Chapter 2
A Roof Over Her Head
Murdoc was still in shock shaking his head with his hand covering his face.
"How could this have happened..." he muttered behind his hands in a low quiet voice.
2-D and Noodle turned there head towards Murdoc both thinking a similar thought. What does he mean 'How could this happen?' Murdoc was a man Hore! It was more surprising that he didn't have a love child show up on his door step sooner!
Murdoc removed his hands from his face and looked at Patches standing before him. He had a pitiful and shocked face.
"Your mother... you mentioned her before... Katelyn was it?" He spoke in a low quivering voice, "Where is she? Did you run away from home?"
"My Mom is... missing and... I don't have a home to run away from."
"What!" Murdoc's voice went back to it's usual tone "Your homeless!? And what do you mean missing!?"
Patches put both hands in her pockets, looked to the floor, and gridded her foot shyly.
"I'll tell you everything but..." her eyes shifted from the floor to the sofa where 2-D and Noodle sat.
"Noodle, face ache, clear out of hear!" Murdoc growled.
Noodle nodded, picked up her guitar and stood up ready to leave the room. 2-D didn't catch on as quickly though.
"What?" 2-D whined like a kid and looked up at Noodle while still in a siting position. "But I want to know, too!"
Noodle dragged him out of the room by his forearm and in to the staircase.
"2-D-san! Let's give them some alone time." Noodle spoke softly. "They have a lot to talk abut and sort out. Anyway I don't think Patches feels comfortable talking with Murdoc in front of us.
2-D contemplated this in his head before answering "OK.."
They both went upstairs to 2-D's room so they could tell Russel about there surprising new visitor.
Meanwhile Patches and Murdoc wear siting next to each other on the couch. Murdoc was acting as shy as she was. This had all happened so fast that he had a hard time processing it all. All the while his mind searched for a face, or experience, or anything to match that name, 'Katelyn'. He had had so many women over the years that it was hard to remember one in particular, especially since he wasn't completely sober for most of these experiences.
"Murdoc?" Apache broke the awkward silence, "I have so much to tell you I don't know where to start."
Murdoc looked down at her. And she looked back up at him with her strange miss matched eye with horizontal slit pupils. Then he quickly turned his head away to look down at his hands folded on his lap.
"Well... tell me where you were born... and more abut your mother"
"I'm not sure exactly where I was born, since my mom was kind of a rolling stone, but I was raised in Ontario Canada."
Murdoc couldn't help but chuckle "Canada..." under his breath.
Patches continued ether ignoring or not hearing her father's comment.
"My mom raised me in a trailer park on the nickle belt of Ontario. She was around a lot until I tuned 7. After that she started to disappear for days even weeks without saying where she was going. I didn't like school and didn't have any friends so I started to skip a lot and stay home. When I turned 9 she disappeared completely. I remembered running of the school bus expecting my mom to be their with a surprise since she never missed my birthday in the past." Patches let out a sigh looking very pained, "But instead there was a coffee can stuffed with cash and a note that I couldn't read on the kitchen table. I waited for a month or so, not going to school to make sure I didn't miss her if she droped by. The hydro and heating went out because no one was paying it. By late October I figered mom wasn't coming back, because she would never miss her favourite holiday. So... I packed my shit up and the money left in the can and went out to find you."
Murdoc blinked in astonishment! Her Mother abandoned her at the age of 9!?
"Not to be rude but... what took you so long? I mean... what happened next?"
"Well a lot happened! First I hitch hiked down to Toronto to see if I could catch a plane to the UK, but I needed a parent and ID and this and that so I had to find another way. I ended up living in China Town Toronto for the winter with a nice family. I worked In their store downstairs and didn't complain and in return they fed me and let me sleep in a room with their two kids. The house was deemed unsafe to live in by the government and everyone got evicted including me. Luckily it was spring by then so I said goodbye and headed to Niagara falls then London Ontario crossed the border in the back of a stranger's pickup truck then crossed the border again back into Ontario at Sault Sainte Marie. Lived on the street shortly, met some tattoo people, lived in the back of their parlour for a while. Ended up moving to California with the tattoo artists daughter after she finished university to live with her boyfriend. They broke up in 2 years. She had to find her own place and I was homeless again. I volunteered at the California SPCA. the lady that rehabilitated dogs let me live at her house. I lived there for a long time, she even asked if she could adopt me. I said no because I didn't want to give up after I had came so far. After that I got a tent and headed south but my tent got torn up by a Sasquatch.
"Sasquatch!?" Murdoc interrupted "you sure it wasn't a bear?"
"I've seen plenty of bears before and this was NOT a bear!"
"Ok..."
"The night my tent got broken in to I had to spend the night in a tree. The next morning there was a RV parked near my tent. The hippies that owned it said they were going to The Burning Man Festival and I could come with them if I needed a ride. A packed up what was left of my stuff and tagged along. After Burning Man the following years were a blur. When I was there I decided to try this shred that my mom left in the bottom of the coffee can ether on purpose or mistake. I had put on the temptation until everyone else around me was smoking something unidentifiable.
Murdoc lifted an eyebrow. "What exactly was this 'shred' you wear smoking?"
"To tell you the truth I'm not exactly sure. My mom smoked a lot of it. And the 2 others I shared it with were dead the next morning."
"DEAD!? They DIED!? It KILLED them!?"
"Yeah weird eh? it didn't bother me one bit. It actually made me feel better, more relaxed. I still smoke a little time to time with the pipe I got at Burning Man. I also learnt that if you get it wet in the right conditions it will come back to life and and sprouts roots! So I can grow more!"
"Well that certainly is all very... strange."
"After I left the rest was hazy. I lived on front porches, in sheds and up in haylofts. I had a lot of odd jobs I can barely remember, that didn't last to long. I think I even worked on a alligator farm fore a while. I eventually ended up in Manhattan. Cut a deal with a french cargo ship caption to smuggle me into France. Then from there it wasn't hard to sneak into England. But when I finally got here you were so hard to track down, it was like you fell off the face of the earth."
"Well actually I was living on a floating island miles away from the nearest charted land mass."
"Wow... And I thought my mom didn't like people."
"I was running from a gang and... and... it's a long story! How old are you by the way?" Murdoc wanted to wrap this chat up and tend to his hangover.
"I'm 17. Ill be 18 next spring."
Murdoc was really surprised but didn't show it. He stood up and looked down at Apache.
"Patches you can stay here and sleep on the couch, but I don't want you to just layabout! Wash your own laundry and clean up your own messes, if someone needs help lend them a hand. Also If you can get a job and pay a share of the rent that wouldn't hurt either."
"Thank you Murdoc," she squeaked shyly into her coat. She wasn't sure if he wanted her to call him dad yet.
One more thing luv what does... Katelyn look like?" He still couldn't remember her.
Patches reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a duct tape wallet on a chain. She then pulled a folded up piece of paper. And kind of snicked it at Murdoc. He caught it midair.
"You can keep that picture if you want. I have another copy."
"Ok, thanks luv." He smiled slightly, but it came out more of a disguised smirk.
He left the room and plopped down on the chair lift. Then rode it up to the floor his room was on. He nodded at Noodle who was walking downstairs from 2-D's room and about to enter her own.
"Hey!" Murdoc shouted across the room. "Got some news for ya. Patches will be living here for a while."
"What about the thing you owe her?" Noodle asked.
"What thing?"
"She said you owe her something."
"She never said a thing about anyone owing anything." He responded then entered his dark room slamming the door behind him.
Noodle was surprised that Apache didn't mention anything to him, she seemed so eager before. Maybe Murdoc didn't want to give her what she wanted. Or she didn't have enough time or forgotten in her excitement of see her father for the very first time.
Father... Noodle had a hard time familiarizing such a word with Murdoc, but she'd have to get used to it.
Murdoc sat on his bed in complete darkness still holding the photograph in his hand. He felt the softness of the worn down paper. He wanted to go to sleep and pretend nothing out of the ordinary happened today. Pretend that there wasn't a homeless girl, his daughter, downstairs on the sofa. He relentlessly flicked a dim light on at the side of his bed. He looked down at his hands and unfolded the picture. It was a women sitting on the front steps of a sky blue trailer with Sunflowers growing to her right. She looked like she was maybe 28. She didn't look like Patches at all. She was tall and lean looking with sharp feathers. She had dark seducing eyes and a smile with down pointing fangs. Her hair was long and jet black with a blonde highlight in the bangs. She was wraped up in a large quilt like hoodie and brown corduroys.
Murdoc stared at the photograph for a long time before words escapade his lips. "I don't know you."
Meanwhile back in the sitting room. 2-D walked in to see Patches carefully unpacking and setting all her belongings on the coffee table.
"Hi Patch!" 2-D said in a friendly voice
"Hey!" replied Patches happily. She pointed across the room at a corner. "Who is that?"
2-D turned hiss head. There in the shadows sat The Boogeyman staring at Patches.
"That's the boogeyman, he isn't bothering you is he?"
"No, no, I was just curious that's all." She said looking down at her bag as she continued to unpack.
-D looked at the table and examined all the things on top of it. There were things that were expected like a toothbrush, toothpaste, bar of soup, a mexican blanket, a yellow toy Pegasus, 2 changes of clothes, a notebook, pencil, eraser, pen with a fuzzy top, banjo pick, acorns, pine cones, candles, small camping frying pan and cutlery, teabags, lighter, bandana, shoe laces, bottle caps, perfume, flashlight, fishing tackle, deodorant, coloured can tabs, small silver hoop earnings, a folder, nail file, scrub brush, and a yellow clothesline string.
But then there were things that wear strange and out of place. Strange jugglery made of teeth and bones, animal pelts, a mortar and pestle. Sandwich bags full of dried plant matter, salt, chalk, a jar of who knows what, a big scary scorpion knife, a ram head pipe, a flask full of eyeballs, a bundle of dried grass, wires, a hand book "how to: traps, snares, and knots", knife sharpener, old papers with strange markings, chains, hand cuffs, pliers, dead scorpions in a plastic bag, teeth, a creepy leather book...
"What?" Patches voice snapped 2-D back into reality.
"I was just admiring your um... treasures!"
Patches giggled gruffly, "thanks, but this is nothing, I lost a lot of stuff over the moves, all kinds of neat things..." she trailed off quietly and her eyes seamed far away in a trance. She snapped back "but tomorrow I'm going job hunting. So I can replace my stuff now that I have a home to keep it in." She flashed him an adorable smile.
Strangely this gave 2-D butterflies
"So have any video games?"
"Y-yeah"
"Cool, hook 'em up and we can play after I'm done my shower. Where is it? Upstairs?
"Yeah can't miss it."
"Ok thanks." She grabbed some stuff off the table and set off to clean herself.
2-D stood there blushing a bit at the thought of Patches taking a shower. He shook his head disgusted! "You pervert! You're becoming as bad as Murdoc!"
2-D sensed someone staring at him from behind. He turned to see that the Boogyman was now glaring at him.
"What are you looking at?"
After Patches was done her shower she realized there was no clean towels. She sighed then opened the door then stuck her head out.
"Noodle?!" Patches yelled "Can I have a clean towel!?"
Noodle opened her bedroom door and tossed a towel at Patches.
"So that's where your room is!" Patches said peeking out from behind the door. "Hehe, thanks Noodle."
"Your welcome." She replayed shaking her head slightly. "You silly kid."
She dried off and got dressed in nice clean track pants, fuzzy striped socks, and a loose white t-shirt. The t-shirt had a skull with wings on it, the wings stretched out over the shoulders of the shirt and many feathers were hanging off the skull by strings. Patches loved this shirt and often slept in it. She found it in the trash behind a clothing store when she arrived in England. Replacing destroyed or lost clothing was becoming quite routine so she never shyed away from dumpster diving. After running a brush through her rat's nest of hair she ran down the stairs clean and pressed, ready to have some fun with 2-D then pass out on the sofa.
"Hey!" Patches yelled down the stairway. "You got the system hooked up yet?"
"Yep!" He replyed already sitting down and playing the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection.
They played many different retro arcade games for 3 hours. All the while cracking jokes and getting to know each other better. Patches even invited the Boogyman over to play when 2-D kept losing. Afterwards, Patches was wiped and fell sleep on the couch. When 2-D realized that she was asleep he placed her Mexican blanket on her gently not to wake her, then turned the game system and TV off.
"Good night," he whispered then quietly left the dark room.
At 2 in the morning Murdoc awoke with a fright from a disturbing dream (No not the one abut Shaun Ryder). He threw off the covers and ran out of his room. When he reached the sitting room he peered in. Patches' sleeping form was lying on the sofa illuminated slightly by the street lights outside the window. Murdoc notice Boogyman standing beside the TV eyes glowing red staring directly at him. Merdoc gave him a look as to warn him to watch himself. After this he left silently back for his room visions of the nightmare still in his head.