The Cabbie

The loud buzzing of the half burnt-out gas station sign, always gave me an uneasy feeling. Or maybe it was sitting in this cab outside the old county library in an almost abandoned one light town. It wasn't an easy job, but it was something that needed to be done.

1:00 A.M. seemed to be the busiest time for this place that usually seemed long forgotten in the daylight hours. Watching the squatters duck in and out of buildings and squabble in the streets for food, gave me a deep feeling of sorrow and desperation to help them, but I now knew better. I was an outsider, I wasn't welcome here. I learned that on my first night of this job. If it was anyone else, they would have chased them out a long time ago, but we had a mutual respect for each other and they knew that once my job was done, I would be gone.

What I didn't expect on this night, was for the back door of my cab to open. As it opened, a cool chill filled the car, which was odd for a summer night. I immediately put my hand on my gun and turned around to face the back seat. It was a young girl, no older than thirteen. She had piercing blue eyes  and strawberry blond hair in two short braids, one on each side of her head.

There was something that seemed so familiar about her. I knew I had seen her somewhere before, but I couldn't place it. She was an outsider like myself. She was wearing a pale pink sundress, and seemed too clean to belong here.

"What are you doing out so late? It's too dangerous for a young girl like yourself to be in a place like this."

"I know who you are" she said. Her voice was smooth and dreamlike.

"Excuse me?" I asked her. I knew she could see the fear in my eyes, and she gave me a small smirk.

"You're not a cabbie. You're Detective Nichols from Bravada Sheriff's office. You're undercover, and searching for the man that killed yours,  and so many other people's families. You are in the right place, but you stick out too much, you need to fit in more."

"But how do you know all of this? Who are you?"

I was extremely nervous. My hand was still on my gun, but I couldn't pull it out, I was frozen with fear, or maybe it was something else. But she knew too much, and I didn't like it. She was going to blow my cover, and everything I worked for was going to fall apart, and I might just lose my job.

"You ask too many questions. I'm not what you need to worry about right now. Listen, in about 5 minutes, a man is going to come out of that Mexican restaurant across the street, and I want you to follow him. Take these clothes and put them on, and follow him on foot. And whatever you do, do not take your hand off your gun, one mistake and it's your life" she said almost too fast for me to understand. She pulled out some squatter clothes, and threw them at me.

"But why--" I tried to ask, but she was out of the car before I could finish the question, taking the chill with her.

I was almost suffocated by the heat that had filled the car again. I struggled to put the clothes on as fast as I could, and quickly realized that there weren't any shoes, just a pair of old ripped socks. I wasn't sure how much I could count on a child that I knew nothing about, but something inside me told me that I was finally going to get some answers.

No sooner than had I finished getting dressed, the man walked out of the restaurant. He was dressed just like everyone else in this town, dirty ragged clothes that should have seen their last days a long time ago. That's when I realized that I had seen this man every night. Always coming out of that restaurant at the same time. I had never thought anything of it, I had even tried to give him money my first night on watch. He was the one that told me I didn't belong there. He knew I was there for him.

Before he started walking he stared at my car for a minute, just like he did every night. I finally knew why he did that. He wanted to make sure I didn't recognize and follow him. That bastard!

I watched him walk up the road and turn the corner. I knew it was safe to get out of my car and start to follow him. I just hoped I didn't lose him.

I started behind him, and looked around the corner to see where he was, keeping my hand on my gun like the girl told me too. I still couldn't remember where I've seen her before, but I couldn't worry about that now. There he was walking up the road, slowly but determined. I was thankful that I had decided not to put my shoes on, I now knew why I wasn't given any. I couldn't make a sound.

I followed in the shadows for what seemed like forever.

We finally came to a small, but decent looking house on the outskirts of town. There was nothing else around but trees and mountains. I started to regret leaving my cell phone and radio in my cab, but at the time I felt it was safer, now I didn't have any way of calling back-up if something happened.

He walked up to the house, turned the knob, and walked in. He didn't turn on any lights, I got excited and thought I was going to catch him in the act. I was finally going to turn him in, and save someone's life. I had waited for this moment for almost 30 years and had joined the department 17 years ago, just so I could have this moment.

I ran towards the house, still keeping my hand on my gun. I wanted to wait till it was absolutely necessary to use it. Protocol was the last thing on my mind, this was no longer about my job, this was personal.

I walked into the dark house. I was expecting to hear the screaming of his next victim, but there was nothing but silence.

"Bravada Sheriff's office, come out where I can see you!!" I yelled.

"So you finally figured it out, Whitney,  or Detective Nichols as they call you these days" he said, as he stepped around the corner and was standing in front of me, so close that I could smell the whiskey and stale tobacco on his breath. "I'm surprised you kept that name, thought you would have changed it to hide, or taken the name of your adoptive parents."

"I wanted people to know who I was, I always wore my name proud. I have nothing to hide, or to be ashamed of. Not even you"

I tried so hard to hide the fear in my voice, but I knew he heard it.

"You always were brave, even as you watched me kill your mother and sister when you were five years old, it's why I spared your life ya know. Come in the kitchen, we'll have a cup of tea and chat, why don't you pull your gun on me, make sure I don't pull any funny business."

I obliged. I knew he was a step ahead of me, or he thought he was. I had planned this out for so long, I knew what I was going to do, but I was going to play his little game first.

I kept my gun on him the whole time. He put the kettle on the stove and sat down at the kitchen table, inviting me to sit across from him.

"I'm surprised you haven't pulled that trigger yet, Whit"

For the first time in years, I looked him in the face. He had more wrinkles on his face than I could count, and deep dark circles under his eyes. He was almost unrecognizable, a ghost of the handsome man that he once was. If it wasn't for his piercing blue eyes, I never would have thought it was him. Even his eyes looked old now, almost like they held the regret of all the lives he had taken. And for the first time in my life, I pitied him.

"Ya know, Whit, I never told you why I spared you, but now is as good a time as any. Ya see, your mother and your sister, they were weak, but you,  you're just like me. They could never understand the things that I did, I had to get rid of the people who couldn't stand up for themselves, the ones that let everyone walk all over them. You never did that, even as a young girl. You would throw yourself in front of them, and beg me to hit you instead, saying that they didn't deserve that, that you were the bad girl and should be punished. I saw so much of myself in you, and that's why you're still here, why you're standing in front of me right now."

As he said all of this, I remembered why I was here, I was here to end this, the pain that he had caused. The anger was building inside of me, and he knew it. He wanted me to pull the trigger. He knew he had won.

In my head I saw him beating my mother and my sister to the point where they just hanging on to life, then shooting them until his gun was empty.

The kettle started whistling away on the stove, and I snapped back into reality. I jumped up and held the gun to his forehead.

"I WILL NEVER BE LIKE YOU!! I WOULD NEVER KILL OUT OF COLD BLOOD!! I WILL NOT LET THEM DIE IN VAIN!!" I shouted at him.

Before I could pull the trigger, he had me on the ground, my gun lying inches from my fingers. That old man could move. He had his own gun pointed at my chest.

"That's my girl" he laughed, "But you don't think I really let you kill your own father, did ya? I got ya right where I want ya. You're strong, but you let your anger control you. That was your mistake. You should have pulled that trigger when I showed my face."

BAM

I closed my eyes and waited for the pain and the sweet serenity of death, regretting that he was right. It never came. Instead, I felt the same cold chill that I had felt in my cab.

I opened my eyes, and he was still standing there with the gun pointed at my chest, but looking at the door with shock in his eyes. I reached for my gun, but it was no longer next to me. I looked back at him, and saw crimson spread across his chest, and he dropped to the ground dead.

I sat up, and looked around for the shooter. Standing in the door was the thirteen year old girl from the cab, my gun in her hands.

She silently handed me my gun, and ran out of the house. I got up and ran after her, but she was gone.

The next thing I knew, without even remembering how I got there, I was standing in the sheriff's office, handing him my badge and my gun, resigning.
I felt bad, I was their best detective, but my job was done. It was time to go home.

Early the next morning, after driving hours, I finally got there. The house where it all happened 30 years ago. I kept my promise, and walked into my mother's house with my head held high. As soon as I walked in, I was faced with a family portrait hanging over the fire place. My eyes went instantly to the thirteen year old girl standing next to my mother, she had piercing blues and and strawberry blonde hair in two short braids, one on each side of hear head. My dead sister.

You're a taxi driver in a one-light town. You've arrived at the county library to pick up your passenger, a girl no older than thirteen. She says, "You see that Mexican restaurant across the street?  In about five minutes, a man is going to come out of that restaurant,  and I want you to follow him. (writersdigest.com)

Wonderfalls

So, I spend a lot of time looking for writing prompts that I think I could use to create a great story. I found a great blog on tumblr that has a lot of wonderful writing prompts. (http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/). A lot of them caught my eye, and I thought, "hey, I could make something great out of this", I might take them and turn them into my own, because a lot of them have pictures that go along with them, but I can't take any credit for the ideas.

This first one inspired me, because recently a friend of mine commited suicide. It was in a different way, but I constantly think of what I could have said to him to change his mind if I had gotten the chance talk to him when he made this decision. This story will be a little personal, but I write best on a personal level. So, here it goes.

What would you do  if you saw someone about to jump off of a cliff? What reasons would you give them to live?

Not to far from my house, tucked way back deep in the woods, there is a beautiful clearing with two waterfalls, and a few cliffs overlooking the water. Not many people know it's there, in fact I didn't even know it was there until I went hiking one day to clear my mind. As soon as I saw it, I knew that this was going to be my new escape. it was peaceful, and quiet, away from all the hustle and bustle of daily life, and a great place to die. If that was what anyone would want to do.

I have spent so many days there, I had even named it. "Wonderfalls". Not a very creative name, but there weren't really any words that I could think of to describe it's majestic beauty.

One day, I was sitting at Wonderfalls, just soaking my feet in the water and thinking about my life, and I looked up, and across the pond I saw a girl. She must have been around my age, 16 or 17 maybe. She had no shoes or shirt on, and was staring at the cliff below her with a look of desperation on her face. It concerned me more than anything.

She looked like she was ready to jump, so I screamed "HEY!!". That got her attention,  and she stopped and looked at me.

"STAY RIGHT THERE, AND DON'T DO ANYTHING THAT YOU'RE GOING TO REGRET. I'M COMING OVER," I yelled to her.

She looked back down at the cliff, and looked back at me and took another step forward. I was about to say something else before she decided to jump, but just before I could get the words out of my mouth, she sat down at the edge looking a little defeated. I sighed a sigh of relief and started making my way over to her.

Well, that was stupid. I thought to myself. What are you going to say to her? Maybe she wasn't going to jump. She was probably just enjoying the view like you do all the time. She probably thinks that you're the biggest idiot in the world. I shook off those thoughts, and prepared myself for what could be one of the most important conversations in my life.

"Hi."

She didn't say anything, just stared at me. I noticed that her eyes were all red and puffy, like she had been crying for days. That's not all I noticed. She had bruises on her neck, like fingerprints,  and her torso was also covered in cuts and bruises. I wasn't sure what I thought, but I could only assume the worst.

"Um, how are you?" I asked her, hoping for a reply this time.

"How am I? Well, let's see, I can tell from the look on your face that you see how I'm all beaten and battered up, and you just stopped me from doing something right for once in my life. So I'm doing great, how are you?"

It took me a minute to recover from the bitter sarcasm in her voice.

"You were going to jump weren't you."

"Damn right I was going to jump. And now I'm standing here talking to some stranger. For all I know you're just some creep who's thinking about raping and killing me, and throwing me in the water to hide the evidence. Best place to do it, no one knows this is here. So go ahead, I was planning to die today anyway."

"My name is Jesse, I promise you that I'm not a creep."

Smooth, Jesse, real smooth. Now she's really going to jump, and it's all your fault.

She just looked at me and smiled.

"Why should I trust you?" she asked.

I noticed that the tone in her voice had gone from bitter sarcasm to amusement.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. There's a reason right there."

"My name is Makenzie, Kenz for short. I like you. Most people would have walked away from me after being so snappy. But you're still here. Why is that?"

"You look like you need someone to hear you."

"I'm not so sure you wanna do that," she said, sounding a little unsure of herself.

"Oh, and why wouldn't I? Why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself, and I'll make that decision. What's your family like?"

"My family? My mother is pregnant with some man that isn't my dad. He's a raging alcoholic that uses me as his punching bag, as you can see. This is what happened after he found out that my mom is pregnant, and it's not his. He used to be the best dad in the world, until my brother died of cancer a few years ago. And now my parents are in the middle of a messy divorce. And while all this is going on, they forgot about me, except for when I'm a punching bag."

I sat there and listened to her, and saw the light in her eyes, and realized that I was probably the best thing that happened to her in a long time.

I must have showed it in my face, because she smiled, and continued.

"Everything used to be great, before cancer took my brother. We had the happiest family. Every weekend we would come camping in these woods. That's how I knew this was here. Every Saturday night, we would hike down here and go swimming in the lake. During those times, it was like nothing else mattered, and nothing was better. Then my brother got sick, and we stopped coming here. I promised him, that after he died, I would make sure our family kept up the tradition, but it didn't quite work like that. My dad started drinking and getting violent, and my mom started seeing other people. I guess that was how they coped with their loss. And I was, and still am stuck in the middle. They never once asked me if I wanted to talk, or how I felt about everything. My mother tried, but I just pushed her away, and she gave up. I miss my brother,  I just want to see him again, and this was my only way."

She had started crying as she was telling me this. I could feel the tears in my eyes too.

I don't know why I did what I did next, but I felt like it was the best thing at that moment. I wrapped her in my arms and pulled her close. She tried to push me away at first, but I pulled her closer and she finally gave in and just let her tears fall.

It seemed like we sat like that forever. And for all that time, all of my problems in life seemed so small and insignificant compared to hers. I knew I needed to save this girl, if I hadn't already.

"I'm so sorry," I said, "I can't imagine the pain that you're going through. I wish that there was something I could do help."

"You already have. You sat here and listened to me cry about my life. No one has done that for me since all of this happened. I owe you my life."

"You don't owe me anything. But there is something I want you to do. I want you to talk to your mother. You're going through this together, and you should be there for each other. As for your father, get away from him please. I don't want to see you looking like this anymore. You and your mother should go stay somewhere else, and if you don't have anywhere, I can help you out."

"Thank you so much Jesse, I really appreciate everything you've done for me today." She stopped and looked at her watch. "Oh crap! I have to get home before my dad. If I don't, well, let's just say jumping off this cliff would have hurt less. We should meet back here every day at the same time, this can be our spot now."

Then she got up and grabbed her stuff and left.

We did meet back at that same spot, at the same time, every day for the next two months. Then all of the sudden she stopped showing up.

I got really scared. I was afraid that her father got to her before she could get away. For a week I tried calling, texting, and emailing her. I never heard back.

Finally at the end of that week I got and email from her that read:

Hey Jesse,
I'm sorry that it took so long for me to get back to you. There's been a lot going on.
Meet me at Wonderfalls. The same time as usual.
Love, Kenz

The next day, I made sure I got to Wonderfalls at exactly 12:00. The same time as usual.

When I got there, I didn't see Makenzie anywhere. I looked all over for her, but she hadn't gotten there yet. Feeling a little impatient, I decided to sit in the same spot as the first time I saw her. I got up to the edge of the cliff, and bent down to take off my shoes, when something caught my eye.

It was a body, a girl's body, floating face down in the water. I panicked, and started to take off my clothes to jump in the water, and rescue Makenzie.

"JESSE!!!!"

I thought I was dreaming when I heard her voice.

"COME ON IN, THE WATER IS GREAT!" she yelled.

I finished taking off my clothes and jumped in the water.

"Don't you ever do that to me again!!" I yelled at her "You scared the crap out of me. I thought  I lost you."

She looked at me and started laughing.

"I wouldn't do that to you. I'm celebrating. My parents divorce is final. My mom and I moved in with her boyfriend. He's great. He's a doctor. He's going to get me a job at the hospital with him, so I can go to school and become a nurse. And my mom is having a little boy. She's going to name him Jesse, because I told her all about you and how you saved my life that day. She is so thankful that you were here. And so am I, I really am, who knows where I would be without you. Thank you for everything." She paused, then said a little quieter, probably hoping I wouldn't hear, "I love you."

She wrapped her arms around me and kissed me.

"Well, I'm happy to hear all that. It's really great news."

She looked at me, a little disappointed.

"And I love you too. You know, you weren't the only one that was saved that day."