Dark Secrets

Eighteen Years Later

Eighteen Years Later...

The mid autumn sun lazily hung in the sky over Maplecrest, a small town nestled in the quiet Vermont countryside.

The town bustled with activity in the summer and early autumn, especially on the shores of the lake, when the vacationers enjoyed the natural beauty and abundant outdoor recreation opportunities in the area.

The powerful maples, white birches, and stately oak trees all changed to brilliant shades of color which enthralled the leaf peepers that invaded the town in early autumn. By the middle of the fall season, however, when the peak foliage viewing time had passed, the out of state cars disappeared from the roads and the residents had the town all to themselves once again.

Rick Williams walked down Main Street after school. His thoughts turned to his friend, Nicole Victorio. They had known each other practically their whole lives, since they started school together.

They had always been friends, but recently it seemed as though their friendship was changing, like something more might be going on between them. Rick suddenly saw Nicole in a new way.

He never tried to explain it to anybody out loud because he knew it sounded stupid. It was as if he just figured out that she was a girl!

Today, he was specifically remembering how cute she had looked in her cheerleader outfit. He had almost messed up several questions on the multiple choice history test, not because he didn't know the answers, but because he was distracted sitting behind Nicole in class.

How was a teenage guy supposed to concentrate on the war of 1812 when a pretty girl like Nicole sat there in her tight cheerleader sweater with the big W for Wenscott Academy?

Nicole, as full of energy as always, hurried down Main Street. Her long black hair danced gently in the breeze as she tried to catch up with Rick. Approaching him from behind, she couldn't help but notice that the way he carried his books made his bicep really stand out.

"Hey, wait up," Nicole called out when she got within earshot. Rick turned around and smiled at her. Nicole looked into Rick's deep blue eyes and smiled back. "My house or yours?" she asked.

"Mine's closer."

"Cool."

They walked in silence for a couple minutes; the only sound heard was the crunching of the brittle fallen leaves under their feet. That sound was soon joined by the pleasant sound of church bells ringing in the distance. "I wonder why the bells are ringing at St. Pete's at this time of day," Rick thought aloud.

"Funeral?" she surmised.

"I don't think so. Funerals are usually held in the morning."

Nicole faked a serious tone saying, "Maybe something terrible is about to happen. Maybe it's a warning."

She changed her voice to mimic a horror movie villain. "Go back...You've been warned...When the clock strikes twelve....Oooohhhh." She dropped her books and grabbed at her throat as if some unseen evil force was choking the life out of her.

"Are you making fun of me?" Rick asked.

"A little," she admitted with a grin as she picked up her books from the ground.

"Seriously though, why-"

Nicole switched to a really bad Asian accent. "Confucius say, ‘Sometimes we ask questions about things and we don't like the answers when we get them.'"

"Thank you for those words of wisdom, Miss Fortune Cookie."

Nicole playfully hit him with her English book and they walked on.

A few minutes later, they burst through the door of Rick's old, but well-maintained house. Anyone looking at the décor could see that his family had enough money for a comfortable existence.

When Nicole focused her attention on a magazine on the table, Rick snuck up behind her and pulled her hair. She whipped around. Rick stood there, looking angelic as all get out, and simply asked, "What?"

"I'm on to you, Rick Williams," Nicole informed him. "You look innocent enough, but you got a bit of the Devil inside you."

Rick grinned and winked at her.

Noticing that Mrs. Williams hadn't come to greet them, Nicole said, "I guess your mom's not home."

"She must be around here somewhere. She'd never leave the door unlocked if she went into town." That was true, but not for the obvious reason that one might assume.

Most people in Maplecrest still left their doors unlocked due to crime being practically nonexistent in the town. In this case, his mother's tendency to be private ruled out the idea that she'd allow any stranger to enjoy an unsupervised visit of her home.

Nicole examined the photographs displayed on the mantle. Several pictures showed Rick at different ages. Alicia, Rick's mother, stood by him in some of the pictures. There was nobody else in any of them.

Nicole put down the last one and turned towards Rick. "Does your mom ever talk about him?"

"Who?"

"Your father."

"She just talks about the car crash and then she breaks down," he explained. Rick looked out the window and thought about his mother. He realized something that had escaped his attention until now.

His mother never initiated talking about his father. She would only respond to Rick when he questioned her directly.

Rick continued to look out the window as if somewhere out there, the world held all the answers to his questions. He voiced his thoughts, "What kind of guy was my dad? Am I like him? Would my life be different if he was here today?"

Not knowing what to say, Nicole settled for touching his hand affectionately.

Rick smiled at her and attempted to be cheerful. "You know what? This is not getting our homework done here. First, how about some cranberry juice?" Rick took off for the kitchen without waiting for an answer.

Nicole sat down on the couch and opened her biology book to the proper place. Since the original individual rooms of the house had been remodeled to have an open concept design, she was able to easily talk to Rick as he poured their drinks.

"I'm ready. Quiz me. Pick a hard one," Rick asked for a challenge.

"OK. Chromosome."

Rick recited from memory. "A threadlike linear strand of DNA and associated proteins in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells that carries the genes and functions in the transmission of hereditary information."

"Amazing."

"What?" he asked.

"That you can remember this crap. I swear, you could read something once and recite it perfectly twenty years later."

"It's a gift," Rick replied. He laughed as he handed her the glass of cranberry juice and some cookies wrapped in a napkin.

Alicia quietly entered the room behind them, but didn't say anything. They didn't notice her there. She wore her usual style of conservative clothes which seemed too old for her age of thirty-five.

Kinder residents of Maplecrest described her clothing as matronly. Less polite types whispered that she dressed like an old lady.

Rick's hand began to shake violently. He could barely hold on to his full glass of cranberry juice. The liquid in the glass wobbled back and forth until a couple drops escaped and dripped to the carpet.

His fingers loosened one by one until the glass fell. It shattered on the edge of the coffee table. The dark cranberry juice stained the white pages of the biology book.

Rick fell to the floor. He screamed as sharp pains pierced his brain with hell-driven fury.

Nicole was momentarily startled when Alicia made her presence known by reaching out to touch her son's forehead. Rick's entire body jerked unexpectedly before her hand made contact.

"I'll go upstairs and get an aspirin and cold cloth," Alicia said. Glass crunched under her shoe as she walked away.

"Hurry," Nicole called out after her.

Rick sat up. He unclenched his fist and blinked to clear his vision. The room slowly came back into focus for him and he heard Nicole saying, "Are you all right? Let's get you to a doctor-"

Rick cut her off. "Already went. He and my mother agreed that these episodes-"

An astonished Nicole asked, "This has happened more than once?"

"Yeah, this is the fourth time. Anyway, the doctor thinks I'm having a rare and severe reaction to some wild flowers out in the back field."

"Death by flowers? Really?"

Rick shrugged. "I know. It sounds weird. The episodes don't last long. I feel fine now."

"Just like that?"

"It comes and goes..."

Nicole still didn't seem convinced so Rick changed the subject as he looked at the cranberry juice, which at this point had pretty much all seeped into the carpet. "My mother will have a fit when she sees the rug."

"She was much more worried about you," Nicole informed him.

"She was here?"

"Yeah, she went upstairs to get some aspirin."

Rick picked up his schoolbook. A drop of juice rolled off the page and fell. "It looks like blood," he observed.

They both stared at it a moment before Nicole said, "Let me clean this up."

"I got it," Rick said. They both reached for the napkin at the same time. Their hands touched. Neither wanted to move. They let them stay in contact for a few moments. They looked into each other's eyes. They both wanted to say something, but neither knew what to say.

Finally Nicole blurted out, "Rick, I'm still worried about you."

"I'll be fine, really. I'll see you in school tomorrow."

Rick walked her to the door. She gave him an unexpected and awkward kiss on the cheek which made him smile. After Nicole left, he rubbed his forehead and muttered to himself, "Like hell that was an allergic reaction."

He didn't realize that his mother eavesdropped from the top of the stairs.

As soon as Rick entered the living room, she disappeared around the corner and slipped into the bathroom quietly. Alicia listened for Rick's footsteps. When she was confident he was in the hallway, she began to bang on the door from the inside, calling out loudly, "Rick. Nicole! Rick! Get me out of here."

Rick yelled through the door, "Mom, what's wrong?"

"I just spilled some of the aspirin tablets on the floor," she lied. "I tried to leave, but the door was locked."

Rick looked closely at the doorknob. "Locked? There isn't even a keyhole in this door."

"Well it's stuck then. I'm trapped in here. I've been calling you and Nicole for several minutes."

"Sorry, I didn't hear you. Nicole already left." Rick twisted the doorknob and leaned his body weight forward as he pushed the door. It didn't budge so he turned the doorknob the other way. He tried pulling on it, but that didn't produce any results either.

"Keep trying," Alicia encouraged from the other side. "It sounds like it might be loosening."

Rick had another idea. "Get away from the door," he commanded. He raised his foot and kicked with all his might. The door swung open effortlessly, as if it wasn't locked or stuck at all.

Alicia casually strolled out of the bathroom. She thanked him and then offered to prepare dinner. "Are you coming?" she asked her son.

"Not yet, I want to check the door."

"Don't worry. It was probably humidity or something," she suggested in a reasonable tone.

After his mother went downstairs, Rick examined the door. It frustrated him that he couldn't see any earthly reason why the door had acted like that.

Before leaving the bathroom, Rick turned toward the mirror and rubbed his eye because it had been bothering him on and off all day. He opened the cabinet to search for some eye drops. He was distracted by the sight of the only aspirin bottle in the cabinet.

It caught his attention because the state of the bottle contradicted his mother's story. Alicia had said that she dropped aspirin tablets on the floor, but the safety seal remained intact on the bottle.

Rick checked the trash container to see if there were any old tablets or perhaps another package that had just been emptied. There was nothing in the trash container at all. Why would his mother lie to him like that?