Ugghh...this week has just been hectic. sooo...this chapter's a bit shorter. Sorry. -3-
"Any luck?"
"Yea." Alice looked up from the computer, her eyes sparkling slightly, "We're in luck Martie"
"What do you mean?"
The two girls were at the library, Martie still on crutches and the bruising across Alice's face finally starting to fade. Using Alice's laptop, the two had begun their search for Alfred F. Jones of the Special Forces in the US military. Unfortunately, Alfred F. Jones was a common name, and after much searching the two girls had come up with a number of Alfred F. Jones and Alfred Jones that could possibly the one they were looking for.
Martie was currently staying with a foster family, a kindly older company that housed three other girls. It wasn't exactly a comfortable situation, but wasn't terrible either. "This is only a temporary situation" Ms. Clarke had assured Martie, "One the school year lets out, you'll be transferred to a more stable foster home. And who knows? You may be adopted soon."
"Well" Alice said, interrupting Martie's reprieve, "I've found the lieutenant that served in that company, and he lives fairly close to here."
"Fairly close being…?"
"And hour bus ride?" Alice asked, smiling hesitantly, "Hey it could be worse. He could live across the nation, you know."
Martie shrugged, "Personally, I'm fine with it. Wanna go this Saturday?"
"Sure" Alice nodded, snapping her laptop shut, "The library closes in about five minutes, so we need to get going. We'll meet at the bus depot…ten in the morning sound ok?"
"Yep. See you then" Martie slung her bag over her shoulders, grabbed her crutches, and with Alice's help, hobbled to the door.
"Bye!" she called out to her friend, watching Alice's retreating back. Her friend waved in return before disappearing around the corner.
Sighing, Martie re-adjusted the bag on her shoulders before heading off in the direction of the bus depot. There was a line that ran straight to her foster parent's house, but it wouldn't be by for another 15 minutes. Spotting a bench, Martie headed for it. She was maybe about 20 yards away from the bench when someone, or something, suddenly crashed into her, sending her sprawling on the floor, her crutches flying everywhere. As her luck would have it, she landed almost directly on her leg, resulting in an almost blinding pain to overtake her. She let out a cry followed almost immediately by a long string of colorful curses.
"Oh my, I'm sorry, I'm so terribly, terribly sorry" an accented voice apologized, and soon a hand was proffered. Martie seized the hand, and putting all her weight on it (perhaps she was trying to pull down the fool that had crashed into her, but that was besides the point) pulled herself to the feet, holding onto the stone pillar next to her to take the weight off her injured leg.
The man that had crashed into her let go of her hand and instantly went to grab her crutches. He was a thin, small man, Martie noted, clearly much stronger than he appeared as he had managed to pull Martie to her feet.
"Here, oh goodness, I am so sorry, I was just in a terrible hurry, you must understand" he continued to apologize as he gave her the crutches back.
"Yea. yea…" Martie mumbled, the pain in her leg still terrible, "Yea. ok. It's fine. Whatever."
"Here, you must let me help you…" the man was about Martie's height, but had been looking around on the ground, making sure he had picked up all of her things that had scattered everywhere. Only now did he look up, his voice trailing off as he saw Martie's face.
"Ummm…is something the matter?" Martie shifted uncomfortably. The man had very green eyes, and possibly the thickest eyebrows Martie had ever seen. The look he was giving her, one of complete shock, was rather unnerving, and she took a step back, smiling weakly, "Well…I guess I'm going to go catch my bus now…" she said.
"Wait"
"What?" Martie frowned, "Look mister. I'm sorry about crashing into you and all that, but I really need to get going, ok?"
"Your face…"
"What? Is there something wrong with it?"
"No…no, it's just terribly familiar…I have a, well, a friend that-"
"ARTHUR!"
The man looked up. Another man with blonde, wavy hair ran towards the two of them. His eyes were a pale indigo, a striking color, and were framed by glasses. A strange curl bounced up and down as he ran, and in his arms, he clasped a small white bear.
"Arthur" he gasped once he had caught up to the two, "You know you can't just go running off like that-" the indigo eyed man suddenly stopped short upon catching sight of Martie.
"Matthew" the green-eyed man, Arthur, Martie assumed, "Doesn't she look like A-"
"No"
"Well I mean, at least her ey-"
"No" the other man said, interrupting his friend again.
"Surely you must se-"
"Look Arthur" the other man replied testily, "We need to get to brother's house. You know how he is when, um, you're late."
"He doesn't give a damn, Matthew."
"You mean he doesn't show it." The man holding the bear, Matthew, turned to Martie, "I'm terribly sorry about what my friend did, but we really must get going."
"No" Martie shook her head, "It's quite alright." This Matthew guy made her somewhat uncomfortable. As she studied his face, she couldn't shake the odd feeling that she had seen him before, somewhere, but she wasn't quite able to pinpoint where.
Matthew started to pull Arthur away, and with one last glance at the strange duo, Martie quickly hobbled over to her bus stop.
"Well this is certainly an interesting house."
As promised, Alice and Martie met at the bus stop early Saturday morning, and then took the bus to the Lieutenant's house. "Lieutenant Hyman" Alice said, looking at the piece of paper she held in her hand, "According to what I've researched, he's retired. Been retired for five years. After serving in the army, he became the chemist teacher for the local school."
"Anything strikingly unusual?" Martie asked, looking back at the house.
"Well…" Alice said, "He certainly has…ummm…interesting taste in décor…."
The house itself was nestled in a middle-class suburb, surrounded by cookie-cutter houses. It was a two-story, pale brick house, with two large trees in the front yard. Scattered all over the front yard were gnomes. Lots of gnomes. Large gnomes, fat gnomes, tiny gnomes, neon-pink gnomes…the entire front lawn was covered in them.
"Ten bucks says he's off his rocker" Alice muttered as she pushed open the white picket fence, stepping into the gnome garden with Martie trailing behind her.
They walked up the drive, and after hesitating for a brief second, Alice pounded on the door. The two girls waited for a few minutes, glancing over their shoulders ever few seconds as if expecting the gnomes to suddenly come to life and attack them, before the door swung open, revealing a rather tall, elderly man.
"If yer here from that Home-owner's whatchmacallit, ye can forget about convincing me." The man raved before either girl had a chance to speak, "I'm tellin' ya! Theses 'ere fellas have been here for a long time, and they ain't goin' anywhere! Ye hear me!"
"Yes. Yes we hear you" Alice winced, lowering her hands from her ears once she was certain he had finished yelling, "We're not here from any homeowner's association…we just have some questions we hope you would be able to answer."
"Questions?" the man peered down at them, "Questions 'bout what?"
"You are Lieutenant Hyman, right?" Martie asked.
The man nodded solemnly, "'deed I am."
"Are you familiar with the name Jennifer Hamilton?"
The man's eyes seemed to light up, "Jenn?" he asked, "Of course I knew Jen! I was her superior, you know. Smart girl. Course, her career was cut, er, short…there was an incident ye see, and well, I don't feel it's in my place to tell you 'bout it…If you wanna find out, go talk to her."
"That's impossible" Martie replied, her eyes slightly downcast, "She's dead. And we already know about this "incident"…I was the incident."
"Yer her kid?"
Martie nodded. Hyman coughed, clearly uncomfortable, before reaching out with a giant calloused hand, and patting her awkwardly on the shoulder, "Well…gee…I'm certainly sorry 'bout that. Yer mother was a good woman. Smart and brave. Ye can't ask fer anymore than that in a soldier."
"I…I know" Martie sniffled, forcing the tears that were welling up in her eyes back down, "I'm not here to talk about her though."
"Well then who are ye lookin' fer?"
"My father"
The old man visibly stiffened, "Wha's the matter with him?"
"I don't know." Martie replied, miserably, "He left us, my mother and myself when I was still young…I don't remember him at all. I'm trying to find him. Do you know anything about him?"
"Alfred F. Jones. Tha' was what he introduced himself on the first day of training. He was a bright boy, naïve, but overall a warm character. There was something about him…people were drawn to him like flies. Ye've heard of people havin' an "aura" or somethin' like that? Well, Jones certainly did have some aura 'bout him. I dunno what it was about him, but you just felt, well, right 'round him."
"Do you know what happened to him after the army?"
"Well" Hyman scratched the back of his head uncomfortably, "As ye know, Jones got yer mom pregnant with you, and after that, left with her. We had a reunion for our company only a month ago, and neither Jones nor yer mother showed up."
"Was there anything unusual about Jones?"
"Well, he was usually strong. And well ahead of the rest of his class in trainin'. It was like everythin' we taught him was a review fer him or somethin'. He was also real good a' history. Ye should've heard his lessons…the way he talked, it was almos' like he was there or somethin'…His lecture on the Battle of Gettysburg? Wooh. We were pantin' by the end of that! An' most of us didn' even like history!"
"Did he ever talk about what he was going to do after the military?" Martie pressed.
"Nope" Hyman shook his head, "I'm sorry dear, but I don't have anythin' that could help ya…"
"A picture" Alice suddenly spoke up, "Surely, you have a picture of him!"
Hyman frowned, then shook his head, "There was somethin' strange about Jones, actually…he would never let his picture be takin'. We would have group shots, and Jones just refused to be in any of them…and also, well, you can find who was in what company, right?"
"Yea…I suppose."
"Well" the lieutenant paused, "I looked up our company one day. I was bored. And guess what?"
"What?"
"No Jones." The man shrugged, "Everyone else was there, but there was no indication that an Alfred F. Jones had ever served in our company."
And that's that! :D please read and revieeewww~~~oh and i forgot to mention, but this story is set in New York, NY . :3