Chapter 3 Neighborhood Watch
Neighborhood Watch
Eve
Leo Coletti: Can we please talk?
Leo Coletti: What the fuck Eve at least answer the phone Jesus Christ Here I thought I was the asshole in this relationship
Thu, Jun 26 7:12AM
Leo Coletti: This is not how you treat someone after five years
Thu, Jun 26 10:18AM
Daddy: Be safe, cheri mwen. We want you back in one piece.
Daddy: Last night was difficult but necessary. I am proud of you. Bondye Bon!!
Thu, Jun 26 11:09AM
Daddy: Your mother is upset today. I advise you to call her soon.
Thu, Jun 26 1:48PM
Maya Baudin: Hey boo! Call me when you get there.
With the sun low in the sky, Eve pulled up to her grandmother’s Tennessee mountain home, a small cabin perched within the peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains, a few miles from the northern edge of the national park.
The place was more beautiful than seventeen-year-old Eve had cared to remember—she used to hate the rustic feel of the Appalachian-style home, but now it looked like a painting to her, constructed of rich, dark brown logs, surrounded by nothing but trees.
The porch jutted out to meet her at the end of a short cobblestone walkway, and the shrubbery along the way, while overgrown, was the brightest and greenest she’d ever seen.
Inside was dusty but spacious, and sparsely decorated, thanks to her mother and aunt claiming all the good pieces for themselves. The only remaining items were a small cherrywood coffee table and an old mustard-colored wool sofa in the living area.
Eve smiled at the fireplace encased in stone below the staircase.
She remembered the locals bringing her grandmother firewood, because everyone knew and loved her, and in small towns like Gatlinburg, where there were exactly twenty-one Black people, it wasn’t unusual for them all to take care of each other.
It was cool for June, so Eve imagined she’d spend many evenings by the hearth, just like she used to.
A narrow flight of steps led up to the bedroom Eve used during her previous nine-month stint there.
The full-sized bed remained in the exact same spot, evoking the many nights she’d cry herself to sleep, feeling abandoned by her parents and quite literally sick to her stomach as her belly swelled with a child she would never be able to keep.
As a minor act of rebellion, she’d carved her initials in the wooden bedpost; she tittered seeing it there now.
Her grandmother rarely went up there, the steps too arduous as she grew older, but Eve would’ve bet her weight in gold that Hazel Beasley knew about the carving all the same.
“I miss you, lady,” Eve said out loud, her words riddled with her contrition.
In the end, Eve didn’t call enough. Never came to visit after she got away, too inundated with unpleasant memories to ever consider returning.
Her grandmother came to New York twice but hated it as much as teenage Eve had hated Gatlinburg.
Hazel had found the city frenetic—which most visitors would likely agree with, but it was especially true for a seventy-year-old woman used to being alone.
Twenty years ago, this was the only house for several miles, and Hazel liked it that way.
The closest grocery store was a ten-minute drive, and it was just about the only reason she would get into her car.
Anything beyond that and she risked crossing paths with all the tourists.
Eve would always ask to go down to Dollywood, desperate, like Ariel, to be where the people were.
Wanderin’ free, etc. But her grandmother, with her aversion to the amusement park crowd, would perpetually refuse.
Ain’t nobody takin’ you down there with all them folks.
Now, Eve treasured this empty space. New York City was frenetic. Between her parents and Leo, it was far too crowded for her grief. She relished the idea of locking herself away in her grandmother’s home and shutting out the world if she wanted to.
And she really wanted to.
—
Within the hour, Eve had finished unpacking the two carry-on-sized suitcases meant to sustain her for the next few weeks, maybe months.
They were full of mostly light sweaters and leggings.
She wouldn’t need much else to sit around alone, and she’d be headed back to New York before it got unbearably cold.
After finding some candles and matches to get her through the night, Eve briefly considered calling her mother, per her father’s request, but she was too tired by the drive and, well, life to feign cordiality.
She opted for a quick text, just to let them know she’d arrived safely, but when it didn’t go through, she remembered her mother’s warning of how bad the reception was up here.
Shit . This was the kind of thing horror movies were made of. Last house on the left, indeed.
Eve roamed the ground floor in search of a bar, maybe two, padding from the kitchen to the master bedroom and back to the front door.
She continued down the short staircase of the porch and into the yard, the message not going through until she was nearly at the mailbox.
It was soon followed by an influx of missed texts and calls from her friends—most notably her bestie, imploring her to check in.
Defenseless against Maya’s overbearing ways, Eve walked into the middle of the street, hoping the signal would somehow improve enough to make a call.
Four rings before being met with Maya’s sunny voicemail greeting, and she held the phone close to her face as if it could mimic the feeling of a hug from her friend.
“It’s me,” Eve spoke after the beep. “I just got here. I’m fine.” She sighed at the lie she was telling herself as she surveyed the vacant landscape ahead. “The reception is awful here, so catch me if you can. Love you.”
Eve ended the call, stuffed her phone in her pocket, and took off for a walk, wanting to reacquaint herself with the lay of the land.
The neighborhood was nearly silent, save for a few chirping birds and leaves whispering in the wind, and as she continued down the road, making her way to the bottom of a steep hill, the faint burble of running water tickled the air.
She’d noticed the creek on her way in, but as she came to a bridge in the road, she spotted the small waterfall.
In the distance, the mountain range made for a splendid backdrop to it all.
The sky was a crisp blue, the mountains a blanket of forest green beneath it.
Eve’s friend Brian was an amateur photographer, and he would’ve had a field day soaking up this place.
She almost took out her phone to take some pictures for him but wasn’t ready for the conversation it would prompt.
Instead, Eve followed the bridge’s path, allowing it to take her straight down to the creek. There was a charming little painted sign on the way that read “Fishin’ Hole,” which made her grin.
Eve tiptoed through the high grass until she was at the edge of the moss-colored water.
She took a seat where the grass was the shortest, closed her eyes, and inhaled the fresh air, the rippling sound filling her mind.
And for a few quiet minutes, she let herself believe that it wasn’t utterly reprehensible to leave New York the way she did.
A spectator might’ve assumed she was meditating.
A previous version of herself probably would have been praying.
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. My last confession was seventeen years ago.
I led a man to believe I was going to marry him because I was too scared to be alone and then I dumped him unceremoniously because I ran out of the bandwidth to pretend.
Eve was thankful when her phone began to vibrate. Maya, as always, a welcome distraction.
“I’m not about to be playing phone tag with you for the next however many months,” Maya greeted her.
Eve laughed as she wiped her eyes. “Unless I’m supposed to build a cell phone tower, I’m not sure what you want me to do.” On second thought, Maya probably would expect as much.
“I’mma need you to share your location with me indefinitely, just in case you get locked in somebody’s basement,” Maya said.
“Absolutely the fuck not. Next thing I know, you’ll be moving in here with me,” Eve said as she hiked her way up the hill back to her grandmother’s cabin. “And there’s no one around here to put me in their basement anyway.”
“That makes it even worse!”
“No, actually, you’re right. You know it’s only white people in this part of the state.
” In fact, Eve would’ve been smart to just stay inside.
Even if the neighborhood was empty, she was not in New York anymore.
She couldn’t go exploring some random neighborhood in the middle of Bumfuck, Tennessee, and think her Black ass was safe.
“And you don’t think you need to share your location?”
They were both joking, supposedly, but Eve did put her friend on speakerphone while she updated her settings for the time being. In the process, she made sure to remove Leo from the list of family members who could potentially find her iPhone.
“You know I don’t even agree with this trip in the first place, so unless you want me to harass you the entire time you’re there…”
“I’m sharing it,” Eve nearly shouted into the phone.
As she returned to her temporary home, it seemed she would be eating her own words as she spotted a lone figure lurking near the righthand side of her small cabin.
“What the fuck,” Eve mumbled, stopping in her tracks. She checked her signal to make sure she’d be able to keep Maya on the line. “Girl, there’s someone at this house.”
“At your house?” Maya sounded more panicked than Eve felt. “Bitch, see? What did I tell you?”