"And here we are!" Dolli Mae said, reaching the top of the highest hill in town. "Solsbury Hill. Like th'steak. Us kids call it 'Heart Attack Hill' though."
"I wonder why that is!" Vinnie said with a lilting accent, panting as he reached her. He let out a weak laugh. His usual morning jogs down Old Town Road with Dolli Mae hadn't prepared him for this!
"This here's th'best place t'see town," Dolli Mae said, "There's th'school. Have ya registered fer that yet?"
"Yeah, mostly." Vinnie said, looking to where she pointed at a squat grey building near the center of the small town, "The papers are on my desk at home. I'm hoping to turn them in soon."
"She smiled, "Great, can't wait t'have ya on th'track team. I think ya'd like it, an'not just 'cause I'm there!"
Vinnie smiled when she winked. He liked the dwarf's mannerisms, they were loose and warm, fitting for a girl with an intense farmer's tan and a crooked smile. He'd spent a lot of time with Dolli Mae over the past few weeks, finding that her company was much more pleasant than most girls he knew in California. He'd even wound up at her house a few times, meeting all seven brothers and joining them for a late lunch. The Jensen house had been welcoming.
The mood however, had been spoiled when Vinnie had gone home that night to a very drunk William Afton. The resulting bruises, while painful, had been easy to hide from Dolli Mae and any on-looker who wasn't paying close enough attention.
Easy-going short girls and painful belt-beatings aside, Vinnie asked, "Can you tell me where the igle-church is?"
"We have a Baptist church over there, that's where most people go. Reverend Sanchéz basically runs it. He's Wolfie's dad." Dolli Mae pointed at a small, early 1900s' ear chapel near Elmore Town Square.
"Huh, didn't realize she was hispanic."
"Everyone here's at least a little Germanic, even me."
"Hm." Vinnie said, "So where do you go to church?"
They stood in silence for a moment. Dolli Mae broke it, "We should go t'Elephant Rocks sometime."
When she had no reply from Vinnie, who was studying the town's layout, brown eyes glowing in the sunlight, she continued, "It's a National Park up north o'here. I think ya'd like it."
Vinnie turned to Dolli Mae, just happy to be next to her and not locked in his room eating gas station food he'd hidden under his bed in a shoe box for lunch. William had woken up especially hung over this morning, meaning that he'd have to take an extra long jog with his Walkman. Vinnie was one of two people to own one in this town./When Vinnie came to retrieve his Walkman from the kitchen counter, he discovered his groaning step-father face-down on the table, cassette player smashed, surrounded by empty bottles. Seemed that William had managed to get up from where Vinnie had left him last night.
He'd stepped over the pool where William's blood had spurted from his nose, deciding that he could go without.
After his morning jog and a shower, he met up with Dolli Mae to listen to her record collection. After getting through Talking Head's And She Was... and Journey's Escape, they decided to get a soda.
"M'dad works a few towns over at th'county seat. He's a bailiff, an'Ma's a nurse at th'county hospital. Izzy lives over there, above her Mama's hair salon, right next door t'Princess's house."
"Dolli Mae, why does everyone here have strange names?"
Dolli Mae blinked, having never thought of that before, "Well, I, uh, don't think I've ever asked. I know Izzy is short fer Isabella, an'mine's short fer 'Dorothy Mae'. Now that I think of it, I don't think even m'Ma calls me that."
"Sorry, didn't mean to be rude." Vinnie said, accent accidentally leaking into his words.
"No, it's fine." Dolli Mae assured him. "Y'know, somethin's up wit'Dollface. I think she changed somehow."
After the soda, they decided to split a Mars Bar and take a walk, which quickly turned into a race, with them panting near the playground by the church.
Confused by the sudden shift in conversation, Vinnie looked down at Dolli Mae.
"Yeah. I don't think I noticed it at first, but talkin' t'her is like talkin' t'two different people at th'same time. It didn't used t'be like that."
"I guess that is strange," Vinnie said, "But I've never spoken to her enough to really say."
William had started becoming more aggressive lately. Vinnie was short, but growing strong enough to overtake the old bastard. Having joined the local teen meatheads, Foxx and Duke, who worked at Fazbear's as dishwashers, and hanging around Mr. Cowatch's Boy Scout Troop, Vinnie was starting to fill out his clothing a bit more. Who knew farm work every week day for pocket change could be so beneficial?
Dolli Mae looked up at him.
He wanted to kiss her now, feeling like he wouldn't have much time to do so after today. He felt his stomach knot up, thinking about how much he had to tip-toe around his own home.
He was convinced that if he were to show up in a ditch by the highway or floating down the river his Pollita loved so dearly, it would be the fault of William. Maybe it would be safer to completely go cold on Dolli Mae, pretend they'd never even dated in the first place.
"Y'know, by now I'd be across the border spendin' time with relatives, and wouldn't even have to speak English until September when I went back to California." He said, not wanting to elaborate. Dolli Mae understood, she had seven brothers of her own and wouldn't want to even think about them dying in a hospital somewhere.
Dolli Mae's father was a bailiff, maybe Vinnie could talk to him, show him the bruises, the smashed items Vinnie would wake up every morning to, the raw welts, maybe even the messy house, and if he hoped and prayed, maybe something would happen.
Vinnie knew why William had moved operations out here after Zachary's untimely death and family disappearances, all the incidents that seemed to follow them around...
This was too convenient to just be 'An Interest in his Franchises'.
"That's amazing. I couldn't see myself livin' anywhere but here, if I'm honest." Dolli Mae said, "I don't know many people who would really want to leave, even Thorne or String Bean. Well, except Dollface. She's never happy where she is."
"Maybe one day I'll take you to see the desert."
While he was getting better at overpowering William, Vinnie knew he was fucked. Tagging along with Duke and Foxx to the high school wrestling team's evening practices was freeing and made him more powerful, but he was still vulnerable at home. William was only becoming more violent by the day. Vinnie had just had a simple conversation with Dollface yesterday, launching a drag out, knock down fight, with William driven to the floor, threatening to have him arrested.
Who would believe an immigrant outsider that William would ever do something like that?
She smiled, delighted by the offer, but joking as if it weren't genuine anyway, "Maybe after my surgery."
Vinnie studied Dolli Mae. At most angles, you wouldn't really notice how one side of her face had developed a little further than the other side, or that she was well below five feet tall. She was wearing a hard plastic back brace as well, but if you never noticed or asked, you wouldn't have known how many problems she had under the surface of her tanned skin.
Vinnie finally rearing up and hitting back had been a final straw of some sort, he knew it, and he was sure he wouldn't live to see next Friday. He fucked up big time. Usually he could just sneak around and compliment his way out of a mess, but that didn't seem like an option this time. After leaving him on the kitchen floor, Vinnie had taken the keys and slept in the woods, risking back pain by sleeping in the station wagon's seat.
Dolli Mae pressed into his side, "Can ya teach me how t'dance?"/
Vinnie pretended to consider it, running brown hands through black curls, "Buy me a Pepsi?"
"Sorry, we only serve Coke products in this town."
"Well, no dance for you!" He laughed, already walking down Solsbury Hill.
"Aw, c'mon, wait up!" Dolli Mae chased after. She tripped on a rock and sent both tumbling down the hill in a roll of startled laughter.
Once landing at the bottom, she lay on top and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead, "Fine, I'll getcha Pepsi."