Sirens

“You know how humans can’t see in the dark,” Freda said as she skipped along. “And you know how owls can. Do you think that means they can’t see in the light? I mean, at night we just see blackness because our eyes aren’t sensitive enough to see the light. But owls’ eyes are so sensitive and during the day they could be overpowered and just see whiteness everywhere. Wait, that doesn’t make sense. I am confused. Do you know what I am trying to say?”Her elderly companion shrugged as the two of them traveled along the road. “I tell you, our eyes are crazy,” Freda continued. “We see light waves that our brain interprets as colors. How weird is that? Does that mean colors don’t actually exist? That if I didn’t have a brain there would be nothing to interpret the light waves and there would be no color in the world? That’s a sad thought.”Freda looked at Mute but the old woman didn’t reply. Not that she expected her to. In the two years Freda had known Mute, she had never said a word. But Freda always gave her the opportunity to talk. Who knows? Today might be the day.“You want to know a crazy fact? Birds can see ultraviolet light and other colors we can’t see. I have always wanted to see UV. I have seen photos of what birds see but it’s just not the same. Besides, how do those photographs even work? If we can’t see ultraviolet in real life, how can we see it in a photo? I mean, if a person is color blind and can’t see the color green, showing that person a picture of something green is not going to work. Do you know how that works?” She paused. “Well, I don’t. You want to know what else I don’t understand? …”To Mute, Freda’s constant chattering sounded like the steady beat of waves on a beach or the singing of birds in summer. Sometimes she didn’t listen to what Freda was saying but it was nice to be reminded of her companionship. Mute was grateful for the friendship, although sometimes Freda’s voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard and Mute would die for some peace and quiet.They were walking along a road in the middle of the afternoon. The warm sun floated down from between the leaves in the trees. It was a dirt road in… well, they weren’t really sure. Somewhere north in the Rocky Mountains. The forest around them was alive with the chatter of squirrels and the chirping of songbirds. Mute had pointed out a deer a half hour ago. It also had rained that morning and the forest smelled refreshed and rejuvenated. They were walking because their small two-door car that made funny noises when it turned left had ran out of gas. Mute had pointed to the gas meter before she took an after-lunch-nap in the passenger seat. She wasn’t sure if Freda had saw her pointing since Freda had been avidly listening to America’s Most Wanted on the radio and apparently a murderer had just escaped in Wyoming.  After discovering the empty tank, Freda had said, “Luckily, there is a gas station just a ways back… I think.” Freda wasn’t even supposed to be driving. She was fourteen, but Mute didn’t have her license either so maybe it didn’t matter.Freda didn’t seem very remorseful about forgetting the gas. She skipped along on the balls of her feet, her mouth working faster than her legs. She was skinny with toothpick limbs. Her jeans had a bad hole in the knee and her “Save the Whales” t-shirt, from the great treasure halls of Good Will, was faded from blue to gray. She had been wearing her sneakers since sixth grade and her toes poked through the top. The sole of her left shoe was coming off and it flapped against the ground with every step she took.Mute shuffled along behind. She was many years older than Freda. Her thinning gray hair was pulled back into a long braid. A few strands escaped and surrounded her wrinkled and scarred face. Her bright blue eyes contrasted with the rest of her old, weary body.  They sparkled with youth and energy. She always wore a purple and red sweater no matter what the weather was like, and tight black pants that hugged her legs. “Hey! Listen to that,” Freda said. “Is that a police siren? What are they doing way out here? The only people who come to this mountain are hunters. I think we passed a sign that said the population of a town was thirteen people. Thirteen! And I thought my hometown was small.”They turned a corner and saw a man crouched in the middle of the road. His back was to them and he was panting like he had been running. Mute instantly took a step back.“Hi!” Freda shouted joyfully. He leaped onto his feet quicker than Freda was expecting. He held something behind his back. He glared at them, his face tense.“How are you today?”He didn’t respond but Freda was so used to silence, she was undeterred.  “We are not pointing fingers but somebody forgot to fill up and we are walking to the gas station. Do you want to come with us?”The man perked up. “Sure.” He drew out the ‘s’ like a snake. As he approached, Freda realized he was much taller than she expected. His black eyes were concealed behind greasy long hair. As he moved towards them, he put whatever he had behind his back into his the pocket of his long coat.“What’s your name?”“Tod.”“I’m Freda and that is Mute. That’s what I call her anyway. Maybe her name is Julia or Angie or Maggie. I don't know why but she just doesn’t talk.  Maybe she has an embarrassing accent. ‘Ow o yoo o? That’s my Scottish accent. Did it sound more British to you? I am not really good with accents. I wish I had one. Do you want an accent?”Neither of her companions responded. They continued to walk toward the possibly-nonexistent gas station, occasionally hearing police sirens in the distance. Tod loomed above them and cast the two women into his shadow. His arms were straight and locked against his side. His back was upright and tense. His torso and head bobbed up and down as he walked like a buoy in a lake. His legs reminded Freda of a zombie. He dragged his feet as he floated along. Freda asked where he was from and what it was like. He responded “Wisconsin” and “cold” and then said no more, so Freda told him all about her life. “I am from a small town called Frankville in Alabama. I have two sisters, Olivia and Anna. They are freakin’ talented. Olivia was the valedictorian at our high school and is now studying neuro-bio-medic-surgery or some other fancy-smancy degree. My little sister Anna won the national piano recital when she was twelve. I am happy for them but all I can do is spell A-U-D-A-C-I-O-U-S without a dictionary. Which, I am not going to lie, is pretty impressive but it is not the same. Hey, is that a helicopter over there? Anyway, I felt like I was the surplus child who contributed nothing. No one cared what I had to say. You know what I mean?”No one replied.“That is why I ran away.  I don’t have to deal with that stuff anymore. No more school. That was awful. Sitting for eight hours. And the other kids. Do you want to know what happened to make me leave? It is a bit embarrassing actually. See, I was supposed to meet Mrs. Brown after school in our biology classroom. I played with her hamster, Mr. Tibbles, while I waited. After a while, I figured Mrs. Brown forgot and started to leave but I knocked her forgotten cup of coffee into Mr. Tibbles cage. It stained all of his nice white shavings brown. I wasn’t really sure what caffeine could do to a hamster but I doubted it would be good for them. I mean, Mr. Tibbles ran on his little wheel thing for hours. What would he do with two pounds of coffee in him? Man, those sirens are getting really loud. I hope no one is hurt. It sounds like they are getting closer.”Tod began to walk faster. As he got ahead of them, Mute grabbed Freda’s arm. Her eyes were big and alarmed. She was shaking her head earnestly. Freda had never seen her do that before and looked at her curiously. Before she could ask what was wrong, Tod turned around. He looked at them suspiciously and Mute let go of Freda’s arm. “Are you coming?” Tod asked.“Yup.” Freda skipped forward. “Anyway, so under Mr. Tibble’s cage there was this big box of fresh shavings, so I decided to clean him out. It would only take a few minutes and I wasn’t in a big hurry. I was a good person, and all that stuff.  I take Mr. Tibbles out of his cage and put him into the cage next to him which belonged to Skittles. I dump out all the gooey brown shavings and put in the clean stuff. I fluff it all up so it is comfortable and I was excited to tell Mrs. Brown what I did. Then I turned to put Mr. Tibbles back and that’s when I ran into trouble.Freda paused. “Did I mention Skittles was a snake?”She continued, slightly embarrassed. “Yeah, you’d think I would know better than to put a hamster with a snake, and I did. I knew snakes eat rodents and a hamster is a rodent but I didn’t put it together. I sometimes forget that things don’t always get along perfectly. I heard that snakes eat hamsters but I didn’t think it would happen to Mr. Tibbles.“Anyway, I see this large lump in the throat of Skittles that was the late Mr. Tibbles, and I could hear my sisters’ teasing, I could see the disappointment in Mrs. Brown’s face, and I could imagine the laughter from the other kids in school. I wondered what my parents would say. Probably nothing. They wouldn’t waste their breath on me when they had my sisters to talk about.“So I just left. I walked out of the room, and out of the school, and just kept going.  I expected someone to stop me but I guess no one cared. So that is about it. Through a combination of walking, hitchhiking and buses, I ended up in Chicago where I met Mute. And let me tell you, she was living the life. No parents. No sisters. No school. She just did whatever she wanted to do. Complete freedom. We have been together ever since. I sometimes feel like we are reverse Jehovah’s Witnesses….”Mute almost laughed. She had not been “living the life.” She had been homeless and squatting in an abandoned car.  She would have spent the rest of days that way if Freda hadn’t appeared. Mute had been snoozing in the passenger seat when “Hiya!” Freda had popped her head in through the window. “Whatcha doing?” Somehow within the next few minutes, Freda had gotten herself behind the wheel. “Don’t worry, my friend, I beat the Donut Plains six times in Super Mario Kart. Actually driving can’t be that different.” Mute had known it was a bad idea but went along with it anyway because no one had called her friend before.Freda continued blabbing away as they walked towards the gas station. She told them everything from the first time she lost a tooth to the number of spots her kitten had. She was interrupted by sirens that seemed to be getting closer and closer and even sometimes the helicopter that soared overhead.“And then we got a pot belly pig named Porky. I wanted to name him Snuffy but my sister Anna wanted to name him Porky so he was named Porky. He was just great and he had the cutest little nose. But he liked to pee on the carpet in my parents’ living room so we had to keep him in the kitchen all the time. Wait a second, I remember that tree. Wait, I think… I think…” She dashed forward up a small incline. At the top, she shouted, “There it is.”Both Mute and Tod rushed forward. When they reached Freda, they saw a small little log cabin shop called “Grizzly’s Hunter Supply Shop.” The first thing Mute noticed was the small gas pump in the front. The second thing Freda noticed was the larger- than-life plastic bear that stood on the porch. As they trotted towards it, Freda said, “See that wasn’t so bad. It was only like two hours. We just need to get a gallon of gas and carry it back. It could have been a lot worse.”Mute glared at her. As they trotted toward the small shop, Freda pointed out that the helicopter was coming towards them and Tod jogged forward ahead of them. He entered first, followed by the other two. Freda had never seen as many dead animals as she saw inside the shop. Every inch of the wall was covered with deer, elk, or moose heads. There were foxes, badgers, an impressive cougar, and several other animals who had visited a taxidermist.  When the sign said it was a hunting shop, they weren’t lying. They had everything from duck calls to strange scents to camouflage hats. There was a whole shelf full of ammunition.  Was that even legal?Tod was looking out the window at the helicopter in the distance. Mute had disappeared into the shelves.The guy behind the counter, Grizzly, Freda assumed, watched them suspiciously. He looked the farthest thing from a grizzly. He was probably twenty years older than Freda but about the same size. His pale skin looked like it had never seen the sun and tuffs of his red hair stuck out under his “Get ‘er done” hat. Freda was about 95% sure she could beat him in an arm wrestle. He tried, and failed, to look tough by plastering his arms with tattoos and cutting off the sleeves on his shirt. He leaned his chin against his knuckles in a way to expose his nonexistent biceps.“Hello,” Freda said as she marched toward him. “We need some gas.”He took one look at the state of her clothes and raised an eyebrow. “Got any money?”“Well, no, but—”“No.”Freda rolled up her sleeves. This guy just needed a little persuasion. She was about to start with Grizzly when suddenly a cop car came screaming over the small hill. It skidded to halt right outside the door.  The blue and red lights bounced around the walls of the shop. “What in the heck?” Grizzly said.Suddenly a second police car flew over the hill and screeched to a stop next to the first one.  Then a third whipped around the bend from the other direction successfully surrounding the little shop.  Grizzly and Freda looked at each other completely bewildered.“Thomas Theroy! We have the place surround. Exit the building with your hands on your head!”“Who’s Thomas?” From the corner of her eye, Freda saw Tod reach for something in his pocket. He had pulled out a gun and was pointing it at Grizzly’s face.  Grizzly’s pale face became even whiter, almost turning him into a transparent ghost. For the first time in her life, Freda had no words. Her brain became still like the straight line on a heart monitor after the last beat of blood has been pumped. Then her mouth was defibrillated into overdrive.“Oh-mary-mother-jesus-oh-no-oh-no-not-cool-not-cool-really-not-cool…”“Shut up!” Freda tried but she couldn’t stop the panicked words from slipping from her lips. All she could do was quiet them to a mumble. Tod grabbed Grizzly around the neck and dragged him out the door, the gun pressed against the side of his head. The porch became Tod’s stage and the police officers became the spectators. Mute suddenly grabbed Freda and pulled her behind the shelf of plastic duck decoys. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” Freda’s voice was very high pitched with panic. Mute had a finger on her lips. “Is there another exit? Can we escape? No, there’s nothing. That has to be breaking a fire code or anti-hostage law or something!”“Get away from me or I will blow his brains out! I have done it before and I will do it again!”One of the officers shouted something generic like “You don’t want to do this!” or “Let him go!” while Mute started patting Freda on the head to get her to calm down and Freda continued to freak out. “I am not okay here. No sir! Not okay! Do you think Tod will actually do it? Actually shoot Grizzly! I heard that there was a chicken that lived two months without its head. Do you think Grizzly is part chicken?”So quietly Freda almost didn’t hear, Mute whispered, “Shhhhh.”“I can’t! I am too scared to be quiet!”From outside, Tod shouted, “I can just shoot this one. I have two more hostages inside!”Freda clapped both of her hands over her mouth but her jaw still moved like she was talking. She turned away from Mute and looked around the corner of the shelf. She did not see Mute slowly crawl away on her old, frail knees.Through the window Freda saw Tod and Grizzly. Tod looked like a giant tower supervising the situation. She couldn’t see his face, only the greasy hair. Next to him, Grizzly was visibly trembling and he lost his hat, exposing his fiery red hair. He looked so small, he only came up to Tod’s elbow. Like a hobbit, a pale ginger hobbit.“Thomas, we have the place surrounded. You cannot escape. Just let the people go.”“Why? I am already going to prison for life. I am already going to hell! I might as well bring some company!”Suddenly Freda saw a movement from the corner of her eye. Mute was on her hands and knees in front of a poster which declared “The Smoke-And-Choke! Perfect for burrowing rodent removal!” Mute chose one of the bombs, took aim, and chucked it. It soared through the air and landed like a meteor.The smoke bomb exploded into clouds of awful gas that caused Freda’s eyes to burn. She coughed until it felt like her throat would become dislodged from her neck. Freda tried to run outside, forgetting all about Tod, but her eyes burned so bad, she couldn’t see anything. She collided with a shelf and they both crashed to the ground.She had no idea what was going on. She heard people shouting and maybe even gunshots, but she was so disoriented she couldn’t do anything but lie on the floor. When the smoke had dispersed and her eyes began to focus, she saw Tod pinned down and handcuffed on the porch.An officer stood above her. “Are you okay?”Months later, Freda would be okay, although she would still have nightmares. She would have her parents to comfort her. After the ordeal, the police would return her to her family. She would be surprised by how much they worried about her and how happy they were to see her. She would be happy to see them too. Another positive aspect would be that Mute would be staying with them since she had nowhere else to go and Mute would always listen when Freda talked. She sometimes would call Grizzly (who she would call Teddy because she would think it fit him better) to see how he was doing. She would even sometimes write to Tod in prison although she would never get a response. She occasionally would think about the ordeal and it would make her scared, but it would be okay.But at that moment the officer asked again if she was alright.“Oh boy! I wasn’t sure for a while there but I think all my limbs are attached. I may have lost my cool though. Did you know starfish can lose a leg and it will grow back? That is pretty crazy. I wish I had that ability…”