Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) Read online

  Mr. O’Conner went on the highest step of the porch, and looked out at the morning dew, on the tall weeds standing right next to him. Before he replied, Maria looked down at the porch and began biting her nails, started to show her nervousness through her nervous habit. “Yeah, your boys took my son to New York. And you know why? To become a frickin’ actor.”

  “What do you mean our boys? Damen never wanted to become an actor. It was probably your son, Darell’s, idea. Right now, my son is probably somewhere around the Valley fishing,” defended Jack. He defended his son, his pride, and stuck up for them in an angry voice.

  Jose’s father was still confused. He didn’t want to realize his son’s ambition, his dream, and his running away from Ridge Crest. But, he jumped into the argument and shouted in tumult, “My son would never want that either, he’s a fisherman.” Mr. Rodrigo was in denial, in hiding about his son’s ambition; he didn’t want to accept it. His anger grew even more, along with the rest of the dads, when he realized he couldn’t argue with Jose about his dream, only because he wasn’t there anymore to have a chance at the battle. The fathers lost control, charge, and that allowed their anger to get the best of them. In a way, they weren’t only aggravated about their sons leaving, but they were aggravated about not being able to stop them from going, escaping their grasps. The only dad who wasn’t that upset at this trial, this case, was Maria’s. Her father just stood at the top of his porch, watching this argument, like someone staring at a boxing match getting ready to begin.

  “What are you trying to say? Are you trying to say it was my son’s idea?” Mr. O’Conner questioned. Pete was so aggravated, so out of it, that he wanted to let them know he still was in charge of his son’s life. But the thing was, in reality, his son was in control now, and this caused an extremely high anger to contrive in his mind, and their minds.

  Maria slowly looked away from her mother and stared at the fathers in back of her. But suddenly, she looked back at her parents. The fear of the argument was too frightful to show her presence to the fathers.

  “Listen, your boy probably just ran away and wrote you a fake letter,” mentioned Mr. Schultz. Jack didn’t want to believe that his son Damen ran away with his own free will to guide him. Yet he did, and the realization of that was slowly sinking into his head, as well as the other two.

  Mr. Rodrigo stepped on the porch for a second and agreed with Jack, mentally. “Yeah, my boy is sleeping in his own bed right now, so I know he didn’t go,” he stated, stepping off the porch at the same time. He stood next to Jack and stared at Pete O’Conner, waiting for another explanation on why he was saying their boys ran away.

  “So, you two don’t believe me?” questioned Pete. He slowly picked up his gun, while Jack and Mr. Rodrigo looked at him with some fear, the fear of why he was grabbing the rifle. Pete turned toward the door of Maria’s house, put the gun next to it, and asked, “You want to read the note?” Maria then got up from the porch step and walked slowly toward her door; she didn’t want to be out there when they read the note, the goodbyes that would get her in trouble. Pete retrieved the letter from his pocket that Darell wrote, and handed it to Jack first. Jose’s dad waited impatiently for him to finish reading, and started to tighten his fists; he was stressed.

  When Jack finished, he threw the letter at Pete and shouted, “Your boy is behind this, not mine. Damen is twenty-one years old; he already chose the profession of farming. Darell’s just messed up in the head, is all. He probably made this whole letter up. He probably added Jose and Damen in this letter so you wouldn’t be as mad.” Jack’s words, his loud meaning, caused Pete to look at his gun for a moment. Pete was agitated, angered, stressed, and nervous; he was capable of doing anything at this point.

  Pete then walked off the porch, very calmly, and stepped up to Jack in a very close manner. “My boy is not messed up, you low-class farmer,” Pete yelled. He punched Jack in the face, causing Maria to show tears. Jack fell on the ground, causing all sorts of insects to fly out from underneath him, and stared at the sunlight with madness in his gaze.

  Mr. Rodrigo picked up the letter and read it in a fast motion, a speedy way. As he read it, Jack Schultz roared, “You’re dead.” He jumped up from the warm ground and added, “Your son, Darell, is nothing but a loser.” He then punched Pete in the gut, with a smile of relief and stress being released engraved on his face. Jack looked at Mr. Rodrigo and also added, “Your son is a loser, too.”

  The fight began. Pete and Mr. Rodrigo began to fight with Jack, physically. They punched him, slapped him, kicked him, beat him, smashed his head against the ground, causing him to fall face-first on the green grass. That’s when they began kicking him some more, the anger that they felt, from losing their sons, shined through at that moment, and showed itself to Maria, and her parents. Maria’s tears were revealed as she stared at this tasteless fight, this bloody war between their fathers. She started to feel anger toward this fight, so she looked up at her porch and stared at her own dad, and how he was doing nothing to stop it, to kill it, and talk man-to-man about this escape of the boys. She suddenly let go of her fears, her terror of the dads, and said in a screaming tone, “You’re all wrong.”

  The fighting came to a halt, stopped by Maria’s courage shining through. Maria walked off the porch and up to the fathers. Damen’s father, Jack, got up from the ground, with pain to his body, blood to his face, and asked, “What are you talking about?” The men were too busy trying to find out which son was the cause of this, which son did the brainwashing on the others, when the whole time, all of their sons were guilty equally.

  They waited for Maria to speak the truth, tell them which son was the bad guy, was the culprit in this secretive escape. “Damen,” she began before Pete spoke over her.

  “You see, I told you, it was Damen’s idea,” shouted Pete.

  Maria then yelled out, “Let me finish. Damen, Jose, and Darell wanted this. It was all of their idea. The letter is telling the truth.” She paused, thinking of the words she was going to say next, and then smiled, feeling pity that these men would fight over such a thing. “You know, at first I felt sorry that they’d left, because I knew you’d be worried about them, would be terrified about them running away. But now I’m glad they left. At least now I know they won’t end up like this,” continued Maria, seeing the men standing there with blood on their faces. She spoke the truth, causing the dads to look down at the ground in a sort of disgrace.

  Her mother gave her a smile; she was proud of her daughter speaking the truth. The mother grabbed onto Maria’s hand and said, “Come on, Maria, come in the house.” Her father then grabbed her other arm and began pulling it also, and guiding her toward the front door.

  She walked up to her door and followed her parents into the house. Maria’s dad stood behind her and allowed her to go in the house after her mother, but that’s when she stopped and turned around. Before she closed the door, Maria stared at Jack, she stared at Mr. Rodrigo, and finally looked deeply at Pete’s eyes. She spoke defensively, “Oh ... and another thing, they’re not losers. I think you should take a good look in the mirror and decide which one’s the loser now.” She walked in and slammed the door.

  The echoing sensation pounded at the fathers’ heads, ears, it allowed their minds to be transfixed by what Maria spoke. They all gazed up toward the sky and saw the sun reflecting its body toward them. Thinking and wondering that maybe, somewhere, their sons were staring at the same sun and thinking how much they missed their hometown, all of them closed their eyes and looked at each other; it was a look of puzzlement, of turmoil.

  Chapter Five

  The sun pounded its heat down on the train, causing it to turn into something like an oven, cooking at a high temperature, sautéing its prey with malice to its motive. “Wake up, wake up,” said Jose. The train came to a stop, and his sweaty face turned to the doorway, staring out at the new setting, the new surroundings that weren’t familiar to him. The sweat slowly dripped off
his face, and the aggravation from the heat caused Jose to shout, “Come on, wake up.”

  Damen woke up, to this loud, obnoxious tone, and had an angry face to his image. But suddenly, he stared out the doorway of the train and saw a sign that read, Welcome to The Windy City, Chicago. He was excited, delighted.

  Darell awoke, feeling terrible from the heat, but then a grin also was received for this sign, as soon as his eyes came to its silhouette. He stared, scanning over all the letters, like he was examining this billboard with an x-ray machine.

  They were intrigued. Even though the sign was rusted, had spray paint practically engraved to its texture, it still caused a smile to appear, only because they saw it. This sign was in reality now, to their minds and their sight. The excitement began to build as the boys stuck their heads out of the train and looked up at the tall monuments, which were skyscrapers, large, massive structures that they’d only seen on magazines and televisions. Behind the sign, their eyes caught cars on top of cars, driving down an expressway, and their ears heard hundreds of car horns, beeping on and off, in a perfect beat. They couldn’t believe their sight, not believing that they’d made it this far; their souls were proud of this moment. Making it here, even though this sight was new and scary to them, allowed a sense of pride to be captured, caught, and felt in their hearts. This was a moment to remember.

  “Wow, we made it, we actually made it,” Darell said, as a yawn followed. Waking up to cows, and to large pastures was what his eyes were used to, but this image, city, these awesome surroundings were new to him, and caused his yawn to be different. His yawn, like all yawns, was slow, boring, soothing, and finally relaxing; but this new yawn was fast, exciting, soothing, and over all, beyond relaxation, due to this moment. Their characters, the small parts of course, were already changing to this new surrounding, being molded and reborn once more; it was evolving due to this new, pleasant, and exciting scenery.

  “Well, we still have a long way to go,” said Damen. He jumped off the train and placed his feet on the white stones of the railroad pavement first; he felt like he was the first man to step on the moon. “Come on, we still have a plane to catch.” He lit a cigarette, still looking at the “Chicago” sign, and gluing his eyes on the skyscrapers, he took a very large drag of it, in order to create this memory. He coughed, knowing now that this memory was going to be locked away in his mind forever, due to the heavy and loud cough. Damen smiled again; he realized this memory was staying for good.

  Damen looked about, seeing that they weren’t too far away from a railroad station, which was in the stomach of the city, and stared up toward the sun. That was the only thing that was the same to him, was the sun’s rays, and how it was still in perfect circular form, just like back home in Ridge Crest. Jose and Darell stared at Damen, and followed his sight to the sun’s glowing, radiant aura. They thought it was strange for him to be looking at its brightness, only because it could damage his sight, place yellow spots in them for good, or even blind him. But Damen kept on staring, realizing that his family, and even Maria, could be staring at that same sun, right at this moment. Suddenly, he was knocked out of his trance by the train showing movement. It began to move, and Damen caught in his sight that it was heading closer toward the city. So he jumped back on it, looking out the doorway again, and feeling a small breeze rush against his face; he felt alive.

  Darell and Jose also looked out of the doorway and saw how they were entering into a building, a station, and the sight of skyscrapers went away from their view. The train came to a halt once more, and Damen jumped off of it again, placing his feet on the cemented ground of the station, and stretching his legs; a smile came to his feet feeling the wooden ground of a Chicago landmark.

  As soon as Darell and Jose jumped out of the train as well, they saw a sign entitled, “Union Station.” It was too perfect once again, the plan went along great, causing Damen to have a cautious look on his face; it was too good to be true. That’s when he fixed his eyes on security guards, approaching them with great speed. At that same time, the train that they came on, began to move, slowly but surely, and lingered its heavy body past the boys. They were trapped. Knowing that the security guards saw them exiting a train, illegally, allowed Jose Rodrigo’s, Darell O’Conner’s, and Damen Schultz’s minds to be filled with anxiety. They were in a new setting, a new place that they’ve never seen or been to before, so this was the last thing they needed, being arrested.

  “Excuse me, young men, but would you please come with us?” one of the guards said. He grabbed onto Darell’s arm with force. Darell knew that it wasn’t a question, even though it was placed in question form. The way the guard said his words, through his pudgy mouth, it sounded like an order, but with some civilized tone to its build.

  “What’s the problem, sir?” asked Damen. He took the guard’s hand and released it from Darell’s arm. Mr. Schultz was angry, he knew the officer had no right to touch Darell, especially grab him with such force to his grasp.

  The guard noticed some Southern accent, enunciation in Damen’s speech, not very much, but just enough to make the guard know he wasn’t from the big city. “Well ... the problem is that you all came on the mail train. Now, if my memory serves me correctly, I would say you boys traveled illegally on it,” the guard replied, mocking Damen’s faint accent with his own speech. Another guard grabbed onto Damen’s arm, laughing at the way his buddy made fun of Damen’s speech.

  Damen Schultz pointed to the mail train, already far from them, and explained, “Well, the reason for that was ... because my friend is very ill.” He paused for a little, trying to think of what else he could add to this lie. “Um, you see, we come from a very, very, very poor family, and my friend needs a, a, um, a, a kidney transplant. Yeah, well, since he couldn’t afford a regular train ticket, we had to take this instead.” A smile came to his face. Damen thought that his lie was well told and smoothly explained. Figuring they bought it, he noticed the guard releasing his grip a little bit from his arm.

  The guard began grinning, and reflected a smile onto Damen’s face. Damen didn’t know if it was a smile of the guard catching him in a lie, or a grin that meant he was going to let them go, even though they knew he was lying; after all, the guard was still holding onto his arm.

  Finally, the grin grew on the guard’s face, and that’s when he asked in an evil tone, “Oh yeah? Well, since he couldn’t afford a train ticket, how the hell is he going to afford a kidney operation?” Damen became speechless, staring at Jose and Darell, trying to figure out how to add onto this lie, this fictional explanation; his mind became overwhelmed, flustered with nervousness.

  “Well ... I really don’t want to tell you that,” replied Damen. He looked around the train station, staring at its grand shape, a trying to contemplate the situation. He analyzed his lie, his explanation, and tried to think up of a plan, an answer for the guard. But nothing came to his thoughts, mind, he was speechless, mute to the answer. So, he turned to Darell, in a frantic motion, and said, “I think Darell should explain that part.” Darell stared at Damen with confusion; he didn’t want to explain the ending to his friend’s lie.

  “Me?” questioned Darell, slowly beginning to smile at the guards. Damen nodded his head slightly, trying desperately to tell Darell to play it off like they really did travel on the train for that reason. Darell caught the nod, understood it, and added with shakiness to his speech, “Yeah, I’ll explain it... Um, what happened was my friend, Jose, this guy over here, pushed me off of my roof. Um, that’s how my kidney went bad.” They all looked at him like he was crazy, including the guards. Damen and Jose couldn’t accept, couldn’t believe that Darell didn’t come up with a better explanation. “What?” Darell asked, seeing Jose and Damen’s disappointed emotions through their eyes. That’s when they looked away from Darell, stood back, and waited for him to explain this story, allowing him, in a sense, to dig his own grave and enjoy the entertainment.

  “You expect us to believe that
story?” the guard asked, releasing Damen’s arm from his grip. Jose and Damen tried to think up of another excuse, tried to find a way out of the explanation, that Darell had totally and utterly screwed up. Suddenly, another train stopped in the station, and that’s when the guard said, with force to his words, “Come with us.”

  Jose and Damen saw that a large amount of passengers were exiting the second train and beginning to surround them. A plan of action was seeping into Jose’s mind, breaking into his conscious state, and getting ready to explode orally.

  Jose nudged Damen’s arm, winked his right eye very unnoticeably toward him, and said in a fast way, “Listen, he really does need an operation.” Damen looked at Jose with wide eyes. He couldn’t believe, couldn’t begin to accept that he still was going along with this story, even after it died, and showed itself as a lie to the guards.

  The guard asked in a snotty manner, “Oh yeah, could ya prove it?” Damen and Darell just looked at Jose, the same way as the guards’ did, and awaited an explanation from him. They were all curious on what Jose was going to pull out of his ass next. Damen Schultz crossed his arms and waited for Jose Rodrigo’s voice, while the guards put their hands behind their backs, grabbed onto handcuffs, and waited for Jose to screw up his words.

  “Yeah ... I could,” responded Jose. “You see ... when you need a kidney operation, it kind of feels like this,” he added before he punched the guard on the side of his gut. Damen watched as the other guard began pulling on Darell’s arm; that’s when he punched him in the face. The officers fell to the ground, passengers from the train began walking over them, and Damen, Darell, and Jose started to run out of the station with laughter in their minds.

  Running with grand speed to their motion, the boys flew through the station, passing and hitting people accidentally, and looking back every so often to see if anyone was chasing them. They looked to their right, left, forward, and finally, for the hell of it, looked up toward the ceiling of the station. As they ran through the center part of the station’s heart, still staring at the ceiling, they saw a huge, domed window that stretched for miles to their sight; it caused them to stop for a moment. But then, they all looked at each other, realizing that they’d just broken a zillion laws, and started the motion to their feet once again.