The Lot Lizard

Chapter 2

I don’t remember the dorms looking this small when we dropped Ellie off. Maybe because I felt so small then loosing my sister and starting my last year of school all at 16. I walk up to her door and knock twice. I hear shuffling inside before the door swings open. Her roommate Maddison is standing there with blood shot eyes and hair that looks like it hasn’t been washed in a few days. “Oh Jessica, uh what are you doing here?” I stared at her for a bit because every time I saw her, she was always primped and primed up like she was going out to the club or something. “Uh is my sister in? I came to spend the weekend with her.” I am still looking her up and down when she says something I didn’t hear. “Sorry what?” I asked her. “Ellie doesn’t live here anymore. She moved out like three months ago. I thought you knew that?” What does she mean Ellie moved out? There is no way she moved out. She doesn’t have a job to pay for rent anywhere else. “What do you mean? Where does she live now?” Maddison moves aside and lets me into the dorm room. We sit down on the couch as she starts to tell me about how Ellie started to ditch classes and bail on their study sessions. She moved out with her boyfriend that I didn’t know she had, and Maddison hasn’t seen her since. I ask where this guy lives, but she doesn’t know. Just has a name and where he works. I take the little information she has and leave the dorm.

          I make my way through town to this rough looking neighborhood as I follow my GPS to an autobody shop on Jefferson. There is no way Ellie would hang out with a guy that would go anywhere near an area like this. I pull into the shop and get out of my car, holding my pepper spray I got for Christmas close to my side. An older guy with tattoos up and down his arms comes out. “Can I help you with something little lady?” He looks terrifying to me and I can barely choke out an answer. “Yes…Uh…. I…I am looking for Damon. Is he around?” “DDDAAAAMMMMOOOONNNN you got a girl out here looking for you!” This man’s roar was so intense that I thought I was going to pee myself right then and there. Just as I was somewhat gaining my composure, a young handsome man walks out of the shop wiping his hands. “Jessica? Is that you?” This guy knew who I was. How did he know what my name was? “Uh yeah hey Damon. Can I talk to you for a minute?” He shows me a little side area where none of the other guys from the shop could see us. It is about 50 paces from my car, so I think I can make it if I need to spray him and run. “How do you know my name?” Probably not the first question I should have asked but it was weird to me that I knew nothing of him and yet he knew who I was. “Well your Ellie’s sister, right? She has pictures of the two of you on her phone and Facebook.” I still don’t trust him, but I guess that answer will have to do. “Right. Well I need to see my sister. I went to her dorm, but Maddison said Ellie moved out to live with you and stopped coming to class. Where is she?” He looked confused as I was speaking but it quickly turned into what looked to be sadness. “She doesn’t live with me anymore. About two weeks ago she said she was done with me over a text message and I haven’t seen her since.”

          What does he mean she doesn’t live there anymore? Why didn’t she move back to the dorm is she broke up with him? Can I trust that he is telling me the truth? Where the hell is Ellie? My train of thought is broken by the older man that greeted me in the first place. “Boy you better get back to work before I have to fire you! Tell your little girlfriend to be on her way!” I look back at Damon who is now looking down at the ground. “I have to get back to work. If you want, you can meet me at the diner on 5th and Louis at 6pm and we can talk.” With that, he walked away leaving me there for a few moments before I walked back to my car. I don’t understand any of this at all.

Several hours later I am at the diner in a booth in the back. I have been here since 5:30 because I want answers and I want them badly. It is five till 6 pm and I am checking my phone then window then back to my phone. I have had seven cups of coffee and some cheese fries while I wait for Damon to get here. I start to think he is never going to show when I see a figure on a bike heading towards the diner. I realize it is Damon as he parks his bike and heads to the front door. I stand and wave to him when he comes in and he walks hastily to the booth. “Jesus Jessica, how many cups of coffee have you had?” He flags down the waitress and orders us both burgers and cokes. “Be sure to hold the onions on hers please. Thank you, Miss Doris.” Wait what? “How did you know I don’t like onions? How much do you know about me?” Doris walks back over with our drinks and sets them down with straws. She ruffs up Damon’s hair and tells him to be a gentleman. “She is just kidding. She’s my aunt and thinks it is funny to mess with me. I know a lot about you though. Your sister only ever talked about you. Honestly, I think I know you better than I know her.”

We sit there in silence for about ten minutes before our food is brought out. Before Damon takes a bite of his burger, he looked at me and then back down to his plate. “You know, your sister and I hadn’t dated for very long before she moved in with me. Actually, I don’t even think it was more than 2-3 days before she moved in.” There is no way he and I are talking about the same girl. My sister would never move in with a guy that she barely knew. I take a bite of my burger and forgot about everything for a moment in time. This burger had to be the best one I have ever had. “Why would she move in with you if she didn’t even know you? That doesn’t sound like her at all.” Damon told me about how they had first saw each other. Her car was supposed to be broke down on the road when he was riding by her on his bike. He asked if she needed help and took her down to the shop he works at. The older guy I had talked to earlier in the day looked at her car and said that it looked like someone cut the line to the brakes. He said she called him her savior. Then she moved in with him and she spent all her time down at the shop. Even when he was off for the day, she would ask to go by the shop for something. She would forget her computer or schoolbooks. Then one night they went to a poker game that Vinney put on. Vinney was the older guy and the owner of the shop. He said that was the last time he saw her. Ellie texted him that night and said she was done with him and when he got home, her stuff was gone.

None of this seemed real to me. How could my sister, who never skipped school or got bad grades, do just that in the span of two months? Damon showed me some pictures they took together outside the shop just a few days before she left. Her hair was cut super short and dyed blonde. Normally, she would never have her hair that short and she has never dyed her hair in her entire life. She loved her auburn colored hair to death. Yet there she stood, everything about her different. The only part of Ellie that I saw was her smile and eyes. Those she could never change. Damon and I sat and ate the rest of our meal in silence. I didn’t know what to say to him. Hell, I am sure he didn’t know what else to say to me. As we were about done Damon put his hand on top of mine. “Look Jessica, I will help you find your sister if you want. I have the weekend off and we can go around to places and see if anyone has seen her. That is, if you want me to. I know you don’t know me, but I know how much you and your sister love each other. I don’t want you to go home and not know anything about where she is.” We agree to meet at the diner at 9am to start the search. I don’t know if I trust him fully, but he does seem genuine.