Michelle came into the graveyard, everyone who knew Evelyn Mercer was there. She only wished that Rachel could have come, but her sister would probably never be the same again. Michelle moved to sit behind the main row off to the side of the grave; she had steady tears rolling from her eyes. She wanted to remember Evelyn and not ruin her memory but she couldn't keep her eyes off the oldest Mercer, he had facial hair now and his face was more angular and was set into a scowl. No one but two people had ever seen Bobby Mercer cry and he wasn't going to let anyone else see now.
Michelle thought back to when they were kids; she had come to live at Evelyn's house with another younger girl named Rachel. Michelle was slightly younger than Jeremiah and Bobby, Rachel was Jack's age just younger than Angel. For a group of boys who usually cussed in anyone's face and didn't give a fuck what anyone thought, they bonded pretty well to the girls, especially Jack and Rachel. Jack had come from a much scarred background and only Evelyn knew for sure what had happened to him, he was misunderstood which is probably why he got along so well with Rachel. Sweet Rachel, she was strange no one would doubt that, but she had this uncanny way of making people feel comfortable even in extremely uncomfortable situations. When she first came to the house, she was completely silent; everyone thought that maybe she had become mute after the torture she had suffered from her father. Then one day Bobby came home with a bloody nose and a black eye, he stormed into his room and slammed the door. Everyone tried to get him to respond; then from out of no where Rachel stepped up and knocked softly on the door.
"Bobby may I come in?"
Everyone stood back alarmed; they had never heard this girl speak. If angels could speak that's what they would sound like. Bobby slowly opened the door a crack making sure to stand behind it so no one could see him, Rachel slipped in easily through the small space and came out a few minutes later allowing Michelle to go in and tend to Bobby's cuts. No one knew what Rachel had or hadn't said, but she had calmed a storm.
After she started speaking she and Jack became very close, since she was the only one who could comfort his nightmares so much so that he stopped having them. The two girls became quick friends with the boys, and they all felt a closeness that none of them had ever felt. Rachel was more open around the boys and Michelle, and they were the only ones. When the people from Lansing came to pick up Rachel and Michelle, the boys were devastated.
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The funeral ended and three of the four brothers lined up at their mothers grave, Jerry's wife Camille came over to let Michelle know about the lunch at her house. Michelle nodded and glanced back at Bobby who happened to catch her eye then looked away, she looked at Jack who was on the verge of tears. She turned and walked to her car wiping tear stains from her cheek as she went.
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Michelle pulled into a parking spot right behind an old beat up brown car and crossed the street over to Jerry's house, she was late, since she had gone home to check on her sister, and most of the people were gone. She was let in by Camille and was greeted by Jerry who gave her a large hug before leading her into the living room. She was introduced to a few people, then she stood right in front of Bobby.
"Hey Bobby"
"Hey there Michelle"
Both shifted on their feet, finally Michelle had had enough of waiting for this guy to give her some sign so she reached out her arms and clasped him around the shoulders.
"I'm so sorry Bobby"
Bobby didn't have anything to say so he just hugged her back, giving a tight squeeze before letting her go hoping that would make up for his lack of communication. Jack came up behind Bobby and nudged him out of the way so he could give Michelle hug.
"Hey Michelle, how are you? Where is Rachel?"
"Umm Rachel is…" Jerry came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"We'll talk about it later; everyone's just about gone so we'll head back over to Ma's in a minute"
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The caravan of cars pulled into the driveway of the Mercer house; Michelle pulled her white dodge pickup into her driveway next door. She and her sister had moved back to Detroit after growing up and leaving their adopted parents house, it had turned out to be the best and worst move they'd made.
Michelle followed the boys into the house; Angel was sitting out on the porch for God knows how long, and finally all four brothers were home. Since Michelle had been helping Evelyn for a couple of weeks she showed the boys where stuff had been moved, it really didn't matter since Evelyn had kept the house the same even the boys rooms.
Jack settled into his bed and played on his guitar, he noticed Michelle walking by…
"Hey, so umm… Where's Rachel?"
Michelle came into the room and sat down on the end of the bed she was there for a few minutes just wondering what to tell him
"Wait a little; I want everyone to be in here because I don't want to tell it twice."
A minute later Bobby came in and sat on the floor leaning against the bed. He noticed Jack's guitar…
"You still making racket on that thing?"
"Yeah… I'm still making racket" Jack pulled out some rolling papers and rolled up a cigarette.
Jerry came over and leaned on the door; he smiled and looked at Bobby then at Jack then up at Michelle. She had her head in her hands and her eyebrows scrunched together, his smile dropped and he nudged her with his foot.
"You want me to tell em' or you wanna do it"
Michelle lifted her head "Could you start out and I'll fill in spots"
Jerry was about to start talking when Angel came out announcing he was going for a walk. Bobby threw back his head and laughed…
"Yeah right you goin to see La Vida Loco"
"Hey no one goin to get no La Vida Loco, I'm just goin for a walk"
Jerry turned to him "Look man we gotta talk about something, and besides she got a boyfriend"
Bobby started laughing harder. "Please she got hard dick in her right now, she's screamin some one else's name, and the last thing on her mind is your black ass"
Angel flipped him off and headed down the stairs, Jerry tried to call after him but Michelle reached out and pulled his sleeve…
"Let him go, he'll find out later"
"A'ight anyways, I guess I should tell you guys why Rachel's not here, and some of our suspicions to mom's murder"
Bobby looked at him fiercely and Jack was sitting straight up instead of leaning back like he had been before. Jerry looked over at Michelle she gave him a nod and he began…
"Well I guess I'll start from the beginning, Rachel and Michelle moved back into town, and Rachel started helping me out with my business. She was real good at makin' deals and finding good investors. Well one day this guy, I don't know who he worked for or nothing. All I know is Rachel turned him down, didn't tell me anything about it, just said he wasn't reliable. I let it go, and now I realize the mistake I made." Jerry sighed and sat down against the door frame facing Bobby. "Apparently this guy was no good; one day while I was out Rachel was in the office. I was gone maybe ten minutes when I came back, Rachel was gone and the only clue I had were some tire tracks leading out the back. Rachel was gone for a week, and our fucked up police system didn't do shit about it."
Jerry looked up at Michelle, and she nodded and took a deep breath, Bobby and Jack were looking at her intently.
"Rachel some how managed to get away from wherever she had been taken to, I assume it was some where across the river, but there was never an investigation done. She managed to get to a gas station and told them my name before she passed out. I was called and went to the hospital, she was beat up but that wasn't the worst part. She had a mass amount of some type of drug in her system, I don't know the name, but it was a hallucinogen. She was in a coma for two days. Then she would open her eyes for a moment but go unconscious again. That's when the nightmares started she screamed in her sleep. She was yelling "They can't be dead" No one knew who they were."
Michelle stopped to wipe the tears from her eyes, Jerry put a hand on her shoulder then he continued…
"Finally the hospital released her; we brought her back immediately to the house. Ma was the only one who could get her to calm down when she would have a fit. The doctor said her memory had been damaged by the drugs and she was having trouble differentiating reality from her dreams. Soon we found out that she thought that we were dead. Apparently who ever took her drugged her then told her we were dead, I figured it one day when I walked in and she coward in the corner. She started yelling "You can't be here you're dead, they said you were dead" She started crying so I backed off. It took a long time for her to get comfortable around me. I had to convince her brain I was real, finally it worked and she was getting better."
Jerry looked over at Bobby and Jack who looked relieved and he shook his head at their hope…
"Look guys it took along time for her to believe I wasn't dead. I don't want either of you going over and scaring her, we tried to tell her you were alive but her brain can't make the connection unless the person is actually there, and even then she still thinks she's dreaming. Bobby, I know that you, are probably going to shoot up the town, so I don't want you given her false hope that your alive only to find out you really died. She took it to hard when that happened to Ma."
Bobby stared at Jerry, he would leave Rachel alone of it meant helping her but he wanted to know about his mom.
"You said that you knew something about mom"
"Ma filed a police report about the kidnapping; she was making a big deal about it. I think who ever kidnapped Rachel killed Ma so no one would find out."
"Well they didn't count on the fact that we were coming home"
Bobby stood up and helped Jerry to his feet, he tried to walk off but Jerry put a hand to his chest. Jack pushed out of the room and headed downstairs. Jerry let Michelle walk by and follow Jack. Then he turned on Bobby.
"Look man tomorrow is thanksgiving, I'll go get a turkey then we can eat like a family. You need to calm down, I know I can't stop you from finding mom's killer, but you dyin' too would be a pretty poor way to remember her. Got it now lets go downstairs have a drink and wait for Angel to bring Loca home."
The brothers walked down stairs, Bobby found Michelle on the couch then he looked in the kitchen but it was empty.
"Hey where's the fairy?"
Michelle looked at him puzzled…
"I thought he was in the kitchen"
"Dammit Jack!" Bobby went to the back door and found Jack's coat and shoes missing. "Shit"
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