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“What?” Now he’s just confused.
“What you were just thinking about. What was that?”
Now he’s feeling guilty again.
“Oh.” There it is.
“Show us. Take us to it.”
To the man’s credit, he doesn’t even hesitate, he simply waves his hand and steps off his porch. “This way.”
I pull on Nic to hurry up as I follow him. I’m practically vibrating with anticipation, my steps hurried and movements jerky.
“What’s going on? What’s he showing us?” Kai, ever the questioner of such random events, jogs to catch up and walk on my left.
“You’ll see. Shh!” I wave him off, following the man around the back of the house and down a small hill toward a large barn. I barely note the large pool, garden, and chicken coop on our way.
When we reach the barn, the man uses a ring of keys to unlock the door and slides it up. The screeching of the metal door doesn’t even phase me like it normally would as we step inside. The smell of motor oil, mothballs, and sawdust fill my nose as he flips a switch to illuminate the darkness. The light reveals a large tarp covered shape towards the back and I immediately surge towards it.
It beacons me closer like it’s alive, traces of human imprints swirling beneath the dusty, tanned cloth hiding it from Nic’s sight.
“I kept it exactly the way it was after…” Arnold trails off and Nic looks at him in time to see him scratching at the back of his head as he stares at his feet, like he’s unable to look anyone in the eyes.
“Take it off,” I order. Niceties have long since left me in the dust and all I want to do is what my gift is urging me to do.
Arnold steps forward sullenly, like we’re stripping him naked at the gallows and only his death is awaiting him. He grabs a handful of the thick cloth tarp and tugs, throwing it to the concrete floor of the barn as if he barely has the strength to touch the thing. Then he steps back, his eyes focused on the physical reminder of the worst day of his life.
Mine too.
Nic finally decides to look at what was unveiled and his intake of breath is audible to the entire room. Because there, standing menacingly amongst unassuming rusty tools and odds and ends, is the truck that demolished my dad’s little yellow car, killing him and my sight in the process. It barely even has a dent in the front of its massive frame. Nothing to say just how much damage it caused.
“Is that…” Kai trails off.
“Yes.” I answer his unspoken question.
“I kept it to…as a reminder of sorts.” Arnold speaks, filling the silence as the guys and I all stare at the offending vehicle.
“You kept it to punish yourself. So that every time you felt the urge to have a drink, or revert to your old ways, you could come in here and see exactly what that would lead to. You never could do anything in moderation. So you had to have something so devastatingly painful to keep you on course. You’re not a good man, Mr. Miller.” My voice is calm, almost monotone as I voice the things he can’t.
“No, I’m not.”
“You know exactly the kind of monster you’d be if you didn’t torture yourself into submission.”
“I do.”
“You see it every time you look at your father.”
“Yes.”
“Your natural proclivities are to indulge, control, rape, and destroy.”
This time his answer is more strained, more hesitant, but it still comes. “Yes.”
“No. You’re not a good man at all.” I shake my head as Nic looks from me to Arnold in stunned silence. “But you’re trying to be.”
Arnold merely nods this time.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Miller. Your father will be taken care of.” As soon as this stalker shit is finished, I’ll make it my life’s mission.
