Page 2 of Locke

“But we don’t get in the van together, right? I mean, that would make them…I’m glad I watched all those murder shows when we were kids. All right. We’ll each pick a place to meet at, slip out the window there or back door, and disappear.” They all agreed that was the best course of action to take. Just simply be gone. “Park the van someplace where there aren’t any cameras that would see us showing up and getting in.”

“I already have the spot picked out. It’ll be at Old Man Coop’s house. I’ll be there tomorrow playing chess. He doesn’t have any neighbors that can see his house. And he doesn’t have any cameras near him to see the van pulling into his drive. I’m going to go and play some chess with him tomorrow at one. Everyone makes their way to the van, and when I leave, no one will be the wiser.”

They all agreed, and when they parted ways, their dad was coming out of the house with his gun in his hands. Screaming at him to put it away when all of a sudden, shots were fired. Not knowing if anyone was hit, August dropped to the ground with the rest of them.

~*~

Locke didn’t think that things could get any worse than they were right now. But he was fearful of saying that out loud because as surely as he did, it would test him. Sitting up on the gurney that he’d been brought to the hospital in, Locke could see that his blood pressure had mellowed out, and his heart was no longer racing.

He’d been more terrified of his brothers being hurt than himself, and that was why, after the police arrived, he started feeling a little woozy. Thankfully, his brothers were there to make sure he didn’t hit his head when he fainted. Or was it passed out when you were a man? He didn’t care. Locke was just happy to be able to be able to be released soon.

“Dad has been arrested. I didn’t know if you would have remembered that or not.” Locke told Demitrus that it was the last thing that he remembered. “Of course, he was saying that you shot him first, though he doesn’t have a single bullet hole in him. I wish we had been armed. He wouldn’t be a pain in the ass anymore.”

“This doesn’t change anything, does it? I mean, we’re still going to leave, right?” Demitrus told him that it was something that they all still wanted to do. “Good. We still need to be sneaky. People will talk if we were to have a van in the driveway while the bastard it in jail. That would lead to troubles that we don’t need.”

That night, Locke didn’t sleep well. Going over the plan over and over in his head made him too antsy to sleep. Everything that could happen had been gone over in his head, and he was still missing things, he knew.

Like his brothers, he didn’t dare write things down. They’d been caught by their dad when he found the notes that they’d written about all the things that they knew he was doing—like stealing meat from the grocery store by making them put them in their clothing. Since then, they kept everything in their head. Someone would find it, and it would all be for nothing. He didn’t have any trouble remembering things. A teacher had told him one time that he had a gifted mind. Locke thought that it was a curse because of all the things that he’d gone through in his life had been right there where he could remember them. Finally dozing off just as the sun was coming up, Locke would be glad to get going.

After his breakfast tray was taken away, he waited for the doctor to see him. After he was released, he had several things that he had to do before getting the van to the place they’d agreed on. It was still early enough for him to meet up with Mr. Coop, and he was excited about that. As soon as he was released, Demetrius showed up to take him home. In actuality, he dropped him off at the place the van was, and he kept driving home like he had him in the car with him.

Driving toward Mr. Coop’s house, he thought about the elderly man. The fact that he’d sired his son bogged his mind. There couldn’t have been two more unlikely people that were blood relatives than the two of them. He would miss him more than anything. And he was sure that if he told him that he was leaving for good, he’d be a ‘tickled pink’ as he could be. Coop hated his father—most people did, but Coop hated him more than most.

“Took her right in front of me.” Coop had always said that his father had snatched his girlfriend while she’d been in the bathroom at the prom with him. “The poor thing. She knew that I would have married her even though you’re not my son. But you’d of not have known that by me. I would have treated you just the same as I would have any other baby that we were to have. I think on that a lot, you know. Me and your momma having you six boys. I miss her something terrible.”

“I do as well.” Everyone in town thought that their mother had died. She was alive and living in a California town that no one had ever heard of, enjoying her life. She’d told him when she’d left that he wasn’t to contact her ever. The Bastard would have found out, and that would have been the end of it for her life. So, while they knew where their mother was, no one had ever reached out to her in all these years. Nor had she contacted them. For all he knew, she could be gone, and they’d not know a thing about it.

They played two games of chess together. He won both of them, but it wasn’t the winning that made it fun; it was the fact that they loved talking over a good game. When Coop sat back in his wheel chair, he looked at him with a funny smile. He asked him what was going on.

“You have a bit of a smile on your face. Even when I was taking your men, you had this particular look about you. You’re leaving, aren’t you?” Locke didn’t have any words to say as he was so shocked. “Thank goodness. I thought I was going to have to beat the daylights out of you six to get you going. You going to be all right?”

“Yes. We have a plan. In fact, the six of us are going to be meeting up here to get into the van just down from your house and take off. We didn’t take anything with us either. Just leaving the way that my mom did.” Coop asked him if she ever contacted them. “No. When she left, she made me promise that we’d never seek her out. But to allow her this time to be on her own. I think it was hard on her, leaving the way that she did.”

“I’m sure that it was. Your Mom, she did you all right by leaving when and how she did. Couldn’t have been easy either, what with your daddy beating the seven of you all the time.” He nodded. “You need anything, young man? Some money? I don’t have a lot, but you can have all that I have. You might as well take it. My son will anyway when he finds it. I tell you, Locke, I think that my son and your daddy were cut from the same mean piece of cloth.”

Locke was tempted to tell Coop that they’d won the Powerball money. But he didn’t have any idea if the man would spill the beans while being beaten up by his son. Hugging the older man when he was ready to go, he shed a few tears as he got into the van that his brothers were already in. It would be just fine, he kept telling himself.

The drive wasn’t too bad, but his shoulder was hurting him a little. When one of his brothers took over, he was glad to sit in the back and take a nap. The six of them had put where they wanted to go into a hat to decide where to go. When he drew out the first one, he wasn’t the least bit surprised to find that they were going to go to Tennessee. A place that they’d visited a time or two when growing up.

“You think that he’ll figure it out?” He asked Zander what he meant. “Dad. Sorry. Do you think that Dad will figure out that we’ve left? I can see him throwing a fit about not having us there to wait on him. To be honest with you, Locke, I’m terrified that he’ll come after us.”

“I am, too. But the thing is, he doesn’t have any income with the six of us gone. Not only can’t he afford gas money, but he also doesn’t have a car. Thankfully. And it’s not like we’re kids anymore. Grown adults that finally left the house. I’m wondering how long it will take him to realize that we’re gone. I’m thinking a couple of days. He’ll think that we’re at work for at least a day.”

“That’s what Dusty said. That he wouldn’t have his head out of his ass long enough to notice that six grown men have left him all alone.” They both laughed. “I can see him taking a week. Like you said, he’ll just think that we’re at work and missing us so that he can knock us around. I’d love to see his face when he figures out that we’ve left.”

“Here.” Locke handed his brother his brand new cell phone. They all had them now. “This is set up to see the living room as well as the kitchen. I didn’t want to get too many things changed out at the house, but I thought that we should see what he was about.”

After giving the rest of them the password as well as the login, they each loaded it onto their phone. Realizing that he was still in jail, they’d not see anything, which was a bummer, but they were all having fun just being able to see their home from this far away. They pulled into Kentucky around two in the morning and decided that they’d take a hotel for the rest of the night. Using cash made him nervous, but it would have been more difficult to trace them if he had decided to look into it.

The next morning, Locke was happy to see that everyone was in better spirits. He knew that he was. Just being able to get away for the little bit of time they’d been gone was making them all feel like they were doing the right thing. He hoped so. A great deal was riding on them being able to make a clean break from the bastard.

When they were nearing Tennessee, he took his turn driving. They decided that they’d not go to the touristy area and find a place they could stay at until it was safe. Christ, would he ever think that anywhere was safe again? He hoped so. There was a lot riding on the fact that they were living on the edge until they figured out that their father had given up on finding them.

While they were eating breakfast at the hotel, he realized that they were all talking and joking around. It was an enjoyable time, one that he hoped would be around more often. Getting his waffle cooked up, Christ, was there anything better than a fresh waffle? He wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He told them that he was glad that they were all together in this.

Going out to the van, having shopped for clothing last night at the local store, they were able to be cleaned up and wash the last of their hometown off of them. It felt strange to have new clothing on. Locke couldn’t remember a time when he had something that hadn’t been taken out of the local used clothing shop and fit him. He was sure if he asked his brothers, they’d say the same thing. Going out to the van, they all loaded up, and he started it.

Nothing. Not only would it not turn over but there wasn’t a sound that he could hear going on. Ready to give up, the engine turned over, and he was thrilled. He was worried, however, that he’d gotten a lemon, and they were too far from home to go back on the man who had sold it to him.

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