Heathens

Mordechai“One day, I swear that I’ll stand over the graves of every single Locke left on this planet,” Jonathan sighed, tapping a pen on his desk. “I’m tired of this. I’m really, really tired.”I had nothing to say in response. Truthfully, he didn’t want me to respond. He wanted to get out all of his anger in a long, frustrated rant. I stood there, listening to every word and looking him in the eye so he knew I listened. Even if I didn’t listen, it would have been enough to be present as he ranted.Jonathan didn’t let up, breaking several things against the wall in the office in his home. So far, glass littered the carpet. Eventually a maid would come clean it up.The police had only just left the house after two hours of questioning about half a dozen people, including me. I knew nothing. I made it very clear that I hadn’t seen a thing, I hadn’t been at the docks, and asking me more questions wouldn’t get them anywhere. Thankfully, Jonathan knew how to get the police off his back. O

Mordechai“You study up on your backstory?” Jonathan asked me after calling me into his office.“It was pretty thorough.”“Should be. Got it off a real guy in Kansas. Don’t worry; he’s dead.”I looked down at the papers in my hand, seeing that the man had been the same age as me. His description fit as well, making it all too easy to forge the rest of the paperwork I’d need. If someone looked into anything, I could just pull from his life. His very boring, Kansasy life.“Quick question,” I said, holding up my new ID. “So Zoil was too conspicuous but the Mordechai bit was keepable.”“That’s not a word, champ, but I thought you would appreciate having your own name. You have any idea how few Jews they got in Kansas? I busted my ass to get you that.”I kept my expression blank, as if nothing he said bothered me. I’d heard worse. A hell of a lot worse. “Thank you.”“Everything is in place. As long as you stick with your new history, anything they look for is there. Couldn’t manage the soc

MordechaiI’d been warned that she liked to get up at dawn. It might have been my absolute hatred of the idea that had me desperate to believe otherwise, but I got up early anyway. I rose before the sun did, finding the girl still asleep in her bed and cuddled up with her dog. The dog faced the door, ready to tear apart any intruder that might have decided to come in. He didn’t budge when I got up, gathered some clothes, and went into the bathroom.I tried not to be completely put off by the size of the bathroom. I didn’t really have the time. After a quick perimeter check, I needed to shower as fast as I could manage so I could get back to babysitting duty. Surely, she could avoid getting murdered for ten minutes. If not, then I could probably jump out the window and make a break for it before anyone saw.After stripping myself of the shirt and boxers I’d slept in, I stepped into the shower. Water sprayed me from four different showerheads, which I didn’t know if I should love or hat

MordechaiIn only a few days, I had noticed a great many things about Ellie Locke. First off, the drinking. Second, how carefully she stepped. Third, how she touched things. With nothing to do but be with this girl, I could do nothing but notice things. She flipped the switch in every single room she entered that didn’t have her father or mother in it. Three times, every single time. She carefully chose where she stepped on the patterns on the ground, unless she had shoes on. When she read, she would turn the page, then rub either side of each of her fingers against her thumb, every single time. Her nose also twitched when she got irritated. Finally, and my very favorite thing, she’d get pissed off when she thought I ignored her. By necessity, every moment of my life had become dedicated to her. To think that a single second went by where I didn’t pay attention made me laugh. I had fun with it. Her saying something that she thought would upset me, me pretending to ignore her, and then

MordechaiShe’d taken care of her end of the deal in a matter of two minutes on the phone. We’d gone to her bedroom, she made a single call, and that had been it. Her father supposedly wouldn’t find out, but I personally couldn’t see him being that unaware of what happened in his own house. Then again, the fact that I stood there sort of proved that wrong.I ended up having to watch Ellie organize her book collection of over seven hundred. The idea of that made my head hurt, but she could only look at it with love and affection. She would pick one up, flip through it, and then decide if it went back on the shelf or in a box to be given away. All the books had been organized by color, which also made my head hurt. This organization went on for hours, making me sure she’d started with the purpose of annoying me. But I showed her nothing. In fact, I went as far as to look as unbothered as I could. I bent down to pet the dog when he abandoned her for me. I loved the glare Ellie shot my wa