(no subject)
Martirio and Johnny look like statues casting shadows across her breathing body. Johnny wears a F*ck me I’m Irish T-shirt, faded light-blue jeans and a pair of old sandals. The eyes behind Johnny’s sunglasses peer at Mary, Martirio moves to pick her up once again.
“Help me get her into your car,” he says, dragging her by her arms, yet again.
The blood on his shirt glistens under the light of the sun, and as if the gravity of the situation has just sat on his face, Johnny stands numb in disbelief.
Waking him from his daze Martirio shouts “Grab her by her legs so we can get her into the backseat.”
“Alright,” Johnny says, his mind starting up again. Opening the backseat of the car, he throws dirty laundry and a towel on the back seat so as to catch any spilled blood. He stumbles over to grab Mary by her legs and together they slip her inside, Martirio cradling her head and sitting in the backseat with her. Johnny closes the backdoor and runs around to the front of the car, opening his door and seating himself in the driver seat.
He puts his keys into the ignition before starting the car he says, “So…”
“Vegas and Bones are dead, and Mary will be too.”
He turns the keys in the ignition, “Just drive,” he whispers to himself.
This is when Martirio realizes Mary is staring at him, her deep, dark eyes starting straight at him. The ebony of her eyes drowning him, her skin so soft and pure calms him. Those two full lips and her soft breathing, slowing the beat of his heart. Even now, she completely entrances him, eyes locked together in a death grip. They stare at each other as worlds fall apart around them, here in the backseat.
The sun is almost above the horizon.
“What…”she half whispers.
Staring into those deep eyes, Martirio whispers back at her, “Don’t talk, save your strength.”
Her eyes stare back, seeing a blur of a circle from the light of the sun as she tries to keep eye contact with Martirio who still holds her close.
“I wanna go home,” she moans, “I wanna see my mom.”
“You’re going to be alright, Mary. I promise you, I promise you on my life.”
“I know you,” she says with a smile on her voice. “ I remember you, you’re the quiet boy.” She looks down at her wrists and the drying blood residing there. “What happened to me? What happened to everything?”
Her voice is confusion and delirium in one breath.
“Everything’s going to be alright, I swear this,” Martirio says, his confidence shining gold on each word.
Johnny in the front seat, a silent witness, stares back at the two through the rearview.
She sighs and whispers, “I miss my mom.”
“Me too, Mary, me too.”
She pushes with her hips and slides herself closer into him.
“I’m so cold…tell me about your mom,” she says looking back into his eyes.
“I…I…always lie to people about my mom. I tell them I don’t remember anything about her. But that’s not true, there’s one thing I remember. I remember the sound of her running.”
She looks back up to him and pulls his arms over herself like a blanket.
Now, Johnny who had been Matririo’s friend for years leans his head back to listen. He never even had the thought of asking Martirio about his mother.
“The night, the last night she lived, we got into a terrible accident. Drunk driver lost control after running across the train tracks. Huge truck just leveled our little car and we went tumbling off the street. I don’t remember nothing but headlights and broken glass. I was cut real bad, I was young and there was too much blood. My Ma, she pulled me out of the car. The drunk driver gets out of his car and splits. Next thing I know, my Ma’s got me on her shoulder and she’s running. That’s the last thing I remember, hearing her running. When I woke up in the hospital, she was already gone from internal bleeding. So all I can really remember when I think of her is the pitter-patter of her footsteps, and how she never cried. Not once.”
The front seat goes dead silent with the sound of revelation. Johnny can’t even believe his ears.
Mary smiles as she looks up again at Martirio, “I like that story…she sounds like a good person, your mom.”
Martirio nods his head, smiling at Mary who’s eyes slowly close here in the backseat.