Chapter 2

The eyes of youth bring forth the most jocund fascinations. The fingers of trees reaching for their loves in the sky or the hawk sitting proud over its bloody kill. Young hearts take them all to mind and absorb them and become the fashioned adults. There were not many simple dull things that could dim the visage of fruitful young Kaden. Not like a visit to his grandmother. No. This was a predictable experience.

He woke to the sound of his mother's screams, that orange morning.

"Best get yo ass outa bed Kade!" it echoed in sharp waves into his dreams. Jumping, he pulled clothes over his small body and answered to his mother.

"Car." She looked at him from the kitchen table nibbling on a cigarette bearing brown teeth and wrinkled glow. Her glare said more than her limited vocabulary might ever capture. Daring not to ask questions, Kaden left the small Tudor house, and headed down their driveway to the rusting station wagon. Mother soon followed.

"Where are we going?" he asked as the engine ignited.

"We headed down south." Her voice vibrated with the sound of many years nicotine.

And so they drove into areas Kaden had never beheld. Into the vigor of unknown highways where soon they were the only car. Here, they were the taboo beings, motor echoing through the fields and forests on each of their sides. Perhaps the beasts watched and felt sympathy for the wandering strangers. Mother lit the fifth cigarette during the hour and counting drive. Kaden decided he could speak an hourly question.

"Where are we going?" he broke the awkward silent drone. Mother sighed.

"Dammit Kaden." She inhaled. "Mama's gotta meetin wit someboedy. We aint go no one tuh look afta you. You're going tuh spend some time with yo grammy." Kaden did not remember his grandmother. She was never mentioned. He came to the finis that she did not exist.

"I never met her."

"You know damned well you met her. Grammy jus got sick for a while. She betta now though."

"What did she have?"

"She had the brain sickness." They continued the drive in frustrating silence until his mother made a neck snapping turn onto a dirt road. Dust matted with the air around them as they drove in a compassionate swirl. The road was a quarter mile orbit around a grey house. It was small, but with the intimidation of a ghouls dwelling.

"Dis where she live." Mother spit a smoldering cigarette butt out the windows, with potential for fire in the bush. No care. They pulled up swiftly. "Jus ring da bell." She waited. Kaden was left assuming to leave the vehicle.

"Bye." He said softly and perplexed.

"Later." She pulled off rapidly leaving him to inhale the exhaust and dust. He cleared his throat. Alone. He had no possessions with the concession of clothing. Nonetheless, he would rather face the open country with nothing then summon whatever lived within the domicile. It had black stains as if ink was thrown over the house. They were faded and translucent allowing the old white paint to be perceived. This gave the house a dusty guise. Forest stretched to blue in all directions. Nowhere to disappear except the obscurity of the forests.

"My name is Kaden." The young person would finally endeavor the events of sounding the bell. There she went. Stood. There was a white dress, violet flower laden, draped over her sagging body. A granny face exhaustedly resting on a skinny neck. And she just watched with grey eyes. Maybe hard at hearing?

"My name is Kaden." He said louder.

"Shuddup. I know ya boy." She said bitterly. She spoke like Mother only with a dire elegance. He liked her. "Come in boy. We is gonna sit an' talk." She turned with impressive promptness for a what?...80 year old? Kaden followed into the house. She was already out of sight. There was an odor of moth balls. Plastic birds polluted the shelves on baby blue walls.

"Come on boy. Come on boy. Come the fuck on boy!" her voice came softly and heartening and heightened to an exasperated shriek. She was up the hall and to the right. He heard. He found her in a back room. It was a simple square. She sat, in purgatorial stasis in the corner to his right. There was a window by her face. She rocked in the chair, peeping out the window. It did not reveal much. The stems of a few trees, crows landing pulling fated worms from their lairs. Kaden sat across from her in the parallel chair.

"I am so glad you's came tuday." She turned and smiled. "Whaddoo you drink?"

"Cola."

"Water?"

"That's fine. Thank you." She never got the drinks. Continued staring at him. Gaunt face and trembling jaw looked as if she were chewing on air.

"Boy!" Kaden jumped at her sudden scream.

"Yes?"

"Do ya know whatta whore is boy?"

"No."

"Your mother's one." She crossed her pale legs. "Probably with some pitiful man right bout now." She gawked out the window for a few seconds. "She do it for you though. So don't be upset. It's for you. All for you. She'd be dead otherwise. Rather'd die." Kaden didn't know what to say. He didn't know what she meant. He didn't understand the word.

"It's nice to meet you." She smiled again. Her tone altered within the minute. "Let me know about ya." Stillness followed.

"My name is Kaden."

"We have established as much." Her brow lifted. "How old?"

"I'm eight"

"Anything else?" Kaden couldn't think. Life was simple for him. Wake up, school, play once at home.

"My mother's a whore." He offered a contrived grin. His grandmother smiled and released a slew of hysterical laughter and it ended in phlegm filled coughs.

"You're funny boy." She caught her breathe and Kaden smirked.

She calmed for the rest of the stay. No sudden bursts. Only cynical tranquility.

"It's upsetting all the whores. I member when I was your age. Had that tiny voice. I lived in your city. I has to live out here now though. But it wus a great place. Me and mah friends would always go to movies and Broadway. You never see one piece of rubbish on the streets. Women was at home cookin, not on da corners." She looked at him waiting for a response. He only gave her his riveted attention. "Den, da disease came, on us, on da city. Now, der be more smoke then air tuh breathe, more whores then mothers."

"I don't think it's that bad."

"I tell you boy…" she ignored his comment. "There be a change coming. There's gonna be a mass cleansing. And it ain't like we don't need it neither."

"When?"

"Whenver." And this was how it went. Kaden began to feel adoration to his grandmother and they built a friendship. Between them, awkwardness was abolished. They became dysfunctional kin. Mentor to follower. His mother would take him almost every other week as his mother only worked once between the two.

"That's cuz she's a whore. Makes it all in one night."

"Yes."

Kaden grew…

-Jake T. Edmunds