when you met me

in-between

In-between

Mara was living in the middle. Between reality and her own brain. Somehow, she’d always been that way. She just had other things getting in the way of anything going too far. Dud often thought that she didn’t belong in the real world. As much as she could handle herself, and knew about how it was, she didn’t want to know about it.

And maybe her stubbornness would get her in trouble one day.

Mara smiled to herself as she thought of her parents, wondering how they could have adopted two kids and have them both run away. She rubbed her forefinger along the E string of her guitar as she got lost in a trance. The boys hadn’t shown up in a few days, they were running out of places to play. Mara’s fridge was officially empty.

Dud awaited evaluation, after almost a full year at the police academy. He wondered how Mara was. They still saw each other, but it was eggshells. They dared not touch the sore subjects in an effort to stay close to each other. Which made their visits short and fairly shallow. But he had to believe it would change.

After all, they were so close.

Dud had walked slowly home with Mara, as they’d already established the custom of sitting on the bridge after school. They were only ten, and Mara was as quiet as Dud had always been for once. “So, what are you doing today?” Dud had asked, to understand what she was thinking.

“I’m going to ignore Pedro until he questions his reality.” Mara said simply, smiling as she imagined driving her brother insane. “Why?” Dud asked, having no knowledge of what it was like to have a sibling, or a Mother, for that matter.

“Because Dud, you know what he said to me when I was, like, six? He said ‘Mum and Dad only adopted you because they were bored of me. So one day, they’ll get bored of you’.” She shook her head as she recalled what Dud had heard her speak of so many times.

“And last night he went off on me for talking about the x-men movies! Like, because I’m a girl, I don’t know what I’m talking about. He’s so stupid.” Mara was the same height as Dud then, of course, less than a year later he’d hit a growth spurt that would send him shooting up taller than his Dad.

Of course, as soon as Mara burst into her flat, ready to ignore her brother of thirteen years old, he was gone. Vanished. Usually it was her and him, alone in the flat. So he couldn’t ignore her ignoring him. Alas, he was nowhere to be found. And never would be again. From the amount of things he took from the fridge, it was obvious he wasn’t kidnapped.

From that day on, Mara rarely talked of her brother. She told Dud, after a month of trying to imply it, that he was no longer to mention him. And Dud agreed, respecting her stand as, even then, he loved her dearly. Even as he does now.

Usually, her friends would help her out in the dry spells. But, Dud had been picked up by a unit, and had been bus for weeks. Dax had been called to a family meeting, concerning the fact that his ‘mob boss’ Father had given him a year to pursue music before he could start taking over the family business. Cole had gone with him to get him out of it.

Beth was nowhere to be found. She had to be around, but Mara couldn’t find her, and still hadn’t a clue where she lived. Mara’s stomach growled and she got up off of her dirty floor to search through her sheets for just enough change. She had absolutely nothing.

Mara ran a hand through her hair and put on her nicest clothes to go to the shops. She walked down the street confidently, quietly, and browsed Tesco’s as a normal shopper. She resisted the urge to eat any unattended pastries, and instead, stuffed her jacket pockets (though it was summer) with anything small enough to bring with her. She put some in the rims of her jeans, and walked casually towards the front door.

Dud sat with his partner, filling out paperwork on an armed weapons charge they’d just brought in. He wasn’t part of a real team, but he hoped to be. One of those teams that went and saved people in hostage situations. But at least he was in a unit. Jim had made it to a tech team within Dud’s unit a few months after Dud arrived, and Jack was in a totally different unit.

“One with more dangerous guns.” Jim snorted as they walked into work one afternoon. They parted ways, Jim excited to show off a new program he was creating. “Hey, Dudley.” Sergeant Booth barked. She was the woman at the front desk, beautiful, though middle aged, and mean. “Yes?” Dud asked, coming up to the desk.

“Get your partner and pick up this girl at Tesco’s in Kensington for petty theft. Everyone else is busy.” She said no more, just went back to her computer to indicate that Dud should leave now. Dud said a quick, yes sergeant, and went to get changed.

He and his partner, an older man who was sufficiently lazy and where most American police stereo types came from, sat in the car and told Dud to pick up the girl as he seemed to be falling asleep in the front seat. Dud reminded himself that being the new guy was temporary and that soon he’d move up, and got out of the car, which was flashing blue and red all over the place.

Dud walked into the Tesco’s, where an annoyed security guard was holding a girl by the shoulder, as she’d obviously struggled enough to get herself under constant surveillance. Dud crinkled his nose at her bright red curls and stopped in front of her.

She looked up and Dud was at a loss for words. He wanted to breathe out, Mara? But he couldn’t. So he just looked down at her with a stern look, like a Father would give to a child he was scolding, and took hold of her shoulder. Her hands were in handcuffs already, hanging limply in front of her. “Thanks, mate.” He tried saying normally, “I’ll take her from here.”

The guard nodded and tipped his hat, getting back into his security chair. On the walk from the Tesco’s to the car, Dud couldn’t think of the words. And Mara was too ashamed to speak. He slipped her into the car neatly and got into the driver’s seat. His partner was barely awake, sipping a cup of coffee from Costa and listening to the radio.

Dud glanced back at Mara in the mirror and bit his lip. What was he going to do with her? She sat quietly in the back, thinking of her day, famished, and with her head against the window, her eyes distant.