G. A. Colin

😝

“Gina! Your friend Samatha is on the news, she has been murdered!”

Facing Reality

When you hear news so shocking you refuse to believe it, that is what I felt. A nightmare that would not end. I stood in front of my mom’s television set hugging the robe around me. I was numb watching the local news telling me about the girl that was brutally murdered and dismembered. All the while showing Sam’s Facebook profile picture in the upper right corner of the screen. This can’t be real?

Somehow the sound of my cell ringing broke me from being entranced from the news cast. “My…”

“Your what dear?” My mother asked.

“My cell… I… hear it ringing.”

“It’s right here sweetheart, on the coffee table. You laid it here when you went to take a shower.”

The phone went silent. She looked at the missed call and it was a number she did not recognize. The same number rang her again and she dropped it in shock.

This time she composed herself and answered the call. With a shaky voice she answered, “Hello?”

“This is the Columbus Police Department calling, I am detective Jack Oakley. Are you Gina Reese?”

“I… am. Please tell me Sam’s alive and this is some kind of mistake.”

“I’m afraid to tell you that no mistake has been made. I can not make you cooperate with us at this point, but if you have nothing to hide, you will answer my questions.”

“Are you saying that I am a suspect? Her concern turned to anger.

A long silence before the detective answered. “I am saying you are a person of interest. In the days leading up to her death, she received two text and one phone call. The two text are from you, the other is a call from someone by the name of Toni.”

Toni! Sam’s new girlfriend.

“Detective, I am not going to do your job for you. If you want to arrest me, then do it! I… on the other hand am going to find out who killed my friend. If you want to question me, here is the number of my attorney.” The detective ended the call.

“They can’t possibly believe you had anything to do with this?”

Gina looked at her mom, she wanted to tell her to quit being so theatrical, but all she said was, “No… they are grasping for straws. The CPD are not known for their police skills. If only I knew someone who worked in the CPD.”

“Wait… didn’t my friend’s son go to school with you?”

“What? What friend?” Gina was confused by her mother’s comment.

“My friend Laura Cohen. Her son is a patrolmen for the CPD. I think his name is Benjamin.”
Gina’s face lit up with surprise. “Ben Cohen is a cop?”

“Yes, Laura goes on and on about him. I swear she thinks he is a Sherlock Holmes or something. Normally, I would shut her down, but she always buys the good booze. So I just smile and nod until I’m good and buzzed.”

“Mother!”

“What, I’m old, not dead. Plus it makes love time with your dad better.”

“Oh my God mother, TMI!”

Gina tried to block out what her mother just said by thinking about little Ben Cohen. Two years her junior and he had always had a crush on her. She went to her room to get her year book and looked for his picture. Leafing through the book she found his class picture. Just as she remembered, a redhead with freckles and zits with a gap between his two front teeth. Now, how do I accidentally bump into him? She thought a moment and it hit her…. Social media!

She pulled out her phone and opened Facebook. She typed in Ben Cohen. Several showed up, but the only two in Columbus were not him. She retyped Benjamin Cohen, several more appeared. This time four from Columbus. The first was a bust, same with the second. The third however, the age matched… but the photo… if that was indeed little Ben, he sure aged well. The gap tooth was gone, his hair more of strawberry blond and a perfect complexion. Hell he could be a model. She clicked on “About.” He was a cop on CPD. She kept looking at his page and found an event he was going to. Highball! He’s going to Highball. I guess I am too.

Letting Go of the Past

Gina looked at her bare left ring finger. Her childhood plan was rapidly vanishing. As she sat at her vanity, she looked at her reflection and thought she could still pass for a college student even if her last class in accounting was seven years ago. She was curvy, had a taunt abdomen and her breast spilled out of any bra. No, she didn’t have any problem attracting men. It was finding the right one that had proved problematic. She brushed away the tear that tracked down her cheek when she heard her mother call out her name.

She thought a visit home would help her get over Max. Instead, it just gave her new worries. On her vanity was a scrapbook she made when she was ten. The cover had the title of “Life Plan.” As she looked through it a sad smile crossed her lips. She had cut out pictures from magazines that matched her plans. Graduate college at twenty-two. She silently thought, check. Meet Mr. Right at twenty-four, I met Danny at twenty-four, and he was gone by the time I was twenty-five. Get married at twenty-six, have first child at twenty-seven. Along came Max, I thought he was the one. “Bastard took up two years of my life!”

“Gina? Who are you talking to?” Her mom’s interruption of her pity party was right on que. Marcia stood at the entrance of her room holding a bottle of pink champagne and two flutes. “I thought we were going to celebrate your new freedom from that loser Mark?”

Gina smiled at the sight of her mother. She was a natural red-head that bleached her hair platinum blond and had every surgery possible to hang on to her long lost youth. Currently she was seeking her next husband which she called lucky number six.

“Hey mom, I was just looking at my old stuff. I see you still drink that awful sweet crap. Any chance there is any scotch left over from my dad’s collection?”

Marcia made a face, “I never understood how you could like whisky. But I guess you are your fathers daughter.” Gina thought she almost saw some emotion from her mom when she mentioned her dad.

“I think there is still one bottle left. Go look in the bottom drawer of his office, you know I don’t like going in there.”

Gina stood and went to her mom and gave her a hug. Her moms Chanel number five almost suffocated her. “Meet you in front of the TV, we will watch rom-coms until we pass out.”

When Gina opened the door to her fathers den another pang of sadness hit her. Maybe coming home was a bad idea. She was glad that her mom had kept his office intact. Maybe she did love him after all. She sat down at his desk and looked at all the nick knacks that he had collected. Avengers action figures, salt and pepper shakers, and of course Pittsburgh Steelers stuff. She opened the lower right door first and frowned when it was empty. The left however held what she was hoping for. An almost full bottle of sixteen year old Aberlour double cast. Silently she did the math, her dad died in 2001 so that made this bottle thirty-five years old. She grabbed a tumbler and the bottle and looked at a picture of the family when it was still a family. “Thanks dad.”

When she entered the family room her mom was looking for a movie to watch. The bottle of pink champaign was already half empty. “What am I looking for, a VHS or the new dvd thingy’s, oh and did you find dad’s whiskey?”
“Sit down mom, and it’s dad’s scotch and no one watches VHS anymore.” Gina poured herself a generous shot into the tumbler and looked at the movie collection. She admired how her dad had them displayed. First was action, then action comedy, then comedy, and so she skipped ahead to the rom com and picked Bull Durham. Maybe coming home was the right thing to do.

“Are you sure it’s safe to drink such an old whisky?” Her mom asked slurring each word.
“Mom! For the last time it’s scotch and yes, the older the the better!” Maybe coming home was a bad idea. No! I am going to meet up with my oldest and dearest friend Samantha and her new girlfriend. Coming home was right.

The Shocking News

As the light of day slowly started the wake up cycle, and the pounding in my head told me that doing a Kevin Costner movie marathon while drinking single malt scotch was a bad idea, I silently prayed to the scotch gods that I had not finished my dad’s last bottle.

I forced my eyes open and seeing the Boys II to Men poster on the ceiling of my bedroom, I once again questioned my decision to come home. Then I realized that I not only came home to see mom, but my best friend Sam. I sat up too quickly and the pain in my head went right to my stomach and the urge to hurl up old scotch consumed me. Fortunately, I managed to hold it in. I grabbed my cell and texted Sam, “Looking forward to seeing my besty and your new squeeze. We still meeting at the O.P.?”

I looked at my cell for a few seconds expecting the … of returning text but nothing. I shrugged knowing Sam was not the best at returning text. I staggered to the bathroom thinking: brush teeth, shower off my hangover and I will be right as rain. In the shower, the hot water and soap felt so good, I realized it’s been awhile since I’ve had s*x, and the thought of pleasuring myself crossed my mind. Hearing my mom’s voice killed that idea.

“Gina! Your friend Samatha has been murdered!”