by Mark Tufo
It was a few hours later and the sun was beginning to set. An approaching siren awoke Mike with a start from his slumber.
“Jandilyn?” he asked, sitting upright. Then he remembered she was heading home. Mike thought about calling his home, he hadn’t talked to anyone there in close to a year, but he was afraid they would think he was someone making a cruel crank call and he couldn’t handle that right now. When Jandilyn walked out the door she took the best part of him with her. What was left was merely a shell that she filled when she was around.
A knock on his front door got his attention. For a momentary pang he thought it might be the cops coming to tell him Jandilyn had been in an accident.
“Kid, get your ass up!”
“Jed?” Mike asked softly from the hallway he had been dreading to head down.
“Open the damn door. I knew you’d be in here all crying and stuff because your girl was gone.”
Mike opened the damn door.
“Get dressed, big card game at my house. I’m getting some of my money back. And don’t even think about saying ‘no’ I can see it in on your lips.”
“Fine, I needed some new sneakers anyway, the money will come in handy,” Mike said as he let Jed in while he got dressed.
Mike quickly threw on some pants and a shirt and headed into the kitchen to grab his apartment key.
“I thought you said Jandilyn was leaving today?” Jed asked, looking over at Mike.
“She did,” Mike answered absently.
“Are you stepping out on her? Because if you are…” Jed said hotly.
“What are you talking about, Jed? I’d no sooner cheat on Jandilyn than I would walk across hot coals!”
“Yet you see those dumb shits do that just about every day, Mike.”
“Jed, what’s the matter?”
“I just saw someone in your room, Mike.”
Mike froze. “Did you actually see them, Jed?”
“Well, no, just the shadow of someone passing by. Who is she, Mike? You can’t do this to that girl, she loves you.”
“Jed, there’s no one else here.”
Jed looked at him dubiously.
“Go look, Jed, I won’t stop you.”
“Is this some kind of reverse psychology shit? You tell me I can go look so I feel guilty about it and don’t go?”
“Nailed me, Jed, I’ve secretly been studying the works of Freud and Jung. Come on,” Mike said grabbing Jed’s arm.
A couple of minutes later, Jed scratched his head. “I’m sorry, Mike, I would have sworn I saw something. I… I guess maybe Gracie was right and I need to get a new prescription for my glasses.”
Mike wanted to tell him his eyesight was more than likely fine but he didn’t think Jed would believe the alternative.
Six hours later as Jed was dropping Mike, now thirty-eight dollars and fifty-seven cents richer, off at the curb to his building he asked the question that had been bothering him all night.
“What was it Mike?” Jed asked.
“Well, you see, it’s superior gamesmanship mixed in with the ability to bluff.”
“We’ll get back to that and, oh, by the way, my friends don’t want to play with you anymore.”
“Don’t blame them,” Mike said, fanning his face with a fistful of ones.”
“You know what I’m talking about. In the apartment, you seemed confused at first and then it looked like something dawned in you.”
“You believe in ghosts?” Mike asked.
“No.”
“Then we’re probably done here.”
“I’ll be by tomorrow at three to pick you up for the barbecue and the fireworks.”
“You didn’t even ask,” Mike said.
“Asking would imply I was giving you a choice.”
“Did Jandilyn put you up to this?”
Jed hesitated. “Sort of, but I wanted you over the house anyway.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about this.”
“How much money you have in your hand?”
“Almost forty bucks.”
“Then shut the hell up and enjoy yourself.”
“Thanks, Jed.”
“It’s a pleasure, my friend,” Jed said honestly.
Mike tapped the hood of Jed’s car as he took off for home. Mike was thankful that from his angle he couldn’t see his apartment window because he would have bet thirty-eight dollars and fifty-seven cents that something was looking down at him.
Mike was sitting in his darkened apartment, the television was on but he wasn’t watching it. He kept drifting off to sleep and thought that he still was when he heard someone speak.
“How long do you think you can hide from me?”
“What?” Mike asked shaking his head. He got up and shut the TV off. The apartment was only illuminated by a street lamp outside. It wasn’t much and it did little to penetrate the dark corners.
“I’ve been watching you for a while, I’m not sure how you have eluded me this long.”
“Who are you?” Mike asked, wishing he had left the set on for the added light.
“I am nothingness, I am the void.”
Mike wanted to comment on the presence’s banality but this wasn’t some open mic at a coffee shop ‘I’m more important than you’ poet spewing forth his manic ravings.
“I don’t know what you want with me,” was the only thing Mike could think to say.
“I want only one thing from you,” it said and then was gone.
It took another thirty minutes before Mike stopped seeing his breath and thirty more to stop shivering.
“Well, it only wanted one thing. Maybe it’s an overdue library book.” He was half right, although he didn’t know it, something was overdue.
***
Mike was like a little kid waiting for Santa on the day Jandilyn was to come home. He was hopping back and forth and finally had to go wait on the sidewalk even though Southern California was in the midst of its rainy season. Jandilyn jerked the car to a halt as she slammed it into park before it had come to a complete stop. She jumped out of the car and into Mike’s arms, rapidly kissing him until he had to force her away.
“Miss me, I take it?” he asked.
“Oh, don’t you go getting all aloof on me, you know you missed me too.”
Mike grabbed her bags and they headed upstairs. “Did you have a good time?”
“I did, but it didn’t seem right without you there. Is everything alright here?” she asked, searching for something.
“Yeah, I ended up taking almost seventy-five bucks from Jed and his friends.”
“Mike! You can’t be a guest at someone’s house and take all their money!”
“Shit, Jandilyn, they were almost throwing it at me. What was I supposed to do?”
“Lose some of it back.”
Mike looked at her like she had two noses. “Why would I do that?”
“It’s not always about winning.”
“Sure it is.”
“Forget it, I’ll send them a thank you note and try to smooth over your uncouthness.”
“I told you what I think about those big words.”
“Mike, be serious for a second; is everything alright here?”
“I think so, Jandilyn.”
“I had a strange dream about you. You were in a field and you were looking for something but you weren’t alone. I couldn’t see who was with you but you both were looking for the same thing and if it found you first, it was going to kill you, Mike.”
Mike shuddered, thankful Jandilyn was still ahead of him on the stairs and couldn’t see it.
She stopped and turned. “It felt so real, Mike. I couldn’t stop crying, my mother thought it was because I had to come back here.” She laughed a short burst.
“Well, you can see I’m fine and from this angle I can tell you’re fine too,” Mike said as he was staring directly at Jandilyn’s backside.
They spent the next two days secluded in their apartment reacquainting the
mselves with each other, taking momentary breaks to only fuel up for the next exploration.
“I’m almost frightened, Mike, how close we are,” Jandilyn said at one point with Mike looking down on her. Tears had formed in the corners of her eyes.
“It would be tough to get any closer than we are right now, Jandilyn,” Mike said with a wicked grin.
She smacked his arm. “You know what I mean. There’s so much more than the physical, there’s a connection between us. I can’t imagine how I walked through my life before you. I can’t even think how I could move forward without you.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Jandilyn.”
“I need to believe you, Michael Talbot.”
Mike leaned down and kissed a tear. Jandilyn shivered. They moved slowly in perfect unison, the tension winding through their bodies. When the end did come they laid exhausted and spent. Mike closed his eyes and was breathing huskily. Jandilyn rolled over and propped herself on her elbow and stared intently at Mike. He looked so peaceful, an irrational fear raced through her as she thought he might be dead. She reached out and stroked his cheek. She was relieved when she was rewarded with a smile.
“I’m not a damn machine, Jandilyn, I need a break.” He laughed.
“I’ll allow it for now,” she kidded. She had nothing left to give at the moment herself.
***
“Jandilyn must be home,” Jed said as he reached over and unlocked the passenger door.
“That obvious?” Mike answered.
“How the hell can you wear your emotions on your sleeve like this and be such a good poker player? By the way, my friends said you’re not invited back.”
“That’s alright, I can buy new friends now.”
“Ouch. Jandilyn’s good?”
“Jandilyn’s great.”
“Let’s go. The wonderful world of coffee bean protection awaits.”
“Actually sounds good, I could use a break.”
“I don’t even want to know. I’m married, Gracie and my idea of a good time is staying up late enough to watch Johnny Carson.”
“Who?”
“Shut up, kid. Let’s go.”
***
Mike would dwell long and hard on the next couple of years of his life, he could not imagine anything more idyllic than this time. His friendship with Jed, his chance to write, and heads and shoulders above it all was his relationship with Jandilyn. Every time when he thought they could not love each other anymore or that it could not get any more intense, they would reach a new threshold within themselves and each other propelling their relationship to new heights. They had transcended anything either one could have achieved on their own. Two more times over that course the Hollows had sent airline tickets for Jandilyn, she had refused them both.
Finally, Drew Hollow visited alone. He gave a lame excuse about Gina being afraid to fly. Mike was happy to have Jandilyn’s dad visit as was Jandilyn. But Mike could tell she was silently seething about her mother. Jandilyn blazed through school but was still somehow unable to grasp the concept of how to cook a grilled cheese, much to Mike’s delight.
“Just can’t have everything from a girl, I guess,” he said sadly, shaking his head when he came into the kitchen through a dense cloud of smoke.
“And what exactly does that mean, Mr. Talbot?” Jandilyn asked, her tongue in her cheek as she tried in vain to flip over the burnt remains of whatever had been in the nonstick pan and now was most likely an integral part of the cookware.
“I’m just saying, you have beauty and brains but I don’t think you could boil water.”
“Oh, you’re a funny one, aren’t you? I was making you lunch!”
“Is that what that was? I figured you were trying to create a new life form.”
“You’re going to eat this.”
“You can’t make me, Jandilyn, that’s attempted murder.”
Just then the smoke alarm went off. “Son, of a bitch!” she said, stomping her foot in a small temper tantrum. “What is so damn hard about browning butter on a slice of bread?”
Mike came over and turned the stove top off. He moved the pan away from the heat and fanned the alarm until it quit. “Get dressed, I won a few bucks from Jed. Let’s go out to eat.”
“I could make you a peanut butter and jelly?”
“We should go out until the smoke clears up a bit.”
She looked up at him, thankful for his rescue. And it was that image of Jandilyn that Mike usually went back to in his mind. Her beautiful
, slightly upturned face, eyes wide with unspoken thanks, and a light of love burning fiercely.
CHAPTER NINE - End of School
“One more final, Mike, and I’m done!” Jandilyn said, looking up from their small kitchen table. Her hair was mostly pulled back, but a bunch of strands had wiggled free and were framing her face.
“Did you know you just about glow?” Mike asked leaning up against the doorframe leading into the kitchen.
“I recognize that smile—I can’t right now, I have to finish studying!”
“That’s not it at all. I got you something.”
“Does it rhyme with schmocolate?”
“Not quite.” Mike pulled out a small box from his pocket.
Jandilyn’s eyes grew, Mike couldn’t tell if she was excited or surprised—in a bad way.
“What is that, Mike?” Jandilyn asked pushing her chair away from the table. Mike thought she was going to bolt out into the street.
“Umm, maybe nothing,” Mike said, thinking that maybe putting the thing back in his pocket might be the right move.
“Is that what I think it is?” She had finally stood completely up and had backed up even farther.
“Jandilyn, I’m sorry, we could just call it a future promise or something.”
“It is!” she squealed, she hadn’t been backing up to get away she had been backing up so she could gain more speed as she flew into his arms. Mike grabbed her in mid-flight after she launched herself at him. “Yes, yes, yes!” she said over and over, punctuating each word with a kiss.
“I mean, if you’re hesitant at all, we can talk about this,” Mike said sarcastically between lips smacks.
“What took you so long? We’ve been living together for four years. My mother said why would he want to fertilize the lawn when all he needs to do is mow it.”
“What does that even mean?” Mike asked. “Forget it, I don’t even want to know. I wanted to wait until you were done with school.”
“Oh, my God, it’s beautiful!” Jandilyn yelled, holding the small stoned ring up to the light.
“How did you get that out of my hand?” Mike asked, putting her down and looking at the now empty open purple jewelry box in his right hand.
“Are you going to get down on one knee now?” she asked excitedly.
“You already said yes, I don’t see why I should go through the trouble.”
“Because I command it.” She laughed.
“Nice, we’re off to a stellar beginning.” Mike snatched the ring from her hand.
“Hey.”
“If we’re going to do this we’re going to do it right.”
“Fine,” she pouted.
Mike made a great show of getting down on one knee. “Here ye, here ye. I, Michael Talbot of sound mind and more than sound body, doth bequest thy hand, Jandilyn Hollow, in holy matrimony. What say thee?” Mike asked as he opened the box back up.
“A thousand yeses,” she said softly, a tear rolling down her face.
“That went well,” Mike said as he put the ring on Jandilyn’s finger.
***
Three hours later, Jandilyn had called everyone, including her parents, in her phonebook. “Well, that’s seven congratulations, five, ‘oh, that’s nices,’ twelve ‘aren’t you a little youngs?’ three ‘who is thises?’ and one ‘you’re going to marry that puissant?’. I’m sorry, Mike but the general consensus doesn’t really seem to be on our side—we’ll have to call it all o
ff.”
“I figured as much, the ring is only a loaner anyway. By the way, was the last one your mother?”
Jandilyn’s stare had ‘what do you think?’ written all over it.
“How did you afford this, Mike?” she asked, holding it up to the light.
“Well, it’s not exactly the crown jewels, but you might want to be especially nice to Jed when you see him next.”
“Cards?”
“Every last nickel, I’ve saved everything I’ve won from him.”
“Oh, that poor man, maybe I should marry him since he bought me the ring.”
“I’m sure he’d be flattered but he’s married.”
“It’s always the good ones.” She sighed. “I’ve got something for you too.”
“Really?”
“Now don’t get mad.”
“I hate it when you preface stuff that way, Jandilyn. Last time you did that we ended up with a cat. I don’t like cats.”
“Winter loves you,” she said, defending their coal black cat.
“She’s alright, but as a whole, cats are the gatekeepers to the underworld, Jandilyn, and as such they cannot be trusted.”
“Do you want to see what I got you or not?”
“Sorry, I forgot.”
Jandilyn ran down the hallway, Mike could hear her rummaging around in their bedroom, she came out a moment later holding a spiral bound book with ‘The Hanging Tree by Michael Talbot’ written on the front in large calligraphy.
Mike at first didn’t understand what was going on.
“About four months ago I was going to make a roast,” Jandilyn started. Mike began to fidget. “When I pulled the crock pot out a legal pad fell out too so I tried to see where it came from and I saw the whole stack of them.”
“Jandilyn, those were private.”
“Well, I figured they were the way you had them locked up in a safety deposit box. Anyway, I started to read it, Mike, and then I can’t explain it, I fell into the story. I felt like I was a part of everything going on in it. I couldn’t read it fast enough, I stayed awake just about three nights straight trying to finish it. It was amazing, Mike! Luckily, I’m well-versed in chicken scratch or I wouldn’t have been able to decipher it, but other people need to see this story, Mike, so I typed it out for you and then the local copier store did this binding.”
