Week 10 - Soliloquy

Athena slept most of the way to Miami after getting on the train. She woke up when the train was about five miles away. About ten minutes later, the train had arrived at the outskirts of Miami. She waited for the air brakes to make their final jerk to a stop, she stood up and walked down the aisle of the train car and stepped out into the warm summer air. In search to find a taxi or a nearby gas station to get directions, she saw a Texaco station about half a mile down the road. While walking along the sidewalk, all she heard was cars and Latino voices fading in and out from house to house beside her along with big SUV's with plangent sounds of hip-hop resonating from inside the cars. Athena finally made it to the Texaco station in search of directions to her father's workplace. The cashier told her to go two miles north, into the industrial part of the city. That was all the cashier knew. So Athena left the Texaco station and flagged down a taxi. She told the driver to take her north to the industrial side of town. After fighting the heavy traffic, she finally made it to what looked like a construction site. The ground was all dirt with bulldozers and pickup trucks all over the place. She motioned to the taxi driver that she was at the right place. Athena looked around the site in search for an office building or some kind of temporary building where the white-collar workers hung out. While walking along side of the other workers and trying to ignore the perverted taunts and suggested after hours plans, Athena finally made it to the main outlet building of the white collar workers. She asked one of the workers where the contracting company that her father worked at was. He told her that it was on the other side of the entire construction site, and offered to give her a ride over. The worker seemed kind enough; he was one of more mature and older workers. It wasn’t until the worker actually drove around the premises of the construction site when Athena realized how big the whole site really was. The worker then arrived where the groups of contractors were discussing future plans to the new buildings. Athena got out of the truck and thanked the worker who drove her from the opposite side of the construction site. She began to feverously look around and find her father, even though it’s been years since she had seen his face. She still remembers his voice. She purposely stayed in the shadows back by the tree line on the dirt’s edge while still trying to spot out her father in the small crowds of contractors, all with orange hard-hats. Athena then turned around toward the trees after feeling her cell phone vibrate. She checked who was calling, it said ‘private’. Not thinking anything of it, she turned back around only to look straight up at her father. The killer of her mother, and a killer still out in the public. Athena stood there for about two minutes, not saying anything, but she had recognized her father’s face this time. Something told her that this man standing in front of her was who she thought he was. Her father slowly started walking toward Athena and kept walking as he pushed her back into the brush of trees about ten feet. It looked like she was just walking backwards right up next to her father as he was walking forward. The father shoved Athena back and into a tree trunk, asked her what the fuck she was doing on a construction site all the way here in Miami. She told him that she wanted to try and settle the score for the death of her mother. Athena’s father really didn’t care at all about his wife, especially after the affairs she had with his boss. Even though Athena’s father told her in the voicemail message that it was for the better that her mother was not around anymore, made Athena think all the more less of her own father. He then violently grabbed Athena’s head and bashed it against the tree truck that was right behind her. Letting out a defenseless cry, Athena was trying with all her might to grab hold of her father’s arms to control them. It was like a physical fight in a dream, what you try to grab on to just doesn’t seem to stay, it was like trying to grab and hold onto soap. Her father had her by the wrists and was dragging her down a hill of thorns and brush down toward a stream of water. He then tossed her in front of him like a bag of sand, wiped his mouth with his forearm and pulled out his hammer. Athena was so terrified now, she was too nervous to move. She had the tightening feeling in her thighs right above her knees. Of course her father didn’t care, he never did. With snot dripping from his nose and a mouth in a disgusted position, he crept up onto Athena with his hammer. Slamming it right next to her face, he leans in and tells her to forget everything that had just happened, everything from the voicemail message to her being dragged through the brush. But as he said that, he relentlessly threw his hammer back and stuck Athena’s face down into the water of the stream hoping to drown her. After about two minutes of doing this, Athena wasn’t moving. Her father came to the conclusion that her daughter, her only daughter was now dead. Her father got back up to his feet, spat to the side and turned to walk back up to the construction site after picking up his hammer. He was done. She was done. But she was only done for another five minutes. Athena was not dead but only relaxed. She was actually relieved of the fact that her actual father now thought she was dead. Because of this she was able to escape and find a new life of friends, and a future family. That was what she did. She escaped very quickly. She kept running down through the woods away from the construction site. Finally coming to a main road, Athena flagged down another taxi. As she opened the door to that taxi, a new life awaits her.

Week 9 - Vis Major

Memories of Athena and her mother running by the water in the wet summer lawn when Athena was only a child was going through her head. She was now at a train station on the outskirts of some dead end town. Ended up staying the night there because by the time she got there, the last train had already left. It's now around 10:30am, and Athena was patiently waiting for the first train to arrive. The strange thing about this particular train station was that the first train of the day didn't arrive until 1:00pm. The last train left the station at 9:00pm. Athena was now staring to shake due to nervousness because she was reading a chart on the wall that had all the possible places that the train traveled to. To her surprise, a train actually would leave Arizona en route to Miami, Florida. Only one train at 8:30pm, it was one of the last trains to leave the station each day. It was almost 11:00am now; she wasn't really planning on sitting around all day to wait for that one train to leave at 8:30 that night. She walked outside to see what was around, only the road which she walked on for a couple of miles, and the bright desert sun overhead. It was like an old cowboy movie, but without the stringy bails of straw rolling past on the ground. She looks across the horizon with a puzzled expression on her face of not knowing where to go. Deep down inside, she really wanted to be in Miami right now to reconcile with her father. This stage in the game, trying to reconcile with a killer would be a far cry from anything productive. For Athena, it was worth a shot. By 8:25pm that night, Athena was pacing around the station waiting for the train that would take her to Miami. Along with herself, there were about twenty-five other people also waiting for either the same train or the very last train that would go to Austin, Texas. Before she knew it, the train to Miami had arrived and Athena got on and so did about ten other people. The train left the station and Athena was about to arrive at her father's feet and reconcile.

Week 8 - Entrained

Athena was trying to walk faster on the fresh pavement so that her shoes wouldn't stick to the tar. As for the recent voicemail message, she was starting to become desperate for someone, anyone to drive by and give her a ride far away from where she was. It was now about an hour of walking since she jumped over the guardrail and onto the road. She sat on the same guardrail to rest, with chin in hand, and elbow on leg. A cool breeze came by while Athena was trying to forget ever opening that voicemail message and also holding back tears. She was now shivering, wishing she was indoors or at least had warmer clothes on. She still had the light summer dress on from the beginning. Her semi-curly brunette hair was now in a ponytail. Still had on the big white sunglasses to block the sun, which was about as bright as a handful of starlit diamonds. It wasn't humid out, just really sunny. A few cars had actually passed on the road that Athena was on. But passing was all they did. Out in the Arizona countryside with nothing but a cell phone with hardly any service. She continues to keep walking down the road after seeing a state trooper coming up from behind her from about three-hundred yards away. Within about a couple minutes, the cop slows to the same pace as Athena's walking. All she could see was her own reflection in the cop's sunglasses. The cop kept driving after picking up normal speed again. Athena's father had done contracting work all along the southern coast of the United States for about the past year. The chances of him being around California or even Arizona was pretty unlikely since a lot of older newly retired people move to Florida looking for new homes. This was what Athena was also thinking about while she kept walking along the side of the road. Along with the possibility of actually seeing her father again. But what are the chances of that? Right now, slim to none.

Week 7 - Smoldered

Strangely, after she woke up she was able to remember more about that flashback from recently. The red lights and the two small square windows were part of an ambulance. It was now as apparent at a showcase trial on television. She checks her cell phone; it only has one bar of service because she was down in a valley far from any road or commercial building. A little digital icon of an envelope was flashing on the top of her phone's screen, it was a voicemail message. She walks around to try and find a more active spot for her phone to keep at least that one bar of service. Dials the security code for the inbox and listens to the message. Scratchy, it plays: knew I had to finish her off for good, that blonde headed bitch. All the shit she was doing with my boss, sucking his dick in the restroom stall, blowing in his ear whenever she was standing behind him in line at the bank. I knew I shouldn't have invited him to dinner that one night. At any rate, if you get this Athena, I moved to Miami last year and got a decent contracting job with some local Mexicans. I know it's hard for you to not have your mother around anymore but in the long run, it would have helped you out for the better. Hopefully I'll be able to stop by next time I'm in Arizona for Christmas. I love you. Athena was now in tears so bad after listening to that message, she was about to scream as loud as any conscious person during the Holocaust. Within the couple of minutes that it took to listen to that message, Athena had to let the reality sink in that her father was a killer and still out in the public. Like working in contracting was really a smart thing to do. Being inside future homes and buildings of the workplace. He could easily leave the gas lines open in a house for some unfortunate bastard to light up a cigarette and be blown to bits. All Athena knew now was to do all she could to get out of the area. She had to find some road or at least an area where her cell phone can pick up more service bars. After crawling up a semi-steep hill, Athena came up to a road guardrail. The road was freshly covered in blacktop with the odor of new tar all around. She starts walking, not knowing where this road will lead her. At least she knew it was to end up somewhere.