Page 67 of False Idols

“No, what news?”

“The Reaper killed Jordan Davis last night! At that party you went to, Beau. Are you alright? Did you see anything?”

“How did you know I went to a party?” I ask. I don’t like her keeping tabs on me the way she is. I get it, because for four years I was locked up and she had no trouble knowing where I was then.

“I’m your mother. Of course I knew you were there,” she says and I have to take a deep breath to keep calm. Old habits die hard now that I’m free, but if she keeps poking around she’s going to find something out she shouldn’t.

I can’t risk that.

“Mother, stalking me is the quickest way for me to vanish.”

“Beau, I-you wouldn’t do that, would you?”

“I’m partial to my freedom, seeing as I didn’t have it for four years. So yes, I would if you insist on keeping eyes on me.”

She sniffs and sighs on the phone before she speaks, “I wasn’t following you. Marcy’s boy is on the team, too. She said there was a party all of you were going to at Jordan’s fraternity. That’s how I knew. I wouldn’t violate your privacy like that, honey.”

I nod. “Good. I wouldn’t disappear either,” I lie. I would. I think she knows it, even if she’s playing along with my innocent act. After all, it’s easier to believe that I’m exactly who I was before I went to prison. If my mother does that then there’s a great many things she can overlook to keep her fake and happy world alive.

“I know, Beau. I know you wouldn’t leave. And I’m sorry I called in a state, but I just heard the news about Jordan and I’m very emotional.”

I raise an eyebrow and keep walking. So far she hasn’t said one thing that makes this not a good morning. Knowing they found Jordan and are blaming The Reaper makes it a fucking fantastic day as far as I’m concerned. Let’s see how that fucker likes it. I hope he knows it was me. It would make drawing him out into the open a lot easier.

“What’s wrong, mother?”

“They found him in that drainage ditch behind the hill. You know, the one the town wanted to clean up?”

“Yeah, I know it.”

“And well, he was, he was mutilated, Beau! That awful—that deranged demon mutilated Jordan. Slit his throat and,” she lowers her voice to a whisper, “he cut his penis off, Beau. Oh my god, I’m sick to my stomach thinking about it. How could anyone do such a thing?! He’s an animal.” My mother starts to weep but I know the sound of it. It’s fake. She’s forcing the tears, but she is disgusted. That much is true.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s hard to know something like that happened,” I tell her while I wave at one of the guys from the football team. I’ve just hit campus and I’m walking up the long drive to the Oval. My mind goes to Nevaeh. I have class with her today—Death and Dying. I’m glad tracking her down won’t be a pain today. I should install a program on her phone, something that shows me where she is 24/7. It would be a lot more convenient than tracking her down on campus. After what she told me last night, at least I know she won’t be anywhere else but on campus.

“And then, I can’t believe he went to campus! How did no one see him until they called the cops and, oh, it was that girl. I know I shouldn’t say it, but I wish he’d caught her. She’s the one that deserves it. Not Jordan!”

My mother has my attention now. She had it from the second she said that girl. “What girl?” I ask. “What do you mean he was on campus? The Reaper?”

“Yes, The Reaper, who else would I be talking about? He was on campus last night and the police were called to Morris Hall, and-”

“That’s Nevaeh’s dorm,” I say and I change direction. I was going to the Union, but not now. I have to get to Nevaeh. Where the fuck is she and what happened last night? She left before me. How did something like this happen and I not see it? Wouldn’t I have walked up on it on my way home? I run through my memory and try to think if anything was off, but I can’t think of a thing. Everything was calm and quiet on my walk home. After I’d had my feeling about The Reaper, I even stopped by Nevaeh’s dorm for a while to make sure everything was settled.

I sat on the steps for half an hour and the only interesting thing I saw was a possum walking across the green space in front of Nevaeh’s dorm. I left before I’d been there an hour. It must have happened after I’d gone home. If it had been before, her dorm would have been crawling with cops when I showed up.

My mother barks out a bitter laugh. “I know it is. That’s why I said that girl should have been the one to-”

“Been the one to what?” I snap, cutting her off.

“You know what, Beau,” she says and I clench my jaw, because I do know. But if she’s going to be wishing Nevaeh dead, I’m going to make her say it. Women like my mother always get away on polite society and how everyone else is just too fucking nice to call her out on what she means. She’s passive aggressive to a fault when it comes to getting her way.

I’m going to fucking make her say it.

“No, I fucking don’t know what,” my mother gasps at my cussing at her but I ignore it. I’m done playing her dutiful son with the shit she’s saying about Nevaeh. “So why don’t you just say it. Come on, I know you want to, mother. I bet you’ve been thinking about what would happen to her if you had your way the entire time I was gone.”

“She put you in prison,” my mother snarls at me through the phone. “That bitch ruined our lives. Nothing has been the same since you went to prison.”

“We weren’t the best family before I went away. You know that.”

It’s true. My family might be pillars in the community, but we’ve never been close. Or healthy. My parents barely spend time with one another and the only time they really paid attention to me was when I was playing sports. Whatever my mother is talking about happening when I got put in prison is probably because she finally had to talk to my father.

---