Chapter One
It was a hot summer evening when Randi Dixon showed up on Daryl's doorstep. With a wide smile she enticed "I hear the quarry's open."
"Shit…" Merle smiled at his five foot six brunet cousin. He lifted Randi off of her feet into a huge bear hug. "It's always open for us."
Daryl had a rare smile on his face. He was happy when Randi decided to come home. His little cousin was always moving from one place or another. Last he heard she was in California. Some people thought she was running from her past and her dysfunctional family, but Daryl knew Randi always wanted to see the world. Besides the sooner she got away from her fucked up old man the better.
Daryl smacked Merle on the arm. "Hey, dickhead, how about letting us get a chance."
Merle laughed. "Fat chance fuck-face, she's my little sissy."
Randi's older brother Jesse was asleep on the couch until Randi showed up. Happily he smiled at his sister. "When did you get back?"
"This Morning." Randi answered. "Don't go whining that I didn't call sooner. I had some errands to run. And I went to see mom."
.
At the mention of Jesse and Randi's dead mother the room grew silent. Out of all the Dixon women Cheryl Dixon was the best. She felt like a mom to all of them. Sadly it was short lived because she left Frank when she discovered she had breast cancer. It moved quickly and took her life within months. Randi was only eight at the time and her older brother Jesse was ten. Merle had already run away right after his last stay in juvie. He was about to turn eighteen and enlist in the service. Frank would leave the kids at the house and he and Will, Daryl and Merle's old man, would disappear for days. Daryl felt responsible for his younger cousins although he was only twelve at the time. It was up to him to make sure the younger ones ate and got up for school.
Merle reluctantly put Randi down and she eagerly hugged Daryl and Jesse. "Enough of all this depressing shit. I'm here to celebrate." She went to the door grabbing her purse and a six pack of Merle's favorite beer. She handed one to each of them and held her bottle high. "Here's to Merle finally getting off parole!"
…
They finished the beer on the way to the quarry. Merle drove and Randi sat in the front with him. Daryl and Jesse climbed into the bed of the truck. Daryl sat quietly, lost in his own thoughts, while Jesse stood up and pounded on the roof of the cab as he hollered at passing cars. People honked at them or joined in the party atmosphere by yelling out their own windows and giving the "rock on" fist pump. At a red light one chick lifted her shirt and pressed her tits to the passenger side window of her car. Merle held his fingers up in a v and wiggled his tongue between then in a rude gesture. When the light turned green he burned rubber, sending the truck in a fish tail and making Jesse land on his ass.
Merle turned onto a gravel road, driving fifty feet before pulling off into a worn down section of tall grass. Jesse and Daryl ignored the tailgate, opting to hop over the side of the truck bed. They grabbed the fixings for a redneck surf and turf; another six pack of beer, a pack of frozen hotdogs, and their fishing gear. Jesse ran ahead of them down the gravel roadway towards a section where the overgrowth narrowed and a rusted chain stretched across from one cement pylon to another. In the center of the chain was a do not enter sign supporting six bullet holes. Jesse hurdled the sign but Merle chose to duck under it and punch the sign on his way through. The sound waved through the sheet metal and echoed down through the canyon.
Daryl lifted the chain high enough to clear the fishing pole as Randi went under. When he was on the other side of the chain he shifted Randi's backpack on his shoulders and readjusted the tackle box and the poles he was carrying. The backpack was heavy and he heard bottles clink inside. "What do ya have in here?" He called to Randi.
She turned around, walking backwards, smiling at him. "You'll see. Hurry up!"
Merle was almost to the rocky beach at the water's edge. He yelled, "Move it, Darleena. Quit dragging ass!"
.
Vegetation grew in sporadic spots along the half-moon section of shore. Most of it was scorched from the heat. The beach was manmade many years ago. Most of the sand was swallowed up by gravel and caked in dried mud. A section of sand remained untouched to the right of the entrance. In the center of the sandy area was a fire pit flanked by two weathered logs.
Daryl propped the poles up along the logs and set the rest of the stuff into the sand. "Maybe if you'd carry more than the six pack, I would have gotten here sooner."
Merle laughed. "I got all I need right here, baby brother. " He pulled a baggie out of his pocket.
Daryl rolled his eyes as soon as he saw the drugs. "Can't even go one day…" He mumbled under his breath.
Merle huffed. "Who pissed in yer Cheerio's? It certainly wasn't me." Merle smirked when Daryl glared at him in a way that said, you know why.
Merle put a firm hand on the back of Daryl's neck and leaned in close to his ear. "Time to move on. Or maybe we need to let the cat outta the bag, hmm? Either way, fine by me." He ran his hand up Daryl's neck and slapped him in the back of the head. "Crawl out of yer own asshole, brother. Lighten up a little."
xxx
"We should've got some rolls." Randi said as she held a hot dog over the fire.
"Nah these are good like this." Jesse blew on the hotdog he had skewered onto a long stick. "Daryl, this one's done too." He added as he pulled a second stick from the fire.
Daryl stood at the water's edge staring out to the deepest part of the quarry where the cliff edge was the highest. In the past people had fallen to their death from that fifty foot drop. And Daryl knew a guy who tried to scale the wall in some half-baked repelling idea. His body hadn't been recovered for weeks. There were also stories of people getting sucked under by the current from the underground caverns. The quarry was off limits to swimming and fishing yet almost everyone in these parts did it at one time or another. Lately though with water parks drawing more attention, the quarry was ignored. Best thing to happen, in Daryl's opinion. He wished the road would grow closed with shrubbery and people would forget about this place completely.
He looked out along the rock wall and found the crack he knew was caused by an underground spring. He estimated how far up from the water it was. In the last year it seemed to be moving higher up the wall when in fact it was the water level that was shrinking. Daryl silently asked himself what happened if the water receded enough to reveal all of the secrets buried in this quarry.
.
"Yo cuz?" Jesse laughed when Daryl didn't respond to his question. Jesse pretended to use a walkie-talkie with sound effects. "Earth to Daryl, come in fucker!"
Randi asked, "You not hungry?" as Daryl turned towards them.
"Get yer ass over here boy! I got something that'll give ya the munchies." Merle took a hit off his joint and held it out to Daryl.
Randi intercepted it. With a wink she said, "I'd say this shit's illegal if ya ask me. Aren't ya on parole or something?" She took a hit, held it for a minute, and then passed it off to Jesse. Randi blew the smoke out nice and slow. "Why do you always have to give him shit?" She focused on Merle as a grin formed on her face. "You know he doesn't like it. He likes this!" Randi pulled out a large bottle of Jack Daniels from her bag, Merle grabbed at it. "Not so fast…Daryl gets this one. We…we can work on…" She made a show of pulling the second bottle from the bag.
Merle laughed deep. "What else you got in there?"
"Never you mind. A girl can't reveal all her secrets."
.
Daryl turned back to the water. His shirt was sticking to his clammy skin making him wish he could take it off. His scars kept him from doing it. He really just wanted to hang out with Randi and Jesse but they wanted to do it here. This place gave him the creeps. He hadn't gone swimming here since he was a teen because every time he tried he could imagine a dead icy hand coming up from the depths and pulling him under. Maybe he saw too many horror flicks as a kid. He cast a glance over his shoulder. The poles were forgotten about as soon as they were set down and Daryl wasn't in the partying mood anymore. He figured he'd be better off heading home instead of watching these dopes laugh their asses off at nothing.
.
As Daryl was debating on staying, Randi snuck up behind him and gave him a fake "saved your life" style shove. Daryl lurched forward, over corrected, and almost ended up in the water anyway. "Quit screwing around!" He barked.
Randi laughed loud and long. "You should have seen your face! Aw come on Daryl, live a little. I brought you something." She dangled the bottle in front of him. "I know you want to. Just one sip? See it is asking for it. Drink me, Daryl." She danced the bottle around. He didn't reach for it so she cracked the seal and took a long chug. Randi coughed and sucked air as the liquid burned her throat. She was knee deep into the water before she realized it.
"Gimme that and get out of there!" He snatched the bottle from her but she didn't come out. Daryl watched as she stripped off her t-shirt and jeans, getting down to her bra and panties. "We are not swimming!" He warned again.
"Watch me! She dove beneath the surface. Daryl waited for her to come back up and after too long he began to panic. "RANDI!" He dropped the bottle in the gravel and charged into the chest high water going under a couple of times to look for her. "RANDI!" He swiped at the water as if he could move it out of the way and she would magically appear. "MERLE! I CAN'T FIND HER!"
Merle and Jesse came running and made it to the water's edge in time to see Randi surface. She splashed Daryl while laughing like she had pulled the biggest prank of all time.
Daryl got out of the water in a hurry. Every muscle in his body straining with anger. On the shore he screamed. "THAT WASN'T FUCKING FUNNY! I THOUGHT YOU DROWNED!" He put the bottle to his lips and chugged, ignoring the burn at the back of his throat and the way it spread to his chest. He lowered the bottle long enough to scold her again. "GET OUT OF THERE!"
Randi wadded to him. "I'm sorry. We always swim here, been doing it since we were kids. All of us." To prove her point Jesse stripped and jumped in with Merle following close behind.
Daryl crossed his arms over his chest. "We're not kids anymore although some of us act like it."
"Come on Daryl did you really get too old to have some fun? We're Dixons. We're not afraid of nothing including a little runoff pond." She splashed him again.
"Quit! I said quit. You are going to pay!" He chased her until the water was too deep to run in and once they were out there Daryl forgot about how uncomfortable this place made him feel.