The Alyn Hendrix Trilogy:
The Unknown Darkness
By: Henry Nash
I knew the first day I saw her, my life was going to change. Her dark short hair, her soft face, the strange gleam in her eye, all should have been indications to me that she was a different kind of girl. I couldn’t explain why (I still can’t) how I was attracted to the girl, but I was. How was I to know that she had a psycho brother who would try and kill me?
I guess where we should begin is the first day I met the girl, since it was then this whole thing began. I was in collage, and I was the talk of the campus, I had just gotten into a boxing match with the largest (which his mass was 100.5% muscle, according to his friends) man in the collages history, Bernard Guthrie (a.k.a The Nard) and I took him out with a single blow to the lower jaw. Turns out The Nard had a little gap between his upper and lower jaw (from all the muscle he had I guess) and I had just made that gap a hole in the side of his mouth. Everywhere I went I heard whispers saying That’s Alyn Hendrix, the guy who took down The Nard. I will admit that my first name Alyn (which is pronounced like Allen) is different then most names, but if you knew my family you’d understand.
Now as I walk through the center of what I like to call The Realm (the place I call home, which was the oldest part of the collage) I find a girl playing the harmonica (which wasn’t weird in The Realm) but she somehow caught my eye, maybe it was because she was playing a tune I had heard before but forgot the name of on the harmonica, or maybe because I had never seen her before (Now this is girl is the one I talked about earlier.) It was the middle of winter and she was wearing a tank top and shorts, so I walked over to her, sat done next to her, took off my jacket, and placed it on her shoulders. She didn’t seem to notice what I had done, she just kept on playing, until the song was done. I did something really dumb when she finished (well it just seemed dumb at the time) I gave her a standing ovation.
She tried to hide her face but it didn’t work, I saw her face turn red. I tried not to chuckle but it just slipped out. At that the girl looked at me and said, "What are you looking at?” I sat down next to her again and said, “I’m looking at a very pretty girl who just played one of my favorite songs on the harmonica.” She blushed again, “You know that song? “ I nodded, “and you played it very well.” She laughed, “I wouldn’t have thought that by the standing ovation you gave me when I finished.” I couldn’t tell if she was joking with me or was annoyed by what I had done, so I looked down at the ground. She slapped my shoulder, “I was joking around.” That made me look up and was faced with a hand. I grabbed it and shook it. As I laughed I said, "Hi my names Alyn Hendrix, what’s your name?” she smiled and as she giggled she said, "My name’s Vang Darkie McEwan.”
I looked at her with a puzzled look. She laughed very hard when I looked at her with this look, “Yes that’s my real name, except for the Darkie part, that’s a nickname that my family calls me and I just started to use it as my middle name.” I nodded. There was a long pause and then to break the silence (and to hear her Vang's voice again) I said, "So, are you busy tonight?” Vang shook her head, "nope, I’m free, what did you have in mind?” I was quite for a moment then said, “I just wanted to hang out with you, get to know you better, you seem like a very interesting girl.” Vang smiled, "I would be honored to hang out with you, Alyn, you seem like a very interesting guy.”
I smiled, “so what do we now?” Vang asked, I looked around The Realm and said, “Well, I guess we could meet back up here at 6, does that sound alright?" Vang sighed, “I guess its fine.” We both stood up and as I turned to walk away, Vang yelled my name. I turned to see what she wanted, as soon as I was facing her she hugged me. Being the good guy I am, I returned the hug. As we stood in the embrace, I heard Vang say, “Thank you Alyn. “ I smiled and said, "Your welcome, Vang.” She let me go and I walked off, not even caring if she had my jacket, and by the lack of Vang yelling, I don’t think she cared either.
