How Margaret's Mom Died.

Sheriff O’Donnell’s prologue

Sheriff O'Donnell's Prologe:

It was just supposed to be a favor... I swear. She just moved into town, and had nowhere to go. I told her about the motel my Aunt manages, she agreed but stated she didn’t have any money. That’s when things took a turn. When I buzzed in to the motel I was a little surprised that my Aunt was still awake at this hour. She opened the door and gave a judging glare at both me and my flushed companion. She turned around and shuffled back to the front desk. “Is there a room open?” I ask her in a gruff but nervous voice.

“Always. Name?” My aunt looks at the girl next to me who flips her blond hair over her shoulder.

“Put everything under my name Aunt G.” I stated. She looked at me with her eyebrows raised a tad but otherwise an uncaring face.

“It isn’t much, most motels aren’t known for fancy decor, but it should do for the night.” Her crackly voice murmured.

“Perfect, what door?” Asked the blond.

“Four A.” the whole time my aunt stared at me with the same expression and I can feel the air getting thicker, I don’t know, more awkward as we both watched the young woman disappear up the staircase. Once she was gone the old lady tilts her head toward the stairs referencing to Blondie. “Another one of your charities?” She asked. I didn’t say anything, “She’s worse than your wife bud.”

“Ex wife.” I corrected her as I headed towards the door.

1.

In a small room sat a solemn boy, his name was Jordan, he was sitting on his bed with his phone cupped in his hands. While staring down at it, his wavy helmet haircut was hanging in his face. He finds himself staring at this particular message in his phone, it was a message from her. The last message from her to be exact. “Red.” He scrolled up to the beginning of the conversation.

“What’s your favorite color?” Jordan rolled his eyes as he read his own message.

“No, that’s so lame.” Said Margaret.

“Well if that’s true then you need to tell me.” Jordan remembered typing.

“Why? (Smiley face)” He smiled at his screen.

“Because this whole relationship is set on the foundation of lame events, just tell me...mine is gray.” He scrolled back up to read the following...

“Red.” He sighed and looked up from his phone. Then rolled his eyes once more.

“Christ.” He muttered as he tossed the phone over his shoulder hitting his pillow.

“Jordy there’s Allan on the phone.” Jordan’s little brother Sebastian called from down stairs, he was six and a bit of a trouble maker, but Jordan loved his company so he was always the one to watch Sebastian and he didn’t mind. He ran down stairs and grabbed the phone from him. While Jordan messed with his brother’s blond curly hair he spoke, “Sup fucker.” Sebastian giggled.

“Sup Fucker!” The curly blond headed boy copied his older sibling.

2.

“Sib!” Jordan points at Sebastian and narrows his eyes in a playful scolding, the little boy just continues to giggle.

“What you doing?” Allan asked on the other line.

“Trying to come up with a unique way to kill myself.” Code for babysitting. Jordan leaned his head against the cabinet as he whispered into the land line.

“You should come over, Nick is.”

“Told you, I’m babysitting...” He looks at Sib devouring an orange.

“When is your dad coming back?” Allan asked while putting a joint up to his lips.

“Like in thirty minutes or something.”

“Alright cool, oh hey did you hear?” Allan almost choked as he talked.

“Hear what?” Jordan smiled.

“It made two months today, there was a special on the news... I think it’s still on.” Silence exuded from Jordan, he felt a lump in his throat become larger, “Jordan?” Allan knew about how Jordan felt, but sometimes he can be a bit narrow minded and forget it was hard for him to talk about. Jordan swallowed the lump and looked over at his little brother who was looking at him a little nervous.

“Oh.” Was all he was able to get out, how weird was it that just five minutes ago he was looking at her last messages.

“I’m so-” Allan began to apologize.

3.

“What channel?” Jordan cut him off purposely, he hated pity.

“Thirteen.” Allan whispered on the other line with a sigh.

“I’ll text you when my dad gets home.” When the call ended Jordan could feel his ears getting hot. A sign that he was flustered. He rubbed the back of his neck as he walked over to stand in front of the TV. He pressed the on button and grabbed the remote off of the coffee table. 1-3 were the numbers he pressed into the guide and he selected the channel.

“-It’s terrible... terrible... With me today is Mayor John West and his lovely wife Elinor West.” The announcer looked at both of them and pushed his eyebrows together, “Has it really been two months, it feels like yesterday.”

“To us too, Ted.” Said the Mayor as he smiled at him, his wife was staring at her hands, her blond, short hair tucked behind her ears and skin sickeningly pale.

“Elinor, are you still hosting search parties? Elinor.” The Mayor looked at her when she didn’t answer, she slowly blinked and looked up.

“Yes twice a week, we meet in front of the courthouse and we search for five or more hours. We have one being held tonight.” Jordan noticed that she had a tissue tucked underneath the watch on her wrist. Her words were almost forced, sort of robotic.

4.

“She’s very determined.” The Mayor tilts his head toward the camera, “Please if you know any information on the whereabouts of Margaret Jay West, my daughter, please contact the number on your screen. We need are little girl back, and please remember to vote this coming election.” Jordan started to feel sick, and to make matters worse her picture appeared on the screen, the pink hair... the blue eyes... he turned off the TV. He walked over and sat on the coach, in almost a daze. Jordan has been in dazes prior to this situation, this was close to one but not really. He was still aware, still looking at the remote on the coffee table, but his mind was somewhere else. His mind, was rattled with questions and decisions, though his thought process was soon interrupted by his little brother.

“Daddy’s home!” Sebastian yelled with glee as he approached the window that over looked the front yard. “He has groceries.” The little boy looked at his older brother.

“Good looking out.” Jordan stood up and patted Sebastian on the head and walked to the back door, he met his father at the frame. “Need help?”

“Always.” Jordan’s father had a very gruff look to him, he was a handy man for a local cable company. He always looked tired and stressed, but never turned down play time with Sebastian. “I’m a go say hi to your brother, there’s only a couple bags left to bring in.” Jordan nodded and walked out to the truck that was parked in the drive way. He grabbed what he could carry and started to make his way back up. That’s when he saw the police cruiser parked at the street entrance, Jordan stared at it for a little while, his eyebrows pushed together a tad. Then, off the cruiser went, turning on to another street. Jordan got a better grip on his bags and walked into the house.

“Dad...” He called out. He saw his father carrying Sib on his back smiling.

“Yeah?”

5.

“I’m going to Allan’s.” Jordan stated as he put the groceries on the counter. His dad gave him a wary look but then nodded.

“You know what time to be back by.” His father stated and sighed. “Tell ’em I said hi.”

“Alright.” Jordan smirked a little. He put his earphones in his ears as he walked into the garage and grabbed his bike, blaring rock music into his eardrums. Jordan looked down to see that the chain was loose, but he didn’t want to fix it. He started pedaling out of the drive.

To basically describe this town in a nut shell everything in it is small, the houses, the people, even their preppy little dogs, all of it screamed “small town”. There’s only three neighborhoods in this town, Jordan, Allan and Nick live in the oldest neighborhood, so did Margaret... she liked to call this place ‘Lonesome Town’, named after a song in a movie she liked. All four of them are complete movie geeks, ever sense they were small. It seemed to be a good escape for them at the time, looks like the only one that did escape was her.

Finally Jordan’s destination was approaching and he pulled into Allan’s mom’s drive way and plopped his bike in the front yard. He opened up the screen door and saw that Allan was waiting for him by the frame holding a Joint at arm’s reach, Jordan grabbed it and made his way over to the living room. His earbuds were still in his ears as he sat on the shag carpet right in front of the sofa and smoked it.

Another daze was creeping up behind Jordan until Allan yanked the earbuds out of his ears. “I said what happened to texting me before you get here?”

“What, you’re my girlfriend now?” Jordan smirked as he passed the doobie back to Allan.

“Fuck you.” Allan took it reluctantly, bringing it to his lips. Jordan was still blowing the smoke out of his mouth, watching it dance in the air.

“no thanks...” Jordan snickered, ” Where’s Nick?” He asked with his chin lifted still smirking.

6.

“Screw you guys!” Nick came running through the kitchen carrying a heavy pack of a dozen glass beer bottles. “Allan you were supposed to be watching out for me, I got attacked by Mrs. Augsburg’s Chihuahua.” Nick was a lengthy young man with, usually, a quiet disposition. Jordan always felt like he needed to protect him, mostly because Nick reminds Jordan of Sebastian.

“You stole Mrs. Augsburg’s beer?” Jordan asked jokingly just rubbing salt in the wound, still looking at the smoke.

“No, his dad’s.” Allan said laughing.

“And He’s going to kill me... for real this time.” Nick murmured as he opened the packaging of the beers.

“Then why’d you do it?” Allan tilted his head to one side and mocked Nick even more, his shoulder length, black curly hair flipping to the other side of his head. Jordan was just laughing as Nick reached over and grabbed a pillow off the couch and chucked it at Allan’s head.

“That’s why.”

7.

Hours passed with content very similar to this, Jordan, Allan, and Nick have been best friends’ sense elementary school, more or less because of how all three of them were outsiders and it made it more bearable to know that they had each other. But they’d never admit that, they would always make up some elaborate story of how they met, either including time travel or aliens.

“Thank God it’s senior year.” Jordan was now sprawled upside down on the sofa, smoke escaping his lips, while blood shot eyes watched his fingers play with the carpet.

“Speaking of, there’s an end of the year party happening at Andrew’s.” Allan was looking at the post on his phone.

“His family is still letting him do that?” Nick asked as he rolled up another joint on a “Coping with a dysfunctional family” pamphlet.

“I guess so...” Allan turned off his phone and tossed it on the floor. “I’m mean if you think about it why wouldn’t they, the nicer they are to the townsfolk’s kids the more voters they’ll probably rack up.”

“No one cares that much about their kids to base a vote on how drunk they get at a party.” Nick scoffed, he then licked the paper of the blunt before folding it over to seal it.

“It’s the thought that counts I guess. I saw him on the fucking T.V all fucking smiles, basically begging for the sympathy vote.” Jordan murmured, at this point talking about a sensitive subject such as a party being thrown in the house of someone who’s missing, or mentioning how odd the father of that missing kid has been acting, won’t cause a daze to happen. For he’s already too high. Nick and Allan share a look between them after Jordan said this. Like they were concerned parents.

“When is it?” Nick asked Allan.

8.

“Tomorrow after the big game.” Allan stared at Jordan cautiously while a sigh escapes Jordan’s mouth when he realizes its Thursday. Jordan managed to close his eyes. He felt like he was sinking...

“It seems like you do not... care about anything.”

“No that’s not it...” She looks down at the blunt between her thumb and index finger.

“Explain?” Jordan tilts his head at her pushing his eyebrows together.

“It’s that I do care... I care very much... and I still manage to loose control.” She blows smoke. “It’s a problem.”

“Oh.” Jordan and Margaret look up at the night sky. A few stars peek behind musky clouds but otherwise its pitch black.

“How did we get here?” Margaret asks as she stares at the stars, as if she’s waiting for them to tell her. Jordan pinches his lips together and leans his head on her shoulder.

“Well there’s this thing called the Big Bang... Or if you are more spiritual there’s these two assholes called Adam and Eve...”

“That’s not what I meant.” Jordan lifted his head and looked up at her. “I mean, how did everything get so fucked... where did it start?” She was still looking at the sky, at the constellations. Jordan’s expression changed and he began to search for the answers with in her face. The Milky Way of freckles dancing along her nose and cheeks, the crater by her mouth that only forms when she smiles, her blue eyes that looked like you were staring at time and space itself. She soon looked down at him, with her brows ruffled, “What?”

He stared at her for a bit longer, “I...don’t know...but I know it’s not your fault.”

9.

Jordan felt hands gently shaking his shoulders, his eyes jerked open. He felt the shag carpet on his cheek, he was on the floor. “It’s ten o’clock my mom is going to be home soon.” Allan’s voice was whispering then a loud slap smeared across Jordan’s face. “Get the fuck up!” Allan yelled. Jordan jumped when he got slapped and started to stand up.

He looked around, he couldn’t see Nick- he must’ve left already. “Are you okay to go home, otherwise I have to tell my mom you’re sleeping...” Allan went back to whispering, Jordan could tell by his face Allan really didn’t want to ask his mom. Jordan shook his head.

“What am I going to do....crash into a mail box? No, see you tomorrow.” he bent over and grabbed his earphones and started heading toward the door.

“Did you finish that assignment, for history?” Allan asked as he started picking up empty beer bottles.

“No, I rather get high at your moms house.”

“Was that sarcasm?” Allan looked up with a smile on his face, Jordan was holding the screen door open and turned around to look at him with his eyebrows pushed together. He clenched his jaw.

“No.” He turned back around and exited, Jordan’s mind was moving in slow motion but he was trying his hardest to get it together. He picked up his bike that was still laying sporadically in the front lawn next to the mailbox. He climbed on it and started pedaling back home. At this time of the night it felt very wrong to be out, not that he believed it was dangerous, but the fact that everyone else in the town thought it was. A curfew was set two weeks after Margaret went missing, every sense then, at six it turned into a ghost town. He turned on to his street, as he looked behind him to see if it was clear.

10.

He was surprised to see a white van driving close behind him. They revved the engine and cut Jordan off from getting in their lane. The jerking motion made him have to squeeze the break on his bike and wait for them to pass, locking up his broken chain. He squinted his eyes, trying to see if he recognized the person in the driver seat but the windows were too darkly tented. Jordan continued to watch the van turn down the street he was going toward and proceeded to drive past two streets before turning down another one.

He put his chain back where it needed to go, cursing under his breath, he put his feet back on the petals and headed his own way. His surroundings shifted and he started to shiver as the seventy degree winds hit his now damp neck. He pulled his bike into the garage of his house, when it was put back in its place he closed the garage and stepped inside. Jordan went around the kitchen and into the living room looking out the window and onto the street, curious and almost cautious about seeing that van again.

“Where the hell have you been?” The familiar deep voice came from behind him, his dad was sitting in his favorite arm chair. Jordan closed his eyes, ‘fuck.’ he thought.

“I’m sorry dad, I fell asleep at Allan’s.”

“For six hours?” His dad pushed his eyebrows up, half with frustration half with worry. “Your mom got home earlier than you did son, and she’s a nurse.”

“Look I said I was sorry. I can’t help it, if school has me stressed, and people need me, and I have to babysit, and this town!” Jordan’s voice grew louder.

“If you dare wake Sebastian you won’t see the light of day again.” His dad threatened. “This town... puts food in our mouths and clothes on our backs. It’s not perfect, but nothing is... Jordan.” His dad sighs with frustration and begins to talk again in a cooler tone. “I want you to be able to talk to me, about anything.”

11.

“Well I can’t. I can’t talk, I can’t think, I can’t even breathe properly anymore, and the more I show how unbalanced I am, the more people worry, and the more people think I’m going to end up like-” He cut himself off and took a deep breath. “Forget it. I’m going to bed.” He walks past his dad, but a strong arm grabs onto his shoulder. Jordan looks up at his father, only with his eyes, his jaw wired shut.

“Is that weed... I smell.” His dad gives him a look that he could never explain, like he knew everything, but was so curious. Jordan yanked his shoulder forward and walked swiftly up to his bedroom.

Two months of finally acting more normal and Jordan just messed that all up.

please leave comments on what you’d like to see, what you think so far, and how do you like Jordan? lol thank you sm again.