The Guardian at the Gate - Book I - Chapter 2 – Alicia

The Guardian at the Gate - Book I - Chapter 2 – Alicia

 

            She watched him storm off towards the little shack that was the outpost for the Wander County Sheriff’s depart.  He had a way about him, that he made storming off seem to be his thing.  She knew Kody was an angry person.  He sometimes his anger radiated from him.  You didn’t have to say a word to the man and you knew exactly what to expect from him.  She watched him go and blinked the tear away before it could form.  The cold Indiana wind blew hard.  It pushed her hair around her head and into her eyes, which instantly began to water. However, if this man saw even that then he would take it for weakness, make him think he had won, gotten to her.  Not that he had eyes in the back of his head but still, he was former FBI and well maybe he would just look back, and think he got his reaction. 

She shook her head and turned away and headed back to her car.  Well it wasn’t her car.  It was Dad’s or used to be.  She pulled her jacket closer to her as the wind cut across the parking lot.  Was this early wind a prelude, to a long cold winter?  She didn’t know.  However, with everything else that had been going on in this godforsaken town, she wouldn’t be surprised. 

            She used the key fob to unlock her father’s SUV and slide in behind the wheel.  She shut the door behind here and picked up her phone.  No missed calls.  Jacoby hadn’t gotten back to her yet.  She looked back at the small outpost on US 41 and thought about Kody Ransom and his cold heartless words.   Words were a gift for Kody Ransom.  She shook her head and put the keys in the ignition.  What an asshole she thought. 

She couldn’t believe this was the same boy she had shared a childhood with. The boy who was considered by most to be the nicest of the Ransom boys?  He was after all the middle of the three. Kody had always been the typical middle child.  He played the role better than anyone else as if the role was defined by him, not form him. 

The summer they had spent together all those years ago.  He had been so sweet.  Always, knew the right thing to say.  He came off as knowing so much more than he should for a boy of seventeen and after what he had been through, maybe he was.  Sure there was an arrogance about him, but never like the other two.         

Now though, she had always known that Kody could be a jerk.  She never thought he would be cruel for the sake of being cruel.  That is what his comment was though.  “That paper hasn’t had a shred respect since the old owner passed on.”  No, he had malice in his eyes when he said it.  It had been Kody coming out with guns a blazing and not caring one little bit about who or what he said.  The man had turned out so different form the boy.

Then again had he really? After what was the first thing he had ever said to her all those years ago? It was light years in their lives and their summer. What exactly was the first thing he had ever said to her, when she had shown up with two of her girl friends at his house for one of Kane’s parties?  She chuckled a little bit, oh those famous parties that Kane Ransom, Kody’s older brother, used to have. 

            It was her first real high school party.  Her and her friends had been invited because one of the others had caught Kane’s eye.  So, bubbling over with excitement they arrived.  Hoping to have the night of their lives.  When they pulled up to the manor, because that is all the Ransom house really could be called.  It was huge and stately, and had gates out front that were imposing to say the least.  It was their first party here, they didn’t know they were supposed to go around back and enter through the back doors.  So, her and her two best friends wandered up to the front door and range the bell. Again, she laughed, they all three were so excited for their first real party and at the Ransom’s. Then some little son of a bitch opens the door and looks all three of them up and down as if taking stock and dead pan simply says “What the fuck do you sluts want?” and then he slammed the door her in their face.  They were in shock but they could hear they boy, who could only have been the middle one.  She knew because the younger one was famous for his golden locks and blue eyes.  The son of a bitch that had opened the door had deep brown eyes and brown hair that hung to his shoulders.  Also, he was stalky.  The middle boy was the stocky one.  She knew that and she heard him clearly yell “Kane some of you whores are here.  Tell them to go around fucking back man, I’m not your doorman.”

            Yes that was meeting one with Kody Ransom.  He hadn’t always been that immature though, had he?  Then she heard herself ask and not for the first time “What the fuck am I doing here and why, why fuck of all people does he have to be here?”

            She had left this place.  This little town in the middle of nowhere Indiana.  The one people who travelled through the area on US 41 or I 70 referred to as the Armpit of America.  It could smell like one at times.  Paper mills, they smelled and if the wind caught the factories right, the entire town would smell like a used gym sock.

            Clark University had been home for six years.  The college years were great years.  She loved and missed those years the most.  Worcester, MA was definitely a different world than Wander, Indiana.

            She had gone there with a dream of studying liberal arts, then moving onto some other graduate school.  Her liberal arts studies lead her to editing.  In the end was she really surprised?  She had been a daddy’s girl and he was an editor and owner of the Tribune, Wander’s only newspaper.  Dad always said she had a gift for editing.  She did, she was good at it.  She loved it and it made her happy.  It made her think of Dad, and all those late nights with him in his office marking up documents.  She didn’t have to be there, with him, but she loved it and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

            When she graduated at the top of her class, which was no surprise to anyone who had ever known her, or to dad.  There was a job offer, one that she knew would come.  Dad offered her a position.  He knew and she knew that she wouldn’t take it, but it was offered nonetheless.  Dad understood. Alicia was driven.  She wanted more than to work at the small town paper.  Dad understood and supported her decision, not to take the job back in Wander. 

            No she left Clark and went to New York.  Those first years in New York weren’t kind ones either.  The Internet had changed the publishing game.  The boom was over and no one was hiring full time.  She knew she could go home, she knew that Dad’s offer would always be open.  He even told her she could come home for a few years and get the experience on her resume and then try to head back out to New York. 

That in her mind was quitting.  Giving in and she wouldn’t do that.  She was going land a nice paying senior editing job in New York, the heart of American Media.  Either for the Times or for one of the big magazines, she was going to do it.  When Alicia was going to do something it got done. 

So, she became a freelance editor.  She took whatever jobs came here way and she edited.  One week she found herself editing trash romance novels.  While the next she was editing web pages.  She edited books.  She edited magazines, columns, whatever work she could get she would take it and do it.       

She worked or at least tried too.  When there was work to be had she worked days, nights, and even on the weekends.  If she could she would work all the time.  If she could she would take three or four editing jobs at one time.  Some weeks she had a paycheck, and some weeks she didn’t.  She lived in a one-room shanty that served as bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen.

When she couldn’t make enough editing, she would wait tables at a local bar where she had become friends with the owner, a nice middle-aged women, whose husband had passed on a few years before.

Life in New York was hard.  The money wasn’t plentiful.  The living conditions weren’t home.  However, this was her life.  It wasn’t what it was before.  Her passion for the work burned through.  All the while her biggest supporter and fan was Dad.  He would send money from time to time, but being a small business owner, it wasn’t as if he had a ton to share.  However, he and mom did what they could to support their eldest daughter and her dream of making it in the big city. 

Mom and Dad called regularly.  They called almost too much.  However, it was out of love and support.  Their little girl was going to make it.  When they came to visit they never imposed.  They made her feel like her little apartment was a palace and her waitressing job was better than the being a CPA. 

As she worked, she started to get a good reputation around the City.  People loved her work.  They loved her attitude and drive.  She made each one of her clients feel special and like they were the only one.

In a city where editors where a dime a dozen, she was starting to stand out.  She had differentiated herself form the other young editors around.  People started to offer her jobs.  They wanted Alicia Kiely to be their editor.   However, she kept freelancing, and that is how she caught the senior publisher of the Times eye. 

So years of scrapping and working like a madwomen all paid off when she did that.  When she got the call letting her know that a senior editors spot at the times had opened up and she was the person they wanted to fill it. 

Her eyes began tear up as she spoke to the Times.  She couldn’t believe it! She had made it!  The hard work had paid off.  Even as she spoke to the publisher taking down notes about when she would start, salary, and all that, her phone beeped, and she looked to see Mom and Dad where calling.  They would have to wait though.  This was her moment and she wanted to savor it. 

            She dialed Dad’s cell phone.  He should know first.  Wasn’t this his dream much as it was hers?  She remembered him talking about when he had thought about leaving Wander and the paper his father had established to go national.  Yes this was not just her moment but also theirs.  Together.  She had made it and was going to paint her masterpiece with Dad in her corner rooting her on. 

            “Alicia?” Mom’s voice answered.  “Alicia sweetie is that your?”

            “Ya Mom it’s me? What’s up why are you calling me from Dad’s phone?”

            “Alicia you need to come home.”

            “MOM?  Mom you are scaring me. Mom.  What is going on?  Is there something wrong with Daddy?”

            “Alicia, Dad is very sick.  The treatments aren’t going well.  The doctor says there isn’t much time.  Sweetie you need to come home now.”

            “Treatments MOM.  WHAT do you mean Treatments?  Mom what is going on?”

            “Oh, Sweetie.  We should have told you.  We should have, but he didn’t want anyone to know, he was going to beat this.  You know your father.  How…”

            “MOM, stop babbling and tell me what the FUCK is wrong with Dad right now.”

            There was a long pause and she could here the heavy breathing from the other end.  Had she ever cussed at her mother before?  She didn’t think so.  Cuss words didn’t really fly in the Kiely household.  She could hear her Mother’s choked breaths and knew she was sobbing.  She had been sobbing, the entire time. In Alicia’s joy and then panic she hadn’t really noticed. It had been there.  The entire time, Mom was trying.  Mom was trying to tell her something.  She heard voices in the distance and heard the phone change hands.

            “Ali-girl” a young female voice said.

            “Court! Oh Court what is going on?”

            “Hey, Big Sister, they called me home earlier.  Dad has Cancer.  Has had it for about six months.  He has been under going treatments I guess.  They kept it a secret.  Dad said he was going to beat it.  Ya know.”

            Her sister breaths became quick and she sniffed loudly.  “Oh God Court. Oh God, no! No, no, no, no.”

            She stared into the cold Wander, Indiana night.  That was the call that was supposed bring so much joy, and change everything forever and she guessed in a lot of ways it had. 

            Instead of her big break though, she got a ringside seat to the battle for her father’s life.  It would be an epic battle to because Dad was a fighter.  Yes he was a fighter.  So if anyone could have given Cancer a run for his money it would have been Dad.  This is the man after all that for over fifty years he had kept the Tribune up and running and solely owned by the Kiely’s. Never once took on a partner.  Never once ask for money from anyone.  He fought hard and he made the Tribune what it was. It was something all right, the top circulating paper in Southwestern Indiana.  Even in this day of internet and apps taking over the world, he was able to have a solid circulation.  Yes, because of Dad and his fight, the paper was flourishing when no other paper was. 

            So Alicia like any good daughter went to this fight.  She sat ringside next to Dad and watched.  He would ask her about New York and about how it was going.  She would tell him fine, but after slumming it for a few years, she was ready to come home.  She was ready to work for the Tribune.  It was after all she told him where she really belonged. 

            He smiled when he heard that.  However, she felt like that smile never really touched his eyes.  That it was somehow hollow.  That he knew.  That he knew she had made it and was giving it all up to come home to take care of him, his business, and his family.  He knew as only fathers can know.  She never told him or anyone else. 

            She called the Times right before she left New York to go back.  Back to Wander, Indiana, back home.  She told them that she couldn’t accept their job.  That somehow she had always known that she was a regional paper kind of girl, but thank you so very much for the consideration.  Was she sure that they couldn’t change her mind, not unless you can cure fucking cancer you, she wanted to scream, but she simply said no.  Her mind was made up and she was going home.

For a year and a half, she watched her Dad fight.  She ran his business and newspaper by day and by night she would sit beside and talk to her Dad.  To make sure he knew how much his little girl loved him.  She wasn’t there though when he finally lost his fight.  No, she was out chasing down some lead on a story about the vanishing paper mills of Wander, Indiana.

She had been so strong since Dad’s death.  She only remember crying at the end and then once at the funeral.  Then that son of a bitch Kody Ransom actually had the addasity to bring Dad up and talk about how she hadn’t kept up the papers image and report. 

She followed her father’s formula for the paper.  Although since she took over maybe she spent a little more time on the Regional Section, as well as the Art’s and Literature Section.  She personally wrote a lot of those sections, and reported on them.  She knew that with Dad’s medical bills, Mom not working, and Court still at IU that she would need to kept circulation up, she was supporting four people now, and that was a big responsibility for her.

Her specialty for those sections though were capitalizing on the stories that have always surrounded this Podunk little town.  Wander was after all the Urban Legend Capitol of Indiana.  So, she took advantage of that.  They made for good reading.  People are always teaming for a good story.  So she was giving it to them.  She would do her homework, and give both sides of the multiple urban legends of the area.  She was able to spread them out over several different papers.  People where certainly loving it and circulation was up. 

Then that son of bitch Kody Ransom had to call it tabloid work.  It wasn’t tabloid work.  She wasn’t just making things up.  She was doing her due diligence; there really were a lot of strange things that had happened in this town.  Had her childhood actually been that sheltered?  That she hadn’t realized that some of these “legends” had actually happened in one form of another. 

One of the biggest happened to be directly related to Mr…

She was jerked out of her thoughts by her cell phone ringing.  It was the paper and she answered.

“Ali-girl?” a gruff voice said.  “You gonna have that piece on the grave robbers for us?”

“Shit Jacoby, yes, I will have it. I was following up on something about the Vanderlock girls disappearance.”

“You aren’t over there harassing your old friend Mr. Ransom are you?”

“Why no Jacoby, not at all. What would make you say that?”

He grunted.

“Speaking of Vanderlock.  Just an odd coincidence that Old Man Vanderlock’s place is right across from the robbed graves.  That guy just isn’t having any luck.”

“Ya, strange.  Maybe they are related?”

A laugh came through this time “Well, that certainly makes for a better story doesn’t it. By the way, I have a 1 o’clock for you with the Old Man Vanderlock tomorrow.  However, for now, I just need you to get your ass back her and give me the last column for the front page.”

“Thanks Jacoby, you ole Teddy Bear!”

“No problem lil’ lady, now stop harassing Ransom and get me my story!”

She laughed and hung up, started the SUV and pulled out of the station and headed for the paper.

           

 

Chapter 3 – Big Joe