The Call

Margaret Polanski was working the last hour of her second shift job. The second shift at The Corner Store was easy time; she worked the cash register, did a little stocking and kept an eye out for shoplifters.  This was Margaret's part-time job.  She also worked the day shift at a well-known family restaurant. She earned good tips at the restaurant and by accepting catering jobs a couple of times a month.  Margaret provided a descent life for her kids.   

Margaret's cell phone rang around ten-thirty.



“Hello?”



“Mom, it's Danny.”



“What's wrong, Danny, why are you calling me at work?”



“Come home, Mom.  Me and Jason need you at home.”



“ I have about an hour left on my shift.  I'll be home around eleven-thirty, ok.”

“No, Mom, come home now, please.  I can't tell you on the phone, just please come home.”

Margaret pulled up in front of her home around ten-thirty.  She parked on the street, making a mental note to park it in the garage before going to bed.  An overnight parking ticket would be on the windshield in the morning if she left it parked in front of the house overnight. 

This had better be a real emergency.  I don't need problems with management because I closed the store nearly an hour early.  Whatever is going on had  just better be worth it.



Danny opened the door just as Margaret reached for the knob.  He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the house, closing and locking the door behind them.   



“What's going on Danny?”



“It's Melissa, she's in our room.”



“Melissa?  Are you talking about the girl from down the street?”  Margaret's tone held a hint of annoyance.  “You should have called Melissa's mom if Melissa's in trouble.”



“Just come with me to the room, Mom.”     



Margaret walked down the hall to the twins' room.  Danny's twin, Jason waited for her by the closed door.  The room was messy, as it usually was.  Clothes thrown on the chairs and on the floor, dirty dishes stuck out from under the twin beds.  There were CDs, DVDs and computer games piled on the dresser.  Margaret paid no attention to the disorganized room.  She stood motionless at the threshold of the room and stared in stunned disbelief. 



After what felt like hours Margaret's paralysis lifted and she was able to move inside the room.        Melissa Jones lay on Jason's bed.  She appeared relaxed, as if she had been sitting on the bed and had lain on her back for a nap.  Her knees were bent over the edge of the bed and both feet were on the floor.  The illusion of restful napping was spoiled by the small hole between Melissa Jones' staring eyes.  The wall behind Jason's bed was splattered with blood and gore.  Clearly Melissa Jones was dead. 



“My God, she's dead, what in the hell happened here?”  Margaret's voice was little more than an anguished whisper. 



“It was an accident, Mom, Jason didn't mean to do it.  Right Jason?”  Jason remained silent as was his way.  Jason almost always let Danny to do the talking for both of them.     

“What are we gonna do, Mom?  Nobody will believe it was an accident and even if they do, Jason is still going to be in trouble.” 



“You're right.”  Margaret approached the bed slowly, her eyes locked on the body laying there.  “We have to get rid of  her.  We can't bring her back from the dead and I won't let this accident ruin Jason's life.  What's important now is getting Jason out of this mess.” 

The three stood close together, silently looking at Melissa Jones' body.  Finally, Margaret spoke. 

“We are going to get rid of this body.  We are going to clean up any sign that she was ever here.  Wrap her up in the bedding.  Get the bleach and start washing the wall, I'll put the car in the garage.  We'll take the body out to the country and get rid of it up there.” 

The Polanski twins nodded in unison.  They knew their mother would know what to do.  She always knew what to do.       



How It Happened 



Earlier that day the Polanski twins broke into a house.  They chose this particular house because it did not have a security system.  Everyone in the neighborhood had been getting the systems.  When they first moved in the neighborhood, no one had them, now just about everybody did.  The Polanski twins stole a gun from the house.  They also stole a laptop,  a DVD player and a few pieces of jewelry. 



The rest of the morning was spent roaming the neighborhood, looking for valuables left on porches and in yards.  People are so stupid.  They work all day to buy their stuff then go off to work and leave things laying around and their houses and  garage doors open. 

Around six o'clock the Polanski twins were in their room doing inventory of the day's take.    Anything with personal engravings or identifying inscriptions was set aside.  After removing the markings these items would be added to their inventory.  If the markings or engravings could not be removed the twins tossed them.  Everything else would be sold to flea market vendors or pawn shops. 



Around eight o'clock Melissa and one of her girlfriends, Joyce came over to the Polanski house  to hang out with the twins.  The four teens listened to music, drank beer and smoked pot for a couple of hours.  At some point Jason showed the gun.  It was a small gun, small enough for Jason to hold it in the palm of his hand.



“Is that a real gun?”  Joyce sat up from her prone position on Jason's bed.



“Yeah, its real.” 



“Why do you have it out here?  Put it away.”



“Calm down, Joyce, what're you so hyper about? Anyway, its not even loaded.”



“If you don't put the gun away, Jason, I'm leaving.  Danny, tell your brother to get rid of the gun.”

Jason continued to handle the gun.  He moved it from hand to hand, pointing it at several objects.  Joyce got to her feet.  “I'm leaving, Melissa, are you coming?”  Joyce was heading for the door but paused to look at Melissa.  Melissa did not answer but continued to lay on Danny's bed.  “Don't be stupid, Melissa, let's go and hang out at my house.”

Pointedly ignoring her friend's pleas to leave, Melissa took a long drag from the joint.  Joyce stood by the door a moment longer.  In disgust, she finally turned and left the room.  The others listened to her footsteps as she quickly walked down the hallway through the front room and out the front door, which she slammed behind her. 



The three continued listening to music and smoking marijuana.  After awhile Jason began playing around with the gun.  He pointed it around the room, making shooting sounds with his lips.  Danny tried to get him to stop “being a dick” as he put it, because he was scaring Melissa. 

Suddenly Jason turned the gun toward Danny's side of the room, pointing it directly at Melissa who was sitting on the side of the bed.  A deafening sound shattered the mellow atmosphere.    Melissa's body slumped quietly backwards on the bed, her arms splayed out beside her.  The wall behind Jason's bed was suddenly splattered with brains and blood.  Shattered shards of Melissa's skull flew into the wall.  Danny and Jason stood like statues.  It was almost 10:30 pm when Danny made the call to their mother.



Burying The Body



The car crept along the rutted dirt road.  The car's dimmers provided minimal illumination.  There were no street lights or reflectors along the side of the road. The full moon provided a surprising amount of light out here with no competition from all the artificial light in the city. 

They were far from the city, there were no street lights, no traffic lights, no traffic, no lights from businesses or homes.  An hour and a half from the city and they were in the country, completely surrounded by fields, barns and an occasional isolated farm house.   



The three occupants of the car, Margaret Polanski and her fifteen year old twin boys, Danny and Jason, did not want to be noticed, so they coasted along the rutted country road.  The small family had left their rented duplex around midnight.  Margaret drove the four door sedan carefully.  It would not do to be stopped for speeding or running a light. When they finally got out of the city they made better time on the interstate. Two hours after driving out of their garage Margaret stopped the car. 



“This is as far as we can go.  The road is completely gone and we can't afford to get stuck out here,”  Margaret made the statement while getting out of the car.  She did not wait for a response. 

The twins continued sitting in the car not talking or moving while Margaret walked to the trunk of the car.  “Alright then, get out of the damn car and help me.  We need to get this done.”  Margaret opened the trunk.  She stood looking at the contents for several moments.  “Hey you two!  We don't have all night to finish this.  Get back here and help me.”  She bit the words out, her voice low and tight.



They did not take the time to dig a grave for Melissa Jones.  They rolled her out of the sheets and the blanket and removed her clothes.  The planned to burn the bedding and Melissa Jones' clothes .  When the body was nude Margaret Polanski and her sons shoved the young girl's body into a ditch,  pushing dirt over it with their hands. 



Margaret looked long and hard at her twins.  “I have something to say and you two better listen good.  We don't want to have this bite us in the ass. We'll burn her clothes and the sheets and the blanket.  Nobody will ever find her out here, animals will eat the body in a couple of days and scatter the bones.  Just keep going to school and doing everything just like always.  If anybody asks when you saw Melissa last, just say you don't remember.  Don't say nothing else about her.  Alright then, let's get out of here.”



The Polanski twins talked quietly in the back seat as their mother drove the car home.   

“Listen, Danny, I'm sorry Melissa's dead.  I didn't mean to kill her.  I just wanted to see what would happen if  somebody got shot with such a small gun.  I really didn't think she would die.”

“I know that, Jason.  It's over now, don't worry about it.” 



“People are going to be looking for her, you know.  Cops  are going to be snooping around asking a lot of questions.  We don't want anybody to know Melissa was at our house tonight.  What if her friend Joyce tells somebody she left Melissa at our house tonight?  What if she tells the cops the last time she saw Melissa was at our house?”



“What can we do about Joyce talking to the cops, Jason?  Even if she tells them, we can deny that Melissa was at our house and that we don't have a gun.  It'll be our word against hers.  Anyway, don't worry about that.  Nobody is even going to know Melissa's dead.  They'll think she ran away or something.” 



“Maybe so, but why take a chance, huh?  We need to make sure Joyce never tells anybody that the last time she saw Melissa was at our house.”



“You're right, Jason.  We have to make sure all of this mess is cleaned up.  We need to make sure Joyce doesn't snitch, we need to shut Joyce up.” 



END