Connell House
The mirror is cracked. It’s not noticeable to most people. It would take someone who spent a long time looking into it to tell. It was in the top right corner. A tiny line, no jagged edged, like a clean slice with a knife, it was perfect. I try to ignore it and focus on the reflection in front of me. I’m wearing a clean cut, three piece suit, expensive material and cut, shipped from New York city. I wear a white shit, long sleeved always, overlayed by a dark blue tie that hung from neck. The outfit is the same as several others in my wardrobe, with just enough deviation not to look odd. Except I do look odd, there is a fracture in my reflection. I look into my face and see me, green eyes, short dark brown hair, a slight stubble on jaw and upper lip. I’ll need to fix that at some point, I’m already in a rush. I try to ignore the phone on top of my draws. 08:05 it blinks at me. I sigh and take one more look at the reflection. I don’t remember when I started to look like that.
Connell Dealership
The drive to work is quick. Seems since the Orange-Eyed Killer, or whatever name people had come up for him today, had started his spree, the streets were a little more empty, even in the mornings. Could just be his imagination. As he pulls up to the dealership he puts those thoughts out of his head. Connell Cars & Auto-Mobiles red dealership sign passes him overhead as he turns into lot. The lot was filled with cars, from cheap old buicks to top of the range Mercedes and BMWs. The dealership has a 1950s style about it, from the colour to the style of building. It was a little faded in places, but it gave it a history that the people of Araminta seemed to enjoy. It was an old style dealership with its own garage next to the main office for any work that was needed. As he parked in his space he saw the lights to the building switch on. The figure of who he assumed to be Sandra Harriett flipped the close sign to open and opened the door.
“Nice of you to join us.” she said leaning against the door. I fix my face and get out of the car.
“Just catching up on my beauty sleep.”
“So you actually do sleep?” she said. I choose to ignore the jibe.
“Thanks for opening up. What’s the schedule for today?” I ask entering the office. The place was open with the exception of my office. I preferred to have people out in the open and talking to each other. Outside of a waiting area for customers I had four desk areas, one for each of my sales people with a modern computer and desk. Two of my people were on holiday and I had an agreement with the other two that they could turn up around 10. Which meant between 9 & 10 it was just me manning the front desk usually. It’s how I liked it. Sandra picked up a tablet and read off the schedule.
“You’ve got an appointment with Father Wilson at 11, he wants to talk about prizes for the upcoming church raffle next week. You've got a call in under the name of Anders who will be here at 2 and couple looking for a new family car at 4…” I waited for more, while looking for coffee in the kitchen, but when she stops it becomes clear there isn’t.
“No work for the shop?” I said, realising as the words left my mouth, I’d made a mistake.
“No Abel. No work for me. Because you keep sending to your bum drinking pal.”
“Sandra, I only did that twice. Twice. The first one you had a crack at and couldn’t do it. The second because the waiting list was three hours.”
“No! I could have done it, but you told me to work on Wilson’s car instead. Now I’ve got a reputation as a crappy mechanic.”
“What? Who’s been saying it?”
“People...I don’t know who, but I know people have been talking about it. How else do you explain it?” I screwed my eyes shut for a sec and took a sip from the lukewarm coffee I had found. Archie, the bum as Sandra put it, could have said some things while drunk, but in truth this was probably my fault. Archie was once my rival in town, famously so. A year ago I would have done anything to muscle him out of town. Then things changed.
“Sandra he’s not a bum, he’s just going through a difficult time. I’ll talk to him.” Sandra looked like she has more to say, but decided not to. I continue. “What about the Ford with the broken windows? Did the part turn up?” The car I was referring too was a Burner, usually the sort of car on it’s way to the trash heap, but still good enough that it could get people around if we had to keep their car in at night.
“No not yet. I’ve told you, even if it does turn up, you’ll get more trashing it than fixing it.” She heads towards the back. “I’ll be in my shop...polishing tools.” She yelled going through the side door to the shop. Was going to be one of those days I thought while I sipped coffee from my mug.
The day was slower than what even the schedule showed. The Father Wilson had tried to convince him to put up a Mercedes for the raffle. About an hour it became clear that I wasn’t going to budge over an offer of a second hand car and left. The Anders ghosted and walk ins were pretty slow. He let his other two sales people head home early. The only people that were left were the mystery family and as 4:20 rolled around they walked in. There were four of them. One dad, one mom and two kids. The dad was wearing khakis and short sleeved shirt, the kids a boy and a girl were dressed similarly, with cartoon characters on their shirts. One was what looked like a knockoff Spongebob. The mom was wearing jeans and a t-shirt. They looked tired, at least the parents did. As they opened the door, he noticed the mom looked vaguely hispanic, a suspicion confirmed when he heard her speak Spanish to the kids.
“Quiet and sit down on the chairs. You need to behave while we talk to the man.” she said. While it would be nice for them to be quiet, I doubt they would without a distraction. I stepped forward and extend my hand to the parents.
“Pleasure to meet you. I’m Abel Connell and if the kids check under the seats, they should find a box of toys.” The kids reached under their seats and pull out a box of legos and dolls. The kids immediately started digging into the box. Their mom raised an eyebrow out me questioningly.
“You speak Spanish?” she asked.
“Yes. Though not as much as I would like to. In my experience kids seems to behave best when they are distracted.” I said in Spanish.
“You’re accent is a little different, but very good.”
“Thanks.” I motioned them to an available desk and sat down.
“Firstly names?” I say pulling out a form.
“Simon and Sally Rickton.” said Simon.
“Married for long?” I asked.
“Two years now. We were childhood sweethearts and we were meant to be married 6 years ago, but then the kids came and we had to save some more money.”
“Sensible. Especially these days.” After a few more details I finished the form.
“So what can I do for you?”
“We need a car. We’re expecting again and with three kids we’ve decided the bus is too much work.”
“Well alright then, let's take a look around the lot and see if we can find anything.” We walked around the lot. I considered what they told me and moved towards a mid-price family car. Their faces tell me all I needed to know and I started walking down the price range. Eventually we reach the end and I can tell from the look on their faces, they can’t afford even my second hand.
“How much can you afford?” I ask simply. Simon looked down at the ground. After a moment Salley spoke.
“We have $250.”
“That’s not enough. That’s not enough for anything I have. Why did you come here?”
“Because we have nothing else.” Simon said looking at me imploringly. “I used to work at the Steel Mill, but after it closed down we couldn’t afford our rent. We’ve been living in our car for a few months now, but it got impounded this morning. I was hoping we could find something.”
“No. I was hoping to find something.” Sally Interrupted. “You probably don’t know this, but we attend the same church.” I hadn’t realised. “You always seemed like a good person and I’m not saying you aren’t. I just hoped we could find something.”
“Stop. Look I didn’t mean to act like that. I’m having an off day and you two didn’t deserve it. Look I can’t give you any of these, I’d make too much of a loss on them, but maybe I can give you a Burner. I’ve got one I need to get rid of, so let’s go talk and work something out.” We walked back to the office. About an hour and a half later I gave them the keys the Burner free of charge. I told them the only condition was that they stay at a hotel for the night and for Simon to come in for a job interview in the morning. It’s hard to get decent hands in the shop and while it might be slow their right now, it almost always picked up in the winter months. Just had to get Sandra to be ok with it. I left for home that day feeling like I’d done a little good in the universe.
Connell House
The following day I woke up and threw up. I then walked into my bathroom and cried for two hours. I checked all the windows and doors were locked and I sat in my living room for the rest of the day watching the news. There was nothing. Nothing about the swarm or the thing that tore people into pieces. I couldn’t believe it. I sat there all day watching the news, waiting for someone to mention anything about what happened. All the news reported was a pile up and several deaths. Not even a number. I held my head in my hands and tried to convince myself the sounds I was hearing that of the wind and not millions of moths.
The second day was easier or worse depending on how you would describe it. I got up that morning and took the clothed I’d been wearing. My black suit was ripped and torn, the white shirt was covered in blood. I don’t know whos. I threw up again. I put the clothes into a bag and drove down to the police station. I asked to speak to the officer in charge of the pile up investigation. The cops gave me a blank stare like I was crazy and told me to sit down. I sat in a waiting area for an hour before approaching the desk again. The officer at the desk was different and told me they weren’t aware of why I was here. I dropped the bag with clothes on the front desk and left.
The third day I woke up a splitting headache. The empty bourbon bottle fell off my body as I got up. I went and took a shower. Then I went and hit the treadmill in my house. I ran, despite the head ache and kept going until my right leg couldn’t take anymore and gave out underneath me. I laid there for an hour before my phone rang. I looked at it and saw the text. I was going to delete when I looked up and through the open door to the mirror in my bedroom. It was cracked. Worse now. Like a great jagged line had ripped through the mirror and shattered it. A hundred version of me looked back.
Five Springs Church
Three hours later I was outside the church. A collection of other people making their way inside. Did I really want to do this? What would the rest of the congregation say if they saw me here? I looked at the scratched and torn fabric of the passenger seat next to me. I felt the bruises that wrapped around my chest and I thought. I have to know. I fixed my face and I exited my pickup.
A small group of people stood out front talking, while two started walking in. I decided to approach the group outside. To my surprise I recognised two of the people.
“Archie, David. You got a text too?” I looked towards the others. “Anyone know who sent the messages?”