Chapter 2:
Note: This might take a while in between chapters I have to write this before and after classes. So sorry if it takes a while.
Woody stared down at the stale coffee in front of him. It was silent in the conference room where he sat staring down stubbornly. He had talked Lily into letting him do the notification of her family, she hesitantly handed him over her file.
"Woody, I don't know about this." She had said with a skeptical look, he shrugged in a vain attempt to seem uncaring.
"It would be better if I did it, I've known these people my entire life." Now was the moment of truth and it seemed that he choked, he couldn't call. Her mother was still in Kewaunee, going to bake sales and Friday night football games. Her sister lived in Milwaukee with her husband, and her brother lived in Bay City with his wife and children. He had picked up the phone with a shaky hand, dialed and hung up. Not being able to face the people he had abandoned for Boston. He knew he didn't have a chance with Mrs. Cody, she would tear into him. In a methodical manner he dialed her sisters number tapping his fingers uneasily on the desk.
"Hello…" the woman answered, Woody swallowed the lump in his throat.
"Grace?"
"Woody!" he wasn't sure if she was surprised or angered at his call gradually he eased himself down.
"Yeah, Grace, its me… uh, I'm afraid I have some bad news… Its Annie, um, they found her under a tree, she fell, and um, Grace I'm so sorry she died." He awaited for anything, for a wail, a scream, the sound of tears running down her face, All that came was silence.
After an eternity he heard her voice, small and weak. "Are you sure?" her voice cracked, he could see her almost, huddled by the phone, holding back tears.
"Yeah." He whispered.
"I'll be down." She muttered firmly.
"Grace-"
"I'll be down." She cut in harshly, and the line went dead.
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Grace looked like her sister, shorter, and shorter hair, but the same slim face and fiery colored tresses. She looked at Woody like he was a stranger, and didn't say anything when he passed by. She had arrived at the morgue the next afternoon, in her pink t-shirt and jeans. Woody swallowed something deep inside and turned to speak to her, but she had turned her back on him.
"Grace… I don't know what to say." He said uncomfortably shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He could hear a bitter laugh escape her lips.
"There is nothing you can say."
"How's your mama?" he mumbled, his eyes searching for something to rest on, they found Jordan, Nigel, Bug and Garret standing in the hall watching curiously.
"How do you think she is." She hissed. "She just lost her daughter."
"Grace, I didn't mean it like that and you know it." She whirled around to face him, chuckling indignantly.
"Gee Wood, you almost sound like you care." She turned on her heels and left. It took everything Woody had to move, he didn't want Jordan to see him like that, weak, desperate. He slunk away to sulk by himself.
Now he sat by himself, in a corner booth at the Pouge, hoping no one would find him there. It had been years; he never thought that all these old feelings would be brought up again. He had buried them well, keeping them hidden from Boston and its whiskey eyed medical examiner. She knew nothing of Kewaunee, of his mom and dad, she knew little of Annie and he liked it that way. It was a way to keep it hidden, if he could forget.
But he stumbled upon her, and her apple tree, and the dust that smeared her face. He could remember her voice, and it rang in his ear, over and over, taunting him. He downed the last morsel of the beer in front of him and slammed the glass back down on the table. The table rocked a little, upset by the force.
"Easy there farm boy." A voice said meekly from behind him. "I thought I'd find you here." Jordan sat down next to him, handing him a cold, sweaty beer. He stared at it but didn't take it from her hand; with a shrug she set it in front of him.
"Jordan go away." He snapped, leaning back in his chair. She looked at him challengingly.
"No." she said after a minute, "I'm not leaving." He groaned, picking up the beer and then setting it back down, looking up in disgust.
"Fine." He snapped "I'll leave." He pulled his car keys from his pocket and lurched up.
Jordan beat him to it and yanked the keys from his hand. "You aren't going anywhere." She said proudly, walking away from him.
"Wait… what are you doing with my keys." He said confused, slouching down.
"You are in no shape to drive." She said setting them on the shelf behind the counter. He groaned.
"Jordan don't do this not now, I'm having a very, very bad day… please give them to me. She shook her head obstinately and began taking someone's order at the bar. Slumping in defeat, he slunk out the door, unnoticed or at least he hoped.
Something was wrong, he could feel it, the cold Atlantic wind was bracing and chilly. He stared up at the sky with awe as things replayed in his mind over and over again, he sat down on the curb in a vain attempt to control the vertigo.
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"Woody come on!" Annie shrieked happily from the top of the building, spreading her arms wide and allowing the wind to toss her long, straight hair in every direction.
"Naw, you have fun… I'll stay down here… where its safe." He shook his head and placed himself near the doorway, she frowned and turned away. Climbing up on the railing for a better view of the sunset smeared with color.
"You are such chicken Wood, I can't believe you're afraid of heights."
"I am not afraid, I would just prefer to stay here." He guffawed with a snort, she shook her head affectionately and returned to staring out at the dusty pink sky.
"Chicken." She said with determined tone, but he heard the smile in her voice.
"Well you get off that railing." Woody scolded, "you can't even walk flat footed."
"Yes mother." She muttered belligerently, climbing off the railing and joining him in the doorway. Some part of him couldn't stop staring at her, her and her limestone white skin.
"Annie." He yelled over the shriek of the heaters and fans.
"Yeah?" she shouted back taking a swig from her beer and returning to her lawn chair that was sitting discarded to the corner of the building. "Marry Me."
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Woody lurched up by the sound of Jordan locking up and the crowd that had suddenly formed outside in the cold night air and was dispersing by the second.
"Jordan?" he slurred, "Jordan!" she came out, wrapping her arms against her tight tummy for warmth.
"What?" she asked, "I thought you wanted me to leave?" he looked down at his feet in shame, then looked up at her with unshed tears glistening in his blue eyes. She immediately softened.
"Would it be to much…" he stopped, he looked so small, so unsure of himself, so un-woody like. She raised her eyebrows in silent encouragement. "If you drove me home?" she sighed, he didn't know whether she was angry or not. She disappeared behind the door for a moment then returned to his relief returned with his car keys. Silently they walked together to his car.
