Knocking on Reality's Door (The Chronicles of Clark Wilson)

by Karl Williams

  It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.

 

  -Philip K. Dick

  It was a typical Halloween. Nice fall weather, not to cold not to warm. I had decided to write a novel, something that I had always wanted to do. I had found out about novel writing month put on by the office of light and letters. I have never been able to write what I wanted, never known what to do and finally I was going to do it. Everything was in place. I downloaded Scrivener to help me achieve my goal. The cat was fed and supper was out of the way. By 11:00 I was antsy and just waiting for midnight so I could start.

  That is when it started. The doorbell rang. "Who the hell could that be at this time of night?" I said.

  "Well it is too late for trick or treaters." My wife said.

  I wearily got up and answered the door. Turning on the porch light I looked out the window in the door. Seeing no one I opened the door, no one was there. I opened the screen door and stepped out and looked left and right. No one was in sight.

  "Damn kids!" I grumbled going back inside and closing the door.

  "Who was it?"

  "Just some kids I guess, nobody was there."

  Sitting back in my chair I picked up my computer to begin my adventure.

  Knock Knock

  "What the hell...?" Setting aside my computer I got up once more and went to the door. Turning on the light I opened the door again. Nothing, I looked in both directions, no one was in sight. This was getting old fast! Stepping out onto the front porch and looking around, I said, "I don't know who you are but you better knock it off and move on!" I said this in my most menacing voice of course. Well that was my intention anyway; I'm not so sure how it actually sounded. I looked around one last time and went back inside. Closing the door my mind already going back to my writing and what to do first, Knock Knock! Loud pounding sounded on the door behind me. Spinning around I grabbed the door knob and jerked the door open and crashed through the screen door. No one in sight again! Wait a minute. The knock was on the inside door how come the screen was closed?

  The hairs on the back of my neck did their best impression of a porcupine's quills standing straight out! I felt a chill go down my spine, something was very wrong here. I rushed back in slamming and locking the door behind me. I rushed through the house turning on every light, checking in each closet and under all the beds. I nearly tripped over my feet as I rushed from room to room. Nothing, I found no one anywhere in the house. Okay maybe I was over reacting. After all it was midnight on Halloween night what did I expect. Maybe I had gotten a little too into the holiday. Walking back into the living room, "I must be losing it...." The room was empty.

  "Kate?" Where had she gone?

  Walking back through the house, going into each room, "Kate", I yelled. Then I was running "Kate!" The house was empty. Okay, now I was scared! What was going on? I went through the house again this time looking for a note. I had only been gone for a few minutes where could she have gone. Going into the kitchen I noticed the empty bottle of wine on the counter. I had not opened a bottle of wine tonight! Had I? This made no sense at all.

  It was time to go outside and look around. Going to the bedroom I retrieved my .45 from the gun safe. If someone wanted to play games I was going to play by my rules. I decided that it was time to change things up and surprise whoever this was. Going back into the kitchen I opened the patio door and stepped out. The soft sounds of crickets fell on my ears. I waited, listening and letting my eyes adjust to the darkness. Slipping along the back of the house I slowly looked around the corner. The driveway with both cars waited for me there. I eased around the corner and walked in front of the cars looking between them and around them. Nothing, I was getting very use to finding nothing by now. I dropped to the ground and looked under them. Nothing could be seen under either car. Standing up and walking to the front of the house I looked down the length of the front porch. Only a year old the porch went the full length of the house, with plenty of lights and ceiling fans for spending enjoyable evenings in the rocking chairs we had bought just for that purpose. The three lights still shone brightly, the ceiling fans still spinning slowly. The porch was as empty as it had ever been.

  I walked down the front porch cursing myself for walking into the light. As I approached the front door I saw that one of the rocking chairs was moving back and forth as if someone had just gotten out of it. Cocking my pistol and looking over my shoulder to insure I was still alone, I walked up to the chair. The chair was winding down, the motion barely noticeable now. Standing in front of the chair I caught movement out of the corner of my eye through the window in the front room.

  Heart pounding I spun to my left and raised my gun. There in the living room sat Kate in her chair watching television. Taking a deep breath and letting it out with a shudder I lowered the hammer on my gun. Evidently while I was going through the house like a mad man she had come out onto the front porch and then gone back inside while I was going out the back. Relief flooded through me. Feeling sheepish and foolish I opened the front door and stepped back into the foyer. Slipping my gun into the waist band of my pants in back so she would not see it I stepped into the living room.

  "You gave me a little scare there. I thought something had happened to you." I said as I walked past the living room and into the kitchen.

  "What are you talking about? I didn't do anything."

  Walking to the patio door and locking it I thought maybe I should drink some wine. I turned to the empty counter and stopped in my tracks. Empty counter, that was not right. No wine bottle, no wine glass. Had I been outside long enough for her to clean up and then go back into the living room? And the rocking chair still moving as I got to it? That did not seem right.

  I walked back to the living room and looked down at her. "What is wrong with you, you are acting rather strangely tonight. Who was at the door?"

  "No one was there. It must have just been some kids. You went out on the front porch you know that!"

  "What are you talking about? I haven't left my chair all night."

  Porcupine quills again. What the hell?

  "Are you feeling all right, you don't look too well? I think you need to go to bed; you're tired and you have to work tomorrow."

  Now that she said it I did not feel too well. I must really be stressed out about the novel. Feeling the weight of the pistol in my waist band I realized that I could have made a terrible mistake and hurt someone! Some poor trickster could have been shot because I had not been getting enough sleep and was stressing about a story! Face burning with shame I headed up the stairs to put the .45 back in the gun safe.

  Maybe a nice hot shower before I crawled into bed. Going into the bathroom and turning on the hot water in the shower, I undressed. Looking into the mirror a bleary eyed tired looking 47 year old looked back at me. How had that happened? The body was still in fairly good shape, even though it was a little over weight. But the face was definitely haggard and had aged more than I liked. Well what did you expect; working two to five jobs at a time for over twenty years took its toll on a person. But it was my choice so I could not complain and I did enjoy my work. Climbing into the shower I decided that it might be time to start slowing down.

  The hot water cascading over my tired muscles felt so good.

  Knock.

  “Yeah" I said standing under the hot water.

  Knock Knock.

  “Yeah” I yelled this time.

  Knock Knock.

  What the hell!

  “What! I’m in the shower!”

  Knock Knock.

  “Son of a bitch, Can’t I get any peace! Turning off the water and stepping out of the shower I grabbed a towel on the way to the door. Mumbling, under my breath, the curses that I was too tired to yell, I pulled the door open, I was unprepared for what I would find.

  All I saw was an empty hallway, no one there, nothing at all to be seen.

  Well what d
id I expect? It seemed that I had been finding nothing all night.

  "What did you want?" I yelled through the open door. No one answered me.

  Damn. I walked out into the hall. Something was wrong. It is a testament to how tired I was that it took me several seconds to realize what it was. Sunlight streamed through the dormer window above the foyer. I squinted into the light and rubbed my eyes. What the hell? This was quickly turning into my go to phrase. And this was quickly becoming a very strange night, or day?

  “Kate!” I yelled as loud as I could. No response was forth coming.

  Not just no answer, total silence. A total lack of any sound, I could not hear the ever present sound of cars passing on the street, no hum of electrical appliances, nothing.

  Okay now I was really freaked out. It was no later than twelve thirty, one o’clock when I hopped in the shower. And northeastern Missouri was not known as the land of the midnight sun, so WHAT THE HELL!!!!

  Every hair on my body was standing on end now, not just the hair on my neck. I ran to the bedroom and grabbed a pair of jeans and pulled them on.

  “HHHHooooowwwlllll”

  My blood ran cold. The ancient fear of wolves and all things that howl and growl coursed through me. I opened the gun safe and pulled out the same .45 I had put back last night/ today/ this morning/ a few minutes ago. Shoving the pistol into my waist band I grabbed a shirt and pulled it on. Was that wolves? There were no wolves in Missouri, were there? Wait wolves. A .45 was not going to be enough. Reaching back into the safe I pulled out a 12 gauge pump shotgun and a box of shells. I loaded 5 rounds into the bottom of the shotgun and pumped a round into the chamber. I did not know what was going on but I was not going to be caught under prepared.

  Rushing down the stairs I started sweating. It was warm, warmer than it should be for the first of November. Reaching the bottom of the stairs I quickly went through the rest of the house.

  I found nothing of course.

  The house had that empty feeling, like there had been on one in it for some time. A layer of dust covered the furniture, furniture that did not look familiar to me after the first glance. Looking into the living room at the old broken-down furniture that looked like it had come from a second hand store sometime before I graduated high school; it was obvious that the house had been empty for a long time. Continuing on I went into the kitchen, no table blocked my progress across the floor as I headed to the patio door. Also there was no wine bottle on the counter this time. The hot sun shone through the cracked glass of the sliding patio door, bringing the temperature up a few more degrees in the stuffy house.

  Tick tick.

  Sliding the door open I stepped out into the hot sun. Hot, it felt more like the Fourth of July then All Saints Day. Brown dead weeds crunched under my feet on the patio as I walked out into the oven that Missouri was today.

  Tick tick.

  Surveying my beautiful back yard, in my memory it had been beautiful yesterday at least, I saw nothing living. I saw dead brown grass that had not seen water in a long time. The oak trees that provided shade on hot summer days were nothing but skeletons now. No sign that anything had been cared for anytime in the recent past.

  Tick tick.

  No sign of any animals at all, living or dead. The ever present birds always chirping and singing were nowhere to be seen or heard. In fifteen years I had never heard it this quiet in our neighborhood. No squirrels scolded me from the trees, no crickets, no tree frogs. Nothing to be heard, except for that ticking or clicking that I had been hearing for some time without realizing it. I turned in a circle. It seemed to be coming from my left toward the driveway. Walking in that direction cautiously I kept looking around at my yard and my property, what the hell! I rounded the corner of the house and looked onto the empty driveway. Both cars were gone, not that I expected anything to be normal at this point.

  Tick tick.

  Where was that coming from? It seemed to be louder now, tick tick, to the right now. It was coming from John’s house. He was my next door neighbor who happened to be one of my best friends. Although we seldom saw each other these days we remained close. (Scream) a blood curdling scream came from John’s open garage. I broke into a sprint headed for the open door.

  TICK TICK.

  It got louder as I ran. It was definitely coming from inside John's place. I pulled up beside the door and raised the shotgun, spinning I entered the garage gun first.

  Knock knock.

  Now inside I could hear that the tick was actually a knocking coming from inside the house. A loud knocking, getting louder as I delved deeper into the house. Going through the garage, nothing. Another scream from inside the house, I kicked open the connecting door into the house. Looking into the lower part of the split level in front of me the stairs leading up on my left, my shotgun sweeping left to right covering the open room. There was nothing to be seen, no one was in sight. The knocking louder now coming from upstairs, with my back to the wall I eased up the steps keeping my gun trained on the open stairs above me, ready to clear my path of anything or anyone coming down the stairs. As I reached the top of the stairs and surveyed the empty room that looked like it had been the preferred camping spot for a circus troop, loud thumps and bangs came from behind the door across the room leading to what I knew was the guest bathroom.

  KNOCK KNOCK.

  Loud knocking came from the door. Again a loud scream emanated from behind the bathroom door. Not sure what I would find behind the closed door but knowing that someone, female from the sound of it, was in trouble in there. I charged across the room, thinking briefly of how best to handle the situation. The door was a hollow core wooden door commonly used for interior doorways, flimsy, not meant for anything other than privacy in a family dwelling. Determining that surprise was the best weapon I had and knowing that the best defense is a good offense I crashed into the door.

  KNOCK KNOCK.

  Crashing through the door into the small bathroom beyond, flailing across the empty room, tripping over an old rug on the floor and falling head first into the water filled tub. What the hell?

  Struggling to orient myself I came up out of the water sputtering, spinning to protect myself, knowing that I was a dead man if anyone was behind me. Rising to my knees in the tub I raised my gun to cover what was obviously an empty bathroom. A bathroom I was very familiar with. Shit! Looking around in disbelief! My bathroom! My dirty clothes that I had taken off before taking my shower were lying strewn across the floor where I had kicked them in my mad rush to plunge into the tub. What the hell!? The room started spinning around me. The door burst open and Kate stood there looking in shock at me.

  “Clark! What are you doing? Why are you in the tub with your clothes on?”

  “I...I...I don’t feel well.” As the room continued to spin around me and the darkness closed in on my vision, I came crashing down into oblivion.

  Nothing.

  There was nothing but grayness everywhere surrounding me. Soft voices gently carrying me on a sea of grayness. Up and down on the soft swells of the sea. It was so peaceful and calming. The gentle swells lifting me up and down as the voices caressed my ears.

  Knock Knock

  My eyes flying open I sat up in my bed eyes wide in fear of that knock. Kate was there beside me along with Dr. Eric. He was our family doctor who also happened to be a good friend.

  "What the hell!"

  “Whoa there big guy, just relax. You have a nasty bump where you hit your head when you fell.”

  “What happened? What are you doing here? What’s going on?” I sounded like a 3 year old, what, what, what?

  “You passed out in the bathroom and Kate called me to take a look at you. I wanted to call the ambulance but she wouldn't hear of it.”

  “It’s not a good idea to have the people you work with come to your house in the middle of the night Eric. We would never hear the end of it. Besides we have you, if you can’t count on your friends when you ne
ed them what good are they?” Kate said; she was always looking out for my best interest.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “Exhaustion Clark, you have been over doing it for too long and it has finally caught up with you. As your doctor and your friend I am telling you it is time to slow down and take it easy. Now why don’t you go to sleep and relax? And don’t set that alarm clock; you are not going to work tomorrow. Doctors’ orders, I don’t care how much they need you.”

  “Okay Eric I won’t argue this time. This has been the strangest night of my life. You making a house call, it can’t get any stranger than that.”

  “Well at least you still have that bad sense of humor. I was hoping that knock on the head would have cured you of that.” Eric smiled, “Guess it’s not the day for miracles.” He rose and became serious, “No exertion or excitement, you rest for at least two days.” He said his good nights and Kate walked him to the door.

  “Is he going to be Okay Eric? He was taking a bath in his cloths, with guns!”

  “He will be fine I’m sure. What he doesn't know is that I gave him a sedative so he should sleep the rest of the night and most of tomorrow. Sleep is exactly what he needs. If you need anything give me a call.”

  As I heard the door close behind Dr. Eric I looked at the clock on the night stand beside the bed, 2:08 in the morning. It was two hours into all saints day and it had been the strangest and most confusing two hours I had ever had the misfortune to go through. I had never hallucinated before, hell I very rarely even dreamed and even then I usually did not remember the dreams. But this was not a dream, this was serious and I better watch myself. What Kate had not said was that any suspicion of mental instability and my job was history. That is the real reason she had not called for an ambulance. Slowly I lay back and tried to relax, tried to forget the events of the last few hours, or at least the events that my mind seemed to remember, real or imagined.

  I could feel the gray swells returning, soothing me into a drowsy sleep. Softly carrying me into the land of nod, the land where all children and sedative dosed patients drift off to. Damn I hadn't even gotten to start on my novel, my hoped to be novel anyway. I was off to a great start. What the hell...