Chapter 2:
The day was warm for autumn, the
sun was bright and the sky was blue with a slight wind that kept the air at a
pleasant temperature on the construction site.
Cody was busting up concrete with a jackhammer letting the heavy shaking
create a pleasant white noise which he could think of things. At the forefront of his mind were notes and
chords that floated around in a wild cacophony that needed to be properly
arranged to create a pleasant melody.
“CODY!” Cody jumped in surprise at someone yelling
and touching his shoulder causing him to look to the side to see Bart one of
the other workers.
“Geeze, man, you scared the hell
out of me, what is it?” He turned off
the jackhammer and leaned against it.
“Time for lunch, man, next time
don’t day dream so much you forget to look at the clock.” Bart chuckled, “Some of us are going to grab
a bite from the food truck, you comin’?”
“Nah, I brought my own stuff, I’m
just gonna go and eat it on the west side of the lot and enjoy this nice day
for a bit, maybe do some writing. I’ve
had this song in my head all morning and I’d like to get it down and arranged
before I forget it.”
“Alright, alright, maestro, you go
do your musical thing and have a good lunch.
Keep an eye out on your time though.”
“I will, don’t worry.” Cody chuckled to himself and laid the
jackhammer down before he went to grab his stuff from the trailer that was on
site and went to eat.
Walking along the quieter part of
the construction site Cody couldn’t help but look up at the sky. It truly was a great day to eat outside. Not too warm nor too cold and little wind
meant that he could write in his father’s old music book without the pages
being blown about. He walked over to a
small pile of cinder blocks and sighed happily as he looked about. Tall buildings that housed any number of
people and businesses stood across the street from him and looking down the
dead end road he saw what looked like road construction being set up. It seemed the area was going to be getting a
lot more renovating than what just he and his fellow workers were doing.
As he got out a sandwich he started
to write down the notes he had been hearing in his head all morning. Just a few simple chords with a few notes
from picking were all he had come up with so far, but as he wrote them down and
started to eat he saw a way that could make them work into a pleasing melody. With a sandwich in one hand and a pencil in
the other Cody wrote down the notes and hummed with pieces of bread and meat in
his mouth trying to find the key to his new song. Time seemed to stand still for the young man
and nothing could draw his gaze from his notebook until the shadow of a person
fell over his lap.
Looking up Cody saw a wide
shouldered man wearing a black suit with a black tie and a grey shirt. The man gave off an air of seriousness and
his look was like something you’d see in a funeral home. He wore a pair of reflective sunglasses that
looked to be high end and were so clean that Cody could clearly see himself in
the reflection.
“Are you Cody Johnson?”
Cody nodded concerned. The man’s voice was serious and deep and his
tone made it feel like he had something bad to say. The air suddenly got a lot more tense as the
man looked around the area. It was at
that point that Cody noticed that he was completely alone and there was no one
around to help him should things get bad.
Not that Cody was by any means unable to take care of himself in a
fight, but this had all the makings of something a lot more serious than a just
a couple of guys throwing punches.
The strange man turned back towards
Cody and reached inside his jacket to pull out a long unfolding metal
cane. Before Cody could react he was
struck in the side of the face by the cane and sent spiraling to the cold
ground below. Blow upon blow came down
upon the young man as he instinctively curled around the notebook he had been
clutching. After several blows the
stranger reached down and grabbed at the book but it was held tight under
Cody’s arms.
Just as the dark man stood up to
rain down more blows a shout came from down the side of the road followed by
several more voices shouting. Cody kept
his face down and covered until the man started to run off when he relaxed and
looked to the side to see Bart and several other of the construction workers
rushing towards him. Feeling safe for
the moment Cody let his body relax and fall to the side flinching in pain as he
felt what was likely a cracked rib or two on his side.
What followed next was a standard
course of action despite the strange and seemingly random turn of events. Cody was taken to the foreman’s office where
he was examined and made comfortable until an ambulance and the police could
get there. The questions of who the man
was and what he wanted were asked as he was examined by the EMTs but Cody
barely had an answer for them. It had
seemed as if it was a completely random act of violence brought on by
nothing. When asked if he knew the man,
Cody honestly answered that he did not, but did mention that it seemed the man
knew him.
The police were puzzled by the
strange occurrence but had little that they could say. Normally random violence was done by lower
class people and not normally done by someone who would be so well dressed and
proper looking. They thought that Cody
might have something the man wanted but there was nothing that stuck out about
him that seemed valuable. Common clothes,
no jewelry, and even his cell-phone was looked at to see if it had something
the man could have wanted. Everything
that Cody had on him was gone through, even his father’s music book but there
was nothing about any of his things that seemed to stick out to them.
In the end the police had no choice
but to call it a random act of violence and tell Cody to call them if something
else came up. It was a harsh turn of
events for him but as he was taken away for an X-ray all Cody could think about
was why someone would want to attack him.
He wasn’t worth anything, he had no enemies, no real money, and as far
as he could remember there was no one that would have hated his father either. As the hours passed nothing he could think of
made any sense to him and it frustrated him to no end.
Hours later after several tests to
see if he had any broken bones or internal bleeding Cody was dismissed from the
hospital he had been taken to. The final
verdict was 2 broken ribs, a sprained wrist, several bumps and bruises, and a
very mild concussion. Bart had been
asked to go with him with his things for when he was done and to drive him home
after and was more than willing to help the poor guy.
“You sure you’re ok, man? I mean that guy seemed to really have it in
for you the way he was hitting you.”
“I’m fine, Bart, you can quit
askin’ me that already. The doctor says
I just need to take it easy for a few days and to not overexert myself. Thankfully they gave me some of the good
stuff.” Cody chuckled as he held up a bag
that held his pain killers, “This stuff’ll knock me out good and I’ll sleep
well tonight.”
“Well okay, I’ll come over tomorrow
to bring ya some food if ya want. I know
you don’t cook much after all.”
“Thanks, man, ‘preciate that.” Cody smirked as they pulled into the parking
lot of his apartment complex. It was
hard to walk after all the hits he had taken, and taking deep breaths hurt his
ribs, but Cody managed to walk up the steps towards his door when he stopped.
“What’s wrong?” Bart came up behind him carrying his stuff
when he saw the door leading to Cody’s apartment knocked in.
Cody walked in as fast as he could,
holding his side and looked around at his home.
It had been completely ransacked and it seemed like there was nothing
that hadn’t been gone through. The couch
was tipped over, the tv was knocked over, cushions were ripped open, and even
his kitchen was ransacked with food boxes open and dumped all over floor. As Cody walked around he heard a small
whimpering and walked into his bedroom not surprised to see everything he owned
thrown everywhere and torn apart and his guitar apparently smashed against the
wall. He walked into his closet and
found his dog curled up.
“Hey girl…” He scratched her ears and looked around sadly
at his home, “Guess we’ve both had bad days huh?”
Bart called the police as Cody sat
on his sofa after it was turned back over.
It seemed like he had been cursed with all that had been happening. First he had been randomly attacked and now
he came home to find his place torn to pieces.
The police came by and asked more
of the standard questions. Was anything
taken and was the door locked among other things. Cody could barely pay any attention to these
things as he just muddled over it all.
He didn’t have much and what he did have wasn’t worth much. His TV wasn’t anything special, his guitar
was a simple one, he didn’t have many movies or an expensive game system to
play, and his mattress and sofa were definitely not something so special to
warrant tearing them apart.
The police figured that whoever had
attacked him had also likely gone through his apartment looking for
something. What someone could be looking
for however was beyond the scope of Cody’s imagination though for the night. He had nothing anyone could possibly want;
the only things that he even truly treasured above all else were his father’s
music book and his guitar and that had been smashed to pieces. Everything else was just small mementoes;
pictures, a few books, picks, guitar strings, and a few knick knacks he had
collected over the years for decoration.
It was hard looking around his home
as the police officers made notes of everything. It actually frightened him that something
like this had happened to him for no real reason. It was a long time and while all Cody wanted
to do was go to sleep he said he would have to go to the station to finalize
some paperwork.
Bart said that he’d take Bella to
his place and that Cody could stay with him for awhile until things settled
down. Packing up a few of his things in
a bag to take with him, Cody took one last look around his place before walking
down to the squad car. The day had
started so bright and warm, but now Cody just looked around and felt cold in
the darkness of the night.
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