I started down cracked asphalt streets

I started down the cracked asphalt streets, past the old vacation houses in peeling white paint, past the creaking docks, up, up the grassy dune to Arden's house.  It jutted out into the cold angry sea like the steadfast figurehead on an ancient ship.  The wind whipped my long hair in my face as I climbed up the flimsy trellis, clenching footholds that my fingers knew as well as my own face.  Finally I pulled myself up over the railing and onto the second floor deck.  Ancient whitewashed floorboards groaned under my feet as I walked over to the door.
         It was unlocked, as it always was, so I let myself in.  Arden sat in the middle of the room, brushing her luxurious, dark, curly hair while making faces into a tall mirror.  I lay on my stomach on her bed and rested my head in my hands and smiled at her in the mirror. 
         Arden grinned back at me.  Her smile is the truest smile that I have ever seen - it lights up her entire face and washes you with all the warmth of a million stars.  I had always felt lucky to have her for my best friend.
         "So what are you so excited for?" I asked with a grin.
         Arden laughed.  Her laughter comes from somewhere deep inside her heart and lifts her shoulders up and down in an almost perfect rhythm.  And it's amazingly contagious, so soon both of us were laughing together for no apparent reason. 
         Eventually Arden composed herself somewhat and turned around to face me.  "Adam asked me out tonight," she giggled.  Her entire face was lit up with excitement and her eyes were asking me a million questions.
         I froze for a few moments.  At first I was confused and I couldn't believe what she was telling me.  I mean we were both 13 and boy crazy but I never imagined either of us, dating or anything until later.  It always seemed like dating was something far away and intangible, like college or being able to drive.  I guess I didn't have a problem with it, I mean I had been crazy about Matt for ages and I wouldn't ever have thought twice if he asked me out. 
         But then I really started to think about it.  Adam.  I suddenly remembered who Adam was; he was drop-dead gorgeous.  Apparently he was also dangerous, as I heard from his sobbing ex-girlfriend as she helplessly clung to her best friend in the girl's bathroom last April.  A horrible apprehension seeped through me.
         And then I realized something else:  I had hoped to have a picnic on the beach under the stars tonight with Arden.  It was going to be our last one for the summer and I had been looking forward to it.  I felt hurt, as if somebody had punched me in the stomach, hard.  She was ditching me!  Now I was entirely convinced that this date with Adam was a bad idea.
         I tried to speak but the words wouldn't come at first.  I was afraid of what I was going to say; I just knew it was dangerous.  But I had to say it.  "I-I…I'm not so sure that you should go…," I stammered.
         "Wh-what?!"  Arden's eyes bugged out and her mouth hung open as if she was at a loss for words.
         We merely stared at each other for a few minutes; she seated on the floor, I stretched out on her bed. 
         After those few minutes went by, I answered the question her eyes had been demanding the entire time.  "I've heard really bad things about him," I blurted out.
         "Well you can't believe everything you hear," Arden asserted.
         "He's dangerous!  Trust me; I heard it from his ex!"
         "Oh of course she's going to say that!"
         "Come on Arden!  Just trust me!  I don't want you to get hurt." 
         "Morgan, I know him!  He's a nice guy!  Besides, I'm old enough to make my own decisions and plenty of people our age are dating anyway.  Relax, we're just going to hang out somewhere."
         "Where?  Not at the…west end right?"
         "I don't know.  Maybe."
         "But not at the…you know… the cannery."
         "I don't know.  And who cares if we do?"
         I paled and couldn't stop a shiver from shaking my body.  "But we promised…we promised that we would never ever go there again.  It's haunted!"
         "Morgan, we were seven years old then.  You don't understand…"
         I interrupted angrily, "I do understand!  And I don't want you to go!  Please don't!  Anyway…I was hoping that we could go to the beach tonight.  I really wanted to cause, I mean, we're running out of time!  It's late August already and school's only a week away."
         Arden stood up and began shouting, "You never told me about that!  How can you get angry at me since I never knew about it in the first place?"
         I mouthed furiously for a minute but regained my words soon enough.  "Well, you should have figured we would go again one last time!"
         Arden's body started shaking as much as her voice.  "I'm sick of arguing with you.  I don't think we understand each other.  You know what you're problem is?  You just won't grow up.  And you know what else I think?  I think you're JEALOUS of me!"
         Both of us stared wide eyed at each other for quite a while, stewing in silence.  I think we were both shocked at what we had said to each other, for we had never had such a huge fight before.  Shaking, I got up and started for the door.  I was so angry and hurt that I couldn't speak at all.  I slammed the flimsy screen door, leapt over the rail and crashed into the sand and dune grass.  Brushing myself off and muttering angrily, I picked myself up and ran home. 
                                                      *  *  *
         The tender ocean breeze rocked me in my hammock on the back porch.  My arms dangled lazily over the edges and my fingers gently grazed the smooth wood panels.  Raindrops began to mix with the tears on my cheeks and dark clouds were moving in just before the blanket of night.  Certainly Arden and Adam were together by now, having a wonderful time. 
         The wind picked up dramatically and the ocean churned angrily.  My hammock swung frantically and my ears were filled with the rush of leaves.  Far off I heard a growl of thunder.  My heart lurched and I let out a single, dry, sob. 
         I stayed in the hammock and watched the storm for, I don't even know how long.  Eventually the thunder and lightning wore themselves out and there was only a steady rain falling.  By that time, night had long fallen and guilt had settled on my heart.
         Glancing at my watch, I noticed it was about ten.  I figured that Arden would be back home by now, or at least soon.  Ten minutes later I was standing on her porch in the pouring rain struggling to overcome my pride and anxiety.  Finally I just burst in quickly before I could change my mind.  No Arden.
         I took off my raincoat and sat down on Arden's bed just as I had several hours ago.  Yet somehow, surrounded by everything that was hers and in the room that was hers, I couldn't feel her presence.  I felt oddly alone and almost afraid.  The shadows slid across the soft carpet and the rain constantly pattered the roof as the minutes passed.
         A peculiar feeling of dread slowly crept through my body.  What if she had gone to the cannery?  I remembered the first time we had gone there, so many years ago.  It was the dreariest place, a huge abandoned warehouse with monstrous machines larger than houses.  And the cold smell of fish was everywhere - it seeped down through your clothes and clutched your heart.  And it was haunted…we heard the moans and screams ourselves.  The older kids had dared us to go in there and they were all laughing at us…and we did one night when we were seven.  After that we promised ourselves that we would never go in there again.  Older teenagers go there sometimes but I never completely understood why.  I just knew it was a bad place…the goose bumps were enough to tell you. 
         What if Arden had gone there?  I wouldn't put it past Adam to go to a place with such a bad reputation.  But Arden?  She knows…I don't think she would ever go to that bad place…or would she?  What if Adam forced her there?  What if something bad happened?  What if the ghosts were real?  What if…
         I'd had enough.  Without putting my raincoat back on, I rushed out the door and leapt into open space, this time landing on my feet in an enormous puddle.  I ran harder than I ever had in my entire life, faster and faster and faster and faster and faster and faster…
         My hair was plastered to my face and my clothes were soaked all the way through by the time I reached the west end of the bay.  I skidded to a stop in front of the forbidding building.  It was perched on a rocky beach and surrounded by a maze of docks.  The building itself was metal with a half cylinder roof.  It looked like a giant tombstone. 
         I let myself in through a wooden door with opaque windows.  At once the stifling scent of millions of ancient fish that had once passed through this horrific place punched me in the face.  I almost turned back right then, especially when that familiar feeling of dread entered my heart.  But I gathered my courage and walked across the creaking wood floorboards which were slippery from grease.  Luckily I found a light switch, which turned on a row of pale yellow lights one by one.  It was exactly as I remembered it.  High above me were a complicated system of conveyor belts and all along the walls were deadly-looking machines.  At the very end of the room I saw a door ajar.  A static sound began filling my ears as I began to shake from terror.  Never before in my entire life had I felt such fear. 
         My heart stopped when I heard an extended moan.  My throat started closing up and I closed my eyes tight.  But I recognized that moan…
         My eyes flung themselves open and I threw myself across the room towards the door and to whatever was beyond it.  I burst into the small room which was nothing but an office.  All I could smell was beer.  Crushed up cans of Bud Light were scattered all around the tiny room.  But what concerned me was pressed up against the desk in Adam's clutches.
         Arden was moaning and writhing.  Her arms were trying to push Adam away but they were slow and lethargic.  She groaned, "Aaaaadammm, puh…puhleeze…let…go…"  But he wasn't listening at all.  He forced her again and again and again and again against the desk and I could hear his rabid panting.  I could even smell the stale beer on his breath and his sweat.  Suddenly the desk collapsed under the combined weight of Arden and Adam, who were glued together.  Arden screamed and Adam yelled "Shut up!" and punched her across the face.
         The room was spinning all around me and the buzzing sound in my ears was almost drowning out everything else.  My whole body shook as a leaf in the storm.  Finally, some force took possession of me and every fear melted away.  An insane anger threw me onto Adam.  I started punching him without restraint.  He stood up and pushed me off, but he swayed and nearly fell over.  I kept my balance and walked right back up to him.  I was so close to him then, I saw the very whites of his eyes.  I launched my right fist directly into his jaw.  His eyes rolled and he staggered to the floor.
         I had never punched anyone in my entire life.  I stood staring at Adam sprawled across the floor, keeping my fist clenched.  When I was convinced that he was sufficiently knocked out and I recovered from the shock of what I'd done, I went over to Arden.
         The odor of beer hung around her body as well.  Her eyes were closed and her clothes were all disheveled and ripped.  There was already a dark bruise on her right cheek where Adam had punched her.  I checked her pulse and was reassured by the throbbing life force still within my best friend.
         I lifted her under her arms out from the shards of wood and onto her feet.  She couldn't stand though, her feet slid under her like those of a rag doll.  I mustered all of my strength and picked her up in my arms.  I very nearly fell over, I'm not that strong after all, and my muscles felt as though they were going to explode. 
         Somehow I got her out of there.  Even though Arden was most definitely unconscious, I knew that we were struggling together through the rain coming down in sheets.  Every step was harder than the previous and soon it was as though we were climbing the highest reaches of Everest.  But we were doing it together.
         Finally I couldn't walk any further.  We had journeyed from the very west end of the bay almost to the east end.  I let Arden down gently and collapsed onto the sand right next to her.  After that, I knew no more.
                                                        *  *  *
         I woke up a number of hours later.  There was still a blanket of stars across the sky but off towards the east, towards Arden's house, I saw a hint of light.  I sat up and saw Arden sitting on the edge of the water.  Her body heaved and she threw up into the ocean.  I walked over to her and put my hand on her shoulder.  She turned to me with tears staining her face.  Her eyes were the most tragic, pain-filled eyes I have ever seen. 
         We held each other on the sandy beach and sobbed together.  We didn't need to say anything; we each knew what we would have said.  Finally, we understood each other.  We stayed there for a while as the ocean grew closer to us and washed over our feet.  After a short time, Arden got up and started walking eastward, towards the sunrise, towards her home.  Then I got up and followed her.