Kinetics (2 page)

“You’re nothing.” Ronnie coughed
painfully.  His left eye looked painfully blood shot and was beginning to
swell. 

Josh laughed and jostled the crowd
around him, “Who here would say that I am nothing?  I am worth twice what any
of you are worth.” Josh nearly stuck his finger in Ronnie’s eye in anger.  The
people all around us began chanting
Josh, Josh
, over and over again.  He
punched Ronnie in the stomach once again.  He yelled into the air making a show
of things.

Josh grinned ear to ear with bloody
teeth, fists held high celebrating his victory over Ronnie.  His buddies
dropped Ronnie to the ground next to where Kenny laid.

 I was finally let loose from the crowd,
as everyone lost interest and dispersed.  I dropped to my knees next to Ronnie,
“What did you think was going to happen?” I looked at his black swollen eye and
gently examined his head.

“I wanted to show him that we are not
just going to sit by and take it while he treats you like crap.  Besides, Kenny
had my back.” He smiled with red teeth. 

“I wasn’t going to just let him beat on
you man.” Kenny’s head was lying in Sandy’s lap.  Kenny had less facial damage,
but he strained to speak.

“Grace, I will never just sit by and let
something like that just keep happening.  I care about you; I care about all of
you more than that.  You all deserve to be treated with respect.” He pushed himself
up off the ground slowly and made for his keys.  They were in the grass in
front of his car.  When he found them he looked at me to pick them up off the
ground.

“Well, it was stupid.” I helped him
stand up straight and walk to his car.

“That’s beside the point.” He joked,
opening his door, and getting into the car and gently slid into the driver’s
seat.

The drive home from school was short and
quiet.  We all had to figure out a way to explain what happened to the old
lady, the woman who took care of us, no matter what we came up with, she would
figure out the truth and we would be punished.  She was very strict and she
despised fighting. 

We all sighed in relief that she wasn’t
home when we pulled in the driveway.  She usually went into town to visit with
a few of her old friends during the day while we were at school.  We all went
inside, Kenny walked up the stairs slowly to the boy’s bathroom, and Ronnie
went downstairs to the girl’s. 

The house was separated into three
levels.  The top floor was where the boy’s rooms and bathroom were.  The middle
had the living room, kitchen, dining room, the old lady’s bedroom, and other
various utility rooms.  I never understood why, but the girls were downstairs,
I always assumed it was some kind of joke. 

Strictly speaking, the boys were never
allowed in the basement, and vice versa, but when the old lady was away we
hardly ever followed the rules.  I knocked on the girl’s bathroom door.

“Yeah.” Ronnie spit blood into the sink.

I opened the door slowly.  Ronnie stood
in front of the sink with his shirt off, covered from his neck to his waist in
bruises, and his face swelling quickly.  The sink had a small puddle of blood
sitting in the bowl.  “Are you alright?”

“I’ll live.” He ran some water over a
cut on his fist.  I wondered if he was going to need stitches.

“Why did you do that Ronnie?” I leaned
on the door frame.

He chuckled and washed his face, “Grace,
you are not worthless.  You are worth ten times any one of those assholes.  You
need to realize that.” He turned and placed his hand on my face.  He looked
into my eyes and I could feel what was going to happen next, so I turned away
from him.

“The old lady will be home soon.” I
cleared my throat.  I walked out of the room without another word. 

Upstairs in the living room Kenny was
sprawled out on the couch watching TV.  I pushed his foot out of the way; he
winced with every movement, and sat down next to him.  It was some sitcom, on a
comedy channel. 

“What’s the damage?” I wasn’t interested
in the show on the TV.

“Mostly bruising, I think, nothing that
some pampering won’t fix.” He smiled knowing that I would take care of him.

“Don’t count on it, the old lady is
going to work your butt off this weekend because of this, and you know it.” I
smiled back shooting a hole in his weekend plans of lying around and doing
nothing.  His grin vanished as he came to realize that I was right.  He would
have at least double the chores that he normally had, if she went light on us.

Sandy came in from the kitchen, and sat
down in an empty arm chair, “I just got off the phone with the old lady, and
she said that the school called her about the fight.  It turns out that when
Ronnie kicked Josh in the stomach he broke three of his ribs; he is in the
hospital right now.” Satisfaction washed over all of us, but we quickly
realized the hell we would soon be in.

“Who cares about Josh, how mad was the
old lady?” Kenny started to flip through the channels. 

“Well, I tried to explain the whole
situation to her, but she didn’t care.  I think that the both of you are going
to be in some deep crap for a while.” Sandy left the room ducking into her
bedroom. 

“I don’t care, Josh won’t try anything
like that again with you Grace.” Ronnie walked across the sitting room and went
up the stairs.  A few moments later his bedroom door slammed shut.

~//~

The old lady was home before the next
show could start and she was quiet, which was never a good sign.  She cooked
dinner without uttering a word, allowing the tension to build.  At one point
she walked up stairs and knocked on Ronnie’s door, but he didn’t answer.

We all sat around the table for dinner,
minus Ronnie, who never came out of his room.  I thought that after getting
beat so bad, he would want some food but he never came down.

“It does not matter if someone is making
fun of you or anything like that you never fight.  I have to fill out all kinds
of paper work on every issue that comes up, and fighting is no different.” The
old lady passed the pasta around the table. 

None of us said anything; we just ate
and let her lecture on about all the work that she has to do to keep us here. 
It always seemed to me that we were more trouble than we were worth; but once I
caught a glimpse of one of her paychecks from the government.  It was well
worth the headache.  That didn’t stop her from complaining though. 

The three of us cleaned up the meal
while the old lady got comfortable in front of the TV.  I always hated the crap
that she wanted to watch, so I went to get ready for bed right after our chores
were finished. 

I took a hot shower.  Before I left the
bathroom I stopped in front of the mirror.  I looked at my face and thought about
what Ronnie had said.  He thought that I am not worthless.

I had no idea.  I had no idea at all
about anything.  I didn’t know what I was doing.  I didn’t know why I turned
away from Ronnie, I knew that he was going to kiss me, but I felt like we shouldn’t. 
We didn't fit right together at all.  He was nice, loving, but more like a
brother.

I looked over at the hand towel that was
still soaked in his blood.  I couldn’t understand why someone could have
feelings for me.  I closed my eyes and decided that thinking about it wasn't
going to solve anything.

My room was always cold; the hot air
never seemed to make it all the way down.  I climbed into my bed and pulled the
covers up to my arms.  I turned my computer on and started some music that
helped me sleep.  The food was heavy in my stomach making me sleepy, but making
it hard for me to get comfortable.  I tossed and turned for a while.

I heard a soft knock on my door.  I
turned over to look at my clock.  It was two in the morning, “What?”

“Can I come in?” The door was cracked
and I could see Ronnie’s eye in the doorway.

“I guess." I pushed myself up into
a sitting position, "its kind of late isn’t it?”

“I know but I wanted to talk to you.”  He
seemed kind of weird.

"Can't this wait till
morning?"

"Come on."

“I’m all ears.” I rubbed my eyes and
gave him all of the attention that I could muster in my half sleeping state. 

“I’m sorry that I came on so strong.  I
just want you to remember that you are a wonderful person and you don’t need to
let anyone take advantage of you.” He sat on the end of my bed.

“Ronnie, I am thankful for what you did
for me.  It was stupid, but I understand why you did it. Don't think twice
about what happened earlier.  You surprised me, and I’m just not ready for that
kind of relationship yet.  I've seen all these kids at our school rushing
through love, and I want to take things slowly.” I took his hand, “I want to
get out of this place, and out on my own.  Want to meet my parents?  Sorry, I
don’t have any…”            

Ronnie smiled and stood up.

“What?  What are you smiling for?”

“Oh, nothing.” He turned to walk out of
the room, and as he reached for the door knob, the door flew open knocking him
to the floor with enough force to send him sliding across the floor. 

“Ronnie!” I yelled, as a man in a long,
black coat, helmet, and night vision goggles shot at Ronnie with a gun.  It
wasn’t a real gun, it was far too quiet, but he turned it on me next, and shot
me in the stomach. 

“We have units one and two.” The man
said.

I looked down at the dart and everything
started to go black.  My head hit the ground, and shortly thereafter everything
was dark.

When I opened my eyes I couldn’t see
anything.  The room was not lit very well but when I moved my arm, two lights
above me flickered on.  My eyes burned a little when the light hit them so I
covered my face with my arm. 

I was half lying on a steel bench and
half lying on a concrete floor.  I had whole body chills from my head to my
toes from the damp cold in the room.  The room itself was divided down the
center by a wall of thick metal bars.  The only way in or out of the room was
on the other side of those bars. 

Kenny was lying on the bench next to
me.  He was beginning to stir. 

Ronnie was lying on the ground next to
the bars and Sandy crumpled in a heap on the other side of Kenny.

“How long have you been awake?” Kenny
sat up squinting around the room.

“Not long.” I pulled my legs up onto the
bench with me and wrapped my arms around my knees.  I rubbed my arms trying to
warm up.

“What the hell is going on?” He felt his
way around the edge of the room while his eyes finished adjusting.  He took
hold of the bars in the center of the room with both of his hands and tried to
shake them.

“This isn’t like the cell in the police
station back home.” He smirked.  He had been locked up one time overnight
because he had stolen a car to go for a quick joyride.  That is what he told
the police anyway; he was really trying to run away. 

“What’s different?”

“These bars are about three times
thicker and I’m not sure, but I think these might be made of carbon fiber.”

“Fascinating.” I let my head fall onto
my arm.  I didn’t care if this cell was identical to the cell in the police
station back home.

“On top of that, these people are a lot
more interested in what’s going on in here.” He pointed around the room to four
different cameras that cover every square inch of the room.

“Ugh, why are we here? What have we
done?” I threw my head back against the wall just a little too hard.  I closed
my eyes as my head was flooded with a head ache.

“Do you remember anything from the ride
here?” Kenny paced around the room. 

“No, not really.  I woke up once or
twice.  Once I know we were in a truck piled up in the middle of the floor. 
The road was rough.  The other time I opened my eyes, it didn’t feel like we
were moving, and I couldn’t see anything.  Everything was blurry.” I couldn’t
get warm no matter what I tried.

“I think we were on an aircraft.”

“Where are we?” Ronnie spoke through clenched
teeth.  He shifted his body to lean against the bars, coughing with each
movement.

“Your guess is as good as ours.” I said.

Kenny walked over to where Sandy lay and
sat down beside her head.  He gently lifted it and placed it in his lap.  Then
he began to stroke her hair.

“I think under the circumstances all we
can do is wait.” He said.

“How do you feel?” I asked Ronnie. 

He held onto his gut and clenched
tighter with each movement. 

“Horrible, and I’m not sure what did the
most damage, the door, or Josh’s beat down.”

“Before you came down to my room did you
notice anything out of the ordinary?” I asked.

“Nothing, and I was outside before I
came down to your room.” He rubbed his eyes, “I waited for the old woman to go
to bed before sneaking into the house.”