Tales by Candlelight
G. Novitsky
Dedication
For George & Gail,
The greatest parents around.
Thank you mom for the miles of encouragement and
being
my main force of support through each endeavor.
Introduction………………………………
Blaring
Siren………………………………
Eternal Cocktail
Party……………………
Not So Imaginary
Friend………………….
Does The Family
Really Know Me?………
Remember
Me?……………………………
Last Train
Out……………………………..
Galaxy
Searchers…………………………..
I Saw That
Coming………………………..
Roll
Model………………………………….
Wedding
March……………………………
Good
Sport…………………………………
Grandpa Can Still
Snap…………………..
Seek
Help…………………………………..
I’m Not
Leaving……………………………
Beloved
Ron………………………………..
Introduction
From the author of Trifecta of Suspense comes a conceptual mixture of short stories with something for everyone.
Blaring Siren is the journey of young Timmy’s quest to become a member of the FDNY. More than obstacles stand in his way and in the way of the family surrounding him. The story was chosen to be first for good reason and by many requests.
Eternal Cocktail Party begins as a guessing game, turning into somewhat of a science project that would appear to be promising until the alternative is revealed.
Not So Imaginary Friend shows how one young lady is given more than her share in life. Lisa is tested over and over again by life’s not so enjoyable distractions. Can anyone help her to find a way to deal with her not so normal life?
Does The Family Really Know Me? Is the question that rolls around in the troublesome mind of Herb Smitty. His office is always the same. His breakfast is always the same. His family and one friend, Newport Patty are always the same. But for one day, he’ll attempt to be different.
Remember Me? Is another title with a question. A question that can only be answered by a one sided high school sweetheart. Bobby tells the story of his not so glory days through the actions of the stuck up object of his affection he would do anything for.
Last
Train Out pulls away from the station introducing Guy Schann, who begins
his questionable journey. He’s not sure why he decided to take this trip down
memory lane. There must be something pulling him from
Galaxy Searchers have an answer to all of those questions about UFO’s and life outside of earth. The children of three astronauts and their close friend, Bennie Clebbor strap themselves in for this roller coaster ride in search of why the sky lights up.
I Saw That Coming is an abstract view of the author’s self.
Roll Model was inspired by a true event that affected the author and his town very deeply. Sometimes the right actions are not taken at the right time.
Wedding March is a fun look at the events leading up to the journey of man and wife. Whether or not you want to attend the festival, this one shows it from a bizarre outlook with an equally deranged twist.
Good Sport is for the sports loving reader. Some sports fans enjoy the intense anger, animosity, and rivalry that a bench-clearing brawl can spark in the middle of a heated battle on the baseball diamond. This story takes it a step further as the Ohio Muhd-Critterz and their fans fight for a shot at the Renovan Decision.
Grandpa
Can Still Snap is a humorous look at grandpa Henry’s life in his new home
called the
Seek Help is what Rebecca has told Charles for the last time. He finally gives in to her requests and becomes like family friend, Ronny who took his steps toward recovery first.
I’m Not Leaving are words we’ve all heard at one time or another. Sometimes a person becomes so comfortable in one place that they can’t imagine themselves anywhere else. Kerry and her family feel a need to leave, but maybe some others don’t.
Beloved Ron was chosen last due to sensitive subject matter. It is another story based on some true and disturbing events.
Now light a candle and decide which one fits you best.
Blaring Siren
Scene one:
“Morning mom, any orange juice?” Timmy walked into the kitchen on the morning of his big day. He was nineteen years old, average height, and built like a Ford truck.
“Its right here honey.” His mom Kathy held up the container and shook it. “So today’s my boys exciting day.” She patted his head.
“C’mon ma.” Timmy grinned with a
look of achievement in his eyes. As well he should, he was just accepted into
the training unit for the New York City Fire Department. It was his life long
dream to put out fires and rescue people in distress. Just hearing the blaring siren and watching the trucks
speed by his
“Do you want anything besides your cereal? Something to give you strength?” Kathy wanted to be sure that everything was the way it should be for his training.
“No thanks ma. They’re gonna have some healthy stuff there.” He finished his cereal and wiped the milk off his lip. Kathy gave him a big kiss for good luck as he grabbed his gym bag and ran out of the apartment.
There were two flights of steps between their home and the street. Timmy reached the cold, wide hallway to where his old reliable ten-speed bike was waiting. Walking it down the steps onto the sidewalk, Timmy hollered hello to Mrs. Murray who was walking by with her old lady pushcart.
“Hello there Timmy! How’s your sister?” Mrs. Murray waved. She had been their neighbor since Timmy was a baby.
“She’s doing okay. She said to say hello!” Timmy’s six-year-old sister Carol was in the hospital. She had a blood disease that the doctors were working on since she was born. She stayed there a couple of months out of the year. Their dad spent most of his free time at her bedside. That's why he was never around for breakfast.
Timmy was always happy to see Carol and Mrs. Murray but at the same time, being that Carol was so sick and Mrs. Murray was so old, deep inside he sadly wondered if he was seeing them for the last time.
Scene two:
At the gymnasium, Timmy found the training schedule more grueling than he imagined. The instructors were tough. They made him feel like he was at basic training in the army. Rigorous exercise and strenuous activities filled the long hours of the backbreaking day.
Finally at close to
Another young guy came and sat next to him. He looked as if he was ready to cry. He was not built as strong as Timmy so he had an even more difficult time during the training. “I don’t know if I’m gonna make it.” His words barely made it out of his mouth.
“I know what you mean. I am sucking wind too. What a workout.” Timmy looked up at him. “Are you okay?”
“I just need a minute.” He was pale and breathing awfully heavy.
“My name’s Timmy.” Timmy put his hand out.
“Kevin. Nice to meet you.” Kevin shook his hand and offered Timmy a bottle of water. Timmy happily accepted and once Kevin was able to catch his breath, they each took a shower and got dressed.
They walked along the avenue together talking about what interested each of them in the fire department. Timmy gave him his usual speech about saving lives and making the city a little safer.
“Yea, that’s a good reason. Getting chic’s is another. My cousin has been a fireman for a couple of years and he gets a lot of babes. At least I hope it’s because he’s a fireman, if not, what am I doing it for?” Kevin didn’t quite get it. He was slightly immature but they got along well and started to hang around together after classes.
Scene three:
The next couple of days were just
as strenuous for the boys. At least they had each other to complain to though.
They started to go to dinner together each night before heading home, usually
to a pub type restaurant along the avenue. Once in a while,
“Tim, drink up and keep it quiet.
I don’t want to lose my bar. And if your ma finds out, I’ll deny it. Be a good
boy. And the same goes for you Kevin.”
“Oh c’mon
“Cheers fellas.”
Two other guys from their training
class walked in. “
“Harry, Glenn, good to see ya’s.
Beer’s coming right up.”
“Since when do you let children in here? Oh wait, I know you guys from class. What are your names again?” Glenn didn’t want to offend his classmates.
“Hi, Tim.” Timmy reached his hand out as Glenn grabbed it with a firm grip.
“Kevin.”
“Nice to officially meet you guys. I’m Glenn, this is my pal Harry, he’s the old man of the group trying to earn his place on the big red truck for the second time. Go easy on him.”
“Nice to meet you guys. How do you like the classes so far?”
“Not bad. A little rough.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet. Wait till you get to the academy.” Harry had first hand experience there, but he also had a bad arm, which held him back the first time.
Kevin had a look of intimidation on his face. The training was rough enough. He was expecting that to be the worst of it.
“Don’t let me scare you Kev. You should be able to handle it.” Harry realized that he put a scare into him.
The four of them spoke about their lives and what brought them to the decision of becoming firemen. Harry and Glenn finished their drinks and headed out. “See you guys in the morning. Be prepared for a workout.” Glenn smiled.
“This puts a new light on the situation. I was thinking about quitting after that first day, now Harry says that it gets worse? I don’t know if I can go through with it.” Kevin was nervous.
“Don’t worry about it man. It’s only three days a week right now. We can get together a couple of extra days to push each other. Don’t quit. We can make it.” Timmy inspired Kevin to stick with it.
Later on at the apartment, Timmy told his mom all about his new friend. She was very pleased that he found someone to accompany him through the difficult venture.
They spoke for a few minutes about Carol as they normally did before bed.
“Has dad called yet?”
“Yea, he says she is looking pretty good. She made him play candyland seven or eight times tonight. I will be going to see her early tomorrow morning. Let me know if you want me to bring her anything.”
“Not yet mom, maybe in a few weeks. Tell her I love her and maybe I’ll bring Kevin by to meet her this weekend.” He felt that in a few weeks, he would have a badge or a fireman helmet to show her.
Scene four:
The next day was Friday. Their training sessions were Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. So on Friday the boys were very happy to get another week over with. Three days to recuperate was what they needed, except Timmy didn’t see it that way. He was ready to get into a routine with Kevin at a local gym.
They finished yet another punishing day of exercise. On Fridays they got out a little earlier though. The four of them walked over to the restaurant together that afternoon. They had a big dinner to celebrate making it through the week. They only had one more to go to find out if they were going to be accepted to the academy.
Harry and Glenn left early. Tim and Kevin sat around talking.
“Thank God this week is over and thank you Tim for making me stick with it. When do you want to begin our side workouts to prepare for our last week?”
“Tomorrow will be perfect, which reminds me of the question I wanted to ask you. Remember my sister Carol that I told you about?”
“Yes, is she okay?”
“Yea, I just wanted to ask if you’d like to meet her. We can go up to the hospital for a little while and hit the gym afterwards.”
“That sounds great. What gym do you want to go to?”
“I was gonna ask you to decide. Any place is good for me. I was thinking about three or four different ones, I guess it shouldn’t be this hard of a decision, what difference does it make anyway?” Timmy felt that a gym is a gym so it didn’t matter to him which one they went to.
“I have an idea, of the top three, what letter does the first one start with?” Kevin pulled out a sheet of paper.
“Okay, Gold's, G.”
Kevin tore the paper into three separate pieces. He wrote down G on one. “Next?”
“Fitness One, F”
Kevin wrote down F on another piece.
“And Hard Body Citizen, which we should count out because of the name.”
Kevin laughed and wrote H on the
last piece. “Okay, hey
“Pick a card any card.” Kevin held
the three pieces of paper up for
“Looks like it’s gonna be Fitness
One. Thanks
Fitness One was located just a few blocks from Kevin’s family’s apartment. It was a good location for both of them and the hospital was not far either.
Scene five:
Timmy made it over to Kevin’s early the next morning. They were both dressed for a work out but they stopped to see Carol first.
She was lying in her bed watching cartoons like she normally did. When Timmy walked in, her face lit up. “Timmy! Hi!”
“Hi Carol. How are you feeling today?” He handed her a calendar for coloring and another stuffed animal for the collection that got larger every week.
“Good. Just tired. Thank you for the gifts.”
“This is my friend Kevin.”
Kevin reached over and shook her hand.
“Is he a fireman too?”
“We didn’t make it yet but when we do, you’ll be the first to know.” Tim hugged his little sister.
“If we make it.” Kevin sounded a little unsure.
“We’re gonna make it. And when we go to our first fire together, you’re going in first.” Timmy laughed and gave Kevin a light punch on the shoulder.
They played games with Carol for an hour or so before they headed to Fitness One down the block.
The set up was impressive but more impressive than the equipment was a young woman on the treadmill. She caught Timmy’s eye immediately. “Kev, why don’t you start out with some stretches and benching, I will be right with you.” He was very distracted.
“I see where you’re going with that. We can’t do anything until we sign in at the front desk, so I’ll do that while you stare and drool.” Kevin walked over to the desk.
The girl looked over at Tim. “Can you hand me that towel?”
“Sure, no problem.” Tim trembled as he handed it to her.
“Thanks.” She smiled.
“Anytime. Is this gym any good? It’s my first time here.”
“It’s a place to get your exercise, nothing fancy.”
“Well, that’s all I need. I don’t care for fancy. Gotta sign in, I’ll see you later. Your machine is really serving its purpose.” He joined Kevin at the front desk and after they signed in, their workout began. They pushed each other as hard as they could take it. Tim was distracted throughout most of the workout. He was watching the treadmill girl, as she became known as after that day.
“Treadmill girl is leaving. Do you want to go take a shot before it’s too late?” Kevin pointed toward the women’s locker room off to the side.
“I don’t want to look too desperate. We’ll see her here again.” Just as Tim was finishing his sentence, Kevin motioned for him to turn around.
“My machine is really serving its purpose? That was cute. How was your first workout?” She introduced herself as Cindie and they spoke for a little while as Kevin quietly walked away.
They hoped to see each other around the gym again in the future. They seemed to hit it off but it was too soon to begin any talk of dating.
Scene six:
The rest of the weekend flew by and the guys were back to training. Tuesday was the day that the announcement was to be made to let the guys know who would be starting the academy the next week. They decided to let them know on Tuesday so whoever was not picked would not have to bother showing up for training on Thursday or Friday.
Out of the thirty-five guys in training, only twenty would be selected to go. Seven had already dropped out after the first week.
Harry, Glenn, Kevin and Timmy all stood together at the end of the workout promising each other that they would stay in touch no matter what the results were. As the names began to be called, all of the guys were a nervous wreck.
Harry’s name was called but he wasn’t as excited as most of the guys who were. He knew there was still a long road ahead.
Surprisingly, Kevin’s name was called. He jumped up and down slapping Timmy on the back. He was thankful that Tim talked him into sticking with it. After his little celebration dance, he became nervous for Timmy. His name still wasn’t called and they were getting to the end of the list.
Glenn had a tear in his eye. He felt that he didn’t give his best when it came down to the last portion of the physical test. He put his hands over his face and tilted his head down. Right at that moment, his name was called. He didn’t believe it at first, it took a moment to settle in and when it finally did, Timmy’s name was announced next. The four of them hugged and congratulated one another. They went back to their usual spot to celebrate.
“You can count on us coming by.”
“Unless we find a better hang out in the city.”
“He’s just joking. Our hearts belong here.”
“Here’s to
Scene seven:
The academy started in the middle of
August. It was extremely hot and that made the days of training even worse than
the first sessions. The guys started meeting on Friday nights at
“This is tougher than the first time. I don’t think I’m gonna make it.” Kevin looked pretty run down as he walked with Timmy to the hospital to see Carol.
“What did I tell you about that
kind of talk? You have to stick with it. Anything worth getting is not easy.”
Timmy insisted that he stay with the program. “Look at my sister. If anyone has
a reason to give up, it’s her. She is going through something worse than the
academy and when she gets out of here for good, I’m taking her out for a
victory bash. It won’t be at
“That’s pretty nice. I guess I shouldn’t whine about my problems. There is always someone that has it worse.”
“Now put on a smile. Don’t walk in here looking sad. She needs happiness.” Timmy turned the doorknob and they walked in.
“Hi Timmy! Hi Kevin!” Carol was very happy to see them both.
“Hi sweetheart. How are you feeling?”
“I guess better, they say when I go home this time, I can stay there longer. Maybe for good”
“That’s terrific. I was just talking about taking you out for your favorite ice cream when you come home.”
“Mmmm. I can’t wait.”
“Was dad here today?”
“Yea, he said that he would see you at home after your trip to the gym.” Carol seemed to be looking better. At least she was given a little hope of leaving the hospital.
Tim and Kevin kept her company for a little while longer. They played card games and watched some TV before they headed out to the gym.
“I know what you’re looking for. Give it up. She probably quit working out here because of you.” Kevin joked as Tim looked towards the treadmills on the way in.
“I guess you were reading my mind. I hope I’m not the reason she stopped coming.” Tim was a little upset that she hadn’t been around.
They were working on their legs in the back corner of the gym. Kevin was feeling really good about himself for a change. They had been there for over an hour and they were feeling the burn. It had been constant exercise for them between the academy and hitting the gym on their own.
“Last set for me.” Tim blew out heavy.
“Okay, good timing.”
“What do you mean?” Tim turned to Kevin who was watching the front door.
“She just walked in.” Kevin watched Cindie walk to the treadmill. When Tim looked up, she gave him a big wave.
“Good God, she’s beautiful. Look at that smile. I’m going to ask her out. Maybe not today but one day I’m gonna ask her out.” Tim waved back and wiped his face with a towel.
“I’ll believe it when I see it stud boy. Let’s get to the lockers.” Kevin started to walk away. Tim took the long way and stopped by Cindie.
“All your working out is paying off. You look like a real body builder.” Cindie smiled.
“Thank you very much. Between running myself to the ground at the academy and then hitting these weights three times a week, I should look like two body builders stuck together.”
“Oh, you’re a cop?” She looked surprised as she sipped her water.
“No, fireman academy. Two more weeks to go.”
“Wow, does that mean you’re definitely in?”
“No, I am still hoping to make it.”
“What happens if you do make it? Is there a graduation party or something?”
“Yea, they’ll have some kind of a ceremony, I’m sure.”
“I’ve never been to one of those.”
“Well, if I make it, and you want to go to your first one, I’d be happy to have you there.” Tim became nervous.
“It’s a date.” Cindie was also nervous.
“Excellent. I’m sure I’ll see you here within the next two weeks, so I’ll keep you posted.” Tim was happier than ever as he ran into the locker room to share the story with Kevin. Now he had more inspiration to graduate.
Cindie rushed home to call her older sister Leanne. “Guess what?”
“Hi Cindie. What?”
“I met a really great guy. Everything about him is amazing. I want you to meet him!”
“That is wonderful. What’s his name? Where’d ya meet?”
“We met at my gym, his name is Tim and guess what, he’s going to be a fireman!” Cindie was very excited.
“That is terrific, but as your big sister let me just warn you not to get too worked up. It sounds fantastic but you should take it slow. If it’s meant to be, it will work out. I just don’t want to see you get hurt. You understand?” Leanne was protective of Cindie and her thoughts were appreciated. They spent another hour or so on the phone with sisterly talk.
Scene eight:
The next two weeks dragged on. The workouts were severe and the guys hoped that all of their pain and suffering was going to be worth it. Tim had another reason to pass the academy. Cindie was interested in being his date for the ceremony. He ran into her at the gym once more before the day of the announcement. They spoke for a short while, she was anxious to accompany him to the event.
Timmy went to see Carol very early Friday morning before his final day of the academy. She was scheduled to head back home on the following Wednesday.
Carol was still asleep when Tim arrived at her bedside. He held her hand and whispered happy thoughts quietly in her ear. She smiled in her sleep. Before he left, Tim gave her a kiss on her forehead and looked over to notice her coloring calendar was colored up to date.
Once again the four of them, Harry, Glenn, Kevin and Timmy stood together waiting in line to see if their names were on the list to become firemen.
As they got closer to the window where the list was posted, guys walked by in all kinds of spirits, some angry, some sad, some thrilled and some without any expression at all.
Kevin made it to the list and called out to the guys. “I made it!” He scrolled down the list with his finger. “Let me check for you guys.” He saw Timmy’s name. “Timmy you did it! Let me see here.” He continued to look and saw Glenn’s name next. “Glenn congrats! Let me see if you’re here Harry.” He scrolled down. “Oh, Harry, I’m sorry, I don’t see your name.”
“I’m not surprised.” Harry put his head down and began to walk away.
“Harry! Harry! I’m just kidding! You’re on the list!” Kevin played a questionable joke on his new friend.
“Okay, you got me. That was good. Now I have to see for myself.” Harry took a look and he was thrilled to see his name with his own eyes. All of the guys were excited. They all rushed home to tell their families.
“Well, how did you do?” Kathy stopped Timmy as he walked in the apartment.
His face gave it away. “Oh mom, I was going to trick you and say I didn’t make it but I can’t hide this smile for nothing.” He hugged his mother very tight.
“Congratulations! I knew you could do it. Your dad is going to be so proud.”
“I can’t wait to tell him. Is he with Carol?”
“Of course he is. I’m sure he’ll make it to the ceremony tomorrow though.”
“Oh, that reminds me, you’re gonna meet Cindie tomorrow. She’s a beautiful girl I met at the gym. She wants to be my date.”
“That sounds wonderful. Ask her to come by next Saturday. We’re going to have a celebration for you and Carol then. I would have liked to have made it a surprise but I’m sure you want to invite your friends.”
Timmy was thankful and he prepared a list of who he wanted there. Cindie was the first name on the list.
Scene nine:
The ceremony came and went. Cindie showed up and made a lasting impression on Tim’s family and friends. Kathy took three rolls of pictures of the guys in their suits, most of them with Timmy in the middle.
All was close to perfect in Tim’s
life. He thanked
His dad and mom were enthralled about his success and Carol coming home. That was a very big event. Everyone was looking forward to the party on Saturday. Cindie invited her sister Leanne so she could finally meet Tim.
The excitement for Timmy and Kevin came Monday. They were both starting at the same station and that night was their first shift. They were going to spend their first night at the fire station as real firemen.
Harry and Glenn were also starting that night. They were in separate firehouses.
The night went on without any rescues or fire fighting. The guys were all thankful for that. They weren’t ready to jump into the job that soon. A few days getting to know the equipment and the guys was what they needed.
Kathy was just waking up at close
to
“Well, my boy won’t be home for a few hours, I have no-one to make breakfast for, I might as well get a little more sleep.” Kathy lied down, closed her eyes and went back to sleep while her husband was sleeping in a chair next to Carol’s bed at the hospital.
All three of them woke up at nine
minutes after
Scene ten:
It didn’t take long before the family learned of what a horrible day it actually was. It had to be the worst day in the history of their city. Kathy stood in front of the apartment talking to Mrs. Murray and some other neighbors. None of them could believe the horror that the day brought. Kathy was glad that she slept most of the day away.
Carol and her dad began to watch
the news on the TV in her hospital room. Her dad didn’t think it was good for
her to watch. He scrambled around the dial to see the same story on every
channel. He finally came to a show that would ease their minds, one of Carol’s
favorites,
“Daddy? Why is that other show on every channel? Can we leave my show on? I don’t like that other show.” Carol looked sad before her dad found that channel.
“Yes honey. We will leave this on
for the rest of the day.” He turned off the light, lied next to her and tried
to block out the sights that he saw on the other channels. As he reached over
to put Carol’s water on the table, he noticed the coloring calendar on the
table. The last day colored was
It was colored with pretty flowers, a bright sun, animals running, children smiling and families together. That showed how she felt about returning home on Wednesday. It was a shame that they couldn’t have skipped over Tuesday completely and got right into Wednesday.
Tuesday was
Carol returned home on Wednesday but she would have taken that hospital bed forever if it would have changed the outcome of that day.
Saturday’s plans stayed pretty much the same. All of the people on the list came to the apartment. It wasn’t for a party. It was to pay their respects to Timmy. The three rolls of photos were developed and placed tastefully around the flowers.
Tim was one of the first firefighters on the scene. He went up the stairs of The World Trade Center which felt like an eternity, he ended up right back where he started when the towers fell. The entire area was completely different from when he originally arrived. Something like his family dreamed.
Kevin, Harry and Glenn were all on the scene, miraculously they were all spared. They didn’t know how to feel about that. There was no way to change what happened, and that was the only thing they wanted to do.
As Timmy used to think each time
he saw Carol and Mrs. Murray it would be the last time, he was right. Both of
them attended his funeral. So did the rest of his family and friends including
Leanne also made it. This was the meeting that Cindie couldn’t wait for. Too bad it had to take place the way it did.
Leanne’s sisterly advice went through Cindie’s mind. She was not sure why she was put into Tim’s life for only a limited while, but she felt that she wouldn’t trade those short moments in place of never meeting Timmy. He made a big difference in her life even though their shared time was so little.
Although there are animals from some countries that are bread to hate,
kill and destroy, there are descent citizens in other countries that just want
to get through their workdays to see the people they love. Those people like
Timmy leave behind families that will never be able to understand why they are
hated to this degree.
If he would have left the earth due to natural causes, it still
wouldn’t have been long enough. Our lives are too short as it is, death is too
sad to deal with under normal circumstances. Do we really need savages ending
life early and scarring the minds of millions?
Blaring Siren was not created only to upset the reader. It had more of
a message of remembering what can be lost so quickly, realizing that evil
exists and it should be put to an end. Our small problems can be forgotten when
a real dilemma has to be faced, and we should always be there for each other.
Always!
Eternal Cocktail Party
Scene one:
The room was enormous. Everyone was having a wonderful time. The music was to all of the guests liking. It was a party that could go on forever.
“Bobby? Carol? Wow! It’s great to see you! I thought I’d never see you again. How have you been?” Pete, a thirty-six year old construction worker, ran into some old friends.
“Hi Peter. Having a good time?” Carol looked fantastic.
“Pete. Glad you could make it. Grab a drink and stay a while. The party just started livening up.” Bobby, an old friend from high school shook Peter’s hand and passed him a drink.
“Thanks Bobby. After all of these years, you still remembered my favorite. Thanks. I don’t know if I can stay long, I’ve been kind of busy lately. I don’t even know how they got me to come here in the first place.” Pete started his usual, save the fun for when I have time speech.
“We’re not going to listen to how you have to get up early and how you have too many responsibilities to have a little fun tonight. Let yourself loose and have a good time for a change.” Bobby didn’t want to hear about work or chores.
Pete always worried about being on time, finishing his work before he goes home, keeping things as clean as possible, and saving the fun for when the chores are done. They were all good habits but they’re not the memories that you treasure.
“Okay, I got you. I see what you’re saying. I’ll let loose, but just this one time. Do you know where the bathroom is?”
“Ha ha, did you hear that Carol? He wants to know where the bathroom is.” Bobby laughed.
“That’s funny Pete. Glad to see you’re beginning to relax a bit. I’ll be right back guys, I see Laura and I want to talk to her for a minute.” Carol danced away with a drink in her hand.
“You don’t really have to go to the bathroom do you Pete?”
“Actually, I don’t. That’s just where I sorta go at the beginning of a party. You know, wash my hands, get a look in the mirror.”
“You look gorgeous. No one really cares about that stuff. C’mon, let me show you around.” Bob brought him around to introduce him to some new people and reacquaint him with some old friends that he hadn’t seen in years.
“Wow, what a beautiful pool! Can we go in?” Pete admired the surroundings.
“Of course you can go in. Do these people look like they’re waiting for permission?” There were some folks lounging in the pool with their cocktails.
“C’mon in! The water is perfect!” A gorgeous woman called over to Pete.
“I guess it’s time to go for a swim.”
Scene two:
Back in Peter’s hometown, things were not as fun and exciting. Most of the neighborhood just finished sitting through a very sad funeral. It seemed like there was one a month in that little town.
Death was the big topic of discussion around there. All of the local papers and news stories around that time showed a great interest in cures for a wide variety of diseases and illnesses.
Most of the top ones, AIDS, Cancer, Heart disease and Liver problems were already in the final stages of being cured. The top doctors around the world were in search of finding ways to prevent death from common situations such as, accidents, murders and old age. They had their hands full, but their hard work and devotion proved successful in the past.
Dr. Hank Bleckard from
Scene three:
The party was still rolling strong. Peter made friends with a couple of the women in the pool and he was half way through an ice cream sundae. That was certainly living it up by his standards. Normally he wouldn’t stop for a candy bar if his schedule didn’t permit it.
“Hey! New guy! Having a good time?” A friendly guy who Pete was introduced to earlier walked by the pool.
“Yes sir! This is the life!” Pete tried to remember where he was supposed to be. He was having way too good a time and it didn’t seem completely right. It didn’t bother him as much as it would’ve normally and he couldn’t figure out the reason for that either. “Why do they keep referring to me as the new guy?” He also wondered.
“C’mon Pete. Drink up.” One of the sexy girls came and sat on his lap as she removed his finished sundae glass. “I’ll get you another one of these in a minute.” She licked some fudge off the corner of his mouth and he forgot all about any prior obligations.
Two men were walking by the pool admiring the view and talking. “It doesn’t look good for my son. All of the research that is going on over there, all the cures and elimination of illnesses is going to keep me from seeing him.”
“That’s tough, I can feel your pain though. A lot of us are in the same boat.”
“What are those guys talking about?” Pete asked the young woman on his lap.
“Oh, there is a lot of talk about all of those doctors and scientists curing all of the worlds ailments. It’s getting people worried.”
“But that’s a good thing? Isn’t it?”
She just laughed and continued to rub his shoulders. “You’ve got a lot to learn sweetheart. I’ll help you along the way.”
“Sounds good to me.” He put his head under the water and came back up refreshed. “I’ll take another one of these.” He held his glass up. “Do you know what time it is?”
She laughed again. “Oh yes, a lot to learn.”
Scene four:
Dr. Bleckard continued his quest for the wonder vaccine. Many of his peers joined him in his hope of supplying the life regenerator to all of the areas that needed it. They worked days and nights to put their tremendous plan to work.
In Pete’s hometown, there was a horrible accident. The life regenerator could have been put to the test if only the ambulance brought it in time. There was a short supply in hospitals around the world being used as a test for accident victims. If the vaccine made it to the victim within a reasonable amount of time, it usually regained the body’s vital organs and brought life right back into them.
Gus, a neighbor and friend of Pete was driving along the highway in the rain when he was side swiped by a truck. Gus tried to regain control of his car, but he swerved off of the road into an embankment. The car rolled along into a tree. Gus’ head went through the windshield. There was no airbag in his old Chevrolet.
The local hospital was not supplied with the vaccine. They had to call a few towns over to have a dose delivered. The paramedics tried to get it there on time.
Scene five:
Pete was over indulging at the party. He cleared his mind of all thoughts of responsibility and continued the good time. “We gotta do this more often! When is the next one?”
“It’s continuous.”
“I have to go back to whatever I was doing eventually. Don’t I?”
“Excuse me Peter, here is your drink and there is also someone here who you may want to say hello to.” One of the women leaned over to get Pete’s attention.
“Oh, thank you. Where is he? Or she?”
Gus walked in. “Pete! What are you doing here? I could swear I just went to your funeral a few weeks ago. You look good for a dead guy.”
“Hey Gus! Still the funny one, eh? What brings you to this party?”
“I really don’t know. Last I remember I was in a bad car accident. I figured this was Phyllis’ way to welcome me back from the hospital. Where is she? Have you seen her?”
“There are so many people here, I don’t remember who I seen and who I haven’t. Glad you could make it. Grab a drink and stay a while. The party just started livening up.” Pete handed him a drink.
“Thanks Pete. I see you still remember my favorite drink. I don’t know if I can stay long, I’ve got some things to do around the house. I don’t even know how they got me here in the first place.” Gus worried about painting the shed and cutting the lawn.
“Oh just jump in the pool and relax. I thought I had things to do today also but no one has tried to contact me since I got to the party.” Pete took a sip of his drink and then filled Gus in on all of the wonderful details of the party.
Scene six:
The scientists and doctors officially declared the life regenerator vaccine a success. Over the past year it was used four hundred and seventy eight times and it saved four hundred and seventy eight lives.
All other life saving devices success rates also increased. Mortality had become a thing of the past. Over the length of the entire planet, only four deaths were reported in the last year. Science was serving its purpose.
Dr. Bleckard and the others celebrated after the news broke. Every hospital, doctor, nurse’s office, and most homes were supplied with the vaccine. The world was in disbelief but at the same time enthralled by the find. It was a victory for mankind.
Scene seven:
The party was still going strong. Some of the guests made their way over to the grand window. That’s a window outside of the hall between rooms. Pete saw it for the first time. “Wow! That is some window. What does it overlook?”
“I’ll show you in a little while.” One of the pretty women pulled him by the hand.
“What are these other rooms?” He questioned as she brought him out of the hall into the main lobby. There were doors leading to all different sections of the palace type creation.
“You may choose which room you would like to stay in. They are all wonderful except for one. You were sent to the Eternal Cocktail Party because of how you lived. You craved that kind of life but you never were given the chance to live it. You can come back in or you may try another room if you wish.” The woman explained.
“What do you mean lived? I am still living!”
She laughed. “Oh, you certainly do have a lot to learn.”
“Can you take me to the window?”
“Let me explain the window. All the people gathered around it are waiting for their loved ones to enter. They can see when their times arrive through that window.”
“I think I am beginning to learn. But I am scared.”
“Don’t be scared. The pain is over now and your time of everlasting enjoyment has begun.” She explained that he died over two years ago and he spent those two years at the Eternal Cocktail Party. “Time spent in heaven goes by in a different way. The years pass like days but there are no years or days, it is one never-ending party.”
The room she referred to as not wonderful was also known as Hell. She let him take a quick peek through that window. A quick peek was all that was allowed. The room was dark, extremely dark. It was ice cold at night and like an oven during the day. There was severe punishment going on in there. It was reserved for the lowest of the lows, terrorists, kid touchers, and billionaire misers who hoarded everything to themselves on earth, leaving others with not even a pair of shoes.
“Wow and I thought those sins were going unpunished all along. Kinda gives you a good feeling knowing justice was eventually done.” Pete smiled as the woman continued the tour.
Each room was created in a way to accommodate the needs and wants of any particular guest in heaven. The guests could move from room to room or just stay in one place. It was like having control of a good dream.
“I can see why they laughed when I asked what time it was.”
“We don’t go by time here, time goes by us. We usually laugh at everything though.”
“Like when I asked where the bathroom was?”
She laughed again. “Exactly. Like I said, you’ve been here for over two years of earth time, well now it’s closer to three, and you still haven’t needed a bathroom. We don’t use them.”
“I guess you can truly call this heaven then.” Pete was happier every time he learned something else about his new home.
Scene eight:
On earth, it was getting a little out of hand. Another year had passed and there was not one death reported on the whole planet. The doctors were still proud of what they did, but everything was getting out of control.
There was no fear of death. Many people were taking chances with their every action. There was chaos throughout the nations.
Besides all of the madness, the world was becoming even more over-populated than it was just a few years earlier.
Things like life insurance, cemeteries, funeral parlors, and morgues became extinct, while things like land, real estate, health insurance, and fitness centers flourished.
The new opportunities out numbered the negatives at first. As time went on, some obvious problems began with over crowding around the major cities.
Some people had the right idea, using their immortality to their favor. Peter’s family for instance, they all ended up finding a place to stay that wasn’t as crowded as their old town had become. His dad and brother continued to work and his mom and sister in law stayed home with Peter’s nephews.
That family meant more to Peter than anything. Much like Phyllis and Gus’ two daughters meant to Gus. They were all Gus spoke about from the minute he entered the party. He missed them very much.
Scene nine:
Gus didn’t realize that he had been away from his family for two years until he looked out the grand window. He saw his family. He watched them missing his presence. They looked a little different since the years went by.
“We watched you from this window from when you were twenty until you were struck by that truck.” Gus’ grandmother leaned over his shoulder.
“You died when I was twenty.”
“Yes she did. And I watched you from when you were twenty-three until you were struck by that truck.” Gus’ grandfather added.
“And I watched your grandfather for those three years. He’s lucky he stayed faithful for that period of time.” His grandma smiled.
“Faithful? I was eighty-six. What choice did I have?”
Everyone around the window let out a laugh.
Gus stared down at his family with a tear in his eye. “Now their stuck down there forever. I’ll never see them again. These doctors destroyed their lives and ruined my death.”
“Damn the technology!” Peter watched his family that meant so much to him.
“I stood by this window waiting for my husband to die for eleven years. Now I will never hold him again.” A woman shed a tear.
The stories went on and on in front of the window. “My baby!” “My wife!” “My husband!” “My brother!” “My sister!” “My son!” “My daughter!” “My Lord, what a mess!”
They all stared out of the grand window watching their friends and loved ones live in an overcrowded chaotic world of Immortality as they sipped their drinks at their Eternal Cocktail Party.
Perhaps
living forever is not as great as it is made out to be.
Scene one:
As usual, Lisa woke up for work a little late on Monday morning. She rushed into her small bathroom to shower and get ready to begin another week. “Why me? Why me? Oh God I hate this life.” She mumbled as she waited for the water to warm up.
Lisa lived alone in her apartment. It was the same place she lived in as a little girl. When her parents moved out they left her full responsibility of it.
Her boyfriend Joe stayed with her every so often. Joe’s heart went out to her. There were some things in her life that just didn’t seem fair. She had a skin and hair illness that created blotches and hair loss. It was first diagnosed as skin cancer but as doctor check-ups continued, they gave it a new name, discoid lupus, which was incurable.
Her lupus was not the worst of her problems. She also had a thyroid disorder, migraine headaches, and a nervous condition. The nervous condition was said to have been the cause of what she felt was the worst of her problems. The panic attacks!
As a little girl, Lisa did not know what they were. She called them head problems and every time she felt one coming on she would share them with whoever was around. That wasn’t such a great idea.
“Hello sir. I am having head problems.”
“Hello ma’am. Can you help me? I have head problems.”
People didn’t take it serious and they often laughed. She tried to talk to her family about it but they just said she was a hypochondriac. She began to keep the problems to herself.
“Dammit! Why does the water always have to get cold right after I soap up?” Lisa tried to move herself out of the direction of the showerhead. “I need this! Especially when I’m running late!” She angrily waited for the water to warm up again.
She was finally able to wash the soap off and start the real work. Every morning she globbed on unheard of amounts of medicine and make up to hide the deformities left by the lupus. She also had to spend a while maneuvering her hair to cover up the gaps also created by her wonderful disease.
“Why so much powder? Why all of that cover up?” Occasionally there would be a familiar voice in her head. Whenever she heard the voice, she thought another panic attack was coming on. It made her stomach very uncomfortable.
“I have to do it for this God forsaken deformity I was blessed with! How would you like it if it was you?” She got angry at the voice. The voice just giggled.
“Why are you missing so much hair? What are you doing with your hair?”
“Please stop!”
“Remember, don’t go to the mailbox today.”
“Leave me alone! I’m serious. It’s not funny.” Lisa knelt on the floor and held her hands over her eyes for a moment and the voice left.
She finished getting ready and contemplated calling in sick. All of the arguing in her head made her jumpy and her nerves were unsettled. She decided to give it a shot and got on the subway.
The subway was the worst place for a nervous person. The feeling of being enclosed and the fear of who is standing nearby are only a couple of thoughts someone like Lisa had on a train. What made it worse was being underground. She was claustrophobic and sometimes would have to stop mid trip to go up to ground level and catch her bearings.
She kept her head in her book and was able to make it through the whole ride to her building. “What a treat. I fought my stomach and my mind for an hour just so I could get to a place that I hate.” The same thought went through her head every morning.
Scene two:
Lisa made her way to the tenth floor to sit at the same desk that she fought to get to for almost nine years. She had to wait for an elevator that wasn’t too crowded. Being stuck against the wall in a box held by a pulley was not one of her favorite parts of the day. “Thank goodness I’m not on the fiftieth floor.” Not being on the top floor of her building was one positive thing in her life.
No one really said much to her during the day. Some of the guys tried to flirt with her because she was attractive, but she just seemed to act so dam strange for them to get anywhere. She had no clue that anyone found her good looking. All she could see was the blotches on her face and the loss of hair patches on her head. She was thankful that Joe ever gave her a second look.
“Lisa, hi. Please get these figures in order and e-mail them to the appropriate recipients before two. Thanks.” Lilly, one of her managers dropped off some paperwork that needed to be updated. Lilly was gone before Lisa could say okay.
She put the memo somewhere in the middle of her pile of things to do for the day. “Why don’t you take a typing lesson and do some of your own dam work?” She mumbled while organizing her pile.
As the day went on, co-workers walked in and out from lunch. There was idle chitchat around the office. Lisa could only feel that all of the small conversations were about her. While typing the e-mail for Lilly, she was also typing her thoughts on a separate document.
“No one knows. No one cares. I know that they’re all mocking me when I’m not listening. They are a bunch of phonies. They should be attacked like I am by voices in their heads. It’s not fair.”
“Lisa, it’s almost two. How is that e-mail coming along?” Lilly stood behind her.
“I’m just about done…. I’m sending it now…. I just have to attach the document.” Lisa nervously hit the send button in fear that Lilly would catch a glimpse of her inner thoughts.
Scene three:
After work, Lisa stopped by Joe’s apartment on her way home. “Hi sweetheart. I was just on my way to my softball game. You can come and watch if you want. Or stay here, whatever you like.” Joe was rushing out the door with his uniform on. “We may stop at the corner pub for a drink afterwards. Try to make it by.
“I’ll just stay for a little while and make something to eat. Maybe I’ll see you after the game.” She gave him a kiss goodbye and then put on a CD before walking into the kitchen.
She made a small serving of chicken, vegetables and potatoes. Her nervous stomach was getting to her so she left the food on the counter and napped on the couch for an hour or so listening to the music.
“Where am I? What is going on? Oh, it’s Joe’s apartment. I must have fallen asleep.” The music was still playing softly when she awoke. It was some kind of classical mix with movie sound effects. Kind of creepy to wake up to.
She glanced over at the dinner she made and decided to put it in the refrigerator because her stomach was still not right. “Joe could eat this after his game. I feel like getting out of here.” She closed the door behind her and began to walk home.
Her apartment was a long walk away but getting on the subway when she didn’t absolutely have to was not going to happen. Her feelings about the bus weren’t as bad. It was just that waiting for one to come wasn’t worth it.
The walk gave her some time to think, but thinking wasn’t always good. She thought about the voice in her head and why it kept asking her about her ailments and how she covers them up. The thoughts brought on a small attack. Some people use a brown paper bag to breathe in and out of. Lisa thought that would only make it worse. The more attention she brought to the problem, the worse it became.
She tried not to think about it. That was not easy to do. If someone tells you not to think of the color red, what’s the first thing you’re going to do? Right, think of red. So it was a difficult thing to get past.
Some episodes weren’t as bad as others. Once in a while she would question her sanity and think about doing strange stuff, just peculiar things that would cause someone to be sent to an asylum. Maybe run around screaming or throwing rocks through windows. Her worst fear was when it became too much and she felt like she was going to have a nervous breakdown. She never had one but that was the only ending she pictured for some of the episodes.
After a half-hour or so of trying to calm herself down, she was finally feeling better. She went into her apartment and rushed to make herself comfortable. “I’ll go to sleep now, so maybe I can wake up on time tomorrow.”
Scene four:
Tuesday morning wasn’t as rushed as Monday. Lisa got up, took her shower and started her routine in front of the mirror.
“You look pretty to me. I don’t think you need to hide everything.” The voice was back.
“Well, thanks, but I don’t feel the same. It’s not easy walking around like this. Are you the one making me nervous?”
“Yes I am. Sorry.”
“Why? Why are you doing this to me?”
“I don’t know. Can we talk about something else?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. What about Christmas or birthdays or pets? Those are nice things.”
“I guess. But Christmas is not for two more months and my birthday is long after that. I don’t have any pets anymore.”
“Where is Sammy?”
“Oh, Sammy, he left a long time ago. He is in cat heaven now.” Lisa used to have a cat years ago.
“Maybe I don’t want to talk to you today. Get some new records!”
Lisa finished putting her face and hair together. The voice didn’t bother her as much as it did the day before. She felt that maybe she was going to have a better day.
As usual, it was a fight to get to work, but not as bad as the day before. As she walked to her desk, she noticed everyone staring at her and some whispering and pointing. “This has to be my imagination. They can’t all be talking about me.” Lisa made her way to the ladies room to make sure her blotches weren’t showing.
Everything in the mirror appeared to be fine, at least by what Lisa was used to. She never thought she looked fine. There was always a problem in her eyes. Her face was no worse than any other day.
Lilly was standing at Lisa’s desk waiting for her to come back from the ladies room. “Why did you add this?” Lilly held up a piece of paper.
Lisa took it and began to read it.
“No one knows. No one cares. I know that they’re all mocking me when I’m not listening. They are a bunch of phonies. They should be attacked like I am by voices in their heads. It’s not fair.”
Her personal thoughts ended up being attached to the e-mail for Lilly. Her concentration was blocked when she sent it out. Lilly didn’t make such a big deal out of it, but the attachment was circulated around the office as quick as a juicy rumor.
Lisa tried to avoid eye contact with everyone in the office for the rest of the day. She buried herself in the pile of work on her desk.
Scene five:
After the long, embarrassing day, Lisa stopped by Joe’s again on her way home.
“Hi sweetheart. How was work?” Joe was eating an apple.
“It was so bad. I sent out the wrong file in an e-mail and everyone acted like I was the dumbest person they ever seen. I just couldn’t wait to get out of there.” She didn’t tell him the details of what the wrong file said. She didn’t want Joe to know about her inner feelings, even though her whole office did.
“That is terrible honey. I am so sorry. Let me put on a disk and make you something to eat. By the way, thanks for dinner last night. I wish you would have stayed around to eat it with me. It was delicious.” Joe put on one of his strange sounding disks. The sounds made Lisa uncomfortable but she figured it was her thoughts doing it again.
She managed to eat some of what Joe prepared before falling asleep on his couch again.
When she awoke, Joe was in his bed snoring away. “Where am I? Oh, Joe’s again. I better get going and let him sleep.” The music was still playing as she gathered her things and headed for home.
Scene six:
Wednesday morning while standing in front of the bathroom mirror, the visitor in Lisa’s head was back. “Good morning. Enjoy your date last night? I think you’re lucky.”
“Thanks, I guess. How am I lucky?” Lisa was a bit puzzled.
“You like some of your life. Why not all?”
“Because, I was cursed with these illness’. Sometimes it is too much for one person to handle.”
“Okay. They won’t even ask you.” Sometimes the voice was friendlier than other times. It was a little confusing. After that conversation, Lisa tried to figure out why the voice said she was lucky.
It was another long and fearful subway ride. “I’m not lucky. No one who feels as sick as I do right now is lucky. I can’t take this feeling in my stomach. It’s making me dizzy and off balance. I might have to get off at the next stop and get some air. It is getting very closed in. I don’t like it. I’m losing it. C’mon, c’mon, stop train! I gotta get out! I gotta get out!” She started to lose it while thinking to herself. The doors finally opened and she made it up to safe ground.
“Thank God. Let me just walk a couple of blocks before I get back on that dirty subway again.” She walked for a while and her head cleared within a half-hour or so. She got back on the subway, although it wasn’t easy, and made it to her job almost thirty minutes late.
She made it to her desk and got started on her pile of work again. “I hope they don’t want to know why I’m so late. What will I tell them? I keep chopping away at this pile and it seems like it only gets bigger.” Her mind raced as a co-worker, Philip asked her a question. She was too into her thoughts of being late to answer him, so she just brushed him off.
After another long day of nervousness, Lisa made her way home. She called Joe as soon as she got in the door to tell him that she had to go straight home. Rest and relaxation was the only thing on her mind and she decided not to go in to work the next day because of her latest panic attack.
Scene seven:
Most of Thursday was spent in front of the bathroom mirror, talking to her little friend. “I still don’t see why you say I’m lucky. I had to stay home from work today because of the crazy things that go on in my mind and affect my nervous system. I hate going to work, but I don’t want to be a failure at my job who calls in sick and walks in a half hour late and can’t tell anyone why. If I told them why, they’d call a mental institution to come get me. I’d rather try to hide my problems.” Lisa rambled on.
“You should be happy. Tomorrow is the big day.” The voice chimed in when Lisa finally finished.
“Big day for what? That’s what I don’t understand about you. You tell me things and act like I know what you’re talking about. Tomorrow is Friday, yes I like Friday’s but I wouldn’t call it the big day. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to make it back to work tomorrow.” Lisa felt lost in the conversation.
“You should rest up so you can go to work tomorrow. And don’t forget what the doctor told you.” The voice left Lisa’s head as she walked out of the bathroom. She decided to take the advice and go to bed.
Scene eight:
Friday morning Lisa arrived at work and had some problems with her computer. She could not log in. She called the systems department and they sent someone down.
“Hi, Lisa?”
“Yes, hi, you must be from the systems department.”
“Yes, I am Louis. What seems to be the problem?”
“I can’t get in.”
“Let’s have a look.” Louis made his way into her seat and started typing away on the machine. It took him a few minutes and then he asked her for her password.
Surprised at first, she thought that no one was ever supposed to ask for that information. “Uhm, really?” She asked.
“Yes, I want to see if it’s gonna let you in now.” Louis smiled.
Lisa was quite embarrassed. She began to hesitate. “I am great.” She put her head down.
“Okay, let’s see, I A M G R E A T, and, yes, you certainly are. It works. Let me know if you have anymore problems.” Louis mumbled a little more and Lisa was so embarrassed she kept her head down until he was clear from the area. She used the password, I am great, because after seeing a psychologist briefly regarding her problems, he was insistent that she look at herself in a better light. After that little event, she changed the password right away in case she ever got locked out of the computer again.
Lisa finally made it through yet, another embarrassing day and the week was finally over. Her Friday afternoon subway rides were the best ones of the week. She knew she had two days to try to forget about all of the problems at work and make room in her head for new ones.
She arrived at Joe’s apartment
before
“Hi Lisa. Please come down to the corner pub when you get this note. I’ll be waiting there. Love Joe.” The note was brief.
“I hope everything is okay.” Lisa worried on her way to the corner. She opened the pub door slowly and noticed it was pitch black inside. “Hello? Is anyone here?” She was a bit nervous.
“I’m over here.” She heard Joe’s voice from the back corner where a light flashed on and off.
Lisa walked towards the corner. “Please don’t scare me.” The light flashed again and concentrated on Joe’s hand. He was holding a small box.
“Lisa? Will you be my wife?” Joe looked in her eyes and took a ring out of the box.
Lisa felt that it was the most romantic thing she had ever seen. Her answer was yes and that sparked the second part of the surprise. Joe brought in his family and her family to have a small celebration. If she had said no, that part would have been cancelled.
The party went on for a couple of hours. Afterwards, everyone went home.
Scene nine:
For scene nine visit authorhouse.com or many other book site outlets.
Scene one:
That’s him hurrying to his desk to put his belongings down. One New York Met jacket, one worn out gym bag that he passes for a brief case, and one brown paper bag holding an apple juice and a buttered roll. Every single day it’s the same thing.
He is Herb Smitty, a
thirty-five-year-old, long time clerk at a company somewhere in
The office is the way he has grown
to like it, dull, dreary, and silent. Seven other people work in his section,
but during his ten years and four months of service, he has only spoken to one
of them for more than half a second. That one is known as Newport Patty. She
got that name due to her numerous trips down to the street for a puff of a
Patty is very opinionated and always willing to share her feelings in a loud, obnoxious way. She is a large woman who doesn’t take shit from anyone, especially the office manager, Gilly.
For some reason Patty was always very drawn to Smitty. They don’t spend too much time together, but they always acknowledge each other when their paths cross.
“Hey Smitty! Want some pretzels?” Patty poured a bunch on a napkin on his desk as she walked by on her way for a smoke. She always had some kind of food and she would only share with Smitty, no one else.
Smitty’s desk is off to the side so she has to walk off of the general path on the way to the elevator to visit him. When Smitty heard his name he jumped as if it was a gunshot. He normally doesn’t receive any attention during the day. He sits at that desk like a fish in a bowl, feeling he is being watched, but never catches anyone looking. He feared a tap on the glass would distract him from keying numbers into his meaningless spreadsheets. There was no actual glass around his desk. It only felt like there was to him.
“Thanks Patty. They look yummy.” He looked up for a second and then continued what he was doing. Using words like yummy didn’t faze him as sounding odd.
“Yep yummy. Very dam yummy these pretzels are. I can eat them all day and I would if I didn’t have other yummy shit to get to like candy and lunch and ice cream. So what if I won’t be able to get my big ass on the elevator one day. At least my big ass is happy. That’s more than I can say about some fools taking up space in here, always complaining, not eating enough, talking gossip about one another. Stupid nonsense. I ain’t got time for that shit.” Patty went on and on as her voice faded when she got near the elevators.
Their office is on the third floor so each cigarette break took at least fifteen minutes for her, usually even longer when running into people to talk to. After taking ten to twelve of them a day and an hour lunch, that was approximately four hours of her eight-hour day spent away from her desk.
Smitty finished his day at ten
minutes to three because he started at ten minutes to seven in the morning. His
mom is always in front of the building at
Occasionally Smitty walks out of the building and finds his mommy conversing with Newport Patty. “Don’t leave momma waiting Smitty. She got things to do you know.” Patty turned her head around to yell to Smitty in a joking manner. She was leaning with her head in Dalia’s car window talking about routine events.
“Thanks Patty. See you tomorrow.” Smitty got in the car and shut the door.
“You guys have a good night and don’t you forget your apple juice tomorrow.” Patty made her way back to the building and began to speak to some others by the door who were smoking. “Girl, didn’t Gilly tell you that you don’t need to be spending time out here with that smoking when you have more than enough work to get to inside. Why do I pay you? When are you gonna finish what I gave you?” Her Gilly imitation faded as Dalia pulled away.
“That Patty is sure fun and full of energy. How was your day Herb?” Dalia looked over at Smitty as he changed the radio station from his mother’s soft rock to his light jazz.
“Glad it’s over. I just want to get home and lay down.”
“Speaking of home, don’t forget to say hello to your brother and that wife and family of his. I can’t stop in. I have to go pick up some wine and turnips for your step dad.” Each night there is a wine and turnip trip.
Smitty lives in his brother’s house, which consists of his brother Joe, Joe’s wife Deena, their seven-year-old son Mike, five-year-old daughter Mackenzie, four-year-old son Joe Jr., Deena’s father Mr. Hamilton and mother Grace. The house is in constant chaos.
Smitty’s room is upstairs and off to the side. He has his own bathroom but he has to walk through the main entrance to get in.
The
Aside from those rooms and Smitty’s room, the main house consists of two floors, a bedroom for each kid, a master bedroom, a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and a den. No one has gone in the basement since they bought the house close to twelve years ago.
“Remember, say hello to everyone.
And I’ll pick you up at
“Thanks mom.” Smitty got out of the car and headed towards the front door. On his way up the steps he tripped over one of the kids toys. He picked it up to bring inside.
“Uncky Herb, that’s my dolly! Not yours! Please give it back!” Mackenzie pulled on the leg of the doll while walking towards the kitchen. Smitty let go and Mackenzie and the dolly both ended up on the floor.
“Ow. My hiney.” Mackenzie made her way up the stairs rubbing her rear and hugging her dolly.
“You big bully. If you want I can buy you your own dolly.” Deena poked her head in from the kitchen smiling. Her hands were full of soap. “How was your day Herb?” She didn’t expect a long answer.
“Regular.” He headed to his room to lie down.
“Enjoy your rest. Tomorrow’s another work day.” Deena found Smitty’s odd ways rather amusing.
“Hi sweetheart. What smells so nice?” Mr. Hamilton came walking through the connecting bathroom.
“Hi dad. It’s stir-fry chicken with mixed vegetables. Want to try?”
“No thanks. Your mom is making me one of her creations.” He took a large spoon and filled a bowl with the stir-fry and began eating it anyway. “That is good stuff honey. You don’t get that from your mother.”
“Oh, mom’s cooking ain’t that bad.”
“It ain’t that good either.”
“Mommy? Dinners ready?” Mike appeared next to them in the kitchen holding onto a football.
“Tell your brother and sister ten minutes. So get ready.”
“Joe Jr. was on the bowl when I walked through. I’ll see if he’s still there on my way out.” Mr. Hamilton walked away as Mackenzie came back down the stairs with her dolly. “Hey darling. Whatcha doing?” He lifted her up.
“Hi grammpa. I’m hiding my dolly from Uncky Herb. He wants to keep it.”
Mr. Hamilton brought her back down as her sneaker hit a glass of juice on the end table in the living room. It shattered on the floor causing a raucous. “Time for me to leave.” He began to walk away.
“Thanks dad.” Deena walked towards the mess. “Stay away from the glass Mackenzie. And make sure Joe Jr. doesn’t come in and step in it. Where the hell is that kid anyway?” She walked back towards the kitchen. “Mike could you get me the broom and shovel?”
Mr. Hamilton was pushing the glass into a pile using his shoes as Joe walked in the front door from work. “Wow. How nice. Everyone is here to greet me.” He threw his jacket over the arm of the couch. “Just throw that away when you’re done playing with it Goof.” He was referring to Mr. Hamilton playing with the glass. They called each other goof. Each one tried to beat the other to the punch.
“How was work Goof?” Mr. Hamilton patted him on the back as he made his way back to his side of the house.
“Hi daddy!” Mike walked in with the broom as it banged against everything in sight.
“Michael give me that thing before you break something else! Honey could you hang up your coat?” Deena grabbed the broom and started to sweep.
“I didn’t break it. Mackenzie did!”
“No grammpa made me!”
“The other guy is still in here on the bowl!” Mr. Hamilton yelled in on his way back home referring to Joe Jr.
“Thanks again dad! You’re a big help… I think it’s time for an aspirin.” Deena continued to shovel up the mess.
“I’ll help you mommy.” Mike took the shovel full of glass and ran towards the kitchen garbage can. He poured it directly on the floor next to the can accidentally.
“Good aim kid.” Joe re-shoveled up the mess to throw it away. When everything finally calmed down a little, they sat down to eat. Aside from when they slept, dinner was the calmest time of their days and nights.
Smitty walked in to fix a plate while they were finishing up.
“Hey bro. How is everything? How is mom? How is Newport Patty?” Joe greeted his brother.
“Okay. She’s good. She’s good.” Smitty looked around for the salt.
“Here’s the salt Herb. Let me get you a drink.” Deena always wanted to be helpful to Smitty. She felt that he couldn’t do much for himself.
“Here Uncky Herb.” Mackenzie held up her dolly. “I know you like it. You can hold it for now.”
Smitty smiled and continued to eat.
After dinner he went straight to bed to prepare for another day at the office.
Scene two:
Back at the office, Patty began her day in an uproar. “That stupid S O B! That retarded ass! That weenie faced shithead! He can kiss my big ass! He can die waiting for me to get his next report on time! That meaningless weasel! Coward! Fool!”
“Girl, it sounds like Gilly done got your goat one more time.” Another smoker named Margaret stood outside and listened to Patty’s gripes.
“Got my dam goat? You bet your ass that miserable son of a bitch got my goat!” Patty was full of anger because of the note she found on her desk first thing in the morning.
PATTIE
– Too many smoke breaks means not enough work getting done. – Too much talking
makes for an uncomfortable work environment – GILLY –
“That no good jack ass even spelled my name wrong! It’s not I E, it’s Y! How stupid he has to be and what a dam coward. He has to leave me a note and put it on my desk last night because the half a sissy has today off. Wait till I see his stupid ass tomorrow.” Patty put her cigarette in the ashtray as Smitty walked in from lunch. He heard the whole conversation.
“Hello Patty. Margaret.” He went to pull on the door handle.
“What’s up sweetie?” Patty held the door open.
“Thank you.”
“C’mon Margaret, lets get a move on.” She motioned for Margaret to head back in.
“No thanks girl. Your pal ain’t here today and I’m taking advantage. It’s time for another smoke.” Margaret lit up a cigarette. She also reported to Gilly, but she was in a different department.
“You got it girl. I’ll go back up with my Smitty.” Patty went over the whole Gilly story once again on the elevator while crunching on corn chips and offering some to Smitty. Once again he commented that they were yummy.
The rest of the day went by in its usual fashion. Patty added another six cigarette breaks to her normal twelve since Gilly was away. She was outside to greet Dalia when she arrived to pick up Smitty. By the time Patty went over the Gilly story for the twentieth time, Smitty appeared behind her anxious to get in the car.
“Okay Smitty honey. I’m a get out your way. You can get in the car with mommy now. You guys have a good night.” She dropped her cigarette to the ground and stepped on it.
Smitty got in the car and Dalia began to drive off as they heard Patty going on and on about Gilly. “He don’t know who he’s messing with! I know people. His ass will be sorry. That no good son of a bitch. His momma done made a sin carrying his dumb ass in her uterus. That faget should have been an abortion. That shit head should be locked up.” Her voice drifted as Dalia and Smitty drove off and Margaret came outside to hear some more.
Scene three:
Smitty and his mommy pulled up to Joe’s house. “Oh what the hell. I’ll stop in to say hello tonight. Step dad can wait an extra half hour for his wine and turnips.” Dalia decided to visit the family.
As usual, the house was in an uproar. “Mommy! Uncky Herb is home! I’m hiding dolly!” Mackenzie ran up the stairs as Mike ran down. They collided and fell down three steps. Mackenzie cried but she wasn’t injured badly. It was just a scare.
Deena ran over to check on them. “It’s okay. You’ll be all right sweetheart. It’s just a small boo boo.” She lifted Mackenzie up and held her while scolding Mike. “You should know better! Why don’t you watch where you’re going? You could have hurt her!”
“Deena? Is everything okay?” Dalia walked in ahead of Smitty.
“Oh hi Dalia. Yes everything is fine. Just a small collision. She’s fine.” Deena walked over to greet her mother in law. “Nothing an aspirin won’t fix.”
“If everything is fine, how come I got yelled at? You didn’t tell grandma that I was fine.” Mike felt left out.
“Oh my little cutie pie.” Dalia gave Mike a hug. “You are fine. I won’t let mommy yell at you anymore.”
“Thanks Dalia.” Deena was sarcastic.
“I have to be the nice one. I’m the grandma.” She smiled. “Speaking of being the grandma, where’s my little Joe Jr.?”
“He should be around here somewhere. He’s probably in his favorite spot.”
“I hope not because I have to get in there.” Dalia walked into the bathroom to see Joe Jr. sitting on the bowl playing with the toilet paper.
“Gramma!” He jumped off the bowl to greet her.
Smitty walked in the house while his mommy was hugging Joe Jr. Mr. Hamilton made his way back to his side of the house.
“Hi Herb. How was your day?”
“Regular.”
“What were you doing out there so long?”
“Just waiting for the song to end.”
“Oh yea, all that jazz.” Deena referred to his love of jazz music.
“Anything to eat? Oh, hi Mrs. Smitty! How are you?” Mr. Hamilton walked in through the bathroom. He and Dalia kissed hello. “So, did Deena tell you about her new friend at the courts?”
“Thanks dad. I really felt like getting back into that.” Deena had a run in a few months back with a lawyer. She witnessed an accident and refused to testify because the lawyer wanted her to lie for the woman he was defending.
The woman hit a young child with her car and fled the scene. The lawyer wanted her to go to the hearing and say that the child ran into the street when that was actually false.
Deena wanted to testify against the woman but then the truth would come out about where she was that day.
“What happened? Why are the courts bothering you?” Dalia was concerned.
“It’s really nothing mom. I witnessed something I shouldn’t have witnessed and now they want me in prison for not coming forward about it.” Deena explained what was going on and left out the part about where she was that day.
“That is a shame. That lawyer should be the one who is sent to prison. Why didn’t you see to it that the woman was punished?”
“She was punished. In the end the truth came out. She is in jail now. The child was not badly harmed. He was able to walk away so I didn’t think it was so bad not to come forward… Besides, someone else stepped forward. Thank goodness for whoever that was.” Deena was relieved that there was at least one other witness who didn’t back down from the lawyer’s intimidation. “The lawyer would do anything at this point to get out of his situation. He could be locked up to if someone explains what he’s been up to.”
“I am certainly surprised at you being a mother yourself.”
“I would rather not get into it right now.”
“I understand.” Dalia was curious as to why Deena wouldn’t set the record straight. “Where are you going?” Dalia questioned Smitty who ran towards his room.
“Need some rest for tomorrow. Thanks mom. See you in the morning.” He headed off.
“Good night Smitty! If you want some dinner come down in about an hour!” Deena hollered as Smitty ran up the stairs. “He concerns me with that quietness and odd behavior sometimes.”
“That’s nothing new. He’s been that
way since he was a baby. I can tell he likes you, and that is a good thing. He
can be the most loyal friend you could ever want. You may not believe it but
when things don’t seem to be going your way, just having him around can make a
difference.”
“Thanks mom. I’ll keep that in mind.” Deena turned around to see Mackenzie dragging a wet mop through the kitchen. “No! No honey. Why is that all wet?”
“Bowl.”
“No! You didn’t put it in the toilet again?”
“Yes mommy. I cleaning.”
Dalia ran into the kitchen as Joe walked in from work.
“Good evening. Wow! Hi mom. What a surprise. Shouldn’t you be out getting turnips and wine or something?” Joe gave Dalia a big hug as Mr. Hamilton walked back in.
“Hey Goof. How was work?”
“Oh, you beat me to it Goof… It was the usual fun and games. What did I miss here?” He turned around. “Oh never mind. I guess I’m going to find out now.”
Deena came walking back in after yelling at Mackenzie. “Your daughter just decided to mop all of the floors with toilet water again!”
Joe tried to hold his laugh in. “I hope she flushed first.”
“It’s not funny.”
“I know dear… Maybe I’ll go check on Herb.”
“Yea, you do that.” Dalia cleaned the mop in the sink as Joe headed up the stairs. “Dad, is Joe Jr. in his favorite spot?”
Mr. Hamilton looked in the bathroom on his way back to his side of the house. “He sure is! And he made a little mess on the floor too.” There were sheets of toilet paper spread out and q-tips all over the floor.
“Just terrific. Dad, could you?”
“Don’t say another word. I’m way ahead of you.” Mr. Hamilton lowered himself on one knee to pick up the mess after he picked up Joe Jr. to send him off to the kitchen for dinner.
“Where the hell is Herb? He’s not up there.” Joe came walking back down.
Mackenzie ran up to make sure her dolly was still there.
“Don’t be silly. We all saw him go up there… I have to go. Turnips and wine are waiting for me.” Dalia kissed everyone goodbye and walked out to the car.
“Sit down honey. Dinners ready. Play with Herb later.” Deena began to fix a plate for each of the kids.
Scene four:
In the office the next morning, Smitty walked towards the elevators to hear Newport Patty’s riled up voice before the doors opened. “I was all prepared to give that weasel an ear full and he’s still not here! Now I’m madder than before!” The doors opened. “Well good morning to you Smitty honey. Did you see that clown Gilly in your travels this morning?”
“Hello Patty. No.” Smitty walked on the elevator with his worn out gym bag and his brown paper bag holding an apple juice and a buttered roll.
“He’s probably scared to come back here after leaving that note. I’ll see him. He can run but he can’t hide forever.” Patty’s voice faded as the doors closed and the elevator began to move.
Smitty placed his New York Met jacket over the back of his seat and put his bags down before turning his computer on to begin another day of useless spreadsheets.
The first four hours went on in normal fashion until Patty went down for her sixth cigarette. She stood in front of the building continuing to badger Gilly’s name as two police officers approached her.
“Could you come with us ma’am?” The officers brought her to their car and she was quiet for a moment.
They made her sit in the back seat as they asked her a few questions. She began to get uncomfortable and wanted to know what was going on. She became her usual loud obnoxious self declaring that they had nothing to arrest her for, but they had as much as they needed.
The officers were investigating the disappearance of Gilly and according to most of the office, she was the guilty party. All of her comments about him came back to haunt her. Although there was no absolute proof that she had anything to do with Gilly’s sudden disappearance, they held her anyway without giving her the one phone call that was entitled to her.
Due to her loud and questionable personality, they put her in lock down until any new evidence could be presented. They feared her lashing out at the staff in the precinct.
Scene five:
The next day was one of the quietest days the office ever knew. Patty was not there and neither was Gilly.
After an hour or so of Smitty plugging worthless numbers and figures into his futile spreadsheets, his phone rang for the third time in ten years and four months. His brother Joe was calling.
“Herb, something is going on at home and I just wanted to see if you knew anything about it.” Joe explained that Deena may be in some kind of trouble with the lawyer that was trying to track her down.
The lawyer was reported kidnapped and his last negative contact was with Deena. The lawyer’s assistant and employees all blamed her.
The police didn’t think kidnapping the lawyer could have been done by Deena alone, so Joe and Mr. Hamilton were also asked to go down to the precinct for questioning.
“I’m leaving work early to see what they want. If I’m not home when you get there, then something is wrong. I don’t know what to expect.” Joe was a bit nervous when he hung up.
“You’ll be fine Joe.” Smitty put the phone down and went back to keying in his useless figures.
Scene six:
At the precinct, Joe, Deena, and Mr. Hamilton all swore that they knew nothing about the kidnapping. After several hours, Joe and Mr. Hamilton were released and Deena was held for additional interrogation. They wanted to hold onto her for the night.
Joe and Mr. Hamilton questioned if it was within their rights to keep her, but they also felt that obtaining a lawyer at that point was not in their best interest. The problem began with a lawyer. Another one could make it worse.
Deena was brought down to a holding cell. The guard opened the door as another voice came from the cell. “You better let me outta here! This is bullshit! I didn’t do nothing! You gonna hear from me when I get outta here!” It was Newport Patty sitting in the corner.
Deena felt the same way about the situation, but she remained quiet. She realized that the guards were going to do what they had to do and making a big scene was not going to change that.
“What’d you do? Why you in here?” Patty greeted Deena. She couldn’t get up to shake hands because she was cuffed to the wooden bench. “They must think I’m more violent than you. You ain’t got no cuffs?”
“I’ve been accused of kidnapping a lawyer.”
“Girl, get the hell outta here. I been accused for some fool disappearing too. Only I’m glad he disappeared.”
“Same here.” Deena looked around. “Maybe we shouldn’t say that we’re happy about it though. That may make things worse for us. It’s not always good to make a scene and draw attention to yourself.”
“Too late. I already told these fools how I feel about Gilly. I hope he’s dead.”
“That can’t be good.” Deena watched
Patty manage to pull a
Patty held the cigarette towards Deena. “Need a puff?”
Deena took a step towards her.
“Well… I guess… When in
Patty went into her feelings about Gilly.
Scene seven:
Dalia picked Smitty up at the
building at
“Some kind of trouble. She had to leave early yesterday.” Smitty changed the radio station from his mother’s soft rock to his light jazz. He knew all about Patty being taken away by the police and it bothered him, but he doesn’t like to have long conversations. Just short sentences are his way of communicating.
Dalia dropped him off at the house and went on her wine and turnip run. “Have a good night Herb.”
“Thanks mom. Bye.”
Mr. Hamilton and Joe were sitting in the living room discussing the situation when Smitty walked in.
The kids were in their rooms and Joe Jr. was on the bowl.
“Hey Herb. What’s new?” Joe looked up at his brother.
“Nothing. Gotta rest.” Smitty walked up the stairs.
“That guy has issues.” Mr. Hamilton shook his head.
“He’s just a little different. That’s all. He’s my brother and you should say hello when he comes home. It bothers me that you can’t get to know him and be friendlier towards him.
“I can’t promise anything, but I’ll give it a try once things get back to normal around here.”
“Our step dad is the one to blame for his oddness. That poor kid took some pretty bad beatings. So did our mom. Without Herb, mom would have lost her mind, or even her life.” Joe looked sad. “All that poor kid ever wanted to do was play little league baseball.”
“I never knew.” Mr. Hamilton sat up.
“Don’t worry about it. Just try and make an effort to extend yourself to the little guy.”
Mr. Hamilton’s view of Smitty changed slightly after that conversation.
After a couple of long hours, the children were all in bed and Deena and Patty were released. On the cab ride home, they spoke about a prisoner they passed on the way out.
“I didn’t say nothing in there because I remembered what you said about making scenes and drawing attention to myself, but I am the reason that woman was in that cell.” Patty leaned forward. “Can I smoke in here?” She got the drivers attention.
“Yea, go ahead.” All that could be seen in the rearview mirror was his bushy eyebrows. “I was hoping you’d ask. Now I can have one too.” He packed a cigarette and lit it up.
“How were you responsible for putting that woman behind bars?” Deena was curious. “Did she harm you?”
“Harm me? Please… Just a couple of months ago, I was walking through my neighborhood, passed all the drug dealers, when that woman drove through a stop sign and hit a little boy.” Patty took a drag of her cigarette as Deena began to feel a little guilty.
“Apparently, I wasn’t the only witness, but I was the only one that didn’t fear the woman’s lawyer. He was some smooth talking fool who tried to get me to change what I saw.” Patty was the one who came forward after the accident.
Deena decided not to tell Patty that she was one of the fearful. By the time they reached the house, they were pretty disheveled. They walked in the front door together.
Mr. Hamilton and Joe quickly ran over to greet them. “Oh my God sweetheart! Are you okay? Can I get you something?” Joe asked one question after another. He was extremely concerned.
“I’ll be all right. I just have to get an aspirin from the kitchen.” She pointed to Patty. “This is my friend. We met in the slammer.” Deena cracked a smile. “I always thought it would be cool to say that.” She rushed in to get her pill while Patty and the guys spoke about the ordeal.
“They gonna be sorry they messed with us. I am taking this to the highest court in the country. Ain’t none of those sons of bitches gonna get away with this mess. Ain’t none of them.” Patty began a rant as Smitty made his way down the stairs.
“And that old fool Gilly. That’s another one. When he comes back he’s gonna be sorry he ever started some shit with me.” She looked over at the stairs and noticed Smitty. “Jeez! Smitty? What you doing here? I can’t believe this!”
“Hi Patty.”
“Herb? You two know each other?” Mr. Hamilton attempted to make small talk with Smitty.
“Is this the famous Newport Patty?” Joe remembered her from Smitty mentioning the name.
“Yep.” Smitty walked into the room.
“Is that what you call me around the family? I like that. It reminds me, I think it’s time for a smoke.” Patty looked in her purse for her lighter as she attempted to go out the front door to light up.
Deena came walking back in from the kitchen at the same time.
Smitty wanted to share some news. “Stop Patty.” He then grabbed Deena by the hand. “You guys will not have to fight in the courts about the situation.”
“What are you talking about? We have a lot of unsolved issues going on. We still need to find out where the people we were accused of kidnapping went.” Deena still wanted to know where the lawyer went and Patty was curious about Gilly.
“Follow me.” Smitty opened the hidden basement door that the family hasn’t opened for years.
“Smitty! We don’t go down there!” Joe yelled.
“I do.” Smitty began to walk down. He grabbed the flashlight on the side of the stairs as the others followed.
Smitty shined the light onto the other side of the basement as the stairs creaked. “Hey counselor! Does the family really know me?”
“Oh my God!” Deena covered her mouth with her hand. “That’s the lawyer.”
“And that’s Gilly, the son of a bitch.” Patty seemed satisfied. Both of them were tied together in the corner. “But how’d you know that was the lawyer?” Patty looked to Deena.
“That was something I wanted to keep to myself.” She looked down. “I didn’t want anyone to know why I was in that neighborhood.” Deena’s secret was slowly becoming revealed.
“I’ll let that go then.” Patty felt like she spilled the beans. “It’s not such a bad neighborhood once you get used to it.”
Scene eight:
Once Smitty was informed of his family and friends harassment, he went after Gilly and the lawyer.
After hearing Deena go on about the lawyer, he went up to his room to put his ideas to work. He already had plans to go out to get Gilly, now he wanted to take care of both problems at once.
First he went to the lawyers. He explained that he knew someone that was going to come forward to testify against him and all of the crooked things he was up to. “You’ll lose your license and probably go to jail. This guy has a lot of dirt on you… If you take him down, it will help us both out.” Smitty was convincing.
“What are you going to get out of it?” The lawyer had some concerns.
“I just want to be able to ask a question to my family with a lawyer present… Okay counselor?” Smitty smiled.
“Sounds legitimate to me.”
They planned their attack on Gilly together. Smitty had been planning it since Patty’s first complaint about him. Now he had someone to help him pull it off.
Smitty gave the lawyer some dark glasses and a phony mustache to make it look like he made an effort to disguise him from Gilly, even though they never met.
They drove over to where Gilly liked to drink and flaunt his money while talking abusive about the people who worked for him. When he called it a night, Smitty and the lawyer waited outside by Gilly’s car.
Gilly recognized Smitty from the job, but it took a while to place the face. They pretended they needed a ride and once they got to Smitty’s house they invited Gilly in for a drink.
Once Smitty got them in the basement, he and the lawyer knocked Gilly to the ground and tied him up.
While the lawyer was looking for something to stick in Gilly’s mouth, Smitty smashed his kneecaps with a baseball bat. “I could have played little league.” He laughed as he tied the two of them together and duct taped their mouths shut.
Scene nine:
Wine & Turnips:
For scene nine & Wine and Turnips visit authorhouse.com or many other book site outlets.
Scene one:
Dim lights, soft music, a rumble of reacquainted voices filled the small, well-decorated catering hall.
“WELCOME CLASS OF 1996” A banner across the back wall read. It was the ten-year high school reunion that many had looked forward to.
“I can’t believe how good Donny looks. Maybe I should have taken him up on his repeated offers back then.” Jessica, a tall brunette who didn’t give too many guys the time of day back in school, rolled her tongue across her teeth as she spoke to her oldest and closest friend, Patty.
“I know. He’s just so cute. I wonder if he’s taken. I gotta get another drink. Can I get you something?” Patty held up her empty glass with an olive at the bottom.
“Sure, I’ll take a refill, and while you’re up, see if that guy is still staring over here.”
Jessica sat and spoke to a few old classmates who walked by her table. Her and Patty already reacquainted themselves with all of the ones they came to see. They were just sticking around for the open bar and to possibly run into anyone they may have forgotten.
“Here ya go. Tell me if it’s too strong. I’ll go back.” Patty returned.
“No. It’s perfect. Thanks.”
“Great. And you know who, is still lurking through the dark sunglasses.” Patty was referring to a man in the corner with dark hair covered up by a baseball cap with a matching beard and mustache. He sat drinking beer out of a mug.
“Who the hell is he? Did he graduate with us? He looks psycho.” Jessica was bothered by the man's presence.
“Well, we should be leaving after this drink anyway. You want to go someplace else or home?”
“I just feel like going home. Unless you want to do something?” Jessica stood up.
The man got up from his seat for what seemed to be the first time all night.
Patty became a bit nervous. “Don’t look now but it seems like our friend wants to leave with us.
“Should we get one of the guys to walk us to the car?”
“Good thinking” Patty looked back over at the man. “But, too late. Here he comes.”
“Pardon me ladies. Are you leaving?”
“I’m afraid so. We have a lot to do tomorrow.” Jessica attempted to walk away as the man grabbed her arm. “Get your filthy disgusting paws off of me before I call those big guys over here to take you outside.
“Said like a true bar fly. You’ll never change Jes.” The man began to take his hat and glasses off.
“How’d you know my name? And…” Jessica watched as the man took of his mustache and beard. “Oh my God!”
“Remember me?”
“You son of a bitch! You scared the hell out of us!” Patty laughed. “Bruce Denzbar!”
“Denzbar? How have you been? We thought we saw everyone. I guess we forgot about you.” Jessica laughed as her heart went back to normal beating.
Denzbar was a friend of theirs who they lost contact with a couple of years after high school. The three of them sat back down and reminisced about the old days until the sun was about to come up.
Scene two:
Minutes before
“Okay Jessica.” A strange voice called back.
Stunned and frozen in the hallway, Jessica was speechless. “An intruder? A burglar? Someone here to kill me? How does he know my name?” She thought quickly to herself.
“Relax sweetheart. I’m not here to harm you. I just wanted to talk.” The voice comforted her a bit.
“Who, who, who are you?” Still quite nervous, she got out a response.
“Just like the old days. You don’t know who I am. It feels so familiar. You used to hurt my feelings like that back then too.”
“I’m really sorry if I did that. Tell me who you are so I can see if I recall you.” Jessica feared the man. She didn’t want to demand him to get out of the house for concern that he may hurt her.
“Sit down. Let me bring you back to the ninth grade. Do you have time?”
“I would really like to get some rest. I was up all night.”
“I know. That was some party. Nice to see old friends.”
“You were there?”
“Would it matter to you? You wouldn’t remember if you saw me anyway.”
“That’s not true. I remembered lots of people.” Jessica wondered if she could really be as shallow as the man suggested. “Ninth grade you say? What about it?”
“That’s the spirit.” He leaned back in the chair in front of the desk. “Let’s see. Someone didn’t do their math homework. She was called by the teacher to answer one of the questions. Looking worried and afraid, that girl would have gotten her last warning in that class and would have had to spend the summer in school. Remembering yet?”
“I didn’t spend any time in summer school.”
“Exactly.” He smiled. “That’s because your good friend Bobby handed you his homework with all of the right answers on it. You were saved from summer school.”
“I do recall being helped out from time to time. Does it make me a bad person for not knowing exactly who did it and when?”
“I didn’t say it made you a bad person. Does it make you feel like a bad person?”
“No, not really. I guess not.” She was unsure.
“How about when the same kid who helped you out of that jam asked if you wanted to sit with him at lunch? Do you remember that?” He was pleasant with a hint of sarcasm.
“I really don’t. What did I say to him?” She cringed, fearing the answer.
“You didn’t say anything.”
“No? Why not?”
“You were not able to speak over your laughing.”
“I can’t believe that.” She felt horrible. “Wait a second. How do you know all of this about me? Why would you remember such details of my life?” Feeling that was a reasonable gripe, Jessica paused for a response.
He looked right into her eyes. “Not just your life. I remember the details because I am Bobby. Those are details from my life also.”
Jessica’s head immediately sunk downward. Looking at the floor, she only wanted Bobby’s forgiveness, although she felt it was undeserved. Surprisingly, Bobby didn’t seem too upset. They sat and discussed more of the ninth grade events.
After the embarrassment of the lunch incident, Bobby tried to avoid Jessica for the rest of the school year. He sat behind her in that math class in complete frustration. She didn’t even know he was there except for once or twice when Patty would pass a note to him to pass to her. That was the highlight of his school days.
Bobby dreamed about her for the
whole summer. It was he who kept her out of summer school. If not for that
move, Jessica might not have met
“You’ll probably need your sleep now. I have to go.”
“Will you come back so we can talk some more?” Jessica started to enjoy the conversation with hopes to patch things up.
“If you’d like.” Bobby was a little
surprised. “It’s almost
“You’re right. I have to get some sleep, but if you’re free tonight, stop by.”
“Thanks. I’ll think about it.” Bobby rushed off for church.
Jessica had a good feeling about Bobby. She hated herself for the way she treated him in school. “What a nice guy, and he goes to church too.” She fell asleep thinking about him.
Scene three:
Jessica woke up in the late afternoon Sunday. “Wow, what a night. I think I drank a little too much. Those were some strange dreams about acting so cruel to that guy in school.” After thinking about her dreams, she realized that Bobby visited her before bed. “He must have followed me home from the party. I hope he comes by again tonight.” She decided to give Patty a call.
“Hi. How are you feeling? Did you get any sleep?”
“Hi Jes. Yea, I fell asleep as soon as I got home and I just woke up a little while ago. How about you?”
“Same here. I never felt so tired.” Jessica didn’t want to bring up the Bobby story over the phone. That was more of a get together discussion. Besides, she didn’t want Patty to think that she let strange guys in the apartment at all hours of the night.
“I know, I guess we’re getting too old to do those high school type things we used to do.”
“Maybe we could get together later.”
They spoke for a half-hour or so before Patty had to go. Jessica decided to go out and get some groceries so there would be food around for the week.
Scene four:
Jessica’s hands were full of bags as she walked into the apartment from shopping. She put them down in the kitchen and ran to the bathroom.
“Did you want to hear about the tenth grade?” Bobby stood in the doorway with a grin as Jessica walked out of the bathroom.
“Well, I was hoping you would stop by. How was church?”
“Very refreshing. How was your day? I see you took care of the shopping.”
“What a nightmare. I hate that supermarket.”
“As much as you hate carrot cake?”
“How did you know that? Did I mention that back then too?”
“Brian McGee’s sixteenth birthday. Do you remember him?”
“You have to forgive me. I’m bad with names.” Jessica attempted to cover up for not remembering the so-called regular guys in school.
“You gotta remember some names. What about that blonde kid that used to be the quarterback for the football team? He used to lift weights in the gym basement? He.” Bobby was cut off rather quickly.
“Andy Pennadill! I could never forget him.” Jessica had a daydream look in her eyes.
“I rest my case. Andy was at that party the other night. You didn’t seem to notice him there.”
“Really? I can’t see why not.”
“Because he didn’t dress flashy and he was balding. You haven’t changed so much since the tenth grade. I remember giving myself another shot with you. I asked you to go bowling and you told me I should spend more time shopping for descent clothes and less time at the bowling alley. Do you remember what you’re friend Don asked me?” Bobby had a sound of sadness in his voice.
Once again Jessica feared the answer to the question. “What?”
“He said, don’t you need balls to go bowling? All of your friends laughed as I stood there wanting to cry. It felt like I was standing there for hours. All of you walked away as if I was not human and unable to feel pain inside. That feeling hung over me for most of that school year. Being put aside like that in front of the girl I wanted more than anything was the worst part. And I still wasn’t smart enough to give up.” Bobby’s stories hit an emotional chord with Jessica. She began to cry as he recalled more of his tenth grade misery.
They spoke on into the night once again. They went over all of the details of the tenth grade. She apologized over and over knowing that it couldn’t make a difference in the poor boys childhood. By the end of the night, they spoke as friends who were at peace with each other.
Bobby left so Jessica could get some sleep before work in the morning. He kept her up late enough the night before.
Scene five:
Jessica worked in the jewelry section of a department store. Being as jewelry was her favorite subject in school, the job fit. Most of her day was spent on the phone or cackling with the other hens from the perfume department. The job wasn’t difficult and it was a place to go for a few hours a day.
She explained what was going on
with Bobby to a couple of the women at work, Mitzy and
“Yea, you have to come back and
tell us his rendition of the eleventh grade. What are you expecting?”
“I’m afraid to find out what harm I caused there. Going over all of the events has sparked my memory a bit. If Bobby is the same guy I am thinking of, I think he might be the guy that did something big after graduation. I just can’t remember what.” Jessica leaned on the counter with her fist under her chin trying to recall the event.
“Maybe he got a great job and made lots of money. Or went to college and became a super athlete?” Mitzy tried to spark her memory.
“No, I don’t think so. I would have remembered that.”
“Maybe he did something for you. Do
you recall flowers? Gifts? A letter?”
“I did receive some of those things. Maybe he was the one who sent me them. I thought it was bigger than that though.” Jessica couldn’t place it.
The phone rang. “That’s mine girls. I’ll be back.” Jessica ran to answer it. “Hello?”
“Hi Jes, its Patty. What’s up?”
“Not much, just talking with the girls. I want to run something by you. Maybe we can get together this week?”
“Sounds great. Besides, Denzbar called me. He wants the three of us to get together for drinks this week. Are you in?”
“That would be perfect. I could get his input also. See if he can make it tomorrow night.” Jessica figured that maybe between the three of them, they could place Bobby. She felt like she was falling for him.
Scene six:
After work and a walk through the park, Jessica arrived home to a hot, steamy shower. Drying off and singing to herself, she walked into her TV room where Bobby had already made himself comfortable on the couch. “Good evening beautiful.”
Jessica was taken back. “Oh, you scared me.” She covered up with the towel. “How are you? I was thinking about you today.”
“That’s sweet. This is exactly what I used to dream about back in the old days. You coming out of the shower, me being on your mind all day, and us spending the evening together, just talking.” He smiled from ear to ear.
Jessica’s face was a priceless picture. She never heard anything so romantic or heartening in her life. “That is so sweet.” She wished they had begun the relationship ten years earlier.
“Are you tired of traveling down memory lane yet?” Bobby sat up.
“No. Not at all. I was hoping you could get some more off your chest.” She felt that his opening up might cure the old wounds and clear a path to build something meaningful between them.
“Well, open your textbook to eleventh grade. I remember a girl who really grew up that summer. What a knock out. The pretty face, long, luxurious hair, and a body that all of a sudden brought it all together. You were dazzling.” Bobby put his hands together and his head back, picturing Jessica’s young beauty queen features.
She wiped a tear from her cheek, thinking that was a sweet thing to say.
“And once again, I played the fool.
I sat in the back of study hall when you walked in. That year we had a sort of
mutual friend. He let me join in your conversation for a word or two. The
relationship with
“To tell you the truth, I remember certain moments of that school year. Mostly parties, sitting through the football games and doing my hair with some of the girls, those little classroom talks don’t really stick out.” Her face was apologetic.
“Those little classroom talks were all I had. Do you know what you said when it came time to pair me up with someone in the school? I’ll tell you who you paired me up with. You said that me and the eighty-five year old, angry lunch lady would make a good couple if I was only three inches taller.” He looked like he was ready to cry. Exactly how he looked that day.
After a silent pause, Jessica apologized once again. “I can only say sorry so many times. You don’t know how awful I feel. I really want to make it all up to you right now and forever. I was immature. A child. I didn’t take the feelings of others into consideration. I was involved in looks, money and popularity. I was hurtful and there is no excuse.” Her head fell into her hands as she cried.
“It’s okay. I’m over it now. No need to get upset.” He began to discuss other events of the eleventh grade.
“I know you may not believe me, but I do think you’re coming back to my memory. All I can place is you doing something big. I think it was senior year. I don’t know what it was though. Can you help me with it?” Jessica tried again to place the event.
“No skipping ahead. Twelfth grade is tomorrow nights discussion.”
“I’m looking forward to that. I know it will make it all better. By the way, I am meeting with a couple of friends for drinks tomorrow night. Remember Denzbar?”
“I remember him well.”
“And My friend Patty that you saw me with at the party. You know her. If you want to join us, you’re welcome to come.” She didn’t really want him to go because he was supposed to be the topic of discussion.
“That is quite all right. I don’t think I can make it.”
“I understand, you can meet with them another time. I shouldn’t be home too late. I hope you wait for me.” Jessica looked forward to seeing her friends, but even more to seeing Bobby afterwards.
Scene seven:
For scene seven visit authorhouse.com or many other book site outlets.
All Aboard:
It was ten minutes past
One passenger, Guy Schann, had other thoughts on his mind. After thinking he missed the train, he spent ten minutes speaking with the conductor in his booth. Guy was exhausted from running to the train. Resting his packages felt wonderful.
The friendly conductor explained how there was some confusion with the train that left a half-hour earlier. That was the train Guy thought he belonged on. “Don’t be too worried, even if you get on the wrong train, they all turn around and go back to where they came from eventually… You may waste a day of your life, but you’ll get back to where you started.”
Guy laughed and made it to his seat. After going through his belongings he looked in each direction with distrust at his fellow travelers. “Great. Just terrific. I didn’t even want to get on this train and now, ten minutes into it, my most important bag disappears… And what does she care?” Guy thought to himself while shifting his eyes toward the lovely redhead in the seat next to his.
She sat with her legs crossed while listening to music through her headphones. Guy was envious because his CD player and headphones were in his missing bag with something else that was very special. The woman noticed Guy look over so she smiled in his direction. “Visiting family?” a pretty little southern accent could be heard over the snapping of her chewing gum.
“Yea, uh, I guess you could say that.” He blushed.
“Would you like something to drink sir?” A female attendant smiled at Guy.
“Yes, uh, do you have any bourbon?” He was still blushing and appeared a little nervous. It was the attention from two women at the same time that distracted him.
“We sure do. I’ll just have to see some ID.” She could tell he was old enough to drink. She was just trying to find out his name.
As he fumbled through his wallet, the redhead continued talking “I’m sorry, I can’t hear a word you’re saying.” She removed the headphones.
Guy couldn’t remember what he last said to her. “Um, that’s okay… Can I get you a drink?” He finally found his license.
“Oh, Guy, what a nice name… I’ll be right back with your bourbon… Did the lady want a drink?”
“The lady will have a white wine… Thank you… And thank you, Guy.” The redhead smiled really big and put out her hand. “Laura… Nice to meet you, Guy.”
“It’s my pleasure Laura.” He didn’t know whether to shake her hand or to kiss it by the way she held it out. He ended up kissing it. She appeared to be pleased with that, being the young southern woman that she was.
“You never answered my question… Visiting family?” She fixed the bottom of her dress. Apparently there wasn’t enough leg showing.
“My legs are down, I mean my family
is down in
“A strong hand.” She joked. “Just kidding. I travel once or twice a year to see some family… My family and I have been fighting about it for the last few years. I want them to visit me and they want me to visit them… Tonight is a surprise trip. They don’t know I’m coming. It should be interesting to see the looks on their faces when I show up.”
Guy didn’t get her joke right away. When the attendant returned and leaned over to give him his bourbon, her cleavage was exposed in perfect view. At the same moment Laura’s joke made sense to him. He belted out a laugh while peeking down the attendant’s blouse.
“Something I said?” She was quite confused as she handed him the bourbon and the white wine.
“No, I’m sorry. Not at all… I just thought of something silly.” He handed her a couple of singles as a tip.
Guy sipped his bourbon and stared at Laura’s bare legs while beginning to fall asleep. “She couldn’t have been the one who took my bag. She’s too sweet and innocent. But I don’t know, there’s nothing sweet and innocent about the way she’s sitting. Dam that’s a turn on.” He took a sip of his bourbon while continuing to sneak glances.
Laura stretched a bit and uncrossed her legs to cross them back in the other direction. “You gonna sleep now Guy?”
“In a minute or two. I’d like to finish my drink first.” He wasn’t sure what to say.
“I think I’m going to get a refill when she comes back. I owe you one, so let me know when I should pay up.”
“You already paid up.” He mumbled.
“What was that?” She couldn’t hear him. “You speak so low.”
“Nothing. I said you could pay up when I wake up from my nap.” He glanced over at the pregnant woman across from them. He didn’t want her to hear the conversation.
“Sounds good sweetie.”
Not only was Guy distracted by Gloria’s flirtations, but there was a man a few rows up that seemed to be giving Guy continuous dirty looks. The man was a little older, perhaps in his late fifties. He had short gray hair and a trimmed beard.
The distractions were taking away from Guy’s chance to close his eyes. Once the lights finally dimmed and Gloria finished her last glass of wine and fell asleep, he was able to relax a little easier. He was knocked out shortly after.
Guy woke up from an erotic dream a couple of hours later to find Laura’s head on his shoulder and her hand in his lap. “Where the hell am I? Who is she? Oh, Laura, I remember.” He thought to himself while getting comfortable. “Maybe this trip wasn’t such a bad idea. I hope she stays where she is.”
Hoping didn’t help as he wished it would. As soon as he moved to get comfortable, the head and hand were moved back to Laura’s side of the seats.
“Dam. Just when things were getting hot.” Guy looked at his special watch. “Oh well, I guess it’s all for the best. Any little fling with the incredible red head would only make matters worse trying to get Sherry Ann back.” He thought back to his real reason for taking the last train out.
Back step to wedding bells:
Over a year earlier, Guy was planning on marrying his long time girlfriend Sherry Ann. Things were thrown off when her father mistakenly accused Guy of cheating on his daughter.
The night Guy decided that marriage would be the right thing to do was at a club just outside of the city. Guy was with three of his friends and they had been throwing down the bourbon all night.
As his friends paired off with sexy women one at a time, Guy began feeling sorrier and sorrier for himself. When the third of the three friends, Gabber, decided to leave with a knock out, Guy found himself talking to his drink at the bar. “It’s not fair. They hog up all the good ones and leave me with the bar bill. I am never going out with them again.” He looked at his special watch and thought of Sherry Ann.
She gave him the watch on their third anniversary of their first date. “She loves me. Why should I hang around here looking for trashy broads when I could be back with Sherry Ann, the one who really loves me?” He staggered off the stool and fell into the arms of a bouncer in the club.
“You’ve had quite enough. It’s time to hit the road.” The man dragged Guy to the door where a concerned woman stood.
“Is he all right? Can I help?”
“He’s a drunken mess. You can do whatever you want with him.”
The woman held Guy to stand up straight as she waited for a cab to pull to the side.
Before a cab came, Sherry Ann’s father pulled over to get a closer look at what was supposed to be his future son in law. That was all he needed to see to convince Sherry Ann to say no to the big question.
Guy was confused after what took place. He only met Sherry Ann’s father twice from what he could remember. He didn’t know how her father would recognize him on the dark street. Guy felt he wouldn’t have recognized her father even if he wore a nametag.
After the sad break-up, Guy moved
out of his studio apartment in
Guy attempted to get in touch with Sherry Ann for the next couple of months and continued to fail until one day when he had the courage to speak back to her when she picked up the phone.
“Sherry Ann?”
“Yes?”
“How are you?”
“I’m fine, but I’d be better if you told me who you are.”
“Will you promise not to hang up?”
“I can’t make a promise like that… Is this Guy?”
He was silent.
“Why are you calling me? I said everything I needed to say.”
“Please give me a chance to explain.”
“You had that chance months ago… I moved on. You should have too.”
“Can I come see you?”
“Are you crazy?” She took a deep breath. “And don’t say crazy about me.”
“We could be crazy about each other if you just gave it another chance.” He felt he was getting somewhere. “Let me see you on your birthday. By that time you’ll feel better about everything. I’ll make it all up to you.”
“That is nuts. My birthday is not for another seven months. Besides, my father would flip if he saw you.” She shook her head feeling like he was just saying anything to keep her on the phone. “All right. My birthday. If you can remember the date, then call me a week or two before so I can be ready for you, and with any luck my dad will be out of town.”
“You won’t be sorry.”
“I have to go.” She hung up the phone just wanting to forget about him.
“January tenth. How could I forget?” He remembered her birthday very well.
Back on the train:
A bump on the tracks caused Guy and
Laura both to wake up at close to
“That’s okay. I’ll probably run over to the dining car in a little while to grab something.” Guy put his head back on the seat and closed his eyes for a little more rest.
As soon as Laura was out of view, Guy rummaged through all of the belongings overhead in search of the missing bag. “I can’t believe this. I am going through this long journey to give her a beautiful birthday gift and someone steals the bag I put it in.” He mumbled to himself as he noticed the same man a few rows up, still giving him an angry look. “Maybe I should say something to this pest.” He appealed to his better judgement. “Or maybe I should keep my mouth shut. He could be a whack job looking for his next victim.”
He continued looking until he noticed Laura coming back. He quickly sat down and grabbed a magazine off of the pregnant woman’s empty seat and pretended to read.
“Excuse me.” Laura brushed up against him as she squeezed back into her seat. Guy’s heart fluttered from the touch of her body.
Laura took notice to the name of the magazine. “So, do you find reading that is helping you during your time of need?”
“Yes. Very much. I have always enjoyed this one.” He took a look at the name also. Being the mommy I need to be. A pregnant woman’s guide. He put it back down where he found it while blushing. “Um, I have to go get something from the lounge car. Can I get you something?” He got up quickly.
“I’ll take a bottle of water if you’re back before twelve. Make it a glass of wine if you come back any later.
“You got it.” He hurried off looking back and forth at other passenger’s packages in search of his missing bag. The man with the dirty looks was not in his seat when Guy walked past. He paid extra attention to the luggage at that seat, one brown suitcase, a gift-wrapped box and some pastries.
Guy ate a slow breakfast and waited until ten minutes after twelve to return to his seat. He preferred returning with wine than water. That seemed to put Laura in a good mood.
“Thank you sweet ums. That was so nice of you.” Laura took the glass from his hand.
“My pleasure darling.” He sat back down extra close to her and slowly sipped his bourbon. They spoke for a few hours, which seemed like minutes, realizing how much they had in common and how they wanted the train ride to last longer than it was scheduled for.
Last stop
On the rail again:
For Last stop and On the rail again visit authorhouse.com or many other book site outlets.
Scene one:
Welcome to modern day living on earth. A time when experimentation has gone berserk. A time of curiosity of surroundings. A time to send new missions to outer space, in place of past failures.
Long before anyone heard the name Ophariun, there were many trips sent out into the unknown. Some of which returned home to Earth and a number of Galaxy Searchers that never made it back.
Whether it is a shuttle that was destroyed within the earth’s atmosphere or a ship that ran off course that was never heard from again, all of the astronauts involved were deeply missed and their efforts greatly appreciated.
Two such missions of these unsung heroes would be NAFISO and TUBUM.
NAFISO was the first manned mission ever intended to land on Jupiter. Communication became lost a week before the scheduled landing. NAFISO was the main event on news channels all over the planet for the following two weeks. As the days went by, the story began to fade. Months later it was almost forgotten. After a year, the only ones who still spoke of it were the families of the lost astronauts and those who attended the funerals of empty caskets.
In fact, it never got any attention again until TUBUM was sent out to perform a shorter trip. That one was going to Mars. Many questioned why Jupiter was chosen before Mars but that was because of all the other instruments already on Mars lurking around. Unmanned machines and objects had inhabited Mars for a couple of years. It was felt that astronauts landing there would not be necessary. They chose to send those resources to discover new areas.
Not all of the unmanned craft made it to their intended destinations either. Light Beezer was one of them. It was sent to Saturn around the same time NAFISO was sent to Jupiter. Light Beezer was sent out to bring back particles and photographs from the ringed planet. Beezer was thrown off course and never heard from again.
TUBUM also lost
contact with home base on Earth towards the end of its intended trip. That was
the reason NAFISO began hitting the news again two years after its
disappearance. Many comparisons between the two came up on the news after TUBUM
was never found. Many felt that there was enough money being poured into failed
missions and they didn’t want to see more money being wasted.
TUBUM lingered in the news a little longer than NAFISO. The second disappearance increased concerns for future missions. The space trips were put on hold for a while.
Scene two:
TUBUM only began to fade in the news when stories of UFO’s began to circulate. Many thought the stories circulated in hopes of taking the heat off of the previously failed missions.
After school on a Friday afternoon,
fourteen-year-old Bennie Clebbor ran home with a newspaper in hand to his dad
Jacob, who worked for the astronomy group in
Jacob thought like everyone else. “It may be a ploy to get failed missions off of the publics mind.” He put his glasses on and held the paper further from his face. “Then again, those little green men are due for a visit.” He smiled at Bennie, attempting to encourage his imagination.
“Really dad? Is it possible?” He felt that his father was playing with him.
“Believe what you want to believe. I never seen any, but they may make the Earth a nicer place.” Jacob smiled. He finished reading the article at the kitchen table after Bennie ran outside to see his friend Barry.
What could be the first of many signs of alien
visitors has been discovered in a lab in
The article went on in detail about wave activity picked up on scientists machines at the lab.
“This is a bunch of baloney.” Jacob shook his head.
“What’s that hun?” His wife Sharon came walking through.
“Oh, hi dear. I was just reading this nonsense about aliens. Now they are probably gonna have the kids worried to death.”
“Oh that’s good honey.” She grabbed a bottle of water and walked out.
“Why does she ask if she’s not going to listen to the answer?” Jacob shook his head again and turned to the sports page.
She stuck her head back in. “Did you say aliens?”
He handed her the page. “Don’t get scared. It is only speculation.”
“Speculation or not. This is exciting!” She skimmed through the article and dropped it back down. “I have to call Jenny. She’ll be interested in this.” Her friend Jenny a couple of blocks away loved to hear about outer space activity. When she found out that Jacob once worked for the astronomy group, her questions became unstoppable.
Scene three:
Weeks after the original article was printed, others began to come out. Jenny wasn’t the only one with questions for Jacob. Most of the neighborhood wanted to find out if he had any details. They were afraid he probably wouldn’t want to discuss it due to his loss of friends in the field. He was close with three of the astronauts that never returned. Glenn Hatcher, Bob “Shooby” Pandtz, and Thurman Olswagen.
Glenn and Bob were
on NAFISO with another astronaut. Thurman was on TUBUM with two other
astronauts. Jacob, Glenn, Bob, and Thurman worked together at the astronomy
group for over ten years. He stayed in contact with their wives after the
incidents and Bennie hung around with their kids.
Glenn’s son Barry spent most of his time over the Clebbor’s house. He and Bennie were the best of friends. He never spoke of his dad’s mission. That was just the way he dealt with things.
One late November evening, Bennie, Barry, Kyle and Jaimie were out in the park. Kyle was the son of Bob and Jaimie was the daughter of Thurman. Even when they were all together, they never brought up their father’s missions. They were all between the ages of six and eight when that all happened.
“Hey Bennie. Throw!” Barry sat on a swing with his hands out, ready to catch the football that Bennie was tossing from one of his hands to the other.
“Here goes a high one!” Bennie tossed it upward as they all watched it.
“What the hell is that?” Kyle was the first to notice a bright light in the sky.
“Whoa momma! Look at that thing! Is it Jupiter?” Jaimie couldn’t believe her eyes.
“I don’t think Jupiter can move like that.” Bennie was stunned. “My dad said those little green men are due for a visit. I wonder if it’s them.”
They all watched for a moment and the light was gone just as quick as it appeared.
“That was pretty interesting. What do you really think it was?” Barry seemed scared.
They all laid on the grass staring up, hoping to catch another glimpse of the strange object.
“I don’t know but that’s not something you get to see everyday. I’m glad we were looking up. Now I don’t think those UFO followers are so crazy.” Jaimie hit Bennie on the shoulder.
“They’re not crazy, but I can’t speak for you.” Bennie joked as Jaimie gave him a push on the same shoulder and they laughed.
“I don’t think it’s funny guys. There is serious stuff going on out there. Think of what it means to the future of our planet and our futures. Are we going to be caught in the middle of a war between stars? Are they going to over power us? Are they gonna kill us all?” Kyle was looking deep into the incident.
“Relax Kyle. They ain’t gonna do all that. Maybe they’re just lost. And besides, you’re starting to scare us. Let’s play catch.” Barry didn’t want to think of the worst possibility. He just wanted to focus on what he knew.
“You can’t scare me. I’m waiting for them to come. They are gonna be my friends. I know how to talk to them.” Bennie joked.
“Yea, we’ll see about that. We are all goners. You first.” Kyle stared straight up waiting for the next sign.
The four of them laid in the grass staring upward for almost two hours. Everything was quiet and peaceful for the rest of the night.
Scene four:
The headlines of the newspaper the next morning were memorable for everyone and proved that the children did see something strange.
VISITORS? YOU DECIDE. Full story on page three.
There was an entire page dedicated to a follow up story of the sighting. Apparently the kids were not the only eyewitnesses. Reports poured in from all over the area.
“I guess you were right dad. Looks like they are coming.” Bennie took a seat next to Jacob at the breakfast table while noticing the headline.
Jacob thumbed a couple of pages and then put it down. “Told you…What should we do next?”
“I was gonna ask you that… It’s pretty creepy when you think about it… Kyle is really afraid.”
“Tell Kyle not to worry. It’s just a gimmick to sell some newspapers.” Jacob wanted to comfort his son but he became a bit nervous himself. The stories and sightings were making an invasion seem more and more possible.
“I don’t think Kyle will buy that. We saw the same thing as the people in the paper did. I wasn’t too worried about it until Kyle started with the possibilities.”
“You saw this? Where did you see this?”
“We were out in the park last night. We all saw it. Me, Barry, Kyle and Jaimie. It was weird.”
“That was at the corner park?” Jacob rubbed his chin.
“Yep. We want to go back tonight to see if it happens again.” Bennie brought his dish to the sink and went to pick up his books for school.
“You might not be alone.” Jacob spoke softly. “Okay, enjoy your day and don’t let this thing bother you.”
“Okay dad. See you after school.” Bennie was anxious to get there. He knew school wouldn’t be the usual boring event that he came to know. He headed out to walk with the others as Jacob read the entire page.
People from as far south as
He rubbed the top of his head as his hand trembled and he noticed some hair fall onto the newspaper. “I guess that’s what I get for worrying too much.”
His wife Sharon walked by. “Did you say something darling?”
“Oh, no, nothing important.”
“Talking to yourself is healthy. Don’t be embarrassed.” She giggled.
“I’ll try to keep that in mind.” He looked back up. “By the way, what’s new with Jenny? Did she get any of the information that she was looking for?”
“Last I heard she was speaking to
Jaimie’s mom, Karrol, about the spaceships. I think the two of them are going
down to the park with the kids tonight. They crack me up.”
“That’s not such a bad idea.”
“What’s that dear?”
“Going down to the park. I was thinking about that myself.”
“Why? Are you worried about Martians now too?”
“Let’s just say they got my attention. Do you want to take a walk down to the park tonight?”
“Sure, it will be like when we were dating in the good old days. What should I wear?”
“Sneakers. Who knows if we’re gonna need to run.”
Scene five:
When the evening arrived, there was a bigger turn out at the park than expected. Bennie was there with his dad and mom, Jacob and Sharon. Jaimie showed up with her mom Karrol. Barry stopped by with his mom, Dawn. And Kyle brought his mom, Brenda.
For the first hour or so, everyone shared their excitement about the visitors and what it meant for the Earth. Most of the people were afraid but they felt like they had to get a look at whatever it was.
“It’s not gonna show tonight. How often does a UFO appear two nights in a row? C’mon Jenny, we could be doing a lot more interesting things than this at this hour of the night.” Thomas was becoming impatient. He felt the whole thing was a hoax anyway.
“I guess you’re right. It’s probably not going to come again so soon.” Jenny held on to his hand and they took a step to leave. “Wait a second. You asked how often does a UFO appear two nights in a row.”
“Yea, so?”
“That means you really believe it was a UFO.” Jenny seemed satisfied.
“She got you there Tom.” Jacob let out a small laugh.
“Well it has become a possibility. But my money still says it’s a practical joke of some kind.” Thomas pulled Jenny by the hand and they wished everyone a good night and good luck.
As the hours went by, the adults made their way back to their homes. It was getting too late and the excitement was slowly wearing down. The kids stayed and laid in the grass just as they did the previous night.
“Maybe grown ups scare them away. They’ll be back tonight.” Barry opened his eyes really wide so not to miss one inch of the sky above. “And after we see it, we’re going to continue playing night football.” He held on tight to the ball.
“I don’t know. I agree with Thomas. I don’t think they’ll show up again so soon.” Bennie made himself comfortable and looked on with the others. “We got all day tomorrow to play. Let’s enjoy the mystery a little while it’s here.”
“There has to be something out there. Look, it goes on forever, there’s no end to space. There has to be someone or something somewhere out there.” Kyle looked to Jaimie with fear in his eyes.
“You won’t get an argument from me. I was just thinking that same thought.” She felt an uneasiness about the sighting and was glad that her friends were with her. It would have been more difficult to witness it alone.
It was getting too late for them to stay outside alone. After hearing their names being called by their mother’s, they each headed home filled with nervousness and curiosity.
Scene six:
Bennie dragged himself out of bed the next morning for school and met his dad in the kitchen skimming through the newspaper. There were no new sightings reported. The reporters were still trying to figure out what the last sighting was.
“Anything in the paper about our new friends from galaxy disruption dad?”
“Galaxy disruption?”
“Yea, that’s what me and the guys named it since it’s been disrupting everything around us.”
“Oh, okay. Sorry but there hasn’t been anything reported about galaxy disruption today. It looks like it was probably just a low flying plane or a weather balloon or something.” Jacob wanted to blow it off for his own fears.
“What’s a weather balloon?”
“It’s a small
radio transmitter
known as a radiosonde,
held up in a helium or hydrogen filled balloon that sends back information on atmospheric temperature, pressure and humidity.
They are often mistaken for UFO’s.” Jacob shared his space knowledge when given
the opportunity.
Bennie
grabbed his things and headed out to school with the guys. He was relieved and
disappointed at the same time.
When they
arrived at school, there was still a buzz going around about the sighting. The
bleachers where they usually ate lunch and the field were filled with curious
students hoping for a glimpse of something. No regular sports or games took
place at the time. Everyone was interested and concerned about it, especially
their Science teacher, Mr. Quinn.
“I guess
you are all still wondering about this strange activity in our skies. I’m not
going to lie and say it’s nothing. In all of my years I have never seen
anything like it. Now, that’s no reason to get worried. It’s more of a reason
to be excited.”
“Easy for
you to say.” One of the students chuckled.
“No. It’s
really no easier for me to say than for any of you to say. We are all in this together.
And we should all see it as a privilege to be here for history in the making.”
The
students began to pay closer attention.
“Since I
am a Science teacher, I am getting hit with most of the questions around here.
Even from your other teachers.”
The class
laughed.
“I am
telling you the same thing I told them. Embrace the experience. Take pictures,
write in a journal, save the newspapers. Keep something from the event to show
your children or grand children when they are old enough to question and
appreciate it. Just don’t let it scare you. There is nothing to fear about
space. It is probably the most fantastic thing to explore.” Mr. Quinn’s words
made each of the children more at ease over the situation. It also sparked them
all to watch the sky even closer than they had before.
Scene seven:
After dinner, Bennie and Barry met in the park with their baseball gloves for a game of catch.
They never missed the ball as many times as they did that night. After each throw they looked up to the sky as a force of habit.
Kyle came running over just as the Sun was setting.
“Hey look who finally finished eating.” Bennie looked over.
“C’mon Kyle!
Catch!” Barry was about to throw the ball as he noticed Kyle pointing up in the
sky.
“Look! They’re here again!” Aside from the flash of light, there was still enough daylight to get a glimpse of the objects shiny surface as it wobbled.
“Wow!”
“Oh my God!”
Just then, something else began to fly across the sky. It was ten or twelve extremely loud fighter jets flying towards the object.
The jets climbed and climbed until they became out of sight.
The object sat still in the same spot as more fighter jets headed towards it. When all of the jets became out of eyes reach, the kids all ran to alert their parents.
The sound of the jets caused everyone in the entire neighborhood to pull themselves outside. The object was suddenly gone and the onlookers were curious as to why the fighter jets kept going up out of sight and coming back down.
In the confusion, many of the witnesses hurried back into their homes to attempt to make contact with local police, newspapers, and television news stations. All lines were busy.
Scene eight:
In the morning, Jenny finally came in contact with someone at the police department after trying all night. She was determined to get through due to her extreme interest in the topic.
After demanding information, she was given varying stories that had been sent in from numerous eyewitnesses to the police department.
The bottom line regarding the fighter jets was that they flew as high as their engines would allow them, but that wasn’t high enough. The object appeared to be closer than it actually was. It was too far for the jets to reach.
That fact proved that the object had to be incredibly large. There was no way to determine the actual size or the actual distance of the object. Astronomers and investigators were baffled alike. The situation became the largest mystery in history.
As weeks went by, all efforts and materials were put into the study and investigation of the event. No new sightings had been reported and most people began to go about their daily routines. It appeared to be just a one time freakish event like Mr. Quinn suggested.
Scene nine:
School had become almost as boring for the kids as it was before the sightings. The ones who feared or expected an invasion were happy about that. However, many of the children were surprisingly let down about the silencing of the situation.
“Funny how your heart could be pounding with fear and excitement one day and then a few days later that feeling becomes lost and you crave it again.” Jaimie spoke to the guys on the bleachers as they sat and ate their lunch.
“I am glad it’s over, I don’t welcome that feeling ever again. I still can’t get my sleep pattern back to the way I like it.” Kyle disagreed.
“No matter how you look at it, I think Mr. Quinn made the most sense out of it. Even though it’s over, none of us will ever forget it and now we have stories to tell our kids and newspaper headlines to show them.” Bennie had mixed emotions about it.
“I think you all got too wrapped up in the whole thing. All I learned is that my games of baseball or playing catch with a football can easily be interrupted when everyone else focuses too much on the sky.” Barry spun his football. “Are you guys going to finish eating so we can throw this thing around?”
“I’m ready.” Bennie stood up and ran from the bleachers onto the field where groups of kids played separate games, and cheerleader practice was being held. It looked like the same school from a month earlier.
“Go deep!” Barry faded back to pass from the top of the bleachers. Just before bringing his arm forward, he looked up. As much as he didn’t want to see what he saw, he was unable to look away. “No!... Oh my God!” He screamed at the top of his lungs with horror and disbelief in his voice.
The entire field and bleachers went silent. Everyone who was holding anything dropped everything. Mouths fell wide open.
A loud disturbing sound was emitted across the daytime sky. The unpleasant noise was followed by a deafening crash.
Shortly following the activity, police, fire and emergency unit sirens could be heard from everywhere. Droves of people were drawn to the area of impact. That area was soon blocked off from any onlookers. Only federal government officials were permitted beyond a set point.
Scene ten:
Behind the set point, groups of investigators were bewildered. In fear of approaching the object, they stood in wonder before it.
It was a lengthy tube, larger than any plane. It appeared as if its first several layers had been peeled off like a banana. What stood before them was an object emitting smoke, liquid, space dust and an awful aroma. There were two visible markings on its side resembling a faded A I I and U B U.
The investigators feared what could be in store for them. They called in the unit that Jacob was once a part of. They were assigned to put on their protective clothing and get inside of the object to search and apprehend any life forms on board.
Even Jacob was
called down to provide his opinion if necessary. “How long have they been inside?”
When Jacob arrived, he questioned the investigator in charge, Marvin Schellz.
“We sent them in ten minutes ago. They should be exiting with a report soon.” Marvin answered.
After another five minutes of built up suspense, two of the crewmembers exited the craft requesting six stretchers.
“What a you got Hank?” Jacob yelled over to one of his ex-co-workers.
“I’ll let you know when it becomes clear.” Hank seemed disturbed and frightened.
The men pulled out six bodies on stretchers. The bodies were completely covered with an odd type of protection. The bodies were quickly shipped to a top-secret military research base in the area. That was the only place where anyone had authority to open the protective covering.
“We got aliens… These things were alive… These things are a big discovery.” One of the searchers was picturing the evening news stories.
Scene eleven:
Scene twelve:
For scene eleven and twelve visit authorhouse.com or many other book site outlets.
Scene one:
Thursday July 7th:
Denny Blessa, age 14, finished another drawing that he felt deep in his heart was a new masterpiece. While placing it in a folder towards the back of his desk, the excitement of showing his closest friends one more work of genius clogged his thoughts.
As he made his way to the other side of the room, he laughed out loud and became a little dizzy. Making his way to the bed, he noticed his friend Kyle walk in. “I’ll be okay Kyle, nothing to get worried about.” Denny set himself down on the bed gently.
“If you say so… I just wanted a pencil. Do you have one?” Kyle walked towards the door after grabbing the pencil. “Wow, that’s a beauty. Keep up the good work.” Referring to the drawing. “C’mon down in a little while. We’re gonna eat some breakfast.”
Denny started to overcome the dizzy feeling. He had them from time to time. It may well have been from that dark dreary box that he called a room. The only furniture consisted of a bed, his art desk and an empty shelf on the wall. The room was always too dark to get a good look at the bare walls.
The only light was from an undersized desk lamp that was only turned on for two hours a day. That was Denny’s art time. The desk faced the small window that overlooked an offbeat atrium consisting of bushes and small trees. The only one who ever entered the atrium was Ganzzy the gardener.
A little park bench was set up in a corner under a tree with weeping leaves and branches. The only time the bench was visible was for a week or so after Ganzzy made his monthly clean up. That bench was never sat on for as long as Denny occupied his room.
Denny closed his eyes and thought about his latest masterpiece as he dozed off into dreamland.
Scene two:
Friday July 8th:
Denny woke up at close to
“This is my newest masterpiece Kyle.”
“If you say so.”
“What do you need Kyle?”
“I just wanted a pencil. Do you have one?”
“Sure, right on top of the desk. Take one. Look at my masterpiece one more time.” He held up the drawing.
“Wow, that’s a beauty. Keep up the good work. C’mon down in a little while. We’re gonna eat some breakfast.” Kyle walked out.
Quite a while later, Denny slowly made his way down the long stairway towards the large breakfast table. Mogastanda, the server, was cleaning up the table and putting dishes away. “Denny love? You late for breakfast again boy! Let me see what I can scrapes you up from the leftovers!” She always hollered, but she took a liking to Denny.
“Thanks Mog.” Denny pulled out the heavy chair and sat down while spreading his pictures out on the tabletop.
“Whoa whee! Thems some nice drawings boy. You sure are the artist around here. Don’t let them others tell you otherwise.” Mogastanda walked back in pushing the door open with here rear, holding a bowl of eggs and a plate of sausage with two pieces of toast.
“Thanks Mog.” Denny fixed a plate and had another dizzy spell. “Shoot. Not again.” He whispered to himself and tried to ride it out as he saw Mogastanda dance back into the kitchen.
“Why so happy Mog?” He yelled to her.
“My little ol pepper shrimp is comin to visit me. I can’t believe it after all these years.” She called her twenty five-year-old son little ol pepper shrimp. They hadn’t seen each other in over five years. Denny couldn’t figure out why all of a sudden he was coming to visit with hardly any notice. He went back to eating once his dizzy spell ended.
“Hello Denny. Glad you could make it for breakfast.” Kyle had a sarcastic tone and a wide grin. “Eat that slop up so we can hit the avenue.” They usually strolled the avenue on Saturday afternoons.
“Sure thing Kyle.” Denny finished off his eggs and wiped his mouth.
They took a walk up the avenue early that day. Denny’s backpack was filled with his drawings. He liked to have them close by in case an art lover cared to take a look.
“Beautiful day huh?” Kyle turned around watching Denny trail behind.
“I am cold.” Denny fixed the shoulder straps of his backpack. It was weighing him down.
“It’s not that bad. Forty degrees is nothing. Wait till the real winter hits and we start walking down here in ten degree weather.” Kyle joked.
Denny pointed at a Café sign. “Can we?”
Kyle knew it was time for Denny to have a cup of hot chocolate. “Sure thing. I can go for a cup also.” Kyle held the door for Denny, and a mother and child who were leaving.
“Thank you.” The mother held Denny’s arm expressing her gratitude.
Denny suddenly felt another dizzy spell. “Don’t walk too close to the street. Hold your mothers hand.” He blurted out some words of concern as he noticed the boy fall to the ground.
Denny quickly rushed to help him up as Kyle grabbed onto his other arm. “It’s okay Denny. His mother will take care of him. Come inside.” Kyle directed him towards a chair while continuing to hold the door for the woman. “He’s all right. Sometimes he zones out and wants to help strangers, even if they don’t need any help. Sorry.”
“No problem. I understand.” The woman smiled and ran to catch up with her son.
Scene three:
Saturday July 9th:
The headlines on the morning newspaper stood out:
HIT AND RUN ON THE AVENUE. BOY 11 KNOCKED UNCONSCIOUS.
“Oh man. This looks like our area.” Kyle held the paper closer. “This is our area.” He took a step back. “This is the avenue.” He glanced at the picture of the eleven-year-old boy. “This is the boy Denny tried to grab.” The mother’s photo was right under the boy’s. “I better put this where he won’t see it.”
“Good morning Kyle! How are you?” Mogastanda danced through the dining area to see who was there.
“Good morning Mog. You’re in a good mood.” Kyle rolled the paper up and put it behind his back. “Good news?”
“Yes Kyle. I just got off the phone with my little ol pepper shrimp. It’s been five and a half years since we been together and he is coming to see his momma on Sunday! I am so happy!”
“That is great news. I am happy for you.” Kyle gripped onto the newspaper tightly as he took a couple of steps toward the stairs. “Any word from Denny yet? Is he still in bed?”
“I haven’t seen him. He is probably drawing up another wonderful picture.” Mogastanda danced back into the kitchen.
Kyle ran up the stairs two at a time to check on Denny. When he reached Denny’s door he knocked loudly. “Are you in there?”
“Come in.” Denny turned around from his desk.
Kyle opened the door and walked in. “I was worried about you. Usually you’re late for breakfast but you never miss it completely.”
“Just had some drawing to do.” Denny turned back around and continued to draw.
Kyle stood behind him and watched. “That is beautiful.”
“Thanks. You can have it when I am finished.” He looked out of the small window and noticed Ganzzy cleaning up the atrium. Denny knocked on the glass to wave hello.
Ganzzy waved back with a rake in his hand and a strange guilty look on his face.
“Good old Ganzzy. He does a hell of a job out there.” Kyle was being sarcastic.
“Yep.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to crowd you while you were drawing.” Kyle took a step back. “So, should we expect you for lunch or are you going to draw all day and night?”
Denny put down his pencil and turned off the light. “I am ready to eat now.” He started to walk behind Kyle as he became dizzy again. “I like to eat alone. I like to eat with you and Mog around… I don’t want to be with the others. They don’t understand me. They hate my artwork. They make fun of me. Make them go away.” Denny didn’t care for the others who lived in the house. That’s why he always came down late. He wanted to make sure the dining area was empty.
“It’s okay Denny. You don’t have to be with them if you don’t want to be. But they really aren’t that bad. You have to give them a chance.” Kyle wanted to keep peace even though the other kids could be brutal.
As they walked through the dining area, Mogastanda was tidying up around the table. She was still in bright spirits awaiting Sunday for the arrival of her little ol pepper shrimp.
“The big day is coming Mog. Little ol pepper shrimp should be here soon. Don’t worry about the hair.” Denny was happy for her.
“That’s right Denny love. Tomorrow it is… Hey, how’d you know he was coming? Did Kyle tell you?”
Kyle looked baffled. “I didn’t tell him anything about it.”
“Neither did I.” Mogastanda scratched her head with the end of a wooden spoon. “He’s doing it again.”
“I guess he is.”
Denny would occasionally know things that were going to happen. He would usually have a dizzy spell just before obtaining new information. Denny just shrugged his shoulders before he continued walking towards the front door.
Kyle lagged behind to have a quick word with Mogastanda as two of the other children who lived in the house entered the room, Saurs and Jeremy. Saurs was a nickname given to him for his love of dinosaurs.
“Your pictures stink.”
“Yea, throw em away in the garbage can.” Saurs and Jeremy looked at each other and laughed before they ran up the stairs.
Denny stood there ready to cry until Kyle came over. “What’s wrong Denny?”
“They made fun of me again.”
Kyle convinced him that Saurs and Jeremy were just jealous of him being such a good artist and that they only wished they had such talent.
Scene four:
Sunday July 10th:
The next morning, Mogastanda was in her room putting on her favorite green dress to greet her little ol pepper shrimp on his arrival. Kyle got breakfast together for the children so she could get prepared for her big day.
Saurs, Jeremy, and several others sat around the table making all kinds of sounds as they waited for their sausage and eggs.
“Are you the new boy?” Saurs looked towards the end of the table at a stranger to the dining room.
“Yes, he’s the new boy.” Jeremy hollered before the stranger could introduce himself.
“New Boy! New Boy! New Boy! New Boy! New Boy! New Boy!” All of the others at the table chanted.
When they finally quieted down, the
stranger spoke up. “Thank you for the wonderful greeting. My name is
“
“
“Oh my goodness.”
“I like dinosaurs!” Saurs raised a hand.
“I hate Denny Blessa!” Jeremy yelled.
“Yea, Denny sucks at art!” Others joined in.
“Denny is a retard!”
“We hope Denny dies soon!”
“Why are you here?” Saurs became impatient.
“Who are you?” Jeremy backed up his friend.
“Is that my little ol pepper
shrimp?” Mogastanda walked down the stairs very excited as
“Momma!” He held his arms out.
“Pepper shrimp? Where’s your hair at baby?”
“Oh, I should have told you momma.
It was falling out from the medication so I decided to shave my head.”
“Oh my little baby.” Mogastanda gave her son a huge hug and took him out to walk through the park on the grounds to talk.
“That is just fantastic baby. I am so glad you beat that devil’s sickness.” She held on to his arm. “I’ve been great too. Some of the children give me a difficult time, but seeing little Denny Blessa come down them stairs makes my day.”
“Oh, the artist?”
“How’d you know? Do you have his gift also?”
“Gift? No. The other kids didn’t seem so fond of him.”
“Them little bastards gives him a hard time about his art… Maybe it’s not the best, but he tries.”
“Maybe I’ll have a word with them around the breakfast table in the morning.” Calvin wanted to give it another shot.
They walked for close to two hours catching up on each other’s lives.
Scene five:
Scene six:
Scene seven:
For scene five, six and seven visit authorhouse.com or many other book site outlets.
Scene one:
At birth, we are each given a number. Each number is significant upon how long we will live and what we do during our existence on earth. The number stays with us until we’re gone.
Kav (78,802) a thirty-six-year-old carpenter sat in front of his television watching the late edition of the news. He left the hospital when visiting hours ended. His wife, Betty (80,070), just gave birth to their new baby boy, Jason (78,004).
The news of the day was about a man named Beleen (148,390), who ran around the streets of his town holding his three month old baby girl, Cara (78,190), in one arm and a steak knife in the other. It was not too far from Kav’s neighborhood.
Beleen threatened to harm the baby if the police did not back off. The standoff went on for over two hours. The police were finally able to get the baby to safety by wrestling Beleen to the ground when he let his guard down. The baby was unharmed and Beleen was sent for psychiatric counseling after being arrested.
Kav sat in disgust watching the story. “How can someone do that with a baby? This guy should be given the death penalty! Psychiatric counseling my ass! What the hell is wrong with this country? The normal people get punished and the maniacs are given all of the second chances! What’s the sense in complaining? No-one gives a dam!” He cursed and yelled at the television.
“At least this piece of garbage made me realize that I am going to give extra attention to my new little guy. That maniac showed me that a baby should be treated with extra care. I’m gonna give this kid everything.” Kav felt extra protective over his new son after watching the story.
He stayed up watching a few other shows. There was too much on his mind to go to sleep.
Scene two:
Kav arrived at the hospital with his arms full of gifts the next morning. All of the doctors and nurses greeted him, congratulating him on such a beautiful baby. Dr. Blecker (96,429) held the door open for Kav as they walked in to see little Jason. Kav’s face lit up with excitement and pride. “He is amazing!”
“As soon as Betty gets her things together, you can show Jason to his car.” Dr. Blecker congratulated them once again before sending them off.
“Watch that car! Oh, there’s another one on this side. I never realized what horrible drivers are on the road until now. Watch this one coming along side of us.” Betty was a nervous wreck having a newborn in the car.
“Relax Betty. Don’t worry about the bad drivers. We’re in a car. They’re more dangerous to the pedestrians than anyone else. Just close your eyes, we’ll have Jason home to his little nursery in a minute.” Kav held on to Betty’s hand extra tight as he put on some soothing music.
Jason became the biggest part of their lives. Just like Kav promised earlier, he gave extra attention to the little guy.
5 Years Later
Scene three:
Just before Jason’s fifth birthday, Kav was out picking up some last minute gifts. He ran into a buddy of his named Dan (87,380) from the carpenters union. They stopped in front of a coffee shop to talk. There was a nice breeze in the spring air. The leaves swayed as cars sped past on the busy main road in front of them.
“Kav, what’s the good word?”
“Birthday!”
“Yours?”
“No, the little guy, Jason’s.”
“Oh, that’s great. How old now?”
“Five tomorrow. I was just doing a little shopping for him.”
“That’s nice. Did you hear what they’re doing to McKay (89,422) down at the jobsite? After ten years of service, they’re letting him go and the union says they can’t do a thing about it. He has to leave his apartment and move in with a friend.” Dan had a look of anger in his eyes.
“That is unbelievable.” Kav was surprised as he heard screams from behind.
A car came speeding towards them. Bouncing over the curb and deflecting off a tree, the automobile struck both Kav and Dan. A crowd formed around them after the car finally stopped. The front end went through the window of the coffee shop.
Dan moaned and attempted to pick himself up off of the ground as a witness told him not to move. “You could hurt yourself worse if you move the wrong way. Just sit still like your friend until the paramedics arrive.” The man (79,400) was helpful.
“My friend? Oh no! Kav? Are you okay?”
There was no response.
Scene four:
Dan lied in a hospital bed watching the news of the event unfold on the TV. The newscaster announced that the driver of the car was a man by the name of Beleen. Five years earlier Beleen had been in the news after running around the streets of his town holding his three month old baby girl, Cara, in one arm and a steak knife in the other. He threatened to harm the baby if the police did not back off. The standoff went on for over two hours. The police were finally able to get the baby to safety. Beleen was sent for psychiatric counseling after being arrested.
“You son of a bitch! You should have been given the death penalty then! What a waste of human life! What a dam shame they let animals like this live after attacking children and police! This world is sick. It would have been better off if he killed me than having to lay here to watch this! You dirty bastard!” Dan screamed at the top of his lungs at the television.
“Sir. Sir, can I help you with something?” The nurse, Kelly (82,101) ran in nervously.
“Yes! You can! Find that useless waste of flesh and blood and feed him to the wildest animals you can find!” Dan pointed at the television.
“I understand your anger sir. I am very sorry. Would you like me to change the channel?”
“No, I’d like to see the rest of this.” Dan watched the rest of the report and saw a lawyer already representing Beleen. Brestlyn Carver (140,106), he was known to run to the defense of known criminals to blame it on their lack of guidance and funds growing up. He disregarded the facts. Beleen was high on crack. His pipe was still smoking on the floor in front of the passenger seat when police arrived. A broken wine bottle lied in the back with the smell of liquor emitting from the freshly stained seats.
Brestlyn previously represented gang bangers, drug dealers, cop killers, and bank robbers, getting them laughable sentences to put them back on the streets.
“Nurse!” Dan hollered into the hallway.
“Yes sir.” Kelly stuck her head back in.
“You can help me. Please take one of these tubes and fill it with a large amount of something deadly and shoot it into my brain. I don’t want to be around to watch this piece of garbage walk.” He feared seeing what would happen to the young criminal after the trial. He was sure it would be a slap on the wrist.
Kelly gave him some painkillers and smiled accompanied by a slow shake of her head. She was also disgusted by the event as she walked two doors down into her next patient’s room. “How are we feeling? Can I get you anything?”
There was a grunt from under the covers as a hand waved her away.
“Okay. I’ll check on you later.” Kelly went another two rooms down to check on a patient that was rushed in with Dan.
There was a group of doctors and nurses around the victim. “It doesn’t look good.”
“We may lose him.”
“Lose him again?”
“Please give him another shot of that.”
Kelly stepped back into the hallway while pulling the door shut behind her. It was Kav in that bed. He was pronounced dead at the scene and was revived temporarily. The doctors were losing him once again. Kelly didn’t have the stomach to watch.
Scene five:
Dan began to wake up from a long nap a couple of hours later. He was feeling light headed and loose after all of the painkillers. Kelly walked in to check on him. “Rested? You look better.” She whispered.
“Yea, I’m coming around. Had a bad dream though. It was about Kav.”
“Kav’s a good friend of yours right?”
“One of the best.” He slowly muttered.
“What do you like most about him?” Kelly made conversation in an attempt to find out more about Kav.
“He’s a great family man. You know? I like the guy a lot.” In a weakened oblivious state, Dan shared all of his feelings for Kav. How he would do anything for his family, that Betty and little Jason meant the world to him, how he stood for decency and everything that was good in society. Dan shared some stories from their work sites.
After the conversation, Kelly felt like she knew Betty, Jason and McKay, their co-worker. She quickly went back into Kav’s room to get an update.
“Do we give up?”
“He’s okay on the respirator.”
“This could be one of those long term comas.” The doctor’s sounded bleak. Kav was in bad shape and Kelly had a difficult task in front of her as she made her way to the waiting room.
“Can someone please tell me what is happening with my husband? Someone! Please?” Betty stood outside the door begging and pleading for over an hour.
“Ma’am? Are you Betty?” Kelly could tell just from the stories that Dan told her.
“Yes. Yes I am. Can I see Kav now?”
“Please come inside with me Betty.” Kelly brought her into an unoccupied room off to the side. Putting her job on the line, she wanted to give Betty the care she deserved. “I can bring you in to see Dan, Kav’s friend who was also in the accident. Your husband is asleep and he is not allowed any visitors at the moment.” She put her at ease before bringing her into Dan’s room.
“Hey Betty. Where’s Kav?” Dan was still a little light headed. Betty wiped a tear from her eye.
“This must be McKay.” Kelly looked at the large man standing at Dan’s bedside.
“Nice to meet you ma’am.” McKay reached over to shake Kelly’s hand. “Hi Betty. We’re all praying for Kav.” McKay gave Betty a kiss and pulled Kelly to the side. “Can I speak to you a minute nurse?”
“What can I do for you sir?”
“Can you get me the name of the man in the room two doors down?” McKay cracked his knuckles.
“I’m sorry sir. I’m not allowed to divulge that information.”
“Trust me. You have to do me a favor.” McKay attempted to get her to break the rules as Dan and Betty spoke about Kav.
“Did they tell you anything Dan?”
“All I know is that he is alive but in some sort of a coma. Supposedly they have the best guys working on him.”
“Oh my God!” Betty broke down into tears wondering how Jason and her could get through life without him.
Scene six:
The following morning, Nurse Kelly made her usual rounds. First stop, Dan’s room.
“Any word on Kav?” He lifted himself up as Kelly checked his chart.
“Nothing new since yesterday. I have to check on one more patient before I see him. I should have good news on that patient, but I’ll come back to fill you in on Kav before you’re released.”
“Released? I can go today?”
“I believe so. Let me go check for sure.” She made her way two doors down to check on the next patient.
“Oh no! This isn’t good!” She stuck her head outside of the door. “Doctor! Doctor come quick! There is something wrong with the patient in 208!”
Dr. Blecker ran towards the room. “Oh my God! He’s not going to make it!” Dr. Blecker checked the patient’s intravenous and ordered Kelly to send the other doctors on staff into room 208.
Before returning to Dan’s room, Kelly checked on Kav’s condition and Dan’s release orders. Nothing changed in Kav’s condition. “I have two sets of good news and one set of bad news Dan.” She pulled his pillow from him.
“I guess I’ll take the bad first.” He braced himself.
“Well, there’s no change in Kav’s condition. That’s the bad, but it’s not necessarily bad because it’s better than him getting worse. Right?”
“I guess so. Well, what’s the two sets good news?” The look in his eyes showed that he needed to hear something positive.
“First off, you can leave as soon as you’re ready. Secondly, it looks like the patient in 208 will never be fully recovered. I can’t really supply the necessary information for you to see that as good news. Just let McKay know, he’ll understand.” Kelly helped him gather his things and shortly after, he was off to see McKay.
Scene seven:
Dan stopped off to fill a
prescription before he arrived at McKay’s apartment shortly after
“Glad to see you made it out of there. How’s Kav? I’d like to go see him but I can’t go back to that hospital anymore.” McKay poured two cups of coffee.
“Speaking of you and that hospital, the nurse said the patient in 208 will never be fully recovered and you’d be the one who could better explain that good news to me.”
“Really? It worked? That is good news!” McKay was pleased with the news.
“Who was in 208? And why is his tragedy good news?” Dan was still confused by the situation.
McKay offered him a seat and explained that the patient was Beleen. The day before, McKay explained to nurse Kelly who he was and what he had done to Kav and Dan in the accident, and what he had done to his own daughter five years prior.
Kelly had an indication to the circumstances after seeing Dan become riled up at the news on the television. When McKay presented his idea to her, she gladly went along with the risk. Her heart went out to Betty and Jason.
McKay’s plan relied mainly on Kelly’s medical training. He wanted to destroy Beleen’s life without ending it. He felt that ending it wouldn’t give Beleen the punishment he deserved. And neither would the courts.
Kelly thought back to Dan asking to please take one of the tubes and fill it with a large amount of something deadly and shoot it in to his brain, when he didn’t want to be around to watch that piece of garbage walk.
She found the perfect combination of vaccinations that when shot into his head, Beleen would live the most painful and uncomfortable life possible. She gave the vaccine to McKay and explained exactly how to shoot him up.
Since McKay was let go from the job and things weren’t going so well, he decided he didn’t have anything to lose when injecting it into the back of Beleen’s head. That’s why McKay could never return to the hospital. He stashed the needle in a small plastic box above his medicine cabinet until he could think of what to do with it.
Dan was pleased to hear the outcome.
Scene eight:
Beleen’s wife, Tabia (82,444), and her brother, Dean (132,228), went up to the hospital later in the evening to visit Beleen. “Why is he still here? They said his injuries were not this bad!” Dean was loud and abrupt through the halls of the hospital.
“Please lower your voice.” Tabia was trying to calm him down. She was timid and shy. All of the years of Beleen slapping her around made her that way.
“Some son of a bitch in this dump of a hospital is going to have some explaining to do!” He became even louder, scaring Tabia.
When they got to the room, Brestlyn Carver was standing by the door speaking to a police captain (91,222) dressed in a suit. Dean and Tabia stood to the side watching them until the conversation ended.
“What was that all about? How is my brother in law? I want to see him!” Dean shook Brestlyn’s hand and walked into room 208”
“How are things at home?” Brestlyn made small talk.
“I’m frustrated. My landlord caught me stealing from another tenant. Now I gotta find a new place. Just one headache after another.” Dean continued his complaining.
“Here’s another headache for you. He’s apparently not doing so well. This may help our situation to plead insanity. Those cops want to lock him up but given these circumstances, that does not look possible. We may also have a lawsuit against the hospital when this is all over. His condition became worse overnight. If you ask me, it looks like malpractice all the way.” Brestlyn was looking to make some extra money for himself with a malpractice suit. The sudden head trauma was also a perfect opportunity to claim mental incompetence.
They looked over at Beleen. His extreme suffering was obvious. It appeared as if he was going to pass away within the hour.
Scene nine:
After a couple of days, Beleen’s condition worsened. And at the same time, Kav’s eyes began to blink. Betty and Jason were at his bedside. Nurse Kelly asked Betty to have a word outside the room leaving Jason with his dad.
“I just wanted to let you know that the man in 208 over here.” Kelly pointed to Beleen’s room. “Is the man responsible for your husband’s condition. I am only telling you this because, if you take a look, you’ll notice that he is suffering worse than any criminal ever did.” Kelly explained that what Beleen was going through was much worse than death.
In Kav’s room, Jason was holding on to his dad’s arm. “Daddy? You okay? Daddy? Can I help you? Daddy? I love you.” He whispered over and over waiting for a response. He was too young to even consider the worst of possibilities.
Jason moved his hand down his father’s arm and into his hand. He gave his dad’s hand a squeeze. After thirty seconds or so, Kav gave him a squeeze back.
Jason’s eyes lit up and he felt joy throughout his entire body. “Daddy! You’re awake!”
Betty and Kelly heard Jason’s voice and ran into the room. Kav was going to be okay. He was limited to a wheel chair for the rest of his life, but being alive for his wife and son was the important thing for him.
Scene ten:
McKay finished packing up his apartment. Some of his friends from the job helped him out. It was obvious that Kav couldn’t, and Dan only hung around to lend moral support. He wasn’t supposed to lift anything heavy.
When they finished moving out, it wasn’t too long before the new tenant moved in. That new tenant was none other than Beleen’s brother in law, Dean.
2 Years Later
Scene eleven:
Kav was living back home with his family. They spent every possible minute of every day together. Dan and McKay were also around constantly. The accident taught them all that the things they loved could be taken away at any moment of any day. Their time together was greatly appreciated. Most of the time, Kav didn’t even realize that he was in a wheel chair.
On the other side of town, Dean and Brestlyn were sitting around Dean’s apartment, formerly McKay’s, discussing the upcoming hearing regarding Beleen’s case of mental incompetence and the lawsuit against the hospital.
Beleen was still restricted from leaving the hospital. He had been undergoing grueling tests and evaluations regarding his condition for the past two years.
Suddenly there was a loud knock on the apartment door. “Open the door! This is the police! We have a warrant!”
Being a lawyer, Brestlyn felt there was nothing to worry about. He opened the door. “Good day gentlemen. How can we be of service to you?”
“You can stand out of the way while we have a look around.” It was the same police captain who spoke to Brestlyn at the hospital. The officers were just making a routine search. They were only hoping to find something to link Dean and Brestlyn to Beleen’s disablement.
After a thorough search of the apartment, they found the small plastic box above the medicine cabinet that contained the needle and vaccine that was responsible for Beleen’s sudden brain lapse.
Dean and Brestlyn were both arrested for probable cause. They were convicted of charges suggesting that they shot the vaccine into Beleen’s head to keep him out of jail due to mental incompetence and setting up the hospital for an unfair malpractice suit.
They were each given twenty to life in a maximum-security facility.
Scene twelve:
Numbers
For scene twelve and Numbers visit authorhouse.com or many other book site outlets.
Scene one:
On March fourth, the only day that
is also a command, Leo and his wife Kara just finished sitting in traffic for twelve
hours for what would normally be a six hour trip. They were returning from a
week long vacation in
“If you want me, I’ll be knocked out in the bed for the next three days.” Leo walked up the stairs to the bedroom.
“I’ll join you right after I sort through the mail. I mean the bills.” Kara dreaded the pile of white envelopes that sat before her on the kitchen counter. There was never any good news, just bill on top of bill on top of junk mail on top of advertisement.
“This is a pretty envelope, I’ll save it for last.” She tore through each and every piece of mail grunting, as none of them were at all pleasing. “Bill… Crap… Garbage… Nonsense… I owe… We owe… You blow…” She finally came back to the pretty one.
Mr.
and Mrs. Leonard Legowitz.
You
are cordially invited to join Patrick Dennerold and Debra Mhyles as they
celebrate the joining of two lives, two families and two hearts into one.
RSVP
by March 6th
“Well, what do you know? Patrick finally asked that bitch to marry him.” Kara smiled. “Leo is gonna love this.” She headed up the stairs holding the invitation.
“Honey are you asleep yet?”
“Hardly… I can never fall asleep when I need to… If I had to get up for work right now, I could fall asleep in a second.” Leo was annoyed. The traffic and the aggravation gave him a headache that four aspirins were not fixing.
“Maybe you can use a good laugh… Look, good old Patrick is throwing in the towel.” She handed him the invite.
“Holy shit! What a shmuck… I thought he’d know better.” Leo sat up and laughed. They both felt that Debra was only after Patrick for his money and they were right about that.
“Nice to have cash to buy a woman.” Leo joked.
“Yea, I am such a lucky woman to have been purchased by you.” Kara joked back.
“Well, in all fairness, I had some money before I met you.” Leo put his hands in his pockets to feel only his legs. “I guess we gotta go… But if you think about it, we can probably send anyone and say it’s us… They wouldn’t know the difference... It’s been over ten years… I wouldn’t know either one of them if they bit me on the ass.”
“What the hell does that mean? I heard that stupid saying before… When and why would they ever bite you on the ass?”
“It’s just a saying, come on, I’ll show you… Bite me on the ass and I’ll tell you if I know you.”
“Real funny… Anyway, I guess we have to go, it’s next weekend.”
“A wedding in March. That’s a good omen. Get it? Wedding March?”
“That is
hysterical. Why don’t you write that on a list with the other two funny things
you said this decade? We should keep track.” She felt he needed some help with
his sense of humor. “I have to RSVP in two days so we have to do everything in
a hurry.”
Kara planned to get the gift, have her hair and nails done and find a dress. Leo had to get a suit and find a way to pay for the gift. It wasn’t the greatest time for them with money.
Scene two:
The aggravation from the long car ride spilled over into the following week. Kara finished getting her hair done and she was not satisfied at all.
“Andre? What the hell do you call this?” She held a mirror and sat in front of another mirror as she pulled a strand from the side of her head. “You call yourself a hairdresser? You should be ashamed of yourself! This is utterly atrocious! Please fix this mess because I am not paying for this obscene pile of trash on my head.”
“Oh Kara, I am shocked.” Andre put both hands over his mouth and stood rather feminine. “This was some difficult work for me to do and have you pick it apart like this.” He was devastated. “Whatever, then… Any suggestions your majesty?” He was sarcastic.
“I could give you a hundred that will beat this crap. I have a wedding to go to that I can’t afford and if I am going to get a hair cut that I can’t afford, it better be one that I at least like.”
“Yes dear, you will be smashing. I have another idea.” He started playing with her hair a little more as he called for one of his assistants. “Oh Penelope! Please bring Mrs. Legowitz a glass of wine and hurry.”
Andre tried four or five more styles and at last he came up with a winner. Kara was finally satisfied. She gave him a tip with the little cash she had on hand and attempted to pay for the service with a credit card.
Penelope ran the card through the system and it came up unusable. It had been over drawn. She had the same problem with two other cards and had to promise Andre in good faith that she would bring the money as soon as Leo returned to work to get paid.
Once she walked out of the hair salon, she got on her cell phone. “Honey… I don’t know what to do. All of the cards have reached their limit and I still didn’t buy a gift. What are we gonna do?” She was frantic.
“Just come home. I’ll work something out.” Leo thumbed through the checkbook. His plan was to write them a check and worry about getting the money into the account later.
Scene three:
Kara walked in the front door with her new hairdo. “Darling I’m home!” She called out as Leo poked his head in.
“Hubba hubba. That is a mighty fine look you got there. Lookin for a date pretty lady?” Leo was very pleased.
“How sweet. Thank you.” She blushed.
“No seriously. Let’s have a date upstairs. What’d ya think?”
“I think I don’t want to muss my new hair.”
“Son of a bitch. That figures.” He was very disappointed.
“I can give you a kiss if you want.” She attempted to bargain.
“I can give myself a kiss. Bring your pity inside while I figure out a way to pay for a stupid suit.” A short while later they left the house with the only credit card that had any money on it.
“What’d a ya think of this one sweetie?” Kara held up a gray suit.
“To tell you the truth, I’ll take whatever you like. I’m more interested in seeing what hot looking clothes you’re gonna wear.” He grabbed the suit and brought it to a changing room to try it on.
“Sir. Wait a second.” A voice called out as he was going to walk into the room. “I have to check the clothes first.”
“What for? They look fine to me.”
“I have to count them and give you a ticket.”
“That is ridiculous. It never entered my mind to steal any of them until you made that suggestion. What bullshit this is!”
“Maybe, but it’s my job.” That little confrontation ended and Leo went in to try on the suit.
“Black sox, a tie, sissy pants, a stupid jacket? All of the crap that makes no sense to me.” He grunted as he put the pants and jacket on. “This friggen thing is too small.” He stretched his arms and heard a tear in the back of the jacket. “Son of a bitch. Now I have to hide… What the hell do you want?” A man stepped into the same dressing room as Leo.
“Oh, excuse me. I didn’t know this room was taken.”
“Well it is. Get the hell out of here.”
“What do you have to hide? Is that jacket ripped? You ripped that jacket!” The man stepped out as Leo tried to grab him. “That man ripped a jacket! Look in there! That man ripped a jacket!” He caused a disruption as the man who had to count the clothes and hand out tickets walked over.
“Sir? Did you tear a jacket?” He stood waiting at the curtain. “Please come out here sir.”
“Yes! I tore the God dam jacket! And now I’m gonna tear off that son of a bitches head! Where did he go?” Leo looked around, but the man was gone.
“Sir, you’ll have to pay for that jacket.”
“Yea, of course I have to. This is a friggen joke. I ain’t paying for shit! I’m leaving. Where the hell is my wife?” He noticed Kara at the register paying for her dress with the only good credit card they had left.
“I believe that is your wife sir. Oh Carol, please put this jacket on that credit card also.” The ticket man called over to the register as Leo’s entire body filled up with anger. He walked outside to blow it off and calm down.
“Darling, what happened? Aren’t you going to get a suit in there?” Kara was confused as she made her way into the car.
“Just get in. I’m not giving these assholes another dime. I’ll get a suit tomorrow when I’m in a better mood.” They headed back home.
Scene four:
Leo used the remainder of the evening to calm himself down. Kara served him a couple of gin and tonics and then modeled her new dress and shoes for him. He became interested in her once again. “What’d a you say you come a little closer and sit on my lap?”
“I would love to, but I don’t want to wrinkle the new dress. Maybe after the wedding.”
“Maybe instead of the wedding.” Leo mumbled to himself. Then don’t block the dam TV. Go model that thing for someone who doesn’t have lust in his veins… Let me watch the news.” Once again he was annoyed.
“Sorry, but I really want to look my best for the wedding.”
“Stick a bag over your head then.” Leo muttered and took a sip of his drink as Kara called her cousin Deena to see if she would be able to fit her in to do her nails the next morning.
Scene five:
Leo dropped Kara off at Deena’s place early the next day before he went to a suit warehouse down on the other side of town. The ride was a bit chaotic. He drove through a neighborhood where all smart people drive through the red lights. Unfortunately, Leo was sitting behind a real dumb lady.
“Yo, roll down the window bitch!” An angry young man approached Leo’s car.
“Oh shit.” Leo began honking his horn as the lady in front of him raised her arms impatiently.
“The light is still red stupid! Are you blind?” She appeared to be rather annoyed.
“Get out the car! Get your ass out of my car!” The man got closer.
“Screw this!” Leo hit the gas and tried to maneuver around the lady, but he didn’t have enough room. He grinded against her rear bumper and knocked her license plate onto the street.
“You son of a bitch! You’re gonna pay for that! Get back here!” She screamed out of her window as Leo flew through the red light.
“Okay momma. You get your fat ass out of the car then!” The angry man began walking towards the woman’s car.
“Oh shit! Hell no!” She also sped through the light.
After a rigorous ride through a crummy little town, Leo found the warehouse. As soon as he walked in, there was a man his size also trying on suit jackets. The man had a young boy with him fooling around with some kind of a cap gun.
“Oh great, a trouble making kid. This is my kind of store. I got one guy threatening to kill me for my car and then some fat bitch holding me at a light and cursing me out, now I gotta worry about being shot by a five year old.” Leo hated small disruptions around him.
As the man went in and out of the dressing room he yelled at his son a few times for playing with the gun and making noise. He finally took it away from him before he tried on his next jacket.
Leo tried on two or three suits and made sure no one came close to the curtain while he was in there. After twenty minutes or so, he decided on a nice fitting suit. One that he felt Kara would like also.
He quickly returned home after his frantic shopping extravaganza. He took a different route to avoid that traffic light.
He stopped by Deena’s to meet Kara who was waiting out front saying goodbye to the girls as she air dried her nails.
“Good timing dear.” She blew on her fingertips.
“Hey, they look good. Want to give my back a once around. It’s a little itchy.”
“I would love to, but the wedding is two days away and I don’t want to risk breaking one of these. Save it for after the wedding.” She admired her nails as they drove home.
“In place of the wedding, maybe.” Leo grunted.
Scene six:
The wedding day had arrived. All of the shopping and preparing paid off. Kara came into the bedroom half-dressed looking for her earrings.
“Wow, you look amazing.” Leo sat at the edge of the bed with his mouth wide open listening to the radio.
Kara was wearing her slip, her shoes, stockings and some very flattering makeup to go with her new hair and nails. “What are you crazy? I still don’t even have my dress on.”
“I know.” He seemed intoxicated.
“Have you seen my earrings?”
“Earrings.”
“Yes earrings… Come on… Get dressed.”
There was a trivia question about to be asked on the radio. The prize was fifty thousand dollars.
“What do you say if I get the
answer to the upcoming question right you have to treat me like I was your
favorite
“If you could get it right and win
that money, not only will I treat you like my favorite
Leo got a bit worked up and imagined what it would be like to have her all to himself for the next six hours. It was a feeling that excited him thoroughly.
The announcer came on and asked the question. “On the hit sitcom, Welcome Back Kotter, what was the room number of Mr. Kotter’s classroom?”
Leo seemed dumbfounded. After the thought of staying home, he imagined going through the night at the wedding.
Scene seven:
For scene seven visit authorhouse.com or many other book site outlets.
Scene one:
“Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another season of minor league baseball from the home of the Ohio Muhd-Critterz. This should be another exciting season of waiting to see what you fans will come up with next.” Gilbert Renovan, the four-year announcer of the Muhd-Critterz took to the microphone to begin another wild season of practical joke baseball.
Renovan was the all-time home-run leader, base stealer and best second baseman to play in the league. He donated whatever he had to building the league to what it had become.
The fans of the Muhd-Critterz were known for their outrageous behavior towards the opposing teams, opposing fans, and the umpires. Every year they would try to top the season before. During the previous season the fans joined in a bench-clearing brawl against the New York Cougars, who were their all time nemesis.
The brawl started when Denny Mcgaren, the Cougars pitcher played a little chin music to Jeff Collins, Muhd-Critterz catcher. The pitch grazed his left cheek and he went down in fear of being clocked. That happened after five prior close to the head pitches between both teams.
As soon as Collins hit the dirt, the Muhd-Critterz were all over the Cougars. Fists flying, jerseys tearing, blood spilling, and a cloud of smoke around the pitcher’s mound from kicked up dirt encouraged the fans to throw anything and everything onto the field.
Row by row the bleachers cleared.
After the Muhd-Critterz did their damage on the Cougars, the fans finished them
off. There were very few
The Muhd-Critterz ended up being disqualified for what could have been a win, but that didn’t bother them anyway. Neither team was going to the play-offs. The game was a throw away. The league play-offs were different from the Major League’s play-offs and World Series. The play-offs consisted of three rounds, one game per round. If you lost one, you were out. The two teams that made it through their three rounds would meet for a one game World Series known as the Renovan Decision. It was named after announcer, Gilbert Renovan, for his contribution to the league.
Jerry Ballax, Muhd-Critterz pitcher vowed to leave the game after one more season. That fight was enough for a player his age. He did throw some close pitches, that was only because he feared reprisal by Coach Anderson. He was the nerve center of the Muhd-Critterz. They were a group of bitter, angry, violent men, and he knew just how to take that negative energy and make one strong, vengeful, and malicious team with a religious type following.
“Listen to that crowd as our Critterz take the field for the first time of the 2005 season.” Gilbert continued his broadcast on that warm July twenty-ninth evening. The Muhd-Critterz were matched up with the Illinois Silverfish. The game went by pretty routinely for the first seven innings. The Critterz were up by two going into the eighth. That’s when the first stirring event of the season took place.
Two of the Critterz wackiest fans
were up to their tricks a bit early. Claude Vextren and Greg Matackacks paid a
visit over to the other side of the field where some of the visiting
Needless to say, Claude and Greg had some wicked ideas in mind. They set up the rockets pointing toward two Silverfish fans that were all decked out in their silver and green colors to support their team.
Right after an outside two one pitch to the Silverfish batter, the Muhd-Critterz catcher, Jeff Collins, stopped the ball in the dirt and stood up to clear his mask as two rockets flew through the air. One hit a fan and set his Silverfish jersey on fire. The other ricocheted off of the bleachers and flew to home plate. Collins put his head down and frantically wiped his face. He appeared to have some remnants of the rocket on him.
The game was stopped for a
half-hour or so for the umpires and security guards to investigate and make a
decision. The fans got riled up due to the event and anything and everything
they could get their hands on ended up on the field as usual. Cups, cans,
bottles, food, food wrappers, and batteries covered portions of the grass.
Batteries were favorites amongst the Muhds, as they became known as. They were
known to throw at least twenty per game, especially at away games. They would
paint D-cell batteries in the colors of the Muhd-Critterz and throw them at the
opposing team members when they took their respected positions on the field.
There were numerous complaints made by the players. The league was doing their
best to keep the Muhd-Critterz in the league, but the Muhds were making that
quite difficult.
Scene two:
Over the next couple of games, Claude and Greg’s fan following increased greatly from the prior season. They had hundreds of angry fans at their disposal. The gang of mutants caused fear in rival fans to come to their teams away games.
Whenever the Muhd-Critterz had an
away game, the Muhds gave them a respectable presence that kept the home fans
under adequate control. A fight would break out here and there, but it didn’t
get too sloppy until a game in
They were close to five hundred in
number. They were expecting a problem. Whenever
There were a few scuffles and ejections throughout the night. Going into the eighth inning was always when the real problems began. First some fireworks were shot into a predominant Muhd section. The crowd scattered as two Muhds were hit and injured. The Muhds became enraged. A group of them were stationed under the bleachers that the fireworks were shot from. They had a plan in place, but it was scheduled for the ninth inning. They decided to act earlier to get their revenge.
One of them snuck in with a small toolbox. They began to loosen the bottom of the bleachers from the base. It was quite dangerous. The entire section could have fallen on top of them if they didn’t maneuver correctly.
The third out was made and the Muhd-Critterz came out to take the field for the bottom of the eighth. Just then some fans in the section close to left field noticed some strange activity going on by the fence behind the bleachers. A car was revving the engine as a crowd of people ran through the parking lot. The fans became nervous and began to yell. They could feel that the Muhds were up to something.
Just seconds later, the car peeled off and took a portion of the bleachers with it. The remainder of the bleachers crumbled around the fans that were sitting there. Injury totals reached close to forty people. There was a huge mess. Pieces of metal and wood sprung off in all directions. One shredded piece of metal hit Muhd-Critterz left fielder Mitch Crane, who was on his way to his position, when the metal tore his skin. He lied on the ground until the team trainer came by to help him up.
Police were on the scene immediately. The game was treated like a rain out. It went well past the seventh inning so the Muhd-Critterz were declared the winners with a score of four to three. That made the Silverfish fans even more enraged.
Scene three:
Claude and Greg were at the pet store the next day laughing about the Cincinnati Posts headlines. Muhds declare war! They were joking with a fellow Muhd who owned the local pet shop. “How much do these things go for?” Claude was referring to a tank full of tarantulas.
“I have a basement full of them, you can have em for free if you want.” Joey, the pet shop owner grinned.
“What the hell am I gonna do with a basement full. I’ll take one for a house decoration. They aren’t poisonous, are they?” Claude went to pick one up.
“No! Don’t touch that one!”
Claude jumped two feet backwards. “Why not? Is he poisonous?”
“No. I just wanted to put a good scare into you.” Joey and Greg laughed. “Some of them are poisonous, not the ones up here though. I can’t have those ones around the customers.” Joey packaged the tarantula. “So are you guys going to the game this weekend?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
We gotta get those
“We have to find a more subtle way to get them this week. All of the cops are going to be watching us.” Greg wanted to plan ahead.
“I think I have an idea of what we can do.” Claude had a sinister smile.
Scene four:
Claude and Greg arrived at the stadium early. Security was ramped throughout the building. “How the hell are we gonna get this done with all of these guys around?” Greg was a little nervous.
“Just relax. We’ll be fine.
Besides, we got Bill and Dan on our side. We’ll come back to the truck after
the eighth inning. Trust me.” Claude was positive about the situation. Bill and
Dan worked at the Muhd-Critterz stadium back in
There was less fighting than usual
and that made the police and security think something big was going to happen.
The Muhd-Critterz were down two to nothing going into the eighth inning. Claude
and Greg made their way back to the truck. They opened the back door and
two-uniformed security officers walked out of the truck. The only difference
was, those officers were from the
They got out of the truck and walked with Claude and Greg, who put on Pistol jerseys so not to look suspicious. Each guard carried a large suitcase type box. Each box held over one hundred tarantulas. Just before the beginning of the ninth inning, the four of them stood at the first base side field level with the cases by their feet.
Just then a fellow Muhd on the third base side began to have words with Randy Moses, the third base coach of the Pistols. It got very heated and the rest of the crowd let the two of them argue it out.
When the right moment came, they opened the cases and let the tarantulas scatter quickly in all directions. Most of the Muhds had already left. Once the last out of the eighth inning was made, the lower portion of the bleachers became covered with tarantulas. Claude, Greg and the phony guards quickly removed themselves from the stadium and headed to the truck.
The fan on the third base side threw a glass bottle of beer that he had snuck in, into the face of Randy Moses, the third base coach of the Pistols. The bottle shattered and the fan ran out as quickly as possible. Just before making out, he was stopped by uniformed police and security at the gate.
Fans began to notice the tarantulas crawling all over the ground, women and children screamed and ran. Some of the men stomped on the ones they could get to before escorting their families out.
By the time the game resumed, there was only a few fans left in the higher bleachers. The madness finally calmed down and the Pistols came out on top two to one. The only Muhd left on the premises was the fan who threw the bottle at the third base coach. He was only supposed to argue and leave to cause the diversion. He ended up getting heated and going over the line. The fan was Leo Dornte. He was held in the rowdy cage behind the locker rooms. Every stadium had a rowdy cage.
After getting the glass removed and having his face bandaged, Moses, the third base coach had a good time tormenting Dornte. He and some other Pistols gave him a beating to remember.
One of them noticed some tarantulas crawling in the locker room. “Look at these things! What the hell are they?” They began to steer them toward the Critterz locker room and towards Dornte before they all headed out to their cars.
Derrick Singor, Muhd-Critterz second basemen hung around the parking lot a little later, he was waiting for a woman that he met who worked inside the stadium. She appeared to be running late. A Pennsylvania Pistols fan recognized Singor sitting in his car and he held his Pistol jersey proudly in front of Singor’s windshield.
Singor became angry and chased down the fan, grabbing the jersey and pushing the man to the ground. Singor headed back to his car and noticed the woman he was waiting for walking in his direction. He also noticed a group of Pistol fans running towards him from the other side. He quickly threw the jersey into his back seat and left it hanging in the rear window of his car as he peeled out of the parking lot.
He missed out on his date, but those fans wanted to tear him apart for what he did to the fan left lying on the ground.
Scene five:
Back in
After a couple of hours of driving, they came across a half naked man being questioned by police officers. They pulled up to get a closer look and realized the man was Dornte.
Claude explained to the police that they were friends and they lost him and that they were looking for him for hours. “We’re sorry if he caused you any trouble. We’ll take him home.”
“You better take him to see a doctor. He’s got some kind of bites all over him. He doesn’t look so good.” The officer helped him into the car.
“Thanks officer. We’ll get him looked at right away.” They rushed to a hospital closer to their neighborhood.
Scene six:
The doctor recognized the bites. “Has he been around tarantulas?”
“Uhm, I don’t know. Maybe.” Claude didn’t want to go through the explanation of why they were playing with tarantulas.
“These are tarantula bites and he is very lucky you got him here when you did. After just one bite, he would have felt the effects in a month or so, but after all of the bites he got, we could have lost him within a couple of days.” The doctor explained that the rare spider that caused the bites had a fluid that would get into the victim’s blood stream and cause problems later. He gave Dornte the proper medication and sent the guy’s home.
“Remind me not to get involved with your next game adventure.” Dornte didn’t look so good. He needed to get home to rest.
Scene seven:
Claude and Greg gave things time to calm down a little and before they knew it, the time had come to get ready for the biggest away game of the season. September thirteenth arrived. It was time to face their all time nemesis once again, The New York Cougars.
Before the game began, Muhd-Critterz pitcher, Jerry Ballax was on the field speaking with Cougars Coach, Mel Martiggs. Ballax was explaining to Martiggs that he was not going to join in the beaming contest that usually ensued when he pitched against Denny Mcgaren and the Cougars.
“I would be very grateful if you
didn’t participate in that nonsense. It would be nice if we could have one game
without a brawl. Especially with security running wild around the building
today” Martiggs was a nice man, just the opposite of
“Well, I won’t be retaliating. I had enough of this stuff. Good luck Mel. Hope we all leave here in one piece tonight.” Ballax walked back to the Muhd-Critterz dugout.
“What the hell you talking to that
bum about? I don’t want you conversing with them
“Nothing coach, just talking about security around the building.” There was more security than at the Pennsylvania Pistols field.
“He’s just trying to upset you. He don’t want you beaming none of the cowards on his team. We’re gonna win this game and you are gonna lay out as many of those bastards as you can. Hear me boy?”
“Yea, I hear ya.” Ballax headed to
the bull pen to warm up and listen to angry
The game began and Mcgaren threw a couple of close pitches, but nothing too serious. By the fifth inning, there had been a few scuffles throughout the crowd. Most of them were stopped early by security and in each case, the Muhd was sent out of the stadium.
Barry Chells, Muhd-Critterz center fielder stepped up to face Mcgaren. Chells was the biggest guy on the team, so Mcgaren wanted to send a message to the rest of them by not fearing the strongest one.
His first two pitches were fouled off. The third was thrown a bit outside. That got him to stand a little closer to the plate. Mcgaren went into his wind up for the fourth pitch. He whipped a ninety-mile an hour fast one right at Chells’ head. He went down and the benches cleared.
Some police and security guarded the fence between the field and the fans, others ran out to help control the brawl. The teams went at it for over ten minutes before the police and security officers could get a handle on the situations. Both teams were given a strong warning.
By the bottom of the eighth, Ballax
still hadn’t thrown at a Cougar batter, against the wishes of
“This sissy bastard better take out
one of these pigs now! Look at that pansy boy standing on the mound like a
princess!”
After Ballax struck out the last
batter of the inning,
In the top of the ninth with the
score still zero zero, Jeff Collins, Muhd-Critterz catcher led off with a one
run homerun to put the Muhd-Critterz on the board. The
The next two batters were easy outs and that cleared the way for Barry Chells who came to the plate staring down Denny Mcgaren. The very first pitch missed Chells’ head by less than an inch. Chells took two steps toward the mound and whipped the bat at Mcgaren who was struck in the right elbow. He was immediately brought to the ground by the impact.
Before the benches were able to
clear, police and security officers took their positions. Ballax finished the
bottom of the ninth. He heard a mouthful from
Security eventually managed to clear out the stadium somewhat orderly after the New York Cougar’s one nothing loss.
Scene eight:
After a few more weeks of fighting to get to the playoffs, the Cougars won their first round against the Connecticut Wolves and their second round was set against the Maine Destroyers, the winner of that game would face the Illinois Silverfish.
The Muhd-Critterz won their first round against the Texas Gunmen and had the Florida Cannibals next in their sights. The winner of that game would face the Pennsylvania Pistols.
The Cougars and the Destroyers went at it for twelve long, stressful innings. The Destroyers were up two to nothing up until the bottom of the ninth inning when Cougars center fielder, Glenn Childro, nailed a low inside curve over the left field fence. Ex-Muhd-Critterz, pitcher, Jerry Ballax, was on first base to tie the game up two two.
The trade of Ballax for Mcgaren became finalized right before the playoffs began. Both players were much happier at there new homes. Mcgaren’s most difficult accomplishment was getting Muhd-Critterz center fielder Barry Chells to warm up to him after their recent history.
After Childro’s home run, no more runs were scored until the bottom of the twelfth inning when Ballax came up to bat with one out and a runner on third. Ballax belted a long high fly to deep right field that was caught. The runner from third tagged up to score the winning run. It was the biggest RBI of Ballax’ career. Cougars Coach, Mel Martiggs grabbed Ballax and lifted him up when he came back to the dugout. Martiggs was very grateful for their little meeting on the field at the September thirteenth game.
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