Grave Rock: Cemetery Stones

Renee Pullman

I hadn't thought of Renee since that dream. When I moved back into town I had tried my best to avoid people from my high school. Most people leave for the big city and don't come back. Benji came back for personal reasons. I think once his brother died he wanted to be closer to his family.

There was a bit of shame in my gut moving back home. Renee was one of those people who always made a big show out of everything. Nothing against that but she would make the smallest event into a huge festival. It often felt like she did it for the attention. I remember thinking of her as I cleaned up my front yard.

A piece of me was hurt for her dating than marrying the guy who ruthlessly tortured me in high school. She drifted from the group senior year and didn't really talk to any of us once she left for college. I remember hearing about her and Garret Pullman at a party. They had just gotten engaged and I remember the foamy puke as I drunkenly tried to forget them.

It had been about a week since the dream and I was pulling up some weeds. My dad worked all his life and his hands were finally starting to rust. The arthritis made it hard for him to do the tedious yard work so I didn't mind helping. A neighbor came to the fence and called me over.

Mrs.Evelyn was a sweet old woman who used to teach third grade. With her big sun hat she seemed to be in an uneasy mood. She asked if I had heard the news. I remember letting the dead weeds drop to the ground and the loud buzzing in my ears. I thought I had misheard her.

Renee was found mutilated near the dog park. They believe the dogs or maybe a coyote got her. The loud ringing made it unclear but it sounded like she said her dog was found covered in blood. I can still feel the bizarre itch as the old woman said they couldn't find her hands. It seemed like a bad dream. The heat of the high sun made it clear it was all too real.

That night me and the gang gathered at the food court. Since Tye owned a shop in the mall, they often let us hang out well past closing. The smell of burnt pizza and stale french fries always hung thick in the air. I unfortunately got even more details of the gruesome death, as if hearing about her dog and missing hands weren't enough. Missy was really upset but wanted to hear all Benji and Eden had learned.

Thanks to a friend on the police force, they learned she had gone missing the night before. Her husband said she had taken the dog for a walk around ten but never returned. Benji heard they had been fighting. His cousin lives on their street and told him the two always fought.

It felt so surreal. I wanted to tell them about my dream but I knew it would do no good. Zoe was too busy with work to be with us but Eden said she wasn't taking it well. We were told she spent the entire day crying alone in their room. Tye had ordered a large thing of cheese fries and lamented that Renee used to love them. We all ate them in a somber silence in memory of her.

Seeing everyone again felt good and uncomfortable. It was as if we shouldn't have come back together. The eerie feeling and tension of unseen eyes watching made me feel uneasy. We sat alone in the empty food court but I still felt a million glares staring deep.

I know we had drifted apart at the end of high school but my memory has faded. Even now I am unsure of the moments that really happened and the ones that played out differently than I remember. As I got older bits and details blurred or fell away leaving only bare bones of the past. Sometimes there is only dust. 

This profound, heavy feeling of dread wrapped itself around my shoulders. I tried to ignore it but the dreams only illuminated things I had long forgotten. Did we drift apart to keep the wicked chain of events from unfolding or would we always come back together at some point in time to knock over the dominoes ready to fall?