Shallow Creek

“Kim, you don’t have to share all this personal stuff if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s fine.”  The breeze caught some of her hair and dragged it across her face.  She automatically tucked the wayward strands back behind her ears.  “If you can do something to fix all of this, I want to help.”

“You’ve already been a big help.”

“Have you spoken to Casey again about all of this?”

“No.”

“You guys seem to be working on the same thing.  She thinks her sister was killed by one of the gang dealing the meth.”

“Did she tell you that?”

“Yeah,” Kim said.  “You should talk to her.”

Brendan mulled that over.  “What do you really know about her?”

Kim shrugged.  “Not much really.  I met her almost a month ago.  We hung out a few times.  She didn’t really know anyone around town and she’s really nice, so I didn’t mind hanging out.”  When Brendan didn’t ask a follow-up, Kim smiled and punched him in the arm.  “Why are you asking?  Do you like her?”

“No, nothing like that,” Brendan said, not wanting to admit to Kim that he plain didn’t trust Casey.

“You can tell me if you do.”

“I don’t.”

She nodded and they both nibbled at their food, soaking in the sights peacefully, or so Brendan thought.  Kim put her half-eaten sandwich down, but kept looking away as she talked.

“Michelle and I haven’t spoken much since her drug problems back in the day.”

“Kim, really, you don’t have to—”

“But I want to,” she said forcefully, now staring him right in the face.  “I want to tell you, because I want to get to know you.  I want to ask you questions and have you feel comfortable enough with me to answer them.  You seem like a really good guy, and I know Michelle has always thought the world of you.”

He and Michelle’s deviant relationship was one topic that Brendan didn’t think he’d ever be comfortable sharing with Kim.  He didn’t have much time to consider the various consequences involved before Kim launched into the whole story.

“Michelle was driving me to a bar.  I wasn’t old enough, but she told me she knew the bouncer and it wouldn’t be a problem.  I was eighteen, still in school.  Impressionable.  Stupid.  The usual bad teenage combination.  My night out with my older sister was going great until she pulled into this dingy trailer park that doesn’t even exist anymore.  It was called Pine Oaks, or something stupid like that. Back then there were rumors around high school that the Torres Cartel operated out of that neighborhood.  I was freaked out, so I asked her what she was doing, but she told me not to worry about it; she was just going to score us some coke so we could have more fun.”

Brendan put a hand on her knee when tears formed in her eyes.  She shifted around to sit right next to him, so he instinctively put an arm around her and drew her close.  Kim rested her head on his shoulder as she fought off the strong emotions trying to escape.

“She parked her car in between two houses, in the shadows, so that no one would see us, she said.  Her dealer and his buddy grabbed her and dragged her towards their house.  She screamed and I jumped out of the car screaming, too, but no one paid any attention.  In that kind of neighborhood, this crap happens a lot, I guess.  One of the guys grabbed me, too, and bent me over my sister’s car.”

Kim paused and stroked away a few renegade tears.

“He started pulling on my pants, pulled them so hard that the button on the fly popped right off.  His hand was everywhere, and I hated it so fucking much, but I just couldn’t get free.  I could feel him pressing against me, but I couldn’t think of how to get away.  When he fumbled with my zipper, I heard a thump and felt the bastard fall away.”

She pulled back from Brendan and looked at him.

“It was Grant.  Grant was standing over the man, holding a bloodied baseball bat.  He roared like an animal and pummeled the guy messing with Michelle.  He could’ve stopped at that point, but he didn’t.  He battered the shit out of those assholes, and you know what?  I didn’t even care.  Grant put us in the backseat of Michelle’s car and drove us to the park, where we sat and talked things over for a while before he drove us home.”

“Why have I never heard this story before?”

“Because we all agreed not to talk about it.  Ever.”

“Why not?  Those jackasses should’ve gone to prison for what they did.”

“We didn’t want to implicate your brother.  He probably killed those men, but he saved us and we owed him more than we could repay.  That was when Michelle got clean.  She got in a program and fell in love with Grant.  It was a perfect little ending to that screwed up story.  And I’ll never forgive Michelle for taking me to that godforsaken place.”

Kim wiped at her eyes again.  “I’m sorry, I’m not usually like this.”

“You’ve got nothing to apologize for.  You were a victim, Kim.  Didn’t you ever talk to anyone about this?  A therapist, a counselor, your mom?”

She laughed mirthlessly at the last suggestion.