Maggie Kenneth's Story

With the Starbucks Old Folks Rendezvous nearly completely dissipated the world began to lose its color – his coffee was gone, the song birds stopped sounding beautiful, and his right leg continued to bounce up and down in impatience. No wonder he had spent his youth soaking his brain in alcoholic concoctions; the town was boring and without a hint of excitement during the daytime. He looked to his phone for solace and stood up, tempted to smoke another cigarette to ease his nerves – but he knew it wouldn’t actually do anything for him, and he began wandering down the street. Wherever he ended up was of no concern to him, if he could find himself somewhere that could at least hold his attention for more than a few minutes then he would be happy, and his footsteps echoed behind him.

To: Original G Anne
caviar? shameful. they could have at least given you something good smh

To: Original G Anne
uhhhh sure. you were cool with iggy right? here ya go [[ peace sign emoji ]]
[[ number shared : Iggy-Pop 2.0 ]]

Jude furrowed his brow, briefly considering all the other people he used to know, but for the most part contact dwindled to nothing and everyone moved on – if it wasn’t for the funeral chances are he wouldn’t have seen the vast majority of former ‘friends’ ever again (because he would rather die than attend a high school reunion). With his aimless wandering coming to an end he stood at the door to the local library, a place he never visited for its true purpose. Reading books while having dyslexia was more similar to torture than anything else, and the most use he got from the place was selling adderall between shelves and checking out outdated manuals that were only ever used to conceal something illegal. He glanced to his phone, slowly realizing that in reality he had nothing better to do, and entered the building, passing by the librarian and the groups of people he only vaguely recognized.

If anything maybe he would run into someone, and his eyes scanned the room for familiar faces, only to linger on a girl who had her head a book (this shouldn’t be surprising, he was in a goddamn library after all), yet for some reason his brain seemed to reel backwards, as if trying to dive in a pit of memories to remember why this girl seemed so striking.

“Maggie?” He said her name without thinking, astonished to see his childhood friend back in town – which again, shouldn’t be such a shock, but for some reason when they drifted apart he began to think that the girl had slipped into a world of her own, one where there’s logic and prestige, without anything messy and certainly no funerals. Nonetheless, there she was, and despite the years of silence between them Jude approached her, sitting down on the chair across from hers, a small coffee table separating them. “I guess everyone really did come back. Where did you go off too, anyways?” As always he immediately steered into conversation, genuinely curious about what had happened to her years after those blissful summers they shared as children.

x
Despite what one may say about those with an attention disorder one of his few good traits was his ability to listen to another person speak – he took the words in with stride and paired them with a hazy phantasmagoria, imagining the woman standing in the great halls of a university, her smile curled into her cheeks, bright and true. Jude relaxed into the support of the chair, receding into the habit of curling into himself, pulling his legs off from the ground to rest his heels on the edge of the elevated surface. Languidly, he looped his arms around his legs, his hands weightless around his ankles. His chest felt warm as it ached, and he felt happy for Maggie, and simultaneously envious of her, because it sounded like she had the whole world laid out in front of her fingertips.

He raised his eyebrows, shamelessly impressed – after all, it wasn’t every day one meets a twenty year old working for the FBI, the very fact a testament of how different they came to be. “The FBI? That’s some real X-Files type shit.” Jude smiled into his response, feeling the sensation of monotony fade from the edges of his being, and for the sake of not ruining this interaction right from the get-go he ignored the vibrations from his cell phone, even though part of him immediately felt anxious about looking at the glistening screen.

“You say nothing’s changed but from over here it looks like you changed a lot.” He added, his amiable tone betraying the solemnness of his words. That’s how life is; they grow and cross new thresholds, until hardly anything from their pasts remain. Hannah, the beloved girl they all came to mourn, died young – and Maggie, no longer a child, was working with the government, building a life with her own hands. Jude’s shoulders fell, relaxing somewhat, and he hummed thoughtfully. “Though what’s more interesting is D.C’s zoo. Have you seen the pandas they have there? I bet they’re huge.”

x
Distracted by the noise Maggie’s phone had made he took a moment to check his own messages as well, scanning over Iggy’s response and making a mental reminder to get back to her later to draw up some plans. Plans that included an unhealthy amount of whiskey at the very least – he desperately needed a liquid cure after the trip and subsequent interrogation. Delayed for a moment, Jude looked back up at his childhood friend, processing her question before realizing what she was asking.

“She is. If you don’t already have it, I can give you her number?” He offered, figuring since Anne asked for everyone’s new numbers anyways that she wouldn’t mind if Maggie suddenly sent her a text (although what it could be, he wasn’t sure). Looking back to his phone he scrolled through his contacts until he reached Anne’s number, wondering if the only reason why Maggie had asked about the final piece of their old trio was because of the mystery message. Was speaking to all of them only out of courtesy? The thought of that reality did nothing for him – that’s simply how it was, a person’s life couldn’t include everyone from their past, and everyone drifted away from someone.

When all was said and done they would again leave Smithbrook and return to their new lives, forgetting one another in pursuit of unattainable desires. His thoughts drifted back to the interrogation; of Hannah and the life she must have begun to build, of the investigators whispering of suspects and murder. Had someone actually killed her – and how could anyone take away a person who gave everyone she met a smile? “Hey,” Jude began, thinking back to how Anne was also questioned by the police, beginning to wonder how far their search stretched. Was it possible that anyone was a suspect? “Weird question, but were you questioned by the police when you came here?”

x
After taking her phone Jude immediately began transferring the number, carefully imputing them to ascertain whether he typed the digits in the right order or not. Nines and fours in particular gave him plenty of grief, as the numbers seemed to morph into different symbols and jump around the lines of text. As always it took him a bit longer to be sure he had typed the right information (having to fix a mistake once or twice), but with Anne’s number now in Maggie’s phone – along with his own – he reached over to give her back the phone, his eyebrows raised as she concluded her experience with the police.

If they were questioning someone like Maggie then it only supported the idea that the police had no leads on the case, and the very thought caused his stomach to sink as trepidation rose. The corners of his mouth curled downwards and he slowly eased back into the support of the chair, his brow furrowed and train of thought reaching a wall – maybe this was outside of his realm of comprehension. "I had a similar experience – well, I wasn't as clever and didn't call any lawyers, but they brought me in too. Same thing happened to Anne." Nonetheless, the feeling of unease wouldn’t leave him, and even as his attention returned to the conversation at hand he felt tension tangle in the center of his chest, right over his heart.

“The family’s good. Elliot’s working for ICBC in Beijing, my parent’s finished remolding the clinic – and they adopted a dog, you know, after I spent my whole life trying to convince them to get one. It’s a papillon named paprika.” He smiled into his recollection; visiting his parents hadn’t been the disaster he had believe it could be, and it had actually been nice to see them, even with his brother living on the other side of the world. “After high school I moved around the east coast a lot to start producing music. Right now I’m working for a smaller label based out of New York City, which has been…good. It’s been fun.” Shifting in his spot, Jude lowered his feet back down to the floor, deciding to leave out any gritty details – after all, right now he was alive, and everything else might as well be irrelevant.

“Oh, I put my number into your phone too, just encase you ever need it.” He added, wondering if the gesture was a little too late – and in a brief moment memories fluttered through his mind, memories of turning down library trips (he was too embarrassed of his dyslexia then, and avoided written words like the plague) and how he instead ran off with kids that started smoking way too early, kids that entered high school with alcohol in their book bags – but he shook the past off by smoothing down the wrinkles in his pants, refusing to indulge in ‘what-ifs’ right now.

x
When he watched Maggie stand and wring herself out he realized how restless he was becoming – and maybe it was the espresso he drank earlier, or maybe it was the sheer languid, sleepiness of the library. Nonetheless, Jude remained in the chair, figuring that she was probably going to leave soon and that he wouldn’t mind sitting alone for a minute, especially when considering the off-chance he may run into somebody. “Nothing set in stone, at least.” He responded casually, thinking back to his text to Iggy, and he refereed back to that mental note that told him to contact her. All they needed was people, some drinks, and they would be set for a decent gathering. He thought of bars and backyards, of starting a bonfire and eating s’mores, and it was all so nostalgic and tempting.

Maybe he’ll buy marshmallows later.

“Iggy Ramone is back in town too, and we were kind of talking about getting people together for old times’ sake later.” Jude elucidated, gesturing with his hand in a circular motion, as if he was half-distracted by the little thoughts of detail inside his head. “It won’t be anything wild. Just text me if you decide you want to show up, and I’ll give you the details. I should have the time and place figured out in a couple hours.” Relaxed and confident he finished his explanation with a nod, because despite the idea of having Maggie Keaton over for even a chill hang-out was something surreal (and something that wouldn’t have happened back in high school) he really wouldn’t mind it. After all they were all adults now, or whatever.

Still, he still couldn’t shake that ominous feelings - like there was something dark creeping up behind them, something lingering in their collective peripheral vision, like a blur he couldn't quite make out.

So he bit his bottom lip and exhaled slowly, sighing into a bare smile, deciding to ignore it, for now.