Need help with a Title! 2

This is the second part. Please read the first half first if you haven't already! It won't make sense otherwise. I just did this because it's such a long short story. Oh, and any title suggestions are very very welcome and appreciated. Thanks!


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Nelson retired to bed shortly after dinner but Rowena and I stayed up until late into the night, neither one of us even a little drowsy. We talked a lot about Robbie, about his being so close to getting a Master’s degree even though he was barely nineteen, about his dreams to eventually get a doctorate and become a chemist working on cures for diseases. We talked about what an amazing person he had been, how wonderful he was to everyone. I told Rowena about the winter he had given up his down comforter to a homeless guy on the street and shivered for a month at night until some of our elderly neighbors had knitted him a quilt. I told her about the time he and I had been playing basketball at my gym when he had come up with an idea to start a kids league with the children in our area. I told her many more stories and never realized that I was talking about Robbie as if he were still alive. Finally, I slowed down and we both ended up bursting into tears. I hadn’t cried like that in a long time, maybe not ever. I wanted to reach out and hold her, comfort her, and let her comfort me. But I refrained, knowing it was inappropriate, that she was so young, that her father was in the next room.

“I wish I had known him like you had,” she whispered into the inky blackness in the middle of the night, after the long pause it had taken us to dry our tears. We had never turned on any lights.

“I wish you had too,” I said truthfully. “He would have loved you, I’m sure he DID love you.” A thought finally occurred to me; I had never been bright like Robbie. “What happened to your family if you don’t mind me asking? Didn’t your parents ever want you to visit each other? You were twins after all.”

“We were. But Dad and Gert divorced when we were toddlers. A nasty split, as I’ve heard. Gert couldn’t part with her beloved son, so Dad took me and Gert kept Robbie. Dad never talked much about my mother or Robbie, but I knew about them at least. Gert had never even told Robbie that he had a twin sister! It took some convincing in my letters......to get him to even believe me. I guess he went through Gert’s desk and found our birth certificates, some pictures of us when we were babies. That’s the only way he knew.....”

“How could Gertie have done that?” I mused. I didn’t have kids of my own, but I had three older sisters. Our mother would never have dreamed of keeping any of us apart.

“I don’t know,” Rowena admitted. “She’s always hated me. Dad told me once when he was drunk that she used to leave me crying in my crib for hours while she tended to Robbie.”

“That’s awful.”

“I was never smart like him, I struggled through school, I never had any talents. I was just average and Gert was so caught up reveling in the miracle that was her other child......”

“You are far from average,” I said under my breath, so quietly I wasn’t sure she had heard me. “You were lucky at least to have your father.”

“Dad? He doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going ever,” she said. “I really had to raise myself.” I could just make out her silhouette in the dark room. Her face was down, hair hanging from either side. Her hands were clenched in her lap. I wanted nothing more than to touch those silky strands, to put my arm about her shoulders. Even the outline of Rowena was beautiful. “Why? Did you lose your father?”

I was taken aback by her question. I had forgotten what I had said earlier. “Oh, yeah, when I was fourteen.”

“That must have been hard.”

“It was. Very.”

“I’m sorry.” Her voice was soft. “For bringing it up.”

“Oh, no.” I reached out to lay a comforting hand on her arm, to tell her it was alright. After all I had brought up to her. But she jerked out of my reach.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered again and I wasn’t sure this time if she was talking to me or not.

“Don’t be sorry,” I said, because I didn’t have any brilliant ideas of what else to say. “You don’t have to be sorry to me, ever.” God, I sounded like some wimp out of a chick flick.

“Ever?” She laughed a weird, choked laugh. “That’s a bold statement, Spencer. You should never promise someone ever.” She stood up and walked into my bedroom. Goose bumps formed on my arms and back. It was the first time she had spoken my name and never had it sounded so nice.



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Gertie rarely came around in the next couple weeks. Weeks? I wasn’t that sure how long it took to figure everything out, could have been months. Time was a concept I paid little attention to; it was a detail of no importance in my life. Of course it would be someday when I was wrinkled as a pug and couldn’t pass gas without worrying about what it did to my weak heart; then I’d wonder where the time had gone, but for now it mattered very little. Especially at the present, I was too enraptured by the goddess living in my apartment to know how much time passed. See? She was even affecting my language.

Lately my thoughts always go off in tangents that lead to Rowena in one way or another. Gertie rarely came around in the next couple weeks, only to drop off crockpots or trays with sandwiches for dinner. Which was awful nice of her, given her predicament now. Ben had told me she was losing weight and very grief-stricken, which was expected. I didn’t notice much.

All I noticed nowadays was Rowena. She and I talked into the wee hours of every morning about all sorts of things. I hadn’t been to Rosa’s (my usual nightly hangout) since the night before Gertie’s daughter’s arrival and I didn’t miss the place a bit. I would much rather be doing pushups in the corner of my living room, watching Rowena practice her jujitsu moves out of the corner of my eye. She did them twice a day and she was damn good. Turns out she had been taking lessons since she was in grade school. I also found out she was quite the basketball player and we often could be seen playing PIG or HORSE at the court behind my apartment building in the afternoons. I fouled her all the time, just as an excuse to touch her, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Nelson spent his days shut up in Ben’s old room, doing what I don’t know. He was not a talkative character, nor was he a living character as far as I could tell. When he did come out to eat, he barely acknowledged Rowena and I and just stared straight ahead as he scooped spoonfuls of stew in his mouth. I didn’t know how to make him poke his head out of his turtle shell, but I can’t say I really tried or I’d be fibbing.

I was taking care of my own self more though, that’s for sure. I shaved every morning for one thing, washed my clothes more than once a month and even started putting on a little more weight thanks to Gertie’s dinners. My back and neck however were stiff as boards from sleeping on the too small couch. My mind, on the other hand, was always wandering. I had never been a dreamer, gritty reality was more my kick, but now I felt myself constantly slipping into reveries every hour of the day. As much as I hate to admit it, I knew it was a girl causing all this pansiness.

Yup, I fell for Rowena in the worst kind of way. The kind of way that makes you walk around with your head floating a few inches above your shoulders; the kind of way that makes you feel so invincible you’d dare to laugh even in the face of the Grim Reaper. I fell for her in the way that makes you forget to eat, sleep, piss, and even breathe. Everything took a backseat when it came to Rowena, everything, including I was beginning to realize, my sanity.

Whether or not she returned any of my feelings, I don’t know. Sometimes she was very coy, even flirtatious with me; at others she was standoffish and shrunk into herself. All the ground I had believed I gained one day was dashed to dirt the next. The confusion only baffled me into falling farther for her. That’s why today I had decided to get some much needed fresh air and went out for a walk by myself. I visited Gus and even Rosa; both were doing well and not worse off for my neglect. I left them feeling strangely worthless. After an hour I knew it was useless to try to clear my head, so I headed back to my apartment. I caught a whiff of Gertie’s gum as I came up the stairs and nodded a polite hello to her before I ducked into my apartment. She looked shittier than ever, but for some reason I didn’t have it in me to insult her about it today.

I pushed open my bedroom door without even thinking and cursed as I did so. Rowena sat on the edge of my bed, shirtless and gazing out my window. The bright afternoon sunlight pored into her, making her almost seem to glow. I took a step back, an apology making its way out my lips, then stopped. It was then that I realized even Heaven has bruises. Her whole back was covered with them, dark purple ones, fresh gray ones and nearly healed yellowing ones. Alarmed, I came back toward her and she made no movement to cover herself or throw on a shirt; she knew it was much too late.

“My God, baby,” I breathed. Very slowly I touched her shoulder blade and ran my fingers over the bruises. She stiffened but did not pull away. “What bastard did this?” She was silent.

Anger welled up inside me, a rage that my usually indifferent personality was foreign to. Robbie and then Rowena, two people who really meant a lot to me, one dead and the other....beat up. I knelt down in front of the latter and gathered her up against me. Her arms wound their way around my neck, her whole body collapsing into mine. She still didn’t make a sound, she didn’t cry or sniffle or tremble, she only leaned into me as if she was exhausted of dealing with it all on her own and glad to have somebody else to take some of the weight off of her. I already established that time held no sway over me, so I don’t know how long I held her, does it really matter at any rate? All I knew was that my time of being worthless was over. I was ready to kick some ass, no matter who it was. Nelson would be my first victim. I left Rowena napping on my bed, she had fallen asleep in my arms, very proud of myself that I hadn’t so much as glanced at her chest.

I flew upon Gertie’s ex with a fury I didn’t know I had inside me. He jumped off of a recliner, shocked and defensive. After all this time, I finally got a reaction out of him.

“What the hell has been going on with your daughter? Are you blind to her injuries? Who did that to her back? I’ll kill the damn guy!” I shouted at him and Nelson put his arms up to his face, blocking my questions as much as the possibility of my fists. “Don’t tell me YOU did this to her!”

“No, no,” he finally spluttered. “She...it’s from....she does it to herself!”

“Bullshit!” I swooped over him like a buzzard on roadkill. He cowered in the corner.

“I swear. She’s always had....this problem.”

“You tell me who did this to her or I’ll rip out your goddamn throat!” I growled, gripping the collar of his shirt. I heard it rip a little. Nelson paled in terror and I grew smug. Then he, like Rowena, collapsed between me and the wall, dejected and defeated. I let go of him abruptly. This man was as beaten as his daughter, only in a different way. I stalked out of the room.

I slept in my own bed that night, dark curls falling over my shoulder and a slender, ivory hand splayed on my chest. Rowena’s body was covered in my kisses. Never had I been so tender with a woman in my life. We didn’t emerge from my room the next day for 11 hours. By then we were both starving. And Gertie’s food was waiting for us. The woman COULD cook.

“Spencer! Open the goddamn door!” came a loud wail. A piece of roast beef flew out of my mouth. Rowena rolled her eyes across the table.

“Geez, hold on willya?” I unlatched the apartment door and a gigantic lime rolled in. Gertie began hollering at me and I had to put my hands to my ears.

“We have to go, you and me! We have to go now! Come with me! The station!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what’s going on?” I yanked my wrist from her fleshy vice of a grip. “What do you want with ME anyway?”

“You have to come with me! You HAVE to! The police, they-they found so--” Rowena had walked into her view which seemed to put a stop to Gertie’s ranting. The pudgy woman looked back and forth from me to her daughter. “You–what the hell have you been doing?” I gulped.

“Gertie, uh, please don’t be upset. I would never hurt her.....” but it wasn’t me that she had been talking to.

“You little bitch! Get the hell away from him!” Her face was turning purple as she advanced upon Rowena, but I stepped between the two.

“Hey, now. What’s this all about?”

“She’s nothing but a whore! A nasty bitch sent here to torment me! I thought YOU of all people would be smart enough to stay away from her!” With this she poked me hard in the chest and I began to get mad. “You’re just as moronic as her father; letting her draw you in like that! Don’t you ever touch him again!” This last to Rowena once again. The girl’s hands flew up to her mouth. I gripped Gertie about the shoulders tightly, at least I had been blessed with big hands, and stooped my head to her level.

“I don’t know what you’re going on about, but you need to calm down! I won’t listen to this, Gertie. How could you be so cruel to your own daughter?”

“Cruel? You wanna see cruel? She’s gonna wring you out dry just like she did her father, just like she does everyone! The tramp!”

“What are you trying to say Gert?” Rowena asked, a deep calm in her voice. I stared at her, absolutely bewildered. It was then that I noticed the commotion had brought Nelson out of the room.

“You know DAMN well what I mean girl! You go around batting your pretty eyelashes, making believe you’re a sweet and innocent when you’re really just a nasty slut!” I didn’t even have the sense to berate her for her language again; I was very confused. Nelson was nodding at me with vehemence.

“I tried warning you,” he said quietly.

“Warning me?”

“Don’t listen to them, Spencer,” Rowena cooed, close to my ear. I whipped my head around in the other direction, narrowly missing bumping into her perfect nose. “My mother never loved me, like I told you. My father’s always tried to hold me back. He blames me for the divorce. They both blame me for everything because they aren’t big enough to know it’s their own fault!” She spat the last words at Gertie, her eyes flashing. I couldn’t clear my mind and hadn’t the foggiest idea what was going on. But I WAS smart enough to back up a few steps from mother and daughter.

“I knew you were evil the moment I had you,” Gertie whispered. It was enough to send Rowena flying at her, gorgeous fingernails bared. I glanced at Nelson, he looked sad and ashamed and didn’t even try to stop the oncoming catfight. I lunged at Rowena, barely catching her around the waist before her nails dug into Gertie’s face. The large robe of mine she had been wearing opened a little and I saw her arm clutch her stomach at the belt. I thought I had hurt her and loosened up. Rowena wriggled around until she was facing me, then wrapped an arm around me and grasped me tight. I thought I heard her sob. Gertie was ready to pounce back and Nelson had sank to the floor on his knees.

“Please send them away from me,” Rowena muttered into my shoulder. I blinked. “Please, send them away from US. I need you to protect me. They’re both monsters.” I wasn’t sure if either of her parents could hear what she was saying. My mouth was buried in her hair and I breathed the sweet smell of her in. Why did her parents not love her? Why would anyone want to hurt her so? A blur of movement in my doorframe caught my eye and then I got my answers.

Officer Ben Thornton, my lifelong friend and college buddy back in the day came into the open door of my apartment, gun poised expertly in his fist. My fat neighbor whirled at where I was looking but Ben put his finger to his lips to both me and her. My eyes suddenly unclouded.

Ben told me after it was all over that there had been an ink stain on Robbie’s shirt and when analyzed, it matched the ink that Rowena’s letters to her twin had been written in. Turned out it was her lucky pen that she always carried; the same pen she had killed her first boyfriend with when he had pressed her beyond second base. A pen that turned out not to be as lucky as she had thought as it had brought about her undoing and a pen that was now laying on my bedside table.

My lovely Rowena had killed her own twin brother even though she hardly knew him. Later Gertie told me she had probably done it to get at herself, the mother who never loved her because she knew how terrible she’d end up from the day she was born. The why didn’t much matter to me, just the fact that she had done it, and had betrayed her family and had betrayed me. Needless to say, I was pissed.

Almost immediately she knew something was different. Perhaps my muscles I was so proud of strained with anger and panic against her. She somehow knew she didn’t have me on her side any longer. I felt the blade sliding between my ribs almost before it actually did. In my mind somewhere I had known all along she had some sort of weapon concealed on her; before I had just chosen to ignore it. I didn’t realize it was a knife taken from my own kitchen, one that later would cause me a lot of pain as it was removed. My buddy, good cop that he was, moved silently behind her, ready to pull her off of me with his free hand. But she sensed that too and leaped with all the grace and precision of her jujitsu training over my head, the hem of my robe brushing across my face. My hand went to my side as Ben fired. The shriek that came out of Gertie would have made any banshee jealous.

Of course, I thought as Ben’s bullet wedged its way between Rowena's two beautiful eyes, how could Hell have spawned anything but the Devil?