Love from, Hell

Around noon, Julie's father came home from his half day at the office. He used to be a full time, 5-days-a-week type of worker. But since he was half way to retiring, he cut all that time in half. He worked only 3 days a week for a couple of hours. When he came home that afternoon, he sat down heavily in his chair, huffing a greeting to everyone.

“I’m starved,” Ken stated.

His wife chuckled darkly. “It’s nice to see you too,” she said.

Ken father looked at her mother pleadingly. “What’s for lunch?” he asked, being even less obvious.

Heather rolled her eyes but stood up. “I was thinking pasta. Malcolm and I picked some herbs out of the garden this morning,” she said walking into the kitchen.

Julie tucked her legs firmly under her body. Malcolm sat in the same chair he’d sat in last night, one arm on the arm rest, as if he had to plan how to pose casually.

Ken slapped his knees and stood up from his chair. “I’m taking a shower,” he declared and lumbered up the stairs.

Leaving Julie and Malcolm alone in the room. Julie could feel her heart racing- a completely ridiculous reaction. She glanced at Malcolm. He looked exactly the same. The phone rang then. Julie blinked and looked around for the cordless phone.

“Hello?” she said.

“Oh Julie! Thank god!” Leah’s upset voice flooded her ear. “Where in the Hell did you disappear to? I’ve been trying to call Calvin because I figured you were with him but-”

“Is he ok?” Julie interrupted suddenly.

“Malcolm? Would you help me dear?” Heather called from the kitchen.

Julie was aware of Malcolm standing up and walking out of the room.

“Yeah he’s fine. A little sore but ok. He says he beat off some guys that were trying to rape you!” Leah continued.

Julie snorted.

Leah faltered. “What- that didn’t happen? What did happen Julie? We’ve been here worried sick. Our spring break has totally sucked so far,” she said.

Julie paused. “... yeah that it was happened. I can’t remember too well, you know,” she lied. She wasn’t a particularly good liar, but it was easier over the phone.

“Good. I’m glad you’re ok. So you’re at your parents’ place?” Leah asked.

“Yeah,” Julie answered.

“Bummer. That’ll be fun,” Leah teased.

Julie bit her lip, Malcolm’s face scowling handsomely in her mind. “I’ll be alright. You guys have fun. I want to hear about everything when I get back,” Julie said.

“Well… ok. You sure you’re alright?” Leah checked.

Julie swallowed. “Yep. Tell everyone I say hi and that I’m fine,” she assured her.

Leah promised she would, then the two girls hung up. Julie only had time to sit on the couch for a moment when the phone rang again.

“This is a popular house for an old married couple,” Julie muttered to herself. She checked the caller ID. It read ‘MacDonald’- a friend of her mom’s.

“Mom, its Maureen!” Julie called.

Heather came into the room. “Thanks. Can you keep stirring the sauce?” she instructed her daughter.

Julie paused for a moment then walked resignedly into then kitchen.

Malcolm was chopping the herbs into fine pieces; he didn’t look up at her when she entered the room. Julie sighed and walked over to the sauce pan and began to stir the white sauce slowly. She focused on watching the swirls she made in the sauce. Still she could hear Malcolm carefully slicing up the herbs.

She stole one glance at his work and regretted it. His hands worked precisely, like an experienced chef, his long slender fingers moving effortlessly. He looked great and Julie felt a strong tug in her stomach. He didn’t want anything to do with her. So then why was he still here, chopping herbs and sleeping on her couch?

Julie felt that bubble of irritation evolve in her stomach. Why was he hanging around here? Was it just to make everything more painful for her? She wouldn’t put it past him to know how uncomfortable he made her and use that to torture her. His mere presence was messing her up.

“What are you doing?” Julie asked her sauce quietly.

She could hear Malcolm stop working. “Excuse me?” he said.

Julie bit her lip. It was starting to get sore from all the times she was doing that today. But she turned around, took one look at Malcolm, and looked away at the sink. “... nothing,” she decided to say. She glanced at Malcolm.

He looked confused and a little frustrated. “Am I not preparing the herbs correctly?” he asked finally.

Julie felt that irrational urge to giggle at him- suddenly finding him funny. She managed to keep it down to just a smile. “No. You’re… doing fine,” Julie said and turned away back to the sauce. God, he was driving her crazy. One minute she was completely annoyed with him, the next he was cracking her up.

After lunch, Julie’s mother dragged her outside to wash the car. They had just rolled out the hose and set up a couple of soapy buckets when her father, followed by Malcolm, came outside.

“Malcolm’s gonna help me fix the drain pipe. It’s definitely plugged. Probably all the way through,” Ken said.

Her mother tutted disapprovingly but said nothing to him. She turned to Julie instead. “Your father misses your brother. He could probably think of a million man things to do with Malcolm around the house,” she said.

Julie smiled at her mom.

They rinsed the car and Julie tried unsuccessfully to keep dry. As they began the longer task of scrubbing the car down with sponges, Julie tried not to watch Malcolm too much. But, of course, couldn’t help doing it anyway.

He climbed the new ladder and unscrewed the top of the drain pipe and then the two of them lowered the pipe so they could examine the inside of it. Her father began to ramble about the methods they would try to get it unplugged. Julie watched Malcolm nod, but say nothing.

As Julie scrubbed the front license plate, she noticed that Malcolm had removed his leather jacket. Underneath, he was wearing a dark blue long sleeved shirt. She couldn’t remember if it was the same shirt he’d been wearing when he took off his jacket during their night together at the motel. Julie blushed and looked away; their night together, yeah right, what a thing to think. But she hadn’t seen him with any other clothes so those he was wearing must be the only ones he had with him.

It worked out that Julie and her mom finished scrubbing down the car before Malcolm and her dad were finished with drain pipe. Julie wandered over to watch them innocently while her mother rinsed off the car. Julie put her hands on her hips. Their front lawn was a sloping hill so someone had to hold the ladder to keep it from toppling backward.

As Malcolm was trying to prep the fastener for the drain pipe, the pipe in question began to fall back. It had been leaning precariously on the side of the roof and now was threatening to crash. Julie’s father let go of the ladder to grab the pipe before it hit the ground. But in the flash second when he let go, the ladder began to fall away from the roof.

Malcolm’s hand shot out quicker than Julie thought possible to grab the gutter for support. But since the gutter wasn’t attached to the drain pipe, it didn’t stay hooked to the roof. The metal made a horrible sound as it pulled away.

Julie was sure that Malcolm could have saved himself. He could have leapt away from the ladder and landed like a ninja on the grass. But her instinct took over when her dad gave an incoherent shout and her mom screamed. Julie hurried forward and caught the ladder and pushed it back to the roof.

“Malcolm! I’m sorry, are you ok?” Ken checked, sounding concerned.

Malcolm looked a little ruffled and unsteady- which for him was staggering emotion, Julie noted. He descended the ladder slowly.

“Malcolm?! Dear, are you alright??” Heather fretted.

But Malcolm was looking at Julie.

“I saved you," Julie said to him.

For one split second, Malcolm looked even more bewildered. Then he smiled. And before Julie could get intimidated or flustered, she smiled back.