Chapter 8: The Exercise Bike

That night I sat on my bed. It was midnight but I wasn't asleep. Nor did I even attempt to sleep. I felt like destroying something. My right hand made a fist and pressed hard against the pillow. I was too afraid to strike the wall in anger, as this would only hurt my knuckles. But knocking a few holes in the wall would satisfy me.

Mum and Dad never physically or sexually abused me when I was young, but that doesn't mean they were good parents. Up to the age of sixteen, I was never allowed to sleepover at friends' houses. My parents, and especially my dad, didn't want me going out of the house. He told me to stay home because that's what good boys do. He didn't let me participate in extra-curricula activities at school either. I wasn't allowed to take private lessons in piano, even though my teacher told my dad I was potentially gifted. Dad said music was a waste of time.

I wasn't allowed to play soccer with my friends because Dad didn't want me getting my clothes dirty. He also thought playing sports would distract me from my studies. One of my worst memories was when Dad bought me cheap clothes to save money and these cheap clothes made me stand out in public. Everyone looked at us.

I got up from my bed and looked out my bedroom window, staring at Lily's house across the fence. In the darkness, one room still had its lights on. It was Lily's room. For a moment I wondered why Ella's room was dark, but then I remembered that she was still missing. Ella normally stayed up late.

From my room I could see into Lily's bedroom, but I could only see her desk. Both her computer and her bed were hidden from view because of the angle at which I looked. Sometimes I caught a slight glimpse of Lily when she walked around or sat on the carpet in the middle of the room.

I opened my bedroom window and stuck my head out, hoping to look into Lily's bedroom from a better position. Immediately when the window opened I felt how much colder it was outside than it was inside. It wasn't windy—it was a still and peaceful night—but it was cold. The night air was like the air inside a refrigerator.

Lily was finally visible. She sat on the carpet with her legs sprawled out behind her. Her body faced me but her head was down, so she couldn't see me. She wore pink pyjamas. Her hair was messy because she always had a shower before bedtime. Spread out all over the carpet in front of her were crayons, markers, and paper. She was drawing something, but I was too far away to see what she drew. Her right hand gripped on a black marker—her grip on the marker seemed a little too firm. The black marker was so large contrasted against her small and roundish right hand. While my head poked out of my bedroom window to catch a better view, my position also allowed me to see something else—something that made my heart beat fast.

It was Mark.

He was walking around in Lily's backyard. He held something in his hands: they looked like CDs as well as rectangular objects, perhaps electronic objects of some sort. Since the lights were out in my room, I was confident Mark couldn't see me from where he was. Mark held everything in his left hand. His right hand was free because he used that hand to climb over the fence and jump into Eddie's house. He went over the fence by climbing over a small garbage bin.

After Mark had jumped into Eddie's backyard, I couldn't see him anymore, so I pushed my leg out of my bedroom window, preparing myself to climb out to the tree that connected my bedroom window to Ella's bedroom window. I was in a rush and began to wobble as I crawled on the branch. I reminded myself to slow down and be careful. Towards the end of the branch, I couldn't help noticing the incandescent glow coming from Lily's bedroom window. Why was she up so late at night?

I was about to climb down the tree's trunk but paused when I noticed Ella's bedroom window wide open.

Did Ella usually keep her bedroom window open at night? I couldn't remember. Why hadn't her mother closed it? Was it a coincidence that Ella's bedroom window was open during the same night that Mark was nosing around in the backyard?

I climbed down to the base of the trunk and found myself in the backyard of the Jenkins household. The moist grass reminded me that my feet were bare. Since the night air was so cold, lots of dew had settled on the grass beneath my feet. The tree between my house and Lily's house had such smooth branches that I had forgotten I was barefoot.

Still in my teddy bear pyjamas, I walked over to where Mark had climbed over the fence. Using the small garbage bin that Mark used, I hoisted myself up and peeked over into Eddie's backyard. Every light was off except the light from Eddie's bedroom. The boy's bedroom window was wide open. Through Eddie's bedroom window I saw Mark. He was talking to someone I couldn't see, most likely Eddie.

About four minutes later Mark started climbing out from the bedroom window. I thought at first he was going to jump to the ground—it was a six-metre drop—but then I noticed Mark carefully climbing down a drainpipe. When he reached the ground, I noticed that Mark had nothing in his hands, yet when was climbing the fence earlier I noticed CDs in his hands.

Mark walked calmly from the backyard to the frontyard. I had a choice of either following Mark or going into Eddie's room. Mark had a habit of disappearing, so I decided to let him walk away this time. But maybe next time I'll figure out more about Mark.

I climbed over into Eddie's backyard and climbed up the drainpipes that Mark had used. As I was climbing, the lights suddenly went out in Eddie's bedroom. When I reached Eddie's bedroom window, I peered inside and found Eddie sitting on his bed. Even though the lights were out in the boy's room, I could still see everything inside mainly because of the moonlight. Eddie's back faced me. He didn't know I was looking at him. Eddie's room was the same as before except for one extra item: an exercise bike at one corner of the room. The pile of pornographic magazines, the computer, and the bed were in the same positions. Eddie wore blue pyjama pants and no t-shirt. He looked so slim, his arms like sticks—but he wasn't as malnourished. He was just small. His head faced down, as if he had given up trying to keep it upright. In front of him, on the bed, was a laptop computer. I could see the screen from where I was. It didn't surprise me when I saw what Eddie looked at on the screen.