Its been awhile, yeah? I've been so tied up with life, I meant to post this do long ago but just recently had the time to edit for posting. I hope people are still out there!
She slept in a room upstairs for the night, in her bra and panties and the cool desert air washing over her skin through the window. Her fingers were tight in the bed sheets, her right foot twitching as she jonesed for a cigarette. She hadn't smoked since earlier that morning, and she was too afraid to go outside alone.
She lifted her head when she heard a door open downstairs, hurrying out of bed and grabbing her jumpsuit. She bounced down the stairs as she atruggled to put it on, seeing Lizard standijg out oj the porch through the screen.
She had the cigarette lit before the door even shut behind her, groaning as the nicotine caused her head to buzz. Lizard just stared at her with this sassy judgement she didn't even know he could manage.
"What?" She took a slow, loving drag off of the cigarette. "I wasn't gonna come out here by myself."
Lizard snorted. "Pussy."
Julia rolled her eyes, following his gaze where it rested on the mountains. "They're out here, aren't they," she whispered.
Lizard nodded, not even blinking. "Pro'ly watchin us righ' now. Goggle on the roof."
Julia nodded, wishing she could see better, but the sky was overcast. She stared at the back of Lizards head for awhile, silently puffing on her cigarette and enjoying the looseness of her limbs; she really needed this.
"Does anyone ever try to come out here? From the outside world?"
Lizard looked back at her, scrutinized, then nodded, looking back to the hills. "We take care'a it."
"I figured. . .government must not want to cause a fuss and expose that they messed up your families lives by really putting the hammer down on y'all."
"Family fine," Lizard growled.
"I mean, before, when your family was bigger. Whole. There was a whole town here before they started bombing everything."
He didn't speak again, and Julia didn't mind, lighting another cigarette.
"How did you end up here. . .unscathed?"
Val looked up from where she was playing with Cookie on the floor, with bed head and a ratty nightgoen still on. She hesitated and shrugged, went back to helping her daughter color, even though it was really just a mess on paper.
"Goggle didn't tell anyone about me for a montj," she started. "My vehicle flipped and my leg was busted up, Jeb found me and I kept asking him why he wouldn't call for help. He let me heal before I asked him again why I couldn't leave.'
Her dad held her hostage? Good Lord.
"He should have called for help, you could have died."
Val shook her head. "He told me what would have happened if he called for help, the ambulance and cops wouldn't have made it through the pass. Family would have gotten them, and if I was in the ambulance, I would have just died anyway."
"So. . .?"
Val sighed heavily. "Well, he told me that he and Goggle couldn't protect me anymore, that I would have to talk to Papa Jupiter to see what would become of me. Jeb cried, feeling sorry for me, but I had checked out. Papa couldn't come get to me for three days, so I spent that time staring at a wall and praying I would starve before he could make it. Obviously I didn't."
"But what happened that you ended up. . .falling into it with Lizard? He doesn't seem like a love-at-first-sight kind of monster."
Val chuckled. "Yeah well, I got lucky, the family was a bit in crisis. A family had come through here and they fought back hard when the family descended upon them. Big Brain got attacked by a dog, but Mama had managed to beat the dog off until it ran, leaving Brain with minor wounds. Papa was almost blown up, Goggle was almost attacked by the dogs too. And Lizard. . .he was pushed off of a cliff."
Val sighed and shook her head, while Julia processed. "Jeez, that sounds like Hell. But that means. . . ."
"They used to be like Hades and his family," Val admitted. "But Mama and Big Brain aren't stupid, they say the boys down, Papa and the others, and explained that they needed to change before the world took their family away. Approaching me was a first act of civility with the outside world, and they were terrified, but Mama told me what happened and I was becoming a nurse before this all happened."
"You helped Lizard heal," Julia whispered.
Val smiled softly and nodded. "He fought so hard at first, but I was able to gain his trust when I started helping with physical therapy. I'm the reason he can walk again. I fell for him too, somehow?m." She sighed. "I never thought it would escalate like this though, the love wnd the sex and the living here with him and the baby?" She shook her head. "It all feels like a dream."
"I bet," Julia mumbled, chewing on her lip.
"I taught them how to be civil, I answered every question I could about the outside. Mama said I was the first piece to bringing this family back from the brink, and she thanks me every day for it, but I really didn't do much. Its not like I had a choice, either."
"Sounds like she puts alot on you."
Val nodded and stood up from the floor, hoisting Cookie into her arms. "But I'm happy here. I didn't belong on the outside, I flipped my car because I was cranked out and wanted to see colors again. I lost my blood family years ago, I got a second chance here."
Julia didn't say anything, just sat in her chair and stared at the floor, even when Val left the room. Her hands shook a little as she clasped them in front of her, her mind racing as she contemplated so many different things.
She didn't see any of the boys all day, and when they came home late that night, they were confronted immediately by Val.
"Where the hell have you been?" Her eyes were narrowed and her bony fingerd dug into her hips. "You promised you would have Cookie for the day, and then you run off into the desert to do what?"
Lizard growled at her, but she was unfazed. "Takin' car'a shit!"
Val growled right back, poking him hard in the chest. "No hunting, you all promised! Hades is already after us, and you left us vulnerable! Julia can't even go home."
Lizard scoffed, shrugging off the heavy spike strip and it hit the floor with a loud thud. "No one stoppin' 'er from goin' home.'
"She's scared!"
Julia felt the need to intervene, but didn't, letting Val be her vicious defender. Pluto had wondered off already, Goggle looked so tired where he leaned again the wall and Mama and Papa were staring at each other knowingly.
"She not my woman!" Lizard snapped. "I ain't gonna care 'bout what happen' to 'er."
Julia shook her head and stood up, walking out the door and leaving them to argue for however long that took; she lit a cigarette. She scrubbed at her forehead in frustration, unsure how she even got in this position. She should have just left when her dad had told her to, now she honestly didn't know what to do.
Nothing was exactly stopping her from being here.
She could just. . .
"Sorry."
Julia looked up at Val, Goggle sulking behind her.
"Its okay," Julia mumbled, blowing smoke out through her nose. "I didn't have to chase Goggle down, dad told me to leave and I didn't leave because I'm stubborn. Can't. . .tell me not to do something, and expect me to listen." She sighed. "I'm so stupid."
Val sat down beside her on the edge of the porch, shaking her head. "You're not stupid, you couldn't have possibly known what you would find out here."
Julia shrugged, taking another soft drag from her cigarette. "Doesn't matter now, does it?" She didn't speak for a minute. "I gotta be in California in two days. I gotta leave soon."
Goggle jumped off of the porch, hands tucked into his pockets as he headed towards Big Brains home. Val watched him until he disappeared, sighing deeply in her hands clasped in front of her.
"I wish you. . .wouldn't leave," she mumbled.
Julia ignored the sad tone to Val's voice. "I have to sell this car, I can't. . .I can't stay out here, Val. I just can't. No matter how much I actually like your little family here, I do have a life back home."
Val nodded and stood. "So did I," she whispered and pat Julia's shoulder before she went back inside.
Julia flicked her cigarette into the sand, digging the heels of her hands into her eyes.