11 Days

OVERFLOW

The morning of October 13 was the coldest of all so far this month, both in temperature and the coldness of the people. After the town was struck by two huge tragedies, the people of Quiet Gate began to wonder if the place they called home was the right one after all - people began to question whether they were safe in this town, in which two people had been killed within a day of each other. Many did not want to leave their homes to go to work, others needed to escape the solitude of their four-walled sanctuaries and breathe some fresh air, contaminated by the blood of two innocent people. But what were we in this world more than pieces of an unassembled puzzle? We were all the same and nothing was different. If there really was a God, why did He allow such atrocities? As soon as I arrived at the diner, there were two adorable looking elderly women saying their prayers before grabbing their silverware and devouring the tower of pancakes in front of them.

“Look at them.” Maven sneered as I approached the bar, “Their God will not bring back what this town has lost.” The women turned in our direction while shooting pity eyes at us, “Yeah? He won’t keep you safe either mami!” Maven yelled at them as she stomped on the floor, the women then proceeded to look away and pretend to focus on their breakfast. Guess she won’t be getting any tips.

“You need to take a chill pill, mami.” I said to her before making my way to the other side and finally be shoulder to shoulder. “Would you like one? I heard Tony makes them out of chocolate ice cream and a lot of whipped cream, if you’re too f****d up, he tops it all with four cherries.”

“Do you know what this means?” she gave the ladies one final glance and said, “it means we’re all gonna have to leave, girl. Quiet Gate is not a safe place anymore.”

“I guess it never was.”

The scowl on her face told me she didn’t like my answer not one bit but wasn’t about to fight me about it, at least not here. “Fine, now you can tell me about the new guy.”

“Aha? You and Marcus suddenly are very interested in him.”

She grinned and squealed like a little girl all too eager to rip open present wraps on a Christmas morning. “No way! He asked you about him?” Maven practically spit out fireworks as she took my hand and dragged me into the kitchen where Tony was making notes, he winked at me and went about his business.

Conveniently he had his headphones on and still the music roared from his ears. Maven sat me on a stool, and she took a wooden box, turned it over and sat there. "Come on girl, give me the tea."

“The tea?” I couldn't help but laugh at her sudden interest. "I do not know what you are talking about." I lied trying to get away from her, but Maven was very insistent, curious and all those little things that made her so special. "Well, what do you want to know?"

"Look, we are going through very difficult times and what we need is a distraction." Maven leaned closer to me, "At least you have someone to distract yourself with, sweetheart."

What could I say to her? I didn't even know if he would agree to me talking about him with other people. Echo promised me he would come later to eat at the diner as he had business to discuss with Sam, who gave us the day off last week. Maven was watching me with those huge eyes full of curiosity, "I can't, on second thought, I can't really talk about him without his consent." It sounded strange but that was the reality. Through the hard way I had learned that people don't always respect your privacy and take advantage of your vulnerability. That had happened with Marcus, who not only betrayed my trust but also spoke ill of me behind my back without even spitting a bit of truth. Joey intervened on that occasion and since then Marcus had stopped being a problem for me. The last thing I wanted was for Echo to think badly of me for talking to Maven about him. He still hadn't introduced himself to anyone apparently and I couldn't go around overflowing with things about him, like how delicious he cooked, how well he kissed and stole my breath with his mouth, how incredible his fingers were every time that he touched me and how creative he was in bed.

“Girl you’re blushing!”

“I am?” I was more than mortified now. Apparently, my body refused to keep things hidden. “I guess it’s too hot in here.” I got up in one swift jump, Maven remained on her box. "I'm leaving to serve coffee and clean tables." I announced and disappeared from the kitchen as I counted the hours to see Echo.

--

Later that day while I was picking up dishes from a table near the window, I saw an almost new black sports car with tinted windows. Diners stared at the car in amazement doing ohs and ahs as they gaped. The driver's door opened and none other than Echo got out of the beautiful car, wearing black jeans, a black shirt, and a leather jacket. He didn't look up until he entered the diner with his hands in his pockets, which gave people more time to ogle at him. When he raised his head, everyone looked anywhere but him from where he was standing so casually. Echo turned around and as soon as he found me, he smiled widely and strolled over to where I was. "Sir, I'm afraid you are in the wrong place." He tilted his head somewhat confused by my opening line, "This is not the Four Seasons. We serve very greasy bacon here." Echo made a face of disgust at the name; I could see the various looks over his shoulder and I couldn't help but chuckle at how silly this was. People actually entertained themselves easily. "You don't like the Four Seasons?"

No, Aviana.

A few people gasped when they saw him sign at me, including Maven. “Have you been?” When he nodded, I grinned, not willing to lose this chance to tease him about it. “So, you much rather have greasy bacon than fancy napkins on your lap while you eat a very tiny portion of caviar.”

“Holly f**k!” the spell was broken by Joey’s stormy entrance, “Have you guys seen that baby?” He whistled as he struggled with the scarf wrapped around his neck. When he was finally able to take it off, he came straight to where Echo and I were standing. "It's yours?" Joey asked him.

Echo signed the word yes. To my surprise

Joey signed back at him easily and fluently as if he’d done it forever.

“Joey, you know ASL?”

“Yeah! My mom, rest in peace, was born deaf.” He explained while signing even though Echo could hear just fine. “I am a bit rusty but I’m sure Echo here can understand me just fine.” I was dumbfounded. It was amazing just realizing everything Joey knew about me when I didn't really know about him. It's not like I didn't want to ask him about his life before he was the protector of Quiet Gate, it was just that I never found the right time or the best way to ask him. The one thing we all knew was that, like all of us, Joey had lived through a period full of darkness and by the time he arrived at Quiet Gate, his life was completely changed. Joey and Echo sat at a table away from the curious stares of the customers and me too. I knew better than to go ask them if they would like a cup of coffee or something else, so I sneaked away to check on the customers.

Most of the people pretended as if nothing was happening, others looked slightly stressed and about to explode in their seats. The bodies of the victims were still being examined and until the investigation closed, the bodies would be kept in the morgue. The whole town would organize a joint funeral for them as they had no family, or so it seemed. The strange tranquility of the day was interrupted by the scandalous entrance of Carla, who threw herself full body against the doors of the diner and fell crashing to the ground. Her entire body trembled; her red eyes shed tears of sheer panic. We all stay still; we don't react as fast as we should have. A few seconds later Joey rushed to pick up his disturbed sister from the floor while ordering Maven to bring a glass of water. "But what's wrong, woman?" Joey snuggled her into his arms, Carla could only utter a shrill scream.

“There’s blood, there’s blood, there’s blood…” Carla repeated over and over between sobs.

“Where?” Joey urged through a growl, “Where’s the blood?”

Carla seemed to snap out of her trauma and whirled her head around towards her worried brother and said. “It’s coming from the trunk.”