Nowhere to Run Ch. 05

Chapter 5

"Of course you can stay the night!" June boomed.

It was true that Jimmy had said he didn't call the police in order to discourage Maggie from testing the locks on his RV, but that didn't make what he said a false statement. Jimmy could not stand the police and would never seek them out if the choice was his. He was a large, tatted up, unfriendly-looking white guy. If he called to report anything, he'd be the prime suspect. If he called to report a rape, he'd need an alibi. Robbery? Insurance fraud. Assault? A flat-out lie. One look at him, and he was practically guilty until proven innocent. That being said, he advised Maggie to call the cops.

She said she hadn't gone to the bathroom when she got home, so her intruder could have come in and written that at any other point throughout the day. A less likely yet not completely absurd idea was that it somehow happened while they were in the house. Again, not very likely, but a freaky idea to her for sure. He checked all points of entry with her, and was happy to use his muscle to truly test the locked windows. They didn't budge. The two saw nothing, heard nothing, and had nothing; nothing but a half-empty tube of toothpaste.

Maggie recounted the way the police had made her feel the first time she had called them. She recalled how one officer made an effort while the rest couldn't be bothered and how every aspect of her story was questioned to death as if they were more interested in finding inconsistencies than the goddamn perp. It'd be that all over, and she didn't want that.

What could Jimmy say to that? He may have been way out of his depth but, if he couldn't think of any reason to call the police for his own sake, what argument could he give her in order to make her reconsider?

June came back from the hallway closet carrying a thick, winter comforter. "But, honey, I gotta tell ya. We're out in the boonies, and seeing the occasional mouse comes with the territory. You're going to have to face it."

"Yea, well..." It was a pitiful lie and probably unnecessary, too, but Maggie felt she needed some reason to want to crash on her friend's couch. If she'd told June the truth, June most certainly would have called the police with or without her consent. "When I go into town tomorrow, I can load up on traps and bait and all the jazz. I'm just not prepared tonight."

June pointed to Jimmy. "And this big, useless oaf couldn't help you catch it?"

He puffed out his chest. "You think I don't have better things to do than hunt a mouse, woman?" He turned to Maggie, unfriendly as ever. "Just get a cat, and be done with it."

"So mean," June nagged. "You're just mad you've gotta share."

News of a mouse in Maggie's home didn't seem to phase any of the six of the grandchildren there. They crowded around the food she'd brought over while the oldest passed out plastic, Disney-themed kid's ware. Maggie bent over an picked up the youngest; a one-year-old boy stubbornly refusing to start walking and instead choosing to dart all over the floor on his hands and knees. "Maybe I'll just borrow this little gremlin instead. How's that sound, stinky?" He attempted to give her his pacifier. She politely declined.

With everyone served, dinner time consisted of everyone crowding onto the living room sectional around the TV to watch some lame Netflix horror original. Maggie thought Jimmy would simply slide back into his old ways with her. It made the most sense. If they'd gone from ice cold acquaintances to something much warmer so quickly and without explanation, June would get suspicious and assume something ludicrous happened between the two like spontaneous sex or something, and she'd cling to that idea until the two proved otherwise. The trouble was that, where he'd normally be posted somewhere far away from everyone to eat in peace, he instead sidled right next to her on the couch to watch TV and eat instead. She couldn't help but smile at that, but this would make keeping up antagonistic appearances pretty tough.

Maggie looked up at him. "So, a cat, huh?"

He shrugged. "They're useful."

"Yea, but they can't read," she said under her breath.

"So, I should hang around your place all day and night looking for...a mouse?"

"I guess not. It was nice having you there when we saw it, though...and maybe before then, too."

"Yea, it was." He stared a little longer than he should have. "What are you going to do?"

"Exactly what I said. I'm going to get the tools I need when I go into town. Maybe a camera system to start."

"No, no," chimed in the oldest at twelve. "You want to sprinkle cheerios onto a sticky trap to catch it." The context of Jimmy and Maggie's conversation had gone completely over her head, but she did have an idea.

"That's a fair point." Maggie looked back to Jimmy. "Maybe I should just catch it."

"That sounds dangerous. Extremely dangerous."

"Any better ideas?"

"I still think you should call in the professionals. I know they're...incompetent sometimes, but it'd be better to go with them than go it alone."

"Would it?"

"Yes," he considered. "I think, anyways."

"Hmm."

"You don't even have to call. Didn't one leave you her card?" Jimmy reminded.

Maggie had forgotten about it. The officer's card was still in her wallet.

"Perhaps," he continued, "you could just go to the station and talk one-on-one. Explain what happened and see what advice she gives you."

"Maybe I will."

"Cause you can't stay here forever," he huffed.

Maggie leaned her head back and called across the room. "June, can I stay here forever?"

She didn't even look up from her phone. "Rent's 250."

Maggie turned back with a smile. "You sure about that?"

"Well, I sure as hell don't want you here."

Maggie lowered her voice. "Where do you want me?" She couldn't read his face.

Jimmy pursed his lips, put his empty plate to the side, and stood up. "It's time for great uncle Jim to turn in."

"Awww," called each child in unison.

"I'm not watching this crap for another hour." As they all wished him goodnight, he turned and left quickly letting the screen door creek closed behind him.

Maggie felt immediately guilty. She pushed too hard and committed a cardinal sin; making things awkward between the two. She tried not to let it show and just joined in with the rest of the kids humming and hawing at the stupid decisions the protagonist made. One thing Maggie learned as the night went on was that the kids didn't really have a bedtime. They just sort of fell asleep anywhere. The TV stayed on, too, acting as white noise as they nodded off one by one. June had already turned in to her bedroom so, with Maggie last to go, she got as comfortable as she could with three others on the couch and let sleep wash over her. Being surrounded by people definitely helped. She rested her head on the arm of the couch letting the last thing she saw be the side kitchen door in an unmistakable locked position.

Who knew what time it was when she heard the heavy, male footsteps approach. It had definitely been hours; long enough for the TV to automatically cut off after not tapping 'yes' when asked if they were still watching. Maggie was rocked gently from side to side until she was roused. She looked up to see Jimmy throwing his face to the door. She let a child who had fallen asleep on top of her slide onto the couch cushions as she quietly followed him outside. She was tired, and it was freezing, but the latter changed at least once she'd made it to his RV.

Once inside, he faced her suddenly, startling her a bit. "Don't do that again."

She sighed. "I know. I'm sorry."

"We're not..."

"I know," she interrupted.

"...anything."

"I know," she repeated emphatically.

"Good." He pulled her in and kissed her. Longer than the other times. Sweeter, too. "I want you out here with me."

"That's a bad idea." She was still being kissed on her lips, her neck, and anywhere else he could reach. She had to pull away to finish her thought. "I'd rather June have no idea than the wrong idea."

Jimmy held her head in his hands. He'd given it more thought and had decided on the best course of action. "Promise me you'll call that officer in the morning."

Maggie broke eye contact. "I have work."

"Promise me," He said firmly following it with a kiss.

"I won't have time to..." she breathed.

He quieted her with another kiss. "You promise me."

"I'll think about it." She turned her head to stop him from doing it again.

"Maggie!" He hissed in frustration.

"Jim!" Maggie hissed back disengaging from him angrily before letting herself calm down a bit. "I can't mean something to you in one breath and nothing in the next." She fell into a nearby seat, exasperated. "You can't have it both ways. You just can't."

Jimmy put his hands on his hips, frustrated at first, but ultimately understanding her point. He looked at her, frowning. "What next then? Or is that it?"

She scoffed and chuckled at the same time. "Look at us. We pretend not to care about what others think, and yet that's all we're concerned about."

Jimmy looked down a bit knowing full well that she was right.

She tilted her head. "What do you want out of this? On your own terms?"

"I like you. I want to share your company...and affection. I want that to stay our business, though. Do you get that?" He waited for her to nod before continuing. "It doesn't matter what either of us want if there is some lunatic out there out to get you."

"Then, I guess...we both have to do our parts."

Jimmy's face lightened. "So you'll call?"

"Only if you do your part."

"Which is?"

"Let me in...publicly. If you want to be my friend, even if it's with benefits, you have to treat me like one. June cannot be the sole reason we cross paths and, if you turn your nose up at me every time we speak in front of her then, yes, me coming here asking for you isn't exactly going to make sense. I'm sure the expectation tonight was for me to sneak back inside at the crack of dawn before anyone woke up, right?" She didn't wait for him to confirm or deny it. She simply shook her head at his guilty face. "I refuse to visit you in secret like this again. If you made an effort not to be a jerk, I'd never have to. So, for once in your life, be nice. Or is that asking too much of your terms?"

"We both understand that this is more than friendship but less than anything else. So," he leaned in with the most serious face she'd ever seen, "don't hurt me."

"Deal." She had no desire to, and she was just as fragile as him. She stood. "I gotta ask you again, though. Where do you want me?"

Jimmy stepped forward and grabbed her by both hands. "You couldn't sleep. You didn't want to wake June and saw that my lights were still on." He began to pull her gently to the back of his RV where both knew his bed was waiting. "You asked to hang out. I said 'why not'. The night started out with us discussing...mouse-catching techniques, and ended up with us actually having a good time just hangin' out. That is why, when June wakes up, she will find out here with me." He brought her arms around him and his around her. "So, we're friends now."

"That's our story?"

"I'll tell her myself."

Maggie smiled as their foreheads connected, the lights cut out, and the bedroom door closed slowly behind them.

** ** **

Maggie watched as two weeks worth of grocery money were mounted onto six separate corners of the house. June was in the kitchen angling a camera by the door. Maggie was putting one in the hallway while making sure that both the window and the closet door were in frame. One was already in her bedroom, one outside the bathroom, and the last two were being adhered to the exterior of the house by Jimmy. Of course, with a bunch of screaming children running around, he was last to finish. The pack she bought came with a single motion detector which June and Maggie got to see in action when Jimmy came in through the back door. Her phone pinged and an ear-splitting screech sounded. Maggie quickly turned it off using the app on her phone.

"I can set it to go off whenever is senses movement or just have it ping me." She cycled through the feeds from each camera. "They also record right to my Cloud when they detect movement."

"Nice," Jimmy nodded. "You'll need to delete any footage at the end of the day to save space, though."

"I guarantee you anyone who hears that alarm won't be sticking around," June dug in her ear with her pinky. "And I put a sticky trap behind the fridge and sprinkled some cereal on it. The mouse's days are numbered."

Maggie brought her arms around her neighbor. "Thank you, June."

Jimmy cleared his throat.

June hugged her back. "You had your chance," she teased.

"Jealous?" Maggie dropped her head playfully on June's shoulder while staring at him.

"You're welcome," Jimmy grumbled. "By the way, did you make that phone call?"

"What call?"

Though Maggie hadn't told June about the message left on her bathroom mirror, there was no reason to continue to try and convince her that she had some serious mouse problem. "A very nice officer gave me her card when the house was broken into the first time, and Jim thought it'd be wise to touch bases with her. Maybe show her that spot-on picture he drew. Might help. Might not. You never know."

"This guy?" June pointed at her brother with her thumb. "HE told you to keep in touch with a cop?"

Jimmy ignored his sister. "And?" He questioned.

Maggie rocked guiltily from side to side. "I'm going to."

"Today."

"Okay," Maggie said, noncommittally.

"Today," June echoed. "And, if you need a ride to the police station, I'm happy to drop you off if you'd like. Tomorrow is grocery day for me anyway."

"Okay," Maggie moped before she leaned in and gave June a kiss on the cheek. "You're the best."

Jimmy walked over, wrapped his massive arms around both women, and squeezed. "Thank you for doing so much for me, Jimmy," he said in a high-pitched, female voice. "I appreciate you, Jimmy. Good looking out, Jimmy."

"Thank you BOTH," Maggie grunted out laughing before being let go.

With no TV, computer, or internet, there wasn't much in the way of entertainment inside Maggie's home. However, outside, the children were having a blast building up huge piles of leave to jump in. It was much easier making a massive pile in a yard that wasn't covered in toys, lawn chairs, sandboxes, half-drained kiddy pools, and an RV.

"Time to round up the monsters."

Maggie waved a hand. "They can hang around if they want. I don't mind."

"You sure? They can be..."

"Atatatatat..!" Jimmy hushed his sister. "Keep em as long as you'd like."

"Don't you want them back before night fall or something?"

"Yea, or something," he said halfway out the door.

"You're a shit great uncle," June remarked incredulously as the two made their way in the direction of home. She ended up taking the one-year-old with her as it was nap time. This left Maggie with fives heads.

In Maggie's backyard, laughter abounded as two teams of two a piece raced to make the biggest piles out of all the leaves. That would certainly take some doing. Despite her house being the size of a thimble, the land it sat upon was sprawling in its depth. The property line extended well past the flattened earth meaning the back of the property was basically just forest. With four at play, that left the fifth sitting all by herself on a stump. Maggie soon joined little Bailey's side.

"Bored?"

"No," said the young girl as she stared off into space in the direction of her backyard forest. The wasn't the first time Maggie had seen her be left out of things. "They said I couldn't play cause then one team would have three, and that's not fair."

"No, it isn't." Siblings could be so mean. "Why don't we try and make our own fun then." Maggie watched the little girl's face light up as she pointed. "How about an adventure? There's a trail that starts right by those rocks over there that goes through those trees, past a creek, and back through the other side of the yard."

"Oh." Bailey's chin dropped back to her knees. "I know."

"You do?"

"We used to play here a lot before you moved in. When people started to fix the place up, Grandma June said we had to stop."

"Oh." Yea, that sounded about right. "Welp, that's the only interesting thing I have to offer you. I'm all out of ideas."

"Are you and great uncle Jimmy ever going to get married?"

Maggie froze at the question. Had things been so obvious? Had she seen something? Had they been careless? She pressed forward with caution. "What makes you ask that?"

Little Bailey shrugged. "I'd just really like two grandmas. Your food is good and your house is super clean, too. You just need a TV."

Maggie breathed a sigh of relief. "I'd technically be your great auntie-in-law. Not your grandma. And, no. We're not getting married."

"You do like him, though, right?"

Maggie did her best to hide her smile. "He's aight."

"Yea. He doesn't like cops, though. That's why he didn't like you in the beginning. You called over so many. He says they do more harm than good most of the time and some have even kill innocent people. I don't want them to kill me."

That was quite a lot to unpack there. "Neither do I. But, police are just people. And people can be bad or good. Sometimes you just have to take the risk."

"Risk?"

"Yes. Sometimes, you have to do things even when you don't know what'll happen. Even us grown ups are afraid to take risks sometimes." Maggie could learn a thing or two from her own words, and it was very obvious that she was, in that moment, the biggest hypocrite. "But, if you do nothing, you'll get nowhere. Sometimes, you've got to ask for help."

Bailey seemed to be thinking it over, ultimately deciding that what Maggie said had made sense. "Can I show you something?"

"Sure." A child wished to share a secret. Exciting.

"You can't be mad, though."

Less exciting. "Uhhh, okay."

"Promise?"

"Of course."

Bailey grabbed Maggie's hand and brought her down the trail. She knew it better than Maggie did. That was for sure. Maggie had never bothered walking through it herself. She'd just known it existed. As they went deeper, her house became obscured by the trees and the laughter faded. It was a pretty straight forward trail that was virtually impossible to get lost down as long as one stayed on it. So, when they hit a turn and Bailey pulled her to one side away from the trail, Maggie made a comment.

"We shouldn't go off the trail, baby."

"But, it's this way." Bailey let go and gestured Maggie to follow as she scaled down an incline. "It's not far."

Maggie reluctantly followed, trusting that the girl was right and this magical place she wanted to show her was only a few steps away. At this point, there were no other homes in view, but she could hear the creek, so getting lost was unlikely. At this point, Bailey went from leading to searching.

"What are you looking for?"

"A fat-bottomed tree with a huuuge hole in it."

They seemed to be on the right track because Bailey started making a B-line for what indeed was a tree with a trunk far thicker than the rest. She ran towards it and Maggie followed. It was so large that Maggie actually lost sight of the young girl when she rounded it.

"Over here," she waved.

Maggie was relieved to finally be there.

"Here it is."

Maggie crouched down. "Here what is?"

Bailey pointed at the opening at the bottom. It was wide, hollow, and would make an excellent fort. Too bad that that wasn't the reason Bailey was showing it to her. Every source describing a moment like this mentioned a smell first, but there had been none. Only that of leaves, the running waters nearby, and the autumn chill. So, Maggie was totally unprepared when she saw a decaying body crammed into it.