Bloodsworth by Tim Junkin Page A

where Wanda was staying. Then Kirk called Wanda and told her he was coming. He’d find some kind of work in Baltimore. He just wanted to be with her. She said, “Okay,” like it was no big deal. He hitchhiked up there with a ten and change in his pocket and just the clothes on his back.
    Wanda had moved into a two-bedroom row house at 30 South Randolph Road in Essex with her half sister, Dawn Gerald. Others were living there as well. When Kirk arrived, he found in addition to Wanda and Dawn, Wanda’s two brothers, Joey and Kirk Martin; and Tammy Albin, a club dancer up in the city. Dawn and Tammy brought home boyfriends, bikers mostly, and Joey and Kirk Martinwere always trying to hustle girls in there. The place was a constant party.
    Kirk found a job working for a woman named Donna Hollywood, loading wicker furniture at a nearby outlet called Harbor to Harbor, about a mile away. He worked four days each week and, with no car, walked to and from work. In fact, he walked everywhere. He and Tammy were the only two in the group house that were employed, though Tammy worked nights.
    Whenever Kirk was in the house, it seemed like a circus—filled with nonstop hard rock, spilled beer, marijuana smoke, toked-up bikers, wired-up chippies partying all night, fights, sex. Dawn Gerald and her half brother, Joey Martin, slept in the same bed. Kirk and Wanda lived out of cardboard boxes. They were given a pullout couch in the living room to sleep on, but it was seldom quiet enough to sleep and they had no privacy. Everyone was ramped up. Kirk was constantly borrowing money from people in the apartment who were constantly fighting over money. And Wanda acted no differently than she had in Cambridge. If anything, her conduct made Kirk feel even worse, as it took place in front of so many people. She’d disappear with biker friends and binge through the night. Kirk would come home from work having bought groceries for supper, and she wouldn’t show up till near dawn. He was sleep deprived, always broke, jealous, and heart-shattered.
    When Wanda stayed out late in the beginning of August, they got into a screaming fight. Later, he tried to calm her down, to appease her. He told her he’d bring her dinner that night, her favorite, a taco salad. But as the morning dragged on they continued to snipe at one another. “You need to make more money,” Wanda carped. “Work more. You need to give me more room. You’re just always jumping in my ass. You’re always up my crawl.” Something snapped in Kirk. He was done. He left the house that morning without a word.
    He walked over to his workplace, told his boss, Donna Hollywood, he was sick and wanted his paycheck, walked to the Golden Ring Mall where he cashed the check, and started hitchhiking home. But he was sunk in a swamp of confusion and remorse. He stopped along the way and spent the night in a room at the Pilot Motel. What was he going to tell his parents? He was embarrassed and didn’t want to face them. He still ached for Wanda and felt guilty for deserting her. He called Birdie, Wanda’s mother, just to talk. She was not friendly. Kirk told Birdie that he’d done something bad, that he was supposed to bring Wanda dinner the night before, had promised to pick her up a taco salad, but instead had just gotten mad and left. He’d stayed out all night. Birdie told him Wanda would be angry and that if he left Wanda would take him for everything he had. Kirk hung up. He tried to reach his father, but both Curtis and Jeanette were away. The next day he walked over to Route 50 and hitched a ride all the way to Cambridge. Kirk arrived home on Sunday, August 5. He’d been living in Baltimore for exactly one month. Unbeknown to him, out of anger or spite, Wanda, at Birdie’s urging, filed a missing persons report with the local police in Baltimore County the next day, listing Kirk Bloodsworth as mysteriously gone,