Chapter 19: .post_Janazah
My parents were at the funeral. They didn’t even bother saying hello to me. Dad sent me some glances, thinking I wouldn’t notice. I did. I sat in between Chrissie and Scott. Chrissie had left the Bashor-residence long before the bomb went off. No one was injured or killed in that bomb.
The Amanda Sprague-bomb was another story. 6 police officers, including the computer analyst Jason, were killed, and 4 injured. Unfortunately for Scott, this didn’t mean he was back on the case. He was still cleared from duty.
We exited the mosque and I got into Scott’s car. We said goodbye to Chrissie, who had to go back to work.
There hadn’t been a wake. We had decided to meet up in the forest after the funeral. We drove together. Jennifer first in her luxury Lamborghini, then Chris, Beatrice, Lillian, and me and Scott at the end of the row of cars. The drive was long and Scott was tired after talking to the dead officer’s families. It was a Monday, and exact week since the incident. Derrick had been to Rose and John Bashor’s funeral. There weren’t many people going there.
The forest started an hour outside of town. We pulled into a dirt road and continued for a couple of minutes. We stopped in a camping area. There were no campers here this time of the year, so our mourning could go on uninterrupted. We got out of our cars and walked up to the field where we would stay. Everyone had brought beer. Chris, of course, had to bring something stronger. He had scotch in his bag.
Jen tried to get everyone’s attention. She held her bottle of beer in the air and shouted for us to stop chitchatting.
“We’re gathered here, in this beautiful forest, to honour Em’s memory. I just want to say a few words about Em. Emily A’idah was a happy girl. She was the kind of person you always knew would listen to your problems. She was wild, but she knew that sometimes she had to come down and be with us earth dwellers. To Em!” she said and drank.
“I have known Em ever since first grade. She was nice to me when no one else was. I think that’s why I fell in love with her,” it went quiet as Beatrice spilled her darkest secret. “She helped me come to terms with the fact that I liked both men and women. Without her I would have been yet another confused teenager. To Em!” She rank.
“Em helped motivated me to get a sports grant, so that I could go to uni. She helped me get the best girlfriend I could ever ask for,” Chris smiled and looked at me, “and she taught me that Muslim women weren’t all oppressed. To Emily!” he took a swig of his scotch.
“Em helped me get money to start a bar. I didn’t have enough money myself to go to uni, and having a bar was sort of always a dream in the back of my mind. She showed me that you didn’t necessarily need an education to do well in life, and that as long as you had the right work morals, you could accomplish anything. To Em!”
Scott stepped forward. He twirled his beer and looked uncomfortable, but he still talked.
“Em and I were involved. Romantically involved. I know not all you knew that, but now you know. I fell for her from the moment I first saw her. Some believe in love at first sight, I don’t know about that, but it was certainly lust at first sight,” we laughed. “But on a more serious note, Em was the best thing that ever happened to me. And because of her, I’ve found someone. Someone worth fighting for. So to Emily!” He looked at me as he talked. I knew he talked about me, and I didn’t mind. For the first time, he admitted what he felt for me. I knew I felt the same way about him.
“There’s not much left to say,” I started. “But I just want to summarise Em for you. She was the one that taught us to reach for the stars when the sun blinded us. She taught us to stand on level ground when we had been the surface beneath us had been rocky. She taught us to respect our equals and know our better men. She wouldn’t let it face us that someone was better at something, and she’d say that there would always be someone that was better, because if there wasn’t there was no point trying to improve. I loved Emily A’idah. She was a messy co-worker, but an immaculate friend. I will always remember her. To Emily,” I said downing the whole beer. I hadn’t realised I was crying until a drop hit my hand.
I tried to stick to Scott for the rest of the evening. We made some idle small talk with the other guests. Beatrice was bawling into Chris’ chest, and he was drinking heavily. Jen sat in an isolated corner of the open space, and Lillian was passed out drunk. Bruce hadn’t showed up, for whatever reason. He wasn’t at the funeral either. Maybe he was afraid to show people that he actually had emotions. That was probably the case. I hadn’t seen him since the episode in school.
I made my rounds, talking to everyone, but avoiding Chris. We drank and cried while we thought about Em. I had finished two beers and I started to feel a little wobbly. That’s when Chris came up to me. The stench of alcohol hung around him like a personal rain-cloud.
“Hi Oni,” he said, trying to kiss me.
“I don’t want to talk to you right now.”
“Didn’t you hear I talked about you in my speech?” he asked.
“Unfortunately,” I said. I tried to get away from him, but he followed me around.
“Do you have to keep following me?” I asked.
“You love it.”
“No I don’t, actually. I’m getting real sick and tired of you Chris. I think we should take a break,” I said. Chris looked like he didn’t understand what I had just said.
“You don’t mean that,” he said pulling me close to him. His hand found my behind. I angrily shook him off.
“That’s it! This relationship is over. I can’t be your sex-doll while you get drunk!” Some of the guests turned to look at us. Scott walked towards us.
“Oni, you don’t mean it. You’re drunk,” Chris laughed. I was fuming with anger. I ran into the woods, leaving the party behind. I could hear footsteps following me.
“I told you, Chris, stay away from me!”
“I’m not Chris,” Scott said. I turned around to see his stern eyes.
“I’m not in the mood, Scott.” I continued marching into the depths of the forest. He followed by my side the whole time. He didn’t say anything, but I knew that he wanted to. I could feel the heaviness in the air. I was going to rain.
We came to a steep hill. I felt Scott spin me around. I was standing face to face with him.
“Hi,” he said softly, removing a stray lock of hair from my face.
“Hi, yourself,” I answered. The beautiful landscape was all around us.
He kissed me. Right then and there, on the top of the hill. It was gentle and reassuring.
I pulled away for a second.
“How much did you have to drink?” I asked.715Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuKS0rkihl0
“A sip of beer.” I nodded and went back to kissing him. I closed my eyes. Our noses crushing against each other awkwardly. He still tasted of cinnamon buns, but there was a slightly bitter taste there. It was the beer most likely.
His lips were my entire world, and I was pressed against them, feeling every sensation of the world beneath me.
We lay down in the wet October grass. There was nothing lustful about this kissing. It was nothing more than pure innocence and experimentation. I felt him win my body over. Slowly but surely I started to trust the movements of his body. My hands found his neck and I pressed him a little closer to me.
Suddenly, we started rolling down the hill. I screamed, both of fear and joy, as we flew down the hillside. I tried keeping as close to Scott as possible as we rolled down. I got butterflies in my stomach and the adrenaline rushed through me.
After a good half a minute, we were down on the field beneath the hill. We got up, wiped our now wet clothes and looked around. There was a small farmhouse close to us. It looked like there was someone living there.
“Let’s investigate,” I said. Before Scott could protest, I grabbed his hand and led him towards the house. We started kissing again before we reached the house. We had to stop many times just to feel each other's presence.
When we finally reached the house, and knocked on the door. When no one answered, I tried to open the door. It was unlocked.
“I don’t think we should go inside,” Scott murmured against my lips.
“Why not? They probably have a bed,” I tried sounding as seductive as possible.
“It’s breaking and entering. It’s punishable.”
I sent him a mischievous smile and stepped inside.715Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTVy6zl8d4u
“Cuff me, officer,” I winked and closed the door behind me. I got uneasy as I stood there in the hallway alone, but before I could go outside again, Scott joined me.
“You’re a bad influence,” he said and pecked my cheek. The place was surprisingly clean. It couldn’t have been abandoned for long. Scott shouted a couple of times, to see if there was anyone there. He grabbed my face and pressed me up against the wall. I moaned his name softly as he attacked my neck. I could feel him growing more desperate with each kiss. Then as suddenly as he started, he stopped.
“It feels weird doing this here,” he whispered.
“What do you mean?” I asked, voice thick with desire.
“It feels like someone’s watching us. Let’s explore this place. I didn’t even know this house existed.” I agreed, happy that he was the one suggesting exploring for once. We looked upstairs and found a few pieces of furniture covered by white plastic sheets. Someone had left this place expecting to come back. In the fridge, however, we found milk that wasn’t expired. Actually it would expire a week from now. We also found eggs and some bacon, still in its packaging.
There was one room upstairs that was locked. Scott tried to pry the door open but it wouldn’t budge.
“Get back, I’m kicking this door down.” I did as he said.
Behind the door we found what looked to be an old meth lab. It was long since abandoned, but the lab equipment was still on the table.
“How long has this been going on for?” Scott asked himself.
In the corner of the room there were computers and cameras. They were disconnected. We looked for bombs, but couldn’t find anything. It was weird that this place hadn’t gone up in flames like the other labs.
“I need to report this. Let’s head back.”715Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmGynDOMAvA
We were making our way downstairs when we heard rustling from the basement.
“What the hell was that?” I asked.
Scott didn’t have his gun with him, so I could see the fright on his face.
“We need to check it out,” he said, his voice shaking. “It’s my job.”
“It’s not your job anymore, Scott. You don’t need to look down there.” He found his badge in his pocket. It was the only thing he had to protect himself with. Many criminals got startled when they saw an officer’s badge, but I doubted these criminals would mind.
“We need to look.” It was final, and I knew we needed to do it.
We sneaked down the cellar stairs as quietly as we could. The door creaked open. We were met by the sight of a huge device in the middle of the room. There were all kinds of wires connected to the device. On the other side of the room we saw a man, making his way out of the basement. I swear it was the same man Darren was talking to that evening outside 45 Sundrive Avenue.
“Stop, it’s the police.” The man stopped, turned around and smiled. In his hand he held a small cylinder shaped object with a red button on top. He showed it to us. Scott’s eyes grew wide.
“Get the hell out of here, Oni. Run as fast as you can! It’s a bomb!,” he screamed.
“What about you?”
“I’ll catch this guy,” he said, starting to run after the man.
I ran in the opposite direction. Out of the house, and to the edge of the forest. I ran as fast as my feet would let me. I gasped for air as I ran to save my life. I only stopped when I reached the dense forest. I turned around just to see the house explode. The sound came a second after I saw the lights from the explosion. I got into foetal position and covered my ears. When I got up, the house was gone. My ears were ringing, even though I did a good job covering them.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
“You really should not say that,” a dark voice behind me said. I turned slowly and looked into a pair of glistening green eyes.
Ubel was coming out of the thick forest. He was walking straight towards me with a serious look on his face. I backed away, but for some reason, my feet were too shaky. I didn’t know if it was the shock of the explosion or the beers. His breath reeked.
“Hi,” he said, holding me in stranglehold with one hand. I struggled, but to no prevail. He was much larger and stronger than me.
“You really should not struggle. It will tire you out,” he said.
“What are you planning to do with me?” I wriggled against his hold.
“Do not worry about that. Just stay quiet, we have both suffered a loss today.” Before I got the chance to ask him what he meant, he raised his other hand. He had a tire iron in it. He lowered it quickly and hit me over the head.
It all went dark.
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