Beginning of the End
The street was crowded with slim town houses and apartments that all looked alike. The street lamps added some character but not much and the street was otherwise not overly extraordinary. Though the neighbourhood was rather boring, it was safe. A man of a fairly decent height with thick brown hair glanced at a piece of paper he kept tucked away in his right palm. He latched onto the paper as though it were his life and in his other arm he carried an old coiled book so tight that the rings imprinted ominously into his skin. It was a bitter cold day but hope hung in the air as Judah approached apartment building 1926 and rang the bell for room 36. Emily Monroe had nearly faded from the small sign that now read "m Monroe" which Judah found just slightly wary.
"Hello" said a fragile voice over the intercom "who is it?"
The man stepped forward ready to give the speech he had rehearsed with his car mirror about a million times. "Hey, my name is Judah..." he paused for a moment as though he was waiting for an old friend to recognize his voice. When nothing happened he quickly went on. "I'm, um, a friend of your mothers". Her psychiatrists had warned him not to be abrupt right from the start so he had formed a slight lie just to make the transition easier.
The buzzer rang at his last sentence and he bound quickly up to the door. Emily was standing there cautiously but still managed to smile.
"Hey Jude" she sang playfully. Judah's heart skipped a beat and he gazed at her hoping for more.
"How did you know?"
"Know what?" Emily said as she glanced sideways.
"Oh nothing" Jude whispered almost inaudibly "can I come in for a moment?" Emily had the posture of an insecure little girl and hid her eyes behind a veil of hair. She seemed reluctant but nonetheless she stepped aside and gestured her guest inside.
"You said you knew my mom?" Emily pulled her sweater tightly around her body as if she was suppressing something tightly inside.
"Knew?" Jude stared blankly at her. He truly hadn't expected this.
"Yeah, she uh killed herself years ago, docs said she was pretty crazy, something like schizophrenia and borderline or whatever" There was a raw genuine pain in Jude's eyes; like a fresh crack in ice. He slowly mustered up the courage to speak.
"I'm sorry to hear that" he said almost distantly.
"Me too" Emily said bitterly "but she never was much of a mother, she could barely take care of herself let alone take care of me. You know I almost died before I was even born" she looked scornfully at the wall behind Jude.
"I heard..." he said softly "I guess now is not the best time to tell you I brought you something of hers; it's her journal. I found it years ago but haven't had the heart to read it. I was hoping we could read it together."
No comments:
Post a Comment