I Only Know Hatred

Chapter 8

I parked right outside Marissa's house. She lived on a two storey wooden model from the 40's. It was small and its roof needed repair. There was a corpulent old man in a robe sitting in a plastic chair with a cooler besides him on the middle of the yellowed front yard. There was a number of identical little houses lined up on the same street sporting various shades of unappealing and faded colors. Run down seemed to be the theme here.

Maplegrove, or just The Groves, was an working-class neighborhood, one of the oldest communities in Hellwater, initially built to house the miners and their families. It was an impoverished and forlorn area, and it was the birthplace of The Sixxers. The biker gang ruled it's streets and was in it's shadowy alleys and despondent buildings where they made most of their illicit business.

Hellwater is and ever was an incongruent place and The Groves was just a prime example of how an overlooked community could slump itself into a sad state of economical strain and spiritual woefulness. But there was no anarchy here. The Sixxers at the same time that terrorized the residents, they also manteined some degree of order and provided a minimal influx of currency that kept them going. I heard Dad rant about it more than one time, and yes, standing here and taking a good look at the place, I found the whole predicament incredibly inept and gutless and yet it wasn't anything new and there wasn't anyone doing nothing to change it.

Here I was in this strange an unfamiliar part of my town. Thinking of it, Hellwater was such a small town and still I was pretty ignorant about most of it. Even with the faint promise of a novel adventure no less than at odds with the suburban bubble I live in and that I rebeled so much against, The Groves wasn't a neighborhood I'd usually go. Not to mention the fact that a number of my current friends did reside here, I still didn't have any will to explore this crestfallen pithole. It was just too depressing.

- That's it. - I said in hopes she would take a hint and just jump out of the car. I was impatient, not on account of the place, but reason being I kinda had enough of her for the day.

Marissa unclipped her belt and throw herself on me giving me a sloppy kiss.

- Alright, you silly girl. You can't get enough of me huh? - I said with humour, trying not to sound too testy. Somehow with Marissa I tended to be a tiny bit less rude and grumpy than usual.

The bovine man who was chilling and drinking what appeared to be gin and coke abruptly stood up from his plastic retractable chair and crossed that unkept yard yelling:

- Marissa! Stop that indecency right now! My neighbors will think I'm raising a floozy!

- Well... that's my Pops. - She said in a weird and unseemly musical tone. Out of the sudden somehow she looked smaller on her seat.

-I'm sorry. He's just a little grumpy but he's not terrible, I promisse. - She apologized over the slow and frowzy old man approaching us. She avoided my eyes. She seemed ashamed.

- Hear me out young man, if you don't leave my granddaughter alone and get the hell out of my property I'll shoot your face off. I'm warning you. I have a gun. - Her grandfather threatened, in the least dignified way possible. The neighbors were starting to show up to see what the commotion was about.

I lowered the window and yelled back to the man:

- Just calm down big fella. My name is Liam Godfrey. Happy to meet ya. Your lovely grandaughter is in one piece as you can see. Just here to drop her. - I said with my best congenial smile.