Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

*And I…want to thank you…

I was exhausted, having just returned from searching for Joe. We had caught the sunrise at Joe’s insistence and I had to drive us back, since Joe did not want to do anything "tedious." He just wanted to admire the sights through sleepy eyes. The brat had slept through sunrise. He just crumbled down on the breakwater and slept like a baby. Only after Mr. Blazing Sun was back where it should be, hanging over the ocean, bringing warmth to everyone but my broken heart, did he awake and grumble at me for not rousing him. Truth is I did, but he was dead to the world.

Waking Joe up is harder than getting a leopard to change its spots.

The gang was still at our house- the girls had made breakfast. Joe had shakily smiled at all of them before mumbling something about being tired and staggered up the stairs because he too was drunk with the need of healing slumber.

While the gang all stared after Joe’s retreating figure, not knowing what to say or do, Callie had whispered into my ears that she wanted to talk to me in private. We ended up sitting side by side on the foot of my bed. Side by side but our hearts are no longer beating as one.

Her tone was too cordial; her expression was one of guilt. Why would she be guilty? We’re not married. In the game of love, there’re winners and losers. I’ve lost. By my own negligence. No excuse.

I’ve lost.

For giving me the best day of my life.

With eyes brimming tears, she told me how thankful she was that Joe was safe and sound. I told her I’m glad too and an awkward spell of silence was cast upon us. I wanted to so much hear from her that she would always be by my side but wishful thinking would never be anything else but that. I’ve seen her kiss him. And I know that she’s in love with him.

And without any cue, she drew the story out from her heart. It was then precious drops of pearls fell to her cheeks- sun-kissed soft cheeks that I’ll never get to kiss again. She said sorry, hoping I would forgive her. What can I do but forgive her? I love her. And what else can I do but to let her go? You don’t imprison those you love.

Then she said goodbye. She stood up and was ready to leave. As she walked past me, the fragrance from her perfume wafted past and I breathed in the familiar, floral scent- breathed it in like I’m trying to capture a part of her forever in my being. Yet, I don’t want to give up so soon. I grabbed her hand and held on to it- a last desperate attempt for a desperate man- though I knew she rather I not as the touch was beginning to sting me, like she was chasing my touch away.

I will never feel the diamond ring on her fourth finger.

She stopped. I spoke softly, heavily. My exhaustion was forgotten, replaced by the settlement of a permanent heartbreak.

Oh…just to be with you.

"Don’t go."

Her hand trembled and very abruptly- wordlessly- she extricated it from mine. I was looking down on my floor carpeting the whole time. Always when I feel sad, I look at my floor carpeting. It’s something I do when I don’t know what else I can do. Why do guys always look down when they have nothing to say or don’t know what to say?

The intricate designs are lovely. I picked it myself. It’s a cheap imitation of oriental rugs.

Yah…irrelevant thoughts just creep in your mind when emotions are too difficult to handle.

I heard her soft footfalls getting fainter and fainter. I knew she must be at my door for the old wooden structure creaked. I heard my friends downstairs talking away but in somber tones. My house is not that big so it’s easy for sound to travel and still be decipherable after it floated up the stairs.

The line that everyone hates to hear was being very quietly spoken by her. When it came out, I just wanted to rip up the words and throw the remnants into the fires of hell so they’ll never ever surface again.

She had paused for a moment at the door.

"We can still be friends."

Oh…sure…yah right. I can still be friends with her. No problem. Just that each time I see her, the pieces that my heart had broken into will shatter even more. Until all that is left are atoms and to split atoms-everyone knows- will be to create a nuclear holocaust.

I didn’t say anything, didn’t move a muscle. I just waited quietly like a statue until the door groaned shut. I just sat like a statue for a few more minutes before I went downstairs to join my friends. She had already left.

I didn’t hear a single word they said. At that moment, loneliness is the last place I want to be. They don’t know. It’s ok. They’ll soon know.

I didn’t hear a thing. I didn’t say a word. Just sat there with my friends around the dining table, wishing time would just stop and go into reverse.

Because she’s not coming back.

Is having the best day of my life….

***

It was two hours to his first lecture on the Friday and Frank Hardy had not awakened. The sun could not pass through the thick blinds that covered his windows so in Frank’s room, it seemed like it was perpetually evening. His alarm radio automatically switched on at the stipulated time and the DJ was playing some Brit hit called, "Thank You."

Better than the perpetual night plaguing my brother. Evening, a shade lighter than night.

Actually, he was already conscious but he preferred to laze in bed for a while more. He felt like he had switched places with Joe when the truth was, he was too hard on himself. His thesis supervisor was breathing down his neck and he finally came up with a research topic on The Justice System in the Third World. The supervisor was impressed and Frank was distressed- knowing that he had just dug his own grave and ordered his own wreaths.

Hell! I signed my own death certificate.

He had only three hours of sleep the night before, typing out outline after outline that he rejected. Joe had- in those times of sanity which Frank was glad were becoming a common occurrence finally after so long- volunteered help but he had no idea how to do the research for Frank and ended up carting back the wrong books all the time from the library. Thus, Frank relieved his brother of such duties for which he knew Joe was extremely grateful.

And Callie. Callie and he were officially over. They were over the day after Joe was found. He returned with his kid brother after they caught the sunrise, or rather, he caught the sunrise as Joe was already fast asleep on the breakwaters and no amount of shaking could get him to rouse. Sleep was healing and Joe was spiritually tired. There were many more sunrises to be caught. Joe needed to rest his troubled heart.

Callie had, while he was about to faint from exhaustion since he was determined to catch the sunrise, wanted the talk. He simply told her he knew and they broke up. Just like that. At least that was what he liked to fool himself with. Even in his fatigue, his spirit tried its best to stay awake and rekindle the spark that would make her stay. Make her stay by his side and they would forget about the Randall fellow forever.

Callie with that Randy whatever crap guy. Rich man’s son who stays on some crap filled hill. Used some crap perfume and from all angles, looks like crap.

One big dumb crap.

Asshole.

After ‘crapping’ so much on Randall Ophir, Frank felt strangely better. It was a guy’s thing probably, he reasoned. Yet, cursing and swearing in silence would do nothing to salvage his relationship with Callie.

We have burned the bridge…or rather, I’ve accidentally poured kerosene and she lit a match.

"FRANK!!!!" Maggie’s shrilling screech woke Frank up on that Friday. Very halfheartedly, he struggled up and saw Maggie all dressed up with her violin by her side. "YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DRIVE ME TO CAMPUS!!!! We’re late!!!"

Oh…right. Maggie came back last night to get her scores. Rehearsal…she has a rehearsal…

"I’m sorry, sweetie…hey…I’ll get up now and we’ll go alright?" Frank tried to placate his pouting little sister. She looked extremely adorable when she did that thus Frank, as he walked passed her to the adjacent bathroom he shared with Joe, pinched her rosy cheeks.

"Eww!!!! I’m not a baby anymore."

You’ll always be a baby in my eyes. I fed you your first taste of baby cereal when you were two.

"I’m proud of you, Maggie. Did I ever tell you that?" Frank complimented his little sister out of the blue, remembering the solo she was going to perform a few days later.

Maggie smiled smugly and happily. "Not enough! But you’re forgiven! Hurry up…please, please, please…" She pestered him and Frank gave her a half smile before he disappeared into the bathroom to perform his morning rites.

An hour later, the siblings had reached campus. Frank drove away from the Faculty of Music to the Faculty of Arts and Social Science with a heavy heart. Now that he was alone, the ghost that was he and Callie haunted him- returning to his mind like it had returned to its favorite playground. And Maggie’s decision that she had revealed earlier left him feeling like things were going to change yet again, just when the dust seemed to have finally settled.

*Excerpts of "Thank You." From the No Angel by Dido. Arista Records, 1999