Glimpse: The Broken by Nicholas Martellacci (book club recommendations txt) 📕

is real. I am searching for others similar, have you folks seen any?” Brokensilence asked at one point. “Pics or it didn’t happen,” binary code user responded, with a winking emoji. “Pictures of such an anomaly have no place on the internet,” BrokenSilence replied in turn “Either you have seen one, or you haven’t.” Maxwell continued reading, but as it became apparent none of the other members of the party knew what the person was referring to, the topic changed pace. They were now speaking about tracking energy impulses, anti gravity, and the theoretical complications of teleportation. To sum up much of the conversation, this “BrokenSilence” character seemed the only one truly interested in these strange colored shards of glass.

 

 

Maxwell loved the other topics, these were definitely his type of people… but this is not what he came here for. He chose for himself a user name and joined the chatroom. He decided to get straight to the point and post a message, as it was unlikely a month old chatroom would respond to him at all. “The Wyckd One has joined the chat” displayed across the chatbox. Maxwell contemplated a few minutes on what to say, as his eyes became heavy as lead and he yawned. He looked down at the necklace once again as he typed. “I have a shard, much smaller and different colored. I can show you if I must,” he sent to the chatroom.

 

 

“Wake up, jackaloon,” Jaxon kicked at Maxwell’s computer chair, jutting Maxwell quickly awake. He woke from his light sleep with a shock and checked the time in the corner of the computer. Three-thirty PM. Maxwell jolted upright, luckily his screensaver had covered up what he was doing on the internet. He shut the power off by the button on the tower. “I have to get to work, I am going to be late,” he replied in a panic as he grabbed his phone to text his boss. “No worries Maxy,” Jaxon replied. “Faelynn called ya off.” Maxwell looked to his friend, his eyes narrowing. “What, why!?” Maxwell asked. Jaxon frowned looking at his best friend, and responded. “She told your boss you got into a scrap at a party last night. From the look of things it isn’t far from the truth. I thought you looked bad at our house yesterday, but damn buddy, what the hell happened to you?” Jaxon asked Maxwell. “We have to go to my mom’s house, I’ll explain everything in the car,” Maxwell said quickly in reply.

 

 

Maxwell and Jaxon conversed about the night on the way over to the Amelletti house. Maxwell started the story saying he saw Lucille’s face in the state it was in and went looking for Dante. He saw him through the window of Trish’s trailer, her head in his lap, and kicked in the door finding Trish unconscious from drug trip on the couch. He discovered that they were secretly lovers and got into a fight with Dante in the living room, knocking him out cold. Maxwell left out the part of finding Trish’s body and the strange circumstance with the shard, for obvious reasons. “What an asshole,” Jaxon said. “You need to get your mother the hell away from him.” Maxwell nodded his head, “that’s the plan,” he replied.

 

 

They pulled into Maxwell’s mothers driveway. “Lucille, I’m home!” shouted Jaxon jokingly. The duo heard sobbing from the living room. They looked at each other with frightened expressions. Maxwell and Jaxon walked in a panic towards the noise, hearing the anchor’s melancholic voice on the television before they entered. They saw that Maxwell’s mother was watching the news, crying on the couch. “The body was found and identified as Patricia Delovara,” the news anchor reported. “Her throat was severed and the door was broken in. Several barbiturates were in her system at the time of discovery. It is assumed there was an argument with a lover, leaving the door broken and unable to be closed.”

 

 

“I can’t believe this happened to Trish,” Lucille began. No wonder Dante didn’t come home last night, he is probably an emotional wreck,” she said behind tear-welled eyes. “I am sure hes a physical wreck too, Jaxon snickered and whispered to Maxwell.”

 

 

“We have no suspects for the case, it is likely she was attacked by an animal of some sort over the night,” the news continued. Maxwell’s mother began to cry harder. “I have to call Dante,” she said hastily standing to walk to the phone. “Mom, Dante isn’t who you think he is,” Maxwell began as she held the handheld device in her hand. Jaxon nodded to join his friend, “It’s true, guy’s a complete asshole Momma Amelletti,” Jaxon said. Maxwell looked to his mother, his eyes pleading her to believe him. “Do you remember seeing me with the bandage on my eye the other day?” Lucille startled upright with remembrance, “Yes...” she began, the curiosity building in her voice. “But I remember the last time it was because one of the weights slipped off a dumbbell and hit you in the face.” Maxwell shook his head, “Well, that’s what I said it was.”

 

 

“I went looking for Dante last night, and found him at Trish’s, I kicked in the door and they were all loved up together on the couch. Trish was unconscious…” Maxwell reiterated the story he told Jaxon. “Dante must have left Trish on the couch after he woke up and went out looking for me somewhere, and a bear or a mountain lion must have came through the front door and gotten to her.” Maxwell was lucky… this story seemed as believable as any. “You need to break up with him.”

 

 

“I can’t believe this, just yesterday morning I just signed him onto the bank account, and the house,” Maxwell’s mother stated. “I will have to call them on Monday and cancel everything, they won’t be open tomorrow, it being Sunday and all. You and your brother mean everything to me Maxwell, I would never be with an animal that would hurt you like this,” Lucille said lovingly, looking into Maxwell’s eyes. Maxwell felt relief wash over him, though he could tell there was also some spite in his mother’s voice at the thought of Dante and Trish actually being lovers behind her back.

 

 

Lucille called Dante’s phone, it rang twice, then went to his answering machine. “Listen Dante, Maxwell told me everything, we are done. I don’t need you helping with the bills anymore and I expect you to be here to get your shit and get out of my house by Monday, that’s all there is to it, feel free to not call me back… asshole,” Lucille said, angrily hanging up. Her voice dripped with vindictive venom, Maxwell had never seen his sweet mother behave in such a manner. “Way to go Momma Amelletti!” Jaxon cheered. “I am proud of you mom, and I will help you with the bills in any way I can.” Maxwell said. “I love you.” Lucille’s expression glowed warmly, in a way that he hadn’t seen in a long time. “It will be okay honey, I promise,” she replied with a shaky smile.

 

 

Maxwell and Jaxon drove back over to Jaxon’s place. They told the story to Faelynn, and she was just as shocked. “Do you really think that it was a wild animal, it doesn’t seem to make any sense,” Faelynn said. “I don’t know,” was Maxwell’s response. “I am just glad I wasn’t there to find out.” He felt sorry for lying to his mother and his friends, the only people in the world he felt close to. Luna made her way over and he explained the story once more, this time skipping several details as he was growing sick of the telling it.

 

 

“I am just glad you are okay,” Luna said as she brushed Maxwell’s shaggy caramel hair out of his face and examined his eye closer. He blushed, and felt tingles up his spine at her touch. They knew each other in school but never managed to grow close until about a year ago when they met at a coffee shop at the library one day. She and he happened to be reading the same book, as they sat at opposite tables sipping their coffees. It was her that made the first move actually… “What do you think happened to the ship’s captain?” she asked him. Maxwell smiled, “I think that it was probably the cabin boy, the prisoner from the island wouldn’t have access to the rum,” Maxwell responded in turn. “How could he have poisoned it?” He added. “How do you know it was the rum, maybe the food was what was poisoned, could have always been the chef?” Luna stated. The two conversed about their theories over their coffees for a long time, and eventually started talking about life.

 

 

As it so happened Luna had been in a relationship when they first met, but that ended a few months ago rather quickly when the boyfriend cheated on her. He always valued drugs over the relationship as well, reminding Maxwell a lot of Dante in several ways. Over the following months, the two had grown really close. It was obvious that Maxwell was attracted to her, or at least to him it seemed so, but he was afraid to make a move with her just recently out of a serious relationship. Not to mention he was stuck in the friend zone. He kicked himself for not having waited until they had broken up to get close to her… maybe then they would have hit it off from the start.

 

 

He wasn’t sure what it was about her that drove him crazy, whether it was her laugh that gave him a fuzzy warm feeling, or how her smile made him melt a little inside, but the moment he met her gaze across the coffee shop he knew she was perfect. The way she played with her hair and bit her lip while reading a suspenseful part made it really hard for him to focus on the book at all. She was elegant, not the trashy type of girl you see today, but a perfect picture of class and grace. Her dress fitted her form in all the right ways, her curly short hair down, not a strand out of place…

 

 

“Earth to Maxwell, do you copy!?” Jaxon shouted. Maxwell’s thoughts had been drifting. “Sorry guys, I didn’t get much sleep,” was his embarrassed reply. “Well you better not behave this way tonight, I mean… at midnight it is your special day, birthday boy.” Luna giggled. Maxwell had nearly forgotten.

 

 

 

 

At midnight tonight, Maxwell would be eighteen.

Chapter 5: The Party

Maxwell couldn’t believe that he had forgotten his own birthday, though ultimately cut himself some slack as his mind drifted back to finding Trish on the floor of her own trailer. Her glossy stare boring holes through his skull would haunt his mind for years to come. He shook his head slightly, in desperate attempt to shake the vision away. As it turned out, Faelynn had preemptively called Maxwell’s boss, lying to get him off of work for the celebratory day planned. Jaxon knew that Maxwell celebrated with his friends the day before his birthday, as Maxwell’s