Chapter 24

It had been a quiet nine and a half months since Billy, the storm, and Lance had left them. Kelly and Nix had sat down with the girls the night after the incident, talking to them and answering questions as best as they could. Gregg ended up answering most of them while Sabaste sat with Jayce on the floor where they busied themselves by building a small city with Legos. After the demise of Lance, the storm had decided to finally come, and there had been some damage to the house. Thankfully it was mostly cosmetic, but it had survived well. The trees surrounding Gregg’s home had blocked it from most of the hard wind and the rain that had pelted the area and for that Nix was grateful; less work to have to clean up before he got busy with the remodel.

Nix had spent the past few days cleaning up the old family graveyard that sat just on the outskirts of the modest backyard. He worked with a solemn quietness, trimming trees, weeding, and scrubbing down the family tombstones with bleach and lye soap, bringing them back as best as he could to their original beauty. He was sure Billy would appreciate the irony there.

The fieldstone enclosure was still in good shape, but he would need to replace the old wrought iron fence that sat atop it as a deterrent and decoration. The day had started off a little too chilly for his liking, but as it wore on, he finally removed his denim jacket and hung it over a low hanging limb. It pained him to see that it swung close to the tall tombstone sitting close to the stone wall; the tall one with Billy’s name on it. Nix realized he had spent the majority of his time avoiding that particular area and now felt it was time to address his friend, so he walked to the marker and gazed down at the leaf littered earth.

“You know, you are one huge pain in the neck,” he said. “All this time, you fought so hard for us to leave you alone, and yet you kept pestering us… and now where are you? It’s been nearly a year and not a peep, I… I can’t help but to worry if you’re not really dead.”

A gentle pulse of wind sighed along the field, rustling the tall grass before it came along the little cemetery, where it rattled the leaves about Nix’s feet.

“I really miss you, man. Gregg misses you like crazy. He hasn’t been… right since you left. He’s kept watch every night for you, waiting for you to come back. Jenn misses you, we all do.” His knee let out a pop as he sank down upon it. The hand carved name and date of birth and death weren’t as deep as they had been in years past, and moss, dried with the years, crumbled away as Nix touched Billy’s name. “I feel like I’m really mourning you… I feel like you’re lost to us. I don’t like that, man.” He looked up, almost expecting to see the tall blond hovering over him and disappointment flooded his heart.

“Look,” Nix said, “how about we make a compromise, huh? You come back and I let you go through my stuff and I’ll only yell at you when I forget I made this promise. You can harass the guy that comes and reads the power meter, I won’t stop you. I know how much you like doing that.” He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the weathered marble as his heart began to fill with grief. “C’mon, man… I got one best friend back, but I’ve lost another. I need you, too. Is that what you want to hear? Well, fine, I need you, so you can come on out from wherever it is that you’re hiding and just… come back to us. We need you.”

“Nix?” Gregg’s soft voice spoke up, causing him to jump. Nix turned his face over his shoulder, a look of guilt on his tear streaked face. Shame caused him to scrub them away with the heel of his palm.

“Yeah?”

“Kelly wanted me to come get you; she says she’s about to cook supper and doesn’t want you out here in the graveyard any longer than you had to be.” The normal pleasant tone of his voice had been replaced with a softer near monotone as time without Billy wore on.

Nix offered Gregg a gentle smile as he rose. “Yeah, she’s right,” he said and felt a deep welling of appreciation when Gregg didn’t speak up about what he had walked in on. Together, they headed back to the house in silence.

“Honey, I’m home,” Nix said as he walked through the back door. Gregg had opted to sit on the front porch steps to have a bit of alone time. Ever since Billy had left, that’s where he spent the majority of his time. There, or on the back porch swing, with his face turned to the cemetery as he waited loyally in hopes that Billy would return. Or, perhaps, Nix had reasoned to himself, Gregg was keeping vigil, protecting his friends’ grave.

“You know, Nick, I thought I would be jumping at every shadow since that bad night happened…” Kelly commented out of the blue as she began to prepare their supper.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, but it’s just been so quiet around here. There’s been a peace and calmness, and it’s just so nice.” She washed the chicken she was preparing to fry as she spoke. “The only thing missing is Billy. Did he go to Heaven? Could that be why we haven’t seen him? He told me before the storm came that he was told to stay here, that he had something to do.”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s moved on. Joined his family and found his own peace,” Nix said, finally accepting the fact that he wasn’t going to see the cranky blond ever again.

“I miss him,” Kelly said. “Bad mood and all, he was an okay guy.”

“Yeah,” Nix smiled. It faded on his lips. “It’s killing Gregg, they’ve been best friends for nearly two hundred years, and now his best friend is gone. He tries hard not to show it, but you can see the suffering in his eyes when he thinks you’re not looking.”

“I couldn’t imagine that loneliness,” Kelly replied as she waited for the oil in the pan to heat up. “I know Jenn misses him. He seemed to be a father figure to her while Ade was at work. Now that she doesn’t have him to come in during the night to randomly check the closets when she has a bad dream, she just doesn’t sleep as well as she used to.”

“Yeah,” Nix said with a soft chuckle. “She told me the other day that she missed him checking the closet for her, or shaking the bed to get her up for school, or sitting at her dollhouse with her.”

“He’d really play with her at the dollhouse?”

“Yeah!” Nix laughed. “He’d kill me if he heard me tell you that, but he would. Jenn said they’d sit up there for hours, arranging the furniture and talking and pretending. I think that was his way of keeping her from watching too much television.”

“I hope that wherever he is, he’s found peace.”

“Me, too.” Nix whispered.

*****

“Hey, Gregg, give me a push!” Jenn had climbed upon the tire swing that Nix and Gregg had put up. Sabaste tried to help, but ended up talking more than doing. When they were done, the kids had swarmed to it for a ride. Now, hardly a day passed when they weren’t in the swing after homework was finished. Soon it would be too cold to stay outside for long.

Gregg lifted Jayce and sat him next to Jenn before grasping the rope handles to give them a good push forward.

“Hey, man, you need to get a running start if you want to get them to spin on the backswing,” Sabaste helped from the porch. Gregg ducked under the swing as it arced away over his head, and then made his way to Sabaste.

“I’ll leave that to you, I don’t want to be responsible for injuries.”

“They aren’t going to get hurt in that thing, they’re safe! Kids are tougher than parents think. I used to fall down the stairs all the time as a kid.” Sabaste said. “Look how happy they are to be going so fast!”

“Kids have no idea of their mortality,” Gregg said bleakly as he sat down on the steps. He wished he could find joy in their happiness, but the ache in his heart was too greedy.

“Do you think your friend died?” Sabaste asked, leaning on the railing.

“He was already dead,” Gregg answered softly as his hand came up, pressing gently against his chest. He liked Sabaste now, but Sabaste wasn’t Billy.

“Hey, Gregg! Give us another push!” Jenn exclaimed through her laughter. “We’re starting to slow down!” He lifted his face, feigning a smile as he pulled his hand away from his heart, and then aimed his palm towards them. The tire swing shuddered, and then moved out in a wide arc, causing whoops of glee.

“Maybe he’ll come back?”

Gregg shook his head. “I’ve searched every inch of this place, and it’s been almost a year. He’s not coming back,” he said gently.

“Yes, but he searched every inch of this place and never found me and I was hiding in the basement.”

“Good point.” For a moment, Gregg allowed himself a small bit of hope to break up his gloom. He sighed as he tilted his face up to the sky. It looked like rain. He never thought he’d get tired of the rain.

“You shouldn’t give up so easy, man.” Sabaste let out a sigh of his own as he plopped down next to Gregg. “Giving up is a sign of weakness, and you can’t be weak. You have to keep the hope alive inside of you.”

“I know. I try not to. I like to keep a positive outlook on things.”

“You two have been dead a long time, you’ll be alright.” Sabaste threw his arm around Gregg’s shoulders, giving him a squeeze as his smile turned into a brotherly smirk. Gregg let out a soft cry of alarm, and then began to struggle when he found himself in a headlock, causing Jayce to squeal laughter at the scene as the tire swing began to slow down once more. When Jade came off the porch in order to give them a push since Gregg was preoccupied, Jayce took the opportunity to slip down through the hole and run out into the yard, where the border collie waited for him as she grinned at the little boy. When he sank to his knees and put his arms around her neck, her tail enthusiastically thumped her ribs as she licked his cheek.