not to cry. Devlin wouldn't cry so he mustn't and never could. After all, his mom was lying. She had to be. Devlin couldn't be dead. He simply couldn't. He was only thirty-three! Right?

Crumpling on his bed, he swallowed the lump in his throat. This was all Mae's fault. Devlin would still be alive if she hadn't taken them away. He thought as his heart began to feel heavy and he clenched his fists.

Picking up the picture frame he'd saved for the two years despite how much he wished to get rid of it, he sat back on his laundry-covered bed. Ody looked down at the picture in its frame which he held in his hand. Devlin's eyes had shone as he hugged Mae while Ody and Penny laughed—they'd no idea back then they were going to lose it all in less than a year.

Tap, tap, tap Mae knocked on the door. "Ody, can you come out? Please?" she begged.

While she waited for a response, Ody ground his teeth together rather than responding as his fury for her kindled into a fire of rage. He heard her sigh on the other side of the wood and opened his mouth shakily to speak. His words came out muffled as he choked in his attempt not to cry.

"You- you said we would vi- visit, Mae," his voice broke.

There was a silence on the outside of the door as Mae listened. There is no sound more pitiful to human ears than the crack in one's voice as they hold back tears.

"Ody... you know I did my best-"

"No! That's just it! Your best was never enough yet you still made promises you couldn't keep! You just lied to me so that one of your kids would want to leave home and live with you in this place! You lied so you wouldn't be alone because you knew you wouldn't find anyone here because you can't even make your own family stay with you!" he shouted. He threw the family picture across the room where it shattered on the wall and the glass fell to the floor in a mess of shards.

"Ody Joseph Winter!" was all his mother could gasp before he could hear her voice crack as well. "Listen up, son," she spat. "Eric has promised us money-"

"Is that all this is to you? Money?"

"Ody Winter! Let me finish!" Mae shouted with such force in her shaking voice that even he quieted. "Listen Ody, Devlin's company is giving us enough money to live off of for three months. I am going to invest most of it because we need it, but if you want, there is still time to go to his funeral on Friday and say one last goodbye. I know it is sudden, but would you like to go?"

There was a pause as Ody looked about his room, his eyes burning and heart racing with anger despite the fact that he could hear Mae crying on the other side of the wood. "Yeah." It was all Ody's lips could form.

"Okay. You will have to leave on a public transit bus by at least tomorrow afternoon to make it. Is that alright? All of your school teachers will understand."

"Okay." There was another pause where neither would dare to speak.

"Ody, I love you and am sorry," she spoke softly from behind the door but Ody did not reply.

After pushing everything off his bed and throwing a few outfits into a suitcase, Ody leaned back onto his bed. His eyes gazed vacantly out the open window and over the lights of the city that never sleeps.

Car horns blared and the hum of construction buzzed in the distance. Ody could see the people walking on the street floors below, going about their usual lives as if nothing had ever happened.

Not even bothering to clean his room, take a shower, or eat dinner, Ody climbed under his bed sheets and closed his eyes. As he prayed to wake up from this nightmare, he drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.

***

"Ody you cannot get on that bus unless you eat something! I will not let you! Look how pale you are! Come on, there is a coffee shop just over there. Let me buy you something!" Mae petitioned as she carried Ody's pillow under one arm and held his backpack on her back.

"I'm not hungry. Don't worry about me just go."

Sighing in disappointment, Mae handed him the stuff she held. "Now you will put this in the overhead compartment-"

"Bus 14 to Cazenovia, now boarding," a voice over the speakers called.

"That's me, Mae. I've got to go," he spoke, not even bothering to smile at her as he took the bag and pillow from her and turned to board the bus.

"I love you!" she shouted after the boy. He didn't turn to look at her, only walked up the stairs to the bus.

The public bus was crowded for a Friday morning, but he kept his head down and popped in his earbuds, volume 6, and walked to aisle seven. He stuffed his backpack in the overhead compartment and slid to the seat nearest the window.

As he placed the pillow in his lap and slouched over and looked out the window, an old man came and sat next to him.

"I saw what ya did to your mama back 'ere," the old man spoke, not bothering to introduce himself first as he got settled in and pulled out a notebook and pen.

Ody only looked up at the man and then back out the window, not bothering to respond.

"Why didn't ya tell her ya loved her back, huh?" the man spoke, sticking his nose where it didn't belong.

"It's a long story," Ody nearly spat at the man in frustration.

"Well, ya have the time and by the looks of it, ya don't have anything better tah do so, do tell," the man smiled, getting settled into his chair as if Ody would spill his life story to this stranger.

Aggravated by the man, Ody pulled a earbud out and looked over at the man, rage and disgust pouring from his eyes. "Listen, sir," he actually spat this time. "It's none of your business and if you'd excuse me, I'd like to get some peace."

The old man's eyes grew wide at the boy's disrespect. His nose scrunched as he scoffed, picking up a newspaper from the pocket in front of him and muttering, "Kids 'ese days."

Popping the earbud back in and turning the volume up to a solid 8, Ody leaned toward the glass and looked out over the New York streets filled with hundreds of thousands of people. They seemed to be nothing more than rats stuck in a cage to Ody's eyes.