SOMETIMES THEY GURGLE
Joe Prentis
rian and I love Francine, but not as much as we loved our real mother. After she and Dad married, she said she was fine with that and we were glad it didn’t bother her. I moved out of my room and across the hallway so Caitlin could have my bed. She was in my class at school and the kids teased her because of her red hair. I finally got tired of it told them to leave her alone. When we were walking home from school that day, she told me she was glad I stood up for her. She said she always wanted a brother and now she had two. I told her I wasn’t her brother. She played in her room―my old room—most of the time. Brian’s room is kind of small, but that was OK because Dad put up bunk beds and I thought that was kind of cool.
Things changed the night of the storm. I woke up when it was lightning and saw this white figure standing beside my bed. I thought it was ghost and almost screamed before I realized it was Caitlin.
“I’m really, really scared, Justin. May I get in bed with you until the storm is over?”
Before I could say no, she pulled the sheet back and burrowed her body against mine. I moved over a few inches and gave her half of my pillow. In the dark you couldn’t tell her hair was red.
Before we went to bed, Caitlin would drink a whole glass of milk, and then she would have to get up and go to the bathroom. She would usually come into our room and climb in bed with me. I asked her if she was afraid of the dark, and she finally told me she could hear someone whispering in the drain. Drains gurgle sometimes, I told her. She said it was voices. One night when she was really scared, I went to the bathroom with her, but I didn’t hear anything even though we listened for a while. I told her it was nothing but a bad dream.
The kids at school stopped picking on her except for one girl who was in the sixth grade. The sixth graders weren’t supposed to come over to our playground, but Marsha Benningham never did what she was told. I suspected Caitlin probably did some things on purpose just so I would have to stand up for her. Brian was two years older than we were, but she still called both of us her big brothers. I don’t know when it happened, but I stopped correcting people when they called Caitlin my sister, especially after she beat the Johnson twins at Nintendo.
It was cold the night Caitlin disappeared. The police lady asked me all kinds of questions and I told her the same things I told you. I think she eventually ran out of questions to ask, because she kept asking me how we got along and why I kept telling some of the kids she wasn’t my sister. The man with the police lady wanted to know why we moved the television in her room to the low table, and I told him it was because we usually stretched out on the carpet to watch it. They asked some real funny questions. They wanted to know if we played doctor and nurse. I told them she was never been sick that I knew about. They finally got tired of asking us questions and the police lady told us to stay in our room. She put one of the kitchen chairs in the hallway and told us we couldn’t go downstairs. Cars kept coming and going from the driveway and I could see the blue lights flashing through the curtains.
Both of us were getting real hungry because no one bothered to fix us something to eat. I finally told the police lady and she sighed real loud and keyed the mike on her radio. She ordered us a Big Mac and a large drink. I don’t know why she didn’t ask Mom―Francine―to fix us something. When I asked the police lady about them, she looked kind of funny and told me to go back to my room.
I knew better than to drink all of the Orange Slurry, but I was kind of thirsty and bored. As soon as I finished my drink, I wanted to go pee. I finished up in the bathroom, and was washing my hands when I heard Caitlin whisper my name. I think I would have screamed if she hadn’t been whispering the same way she did the night of the big storm. I was glad I closed the door, but I was kind of scared because I couldn’t figure where the voice was coming from. I finally realized it was coming from the drain. She told me she heard a voice in the bathroom, but I didn’t believe her. I worked the little thing out of the drain and got on my tiptoes and tried to see inside. I could hear her better now and I asked her where she was.
“Down here,” was all she would say, and then she started crying.
“How did you get in there?” I asked her, but she didn’t answer for a minute, and then she said, “You’ve got to help me.”
The pipe underneath the sink is not much bigger than my arm and I didn’t see how Caitlin could have gotten down there, even if she was small. I listened with my head near the pipes inside the cabinets, but I couldn’t hear anything. The only place I could hear her voice was when I was leaning over the sink. I ran down the hallway and saw the police lady turn her head in my direction.
“Caitlin’s in the drain pipe!” I told her. She straightened in her chair and looked at me.
“I told you to stay in your room.”
“You don’t understand! I can hear Caitlin in the drainpipe.” When she pointed for the second time, I went back down the hallway to tell Brian.
Brian didn’t believe me but I made him come across the hallway and shine the penlight he bought at Walgreen’s down the drain. Caitlin called his name so I guessed she could see him, even though I don’t know how that was possible with the light shining in her eyes. Brian stuck his head inside the cabinet and listened like I did before, but said he couldn’t hear anything.
“Go get somebody to help,” Brian said. I started to argue with him and tell him about the police lady, but he said to hurry. I ran out of the bathroom and down the hallway. When I got to the head of the stairs, the police lady was standing there with her hands on her hips.
“You’ve got to help us!” I said. She grabbed my arm and led me back to our room. “No,” I said. “Caitlin is in the drainpipe.”
She shoved me inside the bedroom and wedged something under the door. I turned the knob but the door wouldn’t budge. There was a vent between the back of our closet and the storage room next door. I waited until I was sure she was gone, and then I crawled through the vent and cautiously opened the door. She was sitting in the chair again at the head of the stairs. The bathroom door was open and I was glad because the hinges squeak sometimes. I stayed close to the wall as I sneaked toward the door and dashed inside. The room was empty and I couldn’t imagine where Brian was. I knew he couldn’t be in mother’s old sewing room, because Dad locked the door the day she died and said he wanted the room to stay the way it was. I was standing there trying to decide what to do when I heard Brian whisper my name. It took me a few seconds to realize his voice was coming from the drain. I called his name kind of low because I didn’t want the police lady to hear. Caitlin said something but I couldn’t hear what she said. Suddenly, I saw a shadow fall across the tile. I glanced up and saw the police lady looking at me like the woman at the store did when I knocked the pyramid of grapefruit down and they rolled all over the floor. Her hand clamped down on my shoulder, and she didn’t let up when I yelled. She dragged me across the hallway and stood looking down at the pair of handcuffs wedged under the door. When she kicked it with the toe of her shoe it moved.
“You won’t get out so easy this time,” she said. She shoved me inside and I heard her hammering at the handcuffs real hard, and then she wiggled the knob. I stood there for a minute and then went over and stretched out on the bed. I could smell Caitlin’s shampoo on the pillow and it made me want to cry. I knew the police lady would be watching the door, but I guessed she would get tired after a while and probably take a nap. I decided I would wait for an hour and then I would slip through the vent and go back to the bathroom. I didn’t know how Brian got into the drain pipe with Caitlin, but I was sure I could figure it out.
This is pretty much everything that happened before you guys moved in. I get real lonely sometimes and I am sorry I made you mad at me. You remind me of Caitlin when she first moved in with us. I feel like a tattletale telling you this, but your brother didn’t lose his contacts like he said he did. I know your mother blamed you, but none of it was your fault. The contacts are down here with us. I have been thinking about this and I have decided if you would push one of those big soda straws down the drain as far as you can, I think I can reach up and slip them inside.
