Sunshine

“Miss Kuper, is this your father?”

Evelyn nearly broke down into tears at the words, but restrained herself. She knelt down and examined the body, making note of the dried blood covering the legs and arms, and pretty much the entirety of the man. Bruises lined his body and one of his arms looked broken. The other two bodies were in even worse condition, though they didn’t appear to be shot nearly as many times. Whoever this man was, he must’ve really put up a good fight.

Like she knew he would.

Being raised by a single father in the police force had actually been good for Evelyn. He taught her to be calm in times like these, and to analyze every bit of detail because ‘you never know when it could come in handy’, not to mention her tiny bit of experience with crimes and reading into old, already solved cases.

There was only one way of telling if this mangled body full of bullet holes and oozing wounds was really her father.

Scrunching her nose up at the stench, she bent forward and lightly bent the man’s ear, her somewhat trained eyes scanning the bruised skin behind it. Surrounding detectives and officers, including Pete, were about to question her but a sergeant stopped them.

“Leave her to her business. She knows what she’s doing.”

Evelyn turned around briefly to give Sergeant Fallows, her father’s superior, a smile. He nodded and left her to her work.

She gasped at the sight and harshly retracted her hand from the man’s ear. She couldn’t hold her tears anymore as she started sobbing uncontrollably, crumpled over on her knees.

There it was, the infamous daisy tattoo. He always said how stupid it was of him to get it just for a girl, though he never really regretted it.

The girl he got it for was her mother.

And this was her father.

Evelyn’s eyes snapped open and she looked around, taking in her surroundings. Beige colored walls and dark purple bedsheets were in her main line of vision, as was a tiny ball of brown and white fur. She concluded that she was in her bedroom.

“Shit!”

A glance at her alarm clock told her it was already past nine, she had overslept, and was also late for school. She wondered why her grandparents never woke her up.

She quickly got herself dressed in a flannel and nearly destroyed jeans she found on the floor and ran a hand through the snarls in her somewhat long hair. It had a light wave to it, though not much, and Evelyn ran her hands through different sections of hair to try and make the wave less noticeable. She didn’t like her hair wavy.

A whine came from the bed and Evelyn smiled at the small bundle on the bed, easily lifting his thirteen pound, furry body up and into her arms. She rubbed his head affectionately before carrying him with her as she jogged down the stairs to make her way to the kitchen.

“Don’t think I could forget you, Cooper.”

As usual, Evelyn’s grandfather was sitting in his worn out red armchair in the living room, reading the newspaper with the television on softly in the background.

“Morning, Pa,” she greeted.

He looked up from his paper and smiled at Evelyn before going back to reading, his glasses sitting low on his nose.

Evelyn set the spaniel down in the kitchen doorway and greeted her grandmother, though with a bit of a harsh tone as she scurried around, trying to get herself a quick breakfast.

Her grandmother frowned at looked at Evelyn with a confused expression, “Why the hurry, Scout?”

Evelyn gave her grandmother a confused look in return, “I’m late for school, Ma.”

She shook her head, “It’s Saturday, Scout.”

Evelyn stopped chewing and turned her head to the calendar, remembering the date to be the third of March, which was indeed a Saturday.

“Oh.”

Her grandmother laughed, “Well, I’m glad you’re up and dressed anyway. We’re having company over.”

Evelyn knew of Ma’s love for guests, but at nine in the morning on a Saturday?

“Who?”

Her grandmother gave Evelyn a look that told her she had a hidden agenda to inviting these people over.

“Just the neighbors.”

“Which ones?” Evelyn asked, taking another bite of her bagel as she watched Ma get various plates out and hover over the stove. It looked like she was making pancakes and sausage, or something of the like. The smell was intoxicating.

“The ones across the street.”

Evelyn scrunched up her nose, “With the kid that asked me if I was homeless?”

“That’d be him,” her grandfather said, waltzing into the kitchen, newspaper tucked under his arm. He gave her grandmother a kiss on the cheek.

“I don’t think he likes me, Ma.”

“Nonsense! That’s just boys his age--”

“If she wants to stay away from the boy, let her, Maudie.”

Maudie gave her husband a cold look, “He’s not a bad kid, Nikolaus.”

The doorbell chose that moment to ring and instead of listen to her grandparents irritate each other, Evelyn decided to go answer the door.

She was greeted with the sight of a middle aged man and woman, a small girl in the man’s arms, and the boy who thought she was homeless.

The way he looked at her when she answered the door led her to believe that he really didn’t like her. He looked down on her, almost.

His attire consisted of a plain black t-shirt and somewhat baggy black pants. He reminded her of Zack, the kid whose locker she had run into, and also sometimes Jimmy. His hair was dark and cut short to his head.

“Morning, Mr. and Mrs. Haner,” Evelyn said smiling. She made a point of smiling at the boy, but he just looked at her blankly in response.

The man and woman, whom Evelyn knew as Brian and Suzy, greeted her also and led themselves into the house they had been in many times before, with them being good friends with Evelyn’s grandparents. The girl waddled around, though her parents kept her under control.

The boy remained in the doorway, not following his family. His look went from judging Evelyn to observing her before a flash of recognition crossed his eyes.

“I see you’re not homeless after all.”

Evelyn crossed her arms defensively, though she was determined to remain nice to him. It was a trait she learned from her father, being patient and kind to others no matter what.

“That I’m not,” she nodded at him, “my name’s Evelyn.”

He didn’t really seem to care, his eyes shifting from her loose, baggy clothes and unbuttoned shirt to her messy and disheveled hair. She knew she probably looked like a wreck, but she had really just woken up a half hour ago. She had an excuse.

“Brian,” he said monotonously.

“Evelyn! Brian! Time to eat!”

Evelyn gave Brian a tiny smile, which he didn’t return, as she led him to the kitchen to answer Maudie’s call.

“Coming, Ma!”

Evelyn didn’t eat much, considering she already had her breakfast. She tried to make small talk with Brian, but he seemed like he wanted nothing to do with her. He spoke to her grandparents like any teenager would, but not a word was said in her direction.

It got to be about noon and the Haners were about to leave, bidding their thanks and goodbyes to the Kupers. Cooper wagged his tail at Evelyn and she picked him up, giving him an affectionate hug.

Brian peered out the door and quickly said goodbye to Nikolaus and Maudie, not even bothering to look in Evelyn’s direction. He jogged down the steps and across the street to his own house, greeting someone who looked oddly familiar to Evelyn.

Brian Sr. followed her gaze, “That’s our son’s friend, Jimmy. He’s a riot, that kid.”

“Jimmy?” Maudie questioned, looking at Evelyn, “don’t you have a friend named Jimmy?”

The four adults turned to look and her and she nodded, slightly uncomfortable under their gazes.

“You could call him that, I guess,” she replied.

“Jimmy! Jimbo!” Brian Sr. called, his son and the tall lanky kid looking over with curiosity.

“Yeah, Papa Haner?”

Evelyn couldn’t help to small smile that appeared. She knew that voice. It was the voice of her friend, or other ‘Tree Buddy’ as he had taken to calling the two of them.

“Do you know Evelyn?”

“Evelyn?”

She moved so she was standing in the doorway and gave a small wave to Jimmy, who eagerly waved back before turning to Brian.

“Tree Buddy is your neighbor?!” he yelled loudly.

Brian shrugged with a displeased look on his face as he eyed Evelyn and then Jimmy.

“You can go with them if you want, Scout,” Maudie said encouragingly.

Evelyn shook her head, laughing and waving at Jimmy, who was jumping up and down and making incomprehensible gestures at her from across the street. Brian was frowning, she could tell from her doorstep. He gave her a blank look, as if he heard what Maudie had said.

Evelyn gave one final wave before stepping into the house, picking up Cooper, and heading up the stairs to her room. Her words to Maudie earned a sad and confused look.

“That’s okay, Ma. I wouldn’t want to be a bother.”