When it Thaws

Fresh brewing coffee filled my senses as I awoke from a dead slumber on the couch. "Alan, you want some coffee?" Randy asked while shoving a cup at me before I could even answer. Randy made his way back to the kitchen with the phone on his shoulder, head tilted, shouting "what do you mean that's all you can do for me at this time? Yea, let me speak to your supervisor's supervisor...then have them call me back!" he slammed the phone down cursing and running his fingers through his greasy long hair. I was afraid to ask, but I knew I had to. I'm his live-in best friend and right now all he has. "Randy, what's going on?" "The police department says they're closing the missing persons investigation and it'll remain an active report. They say they have no evidence that Melissa was taken or hurt, they're just going on she left me." He began to tear up and his voice was straining to finish the sentence. "Alan, I don't know what to do." he added. I casually replied "I don't know bro" while gulping my scouring black coffee that Randy has no business making. I did not want to suffer through another sob fest right now before my big fake interview, especially because of this fantastic news that had me fighting to conceal a sigh of relief. So, I walked out of the room while saying aloud "big day for me, we'll talk later man and don't sulk over this okay. It'll all be fine." I knew better. It was definitely not fine and I was running out of time. Randy doesn't know that I've already landed the job last week and today was my first day of work. I need to get this kitchen job done so I have enough money and can escape. Randy cannot know that I have money yet, or he will ask me for rent. I grabbed my work clothes in a separate bag so to fool my best friend while wearing my interview clothes and headed out the door.

It was a freezing February day in Massachusetts. Temperatures dropped to 29 degrees and work was even harder to complete. My hands just would not open enough to grip my tools and my knees were all locked up. I had about a month, two at the most and at this rate I wouldn't make it if I took any time off. I decided to work through the stiffening pain anyways. The best part of this job is that I am working alone, no one to bother me, so I can go at my own pace. Yet every time I hammer away, I wished I hadn't been alone working with just my thoughts. At the end of my day, I gathered my tools and went through the garage door in the kitchen that I must've left unlocked. "Darn, I can't do that again" I thought aloud. I put my hand up to the top shelf next to the door to retrieve the ford focus key. I unlocked the car and threw my tools in the trunk. It was still pretty full from when Melissa threw everything from the backseat into the trunk so that we could have sex back there a couple of times. We hated having to sneak around in her car but sometimes the apartment just didn't work. As I reminisced Melissa's smell and taste, I closed everything up and walked out. Thank God this place is empty with a covered and locked garage to hide her car. After all, it was a turquoise ford focus with MLSSA on the license plate, hard to miss and easy to find. I hopped in my dodge ram and headed home for dinner. I noticed I was almost out of gas. I cannot keep asking Randy for money and pretending to not have it when he is going through this. I feel like crap for doing this to him but I have to keep playing it off if I want to start my life over again.

When I got home, the smell of meat was in the air. Before I could get settled in to my couch-or my place of residence for the past nine and a half months, Randy called me to the patio with a wrapped plate and a Miller Light in his hand. God, I hate Miller, and I hate Randy's meatloaf I thought. So did Melissa. We always play it off when he asks us if we like it and each week, her and I would reply "mmm hmmm" with a mouthful of hard to masticate substance that is flavorless and refuses to go down your throat without gulping a beverage or spitting it out for Toby-Melissa's pug. I could tell that Randy seemed upset, and I already felt it hard to swallow the lump building in my throat. I had often wondered if my voice has changed since Melissa's disappearance? Did my best friend detect that lump in my throat? We walked out onto the patio and sat at the table built for three with one chair now always empty. Randy passed me the opened Miller. I sipped it, it's the least I could do after I've slept with his fiancé. Randy began on his troubles "Alan I think that Melissa was cheating on me." I wasn't sure if he had asked me a question so I replied "what do you mean?" my heart racing. "I don't know, it's probably nothing, but Melissa and I hadn't had much sex in the last six months. Maybe three times and the last was four months before she disappeared." I swallowed the lump as I asked "Well don't you think you would know that for sure, I mean that is kind of something you would know...right?" I began to shovel the pile of meat into my mouth just to occupy it. Another aspect I wonder about; does my best friend notice my avoidance towards him since her disappearance? Randy replied but didn't come up with any feasible evidence of what he was suggesting until "Well, I found this key and I think it goes to those new model homes that are being built a few miles from here. I think I might go check it out and see if the key fits to any of them." Now my heart was pounding so hard as he held up the house key that I gave Melissa from a few months back when I was doing a bathroom at another empty house on the same street. The key so informatively has a tag attached to it with the housing projects name. The blood rushed into my face and I thought for sure I was a dead giveaway. "I'm not done tearing through everything of hers, I'm about to go finish now." Randy said as he clutched the key to my doom in his hand and put it into his pocket. My phone rang in my pocket and this was my way out. I answered not caring who it was and spoke over them "Okay, I understand, I'll be right there." "Who is that" Randy asked me with curious intent. The lie flowed right out of my face like it has been for nine months "Mrs. O'Reilly down the street, her bathroom sink is leaking, I got to go help her, the poor old woman lives alone" I said assuring.

I jumped in my truck and headed straight for the house. A quarter acre behind it was the frozen pond where I had dumped her body. I didn't know why I came here but I had to formulate a plan. "Change the locks" I thought aloud. I had an hour or so before a Home Depot or any hardware store closes. As I stammered back into my pickup, Randy was calling me on the phone. I declined it and headed for the store. Randy called twice more before I got back to the house with the locks. "Ah, my tools." They were at the other house in her car. I headed there on foot. I didn't have to worry about anyone seeing me out here, it wasn't ready for any residents yet, not until Spring. I got to the garage and opened the trunk. I opened my tool bag to grab my screwdrivers but the hammer fell out and onto the ground. I bent down to grab it and as I did my mind faded to the scene. Melissa was screaming at me while I was trying to work and my client was due there for inspection in an hour. She just kept screaming irrationally and pounding her fists on my chest "I'm going to tell him; I'm going to tell him!" I knew Melissa and she meant it. That's when it happened. I swung the hammer and hit her in the side of her head. She died instantly. I just wanted her to shut up. I certainly did not intend to kill her. My mind faded back to now as my phone rang again. It was Randy. I had to answer it this time. It had been two hours and three missed calls. I swiped the phone "Hello?" with the hammer still in my hand. "Alan, where are you?" he was crying. Before I could come up with anything he cried out "She was pregnant, man! She was pregnant, I found a positive test in the bathroom trash. Aaah!" He wailed. I dropped the hammer and fell to my knees. "Are you sure?" I asked hoping he was wrong. "Yea man, that must be why she left. It's not mine." he said. "Okay I'm on my way home man." I hung up with a rising panic and threw my phone. I sat on the garage floor and just cried. It was the first time I had felt anything in a while.

Six weeks later, I was working in a few houses down from where I stashed the car and her body. Residents were beginning to move in now. I couldn't believe how quickly the project developed. There were more and more workers coming by the day, inching their way to the back houses. I was working at the back keeping an eye on my evidence. This back cul-de-sac was still under construction, but I have been seeing more and more kids wandering about the area. This is why I have chosen to squat in the top attic of this house which clearly views the side of pond that can alert me when it is thawing and if anyone is over there. It has been about five weeks now since I have told Randy that I was seeing a Canadian girl who I'm head over heels for in love and that I'd have to travel back and forth to her hometown in Province if I wanted to continue seeing her. Of course, he bought it all, congratulated me and everything. I feel terrible for leaving my friend behind and to have him searching for me always for murdering his fiancé. When that icy pond melts, the DNA of that baby...my baby will reveal it all. Not to mention her car and her bashed in head. My hammer, my access to the homes. I was ready. Ready to run. At any moment of any time of any of these days, I will hear a scream. The scream of a little girl pointing her finger at Melissa's body when the ice thaws. When that scream comes, when it thaws, I will be gone.