Chapter Three: The New Stranger

As she walked slowly on his wonderfully gloomy Saturday morning, she counted the number of steps she had taken as one foot moved in front of the other. As the numbers consecutively rolled in her head, "four hundred and twenty, four hundred and twenty-one, four hundred and twenty-two..."She looked down at the water only five feet away. Until at a moment, she paused as questions ran through her head one after another. Each dealing with a sudden urge she had to jump into the dark, deep water that filled her thoughts. She wondered to herself about whether or not she should just pick up two heavy rocks and tie them onto her dress and stepping into the water. So that she could just put to an end any distress she had.


"No," she shook her head as she returned back to reality. "No what am I thinking?"


She continued on, "Four hundred and sixty-one, four hundred and sixty-two, four hundred and sixty-three..."


Earlier that morning, Zelya had stormed into Layne’s room at five in the morning just to clean. As Layne was sleeping, Zelya came in with thunderous noise as she moved back and forth with a hungry vacuum at her side. She needed to get away, free of Zelya’s manner to move anything that came in sight. Now she was walking and free outside even if it could just be for a moment.


"There,” Zelya declared with a great sense of accomplishment. “Finally done.” She was finally done after cleaning the windows, the rooms, the bathrooms, mopping the floors, vacuuming, and a lot more that see had done from earlier that morning. Her eyes looked around the room, looking for the sister that she had thrown out of her room.


“Great, where did she go now?” Poor Zelya, so distracted by her own work cleaning that she had not even noticed when Layne had walked and hurried out of the house. “What do I do now?” She didn’t need or bother worrying about Layne, she was sixteen already and this should be an experience worth learning from. If Layne got lost, she would find her was back somehow. She decided to clean out and organize everything that was in the attic.
“Six hundred and thirty, six hundred and thirty-one, six hundred and sixty-two…” She walked under a tree and lay on the grass. She rested her head on her hands as she looked up at the sky. The sky was a gloomy blue-gray with white clouds. She was really tired. Even though, Zelya had woken up that was not the reason why she was tired. She had not slept well for days. Each night she would fall asleep, it would always end with her having nightmares. She wasn’t exactly sure why she was having them. She had constantly had them in the past but they were different now. It wasn’t just the nightmares. Lately she has just been out of it; she can’t make her mind on decisions. Somehow maybe she’s losing her mind and going crazy. But then again her father used to say that crazy people don’t know that they are crazy and she believed him.
As she lay on the grass under a tree looking at the sky, her eyes began to hurt and she could hardly keep them open. After a while, she fell asleep. In her dream, she recalled a moment in her childhood where she had been in a park just like today. It was not a calm day like today, actually it was gently raining. She has wandered off too far away when she was young and she was all alone. She was lost and scared. She had been walking for almost two hours but she didn’t want to turn back not that it would make a difference. She kept walking until she came upon a wounded bird on the ground. It was a tiny little bird and its eyes were closed and it was chirping. It was almost heartbreaking she wanted to help it but she didn’t know how. She picked up the bird with her hand, took off her jacket and wrapped it so it wouldn’t get sick.
She ran to somewhere where it wasn’t wet. But when she checked on the bird, it wasn’t moving. No noise came from it and all she could see was its heartbeat as it slowly stopped. She thought it was just sleeping but when it didn’t wake up, she felt a heavy sadness came over her. She started to cry but all she could do was run away. She reached the road and waited for a car to pass. She couldn’t stop crying and when a car finally came close she stepped forward and walked in front of the approaching car. Time moved slowly. She was expecting to die, but to her surprise she wasn’t. The car had stopped just in time. She wasn’t sure whether or not she should be sad, but she wasn’t crying anymore. Since that day, she has always been sad for reasons that may be simple to others. Her childhood was always haunted by a tiny little bird that forever changed her life.
“Are you dead?” a stranger’s voice called out.
Layne tiredly woke up and looked up to a girl. She stood there next to her laughing down at her.
“Urr, no I don’t think so,” Layne replied.
“Who are you?”
“No one special but if you must know, my name is Rachel Wolf.” She stuck out her hand for Layne to take, “And you are?”
“I’m Layne, Layne Winters.”
“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, mind if I join you?”
“Uhh, sure.”
“Thanks,” she laid down next to Layne. “I needed to get away from my parents up there. They’re having another argument. They said for better or worse, but I guess they chose the worst! Parents, right?”
“Um, my parents are dead.”
“Ohh,” she sat up and began to get teary-eyed. She cries, “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
“Why are you crying?” she laughed softly.
“What?”
“No, I mean I like…I haven’t even cried so I find it kind of funny that you would be more emotional than me.”
“It’s just so sad.”
“No, don’t cry. Well you know, I’m actually okay. I wasn’t close to them.”
“How did they die?”
“They died in a car crash a month ago in Los Angeles while I was at home. I was told that they died at three in the morning. To tell you the truth, I didn’t really care... Do you think that is cruel that I don’t even care that I lost my only parents?”
“I’m not sure; sometimes not caring is really just away to protect yourself from any pain.”
“Hmm maybe but I doubt it though,” Layne awkwardly said.
Noticing the awkwardness in Layne, Rachel changed the subject. She continued on, “So, where do you live now?”
“I now live down the street with my sister who I barely know.”
“Oh, how is that? Is she nice?” Rachel casually asked.
“Uh, it’s a new experience and it’s taking some time to get used to. I wish I could just run away.”
“Why?”
“No, don’t get me wrong. Zelya is very nice and clean but I don’t belong there. I don’t belong anywhere.”
“Well, if you ever decide to run away, I’ll run away with you. Anywhere is better than living with my parents. I pretty much hate them. I wish I could die. Actually, I’ve tried to kill myself many times but never actually did it.”
Layne was shocked to hear this. Rachel looked like the type of girl who would always be happy and not have a care in the world about any troubles. But to hear that she has tried to kill herself is almost relieving. For once she has met someone who is open about who she is and not afraid to admit that she has problems. She longed to be like Rachel to be as unguarded and straight-forward as she was.
“Are you okay?” Rachel asked looking at Layne with a curious look on her face, noticing that Layne was having an outer body moment.
“Yeah, I’m sorry,” she replied.
“Ha-ha, its cool, no worries…You’re my new best friend,” she declared with an excited smile.
Layne smiled back.