19  

The next morning we ended up back at the hotel, just like Howie had planned. I was given a relatively clean bill of health and sent on my way with Kevin who was extra grouchy from a night of sleeping on a chair. We ended up all gathered in my room as I was forced to lie down and take it easy.

Howie seemed to be in better spirits which I was grateful for. The last thing I felt like dealing with was an angry Howie. It wasn’t a pretty site. Happily, AJ had filled him in on a lot of the stuff that had happened since we ended up here in Kentucky so by the time we encountered D he already had a clue how knee deep in shit we actually were.

“So why do you think the police care so much about this family?” He was pacing back and forth with his hand on his chin.

“I don’t know.” Kevin answered honestly, moving next to me on the bed and making himself comfortable as he let out a slow yawn.

“Did you get the notebook and the magnifying glass out of the car yet?” I decided to ask when the room kind of just went silent. Everyone looked over at me as if I had just spoken Chinese. Hrmm, maybe I did speak Chinese. I mean it could happen, if you’re hit on the head enough in a week, miraculous things can occur. Of course I’d much prefer the ability to read people’s thoughts or fly than to speak Chinese. I wonder if I could work at a Chinese restaurant then because I am pretty sure that’s a requirement.

Since they were still looking at me as if I was a weirdo I tried my hand at some good old fashioned Chinese. “Hu Hu Kiki maka?”

“Nick, what the hell was that?” AJ asked laughing.

“Since I was being ignored in English I thought I’d go for Chinese.”

“That was more Hawaiian retard.”

 “Nick, about the notebook…” Oh that’s never a good way to start a sentence.

“Tell me it’s not there Howie. Go ahead, I dare you.”

“I’m not saying that. We couldn’t get to it because it’s in the shop right now. They towed it to a gas station and when we went there to get the stuff, it was already closed for the night.”

“It has to be open now though, right?” I sat up, only to be pulled back down by Kevin.

“Easy there Mr. Bill…” Yes because of all my accidents I had a new nickname. “You need to stay on this bed and relax. Howie and I will go. He stood up and yawned once more. Poor Kevin looked so tired and old. I am pretty sure we have aged him about thirty years.

“You’re leaving me with Mr. Bill? What if he gets his head caught between the bed and the nightstand or something? Do you have a helmet he can wear?”

The three of them think they are the funniest guys on the planet.

“You all suck!”

“Oh relax kid; we’re only joking with you.”

“Well I don’t think any of this is a laughing matter. I mean someone tried to kill Howie and me last night.” Someone had to be the Debbie Downer of this situation so it might as well be me, right?

“No one thinks this is funny Nick, believe me. Now you just stay in that bed and rest because we decided if you have to go to the hospital again we’re just going to let them keep you as their mascot or something.” Kevin smiled and wiggled his caterpillars at me while gently mussing my hair.

“Yeah, they can dress you like a band aide and call you Ouchie.” Howie added while giving me a wink.

“Ouchie…you are funny D. That was great.” AJ high fived him as he took Kevin’s place beside me on the bed. “Have fun guys and please be careful. I’ll make sure this one stays in one piece.” He assured them.

After they left, AJ clicked on Jerry Springer. He had a radar for really crappy TV shows. He could find Jerry Springer on any channel anywhere in the world. It was one of his secret talents. The other ones he had I would rather not go into. I’ll just say they are ‘self proclaimed talents,’ if you know what I mean. “You know…I’m not sure why you feel the need to make fun of me. You are far more accident prone than I am.” I was quick to remind him.

“Maybe, but not on this trip….dude that friggin’ midget is totally gonna kick that fat guy’s ass!” 

I decided maybe it was time to take a nice nap. My eyes were getting heavy and there was still that dull ache at the back of my head, so I drifted off to sleep while listening to a bunch of random morons hooting and yelling ‘Jerry!’ in the background.

~*~*~*~*~*~

  I hate when I am feeling so restless I can’t do anything. I think of a thousand things to actually do but when it comes to doing any of them, all I want to do is sit and pull my hair out. I’m also tired of being mad at the world. I find myself getting so mad and angry about things all the time. I’ll look at my friends and it appears like they have no cares in the world. They are in the same exact position as me when it comes to being famous but they have nothing they have to worry about. Their families are great, you know? Brian’s got the best mom and dad on the planet and my God don’t even get me started on Howie and his family. They have no clue what it’s like to be me. No matter how many times I explain my situation to them they always give me this look, the one that tells me to stop whining and exaggerating. I never did either though; all I did was tell the truth.  “I understand completely. We’re one in the same you and me.”  

The sound of Belle’s voice, or of what I would imagine her to sound like, woke me out of my sleep…or maybe even a half sleep. I’m not sure. Sometimes when I think I’m napping, I’m actually just thinking. I used to hate those quiet times as a kid. I would use that as an excuse to go visit Brian’s room. Nowadays I use it as an excuse to get drunk enough to quiet those voices inside my head. Unfortunately I was without both Brian and tequila so I decided to sit up, only to find Kevin, Howie and AJ all sitting around the small table in the room talking and sounding intrigued by something.

“Oh good, you’re awake. Feeling any better?”

I nodded at Kevin and stretched my arms way over my head. “Is that the book?” I asked slowly walking over to join my friends.

“Yeah and I have to say you were right Nicky. There’s some stuff written really tiny in the corners of each page but for the life of me I don’t get any of it.” Howie said while handing me the magnifying glass he bought.

“There’s a lot of numbers and symbols.” AJ added as I moved in for a look.

He was right, at the top of almost every page there were symbols and numbers. The symbols were all kind of ‘U’ shaped, with half hearts and looked like things you’d find in a Fantasy novel. One thing they all had in common though was the presence of a small rectangle followed by the number thirteen. “What do you think the rectangles mean?” I asked Kevin as if he would know.

“No idea. I wonder if she was obsessed with the number thirteen or something. Isn’t there a disease like that.”

“A disease AJ?” Howie asked semi amused.

“Yeah, Triscuitaphobia or something.”

“First of all that would be a phobia and not a disease and secondly that would be fear of Triscuits….speaking of which, I’m hungry. Is anyone else hungry?”

Howie walked over to the night table and pulled out the room service menu as we continued to examine the book. “Have you tried flipping the pages fast to see if the drawings come to life?” I asked, excited about the thought. I mean when I was bored, that’s what I did. They all looked at me as if I was a genius.

“No, can’t say I thought of that. Good idea little man!”

I smiled wide. I couldn’t help it. Whenever Kevin complimented me it just made me feel like I was smart. I’m a huge dork, I know this. “Shit…look at this!” AJ exclaimed as he flipped quickly through the pages.

“Wow…whoever did this was really good. That took skill. I mean those drawings are so small.” I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The weird symbols that resembled half hearts and the letter U came to life in the form of feet which slowly began to climb up the rectangular shapes as each page flipped.

“Yeah, talented but do you think it actually means anything?” Kevin asked. I could tell he was growing frustrated by the lack of answers we were coming up with.

“I don’t know…” I said as I flipped the pages once more. I had done it at least five times already and was amazed by it every single time. It was so intricate, the way the hearts flipped over to be feet as they carefully climbed each step…

“They’re steps.”

“Huh?” AJ asked confused.

“These rectangles are stairs.”

“Okay…that makes sense….and?”

“Maybe it has something to do with the house?”

“How?” Kevin asked, now very into the conversation.

“Maybe there’s something hidden under the stairs or something.”

They all looked at each other and shrugged. All except for Howie who really wasn’t paying attention to anything that was going on in the room at all. “What do you think Howie?” I decided to ask, kind of annoyed that he was caring more about his stomach then what was going on with us.

He looked up from the menu, “I don’t know guys…I have a bad feeling about this. Ever since AJ filled me in, I just think it’s something we should leave alone and let professionals handle it.”

“But the professionals are part of the problem. How many times do I have to tell you that?” AJ asked D who once again made his way over to the table to examine the drawings coming to life.

“I know…but even still. It just seems like we are sticking our noses into something that is none of our business.”

“That’s what I thought too, until someone broke into my house and knocked my baby brother out. Now I feel like it’s my business.”

“Awe thanks bro!” I said, feeling the need to go over and hug Kevin…which I did, by the way.

Howie had a hard time finding an argument for that one so he just shrugged and sat at the table, probably hoping we’d change our minds and play a game instead or something. Sometimes D was too naïve for his own good.

“So you really think it might have to do with stairs? Maybe this is the only type of cartoon she knew how to draw?” AJ said looking over at me as if he wanted to apologize for possibly insulting this girl I didn’t even know.

“I don’t think she drew it.”

“You don’t?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think she was the artist. I think Tommy was.”

“Tommy?” Howie sounded confused again. Funny how one little name could do that to someone.

“Belle’s brother, he’s the one that seems to have disappeared and is probably dead as a doornail in that tiny locked room in the basement.”

“You neglected to mention dead people and tiny locked rooms in basements.” For some reason Howie shot me a dirty look as if I had put a dead body in Kevin’s basement myself or something.

“We’re not sure if there’s anything in that room because we have yet to explore it.”

“And I don’t think we should if you think there’s a corpse in there.”

“I doubt there’s anything in there worth getting all hot under the collar about.” Kevin was quick to add, but I had a feeling he wasn’t believing his own words. In fact, I knew exactly what he was doing. He was starting to play down the seriousness of the situation because he knew that the more Howie realized how dangerous it was the least likely he would be to let us do anything harebrained.

Oh my God!

Kevin is turning into me!!!

I think Howie realized that as well because he shot Kevin one of those looks he usually reserved for me. “Even still…I think we should think before we do anything.”

“And since when have we done that?” I asked while getting snorts of approval from Kevin and AJ. “I think we should go back to your house and take a closer look at the stairs.” I said nodding my head. That was the only logical thing to do, really.

“Maybe I’ll look at the stairs and you can look in the small room.” AJ volunteered.

“Aren’t any of you even listening to me?” That was Howie of course.

“I don’t know about you going exploring again so soon after getting out of the hospital. The doctor said you needed rest Nick.”

“I can rest when I’m dead.”

“At the rate you’re going we could probably pencil that in for sometime next week.”

“Don’t even joke like that AJ!” HA! I love it when Kevin yells at AJ. It makes me happy for some reason.

“Hello? Is anyone even listening to me anymore? Where’s Brian? He needs to be here. I can’t possibly be the only one with common sense in this group, right?”

“Kevin, I’ll be fine. I really need to just find out what’s going on. I don’t know why, but it’s really important to me.” I said, totally ignoring Howie now, just to get him mad.

Kevin nodded and pat me on the back, “Okay, but we are going to stick together you and I this time.”

“Hello?”

“Howie you and AJ can check the steps and Nick and I will tackle that small room.”

You could tell that Howie wanted to say something smartass to Kevin but instead he just shrugged, “Whatever, I give up.”

“Well we better get going then, while it’s nice and early.”

“Yeah because your place is scary ass at night…no offense Kev.”

“None taken AJ, I know you’re just a wuss.”

Even though I was happy that we were going back to the house, I felt the tiniest little flutter down in my gut, screaming at me that we were making a huge mistake. It didn’t matter though, because I had to know what the big secret was. What were these cops so eager to find? Maybe the answer was behind that little door.