Status: One-Shot
I Didn't Tell
No One Asked.
There are things that introverts see that extroverts just don’t notice, there are things that the deaf hear and the blind see that no one else around them does, and there are too many things seen through a child’s eyes that no one thinks will stick.
When the man in the black suit and red tie handed off the briefcase into the hands of a small man in street clothing no one asked what I saw. The police chased and asked the adults around the area but no one asked me. I didn’t tell.
When Sam started sneaking into our house to see my sister in the night they thought I didn’t notice. Sarah had tears in her eyes when she had to explain why her shirts weren’t going to fit in a few months. My parents wondered how they didn’t notice. No one asked me. I didn’t tell.
When dad started to see the woman from his office, mom didn’t notice that the lipstick on his collar was two shades too dark to be hers, that the blonde hair on his suit jacket was a few shades lighter than her own. In the end she didn’t need to see the signs, dad left and said he would visit us on weekends. No one asked me. I didn’t tell.
Gerard is the one who puts all the graffiti on the buildings down Main, he saw me and when I said I hadn’t seen anything he just smiled and told me that it was okay that I saw it. He asked. I promised not to tell.
Mara is trying to break up with Gerard but doesn’t know how. I see it in the way her lips move when she talks to him and the way her hands almost don’t want to land on him when they kiss. It wasn’t always like this. No one asked me. I told.
Gerard still thanks me, because he was on his guard when she came to kill him. He told me not to worry too hard about it, in the world he plays in that is how you break up with someone. He asked if I wanted to join that world with him. He said that while it was dangerous, it’s a Family thing and he would be honored to have me. I accepted. He asked me. I didn’t tell.
The longer I stayed with Gerard and the rest of The Family the more I never wanted to go home. I never spoke it out loud but the longer I stayed, the more Italian I picked up. By year three I could imitate the words perfectly and understood everything they said, even if they didn’t know. This time it was different. “You are young,” Don would say, “But your eyes are too bright for me to tink you don’t know what is going on. You are one of us, you can’t go telling on us, yeah? I think on your birthday next month we will throw a party for ya, and mebe you can join da field” He had ruffled my hair. I nodded. He had asked. I promised not to tell.
His promise held true and as a present they had taken me down to Main to test the skills that they had been teaching down in the tunnels I call my second home. I did what I was best at and painted what no one else saw. I painted disembodied eyes filled with tears and collars with lipstick two shades darker than the one my mom wore. The hand of the man who handed off the briefcase but instead he held a hand, not firmly, but lovingly, because that is how I had come to see Mikey. I drew an astronaut whose hand Mikey was holding and in his black helmet reflected the other side of the street. Only, in this version of the other side of the street there wasn’t broken beer bottles or cigarettes on the ground, it was a small boy who had obviously fallen off his bike being helped up by a smiling older boy. My second family smiled and hugged me hard, everyone in town asked who had done it, and no one asked me. I didn’t tell.
* * * *
He was fourteen when he ran away, his mom had died and The Family had room. He had been with us since he was just a silent wide-eyed kid, why would we not take him in? A few weeks later the bruises faded off his body and his clothes no longer smelled of spilt alcohol and cigarettes. We had asked him what that was all about, but he never told. He was good at that.
“Have you seen this boy? His name is Frank!” The girl, I think her name was Sarah, yelled from the street corner, funny how she is still looking for him even a year later when a year earlier she did nothing to stop her mother’s fist from coming down on her son. So I took a leaf from her brother’s book. She asked me. I didn’t tell.
When the man in the black suit and red tie handed off the briefcase into the hands of a small man in street clothing no one asked what I saw. The police chased and asked the adults around the area but no one asked me. I didn’t tell.
When Sam started sneaking into our house to see my sister in the night they thought I didn’t notice. Sarah had tears in her eyes when she had to explain why her shirts weren’t going to fit in a few months. My parents wondered how they didn’t notice. No one asked me. I didn’t tell.
When dad started to see the woman from his office, mom didn’t notice that the lipstick on his collar was two shades too dark to be hers, that the blonde hair on his suit jacket was a few shades lighter than her own. In the end she didn’t need to see the signs, dad left and said he would visit us on weekends. No one asked me. I didn’t tell.
Gerard is the one who puts all the graffiti on the buildings down Main, he saw me and when I said I hadn’t seen anything he just smiled and told me that it was okay that I saw it. He asked. I promised not to tell.
Mara is trying to break up with Gerard but doesn’t know how. I see it in the way her lips move when she talks to him and the way her hands almost don’t want to land on him when they kiss. It wasn’t always like this. No one asked me. I told.
Gerard still thanks me, because he was on his guard when she came to kill him. He told me not to worry too hard about it, in the world he plays in that is how you break up with someone. He asked if I wanted to join that world with him. He said that while it was dangerous, it’s a Family thing and he would be honored to have me. I accepted. He asked me. I didn’t tell.
The longer I stayed with Gerard and the rest of The Family the more I never wanted to go home. I never spoke it out loud but the longer I stayed, the more Italian I picked up. By year three I could imitate the words perfectly and understood everything they said, even if they didn’t know. This time it was different. “You are young,” Don would say, “But your eyes are too bright for me to tink you don’t know what is going on. You are one of us, you can’t go telling on us, yeah? I think on your birthday next month we will throw a party for ya, and mebe you can join da field” He had ruffled my hair. I nodded. He had asked. I promised not to tell.
His promise held true and as a present they had taken me down to Main to test the skills that they had been teaching down in the tunnels I call my second home. I did what I was best at and painted what no one else saw. I painted disembodied eyes filled with tears and collars with lipstick two shades darker than the one my mom wore. The hand of the man who handed off the briefcase but instead he held a hand, not firmly, but lovingly, because that is how I had come to see Mikey. I drew an astronaut whose hand Mikey was holding and in his black helmet reflected the other side of the street. Only, in this version of the other side of the street there wasn’t broken beer bottles or cigarettes on the ground, it was a small boy who had obviously fallen off his bike being helped up by a smiling older boy. My second family smiled and hugged me hard, everyone in town asked who had done it, and no one asked me. I didn’t tell.
* * * *
He was fourteen when he ran away, his mom had died and The Family had room. He had been with us since he was just a silent wide-eyed kid, why would we not take him in? A few weeks later the bruises faded off his body and his clothes no longer smelled of spilt alcohol and cigarettes. We had asked him what that was all about, but he never told. He was good at that.
“Have you seen this boy? His name is Frank!” The girl, I think her name was Sarah, yelled from the street corner, funny how she is still looking for him even a year later when a year earlier she did nothing to stop her mother’s fist from coming down on her son. So I took a leaf from her brother’s book. She asked me. I didn’t tell.
♠ ♠ ♠
Hope you like,RedRomRomance