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“No, no, no. Please, Soldier,” he begged in a frantic, hushed voice, just as a man’s voice shouted something incoherent from inside the house.
I didn’t want to go back into my place. I didn’t want to pretend that the kid wasn’t scared or that something wasn’t happening inside the house he shared with his mom. Everything told me to do the opposite, and so I did.
I marched right past Noah on the curb, who was still begging and pleading for me to stop and go back home, and I walked up the porch steps and knocked loudly on the door.
“Who the fuck is that?” I heard a man’s voice shout.
“I-I don’t know.” That was Ray, and she sounded small and terrified. Her voice … so, so different from the woman I knew and so, so familiar from somewhere far away.
“Well then,maybeyou should answer the fucking door.” He was angry, condescending.
I knew without meeting the man that I hated him.
Ray did as she had been told and slowly opened the door to reveal her tear-streaked face and giant, baggy sweater wrapped tightly around her body. Her eyes widened at the sight of me standing on her porch, her cheeks reddened with embarrassment, and she shook her head, just as Noah had done.
“You have to go—”
“No.” I stopped her, placing my palm against the door as she tried to close it. “What’s going on in there?”
“It’s nothing. Youhave togo now.”
“It doesn’t sound like nothing, Ray.” I kept my voice quiet.
I didn’t want the monster inside to hear me. I didn’t want to get her into more trouble by simply being there—forcaring. But if she was in danger—and it sure as hell seemed like she was—I wasn’t going to sit back and listen to it happen.
“Just blink twice if you need me to do something, and I’ll do something right now.”
She made a show of keeping her eyes open, void of any emotion but sincere warning. “What Ineedis for you to go.Please.”
Her tone was flat and tense, and my face remained just as expressionless as I took one, two steps back. She had to know I was serious. If she had given me the word, I would’ve barged through that door and physically removed whoever the fuck was terrorizing her and her son. But I didn’t know the facts. I didn’t know what was going on, so I resigned with a single nod despite the fiery urge to do the opposite, and she closed the door in my face.
I didn’t want to get Noah into any trouble for talking to me either, so I didn’t stop on my way back to my place. Instead, as I passed, I said, “If you need me, you know where to find me. Bang on my door, yell for me—whatever youhave todo—and I will protect you.”
He didn’t reply, but I knew he’d heard me, and I lied to myself, thinking that it was good enough.
***
Noah didn’t go back inside until Ray opened the door an hour later, and I never stopped watching through the faded cloth hanging over the window. Once he was inside, Ray stepped onto the porch and cried. She held her arm against her chest, and I narrowed my eyes.
What the fuck is going on over there?
I wanted to walk over and demand an explanation. But I figured now wasn’t the time, so I continued to watch until the shadowed figure of the monster next door left without a glance at the woman on the porch and drove away in his big, obnoxious truck, and I didn’t stop watching until Ray went back inside.
The next day, bright and early in the morning before work, I wandered over to the house next door and knocked until Ray opened the door.
There was a brace on her wrist and a forced smile on her face.
“H-hey, Soldier. What can I—”
“What the hell happened here last night?”
She shook her head indifferently. “Nothing. Really. Noah’s dad and I just got into an argument, and things got a little heated. I told Noah to go outside so he didn’t have to hear us yelling.”
“I could hear the yelling from inside my house,” I countered, crossing myarmsand eyeing her studiously. “What happened to your arm?”
She glanced at the black brace Velcroed to her wrist. She must’ve acquired it sometime in the night after I’d somehow gotten to sleep, and she swallowed at the sight of it now. Then, she waved a dismissive hand, sending the question away with a lighthearted laugh.
“I was putting some stuff away and fell. I think I sprained it or something. It was so dumb.”
