Crooked Smile (WINNER of the MJFA'S 2017)

Chapter 10 - How many do you know?!?

That night Marilyn couldn't sleep again. But this time it wasn't the thoughts of Brian, Peter and Thomas, that haunted her. Lying in bed, she wondered where Michael might be. Was he alright? Was he maybe feeling sick, again? Was he in pain from his injuries? She wished she knew. She wished she could do something for him. Anything, really. But she didn't know what that could be.

Marilyn turned over.

Everyone around her was so... so... She had the feeling that they were intruding upon her, suffocating her, not leaving her any space to breathe. Her classmates, her parents... Michael had been different. He seemed to be rather focusing on himself. And then again, that wasn't really it. It was just that he didn't seem to mind her. He had held her, hugged her to his chest, when she had been crying her eyes out like a baby. He hadn't minded touching her, ugly-Edmond, the toad. She had made a mess of his shirt, and he hadn't minded. She had been destroyed and ugly and decried - and he hadn't minded.

Marilyn turned over again.

Maybe he was out there right now, on his way to or from wherever he had been going the other night, as well?

The thought started to gnaw at Marilyn. What if? What if lying in bed meant that she missed the chance to see him again? She wanted to see him again. Especially after the unpleasant encounter with Samantha and Brina earlier that day, she so wanted to see him again. But he had said nothing along that line. Suddenly she found herself in a hurry to get dressed. She didn't have time to lose, so it was just pants and a shirt-blouse and a pair of sneakers, and off she was, sneaking out of the house so her father wouldn't hear.

She didn't wonder for a moment where to start looking for Michael. She would go to the bend in the street where he had almost run her over the first time. Wherever he was going, he would probably pass through that street again.

Knowing where she wanted to go, it didn't take her long. Soon she reached the street that climbed towards that fatal turn. She half expected the bike to come around the bend again as she stood there in the middle of the street, but it didn't. Everything remained quiet. Because he wasn't allowed to do anything like that at the moment. He was injured. He had a concussion. And so she sat down on the curb and waited.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting there alone in the night, but at some point the atmosphere had changed. She hadn't really noticed it happening, she only noticed that it had happened. The crickets had stopped singing and the wind from the pacific, that was almost omnipresent, was blowing more forcefully now. Suddenly it occurred to her that Michael wasn't coming. And after all, what if he did come and found her sitting on the curb? What would he think? What would she tell him? Wouldn't it be an awfully embarrassing moment? She brushed herself off and felt forlorn.

Where had he actually been coming from at that time of night? It was quite some way off Hayvenhurst Avenue to just be going to a 7-Eleven for a sandwich or something. And he probably didn't buy sandwiches anyway. Where had he been coming from?

A girl-friend's house?

Marilyn tried to push that thought away, but it proved surprisingly persistent. Nagging, even.

After a moment of standing around, she realized that she didn't know what came after the bend in the street. And for some reason she wanted to see what he had seen. Maybe she could find out where he had been coming from, or maybe she would even meet him, if she looked around the area. She followed the street round the bend looking at the houses she passed, all still and dark.

For some time there were no crossings or side streets, so Michael had seen those houses as he had come by here, and knowing that made her feel closer to him. He had seen the huge, black silhouette of the giant tree that canopied the entire front yard of the house to her left. He had seen the house with the little alcove, that looked misplaced, as if it somehow didn't belong. He had certainly noticed the oddly shaped bushes on her right.