Alice Go Lightly

Alice tried to remember who had given her the key. All she knew was she woke up in the desert north of Baker, California, with her nose bleeding all over the faux leather seat of an abandoned El Camino.

She speeds back into town with her left hand tightly gripping the furry steering wheel, right hand clasping the key hung around her neck. Two keys in one night. One holds mystery, but the other, the one in the ignition, is the under appreciated savior. Who knows what would have become of Alice had the key not been there, or if it hadn’t started up on the first crank and pump of the accelerator.

Alice turns onto her dusty dirt road. from the collection of random and rusted junkyard treasures, the two trailer homes at the end of the drive have been there since the late 1950’s. There are three cars in the yard of the home on the right, but only one of which looks like it actually drives. It’s a 94 Toyota Camry with the license plate “F8 TAKR.” Alice turns off the ignition and, with a loud pop and a rusty squeal of the hinges, gets out of the El Camino. Before she can take two steps towards her abode, Jenny speaks up from behind the crooked screen door.

“You little slut, you!” Jenny stands leaning on the aluminum door frame sipping on a coffee mug with a picture of the famous “Welcome To Vegas” sign.

“Are James and Dylan alright?” Alice asks.

“They’re keeping themselves busy playing with dirty needles and matches.”

“Very funny.”

“Coffee is waiting, but you don’t get any until you tell me exactly what happened after you left the Rhino last night.”

###

James and Dylan sit on the shag carpeting in their PJs. All of their attention is on the twelve inch screen displaying Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. The flip up door of their Nintendo is long since broken off and missing.

Alice and Jenny sit at the kitchen table which is hinged on the wall, coffee in front of each. Jenny can’t get the grin of gossip desire off her face. Alice watches her children steadfast.

“You’ve got to be kidding me? You don’t remember anything?” Jenny asks.

“I remember meeting two guys at the Rhino. I remember thinking it was a pleasant surprise to see unfamiliar faces to have a drink with. Then. Nothing.”

Jenny’s suspicions are confirmed, “I knew it! I knew they put something in your drink! You’re never that easy! Probably GHB!”

Alice’s eyes widen and her mouth drops open, “You knew they laced my drink and you let me go with them anyway?”

“Shit girl, it’s been too goddamn long since you let loose! I figured you needed your panties dropped!”

“I have two kids, Jenny! Sorry if I’m not as big a party as you’d like me to be! Besides, getting my ‘panties dropped’ is partly the reason I’m living in a tin shed, with two boys, and no one to help me raise’em.”

James, the older boy, doesn’t take his eyes off the video game, but adds to the conversation anyway, “I can get a job, Mom. I’ll help you raise Dylan.” James is nine years old, but he means what he says.

“I know you can, baby, but you need to finish up being a kid first. Then I’ll let you take care of the whole family, kay?”

“I’ll help too.” Dylan interjects.

“I know you will, sweetie.” Alice smiles at her boys.

Back to grown up conversation, Jenny can’t resist the mystery.  “You should have heard yourself last night! You and the tall one were smacking each other around with insults.”

“and you let me leave with this guy?”

“Honey, the words might have been mean, but the ‘please fuck me’ tension was thick!”

Nervous for her children, but holstering a smile, “Watch your goddamn mouth!.. So did you get the other one?”

“Last night was all you, girl. You left in a brand new Yukon with both of’em.”

“You are some friend you know that?” Alice adds.

“I know I am, who else is gonna watch your kids when you leave with your man AND my man!” Jenny can’t hold in her laughter. “Don’t worry, mine wasn’t all that much fun anyway. Sour puss all night long.”

###

Alice and Jenny circle the El Camino as if it was a car they were considering on a used car lot.

“This is not the car you left in, I can tell you that.” Jenny takes a closer look at Alice’s face in the morning light. “Honey, I think you’re getting a black eye.”

“I woke up with a bloody nose.”

“Well, now that you’re safe at home I can say – You must have had a GREAT NIGHT!” Jenny thinks she’s funny. She has no idea how abrasive her squeal of a laugh can be.

“And if I didn’t come home?” Alice queries.

“Well then that would’a been not such a great night, now wouldn’t it.” Jenny kicks a tire and then rounds her way to the trunk. “That’s weird, there’s a latch.”

“What?”

“Instead of the regular lock. Damn things been welded on. Wonder whats inside!” Jenny gets an evil and excited grin on her face, “Let’s get a crowbar!”

Alice looks at the lock. The metal ring and flap that attaches the trunk door in the close position is rusty, but the thick pad lock keeping it secure is brand new. “I don’t think we need a crowbar.”

“Oh like you’re not interested as all hell to know what’s inside! What if it’s a body, or, or, or money!”

Jenny reaches under her collar and pulls out the key hanging from a shoe string. “This was around my neck when I woke up.”

Jenny and Alice stare at each other.

Too anxious to think straight, Jenny tries to move the process along, “Well?… You gonna open it?”

TO BE CONTINUED ON A FUTURE BLOG TOPIC… I DON’T KNOW WHEN OR WHICH ONE  🙂