Anthology

Hide 'n Seek

         The paper delivery man in the blue blazer handed the paper to the old man smoking on his porch. The old man smiled and waved as the paper man backed out of his driveway and onto the street. He headed towards the next house and was able to toss the paper from the car onto the front stoop.
         At the end of the block, the corner of Miller and Westwood, the paper man made a right turn and pulled into the first driveway on the right. The sun was just going down in the quiet neighborhood. The children finished up playing as the street lights began to flick on, and the paper man was extra careful as he backed out of the long driveway onto Westwood Road.
         As he pulled into the next driveway, he saw Reginald Lewis hunting around in his bushes and looking by the trees toward the back of his house. Nathan, the paper man, stopped the car, left the ignition running and exited the vehicle. He walked up to the man and said, "Hello Reggie. Getting ready to fertilize? Perfect time of year for it."
         "Evening, Nathan. No, lost something. Something very important to me. Been gone all day and I don't know where it got to. You haven't see anything of mine lying around would you?"
         Nathan turned from side to side. "No sir," he said. "Haven't seen anything belonging to you out of place."
         "Shame," said Reggie, turning back to the bushes and pushing them apart, looking at the ground and the branches.
         Nathan turned and walked back to the car. "Have a good night, then. I hope you find what you're looking for."
         "As do I. Very important."
         Nathan drove around the hemispherical driveway and out onto the street, no traffic coming from either direction.

         Ten minutes later, Nathan found himself back at the corner of Miller and Adolphia Crossing. The way he did his route took him in a circle because of it's shape, a one way in, one way out suburb. He would continue west on Adolphia Crossing until he reached one of the main roads and his route back home. As he pulled into the driveway of the other house on the southwest corner of the intersection, he saw something move in the bush to his left. His headlights illuminated something that was not the same color or material as the foliage lining the drive, and it slightly startled Nathan.
         After delivering the paper, Nathan backed down the driveway and stopped where he had seen the object in the bush. He lifted a flashlight he carried in the car and flicked it on, shining it out the open passenger window. There, in the bush, trying to hide was a naked man.
         Nathan cocked his head to the side and frowned. "Hey, what are you doing there?" said Nathan, flicking the flashlight back and forth on the man.
         "Please, help me." The voice that came out was very weak and timid. The man was terrified and Nathan knew it. He reached over, unlocked the passenger door and pulled the handle, opening it a crack.
         "Get in."

         The man now sitting in the seat next to Nathan was a little thin. He looked about six feet tall, maybe a hundred and fifty pounds. He was not covered with a blanket from the back seat of Nathans car and just starting to get warm. His legs were filthy, probably from crawling around on the ground in bushes all day, hiding from something.
         "Okay. Are you ready to tell me what's going on, now? What am I helping you with?"
         "I just need to get away from here. I need to get out."
         "What happened? Why are you hiding in those bushes?"
         "I'm trying to escape. I've been being held for the last five years in the basement of one of these people. He's hurt me. I need to get out of here before he finds me."
         Nathan looked at the man as he pulled into the next driveway and tossed a paper onto the stoop from his window. "What are you talking about? I don't understand. Someone in this neighborhood has been keeping you locked in their basement? What did they do to you? How did you get there?"
         "I was taken on my way home from school one day. A car pulled up and a man grabbed me. He hit me a couple of times until I was unconscious, maybe longer, who knows. I woke up in the basement. My home, the place I have spent the last five years. Never allowed beyond the doors. I've seen the stairs that lead to the surface. I had a tiny window that couldn't be opened, but I could see plants. I could hear cars sometimes.
         "He used me for his own pleasure at first. He would...do things to me. He would hurt me. He would mock me while I bled, while I laid on the floor crying and begging him to stop. He is an evil man.
         "Two years ago he started to share me. To have parties with lots of men. They would come over and all pile into the basement. The man would make me do humiliating things in front of the men. They...did things to me too. I don't want to go back. I never want to go back. I need to get out of here. Why aren't you taking me away?"
         They were in the driveway of the next house now. "Because I have a job to do. I have about fifteen more minutes of work, then I get to go home. I'll take you out of here when I leave, but I'm not going to be late doing my job for someone with such a crazy story. Who was it that was holding you? Where was it?"
         "I read the road sign. It was on Westwood Road. It had a half circle driveway. Last night the man forgot to lock the door. He didn't lock it. I've seen it happen before. I've checked after he's been down there drunk and sometimes he forgets to lock the door. I've been too scared to leave until today. Last week when he did it, I crawled all the way up the stairs. I saw the front door, right there in front of me, but I was too scared to actually leave. I was terrified he was watching me and it was a test. I didn't want him to catch me and hurt me. When it happened this week, I made a break for it. I had nothing. I was too scared to look for clothes, so I just ran out naked and hid in the bushes. When I was sure no one was coming, I moved to the next set of bushes. I've been moving away from the house ever since."
         "Oh shit!" Nathan slammed on the brakes in the middle of the street. "I didn't give him his paper." Nathan looked at the naked man. "I didn't give the man who held you in his basement his newspaper. I have to go back to his house."
         "What? I'm getting out. I'll get out of here on my own. I'm not going back to his house."
         "Relax. Relax. There's a corner back there where none of the houses can see. I'll put you in the trunk, take the paper to the door, get back in and we'll be off. I'll take you straight to the police or your old house, or wherever you want to go. Come on. I'll help you after this."
         The man nervously fingered the handle to open the door to the car. He looked over at Nathan and eyed him carefully. "Alright, but we have to be quick. I don't want to go to the police. I want to go to my parents home. I want to see them first."
         Nathan pulled the car around and headed back towards Westwood Road. He made the turn and stopped the car about twenty feet down the road. He checked his mirrors, making sure he was in the right spot, having stopped there hundreds of times to smoke a joint and even once, fuck a jogger in the middle of his route.
         When he was sure they were in the right spot, and motioned for the man to exit the vehicle. The naked man and Nathan got out and walked to the back of the car. As Nathan opened the trunk, the naked man spoke. "Why can't I just hide in the bushes there? I could just wait and you could pick me up."
         "I'm not coming back this way. It's quicker to head down that side street on the way back to Adolphia Crossing. That'll take us straight out of here. If I came back this way, We'd have to weave through three more roads. It'll be the easiest way to just drive you out in the trunk so no one sees you. There is security at the main road, you know."
         The man looked at Nathan nervously. Nathan motioned to the trunk and waved his hand, reassuring the man that everything would be fine. The man looked from the trunk to Nathan one more time and lifted his right leg, ducking his head to avoid hitting it on the hatch. When he was curled up in the trunk, Nathan waved his hand one more time and closed the lid, the latch clicking in place.
         The naked man heard the car start up and drive about thirty feet down the road before turning right and stopping. He heard the tires roll over the gravel and skid as the breaks were applied to the older model car. He heard the door and Nathan walking across the rocks towards the house. The knock startled the naked man, he was thinking quietly in the darkness about his parents. Would they recognize him? Would they be happy to see him? Did they even live in the same house? The man was suddenly terrified at the prospect that they had been too grief stricken to stay and moved far away.
         Muffled voices at the house pulled him out of his thoughts and back to where he was. The darkness of the trunk was much like living in that small room in the basement. At night it was pitch black as the window faced the back yard where there were no lights. The door to the house slammed and there were footsteps in the gravel, then the sound of the door opening and closing. He waited for the car to be put in to gear each passing second thinking why they had not pulled off yet. Instead of the familiar lurch of the transmission shifting, the naked man heard a key in the lock of the trunk.
         A second later the hatch opened and light flowed into the trunk. The naked man squinted, his eyes already adjusted to the darkness in the short period of time in the trunk. He looked up, shielding his eyes from the sun and saw Reggie standing next to Nathan, peering into the trunk.
         "I think you lost this. I kept my eyes open for anything that belonged to you, lying about and I found him a couple of streets over."
         "I'm really grateful to you, Nathan. Thank you. There'll be a big tip for you this month."
         Reggie grabbed the naked man's arm and roughly dragged him from the trunk. "Thought you could escape, did you? Thought you could just run away from all I've given you, huh? Well, I'm actually disappointed that you would think anyone around here would help you. Don't you recognize Nathan? He's been over to the house many times to see you perform."
         The naked man looked at Nathan with a look of despair. The faces of the men blended together in his mind. He couldn't remember any of the men who had done those horrible things to him. His look of despair changed to terror as he thought of the horrors he had endured. He was free for but a moment.
         As Reggie dragged the naked man back to the house, Nathan slammed the lid to the trunk and walked back to the driver's seat.
         "There's going to be a get-together on Thursday night," Reggie hollered from the door. "You're more than welcome."
         "Thanks, Reggie. I'll see you two on Thursday then." Reggie closed the door and Nathan sat down in the car. He put the car into gear, slammed the door and pulled out of the driveway back onto Westwood Road and made the first left to head towards Adolphina Crossing.
         As he headed up the road, a couch suddenly rolled off the back of a moving truck and came to a stop right in front of Nathan's car. He slammed on the breaks, which wasn't really necessary as he was only driving about 15 mph, and stopped well short of the white sofa.
         A man waved and ran out into the street, pushing the couch over to the edge of the driveway. Nathan pulled up, rolled down the window and smiled at the man. "Just moving in?" he asked.
         "Yep, jut got to town today. We're from Phoenix. Name's Bill Jeffries," the man said, sticking out his hand.
         "I'm Nathan," said Nathan, shaking Bill's hand. "I'm the paper delivery man around here. I'll see you a lot more, I'm sure."
         "Probably," said Bill. "Have a good night, Nathan. Nice to meet you."
         Bill Jeffries turned back to the couch and pushed it over the hump on the skirt of the driveway. Nathan rolled up his window and pulled off, making a right turn at the next intersection, three houses farther down.