John Doe 2: Chapter 1
August 19, 2013
I woke up around seven o'clock the next morning to the sound of my mom knocking on my bedroom door.
"James, wake up, I have breakfast ready, and you have a big day today!" she said in a very cheerful tone.
I dozed for about five minutes before I got up out of bed, had my morning shower, and put my clothes on. My clothes for today consist of a pair of Levi's, Ariat cowboy boots, a George Strait T-shirt, and a brown leather jacket that I got for my birthday last year. My dirty blonde hair was in a mess (that's just the way I like it) and my light black moustache was, well… noticeable. After that I went in to the kitchen for breakfast. Mom hadn't had time to do much shopping since we got to Chamberlain yesterday, so all I had was a piece of toast and a bowl of honey nut cheerios. By this point my mom had already left for her new job at the local Wells Fargo. School was just a few blocks away from where we lived, so I could walk. I didn't have the option to drive there because I had to sell my truck in order to help pay for the moving expenses.
As I walked to school I passed by an old white house at the end of our street, the house was giving me the creeps, it looked like the type of house that you would find out in the middle of the woods occupied by ghosts. With rusty shingles and gutters, dirty and cracked windows, a decaying picket fence, a cross above the door, and a dead tree in the front yard that looked like it could fall over at any minute, I would have assumed the house was abandoned had it not been for one thing: an old grey fourth generation Pontiac Grand Am in the driveway leading to the back of the house. The way I had it figured there was more than likely someone living there since there was a car, then again I've been wrong before.
As I walked in to Ewen High School I pulled out my schedule to find out what room homeroom was at, room 203 upstairs. As I walked to my classroom I noticed a custodian cleaning a group of red lockers to my left that had the phrase "CARRIE WHITE EATS SHIT" spray-painted on to them in big white bold letters, I just stared at the lockers in shock and disgust thinking; why do people do things like that? I saw some messed up things at my old school, but to spray-paint lockers in broad daylight (I could tell it was done fairly recently due to how wet the paint was) was something I had never seen before. The next question that popped into my head was; who was Carrie White? Oh well, I'm sure I'll find out latter.
I still had twenty minutes until class started, but I decided to get there early so that I could pick out a good seat. When I walked up the stairs and entered the classroom, I saw that there were five rows of desks that had five desks in each row. I was greeted by a teacher that was probably in his early to mid-thirties by the name of Mr. Bowman, he told me that since it was the first day I could sit wherever I wanted. I chose the third desk in the second row to the left, as I was about to take my seat I noticed there was a poem carved into the desk with small letters that said: "Roses are red, violets are blue… but Carrie White eats shit!"
"What the hell?!" I thought to myself. After reading that terrible poem I realized the classroom was starting to fill up and class was about to start in just five minutes. With the amount of time I had, I decided to ask Mr. Bowman a question.
"Mr. Bowman, who is Carrie White?" I asked after walking up to his desk.
"I guess your new here James, well, I'll tell you this much, if you don't know who she is yet, you will really soon." He said before moaning in annoyance, whether that was directed at me or at Carrie, I don't know.
Thirty seconds before the bell rang to start first period, Mr. Bowman asked everyone to take their seats so that he could start taking attendance, when something interrupted him. A very rotund looking girl burst through the door breathing very heavily with some sweat on her forehead.
"Ah Carrie, you have decided to grace us with your presence this morning, with just fifteen seconds to spare." Mr. Bowman said in an almost sarcastic tone.
"I-I-I" Carrie stuttered as she tried to get out a sentence.
"I don't need an excuse Carrie, just park your butt in that desk over there so that I can take attendance." said Mr. Bowman as he pointed at the desk to my left (it was the only available seat).
Without saying anything more, Carrie started walking/waddling toward my direction. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a slender, olive skinned brunette stick her leg out in front of Carrie causing her to trip and fall over. Carrie hit the floor belly first making a plopping sound as she did (sort of like the sound a wet towel makes when drop it on your bathroom floor), luckily though she was able to react fast enough to protect her face and head with her meaty arms. Unfortunately, as she hit the floor all the supplies in her satchel spilled out and scattered all over the floor.
"Ooff." said Carrie as she hit the floor.
At this the entire class started to point at her, burst into laughter, and started shouting very mean obscenities at her.
"Ha Ha, you eat shit Carrie!"
"Eww, look at her jiggle, she's so fat and disgusting!"
"How'd you get to school today Carrie, did you roll?"
"Moooo!"
"Did you have a nice trip Carrie?!"
"Damn you got a big ass Carrie!"
"Did anyone else feel that earthquake?!"
The list of things they said literally goes on and on, the whole time Carrie just looked at them with watery puppy dog eyes while biting her lip, she looked like she was about to cry. I giggled for like a few seconds after she tripped, but once people started insulting her and I saw the sad expression on her face I stopped immediately, at that point it wasn't funny, it was downright degrading and just plain wrong. Anyway, this went on for about 30 seconds until Mr. Bowman interfered, to an extent.
"Alright that's enough! Keep quiet so I can take attendance!" he shouted.
That's all he did though, he did nothing to help Carrie, he didn't scold the class for bullying her, he did nothing, all he cared about was taking his stupid attendance. I looked at Carrie and saw her trying to collect the belongings that fell out of her bag, her eyes were watery, she was still biting her lip, and she looked like she was having some trouble getting back up, her face had turned red from embarrassment. I looked around and I saw nobody try to help her, as a matter of fact some people (like the olive skinned girl) were making really stupid faces while just staring at her. I was amazed at how cruel these Mainers were being. Well I was not going to have it. I got out of my desk, got on my hand and knees and helped Carrie pick up her belongings (pencils, pens, textbooks, etc…). After collecting most of the items a walked up to the struggling Carrie (on my knees).
"Carrie." I said.
"Oogh." she said as she looked up to me with a shy expression on her face.
"I uh, I got your things."
She looked at the objects in my arms as I placed them into her book bag. After that I got up on my feet and extended my hand to her.
"Need a hand?" I asked.
She reached out for my hand, hesitating at first, but finally deciding to take my hand. She placed her other hand on the desk next to her as she pulled herself back up onto her feet. After standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulder, we locked eyes for a brief second before she began walking to her desk. As she did she shyly whispered something under her breath that sounded like "Thank you".
I went back to my desk to read for the rest of class when I heard a loud creaking sound to my left. It was Carrie struggling to fit into her desk. Just for reference, these desks were really small even for the average high school senior (they seemed better suited for 3rd graders), the gap between the chair and the table attached to in was not very wide, and on top of all that they were fairly old (probably old hand me downs the school bought to save money cause they were cheaper). And Carry was very round for a girl her age, so you can imagine how trying to squeeze into one of those things might be a little difficult for her.
She struggled with it for a minute, sucking in her gut as far as she could and straightening out her back in attempt to make herself fit. When she finally got herself to fit, she slowly lowered her bottom onto the chair and exhaled. After she did this however, the desk started to creak and groan under her massive weight. For a second I was beginning to think: "Oh no, the poor girl's too heavy, it's gona collapse." I could tell Carrie was thinking the same thing as she developed a worried expression on her face that read: "Please dear God, don't let the chair break." Luckily the creaking stopped almost as soon as it started and we both sighed in relief. However when I looked to my right I noticed that most of the class was staring at us with mixed emotions. Some stared with amusement, some with anger, some with disgust, others just stared with blank expressions. By that point I was really starting to feel uncomfortable and started to stiffen up. I was praying for the class to be over soon, I still had 45 more minutes left.
Fortunately the class passed with no further incidents, the rest of the classes I had that morning were not that eventful. I did have Carrie in any more of my classes that morning, I saw her in the hallway a few times (she's not hard to notice) but I never got the chance to get face to face with her again until lunch time. I saw her siting alone at a table eating her lunch, being too shy to sit with anyone else, I approached her.
"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" I asked.
She looked up at me nervously and shook her head. So I sat down in front of her. It was in that moment I realized something, I haven't actually gotten a good look at Carrie yet. Not wanting to seem rude, I decided to look at her through my peripheral vision. Carrie had a round chubby looking face, with full luscious pink lips. Her eyes were dark brown (they were round as well), and she had long unkempt black hair that rested on her shoulders and the top of her back. Her skin was very pale and silky (kind of like coffee cream to make a comparison). She wore a white button up long sleeve blouse that looked to be a size or two too small on her plump figure. She had a girdle wrapped around her wide waist (to me that was unusual, I only thought Catholic priests wore those nowadays), she also wore a dark green skirt that went all the way down to her shins (it looked homemade). Around her neck she had on a necklace that had a small wooden cross on it that rested on her large breasts.
Looking at her now I was thinking: why do people pick on her so much? Looking at the way the sun shined on her body as she ate lunch, it looked like she was glowing. I was thinking, she's not ugly, not by a long shot. As a matter of fact I think she's kind of cute, pretty even. I decided I wasn't going to sit there and subtly admire her radiant beauty, I was gonna talk to her.
"How are you doing?" I asked Carrie.
She looked up shyly and said "Fine."
"I'm James, James Salinger." I said as I extended my hand to her.
She looked at my hand skeptically. As though she thought it was some kind of trick.
"It's okay, I don't bite." I said with a smile.
She eventually shook my hand.
"I'm Carrie." she said.
"It's nice to meet you Carrie."
She started to bite her lip again and her face was starting to turn red. This time not from embarrassment, but from nervousness. We both had finished our lunches at that point. I was about to say something else when she suddenly spoke up.
"Look if you're here to make fun of me like the others just save it, I've heard it all before, leave me alone." she said as she got up to leave.
I got up to stop her.
"Carrie wait! Don't go! I'm not trying to make fun of you." I said. As I reached out for her arm.
Unbeknownst to me (as well as Carrie), people were starting to look over at us.
"I said leave me alone!" Carrie said in frustration as she pushed my hand away and walked out the cafeteria doors.
"Carrie please, I'm just trying to be friendly!" I said.
It was when I said this she stopped walking and turned around.
"What?" she asked in a soft voice.
"I just moved here from San Antonio and I'm trying to make friends, that and I was disgusted with how our classmates treated you this morning, so, I just wanted to cheer you up and offer you my friendship."
Carrie POV:
"That boy wants to be friends with me?" I thought to myself.
"No, no, no, no, no there's no way. Nobody's ever wanted to be my friend before. That, and Moma always told me that boys are evil, that they come like dogs barking in the night and once they sink their teeth in you, they "take you." They take you in the back of their cars, in roadhouses, in bars with liquor on their breath. After all Moma's always right isn't she? Like she was about summer camp all those years ago? But maybe… maybe this boy is different, he did help me pick up my books today didn't he? That's got to count for something doesn't it?" I thought inquisitively.
"Why should I believe you?" I asked.
"Well… what will it take to prove it to you?" James asked.
I thought to myself for a minute and I came up with an idea.
"Meet me at the front entrance after school." I said.
"Okay deal, I'll be there I promise." James said as he walked to his locker. By this point the bell signaling that lunch was over had already ended and students were flocking to their sixth period classes.
I suddenly started to get a funny feeling deep within my stomach, it felt as though it was filling up with butterflies, it felt good. I started to smile. Does he really want to be my friend? My thoughts were interrupted however when Chris Hargensen and Tina Blake walked up to me with sadistic smiles faces.
"What are you smiling about Carrie?" asked Chris.
I looked up in shock to see who it was.
"Did the new boy ask you to go to Bible study with him?"
"What?" asked Carrie.
"Yea right Chris, not even a redneck could want a whale like Carrie."
"Your right Tina! Wipe that smile off your face Carrie, no guy could ever want a girl with as much blubber as you, get your head out of the clouds! Now move aside, your fat ass is clogging the entire hallway!" said Chris.
I did as they asked as I began to feel a lump in my throat, as they passed by Tina said "You eat shit!" That was all I could take and I ran to the girl's restroom, I could hear Chris and Tina laughing as they watched me run away. I even heard Chris yell out "look out it's a stampede!"
I sat in a stall in the restroom and cried for a long time after that. Why do they have to be so cruel, why can't they just leave me alone! Why does everyone hate me!
James POV:
School ended at around 3:45. I quickly went to the front entrance to meet Carrie. I saw her sitting outside sitting on a bench eating a snickers bar. So I went out to meet her.
"Carrie I'm here!" I shouted.
She turned around when she heard my voice, she had a little bit of chocolate on her face and her eyes were red, like she was crying recently.
"Oh, hi James." she said in a crying tone.
"Are you okay? Have you been crying?" I asked with concern.
"No I'm okay, my eyes just… get watery sometimes when I'm hungry." Carrie lied (badly) as she took another bite out of her snickers bar.
"Carrie I wasn't born yesterday, I know that isn't true, if you don't want to talk about what's wrong I won't force you." I said.
There was a pause for a minute, then Carrie spoke up.
"Well, I guess I could tell you." Carrie said.
"After you said you would meet me here earlier today I was approached by Chris and Tina." she said.
"Who's Chris and Tina?" I asked.
"You know that girl that tripped me this morning? That's her. Tina is a girl that hangs out with her." Carrie explained.
"Okay go on." I said.
"They walked up to me, I think they saw us talking, I was smiling. Then they told me to wipe the smile off my face and that there's no way a redneck could ever like a girl with, with, with…" Carrie said.
"With what?" I asked.
"With as much blubber as me! And then they said I was clogging the hallway with my fat ass and that I eat shit!" Carrie cried.
At this point she was really starting to sob and tears were landing on her lap. I was completely shocked that a couple of girls could say such things and make her cry like this. I felt a wave of emotions overtake me; anger towards Chris and Tina, and sympathy for Carrie. I felt like I was going to cry myself; but I sucked it up. Instead I got her to look at me, I turned towards her and I opened my arms. Then I said, "Come here."
Carrie immediately accepted my embrace. She wrapped her soft arms around my neck, and I wrapped mine around the middle of her back. She pressed her face firmly into my chest and continued sobbing while I rubbed her back. Students were passing by and staring at us, it was a little embarrassing, all I could do was close my eyes and pretend not to notice.
"Oh James, why do they have to be so mean? They've been doing this ever since first grade, they just won't stop it. " Carrie sobbed.
"Carrie that's terrible, don't you have anyone you can talk to about this?" I asked.
"No! I don't have any friends. I've never had a friend in my life."
"My gosh, what about your parents?" I asked.
"I never knew my daddy. And my momma keeps telling me that the reason why people are so mean to me and the reason why I'm so fat is because God is chastising me!" Carrie sobbed.
I didn't even know how to respond to what Carrie said about her mom, what kind of mother would say something like that to their own daughter? But growing up without a father is something that I know all too well.
"Carrie I'm so sorry, I know what it's like you know, I never knew my father either." I said.
Carrie broke our embrace and looked at me with her red eyes, with tears running down her face and a little bit of mucus under her nose. I handed her a tissue out of my backpack (I keep some with me at all times because I am prone to nosebleeds). She blew her nose.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yea, he worked as an agent for the Oklahoma city branch of the Drug Enforcement Administration. He worked out of their office at the Alfred P. Murrah building. Seven months before I was born, a traitor by the name of Timothy McVeigh blew up the building, injuring over 400 people and killing 169. My father was one of them." I said in a shaky voice.
"Something like that actually happened?" Carrie asked taking another bite out of her snickers bar.
To tell you the truth I used to get really angry when people would ask questions like that. But as I got older I realized that ever since the 9/11 attacks, a lot of people have forgotten about the Oklahoma City bombing. Nowadays I've become more patient with these people and explain to them what happened that day.
"Yea. It's not fair! It isn't fair what McVeigh did to me, my mother, or to any of those people! Because of his anger people like me grew up in single parent homes and didn't have a father or a mother to look up to, the lives of 19 little kids were ended early, 3 unborn children never got to see the light of day, and worst of all one of the people who helped McVeigh got away!" I said.
At this point I was starting to cry myself, I get really emotional when I talk about the bombing. How can't I? My life was changed by it before I was even born. I never had a dad to look up to, to throw a baseball or football with me in the back yard, to push me on the swings at the park, or any of those things. Of course my mom did those things when she could, but sometimes she could be really busy with work and didn't have time to. Maybe that's why she would have us watch John Wayne movies all the time, so I could have a good male role model.
Carrie saw me crying of course. She grabbed something out of her book bag, and then she wrapped me into a hug and let me cry on her shoulder. After crying for a while she handed me the thing that she got out of her bag, it was another snickers bar.
"You can have it, sometimes it helps me feel better when I'm sad." she said.
"Thanks." I said as I gratefully accepted the candy.
"Uh Carrie? How many of those do you have if you don't mind me asking?" I asked hesitantly.
"Just the two." She said as she bit into the snickers bar she hadn't finished.
"Um Carrie, forgive me for asking but, do you eat when your upset?" I asked (why the hell did I just ask that!?).
She nodded her head.
"I probably wouldn't be like, this, if I didn't." she said as she finished off her candy bar and threw the wrapper in her bag.
"Whenever I get upset I just eat and eat and eat, and I get fatter and fatter and fatter. It's like I can't help myself." she said.
I pulled out some paper and a pencil and wrote my cell phone number on the paper.
"Carrie I'm going to help you out. Whenever you start to feel upset, instead of eating your sorrows away I want you to call me. You can talk to me however long you like and you can tell me whatever is on your mind. I won't judge you." I said.
She took the piece of paper and placed it in her bag.
"Thank you James."
"What are friends for?" I said.
"Friends?"
"Yea, that's why I'm here aren't I?"
She began to smile at this. She had pearly white teeth that were really shiny. One of her front teeth were chipped.
"You have a beautiful smile Carrie." I said.
"Thank you James!" Carrie said happily. She was giggling a little bit too.
When she looked up to our left however her happy expression turned to one of fear, as though she just saw a ghost.
"James! Run!" Carrie said in a panic.
"Why, what's wro…" I said before Carrie cut me off.
"Go! Hurry!" she yelled panicking even more.
At this I rushed across the street and hid inside the Kelly fruit company, I peeked out the window back over to where Carrie was sitting. I saw a beat up grey Pontiac Grand Am pull up to where Carrie was still sitting. It looked like the same car I saw this morning. In the driver's seat was an obese woman with snow white hair and a very prominent double chin. She also seemed to have a mole on her cheek and what appeared to be claw marks on her face. There was a cross hanging on the woman's rear view mirror. It must be Carrie's mom.
I saw Carrie get into the passenger's seat and give the obese woman a hug. Then they drove off. I noticed as they drove off that the car was leaning very significantly to the left. She must be a very big woman to make the car lean like that.
"Hey you gona order somethin?! If not get the hell outa here!" said an old timer behind the counter.
"Oh sorry to disturb you sir, I'll be going then." I said.
I ran back towards my house (not easy to do in cowboy boots) the same route I walked to get to school so that I could confirm my Pontiac theory. I got there just in time, just as I reached my block I saw Carrie and the same obese woman who was driving walk from the side of the old white house and up onto the front porch. When I saw the woman I could not believe my own two eyes. She was a mountain of a woman that made Carrie look like a recently liberated concentration camp prisoner. She had white hair, a mole, and scratch marks on her face that looked almost as if they were self-inflicted, she had similar marks on her wrists as well. Not a very pretty looking woman (Carrie must have inherited her looks from her father). She had some kind of a dark green gown on. In one hand she had a big brown purse and in the other she had a King James Bible. They walked into the house before they even noticed I was looking at them. Suddenly I realized that there was one feature of the house I hadn't noticed before, there were patched up areas on the house that looked like there were holes originally, and there were also indentations on the front lawn; must have been from a hail storm or something.
I walked in through the front door of my house where I saw my mother sitting on the couch watching Grey's Anatomy.
"How was school honey?" she asked.
"It was great!" I said.
"Really!? What happened!?" she asked excited at my choice of words.
"You're not going to believe this, but I made a friend on the first day of school, you could consider her to be my best friend!" I said excitedly.
"Oh my gosh! It's a girl!? Who is she!?" she said now even more excited.
The reason why she was so excited about this is because I've never really had any women in my life. I would talk to girls every now and then at my old school, but they would classify more as associates rather than friends.
"Yea her name is Carrie, we sit next to each other in homeroom." I explained. I went on to tell her about what had happened throughout the day. I made some alterations though, I didn't want her to know that I might have a crush on the school (for lack of a better word) 'fat chick'.
"I think that is very brave of you James. Well done. But I don't understand why such a pretty girl would be the target of relentless bullying." she said.
"Probably just jealousy." I said.
"Good point."
"Anyway enough about me, how was your day today?" I asked.
"Not much to speak of, I'm still trying to get adjusted to things. However something weird did happen after I got home." she said.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Some obese woman… I guess she was a missionary? Who said her name was Margaret came to the doorstep and tried to sell me a Bible. I tried to decline at first but she wouldn't stop ranting about God, Satan, eternal damnation, and the evils of intercourse." she explained.
"What did you do? Call the cops?" I asked.
"No. I just bought a Bible from her and asked her politely to leave. Luckily she did, but not before shouting: "I pray you find Jesus!"" she said.
"What did you say she looked like?" I asked.
"Morbidly obese, white hair, big mole on her cheek, scratch marks on her face, stood about six feet tall." she described.
"I'm pretty sure she's Carrie's mom." I said.
"After the story you told me I wouldn't be surprised. Hopefully Carrie won't grow up to be as ugly as her." she said.
"I hope so to." I said.
"Anyway dinner's in the oven, how about you go relax in the mean time?" she said.
"Okay." I said as I grabbed myself a Dr. Pepper and went outside to enjoy the evening.
A/N: It took me three days to write this, now its midnight! What's wrong with me I should be in bed. Anyway I hope you guys like this. Despite the obvious changes I'm making, I'm trying to stay as true to the book as I can with some light references to the movies. Let me know if there are any grammatical errors that I'm making in the reviews. Now for those of you who are wondering, Carrie hasn't had her period just yet, as a matter of fact that's not going to happen until later on in the story when our characters get closer to prom. The reason I'm telling you this is that I'm going to have to keep this story interesting until we hit that point and things start to climax. I plan to do that by writing about James' manhunt for John Doe 2 (hence the title) and by doing some development with the relationship with him and Carrie. But I'm open to new ideas, what do you guys want to see? Tell me (But do not suggest lemons, I don't have the guts for that, and that's all I'm gonna say about that.).