Alicia's Two Years: The Second Six Months

Alicia's Two Years:

The Second Six Months

by

Joshua Renneke

SMASHWORDS EDITION

*****

PUBLISHED BY:

Joshua Renneke on Smashwords

Alicia's Two Years:

The Second Six Months

Copyright © 2012 by Joshua Renneke

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Table of Contents:

Chapter 7 - December

Chapter 8 - January

Chapter 9 - February

Chapter 10 - March

Chapter 11 - April

Chapter 12 - May

Chapter 7

December

Her second-grade teacher, Mrs. Lundie, pushed Alicia to the ground and stood over her.

Alicia scrambled to get up; her hands found solid rock where there had been dirt a few seconds before. She looked up and saw a steep hill of black, jagged rock leading to a menacing tower. The tower was five stories high, and only about ten feet wide. Alicia had to explore this tower. But first she looked back.

Mrs. Lundie stood behind her, swaying side to side but not advancing.

Alicia woke up. Her room was lit a dark gray even though the clock said 11:30.

She reached back and pulled her blinds to the side. The sky was gray, casting gray light on the world. Even the snow covering everything looked dull and unappealing.

She didn't want to look at it.

Her Ipad was on the bedstand. She went on Facebook and set her status to I FUCKING HATE WINTER.

Jess left for work but the snowplow had left a trail of snow blocking the entrance to the parking lot. She got out and looked at it; it came up almost to her waist.

Tom had agreed that they should get an apartment together, so they'd rushed to have their own place by Christmas. So far, their only problems were weather-related, like this.

No way was Jess trying to drive through that. She'd have to hope Tom knew where a shovel was.

Can I get away with calling in to work and staying home with Tom? she wondered. A smile crept onto her face.

Tom had a shovel in the closet by the front door. He hurried out, telling her to go start her car so she could leave as soon as he'd made a space for her to drive through.

Oh, she said with a frown. She zipped up her coat and pulled the hood up.

Tom and one of the neighbor guys were standing together talking when she pulled up to the entrance. It was already cleared. Tom was wearing a long-sleeve shirt. The neighbor guy had on a coat, hat and gloves. Their breath combined to form a cloud obscuring their faces.

Tom licked his lips at her as she drove past; she laughed and waved at him.

Shit, she thought absently. She wished that Tom had tried to convince her to call in, so she could have agreed to.

She hadn't had time to scrape the windshield because she was in a hurry. Her car hadn't heated up enough yet, and Jess had to drive hunched over so she could see out of the small oval the warm air had melted away on her windshield.

The snowplows hadn't plowed anywhere but the main roads, so her whole drive until the freeway was on deep, slushy snow. As she came up the ramp onto the freeway, she had to slow down to merge behind a truck pushing a plow attachment. The truck put its plow down and steered halfway out of the lane, plowing the edge of the road.

The other lane was full of all the people trying to get past; she was stuck going 35 behind the truck.

She put her turn signal on, but not one person slowed down to let her in. Fuck you too, she mouthed at every few vehicles that passed her. Why did she bother to be a polite driver if nobody ever payed her back? Jess always let people in her lane if they had their signal on. Was she the only non-asshole out there, though?

She checked her rear-view mirror.

Fine, she thought. I can be an asshole too.

Fine, she repeated out loud.

Jess sped up and angled her car's front end so the car next to her would have to either let her in or run into her.

The driver honked his horn and stepped on the brakes. His tires locked up and the car slid forward on a patch of icy road.

He tried to swerve away from Jess. His car spun out, aggressively advancing on her car for a long, agonizing moment before connecting with it.

Jess didn't scream. She silently gripped her steering wheel as her car rebounded and started spinning out of control. In a panic, she turned her wheels as far to the right as they'd go.

She was about to either go into a ditch or hit a guard rail at the upcoming overpass. It was surprisingly quiet in her car.

She wished she'd taken time to put her seatbelt on.

The guard rail dented her car right between the front and back door, throwing her sideways into the passenger side of the car. The silence was filled by a ringing in her ears.

It wasn't a great way to get out of work.

Tom met her at the hospital.

You should have told me you weren't hurt when you called from a hospital, hon.

I am hurt.

Well, you're not like hospital hurt. Maybe just 'date with Chris Brown' hurt. He shook her shoulder a little.

It was still scary. I thought I was gonna die.

I'm glad you're okay. That would suck if you died and I had to pay all of rent.

Jess crossed her arms. You're supposed to be sympathetic.

Tom crossed his arms. You should have warned me about that over the phone so we wouldn't have an incident.

A woman was walking past them right as he said it; she looked at Jess's bruised face, then quickly looked away. Jess fought back a laugh and started to whimper.

Hey, Tom said in sudden confusion, why are you crying?

Jess smiled. I'm not. I just wanted someone else to think you're a jerk. She put his arm in hers and they left the hospital.

Kara put her hands on her hips and pouted. I better get an Ipad for X-mas. Alicia has one.

Alicia has a job and bought herself one, Kara, her dad reminded her.

I don't fucking care! God.

Language, honey, Mom yelled from the kitchen.

I don't frickin' care, Kara said in a high-pitched voice.

Kara's kind-of boyfriend Matt was sitting on the couch waiting for Kara to announce she was ready to leave. Just to include himself in the conversation, he said Man, you guys need to work on setting clear boundaries for your daughter. How come you let her swear but her mom doesn't?

Don't fucking jinx it, she yelled, shoving him toward the door so fast that Dad didn't get to respond.

Dad leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples.

Eventually Mom walked in the living room.

Was Matt giving us the same exact parenting advice my sister does?

Dad sighed. Yes. He was.

Where do you think he got it?

Some useless class at school where they teach idiots to talk like therapists?

Is Kara one of those idiots? She crossed her arms.

Dad grinned. Well, yeah.

Honey!

What? I agreed with what you said. Isn't that how to make a marriage last?

You like to get me upset...

I like the fact that you still get shocked so easily, honey.

Her expression softened and she sat on the wide arm of his chair. That's a strange thing to like.

Dad smirked. I'm just trying to keep the spark alive in this marriage somehow.

Find a new way, Romeo. I have to check on the food, and you... need to get dressed.

Gross. They are not.

They totally are. I was watchin' this show where these two old people started doing it when their kids went to a movie.

So? Just cuz it's on TV doesn't mean it's real, stupid.

You think that retarded MTV show is real, stupid...er.

It is real. They like record their lives. How is that not real? Stupidest. I win.

Uh...anyway. I wanted to know if old people really did it, so I tested it. I called my house like a half hour after my parents dropped me off at Marquardt's house one night. And they didn't pick up...

Kara interrupted him. Omigod whenever we're at your place I so wanna make fun of your parents! No one has a house phone. Like, not even my grandma.

Kara pulled out her phone and started searching her contacts list for her grandma, so she could prove it. She realized what she was doing and instantly felt like an idiot. Her face throbbed with a sudden wave of warmth, and she couldn't look Matt in the eyes.

Omigod I'm a fucking retard, she thought. I'msofuckingstupid. Fuck fuck fuckfuckfuck...

Thankfully, Matt was too intent on making his point to notice.

No but my parents always answer the phone. And they'da seen it was me on Caller ID.

Whoa. Caller ID. They at least have that? Maaaaybe they saw it was you and like didn't wanna talk to you?

No, cuz they'd be afraid not to answer cuz like what if I'm hurt? They were fucking. And your dad is totally killin' it right now.

God! Gross! That's disgusting! She punched him in the arm. They'd probably hurt themselves. My dad whines about how sore he is if he bends over and ties his shoes.

I wonder if they, like...like your parents or mine, like they talk