Original Blood

by Greene, Steve

  Maggie reached out and took his hand in hers. “Then what happened, Charlie?” She asked, a little afraid of what was coming.

  “Then he exploded.” Charlie took another long swallow from his beer. “Turns out, his dad saw me playing with him the day before. He saw it as an easy way to make some quick cash and rid his family of the shame that Rafi had brought them, all in one fell swoop. So, he sold Rafi to the Taliban, but when Rafi couldn’t be trusted to hit the switch himself, the Taliban operative decided to send him out and detonate the bomb via remote.”

  Maggie was speechless. She hadn’t expected that ending. “Oh, Charlie. I’m so sorry.”

  “We lost fourteen civilians, three Militia, and two of my guys, with a few more wounded. I took a little shrapnel in the shoulder, but the physical wound was nothing compared to what it did to my mind, my heart. I snapped. I tracked down every single person that had anything to do with the attack, with Rafi’s death.”

  “What did you do to them?” She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know.

  “I’d like to say I brought them all to stand before the court for their crimes, but that would be a lie. You really don’t want to know what I did to them. I’m not always such a nice guy.” His voice dropped low and his eyes looked lost, as though he were speaking more to himself than to her. “In fact, I can’t imagine anyone would want me after some of the things I’ve done.”

  “But think of the joy you brought him for that one afternoon.” She hoped he could see the good he did despite the pain.

  His eyes refocused and he looked at her. “But why didn’t He stop it? You know, Him.” He looked up at the ceiling, indicating the Man Upstairs. “Why does he let evil like that exist?”

  “Charlie, God didn’t kill Rafi. A man did that. A man that acted of his own free will. If God stopped every terrible thing from happening, we wouldn’t really have free will, would we? We’d just be a bunch of puppets on strings.”

  Charlie got quiet. He didn’t say anything for a long time. Their food arrived and they both started eating with little enthusiasm. Finally, he took a deep breath and spoke. “Well, I think we’ve covered the unholy trifecta of things that should never be discussed on a first date. Death, politics, and religion all in one giant, heaping pile. What next? You wanna get really drunk and make asses of ourselves?” He asked with a smile.

  She was glad he was the one to break the ice. She saw their waitress about to walk past and stopped her. “Two more of these, please.” She said, pointing to their drinks.

  Charlie raised his eyebrows at her. “Well, giddy up, soldier.” He said as he raised his glass to clink it on hers.

  The rest of the date went much better. They laughed and joked with each other like they were old friends. It seemed that getting the emotional baggage out of the way early helped them to feel comfortable with each other. She couldn’t have imagined sharing those things with someone she regarded as a perfect stranger just a few hours earlier. But nonetheless, she had. Before she knew it, they were riding in a cab back to her place.

  The cab stopped in front of her office and the two of them stumbled out together. Charlie told the cab to wait, not presuming he would be invited up to her apartment. Another plus for the new guy. She thought. She had no intention of inviting him in, no matter how much the alcohol made her want to. Not after just one date. Never after just one date. “I’m sorry you had to leave your car at the restaurant.” She told him.

  “That’s okay. It was worth it. I needed to let loose a little tonight, blow off some steam. I had a really nice time.” After all the pain she had seen on his face earlier, she decided she liked Smiling Charlie much better.

  “I did, too.” She smiled back and rose up on her tippy toes to give him a peck on the cheek.

  His surprise was evident but he smiled even wider. “So I’ll call you, okay?”

  “You better.” She gave him a flirtatious grin and slipped inside the office doors. Locking them behind her and waving to him before he could get into the cab and drive off. Watching the cab drive away, she stood at the door and fanned herself with one hand like a southern belle straight out of Georgia. “My, my, Miss Maggie. That is one tall drink of water.” She whispered to herself. She imagined his big arms wrapped around her, his steely blue eyes. She imagined running her fingers through his short, dark hair. All in due time. She thought with a devilish grin.

  She couldn’t hide her enthusiasm any more. “Yes!” She yelled and jumped up with her hands in the air. Her outburst got the dogs in the kennel room barking so she trotted to the back of the office to check on them. She felt a little school-girlish, but it felt good to be carefree, for a while at least.

  She opened the kennel room and turned on the lights. The dogs barked and hopped around in their cages while Mr. Cuddles, the cat, stared at her in quiet outrage. She had clearly woken him up from the most fantastic dream of tuna and salmon surprise. She went to each cage and said hello to the three dogs. The two smaller ones quickly returned to their beds, but Tank put his front paws up on the gate and barked at her as she was trying to leave, the cage straining under his weight. “Do you want to come upstairs with me?” She asked him and the big dog tilted his head. He hopped down from the cage door, did a little three-sixty in the kennel and then jumped back up again. “Alright.” It wasn’t normal practice for her to take the animals up to her apartment, but she didn’t think Charlie would mind. He wasn’t even the dog’s real owner. She opened the cage and let a very excited Tank follow her up the stairs to her apartment.

  Once in her apartment, Tank quickly found a quiet spot in the corner near the foot of her bed to lie down. She peeled off her jeans, her blouse, and bra, and slipped into her pajamas. The really comfy fleece ones. She brushed her teeth and turned off the lights and sat down cross legged on the floor next to Tank with her back against the wall and her arm across his back. It had been dark outside for a while. The apartment was streaked with shadows and light from the streetlights down below. Everything was still and quiet aside from the occasional car driving down the street out front.

  She was just drifting off to sleep when the motor for the elevator at the rear of her apartment came on and the lift began to rise. Tank’s head snapped up and he uttered a deep, guttural growl.

  Someone would need a key to activate that. She thought. And I thought I took the key back from him when we broke up.

  Cautiously, she rose and walked to the rear of the apartment where a baseball bat was leaning up against the wall for just such an occasion. A girl can never be too careful, her mother’s words echoed in her head. She flipped on the lights and as the pull-down gate of the elevator came open. A man walked off of the elevator with a bouquet of flowers stretched out in front of him.

  “Terrence! What on earth are you doing?” She stood with the baseball bat at the ready.

  His shock at her not welcoming him with open arms seemed forced. “C’mon, baby! Why’s it gotta be like that? Look, I brought you some flowers.” He looked towards the dog and furrowed his brow, his mood darkening. “You bring home another one of them strays from work?”

  She ignored his question, “Terrence, you can’t do this! You cheated on me! We’re done! I’ve moved on!”

  “Yeah, I know. I watched you with that honky tonight. Carryin’ on. Gigglin’ at his stupid jokes like some love-sick whore. Really, Maggie. I thought you were better than that. I thought we had somethin’.”

  “We did. You ruined it. Now, give me back the key and leave!”

  “C’mon, baby, you don’t really want that now, do you? I came all this way to see you, tell you I was sorry.” He stepped further into the apartment slowly and set down the flowers on the small kitchen table near the elevator. Tank growled but he ignored the dog’s protest. She lowered the baseball bat just a little.

  “Give me the key.” She said in a stern voice.

  “Really? You think I would go through the trouble to copy your key and only make one copy? Take it.�
� He flipped it into the kitchen area where it clattered on the floor. “Now why don’t you put down that bat so we can talk like adults?” It was more of an order than a request.

  She lowered the baseball bat and poked him in the chest with a stiff finger. “Get out of my house.” She accentuated every word in the hopes that he would leave. She was suddenly wishing that she had invited Charlie in. Outside she was steel, but inside she was frantic. Oh God! Please, just leave! She thought.

  She never saw the backhand coming. She wasn’t sure how long she was in the air, but it felt like an eternity. She flew over the half-wall of the kitchen and landed on the hardwood floor behind the couch. Pain roared in her cheek and her head swooned. She heard Tank bark and attack. The dog growled, Terrence screamed.

  She recovered and stood up just in time to see Terrence shed Tank’s grip with a giant kick to the midsection that made Tank yelp in pain and propelled Terrence backwards into the elevator as the dog’s mouth came free of his arm. It was all Terrence could do to pull down the elevator gate before the dog recovered and charged at him again. Tank smashed into the gate with a thunderous crash. Terrence stood up in the elevator and looked at his, now bloody, arm and laughed. “Oh man, that was so worth it!” He pressed the button to take the elevator down. “Damn, that felt good!” His eyes looked positively evil when he looked up from his arm to stare at her. Under the light in the elevator, she noticed for the first time that he had a large wound on his neck as well. The blood had run down and stained the front of his shirt. “Oh, that’s okay. You’ll come around. I know you will.”

  Maggie had recovered the baseball bat and stood ready to swing, both she and Tank snarling and ready to fight. She was afraid, but she was also furious. She had had enough!

  Terrence pressed a button on the elevator control panel. The elevator shimmied as it began to lower itself through the floor. “Don’t you worry, now. I’ll come back when that mutt ain’t around and we can pick up where we left off.” The elevator had lowered enough that he was almost gone from sight. “Don’t you worry.” And as he disappeared through the floor, “I’ll be back!” He said with an evil laugh.

  When she was sure he was gone and Tank had stopped growling, she ran to get the lock off of her bicycle and threaded the chain through the chain link of the elevator doors and locked them tight. At least he won’t be getting in that way again. She thought. She grabbed an ice pack from the freezer and went to the bathroom to look at her eye. It burned badly and her cheek was bright red. Some tell-tale purple had already begun to form under her eye. She checked the windows to make sure they were all locked, set the deadbolt on the rear door of the apartment, turned off the lights, and climbed into bed. She didn’t argue when Tank jumped up on the bed and flopped down next to her.

  Outside, she heard a man yell in fright or pain, she wasn’t sure which. Police cars whirred in the distance. It was nothing out of the ordinary for her neck of the woods, but she found herself wishing it was Terrence being hurt the way he hurt her until she remembered that she shouldn’t wish evil on someone, even someone who deserved it.

  With the adrenalin subsiding, Maggie began to cry. Tank licked her hand and nuzzled her arm. She prayed he would always be there to protect her from Terrence, but she knew he couldn’t be with her all the time. My God! She thought. One of these days, he’s going to kill me! She cried until sleep took her.

  Chapter 3

  Philip Beaumont heard the Dean say his name but it didn’t register at first. He was lost in thought, like he so often was. He had been considering the nesting habits of the Japanese Giant Hornet when the rhythm of applause brought him back to the present. He shook the Dean’s hand as he moved to the podium and accepted the heavy plaque that was handed to him. He looked out over the crowded room as the applause died down and smiled. His palms were surprisingly sweaty. After all these years teaching, he hadn’t experienced true stage fright in decades, but this was close. His collar felt like a noose and his scalp began to itch as microscopic beads of perspiration rose on his shiny, nearly-bald head. He wondered what he must look like to all of them. He was old, almost haggard. What was left of his hair was white as a sheet all the way down to his thick beard. Short and stocky, he had never been an imposing figure physically. And now Father Time had given him a nice little hunch in his back and a paunch for a belly. But the people in the room all sat expectantly, waiting for him to say something brilliant. Sure, he had discovered a few new species of frog and beetle in his time. And he had even pioneered research that lead to a breakthrough in a medication for Multiple Sclerosis that his team derived from the neurotoxin emitted by the poison dart frog, but so many people had done so much more than he could ever hope to accomplish in the field of Biology. He felt another pang of guilt at even accepting the award given to him just a moment ago. He searched the room for one face. His rock, his foundation, his Madeline.

  She beamed from the front row of tables like a beacon in the night. Even at sixty-two years old, she was radiant. Unlike his white hair, hers was a mantle of wisdom and she wore it with an air of royalty about her. Their eyes locked for an instant and his smile broadened. She sat next to a younger, but equally beautiful woman. Their eldest daughter, Virginia. Virginia was only a semester away from her residency. In just a few short years, she would be a doctor herself. He could hardly believe he was looking at a twenty-four-year-old woman. To him, she would always be the five-year-old he bounced on his knee, the laughing eight-year-old he rode his first roller coaster with, and the sobbing seventeen-year-old whose date stood her up on prom night. He had practiced his speech with her the night before. She smiled and gave him a discreet thumbs-up as he began to speak.

  “Hello everyone. Thank you so much for coming and thank you for this great honor. When I came here to Marquette University so many years ago, I had no idea the way things would turn out. I got the job quite by accident, in fact. I was working at a biomedical laboratory not far from campus. I came into work one morning and found out the lab was losing its funding and my position was one of the first to be cut. Needless to say, I was rather distraught. My wife and I had already started planning our family. We had just purchased a house. And now my income was gone. I didn’t even have the heart to call Madeline, my wife, and tell her the terrible news. I was so depressed I just began walking. I had no idea where I was going. Most of the time I wasn’t even looking forward, just staring down at my feet, watching my shoelaces flick back and forth as I took each step. Finally, I stopped next to a park bench and sat down. I was sitting across from Gesu Parish, looking up at the spires, wondering why I had been brought to this place, why I had lost my job, and how I would tell my wife, when a cheery old fellow sat down next to me with a nod and began to eat his lunch. He smiled at me and I cringed, knowing I must look pitiful. I scooted over, trying to get as far away from him as I could without being rude. He asked me if I was a student at the University. I said no. He asked me what I did. I was hesitant at first, knowing I had just lost my job. I was unsure whether or not I should tell him the truth, but I did. It was painful. To hear the words out loud made it suddenly much more real than it had been up until that point. He asked me what kind of job it was and I began to talk about the things I had been working on, about all the exciting things we had been doing with genetics. I got so excited, that for a few fleeting moments, I forgot about the loss of my job altogether. He told me that he had heard that the University was looking for someone in their science department. I said teaching at Marquette would be a dream come true and asked him if he knew how to apply for the position. He said, “You just did.”

  “That man was Dean Stokley. Most of you have probably never heard of him, but I will never forget him. Change is usually uncomfortable, and many times, painful. The trick is to believe in yourself and believe in God to lead you where you belong. Change simply means He has other plans for you. I didn’t know where I was going that afternoon, and still, He picked me up and set me down right where He wan
ted me. It has been an honor to be part of your lives and an honor having you all as part of mine. Thank you.” Philip stepped back from the dais to thunderous applause. A few of his students stood up. A few more followed. Before long, the entire room was standing and clapping as he waved and trotted off the stage, back to his table. A few moments later, as the applause died down and the current Dean returned to the podium, Madeline held his hand in the same warm way she always had. He felt as though he had never not known her. Her eyes smiled as much as her mouth did when she looked at him.