What's Right In Front Of You

Can You See It?

The previously gentle and heartwarming sun rays from this morning have now turned into an intense heat, with the intention of scalding any bare skin that had the misfortune of peeking out from my clothes.

"Huff… huff," I heaved tired, laboured breaths as I pushed my bike along the sidewalk.

And now I deeply regretted leaving my house, even more so now that my bike got a flat tire…

It wasn't this hot when I left this morning, but after leaving the gas station and grabbing a drink, the heat suddenly turned up to eleven. I looked up towards the sky, it's probably around that time right now.

Taking a short break to wipe the sweat off my face. I saw a large tree in the middle of the sidewalk. 

Or should I say implied sidewalk? At this point, it's more like hard, dried-up dirt than an intentional walkway due to a lack of maintenance.

It was then that I noticed the local stray dog. She walked across the 'sidewalk' and was now lying under the tree's wonderful shade. A person shouldn't feel jealous of a dog, so I plopped my butt down and joined her. 

Pulling out a paper cup from the plastic bag and poured her a drink. To which she happily drank, but maybe she liked it a bit too much, because after drinking she immediately jumped on me and licked my face.

"Hahaha! Don't lick me!"

"Bark! Bark!" The stray playfully barked, wagging her white tail from side to side.

Along with the water, I tried giving her some hot dogs I bought at the gas station, but strangely, she didn't eat them like usual.

I guess she's not hungry right now? If I could, I would've adopted her myself, but sadly, my mother is allergic to dog hair. 

After playing with her a bit, I calmly sat under the tree while petting her. As I was enjoying her soft white fur. The faint sounds of children talking caught my attention. 

Turning my head around, I saw Paul with his lackeys chatting among themselves on the other side of the road.

They were too far away for me to make out their conversation. But I could tell it was Paul because there was only one person in this town who would unironically wear a cowboy outfit on a day-to-day basis.

Cowboy boots and all. I see him wearing it on his way to school all year round… Watching the fringe on his pants sway as he quietly talked to his friends is always amusing to watch.

It must take a lot of dedication to wear something like that in this weather. I thought in admiration.

But it didn't appear to be a happy conversation. Despite there being a breeze, the fringe on his pants swayed less than usual.

It's a bit hard to see from here. But their expressions looked so serious. I wonder what they're up to.

I leaned my body closer, trying to get a better look. But then, I had the misfortune of hearing a stern and annoying voice call out to me.

"Running around playing detective again?" He said in a low and mocking voice.

I didn't even need to turn around to know who was speaking. Alas, things would get more annoying if I 'didn't.'

Under normal circumstances, I would've never let this happen. But Paul's goons and his fringed pants distracted me, causing this snake to sneak up on me. I reluctantly looked in his direction. 

And like the snake hiding in the shadows, stood a man named Bertol Beaumont.

I internally groaned. Sometimes you need to duke it out with people. But it's too hot for it to be one of those days.

Leaning against his car in the alleyway next to me. A sliver of sunlight touched his slicked-back silver hair.

"Or maybe I should call you a mutt handler today? It fits you well, hanging around that halfbreed." He said as he blew out a puff of smoke from his cigarette.

"Twitch."

I tried my best to massage the irritation from the corner of my eye. But maybe due to the heat, I couldn't find it in me to rub it away. My hand momentarily grazed against the pockets of my shorts.

Perhaps today was a good day for a fight after all.

"Hello, officer," I said with the most fake smile I could muster.

"Speak properly, you creepy little maudit anglais." Bertol spat out in disgust. [means bloody Englishmen]

A bit dramatic, no?

I know an adult pretending to be a child must look creepy. Similar to how a monster wearing a mask made out of human skin would look. But there isn't much I can do about that, is there?

I looked towards the stray dog, trying to signal to her to attack him. But she simply ignored me and continued to clean herself, she even looked happy as her tail wagged in joy.

Tch, I figured as much. But I guess she was never an aggressive dog, even if there was a snake right in front of her. I stopped petting her and threw my hands up. "D'accord, you don't need to keep cussing at me. And don't call me th-" [D'accord means Okay]

"Shut up and listen up," Bertol said in annoyance.

Which is it?! Do you want me to speak properly or be quiet!? Pick a side, dammit!

I was about to lose my already very short patience due to the heat. But he only continued to say more nonsense.

"Stay out of the Webbers case." He blew out another puff.

"Huh?" I sputtered out in disbelief.

All that bullshit just to say the obvious. Whatever, he's a huge pain, I'd rather pretend not to know anything.

"The Webbers case? You mean the family that makes car parts?" I said in an innocent and childish voice.

Or did they make lumber? I can't really be bothered to remember.

Bertol scoffed with an unpleasant smile. "That's surprising, with how your parents are. I thought you'd be one of the people to know about it." He added, "It was even on the news this morning."

Shit, he's got me there. We aren't allowed to watch TV before breakfast, but that didn't stop my parents from reasoning about it like a bunch of starving hyenas.

But I doubt he'd believe me if I said I wasn't interested in it now.

Feeling dejected, I had to quickly come up with an excuse. "Oooh, right. I've been super busy with…" I squeezed my brain and my eyes, swam looking for an answer. "Busy with… going to my grandmère's house to take care of her. My parents haven't been able to look at the news recently because she's sick."

Bertol silently stared at me but then laughed. "Is that so? I didn't know she was sick. When I see her again at the lake, I'll help her set up her boat." Bertol said with an amused and knowing look.

Stop looking at me like that! I'm innocent, I swear! All this sweating is making me look more guilty. Must be nice hiding in the cool shadows away from the sun, you damn snake!

After verbally beating him up in my mind, I decided that I had no choice but to play along with him.

"What…" I said with a slight pause. "Is it about the Webber's family that made the news?"

Bertol didn't answer me right away, instead opting to watch me quietly from the darkness of the alleyway, as if he was searching for something.

"The body of a woman was found on this property. It was nothing more than an accident, so it will be treated as such, and nothing more."

I was so hot before, but now, my head suddenly felt ice cold. I don't care about being wrong. But if it really were an accident, then why is he saying it like that? No, more importantly, why is he telling me all this?

"That's-" I needed to reply to him, but as these questions swirled in my head, I could feel my body heating up again. Only now with a headache coming on.

Get a grip! I internally slapped myself to regain my composure. Phew, this has nothing to do with me. I'm a normal kid, living a normal life.

"That… sounds really serious," I said with a downcast expression. "I hope everyone is able to find peace."

The look on my face might've been fake, but I genuinely meant what I said.

Whether it's the woman who was found, Charles Higgins, who is still missing, or even their families. I truly hope they can find peace.

After all…

"There's nothing more painful than waiting for someone who will never return," I said in a pained voice, accidentally letting my real thoughts slip.

Like a wound that could never heal. With every laugh from a child you hear. And with every smile that was once there. It gnaws at you. You hope for it to go away, wishing and waiting for it. But it could never truly just "go away".

"What?" Bertol's voice snapped me out of my pointless thoughts, forcing me to look up at him.

But I was met with him staring at me with wide eyes. It was strange. It's not like I said anything particularly weird, but for some reason, He had an almost devastated look. And through the reflection in his eyes, it made me wonder what the world looked like from his view.

What he saw in "me" in this moment for him to stare like that.

Or, at least it almost did. I can't really be bothered to understand what Bertol, of all people, thinks.

With the butt of his cigarette softly falling on the ground, and before he could ask me any questions. I immediately dug into the pockets of my shorts and sprayed him with a water gun.

"Water gun attack!!" I yelled out in excitement, directly spraying him in the face.

"Grah! Putain! You brat!" Bertol shouted while covering his face.

"Mwahahaha! That's what you get for calling my friend a halfbreed!" I replied to his cursing with vigour.

It's not like he can arrest me, right?

It was then that I saw him slowly wipe his face before furiously approaching me.

"Oh Duck!" Lizzy's not even here. But I comically yelped before making my great escape on my bike.

His fingertips almost seized the back of my neck, but before he could wring me like a dead chicken, he heard a call on his radio come from inside his car, forcing him to turn back.

But not before giving me a threatening message like a cartoon villain.

"You'll regret doing that, Knowles." He said before storming back inside the hole he came from.

I'd like to see you try.

And then I watched Bertol drive off into the mid-afternoon sunset. Damn, now that he's gone, all the energies been zapped from me. I rubbed my shoulders in an attempt to motivate myself to walk my bike home, but sadly it didn't work, and I was left feeling more exhausted than before.

I helped the police once or twice in the past, and now everyone in this town thinks I'm just like my parents.

I swear I'm just an average time traveller!

Or am I a parallel universe traveller? While I pondered that thought, I heard the sound of car tires slowly stopping next to me.

Hah… I really can't catch a break today. I glanced behind me, but instead of feeling dread, a sense of calm washed over me, and I lightly smiled.

Heh, speak of the devil, and he shall come.

What's Right In Front Of You

With his curly jet-black hair and olive-toned skin, he leaned out of his car window. A much-needed cool breeze passed by, causing the French fry-like strand of hair sticking out of his slicked-back updo to sway.

"Need a ride?" He asked with a smirk, pulling down his sunglasses.

"You know this is how children get kidnapped, right?" I calmly said to Philippe while enjoying a chocolate chip mint ice cream.

"It's a good thing you're not a kid, then," Philippe replied, scarfing down his own ice cream with one hand, and held the car wheel with the other.

I immediately glared at him. "Don't say that kind of stuff out loud, you brat."

"Why are you glaring at me? Can't I say what I want in my own car? I even bought you ice cream!" Philippe and his French fry hair complained about the injustice. "Just shut up and eat it."

"Besides, aren't you no better for calling me a brat like that?" He grumbled under his breath.

"So childish," I said in a huff.

"What?! Which part of me is childish?!" Like a provoked puppy, he howled, letting the steering wheel slip from his hands a bit.

"Watch the road, you idiot!" I yelled in panic, grabbing the steering wheel to stop us from going into a ditch.

"I don't need help! I know how to drive!" Philippe yelled back, slapping my hand away.

I stand corrected on him being childish. I sighed, not knowing if I should laugh or cry. I turned to look out the window and watched as we passed by the sparkling blue ocean, against the fluffy white clouds and the golden hayfields.

It almost looked magical.

Besides Philippe's poor attention span, it made me feel at ease.

Seeing this view, it reminded me of when I used to drive. Speeding along a long road with nothing but blue skies and the wind flowing through my hair.

Ah, those were the days. At church, they say envy is a sin, I suppose I'll have to make do with putting down the passenger window to get my fill.

"Hey! Are you listening to me, Sherlock?" I thought I heard Philippe's voice calling me in the background, but I must've imagined it and continued daydreaming.

Ahh, what a nice breeze.

Philippe had long finished his ice cream, but now that I had opened up the window, the wind caused small amounts of mine to trickle onto my fingers.

With his personality, it's pretty easy to get under his skin, but not this easy. Something must've happened.

I discreetly glanced in Philippe's direction. "I take it you need something?"

He was ranting about something before, but my question must've been too abrupt because his eye twitched, and he suddenly became quiet.

"You must've heard about it already." He said in a solemn tone, the immature attitude from before had vanished. "The missing Webbers pond case, I mean."

The distant look on his face reminded me of when he was young.

"Is that what people are calling it?"

"Well, can't exactly call it the Higgins case?" He lightly joked, but quickly corrected himself. "But that's not important."

I didn't need to ask him anything to know what he wanted. It's the same thing everyone has been asking me all day.

His voice was serious, but underneath, a slight feeling of nervousness could be heard. "I wanted to ask if you had any information about it."

"How would I know?" Replying rather dryly, I took another lick of my ice cream. "A mere man like myself cannot know anything if you don't give me any information."

Besides." Like a professor scolding his student, I pointed my ice cream at him. "You're the detective, albeit a rookie. But it's still your job, so figure it out."

"I- I wasn't trying to ask you to ask for the impossible…" He groaned, slumping his shoulders in defeat.

After lecturing him, the melted ice cream from before finally spilled onto my shirt. "Do you have any napkins?"

"Oh yeah, they're in the glovebox-" Philippe stopped himself mid-sentence as if he remembered something important, but before I could notice. It was too late, and I had already opened the messy Pandora's box.

Immediately, a pile of items fell out and onto my lap. Among them were photos of the remains of what looked like a human body. 

It was only for a split second, but it was enough time for me to register what it was. It was a grotesque corpse that had been cut up into multiple pieces, and what I could only assume was once their torso.

On their skin was a tattoo of a black phoenix with a red apple in its mouth, which was on full display for me to see.

Luckily, as a man who grew up in an era where LiveLeak was at its peak, these photos weren't that shocking to my system. Even in real life, I've seen worse. 

But perhaps unluckily, though, Philippe wasn't aware of that.

"AHH!!" In an overreaction, he swerved the vehicle, causing us to once again almost crash into a ditch. Haphazardly parking the car on the side of the road, he quickly shoved everything back in and closed the glovebox.

"Hah, huff, did you… see it?" He asked with a cautious look.

"Hah, no…"

Obviously, we both knew that was a lie, but if it made him feel any better, I'll pretend I didn't know anything. The car became silent, but it didn't last long, because Philippe decided to throw away my kindness and continued speaking for some reason. "She was murdered."

I could only stare at him in frustration, mumbling in disappointment. "Why do I even bother…"

"What was that?" Philippe asked

"I said…" Taking a page out of Lizzie's book, I took a deep breath and yelled like a drill sergeant. Aren't cops supposed to keep that kind of information from civilians?!" 

My simple question must've startled him because he visibly jumped in his chair. 

Subsequently, his face then went red from embarrassment realizing his error, but that didn't stop him from trying to hide his mistake. "Cough cough, y-you don't seem that shocked, also, I thought you said you didn't know anything..."

"Of course not; the shock is already long gone," I said, waving my hand erratically at him. "And don't change the subject."

He looked at me with pleading eyes, as if asking me to explain what I meant. But I simply ignored him and looked out the window; through the reflection, I could see him grabbing his head in frustration.

"I don't understand. Why won't you help me?" He weakly slid his hands down the steering wheel. "When I know you can…"

"That was years ago, and it was only possible because I had someone else doing all the hard work for me."

"I know, but still, you were incredible! I've never seen anything like it before." He said in excitement.

"And you'll never see anything like it again. There are some things you can only do as a small child." I said, turning to look him in the eyes. "And some things you can only do as an adult."

Philippe fell silent at my words, his lips trembling slightly in frustration. With that, he must've got the message.

Even though it was a long time ago. I don't want to do it. It's too much to put myself through that again.

"So let it go and focus on the Webbers case."

He snapped back at me with clenched teeth. "This is the Webbers case." 

"And I'm not a part of it." I retorted, as we glared at each other.

He wanted to say more, but gave up, or so I thought, and he continued as if nothing had happened. "Without an ID, we can't identify her. And I'm still waiting on her dental work to come back."

"Then wait it out. Why are you being so impatient anyway? Isn't this standard procedure for unidentified missing cases?"

"Stop talking like the chief! It's already been a week, and we're still combing through the missing people's cases." Philippe cried out. "And you know damn well this isn't a standard missing case!"

"Nom de Dieu! Even though there are only so many people in this damn town who went missing in the last 6 months, and we still can't find a match!" [means god dammit]

I tried to ease his worries, but it seems I set off a landmine instead.

"This stuff can take months, Phili-" 

"You think I don't know that?! By the time we find her dentist, this case will have gone cold, and then the perp will have gotten away!" Philippe shouted, slamming his fist on the steering wheel.

I feel a bit guilty for teasing him earlier. If I had known he was under this much stress, I wouldn't have pestered him like that.

But… That doesn't mean I can do what he wants me to.

With an icy tone, I gave him a much-needed reality check. "Don't be so emotional, Philippe." 

"What?" He turned to me in disbelief. "How could you say that?"

"Listen to me, earlier, you said that you couldn't find a match in this town. Out of all my memories of the past, I've never heard of the Missing Webbers case. Or that it had been solved." I added. "Don't get your hopes up, for all you know, this woman might not even be from our country."

I quietly sighed, "You understand what I mean, right?"

From the devastation on his face alone, I already knew he understood what I meant, but it was still hard seeing him like that, even if it was the truth.

"Sorry that I can't be of more help, Philippe."

"No, I- I'm sorry… I didn't mean to freak out. I guess I was just…" His words trailed off, and he spoke in almost a whisper. "Hoping for a miracle at this point."

Perhaps a miracle really was what this case needed. I know it's unfair, but sometimes life is just like that. 

And unfortunately, that miracle wasn't me… 

"Start the car, Philippe."

We arrived, and Philippe parked his car in front of my house. I quietly watched him struggle to pull my bike out of the back of his car's trunk. Normally, I would help and give him a hand, but I feared that any attempts would only make things harder for him.

One might even wonder how he got it in there in the first place.

He groaned. "Huff, I know you don't want to get involved." He said through laboured breathing. "But if you hear anything, call me right away, huff!"

He really doesn't know when to give up, I thought with a smirk. "You're right that I don't want to, but fine, I can at least do that much for you."

"Phew." Finally getting it out, Philippe walked it towards me, but he stopped before going back into his car. "And Sherlock,"

"Hm?" 

"You really are smart." He leaned closer to me and said with a smile as bright as the sun. "But you're also kind of stupid." 

"Are you trying to pick a fight with me because of what I said to you earlier?" I ask with a wry smile

He shook his head, his French fry curl moving along with him. "Sometimes, when I look at you. It's like you have the whole world on your shoulders." He said with a sad smile. "Even if that world is small… As you said, it's not something a mere man can do alone." 

Suddenly, my vision went dark as he covered my eyes with his large hand. "And you'll miss what's right in front of you."

I quickly moved his hand away from my face. "What are you trying to get at exactly?"

He lightly laughed. "What I mean is, if you can't do something on your own, come find me." He stretched out his hand towards me. "And let's work together." 

I fell silent for a moment, staring at his outstretched hand, but then laughed and gently pushed it away. "Pfft, what is this? A movie? Thanks for the offer, but I'm alright."

Philippe pursed his lips together in annoyance. "Fine, you stubborn tête carrée." He added with a calm smile. "Well, anyway, see ya around, Sherlock." [means blockhead]

"Yeah…"

Before driving off, he aggressively gave me a "call me" gesture, and I simply waved him away. He might not be very good at his job yet, but it's hard to dislike him for it. 

He wants me to give him any info I find, but how often does that kind of stuff just fall into your lap?

I looked down at my now sullied pants. "Well, whatever."

That is what I said…

"Drip, drip," their tears helplessly fell onto the cold tile floor.

But Philippe was right; I really am an idiot. How could I have made such a terrible blunder and missed something like this?

Thump, thump, thump, my heart painfully raced in my chest, and a cold sweat ran down my spine, making me want to disappear from this world

I missed everything!

[To be continued]