My American Girlfriend

2017 | English | Short story | Full

(*) Image by Max Pixel, licensed under CC0 Public Domain.

Details

• Year: 2017
• Language: English
• Word count: 3K
• Type: Short story

Text

“Where were you when the aliens showed up?” were words that would be said countless times after that day. Despite popular culture embracing the idea of not being alone in the universe, despite uncountable books and movies about alien colonization, when it finally happened it was still a shock. Time for the real deal, and nobody knew what to do.

Madison Horse knew what to do. She was at her job, diligently cleaning tables at the Renaissance Café, just like any other day. Her own business, nothing short of a life accomplishment that still needed a few years to be paid in full. She was unbothered at first by the usual ramblings of “Red Nose” Joe -commonly shortened as Rose, a woman’s name, but that didn’t seem to bother the man at all-, or the extravagant foul-mouthed comments from the other only customer at this early hour, Gordon. Both were always the first ones to come, so early in the morning even the cook, Maria, was not there yet. But they were not looking for breakfast. An old stubborn drinker, Rose’s routine wasn’t that hard to guess, he just crawled in after being kicked out of some bar. Gordon, well, he was always so pissed with the world that maybe he couldn’t sleep at all. Anyway, it was one more day of a long week for Madison, even longer since Jenny, her only waitress, had called in sick on Monday.

“The madness out there is not that different from a rock star coming to town.”, she thought.

“Aliens my ass! This is all a big freaking stunt. In a few hours we are all going to feel like morons, I’m telling you, even the morons are going to feel like morons! How stupid can people be?”, Gordon said, his face getting bluer by the minute.

“They’re here, I tell you.”

“You wouldn’t see a whore standing up in church, old man!”

“They’re here”, Red Nose calmly insisted.

“They’re not, you stubborn son of a….”, Gordon was shaking his head in disbelief.

“What if they are? Aliens will not stop here to take a bite of my famous pineapple cake, so…”, Madison finally intervened hoping they would stop fighting. They could do it for hours and it was a very long week.

“Aliens or not, you’re damned right about that cake!”, Rose flattered her in his own way, probably thinking he was younger and still had a chance. “Can I have some of that delicacy?”

“You’re too drunk, Rose, you would throw it all up. I wouldn’t want to waste it like that.”, she replied, worrying more about Red Nose’s beaten stomach than the cleaning effort.

“Forget the cake, geezer. Turn on the TV, Maddie! Let’s see for ourselves!”, Gordon said.

Madison turned it on, but didn’t bother to look at the screen, she kept cleaning up instead.

“What is Dicky doing on TV?” Red Nose asked suddenly, his voice full of surprise.

“No effing way!” Gordon was having a difficult time to believe it too. “Isn’t that your ex-boyfriend, Madison? The one that…”

The squeaking sound of the door opening cut short his trail of thought. A military man in a pristine uniform, with plenty of medals on his chest, came in escorted by two armed soldiers.

“Dick Deville, a Canadian petty thief with a long criminal record…” The voice on TV was saying when she finally looked up.

It was Dicky all right, an old photograph but still… Madison was caught up in that shocking revelation when the military officer talked to her.

“Madison Horse?”, he asked. “My name is General Kurtz and I am here to talk about Dick Deville. I understand he was your fiancé…”

“A long time ago.” She hardly interrupted, still numb.

“Have you recently received any calls from Mr. Deville?”

“That bastard wouldn’t have the courage to do that, sir!”, Gordon interrupted.

Everybody looked at her, waiting for a reply. Madison shook her head almost instinctively, as if she was afraid of the notion. General Kurtz adopted a patronizing tone.

“This is a national emergency, ma’am, and potentially a global problem. I don’t know if you’re aware of the situation but the only communication we’ve received from those ships out there is that single photo of your fiancé. Every soul on Earth paying some kind of attention is wondering who is he and why they sent it. Governments and common people alike are looking for him, all over the world, I hope you would understand if I ask you a few questions.”

Madison nodded, overwhelmed by the man’s gaze upon her. She led the general to her very small office, while Rose turned to Gordon.

“I told you they were here.”, he whispered.

“Forget the aliens, Dicky ‘Devil’ is back from the grave!” Gordon muttered in utter disbelief.

Once she set foot on the street heading towards the general’s limo, she realized the madness was quite different than a rock star coming to town. Mass hysteria and fear preyed on the city, some people even deciding to put an end to the wait, killing themselves by jumping or other, more private means. Amidst the chaos, emergency services were overwhelmed, and corpses were piling up on the streets. Madison witnessed a couple during the ride, and the sound at the end of the fall made her shake violently, still not enough to get her back from that sleepwalking state of mind she had fell into the moment she saw Dicky on TV though.

Some people were gathering parties, openly carrying guns of all sorts and sizes, even improvised from tools like chainsaws, hockey sticks or kitchen knives. They seem to be looking for Dicky, cursing his name and threatening to kill him in barbaric ways, even if there was no indication of the man being in the area or ever did anything to them. The police were trying their best to keep order, but some rogue officers could also be seen guiding a party or two. Disturbing thoughts.

“They think the aliens want your fiancé for some reason, and that giving him to them is the only possible way to survive.”, General Kurtz said, emotionless, stating a fact. “It seems our weapons are useless, the Chinese already tried.” He paused, to let the information sink in. “He’s really in trouble, Ma’am, you’d better help him… by helping us.”

As the general had explained in the office -after politely declining a piece of pineapple pie she had carried with her out of instinct- the aliens hadn’t communicated with Earth. Well, nothing but the photo, which had taken over every TV channel, stopping the broadcasts at the same time. Governments had tried everything they could think of, without success. A large fleet of ships in outer space, waiting for a reply of some sort, their intentions unknown. Priorities for the military were clear: find Dick Deville by any means necessary.

Madison couldn’t even start to believe it. It was a regular morning, wasn’t it? And then Dicky happened and, again, he turned the world upside down. It was the general’s fault, really, he had urged her to help. Everything from that point forward seemed unreal, specially what he had said about God poking her out of a crowd to save the day, but she was under a lot of pressure and somehow got on board.

First stop, Dicky’s family home where reporters, cameras and other people were already camping in the loan, waiting patiently for any movement inside.

Somehow, the general got her inside despite the incoming flashes, rude questions, cheap insults and not so empty threats. Maurice Deville was sitting on his couch in front of the TV, as usual, when they opened the door. Dicky’s father was a bitter, lonely man. Madison walked around for a bit, didn’t know what else to do. She stared at one photo of the family: Maurice, Danielle and the girls. Everyone but Dicky. There was no picture of him on display. The fact didn’t escape the general.

“Aren’t you going to turn it on, Mr. Deville?”, she asked, feeling it was a stupid thing to say. She really felt out of place, it had been a while since the last time she was there.

“Not today”, he replied in a morose way.

“But you’ve heard, right?”, Madison tried again after the general urged her to with an piercing gaze.

Mr. Deville nodded, but didn’t bother to look at her.

“I should’ve killed the devil the day he was born.”, he said suddenly, with such confidence that even the general got the chills. “He destroyed this family, killed his own mother… She was so sad all of the time.”

“He was always good to me if that means something to you.”, she said without thinking, irritated somehow.

“Would you know where your son might be, Mr. Deville?”, the general intervened with a severe tone. “He’s in danger.”

Maurice Deville didn’t look at him either. His eyes were fixed on that black screen, as if staring at the abyss. What kind of thoughts he had in mind, no one would know, but he deeply sighted after a few eternal seconds.

“I don’t care, sir, I have no son.”

Next stop was the state penitentiary. “To see one of Dick’s old friends from his days as a gangster.”, the general had told her after a few silent hours sharing the back seat of the car. He was a disturbingly quiet man. Madison didn’t care much, she was thinking about the past, she was lost in her memories. She remembered happier days in that house with a quite different Maurice…

They reached the prison in the afternoon. Everything was already arranged. A four-star general on a crucial mission to save the planet makes things go smoothly. A Mr. Lucius Cooper was waiting for them. Madison had never been in the big house before -even when dating Dicky- so she was nervous, following the general and the warden without saying a word.

“They call him Claudius because of the limp but he doesn’t like it”, the warden was saying while walking through the long, grey corridors. “You can use it to hit a nerve but otherwise I don’t think he will say much.”

She didn’t know where they were being taken, but at some point the guards opened a door in front of them and there was Lucius, supposedly Dicky’s old pal. He stood with the help of a stick, looking at the window, savoring the view in his orange prison uniform.

“I am general Kurtz, Mr. Cooper, and this is…”, the general started to say before Lucius interrupted.

“Madison. Or should I say Maureen?” He chuckled and finally turned to see her with his own eyes. “I can’t believe the bastard was telling the truth the whole time. Ginger is for real!”

Madison couldn’t believe it either. Dicky used to tease her by calling her every name in the book but the real one: Mallory, Marguerite, Mary, Martha, Magnolia… every possible name but the correct one. She never believed it was funny until then. She smiled to herself thinking about how silly Dicky could be sometimes.

“How would you know that?” She had never seen Mr. Cooper, it was puzzling.

“Because Dicky talked about you a lot, honey. I know about the name mishap, among other things. He called you ‘My American Girlfriend’, you know?” he said, staring at the infinite for a second, right before trudging to the chair and sitting. “We all thought he was lying that Canadian son of a…”

“We need to find him.”. It was the general turn to interrupt. “Can you help us?”

“Why would I do that, G.I. Joe?”, Lucius mocked the general. “If they -he pointed at the ceiling- want to kill him, let them. Dicky Devil doesn’t belong to this Earth anyway, he’s too much evil.”

“Are you aware of the situation outside these walls?”, the general insisted, trying to get somewhere, to persuade the man calling to his humanity. “People are suffering, Lucius, and it’s only going to get worse unless you help us. Do you know where he is?”

“This is a prison, not a tomb… yet. We know. He screwed us all, the whole world, this time!”, Lucius replied with satisfaction hard to hide, as if enjoying playing with soldiers as much as thinking about the end of the world.

Madison couldn’t help herself after such a long, shocking day. She had loved Dicky once, more than anyone or anything she had loved before, and she remembered the feeling well, even after all the years passed without a word from him. It was not entirely his fault, she had never called him back after that last argument… Nobody knew him as well she did, and they were terribly wrong about him.

“He is a good, sweet man no matter what people say.”, she added without flinching.

“Let me tell you about that sweet boyfriend of yours.”, Lucius face changed to a nasty grin. “First day on the job he got in a fight with Crazy Olaf, a Norwegian troll with the brain of a fly. Big as a mountain, I tell you. Anyway, the boss wanted to know what was happening, so I told him it was the new guy, pushing Olaf to the limit. Not that it was hard to get there but… ‘He’s got balls. I like him already.’ The boss said. A month later, Dicky cut his throat from ear to ear and gave me the limp. He took over with Olaf’s help no less…”

She winced instinctively but Lucius was enjoying the moment too much to stop.

“Do you want to know what Dicky said to the boss while watching him bleeding to death like a pig? He said: ‘Don’t you worry, boss, I’ll keep the name on the door.’ We were part of a clandestine business, you see?” He laughed hysterically, but he couldn’t hide his bitterness reliving the moment again. He had lost everything the day Dicky Devil showed his face by the garage after all.

(#)

Dicky had walked into the café one day inspired by the name, he had told her later, and it was love at first sight. Not with the place or the pie, but with the girl. And the girl loved him back despite what people were whispering from behind. That first day had been magical. Well, until she broke the spell with a mood change after some of Dicky’s political remarks, throwing him out hoping he would never return. He was Dicky Devil, after all, breaking the rules was in his DNA, so he did come back a few weeks later, all his charm intact, and she willingly fell for it…

Madison smiled thinking about that moment. The memory brought back heat to her frozen heart, and she desperately wanted to hold on to it, even if the general was asking something important, judging by the serious look on his face. She didn’t care, she was feeling in love again, in her mind at least. She indulged herself a little longer.

Dicky acted like he had never been kicked out of the place, confident as usual and showing a very short memory for his own sins. She apologized, however, for the rude way she had treated him.

“Never mind”, he smiled. “I have that effect on people”

Then he shrugged. Nothing could ever bother Dicky.

“No, you don’t.”, she automatically replied, as if she was afraid Dicky would dissipate into thin air. “You seem like a friendly guy, actually.”

And that was it, love at first sight. Madison sighted, still caught in the pleasant memory. The general’s voice was getting through now, she could clearly hear it this time.

“Do you remember any place at all? A special place… secret spot or something the two of you shared? It’s getting uglier by the minute and I need something, ma’am!” The general kept trying despite being clear she was daydreaming.

They were in the car again, leaving the state penitentiary after getting nothing from crippled Lucius Cooper.

“What?” She pulled herself together the best she could. “Maybe, his grandma’s, I don’t know.”

General Kurtz seemed satisfied and ordered the soldiers to go there. They already knew the location, of course, even if it was a cabin in the woods somewhere along the Canadian border.

They got there by night.

“I was hoping you would bring some of that special pie, sweetheart!” Germaine Deville said while embracing her once out of the car. “How are you?”

Madison didn’t feel very well but she had to say something.

“I’m here, am I not?”

Once inside, the general received an urgent phone call and both women shared a moment of privacy.

“You can’t imagine what is going on out there, granny, the things they’re saying about Dicky. You know him, tell them they’re wrong!”, she almost begged, about to burst in tears.

“I love him, sweetheart, but not like you did. There was something wrong with that kid from day one. Even before, during the pregnancy, Danielle was complaining of severe back pain all the time… I’m not saying anything, and I love him to death, but Dicky is… well, not like everyone else. You shouldn’t trust the soldiers, by the way.”

“What? Why?”

Grandma Deville took a moment to look around, just a quick glance, but suspicious enough to make Madison forget about everything else.

“Dicky told me last time we spoke they had offered him some kind of deal. He was in prison by then, in deep trouble. Facing the chair, I guess, so he agreed. There was something in the way he said it, though, a warning maybe or just mistrust, but…”

“Did he say what kind of deal?"

“Something about the space program this or first contact program that… I can’t remember, but then I thought it was another lie to save face in front of his old granny. Now, who knows?”, she said, filled with doubt but lowering her voice. “Anyway, he doesn’t trust them, and you shouldn’t either. Here, let me make you a sandwich for the road.”

Not long after she was running away through the woods, followed by soldiers with dogs. Her heart was about to explode in her chest, pumping like crazy as the distant barking echoed in the forest. No time to think when or where everything went south, there was no need: Dicky was at the center of it again, and the world couldn’t stop its furious spin. She ran as if he was waiting for her in the other side of the mountain, feeling some kind of joy despite the circumstances. “Maybe I still love him”, she was thinking before falling after a bad step, unable to catch a breath and feeling almost done.

Soldiers came sooner than expected and the dogs went mad around her, acting nervous. Their masters had some trouble to keep them quiet, but she could only focus on the terrified eyes of the animals. At some point, the general appeared.

“Please, Mrs. Horse, you are surrounded and ought to see something…”, he patiently said while inviting her to follow him. “Please…”

Madison refused the closest soldier’s hand, she stood up by herself with all the dignity she could find after her embarrassing attempt of escape. She wasn’t sure the reason behind it all but after Germaine’s revelation her gut was telling her to run.

The general stopped after a while, but there was nothing or no one to see around, just a forest clearing. She couldn’t understand it, but she was afraid.

“What… do you want me to see?”, Madison built the nerve to ask.

Then, lights went on from a few nearby trucks. It was too dark to even know they were there, but a disturbing image was clearly visible in front of her. Madison looked with true horror upon a mass grave opened in the ground, like a nasty scar, just a few steps from her position. Everyone they’d talked to was there, from Red Nose to granny Deville, all dead, some with eyes still open. No sign of Dicky, though.

“What?” She turned to the general in utter disbelief, still harnessing some hope.

A gunshot followed. The general shot her right in the head and Madison fell into the grave with the others. That last glance, though, the last thing she saw, was Dicky’s face. The general had it, his soldiers too. They all shared the same face. After all her hopes, it was Dicky Devil who had killed her in cold blood.

THE END