Zombie Waltz (Book 2) Page 4

“It’s Matthews.”

  “Oh…uh…Jace?” Faith hears laughter from the phone. “Hi…sorry. Do I sound that different on the phone?”

  “No. It sounds like you. I just…well Jace I don’t…”

  “Wait wait wait…you’re not cancelling on me, are you?”

  “Yeah…uh…well…I have a paper due.”

  “You are always going to have a paper due. What’s your major?”

  “Pre-med.”

  There is a long silence on the other end of the line, “Damn…cool. That’s awesome…so you are like super smart huh?”

  “No.” Faith lets her guard down and laughs. “I just have to study a lot…that’s why…”

  “Faith, stop. You are not going to cancel our date.”

  “Yes, I am…well…”

  “See…you know you want to go out. Heck, you need to go out. I promise to have you in by your curfew. What time do I pick you up and where?” There is a long pause. Faith is flustered. She wants to go out and be a normal kid for once; if just for a little while. It can’t hurt.

  “Okay…um…seven? So, I can work on my paper. Rankin Hall. I will be out front.”

  “Seven then. Awesome. I can’t wait to see you.” He hangs up the phone.

  At 7:02 Faith is sitting on the stone steps waiting. She feels silly but doesn’t understand why. She decided if she was going to go on a date she was going to look like a lady. She wears a tight spaghetti strapped blue dress and heels that match. She put her hair up and spent about an hour getting it in the exact right place. She actually didn’t work on her paper at all. Some guys passing in front of the building smile at her and one waves.

  A pair of girls that live on the floor below come out of the building and down the steps together. They shoot looks back at her after they pass and snicker to each other. Then a big black pick-up truck pulls up right in front of the steps. Jace jumps out and trots over. The girls hadn’t made it to their car and Faith gets a nice sense of satisfaction watching their jaws drop as Jace holds a door open and she slips in smiling. He is dressed very nicely in a button up shirt and slacks. His shoes are very nice as well. He may be a football player but at least this one has some style, Faith thinks.

  They drive out to a very nice country club that is appropriately called Coaches and Quarterbacks. Jace parks his truck and hops out after giving Faith a confident grin. He opens her door for her but makes no motion to grab her. He steps up beside her without rubbing into her and Faith is grateful. The club is very nice and all the people -from the maître d to the waiter and the guy that brought the basket of warm rolls to the table- seem to know Jace by name.

  “Okay, does your father own this place or something?” Faith asks when they are seated.

  Jace laughs in reply, “No…I am just on the team you know. So, a lot of people know me that I don’t know.”

  “Ididn’t know that all theguys on the team were so famous.”Faith replies with a snarky look.

  “They probably aren’t…I am the quarterback…so I guess a lot of people pay attention to me.”

  “Oh, is that an important position?” Faith pretends ignorance and laughs loudly as Jace squirms.

  They eat and are brought wine that Faith accepts and drinks without much care, despite the fact she is only 20. After they leave the restaurant Jace asks Faith if she would like to go home, “Or maybe you would like to come to a party with me...”

  Faith thinks at first, she should just go home but she is quiet. She has not gone on many dates. The prospect of them turning ugly became more and moreunappealing, but Jace is soconfident and polite and a party sounds safe enough so she finally says, “Okay…but just until my curfew. Okay?”

  “Come on Faith” Linda finally says when she gets bored of watching her stare silently out of the window. “We should get you home…”

  “No, I can’t!” Faith turns to her suddenly. Eyes wide, Faith grabs

  Linda’s hands with both of hers. She drops the cylindrical object. It is black with a red button on top that kind of looks like a very small men’s cologne aerosol spray can. “Iam out past curfew. I can’t go home or Iwill get reported by the RA.”

  “So what?”

  “Then I would have to explain…I can’t do that. Not tonight. Can I come to your dorm?”

  “Okay…but are you going to tell me what happened?”

  “Let’s just get out of here. I will tell you…but later,” Faith says standing. One of the spaghetti straps on herdress isbroken. She still wears her heels which make her a solid 5’10”. It is like she was born to dress like that, Linda muses. She throws a few crumpled bills on the table and turns to leave. Linda stands and follows Faith out into the parking lot. She looks tragic standing out in front of the little diner when Linda comes through the door. She is gorgeous even with her mascara running and her hair messed up. Faith starts to sob again. Linda puts her arm around her and directs her tragic friend to the car.

  On the way back to her dorm, Faith tells Linda about deciding to throw caution to the wind. She tells about dinner at the country club and about him being polite and charming as well as handsome.

  “So what happened? It all sounds like Cinderella at the prince’s ball to me.” Linda says as she pulls into the parking lot of her dorm.

  “It struck midnight.” Faith replies as they get out. She promises to tell her the rest when they get up to her dorm room. The RA doesn’t give them any problems. She takes one look at Faith and just tries to busy herself with what she had been doing. She seems bent on not staring at the poor girl. The two go upstairs and into Linda’s room.

  Her roommate is sound asleep so Faith slips out of her dress and borrows a nightgown from Linda, then the two climb into her bed. “What happened at the party?” Linda asks.

  “It started out really cool. There was music playing and they gave us drinks. We danced, and then sat on a couch with some people, and told jokes. It was fun. Jace left me there with some cool seeming people. He brought me another drink and I sipped it but it tasted funny so when no one was looking I dumped it out. I didn’t want to get too drunk anyway. I was having too good of a time. My guard was totally down and I was getting sleepy. Jace invited me to his room.”

  “Oh my God…Ugh really?” Linda exclaims.

  “I wanted him to take me home, but when I asked him he said he could not hear.”

  “What?” He shouts. “Come on let’s go somewhere quiet.” Jace says laughing and smiling over the music. He holds his hand out for Faith. She takes it. He is so charming and she is starting to really become attracted to him. She follows him to a stairwell and he starts to lead her upstairs but she stops and he yanks on her hand before looking back. “What’s the matter? It’s still too loud here. Come on.” He says still smiling and Faith reluctantly takes a step up.

  “I want to go home, Jace.” Faith says.

  “What?” He says laughing and jerks on her hand again. His grin is still big and his eyes almost sealed as he smiles but his grip is strong. The music is loud and Faith’sheartstarts pounding. She feels for her purse strap and slides her hand down it, clicking the latch open and sticks her hand in.

  It is a tiny purse. It only has room for a small credit card wallet, her keys, a little cash, and a can of pepper spray. She wraps her hand around the can and pulls it out, stopping again. They are all the way up the stairs and in an almost vacant hallway. A guy is chewing lovingly on a girl’s neck not far away, leaning her up against the door, but the girl looks passed out. Faith’s heart races even faster. He keeps pressure on her hand and pulls her slowly toward him.

  “Come on, Faith. What did you come up here for?”

  “I came to tell you I would like to go home now.” “Naw come on. Chill. It’s early. You want another drink?”

  “Is it going to be laced?” Faith says and finally slips her hand out of his.

  “What? Wait you got the wrong idea.”

  “I want to go home now.” Faith demands.

 
; “Fine.” He says and pushes by her. She leans against the wall, surprised by the sudden movement and when she turns, his hand is swinging towards her face. She puts her arm up to block him but he is swinging so hard that he knocks her right down on her knees. Then something hard comes down on her head and she blacks out.

  When Faith opens her eyes, she is lying on her back in a bed. He is there above her. He has taken his shirt off and unbuckled his pants but not yet started to pull them down. He has both of his hands up her dress. He doesn’t know yet that she is awake. She searches beside her on the bed for anything she can use and feels her tiny black purse still strung around her shoulder. It is open and for a moment she panics thinking the pepper spray might be gone.

  She reaches her hand in and feels it. She squeezes it in her hand and rips it out. He looks up at her with a startled expression as she starts to spray the toxic mist in his face. She jumps up screaming as he hollers and flails off the bed. The door bursts open and two guys run in to help him. He just screams at them that his face is burning off. Other people start trickling in. Faith is just standing there on his bed with the spent can of pepper spray in her hand, her eyes staring wide open. All the people stare back.

  They all know what it looks like. Bad. No one says anything to her. After what seems like hours, she gets down from the bed and leaves the room. She walks down the hall and down the stairs and then out the front door of the house through the living room. She feels numb until she gets outside. She picked up her shoes out of the hallway. They were left by his door when the would-be rapist dragged her inside his room. She sits down on the porch and puts them on through tears. As soon as she’s able she starts walking.

  “Christ, Faith! you need to report him.”

  “What good will it do? He is the quarterback. No one at that party eventried to help me. Theywould lie for him. Plus, Ididn’t take whatever he put in that drink. I poured it out.”

  “Thank God you poured that drink out. What a bastard. I’d spit in his face if he comes up to me.” Linda says, pulling her covers tight up to her neck. Faith lays there staring at her.

  “Why do I always get the creeps?” She says frowning like she is about to erupt into a fresh round of sobs.

  “Faith…you are going to meet someone nice; someone who knows how to treat you someday. Until then, I think you better get yourself another can of pepper spray.”

  Rose

  Rose was born to a degenerate crack head mother and left screaming in a dumpster one chilly February night. She was found by a construction worker named Alvin Hayshift while walking home from a bar. He was arrested after bringing the baby into Sarasota Memorial, drunk. However,once the mess wassorted out he was not onlyexonerated of the charge but also given a citizenship award by the mayor.

  The little girl was placed into state custody and given the proper name of Rose Hayshift; the construction worker who saved the little girl wasunmarried and childless. He washappyto givethe child hislast name. The girl’s social workers opted to do that rather than giving her a random generic one. Rose was born withdrawing from cocaine and a month premature but otherwise she was fit and whole. It is a mystery to this day who Rose’s parents were.

  The maternity nurses called the girl Rose from the moment she arrived at the hospital. She was born with a particularly unique birthmark. Even years later when Faith first met Rose, the birthmark resembled the profile of a single long stemmed red rose. At the state orphanage, Rose was introduced to the Foster Care system. It was Carl, a friend and colleague of Mrs. Langston’s who suggested Faith get involvedwith child mentoring.

  Through an organization that put Faith with at-risk children, she met Rose. Rose has dark brown hair and almond shaped light brown eyes. Her skin is delicate porcelain shattered in the middle of her face by the upside-down bell shape of red on her cheek and the long thin tendril that runs from it down her neck. Rose smiles when Faith walks into the Robinson’s kitchen; Rose’s current Fosters. She has a bowl of cereal in front of her and a little pink lunch pail that she keeps her doodles and favorite locket inside. She takes the lunch pail everywhere.

  Faith reminisces, while the child finishes her cereal, about the day she gave Rose the locket. It contains a picture of Faith and one of Carl Jurgenson. He is not only Rose’s case worker but also one of her favorite people in the world. Faith and Carl have been friends for a long time so she got one of her own pictures of him for the locket. Faith had bought Rose the locket in the gift shop after a particularly bad shift at the hospital one night. They had a ‘just-because’ party with cake and everything to give it to her.

  While they sit at a little white table that makes Faith looks like a giant, the two start to eat their cake. Rose looks up at Faith with her locket around her neck, “Faith, are you and Mr. Carl married?” and giggles.

  “No.” Faith says, smiling sweetly down at her.

  “Why are you and Carl in my locket? You kiss, ya know? When I close it…eww eww.”

  “You know who is going to be kissed? It’s you, mon chéri.” Faith grabs the little girl who starts shrieking and giggling. They play and Faith chases her around the table and both laugh, truly happy. Then they eat more cake and break out into hysterics again. After theysettledown, Rose jumps up with a bigsmile and her eyes wide. She runs to a little old diaper box with its lid cut off and sides taped.

  She starts throwing toys out as if digging for treasure. An old fire truck that has no tires on its wheels and the ladder missing, tumbles close enough for Faith to reach down and pick it up. It is a boy’s toy anyway and terribly old; what is a little girl supposed to do with this? She asks herself but shakes the thought away.

  Rose pulls out the little pink pail. There is a blue stick figure drawing of Faith in it that has huge coils of yellow sticking in every direction off the top of its head. She knows it is in there because Rose shows her it every time she gets the pail out. Rose brings the pink lunch pail to the table and takes the thin gold chain the locket hangs from off her neck. She opens the pail and gingerlysits thelocketdown in its bottom. She turns her face up to Faith and smilingmerrilypromises, “Iwill always keep it safe.”

  Faith never had bad foster parents. Angela Langston reminded her of that many times while she sat in the kind woman’s office in her big comfy chair, hugging her knees at 13, 14, 16, and probably still would be if she could. Faith had never liked any of her Foster’s anyway. Their smilesalways seemed plastic;theynever reallyappeared to care about her in a realistic way. All theywere ever concerned with was what friends she was keeping and what she did with her personal time. She ran away a lot in high school. Always to the same place, she would go to Angela Langston’s office.

  Sometimes theywould find her sitting outside, leaning against the front doors sleeping when the janitors arrived in the morning. Faith was a good student and always behaved and followed her Foster’s rules. But if she ever caught one sneer or heard one bad word, she would be gone. Faith can see now that most of her Fosters were decent people; it was always her problem.Rose, Faith thinks, may not always be as lucky as her. She shakes her head again and tosses the broken toy away.

  AfterRose is done eating a verylate breakfast, Faith promises Mr. “Foster” to have her back in a couple of hours. He says ‘okay’ but he seems too busy ogling Faith in her little blue sun dress to be paying her words any attention. She might as well have said, “Okay, I am going to abduct this child and sell her into slavery.” They leave the Foster’s house together on that Sunday just for a peaceful afternoon in the park.

  The last thing Faith ever says to the sweet and innocent 6 year old girl is, “Wait in the car Rose. I will be right back.” And she runs in to prepay 20 dollars at the intersection of Tamiami and MLK. By the time she gets back to the car, Rose is gone.

  Telephone Pole

  “Now die…you bastard!” she says. Faith pulls the shotgun back up and looks down the sights, aiming for his temple. She puts her finger on the trigger and starts to put pressure
on it and then he convulses. She gasps.

  Faith watches in horror as he hacks and coughs up volumes of blood. Her foot stings for some moments after. She is afraid she mayhave broken one of his ribs. An ugly black knot is already forming over his left eye right beneath the cruel laceration that crosses his forehead and most of his face. His short seizure ends and he lies motionless, except the shallow expansion and contraction of his chest; he is still alive. She stares mesmerized at the hideous gaping bite wound on his arm. Faith screams nonsensically and bolts out the door. Chanting to herself as she goes, “What did I do…”

  After she steals the van in the driveway, Faith cruises up the next roadnorth. Herfirst thought is ofdrivingas far awayfrom here aspossible; Canada maybe. There are side streets at first but then there are only trees on both sides of the road and telephone poles on the right. There is a speed limit sign that says 35; Faith is doing about 60.

  The road is long and bleak but the lack of houses and businesses means no zombies prowling all over it. There are no catastrophic car pile ups, complete with burnt crisp corpses and body parts littered among the rest of the debris either. Faith relaxes and instantly starts sobbing in remorse for attacking that guy. Her mind plays reels from her life without her asking and her mood darkens to the point she stops crying.

  She watches the telephone poles fly past. It would be so easy to just steer into one. Then this hellish nightmare would be over. Faith tries to think of a reason not to do it and can’t. She veers. She aims the van directly at a pole exactly seven poles away. It won’t take any sudden jerking. She will just be going and then bounce off the shoulder and into the ditch. She will impact with the pole and fly through the windshield and probablyheadfirst into the pole. She won’t feel anything. Won’thave to be scared anymore; not of anything.

  The telephone pole is coming up fast. She puts both hands on the steering wheel and diverts her eyes slightly. She knows she doesn’t want to see it coming. There, sitting right by the pole from her perspective is a big sign. She looks at it, although she is just finding something to focus on.