Sanity Break
Kevin awoke the next morning to find himself sleeping on Nicky’s bed. He sat up and stretched, not remembering how he managed to get off the floor and onto the bed but the crick in his neck gave him a little clue.
“I guess I’m getting too old for sleeping on a floor.” He said standing up and making his way to the bathroom. The house was already active for the morning so Kevin looked at his watch. He was surprised to see it was almost 10 am. When he was at his own place he seldom slept past 8 and if he slept past 9 it was considered a luxury. Funny how that could all change in Mom’s house.
As he got downstairs he heard Brian and Nick laughing, this was a nice change to hearing his next door neighbors screaming at each other in Spanish.
“Well look who decided to grace us with his appearance this morning.” Momma Richardson said walking over and placing two pancakes down on Brian’s plate.
“Good morning, I didn’t realize it was this late already.”
“I’m glad, that means you got a good rest. It looked like you needed that sweetheart.”
“When did I end up in the bed Nick?” He asked his little brother who was eating a Strawberry pop tart fresh out of the box. His mom was quick to slap at his hand and take the box and place it out of his reach.
“You keep eating all of those sweets Nickolas you won’t have a tooth left in your head.”
“Sorry mommy.”
“Here are your pancakes just the way you like them baby doll.” She said placing the pancakes down on his plate shaped in the letter N. Nick looked at the pancakes and then picked one up and placed as much of it into his mouth as he could. No syrup or anything, just shoveled it in making Brian laugh.
“That child is not right in the head,” He exclaimed placing a pat of butter on his before cutting it and placing some in his mouth.
“You…said wereunfeofe”
“What?”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full Nick you’re going to choke!” Brian said rolling his eyes.
“Sowffy” He said grabbing his milk and gulping to help the pancake go down faster. Kevin was trying not to laugh. Once the food was down he tried again.
“You said you weren’t comfortable on the floor so you got up and slept on the bed.”
“Oh, sorry about that. I really wanted you to take the bed.”
“I did, I slept up there with you, you were my huge pillow… but you snore!”
“I do not snore.”
“Yes you do, really loud and you sound like an elephant with a cold!” He cracked himself up and took a smaller bite out of his pancake this time.
“You really think you’re funny don’t you?” Brian asked his little brother winking at him.
“Yuf.”
“Swallow; Nick do you have to go back to Kindergarten to learn how to eat?” Brian asked him, lightly bopping him on the head.
“AJ is still sleeping I take it?” Kevin said looking around for the little rebel.
“Yup we won’t see him until around lunchtime.”
“Hey Brian I’m going to go jogging, you want to come with me?”
“Jog? Wow I haven’t jogged anywhere in a really long time.”
“I just figured it would be something to do.”
“I’ll go!” Nick said hopefully.
“Not this time buddy, you won’t be able to keep up, but I promise when I get back I’ll play some basketball with you or baseball okay?” Nick looked disappointed and hurt, but he nodded.
“Yeah okay.”
“So you want to jog or not Bri?”
“Yeah why not! Let’s do it.”
“Finish your breakfast first boys!”
“Yes ma’am” Brian saluted his mother who in turn took her dish towel and whapped him on the behind.
“Child abuse…did you see that detective?”
Kevin rolled his eyes and dug into his own batch of pancakes, just enjoying listening to his family talk about silly things.
After breakfast Brian and Kevin headed out onto the block. The air was cold but it was good jogging weather.
“You ready?” Brian nodded and they were off.
Once they got a block away from home Kevin turned to his brother who surprisingly was keeping up quite well, “So Bri…have any idea what the future holds for you?”
“You mean college?”
“Yeah, do you have any idea where you plan on going?”
“I applied to a few local places, nothing far away though.”
“You don’t want to live on campus?”
“I don’t know…to be honest I don’t think Nick would be able to handle it if I left.”
“Do you know what you want to major in?”
“Not sure…I was actually thinking law enforcement like you.”
“No Brian absolutely not!” Brian stopped and placed his hands on his knees.
“And why not?”
‘”Because it’s too dangerous.”
“Did something happen at work Kevin? I mean you usually don’t make it a habit of spending the weekend with us, especially when you have a girlfriend.”
“I told you they are fumigating.”
“And have I told you that you are a lousy liar? Seriously man fess up, maybe mom and AJ bought it but not me. What’s going on?”
“I’m just working on a really hard case Bri, that’s all. But that doesn’t have anything to do with why you shouldn’t go into this field. Really Brian it’s dangerous. Try something else.”
“Well last time I checked Kev, I was 18 and able to make my own decisions, I mean isn’t that what dad did to you? Told you what career to go into?”
“That was different.”
“How so? Just because it was you doesn’t make the situation any different.”
Kevin nodded over to the playground they were in the midst of passing; they ran past the slide, monkey bars and merry go round before taking a seat on the bench.
“I appreciate that you worry about me Kevin, but I am interested in law, I always have been. I’m not saying I’m definitely going into it but it’s still something I care about. It makes me feel linked to dad in a way.”
Kevin nodded, he couldn’t fault his brother for the very same thing he had done. He just didn’t enjoy thinking about Brian in the same position he was in now. Always feeling unsafe, going to sleep with visions of victims in his head.
“Okay, I won’t keep nagging you about it.” Kevin said looking over at his brother and smiling.
“I miss these little talks we used to have, before you moved out.”
“I do too Brian.”
Kevin was so much older than all three of his siblings, in a lot of ways he grew up as an only child. Brian didn’t come into the picture until Kevin was 11, so they never really had much of an opportunity to bond like normal brothers would. When Brian was born and then AJ shortly after, Kevin had actually resented them. He hated how wherever he went Brian would follow him. It wasn’t until he was in high school that he gained an appreciation for the younger kids. At that point he looked to them like his sanity break from the real world. No matter what was going on for him, exams or cheating girlfriends, when he was with AJ and Brian he was able to act like a kid.
“I am scared actually, of the case I’m working on. It scares me.” He was always able to open up to Brian about things, he was glad he was doing that now.
“I can’t really tell you specifics but it’s gruesome and makes me feel like there’s no hope in the world.”
Brian placed his hand on Kevin’s shoulder, “I’m sorry Kev…everything will work out though.”
Just then two little girls ran past Kevin and Brian and giggled as they walked away. As long as that guy was out here, none of these kids were safe.
He felt like he should warn everyone, just yell and scream at the parents who weren’t even watching their kids as they talked, exchanging recipes or talking about good TV night. All it would take is a second for Scott Wilson to come out of the shadows and grab one of these girls. That’s all it would take and then he’d be making another morgue visit.
“Kev?”
“Yeah?”
“You were zoning out on me, I was telling you you’re beeping man.” Kevin looked at Brian and then looked down at his pocket where his beeper was going off.
“Guess we better head back, I need to call into the office.”
They stood up and sprinted back to the house where Nick and a little girl were sitting on the front porch holding hands. AJ was on the rocking chair watching them and smiling. When he saw his brothers approaching however he immediately made a disgusted look and eye rolled at the two children as they sat and played.
Nick however stood up all excited, walking the girl towards his older brothers and smiling.
“Well what do we have here?” Kevin asked Brian as they got closer.
“That is Nick’s little girlfriend, those two are adorable, just wait…Hi Patty.” Brian said extending his hand to the cute little brunette in overalls and pigtails.
“Hi Brian.” She answered back giggling.
“Kevin I want you to meet my girlfriend Patty.”
Kevin squat down and shook her hand, “Well hello Patty, I’m Kevin it’s very nice to meet you.”
“Same here.” She said once again grabbing onto Nick’s hand. His own little brother was wearing almost an identical pair of overalls to match what his girlfriend was wearing.
“We’re going to go play at Patty’s so I’m going to have to take a rain check on the basketball Kev…I’m sorry.” Nick looked so sad to disappoint Kevin that all Kevin wanted to do was grab his brother and squeeze him.
“That’s okay buddy, maybe later.”
“Kay, see ya later!”
“Hey wait a minute, where are you guys going? Is it far?”
“No, Patty lives about two blocks away.”
“Still…maybe AJ wouldn’t mind walking you guys back to Patty’s house?” AJ who was still in a sleepy stupor looked up like he had just been attacked.
“He makes that walk alone all the time Kevin. He’s 8 not 2.”
“But still…I’d feel better if someone was escorting the couple.”
“They’ll be fine….Christ relax.”
“You know what? I’ll walk them.” Brian said almost being able to pick up on Kevin’s concern. Even though he didn’t know what this case was about he knew that was probably the reason Kevin was pressing to have an escort for the children.
Brian winked at both kids, “You ready?”
“Hey can you give us a piggy back?”
“Both of you? Uh…no, don’t think so little guy.”
Patty grabbed Brian’s right hand and Nick grabbed Brian’s left, “Hey let’s skip!” She said.
AJ and Kevin just watched in amusement as all three went skipping down the street Brian looking back with the funniest expression on his face before turning the corner and disappearing.
Once out of sight Kevin just shook his head at his brother.
“What?”
“You could have done what I asked you to do it wouldn’t have killed you.”
“Kevin I seriously used to make that walk when I was five! It’s totally safe.”
“Nowhere is totally safe.” Kevin mumbled as he walked in to make his call.
“You are too tense man.” AJ said following Kevin into the house.
“I think you’re just jealous that your 8 year old brother has a girlfriend and you don’t.”
“Hell yeah! But that’s besides the point!” Kevin laughed despite being pissed.
“How long has that love affair been going on?”
“For a while now. She has a crush on Brian, but don’t tell Nicky.”
“Well they are adorable together. I mean they were matching how cute is that?”
“Yeah, I keep telling her to introduce me to her big sister but she won’t.”
“Sorry buddy, maybe one day!” Kevin said patting AJ on the head.
He turned toward the phone and dialed Howie, who paged him in the first place.
“Hey D, what’s going on?”
“Kevin! Thank goodness. I was worried when you didn’t answer your page right away or your phone.”
“I took your advice and decided to stay at my moms this weekend.”
“Oh that’s good…hey Kev, listen…the office called me when they couldn’t find you. They wanted you to know that the little girl’s parents are going to be informed today about her death. They wanted to know if you wanted to be there.”
Kevin looked back over to where AJ and his mom were joking together as they sat at the table. More than anything he wanted to say no, let someone else deal with it, but he felt responsible. This was his case.
“Yes, tell them to wait for me. When are they expected?”
“In about an hour.”
“Okay that’s enough time for me to take a quick shower and head over.”
“See ya then. Sorry to interrupt your weekend.”
“That’s okay Howie.”
“Howie? Is that Howie? Tell him to come over for dinner tonight.” Kevin’s mom said as she poured herself a cup of coffee.
“Did you hear that D?”
“Yes and of course I’ll be over!”
“Cool I’ll tell her. See ya soon.”
“You have to go into work on your day off baby?”
“Yes mom but it won’t be for too long and Howie said he’ll be over for dinner.”
“Excellent.” She walked over and kissed her son on the cheek, “Be careful and hurry home!”
He nodded and sighed, how he wished he could turn this case off for at least a few days he thought to himself as he hurried up the stairs for a quick shower.
Hope everyone had a great Easter! I'll be back with an update on this one by Friday :)
