Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) Read online

“Yeah, we’re ready, but the train station isn’t,” Jose replied. He pointed to a sign that was hanging on the door, the sign read CLOSED.

  “It’s gonna be closed for another hour, that’s gonna be too late,” Darell announced.

  Suddenly, Damen asked in a voice of confusion, “Wait a second, what’s gonna be too late?”

  “My father’s going to be waking up in about thirty minutes, he’s gonna read the letter right away. If he does, then I’m screwed,” Darell mentioned. “Better yet, we’re all screwed.”

  Damen looked at Darell and then looked at the CLOSED sign. “Your father’s not going to know where to look for you, he’s going to probably look first in the Valley,” said Damen. He stared at the old, used bubble gum that was lying all around the wooded ground that surrounded the train station. He then looked inside the building and asked, “Why is this place closed so early? I thought it opened at 3:00 a.m.?”

  “I don’t know why it’s closed. Still, all I know is we better find another way to leave this town,” Darell warned. It sounded like he was hiding something.

  “What do you mean, Darell?”

  “Well...” Darell spoke with a little child–like voice, as if he just urinated in his pants.

  “You didn’t?” Damen panicked. He knew what Darell was talking about; he saw it through his eyes and the way he was standing, like he was holding in his urine.

  “Well,” Darell muttered again. He looked down at the wooden floor of the train station; he was scared of Damen at this point.

  “You did ... you wrote in the letter that we’re going to the train station.”

  “Yeah, kind of.” Darell then looked up at Damen very slowly.

  “Darell, either yes, or no,” he hollered.

  “Alright, yes, but I thought we would be on the train before my father read it.”

  Jose then broke through the argument and asked with eagerness and confusion, “Why did you write that?”

  “I don’t know, I was tired this morning and I forgot. I’m sorry.” Darell then turned away from them. “Okay? I’m sorry. It was a mistake, I’m only human.”

  “Great, probably the next thing you’ll say is you wrote what time we’re leaving at,” yelled Damen. Darell suddenly looked down at the wooden floor again; it was the same look he gave before.

  “Oh no ... great, just great,” Damen shouted. “Why the hell did you write that, do you realize that as soon as your father reads that letter, all hell is gonna break loose?”

  “Well, I didn’t know that your little plan was gonna turn out so shitty,” Darell shouted back.

  “What? What was that? You and Jose wanted to go, today, so badly, and you’re blaming me for my plan?”

  Jose jumped in the argument and roared, “Hey, hey, hey, listen, you pendejo, it was your plan. You decided, for us, to take the train, so you should have checked if it was open. If you should blame anyone, Damen, blame yourself.”

  The arguing began to get louder when Damen screamed, “Listen, I don’t know what the hell you just called me, but I do know that this was your plan first, Jose. You were the one who stood up on that rock, like a frickin’ king, and preached that you wanted to leave today.” The arguing worsened. Their voices grew louder, and each time the sun would show itself a bit more. But suddenly the arguing seized, died, and buried itself in their minds, once they heard a noise that sounded like a train.

  “Wait, what’s that?” asked Jose, staring at the train tracks with a mesmerized glare.

  “It’s probably the mail train or the livestock train,” answered Darell.

  “Wait a second, Jose, doesn’t that train go to Chicago?” Damen questioned. He saw the smoke from the train coming closer to them. The smoke symbolized hope; it symbolized their only way out of this town.

  “Yeah, yeah, it does.”

  Damen’s eyes lit up with excitement, and Jose knew what the cause of it was. Jose’s eyes suddenly caught this virus, this excitement when Damen spoke, “Doesn’t Chicago have airports?”

  “Yeah, it does, it has a lot of airports. From there, we could take a flight to California,” answered Jose. Their faces all shone once again with happiness, with hope.

  “I don’t know about this, guys. I don’t like the idea,” mentioned Darell. The train came before them and slowly came to a stop, while Darell’s mind held fear—it held some sort of terror, fright—about riding a train illegally.

  “Come on ... let’s get on it. It’s going to be leaving in about a minute. The train is only here to drop and pick up the mail, and Ridge Crest does not have a lot of that,” Jose explained. Then they heard a loud gunshot coming from the cornfield that stood all around them. They didn’t know where it came from, all they saw was train tracks, a train station, a train, and a bunch of yellow and green plants that made up the cornfields, standing high like soldiers waiting for battle.

  “What was that?” asked Darell, still looking about and around the train station. The terror of not knowing where that sinister sound came from ran through each of their minds, their thoughts. They knew that either it was a hunter, or else one of their worst fears: their fathers.

  “I don’t know, who cares, let’s get on the train,” answered Damen. He suddenly went around the train and tried opening its doors, one of the train’s compartments. Jose helped in the quest to open the door, and Darell still stood in fear, still stood in terror; Darell knew who it was.

  “I don’t know about this, guys. Isn’t that dangerous? I don’t like this way of traveling, it’s a mail train,” trembled Darell. Jose and Damen finally got the door opened, and Jose jumped in the compartment. But when Damen was ready to jump in next, Darell heard the sound of his father’s voice, in the distance. “Oh no,” Darell shrieked, seeing his father shoot the gun again, coming into Darell’s sight.

  “Get back here now... If you don’t get back here, so help me, God, I will shoot you myself,” his father yelled out. The train started moving and Damen jumped off as he was about to enter it. Damen felt that Darell was in shock, was fear-stricken, and needed some help getting on the train.

  “I thought you said your father’s going to wake up in a half an hour?” questioned Jose. They heard another gunshot in the distance; this time it was louder.

  “I guess I was wrong. You know what, I’ll settle for the mail train after all,” Darell muttered. He watched his dad become bigger as he ran closer to him. Seeing the anger on his face, Darell knew he would shoot them all.

  “Come on, Darell, get on the train!” shouted Damen. He looked at Darell looking at his father, and started to shake him, causing him to leave the state he was in; the state of fear. Damen jumped on the train and held out his hand for Darell to grasp, to grab and lock onto it.

  “Come on, Darell...” Jose and Damen screamed together. Darell began to run beside the train, and now his fear became more real when he saw his father running beside the train as well. He knew his father was behind him with a gun in his grasp, waiting for Darell to fall, or to trip, so he could capture him and beat the hell out of him. Darell’s fears raced around his thoughts, faster than the train was moving.

  My, God, Darell, he’s gonna kill you. He’s actually gonna kill you. Just don’t look back, he’s probably far behind me. Damn it, Jose, I wish you would hold your hand out farther...

  Jose wailed, “Darell, he’s right behind you.” Darell gave Jose a shocked look.

  “Oh, gee, thanks for telling me that. You sure know how to keep hope alive,” he screamed in sarcasm.

  “Just jump,” yelled Jose. The train moved faster and faster.

  “I can’t.”

  “Yes you can, just imagine you’re Indiana Jones or something, or some bull-shit like that,” screamed Damen. The sweat formed like acne on Darell’s face, and his speed allowed the insects to fly upon his image, and smack his face. The bugs started to stick to his sweaty cheeks, and so Darell wiped some of them off, including the beads of sweat, and tried to run as fast as he could, away
from his menacing father. “Darell, just imagine,” Damen added. Darell’s eyes widened, pretending he was a superhero running away from evil. This caused his legs to move with greater speed, and instigated courage to kill the fear he was feeling.

  “Get back here now, you little son of a ...” shouted his father. He ran behind Darell, closer than Darell’s own clothes were to his body, and grabbed onto his shirt.

  “Come on, man, just grab my hand,” Jose said, holding out his hand in a dangling fashion. The train’s movement, its shaky body, allowed Jose’s hand to fly all over the place, and not aim correctly toward Darell’s.

  “You’re not going anywhere with these two losers,” his father yelled, trying desperately to get a better grip on Darell’s shirt.

  Darell grabbed onto Jose’s hand and his father grabbed onto his shirt again, but with a better grip. The train started to move faster and faster as the sun began to rise, and admit more heat toward Darell’s sweaty face. But then, Darell grabbed ahold of Jose’s hand and jumped onto the train, causing his shirt to rip from his father’s grip. The father fell and rolled into a ditch by the railroad tracks, causing stones of all sorts to fly into the air, like an explosion. He got up immediately and yelled out in a high-pitched voice, “You’re never going to become an actor and you know it. That’s not what you want, Darell.”

  Jose flipped the bird to him, and the father still yelled out Darell’s name over and over again. Darell started to cover his ears, he couldn’t take that sound of his dad, that lonely, depressing tone of his name, coming from the man he thought was his hero. But then he uncovered his ears and heard nothing but wind blowing from the outside, and the sound of the train’s body hitting each stone that it ran over, and bobbing back and forth over the track. The sound of his father was gone, and so was Darell’s fear; hope showed itself through his eyes.

  “Yes, we made it,” said Jose. A yawn came from his mouth suddenly, causing his arms to be thrown up in the air in a stretching motion. “Well, if you guys don’t mind, I’m gonna get some shut-eye. After all, it’s going to be a long time till we reach Chicago.”

  “Me too, I’m kind of tired myself,” yawned Darell. He covered the ripped part of his shirt, to protect his skin from the morning frost that was in the compartment still, and then looked at Jose and Damen. Darell saw some confusion in Damen’s eyes.

  “Darell, why did you tell your father the reason for this trip?” questioned Damen. Jose bunched up some mailbags together to make a pillow for his head, but Damen still stared at Darell, awaiting a reply.

  “What?”

  Damen gave a smile; he knew Darell was playing off his question. Yet, Damen exuded some anger as he said, “Darell, your father didn’t know that you wanted to be an actor, so don’t play it off like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Like I asked, why did you tell him?”

  “I didn’t tell him, I wrote it in the letter.”

  “Okay, could you tell me what else the letter contained?” asked Damen, seeing that Darell looked puzzled. He then remembered that Darell was a little bit slow when it came to remembering, or putting sentences together. He just didn’t like to listen. “What else did you write in the letter?” he asked again, but more specifically. He tried not to get upset at him.

  Darell started closing his eyes slowly as he answered, “Nothing else.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Alright ... just checking.” Relief washed over Damen and a small grin came onto his face. The sound of the wind allowed him, as well, to start feeling some tiredness, some heaviness to his eyelids.

  “Wake me up when we reach Chicago,” Darell mentioned while his eyes stayed shut.

  Damen lay down and closed his eyes, but still didn’t forget about Darell’s words. “Alright,” Damen said to him.

  Damen slept only for two hours when he was awakened by the sound of screeching coming from the train tracks below. He watched as the countryside went by, it was like he was watching his life change right before his eyes. He looked as if he was in a time machine, watching the wonders of life pass before him, changing their structures, forms and allowing themselves to take on new textures to his eyes. He watched as the towns became cities and the trees became buildings. To him, this was the beginning, the beginning of his dream. The countryside became highways and byways, and the cows that grazed within the long stretches of green pastures turned into cars being parked at gas stations. This was all new to him, to his mind’s eye, and it made him tired, sleepy; it overwhelmed him so much that his mind told him to rest and wait till he reached his destination. He fell asleep into the day that became night to him. He fell into the dream state of fame that Jose and Darell already began.

  Chapter Four

  “I’ll ask you once more... whose idea was it to go on this trip?” Darell’s father asked as Maria turned to face her parents. The sun was up, fully showing its heat and causing a glare to hit Maria’s young face. She knew she was in trouble for knowing about this plan, this mission of her friends, and keeping it a secret, hidden away in her soul. Maria looked out at the horizon, scared of her parents, terrified that she knew a mode of truth was stretched by her not telling about her friends’ escape, and blinked her eyes once. She concentrated on this horizon, beautiful as an angel’s wing, and suddenly looked at the cornfields, that literally were on all sides of her town. Her neighbor’s house, which stood about a half a mile away, stuck out in her sight and made her want to crave it. She wanted to run to it, knowing about this harm that she put herself into, but knew that it was too far away, out of her reach to go to its safety. She saw two men walking toward her house, moving at a fast pace, talking to each other with a loud tone. The judgment, the trial was about to begin, and Maria was not prepared with her testimony, her words of truth that she did not want to speak. The two men came closer to her porch, and through their silhouettes, Maria saw that it was Damen’s and Jose’s fathers, coming with grand speed.

  Damen and Jose’s dads showed up to this trial, this mission of finding the truth about their sons’ whereabouts. The courthouse, which in reality was the front yard of Maria’s home, was such beauty to her sight, but now its appearance was ugly, distorted by her fright. Maria’s mother stood on the porch, staring at the fathers, and then looking at Maria’s terrified but innocent face. She felt that Maria knew where their sons were, but for some reason, she didn’t want to speak it, tell it to them, she didn’t want to reveal where the boys went. Yet, as a mother, she had to get the truth out from her, steal away the secret that her daughter was keeping and show it to the fathers, in order to please them, make them feel comfortable, and make their worries go away. Her mother took off the yellow apron that she wore around her waist, and took a rubber band from her red hair; she wanted to get comfortable before she asked her daughter the big question. Stepping down to the stairs Maria sat on, the mother moved directly in front of her to block out Maria’s view of the fathers and their threatening eyes.

  She grabbed Maria’s hand, very, very gently, and caressed it, like a newborn baby: very delicately. The men waited for an answer from this girl, showing impatience in their faces. “Maria?” asked her mother.

  She looked up slowly at her, realizing the fathers were directly behind her mom, and showed tears toward her.

  “Maria, answer him. If you know where they are, then please, tell us.” A flock of birds flew over their heads and landed in an oak tree that stood in her front yard. Maria listened to their music, to their chirping sound, and tried to only concentrate on the birds’ voices, instead of this moment she didn’t want to have in her memory. But the birds flew away, left their nests, and Maria couldn’t concentrate on anything else. She longed for some sort of diversion or trance, which would allow her to leave this moment behind, and only concentrate on that one thing. She looked about, listening with her ears for any chirping from crickets, or any barking from dogs, but nothing came to her ears, or eyes. The only thing that she captur
ed was her mother, Darell’s father, who stood with anger to his posture, and the other two dads, who still had confusion to their eyes.

  “What’s this all about? I have to get back to the fields soon,” asked Damen’s father with a voice of confusion. He didn’t even know that Damen was missing, and his voice proved it, made it clear to the rest of the Dads.

  Darell’s paps was too impatient to wait for Maria to answer her mother; he wanted the truth immediately. So he pushed the mother out of the way and demanded in a loud manner, “Answer me, Maria. Did Darell really do this?”

  “What’s this all about?” Mr. Rodrigo asked. He didn’t know that Jose was missing either, so he and Damen’s dad stared at Maria in a puzzled fashion, a perplexed way.

  “Yeah, if you woke us all up this early, Pete, it better be extremely important... Could we please hurry this along? I got a lot of things to do right now,” Mr. Schultz said, looking at Darell’s dad with confused eyes. Maria looked frightened, she didn’t want Mr. O’Conner to tell the rest about their sons’ escape from Ridge Crest; her eyes showed terror to her mother’s mind.

  Pete put down his gun that he ran after Darell with, and stared at both of the fathers with a smile, a small grin that meant he knew something they didn’t. “It is of importance, Jack, it’s about our sons. Did you know our boys went on a little trip to New York?” asked Pete. He looked at Maria with sinister eyes; he wanted her to finish the rest, through his evil stare, but Maria was too afraid to say it orally. Pete touched his gun, rifle, his weapon of sport, and showed Maria what he was doing. He wanted to scare her, place mental retribution in her mind, so she would think that he would kill her if she didn’t speak the truth. Pete still waited for the reaction from Jack Schultz first. He waited, looking at his eyes, and began to widen them, as if he was in shock that Damen’s dad didn’t give a reply to his question. Since he didn’t see any reaction coming from him, he looked at Mr. Rodrigo, and waited for the same thing.

  “What ... what do you mean, New York?” Jack Schultz finally asked in a surprised voice. “What do you mean, how the hell could Damen get to New York with your sons?”