Letters From Cages

A bird sat calmly on the branch of a large bush outside my window as I sat and watched it. The sun was beaming onto it, making its dark blue tint color of its feathers shine. I sat on my windowsill, watching it move back and forth amongst the branch, picking its beak at the leaves. This is what the afternoon after the night of almost getting arrested was going. I sat with my dark blonde hair falling past my shoulders and my eyes were just staring at this bird. My father had taken my grandmother to some swap meet in town, claiming that she hadn’t been out of the house in weeks and that if he didn’t get her out she was going to drive us both crazy. He asked if I wanted to come but I declined, and instead decided to be the most boring person alive by staring at this small bird as if I could break away from my body and put my soul into it, and merely just fly away.

I glanced over to the telephone on my nightstand, waiting for Adam to return my numerous phone calls. I called his cell phone multiple times, but he of course didn’t pick up. I then tried calling his house phone, and his stern voiced dad picked up the phone and angrily told me that Adam couldn’t come to the phone. He must have found out what happened and I knew that Adam was in trouble.

There was a sudden ring of my doorbell and I slowly stepped off the windowsill and as I did, the bird flew away.

I walked through the hallway, to the front door and looked in the peephole. When I saw who it was I quickly opened the door and grabbed his arm to pull him inside.

“I’m so sorry, please forgive me,” I said quickly.

Adam strained a smile and closed the door behind him. His longer blonde hair was pushed back and his blue eyes surveyed my home.

“I don’t think I’ve ever fully been inside your house,” He spoke as he walked down the hallway, looking at ridiculous pictures of me when I was young. One was of my mother and I as she was pushing me on a swing-set. I looked like the happiest girl in the world, but her eyes weren’t even focused on the camera, or anything for that matter. “Is that your mom?” Adam asked, pointing to the picture.

“Yes.”

“What happened to her?” Adam replied.

“She died," I replied. "So, did you get in a lot of trouble for last night? Did your dad find out?” I asked and led Adam down the hallway and into the kitchen.

“Yeah, he found out. He honestly couldn’t for the idea grasp onto why I would want to sneak into his company’s office in the middle of the night. I ended up just telling him the story you told the police. That we thought it’d be fun.”

“And what he’d say?” I asked.

“He said that I needed less free time on my hands and then I had to talk his boss out of pressing charges for not really but kind of breaking and entering,” Adam said with a small laugh while sitting down at the kitchen table.

“I really am sorry,” I said quietly and sat down across from him. Adam reached over and placed his hand on mine.

“It’s fine,” He said quietly. “I can’t say I wasn’t angry about this whole situation at first. But…” Adam paused and reached into his jacket to pull out a plain manila folder and placed it on the table. The tab read, D. McDowell.

“Wait, what?” I asked and grabbed the file.

Adam smiled and leaned back in his seat. “You thought I put the file back when the police came, but I just stuffed it into my jacket. To be honest, it was pretty poor police work not to even check if we were trying to steal something, you'd think that'd be the first thing they'd do. But hey, I haven't looked at it. I didn’t want to look at it unless I was with you.”

I grinned at him, shocked for a second. He lowered his head, urging me to open it and I quickly flipped through the folder, and opened the file straight to the financial reports. Adam watched as I scanned the dates until it landed on February 17th of this year. Once I got to the date, I scanned the payments made on Demetri McDowell’s main credit card. There were simple things, like a coffee at Starbucks, lunch at a nice restaurant downtown, but at 3:46 that afternoon, there was a purchase that made me sit up.

“Adam,” I said quietly. “At 3:46, this credit card was used to rent out a pick-up truck from a couple towns over, and according to the deposit being released back into the account when it was returned, it was given back to the place only 3 hours later. Why would Demetri, or Jerry, rent a truck for only three hours?”

I looked up at Adam who was staring back at me, intensity in his eyes, as if they were sparking. We found something.

Adam grabbed the folder from me and scanned the sheet. “It was one of the large Ford model pick-up trucks, used for loading and unloading... Jerry probably rented this truck to move something.”

Adam looked up at me and our eyes connected.

“Or someone.”



Loud applause was heard throughout the whole auditorium the day we graduated. Hats were all thrown in the hair, falling all over us as the students around us cheered loudly. The seats in the football stadium were filled with proud parents and families, and I strained my eyes to see if I could find my dad or my grandmother. I glanced behind me to see Carter sitting in the far back, mainly because his last name started with a W. He was laughing with a friend next to him and picking his hat up off of the ground. I saw him make eye contact with me and he quickly hopped over a few chairs and ran towards my direction. Once he got to me he picked me up and twirled me around.

“Done!” He yelled, “We are finally done with damn high school. Where we believe all of our petty high school problems are the end of the word and that they actually matter.” He laughed and kissed me hard on the lips. “Done,” He repeated.

I laughed as he placed his arms around my waist, leaning in to kiss me again as the students dispersed to find their families. We heard a loud cough from the side of us and quickly pulled apart to see his parents standing there, along with his younger brother, Wyatt and a few of his other relatives. We both smiled awkwardly as my father and my grandmother were approaching as well. Carter grabbed onto my hand.

Carter’s dad shot me a distrustful glance before looking at his son. The first thing that came out of his mouth was: “So, son, did you call Dartmouth today to let them know that you will be attending in the fall?” He asked.

I felt Carter squeeze my hand tightly as I looked up at him. His lips were pressed in a straight line.

“Yeah, I called them,” Carter replied. I felt my heart beat in my chest. I knew that Carter was making the right decision, but I also knew that he would be almost 3,000 miles away from me. Carter’s father grew a content smile on his face and placed his hand on his son’s shoulder. “Oh, but I told them I wasn’t going,” Carter added.

I pulled my hand away from Carter’s and looked at him, and I thought his parent’s faces were going to drop to the ground.

“What?” Mr. Wright asked. My father and my grandmother and even myself stood awkwardly to the side. Wyatt stepped back near his cousins and it looked like a showdown was about to happen right on the middle of the football field.

“I’m staying here to go to college in Oregon,” Carter replied.

His father’s jaw clenched. “You know I will not pay for that,” He spat.

“Oh it’s okay, I’ve saved up, I’ll be just fine,” Carter responded with a smug smile on his face.

Carter tried to grab my hand again but I pulled it away and walked up to my grandmother and father.

“Congratulations,” My father said quietly. “Why don’t you go with Carter and we’ll see you tonight when you get home for a proper celebration.” He smiled at me, his wrinkles gathering around the corners of his eyes. I nodded and kissed his cheek and then my grandmother’s before my dad snapped a quick picture of me and walked away. I looked over at Carter, whose parents were standing in front of him, completely and utterly fuming. Once I reached them, he grabbed my hand again and this time I let him take it.

“Well, I know all this chit chat is super fun and all, but we’ve got to get ready for all the after graduation festivities, I’ll be seeing you, Dad,” Carter happily and somewhat sadistically said to his father, reached down and ruffled Wyatt’s hair and walked away with me. Once we were enough distance away, nearing the middle of the school near the outside lockers, I yanked Carter’s hand from mine. “What?” He asked.

“What?” I repeated back to him. “You turned down the opportunity to attend an Ivy League school that your dad would have paid complete tuition for, to stay in this lame of a town and go to college here, that’s what. What are you thinking, Carter?!”

Carter reached forward and grabbed both sides of my face.

“I’m thinking that I don’t want to leave you. I’m thinking that moving 3,000 flipping miles away would ruin any chance of me seeing your face every day, being able to speak with you, play with you, laugh with you. I’ll deal with my dad, but I can’t deal with not being with you. Call me cheesy, but this is what I want to do, Gwenith,” Carter took his hands off my face and paused for a second. “All my life I’ve wanted to make decisions for myself. Do something that I felt was best for me. All my life I’ve lived in the shadows of my father, wanting and trying to be the perfect son. You were the only thing that let me be able to finally break away from all that shit and be myself and do the things I want to do. No one ever asked me if I wanted to go to Dartmouth.”

I shook my head, not knowing what to say to the boy I loved standing in front of me, his deep blue eyes shining with what I believe was freedom. I was upset and furious with him for taking such a huge step back in his life just to be with me, but what girl would deny the fact that if someone she loved did this for her, that it didn’t make her heart soar. I was just about to respond to him when I heard a familiar deep voice shout Carter’s name from the distance.

“Carter!” It yelled. We both turned to see none other than Jerry walking through the crowd. I was expecting Marco or Charlie to be accompanying him, but no one was behind him. When he approached I instantly tensed. He reached forward and patted Carter on the shoulder. “Congratulations on graduating, man,” He said, a smile on his face.

Carter grinned at his friend. “I didn’t even know you were coming!” He replied and if I wasn’t so damned polite I would have scoffed.

Jerry looked over at me, his lazy hazelnut eyes trying to make contact with my own. A small smile formed on the side of his face that only I saw.

“Oh I’m sorry, did I ruin a moment between you two?” He asked.



“Should we try to talk to the police?” I asked Adam as we drove fast down the freeway.

“I think we’ve already had enough encounters with the police already,” Adam replied while changing lanes. “Plus, we don’t have enough evidence. This could just be coincidence. We need more solid proof.”

Adam got off an off-ramp and turned left as I nodded in agreement from the passenger’s seat. He then pulled into a parking lot full of random cars parked amongst each other and got out. I got out myself and looked up to see the building that read ‘Ted’s Rent-a-Car Service.’

Adam and I walked into the building and up to the counter, in which a man in his late thirties with a tacky mustache was standing behind.

“Welcome to Ted’s Rent-a-Car service, I’m unfortunately not Ted, but I am his son, George, how can I help you?” He asked while grinning quite abrasively.

“We just had a quick question,” Adam asked. “Earlier this year around February you rented out a large Ford pick-up truck to a Mr. McDowell, but only for a few hours. Do you happen to know whether it was the father or the son who rented out that truck?”

George’s bushy eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t remember, I’m not here every day. Why are you asking me this? You aren’t detectives or anything, right?”

I almost laughed.

“No, we’re not, we were just wondering,” Adam replied and then when he realized what an inadequate answer that was, he decided to elaborate, or in other terms, come up with complete bullshit. “My friend said he rented out a Ford pick-up truck here back in February and in the truck was listening to one of my bootleg CD’s of a band I really like, and then he didn’t return it and I… well, I really want it back. But now he says he didn’t even rent a truck from here and never had my CD and I want proof that he did so I can get that CD back. It’s worth a lot of money.”

“A CD?” George asked. I looked over at Adam, not really admiring his story that didn’t really make sense at all. In order for any of this to even remotely make sense or even work, George had to be one stupid fellow.

“Yeah,” Adam replied and glanced over at me. I just raised my eyebrows with a small tint of a smile on my face. “Is there like a form you guys keep where the person signs out the car? If it says his name then I’ll know for sure he lied to me about not renting the truck.”

“Well,” George said and reached into a file cabinet. “We do keep all the forms of the car rentals…”

I widened my eyes, completely surprised that this guy was actually about to show us legal documents because Adam said his friend stole his CD... George flipped through the folders and grabbed a certain file and laid it out on the counter.

“You said McDowell, right?” George asked, continually flipping through the pages in the file.

Adam nodded. “Yes, it’d either be under Demetri or Jerry McDowell on February 17th of this year.”

George “hmm’d” under his breath.

“Ah ah ah, found it,” He said and pulled out the sheet. “It looks to me like a Jerry McDowell signed out the car.”

Adam and mine’s mouths both fell open and George just looked back and forth at us questionably.

“I guess your friend owes you your CD?” He asked.