Love and Its Lies

Four - Eavesdropping

Aly was disappointed the next day when she didn’t see John even for a second. As soon as she got up that morning, she immediately went to the diner where she first saw him, trod the same path towards the grocery store, and even speed-walked by his house—all to no avail. She had initially hoped that a casual meeting with him that morning would lead to him inviting her as his date to the party, but it seemed that their reconnection would have to wait a few more hours.

Aly looked at John's house from afar—it was one of the bigger houses in the town, with two floors and an attic, a brick chimney, and mostly single hung windows. The exterior beige paint had small cracks, the wooden deck and picket fences looked undeniably old, and there were mostly weeds in the yard. If Aly had not seen John enter this place with a key, she never would have guessed that this was where he grew up in.

Seeing no signs of movement in the house, Aly decided to leave and explore the town. A few meters away from his residence was the graveyard—even the thought of living near the place where they buried dead bodies seemed unfathomable to her. As she walked further, she found a mechanical shop, a bakery, a record store, a pub and a salon.

Thunder rumbled above her, and a strong gust of wind suddenly blew—shaking the branches of the trees and letting leaves dance around. It was a good thing that Aly knew better and wore the jacket and pants she bought yesterday in a hurry. Those were not her style, but they did their job. A few of the locals even greeted her good morning—people she had never talked to before. She had never once said good morning to a random passerby in the city—and it made her feel a bit more welcome. As if she’s finally blended into the crowd.

The smile of pride on her face was suddenly washed down by the downpour of rain. Aly entered the first public building that was nearest to her, which turned out be the library.

The librarian—or a teenage boy with his feet up on the desk, playing a rock song out loud on his phone—only nodded at Aly to acknowledge her as she came in. The only other person there was a woman snoring at one of the tables. With the rain pouring as if it didn’t plan to stop any time soon, Aly decided to check out the shelves.

Most of the books and journals were more than two decades old, and the computers were still those old versions of desktops that Aly’s high school used to have. While scanning the book titles, her phone rang and she instinctively answered.

“Hello,” she whispered, but then realized none of the other people would probably care if she made a noise.

“Aly Craig! Where have you been? I ran into one of your classmates and she said you’ve been AWOL the past few days!” Brenda bellowed from the other end.

“I didn’t go AWOL, I’m on vacation!” Aly replied. “I filed a leave of absence before I left.”

“And where exactly did you go to?”

“Just… somewhere.”

“Aly,” Brenda called her name accusingly.

Aly guiltily bit at her lip as she mindlessly thumbed the edges of a book. “It’s just for a week, I promise! I’ve been passing my worksheets online.”

She could hear her friend taking a deep breath, as if trying to calm herself. “What in the world were you thinking? This is a total stalker move! I shouldn’t have told you about John.”

“I’m not stalking anyone,” Aly whispered back. “I’m just concerned! Look, I’m just checking up on him.”

“Checking up on him,” Brenda sarcastically said. “Have you even talked to him? You’re not even that close to ‘check up’ on each other, Aly.”

“I have a plan. I am going to talk to him tonight. I'm gonna—I’m going to engage him in conversation, tell him I just happened to be in town, make up some excuse, and then when I learn that he’s alright, I’ll take the next flight back,” Aly said, as if what she had just said was the most normal thing.

Brenda was silent for a second, then with a serious voice, she warned, “I’m going to tell your parents.”

“No!” Aly shrieked, before lowering the volume of her voice again, “No, don’t. I’ll be back next week, I promise.” If her mother knew, she would probably take the next flight and drag her back to the university by her ear.

“This is crazy, Aly. I tell you, crazy! I supported your unrequited love for John—who's cute and hot and he's okay, but he’s not really that—anyway, I supported it because I thought it was nice and refreshing and kind of sweet. You know I’m a hopeless romantic and I also want you to get the guy, but this! Following someone you barely know—”

“I don’t just barely know him, we had classes in college together—”

“I had the same classes with him, sunshine,” Brenda said in a deadpan voice

“Yeah,” Aly said with a “duh” tone, “but we had a project together, and there was this one time at a frat party when—”

“Aly, you are sending total stalker vibes. This is unhealthy and it is not going to end—” Brenda was saying, but Aly had already pressed her forehead on one of the shelves and placed her phone on top of it.

“This is a library, Miss.” A voice suddenly said behind her, making her stand up straight and drop the call immediately.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that I thought—” Aly turned around to apologize, but seeing who it was, decided otherwise. “It’s you,” she said with much disappointment, “again. And you say you’re not following me?”

Danny rolled his eyes as he placed his glasses back into his pocket and took out a handkerchief. He handed it to her—which Aly then remembered she had lent him after she punched him square in the face. She noticed that the bridge of his nose seemed swollen, but at least it wasn’t broken.

“I’ll have you know, I’ve been here for an hour. You can ask Marty over there,” he nodded towards the teenager, who continued to tap away in his phone while bobbing his head along with the beat.

Aly scoffed and crossed her arms. “An hour in the library? What are you, a student?”

“Bold of you to assume I spent that much time in the library as a student.” Danny realized how that sounded when Aly made a face. Quickly and trying to cover up his embarrassment, he added, “I read books at home.”

“Nice save there, bud. Do you have any business with me?”

Danny shrugged. “None, really. I was quietly reading in a corner, when you disturbed the peace. I don’t know what the customs are in your city, but people are usually supposed to be quiet in a library.”

Aly frowned at him. “You know I’ve seen your ID, right? You work in the same city I live in.”

Danny ignored her comment and continued, “And I just couldn’t help but overhear something about stalking. As a concerned citizen, I have to know what’s going on.”

“Well, if that is the case,” Aly walked past him and headed for the exit.

“Are you going to the party later?” He asked as he followed closely behind her.

“Maybe.”

“To stalk someone?”

Aly rolled her eyes as she pushed open the doors. Danny stayed behind and called after her, “It’s raining hard! You don’t even have an umbrella.” He was right, but it would be even more embarrassing to turn back around, so she continued walking.

By the time Aly arrived back at the hotel, her clothes were soaking wet. She quietly opened the door very slightly to peek in, and saw Fred behind the front desk. The door to the kitchen was open, as he conversed with his wife. Aly planned to sneak up the stairs—in an attempt to avoid the judging stare of the old man, as she would probably be trailing mud on the floor—but she overheard him say, “Did you hear that the Wendell boy is a hotshot now?”

The very mention of John’s last name made Aly stop and open the door a bit more to get a better listen.

“Marketing or accounting, that sort.” Fred continued as he scanned through papers.

“It’s good he’s made a name for himself, after all he’s been through.” Marion’s voice was barely audible coming from inside the kitchen.

“Didn’t seem like his head got too big, though. Probably took after his father. His mother was—"

Marion poked her head out of the door to sternly say, “Don’t talk ill of others, Fred.”

He shrugged at her. “Not like I’m wrong. Irresponsible, that one, leaving her child to—”

“She probably has her reasons.”

Fred bitterly snorted. “She found a wealthy husband in the city is what.”

If Aly’s ears heard correctly, the two were talking about John’s mother, but, something seemed wrong—what did they mean by “leaving her child” when she’s supposed to be ill and being taken care of?

Aly craned her head to get a better listen, when she suddenly sneezed, causing Marion and Fred to look in her direction. Since she was already seen, she fully stepped into the lobby. A concerned Marion rushed towards her and said, “Oh, dear, you’re dripping from the rain! Let me get you a towel.”

Meanwhile, Fred pointed at her and strictly warned, “Don’t take another step! I just mopped the floors, young woman.”

Aly did as she was told and stayed in place until Marion handed her a robe and a towel.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” she lied, “but I heard you talking about someone’s mother leaving?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Aly. It’s just useless gossip, really,” Marion assured as she patted the towel on Aly's head. “Come on, let’s get you to your room and we’ll bring you a nice cup of something hot, so you don’t catch a cold. There’s still a party to get to in a few hours. It will be grand! Every household participates in the preparation, and this year we signed up to cater food.” Marion rambled on.

Aly wanted nothing more except to probe, but settled on nodding and following her—fully aware that it would look suspicious if she asked more questions. She was probably wrong. They were probably talking about some other person named Wendell, or she most likely misinterpreted their conversation. Yes, that was probably it. A good ol’ simple misinterpretation. There were more things of import to think about. For example, the party—the one where John will be at for sure.