A Streetlight Story Pace Savorson had gray eyes. Gray fucking eyes. Right now they were pierced with hate. Pace was looking at his eighteen-year-old sister who just got raped. What a way to celebrate your father’s 50th birthday. Carl Savorson was an alcoholic, ever since his wife died of cancer. Mellie was five and Pace was seven when it happened, just old enough to know what death was, to know their mom wasn’t coming back. Pace hated his father and his drinking. For thirteen years after his mom’s death, his father never gave two shits about him or his sister. He never cared and still didn’t. His dad stared at Mellie for about one fucking minute and then walked out of the house. Not one goddamn word. He went straight to the bar and by the end of the night was so pissed he forgot about his own daughter’s deflowering. For now though, Pace had to comfort her; he had been the only one for the past decade, so why not now. His shoulder was wet with her tears, but he didn’t cry, in fact, Pace could only remember two times when he did cry. He knew he cried when his mother died. The only other time was when his dad was beating Mellie in a drunken rage. Pace watched in fear that evening for over five minutes, he was twelve at the time, and he cried. Pace then took his driver and made his father deaf in the left ear. Carl Savorson never again touched Mellie, and almost never talked to his son. He then got fired at his job in the sports shop cause of the news about how he beat his daughter, and for being a drunk. He soon lost his house and he and the kids had to move into a small piece of shit shack, and he got a worthless job in the local factory. Pace’s best friend Trevor Mohr was dating Mellie, and Trevor didn’t know about what had happened yet. Pace held up his sister’s head and asked who it was. “Richard Kanemar” was all she said. As if living in the poorest part of Carlisle next to the snobby rich bastards weren’t enough, the biggest asshole out of all them had to do this to his sister. Pace knew Richard. Like all Richards, he was well off. In school, Pace’s football team always lost to Kanemar’s team. The final game of their last year in school though was different. Trevor was on Pace’s team. While Pace played sweeper, Trevor was the center forward. Kanemar was the goalie on his school’s team; he almost never lost, but the score for this match was 5-1, and he was furious that he gave up all of those goals, two of them to Trevor. Now in added time, Trevor was coming in again down the middle, Wally Falsefore had the ball on the bench side, crossed to Trevor who then headed it in for his third goal. While Trevor started to celebrate, Kanemar ran up and drop kicked him in the back of the head, giving him 22 stitches and causing a huge brawl. What an asshole. Mellie was walking home from her job at the daycare when it happened. When she calmed down a bit, she told Pace that Kanemar and his friends took her into an alley. She came out bleeding from her vagina, anus, and her broken nose. She had a black eye, bite marks on her tongue, and there were scratches and bruises all over her body. While Kanemar was going at it, his friends spit on her, kicked her, hit her, and one even pissed on her. It was teatime and no one was around to hear her muffled screams. In the end she didn’t have the strength to yell, so she just cried. Pace told Trevor over the phone. He called back 10 minutes later cause Trevor had to vomit. He was still crying on the other end of the phone when Pace called back, but he listened to all that had happened. They decided to meet at the abandoned construction site. For the past six years, the two had been best friends. They liked the same underground punk music, the same football team, and they both had an alcoholic father. Trevor started dating Mellie two years into his friendship with Pace. Though she was beautiful, he respected her decision to remain a virgin till marriage. The streetlight never stands for happiness. Whenever you see it in a movie, the poor chap underneath is always down on his luck, smocking a cigarette, and wearing a classy suit and hat. He’s leaning back against the pole, and his right leg bent so that his foot rests on it as well. Surrounding him is a yellow haze on the ground, fog in the air, and nothing but darkness everywhere else. He only has himself, but that’s enough for him. The harvest moon cast a grim look on Pace’s face as he lit his fourth smoke. He might have forgotten that Trevor was there had he not asked for a light. The two hadn’t said a word since they got to the site over twenty minutes ago. It’s not like there was a lot to say though, the only girl that they each loved was just raped earlier that day. The first time Pace and Trevor came to the site was after a show about two years before. Trevor had to take a leak and the abandoned construction site was perfect for the action. Usually they sat, smoked, and talked about bands or the girls that were too good for Pace. The two never invited anyone else to the site. This place was theirs forever. Plus, who could destroy something that didn’t exist? “When I saw Mellie before, we talked about getting married.” Trevor was the first to speak, and it was courageous to think of something like that, but he still had a tear in his eye. He wasn’t afraid of loving and committing to Mellie, but it was everything else in the world that seemed to scare him. “She said yes. And, since we cant afford a ceremony, we’re getting a small service after the noon mass. We need a witness, so…” “Yeah, I’ll be there. Mellie can finally be happy.” Two days later on Friday, Mellie decided to take a pregnancy test, just in case. She spent the rest of the day throwing up. On Sunday she married Trevor in front of Pace and some old people that stayed after the previous mass. That night, Mellie told Trevor that she wanted to keep the child. She was against abortion and decided to give it up for adoption instead. Pace and Trevor wanted it the opposite way, but they both cared for her and would support her for the next nine months. Mellie had Kanemar tried in a court a few weeks later, but he wasn’t convicted. Even with a child in her womb as proof he was a rapist, he was let go. Fuck the rich. To make things worse, Richard Kanemar had his father buy the Holdout, the small venue where Pace and Trevor saw shows. And in six months, he was closing it to make a fucking day care center in spite. Now that his father owned the Holdout, Kanemar was always at the same shows that Pace and Trevor went to. Twice he started fights with Pace and Trevor at the Holdout; both times Kanemar had his “rape group” of five assholes. All used to be on their school’s rugby team, and two were big enough to be a rugby team. The first time Kanemar began a fight, he brought a pack of “It’s a Boy!” cigars and offered one to Pace and Trevor. Trevor gave Kanemar a swift kick to the groin in appreciation. If the bouncers weren’t there, Trevor would have been hurt badly, maybe even killed since Kanemar now carried a new blade with him. The second time fighting erupted was Kanemar’s fault again. With his cohorts behind him, he started to hump Trevor form behind while laughing and shouting “Oh Mellie baby!” Kanemar then took out his blade and cut Trevor’s braces. Trevor and Pace couldn’t do shit with the rugby team there, but tried anyway. After they got the shit kicked out of them, Pace and Trevor decided not to return to the Holdout until the final show. It was now one day before the final show and Mellie was about seven months into her pregnancy when her water broke. The bastard child was going to be born prematurely. Of course it had to be raining too. It was English weather, but it made the day so much worse for her. Since they couldn’t afford to live together, Mellie still lived with Pace and her father, while Trevor lived at his house. Mellie called him there and told him to get to the hospital as fast as he could. There was a shudder in her voice and fear in her heart. When she hung up the doctors took her to the delivery room. Trevor called Pace and said he would meet him at the hospital. Pace started to walk to the hospital. Enjoying the crisp rain, he decided to stop at the construction site for a smoke since it was on the way. As he sat on the second story edge, he closed his eyes and felt the rain against his face. People usually don’t like the rain, Pace did though; without rainy days, how could he appreciate the sunny ones? Mellie Savorson died while giving birth. She couldn’t bare the pain. Less than a minute later, the child came out alive. However, the little boy also died shortly after. Besides being born prematurely, his father did drugs, which caused him to be born with an addiction that killed him. Trevor never got to see his wife and son at the hospital. A drunk driver who was going 95 kilometers per hour in the rain hit him; he died almost instantly. The driver then swerved and drove into a streetlight. Since he wasn’t buckled in, the driver flew out the front window and landed face first on a parked car, breaking his neck. Mr. Savorson was going to see his daughter, apologize for the pain he had caused her, and swear to never drink again. However, he felt he had to have some last drinks before making such a promise. Now he lay still on top of a ‘94 Audi, rain falling on his body, his wrecked car four meter away, and the wrecked body of Trevor Mohr just past that. Pace opened his eyes and resumed his walk to the hospital. He knew his rainy days would soon end. The next afternoon, while walking back from the hospital, Pace stopped and looked up to see his abandoned construction site being built on. His sister, best friend, bastard nephew, and father had all died the previous night, and now his asylum was being taken away from him. Still, Pace had not cried through any of it. Now all he had left was himself. He wondered if he was able to live for himself with anyone else. As Pace stood in solemn silence, he decided he would go home, find his father’s pistol, and dispose all of his bad memories. As Pace approached his house, he saw a dozen of his friends outside. They were there to take him to the final show at the Holdout. All of them were supposed to go with Pace and Trevor, but they all knew what had happened the previous night, and they all said how they were sorry. However, they each felt that Pace needed to be at the final show. He went inside the house, got ready, and left with the group a few minutes later. Pace didn’t really do anything that night; thoughts of Mellie and Trevor couldn’t leave his head. He lit his eleventh cigarette of the day when Kanemar came in with his rugby team. Jason Stark, one of Pace’s good friends, came to him and asked if he wanted their group to kick the shit out of Kanemar and his. Pace shook his head “no.” Jason understood and started to walk away “Hey Stark, I’m gonna get out of here, alright? I’ll see ya sometime.” Outside it was night. Pace walked to the corner, stopped, and looked at the stars. Tears came to his eyes and he collapsed to his knees, his hands covering his face. He sat back against the streetlight and began to bawl. He could do nothing in the world except live for himself, but for Pace, that wasn’t enough. He thought this as he took out his father’s pistol that was stashed in his pants. He put it to his head, and imagined all of horrible thoughts he was about to get rid out. Thinking of all these brought Pace to tears again as he put the gun down to his side. He then wiped his tears and looked up. Richard Kanemar had just walked out and was twenty meters away, laughing with his friends, completely unaware of Pace, and completely unaware of the torment he had caused for so many people. Pace stood up as the streetlight above him burnt out. A tear fell A shell fell A body fell
Copyright © 2005 Andrew Panos |