In the morning Vanessa woke, changed Heather and got dressed. She went to the kitchen and opened the fridge and the only food left was a bunch of bananas.
“Not too bad — edible.”
She took a banana from the fridge and began to eat it. She went to the bedroom and broke off a piece and fed it to Heather. Then there was a knock at the door. Vanessa grabbed Heather and tippy-toed out of the room. She went to the living room and peeked through the curtains and saw a man standing at the door. He looked like a policeman, but she couldn’t be sure. The man walked around to the side of the house and Vanessa panicked and went to the kitchen. She moved the kitchen table to one side to get at the basement door. She opened the latch very quietly and crept down the stairs, shutting the door behind her. She put the light on and tended to Heather, hoping she wouldn’t cry and give away their hiding place. She barely used the basement since Benny had left. He used to fix up old bicycles down there. A few still sat in the corner collecting dust. She waited for some time, listening to the floorboards, hoping the man wouldn’t come inside.
When she hadn’t heard anything for a while, she put Heather into a small drawer and shut it, keeping her secure from the tools lying around the basement floor.
“I’ll be right back, baby.”
She went back up the stairs and peeked into the kitchen. Not seeing anyone she went into the lounge and looked out the front window. The car was gone.
“Phew,” she said, relieved.
She went back down to the basement to retrieve Heather and when she got to the draw she found it open and Heather missing.
“Heather? Where are you?”
Benny left his trailer at ten in the morning, a bag of clothes over his back and a world of promise in his eyes. His neighbor, Ed, was sitting outside and he looked over to him.
“This is the earliest I’ve ever seen you up, Benny.”
Benny walked over to Ed, a big proud smile on his face.
“What you up to?”
“I’m going back home, Ed. Gotta go help my wife and little girl. They’re in trouble.”
“That why you had the police here the other day?”
“Yeah. Vanessa’s involved in some heavy shit. Gotta step up, be a man, take care of her.”
“Well, best of luck to ya, Benny.”
“Thanks Ed.”
Benny got into his car and skidded off. On the highway he dreamed of all the ways he’d get Vanessa back. It would start by saving her, getting her out of that world. Away from the porn, drugs and prostitution she’d fallen victim to. He was going to show her he could live like an honorable man. Maybe even join the sheriff’s department, work for old Detective Gill, fighting the evils of the world, one piece of scum at a time. It was all going to be so noble.
He slapped down on the steering wheel and shook his head. “Yeah!”
He arrived in Hopetown mid-afternoon, reminiscing about the old places as he passed them. He passed the old ice creamery where he took Vanessa on their first date. He passed his parent’s old house and flipped the bird at it.
“I’ll show you, Ma and Pa. Gonna go be a man. Get my family back. You said I was a loser and didn’t deserve them. I’ll show you.”
He pulled up outside Vanessa’s house and went straight for the garden stone where he kept a spare key underneath. It was still there and he smiled proudly.
“Never knew about my spare key, did you, Ness?”
He let himself into the house and put his bag down. He walked around the place expecting to find her there before remembering that she was missing; that he had to work to get her back. There was some serious detective work to be done before he could be reunited with his baby.
He went into the bathroom and washed away the black slime in the bath.
“I don’t know what this stuff is, but I guess it’s payback for not being around to change all those nappies.”
He went around the house collecting photos, bills and receipts, things he thought would make good clues to piecing together this puzzle. He placed them all on the kitchen counter. I need an office, he thought.
“The basement!”
He lifted the hatch to the basement and recoiled from the smell.
“Must’ve left something rotting down here,” he said, and went down the stairs.
He got to the bottom and stared at the floor before him with profound confusion at the sight of a dead baby half eating a strangely deformed dead woman who looked a little like Vanessa.