“What did you do with the body, son?” Asked the fat cop, his breathe dripping all over my face as he leaned forward out of the darkness of the small, bare police interrogation room. I smiled, just smiled, what else could I do? Explain it? Sure the fat cop would sure as Hell understand.” We know that you killed her, we just want to know where you dumped her body. Don’t you think her family has the right to know?” Again, I sat looking directly at him, what family was that? Haley didn’t have a family, at least not one that I’d ever met. When Haley came into my life I was attracted to her because she was … different. I’d been out in the woods just north of a small, sleepy town that I’d found myself in. I’d been told about Southern hospitality in The States and yet here I was a victim of Southern hostility.
I was just wandering around in the woods when I heard the sound of dry twigs snapping and felt that I was being watched through the trees. At first I felt nervous and a little afraid until I glanced up and saw Haley through the leaves. She seemed just as nervous but after we’d started talking she soon warmed to me and me to her. Turned out her folks had been killed in a crash, just like mine had been. Just like me she was left alone to look after herself. “Chicken, egg…egg, chicken.” She said, showing me the soft novelty toy that she was holding. She smiled as she pushed it towards me again. “See, it’s a chicken, now but if I pull it inside out, there, it’s an egg!” She smiled, enraptured by the simplicity of the toy and yet amazed that someone had somehow created such a thing of obvious wonderment to Haley.
The fat cop slammed his fist hard onto the desk causing the plastic cup that still contained a few droplets of coffee to dance and then roll off the edge. “I’m a patient man, son, and I always close my cases. You might think you’re smart, sitting there, all content. Think you can beat this fat, old Detective. You think that youth has an advantage over us tired old Dicks.” I smiled at the Detective’s choice of words. Bam! Then I landed next to the discarded coffee cup, reeling from the backhanded slap administered by the cop. “That’s wiped that smug expression off your goddamned face now hasn’t it, boy!”
I crawled back to the chair and pulled myself up, elbows on the seat then darkness as my jaw crashed back on the floor. The chair scuttled across the room, the fat cop’s boot still hanging in the air, as if directing the chair into the corner of the room.
I remained unconscious and was helped into a cell where I rested before further ‘discussions’ with the police resumed. Unfortunately, I’d found myself in the wrong town, a town where time seemed to have stood still, at least, as far as law and order were concerned. I’d heard about such places, places where you could live for nigh on 30 years and still be counted as an ‘incomer’, not from ‘round here. I was such a newcomer to the town and would have carried on moving had I not met Haley in the woods three weeks ago.
My mind swam between flashes of memories of Haley and I. She was about 18 years old but had a child’s innocence. Her face was without make-up but not without beauty. “See, it’s a chicken now but if I pull it inside out, there, it’s an egg!”
The soft toy kept her amused, I couldn’t figure out if Haley was innocent or had maybe just not been educated too well. She didn’t seem to have a learning difficulty, maybe it was just that learning was difficult for her and so she escaped into her own world where the simplicity of her toy was all she needed to believe in. Maybe life had already dealt her enough blows and now it was easier to focus on this toy. Perhaps everybody needed such a focus for when life became more complicated.
We walked through the woods talking for hours. Haley had no one but now she had me. I was around the same age but wasn’t too sure exactly how old I was. My own life had had its own complications before finding my way to this backwoods town where there seemed to be only one redemption, Haley. I loved her, and I could tell that she had feelings for me. I had to get her away from here, let her see a life outside of this dump. I didn’t know how I was going to do it. All I knew was that it had to be done.
“So you’re awake, didn’t mean to hit you so hard, son, I guess that smirk on your face did it. It brings out the darker side of my nature. Come on, let’s get you some fresh coffee and carry on where we left off…and I don’t mean kissing the concrete!” He laughed out loud, turning to his deputy and no doubt thought that he was a funny man. No doubt he was, in the right company. The company of his equals. That in itself was a scary thought; that this town was home to more like him, who would protect what they believed to be right at any cost. It reminded me that the more you believe a lie it became the truth. The frustrating thing was that the truth would never be believed. Life can be cruel but in that cruel existence something pure, something of true beauty could still survive. It was that hope that made the rest bearable and gave hope to the hopeless.
As we grew to know each other better I still found it hard to work Haley out. How someone so beautiful, who’s smile could push away every fear, every anxiety I felt had been touched by something so harsh, so brutal. Yet those eyes masked it so well. I suppose I envied her but loved whoever she was. I had to protect her and to do that I had to take her far away from here. Somewhere that they would never find her and therefore would never hurt her again and I knew that I had it in me to do this. That night we met again in the deepest part of the woods, the part that we believed was ours and ours alone. As we lay together I could feel her breath in my mouth and I began to touch her hair with the palm of my hand. I had never been this close to someone and believed the same of Haley. My mouth met hers and she opened up to me. My hand moved around her body feeling her every contour and she sighed as I reached down between her legs. She opened them up so that I could touch her deeper, all the time breathing in and out, allowing me to catch her every breath. Her hands began to search my body and it wasn’t long before we were both naked. I climbed on top of Haley and she guided me inside her. “Chicken and egg”, she whispered and rolled me over, still inside her. My body thrust in time to the rhythm she made. “Who comes first?” She giggled. ”Chicken and egg.” I replied and with that I thrust deeper again and again. The pleasure was mixed with an intense pain as she screamed out and laughed as she we climaxed in unity. Then my head spun into unconsciousness.
I woke up to find myself still naked, surrounded by Haley’s clothes and that strange toy that had amused her so much. Then I became very aware that I was not alone. “Get up, boy, you’ve got some explaining to do.” The fat cop and his deputy were silhouetted in the morning sun. They pulled me up from the ground and gathered her clothes. I stooped down to pick up the toy. “Here put these on you.” He threw a pair of stinking pants that were in the back of the Police car towards me, “That toy ain’t gonna hide your embarrassment!” The two cops laughed and pushed my head down as they pushed me into the back of the car. They drove me to the station and began their relentless questions.
It seemed like months that they had left me in that cold cell. Every now and then they would bring in someone new to try and get the truth out of me and the more people who saw the freak who killed one of their own, the easier it was going to be to do what they had in mind. It was no use. Every time I looked at them they saw the damned truth staring them in their eyes. Then the time came for them to do what they had wanted to do all along. “It’s time to go, son.” The fat cop said. I’d always believed that you couldn’t receive the Death Penalty if they didn’t have a body but I guess they’d already made up their minds. They were going to take the law into their own hands and have a private execution. No one would miss a stranger. The town was better without them. They dragged me into a nearby barn where they had made a make-shift electric chair, complete with its own generator and strapped me into it, allowing me to hold Haley’s toy. In front of the chair there sat a silent group of town’s people. They were all smiling, waiting to be entertained. The fat cop spoke his last words to me. He asked me if there was anything I wanted to say. “Chicken, Egg…Egg, Chicken” is all I could say as I squeezed Haley’s soft toy. He looked at me and shook his head. He reached down, picked up a tin cup and scooped some water from a nearby bucket and poured cold water over my head. He then placed a cap on me, tied a leather strap around my neck, placed some leads on the sides of my head and cranked up the generator. The current shot through my body evaporating me and as the lights flickered and the smoke cleared the cops stared in disbelief. There on the Chair sat the lifeless body of Haley clutching her toy. The fat cop turned to his deputy in disbelief. He leaned over Haley’s charred, lifeless body and picked up the soft toy from her lap. He turned again to his deputy and held out the burnt toy. “Chicken, egg. Egg, chicken.” He quietly whispered.
They hadn’t wanted to know who I was, where I came from, who my parents were or the crash that had killed them. Had they considered the fact that the crash had been caused as they were trying to land safely on this planet then they might have understood what I was capable of and what I did to try to protect Haley. I took her in when she needed a shelter. You see, it wasn’t always about Haley and I, it was also about the alien, I.
