The Minnesota Candidate

by Nicholas Antinozzi

“I need to find a bathroom.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  Marie staggered to her feet, just as Doris threw back the drapes, drenching herself in delicious sunlight. Limping, Marie stumbled toward the window. “Something grabbed me by the hair,” she said. “I couldn’t help it.”

  “It was probably one of them ghosts,” said Doris. “Let’s find a way out of here.”

  “We need to find a bathroom, first.”

  Doris nodded her head and looked around. They were in a massive room, empty of furniture and lined with tall windows. Doris continued parting the drapes as they walked along. She could see a much larger, grand staircase at the far end of the long room. “Would you hurry up?” she asked. “Whatever it was that I saw up there, I don’t think it was happy to see us.”

  “I’m going as fast as I can. I think I broke my arm.”

  “Not again. Can you move it?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Then it isn’t broken. Besides, what does your arm have to do with your legs? Just try and keep up, will ya?”

  They walked along in silence, until something that sounded like a shattering window crashed above them. Marie shot past Doris in a blur of movement. Doris raced to catch her. They ran to the wide staircase and down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Halfway down, Marie slowed to a brisk walk. They were losing their light. “Oh shit,” she groaned. “I can’t see a damned thing down here!”

  Silently, Doris cursed herself for dropping the matches. They had lost their supply sacks and were now descending into darkness. “Maybe we should have stayed up there,” she said. “At least we had daylight.”

  “I told you, I have to find a bathroom. This is an emergency.”

  “Marie, how many times have I asked you to see a doctor about that?”

  “Will you just shut up?”

  They reached the bottom of the staircase and stopped. They stood in the pale light that filtered down from above them. Even in that shred of light, the women could see that they had stumbled into the right place. From where they stood, it appeared they were inside some kind of museum. There were rows of glass display cases, covered in dust, but display cases, just the same. As far as they could see, which admittedly, wasn’t very far, the walls were covered with large framed paintings of people from another time. They disappeared into the shadows like phantoms. “I think we hit the jackpot,” whispered Doris.

  “I think you’re right,” said Marie. “Come on, there has to be a bathroom down here. Help me find it and then we can go exploring.”

  “I don’t need to use the bathroom. Go ahead, I’ll be right here.”

  “You’re a bitch, you know that, Doris?”

  “And you taught me everything I know.”

  The drive to Alice Kindersley’s house took just over half an hour. Tom rode in the front of the Ford with Sam, while Senator Levitz rode in the back, rolled up in Shari’s living room rug. Tom and Senator Levitz, who insisted everyone call him Merle, were determined to get some answers from the old woman.

  Tom left the others in the truck and he walked up to the porch. Before he could even knock, Mrs. Kindersley was opening the front door. “Hi,” he said, uncomfortably. “Um, I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time.”

  “I’ve been wondering where you were,” she said, smiling her old woman smile. “I baked us some cookies. Did you bring him?”

  “Did I bring who?”

  “Oh, don’t be silly, you know who I mean. Is Senator Levitz out in the truck?”

  Tom felt as if an elephant had jumped onto his chest. “How could you have possibly known about that? Did Shari call you?”

  “Oh no, Norma told me. I’ve been waiting five years for this day.”

  “What do you mean? Norma is dead, isn’t she?”

  “That depends on how you define dead.”

  Tom was still thinking about that when Mrs. Kindersley thrust a plate covered with wax-paper into his chest. “We were hoping to come inside,” he said.

  “I know you were, but things are moving very fast and we don’t have a lot of time. I’m sorry, Tommy. I’m afraid you’re stuck with me. I will need that plate back; it’s part of a matched set, my mother would kill me if she knew I allowed it out of the house.”

  “Stop,” said Tom, holding up his hand. “Before we go anywhere, I have to ask you a few questions. Who was Norma and how did she know what was going to happen?”

  “Oh Tommy, I thought you would have figured that out by now. My dear boy, Norma was a prophet. Well, she still is, even if she’s not of this world. I do still talk to her.”

  “I must have met her. Why else would she have written about me?”

  “Tommy, you need to wake up. There isn’t enough time for me to walk you through this. Unless we can stop them, these are the last days, the end times. Norma saw you doing great things, but that doesn’t mean they will actually happen. You’re going to have to be brave and you’re going to have to fight.”

  Tom didn’t know what to believe. He thought about the rug in the back of the truck. “What about Senator Levitz? He asked. “How does he fit into this?”

  “Senator Levitz is the Chosen One. My Lord, didn’t you read Norma’s journals?”

  “I just kind of browsed them.”

  The old woman reached back into the house and grabbed a suitcase. The lime-green bag was large and Tom hadn’t seen one like it in many years. “We have to go,” she said. “Tommy, if I had to give you a progress report, you’d be pulling an F. I’m very disappointed in you. Now, help me with my suitcase.”

  Sam was out of the truck as soon as he saw the suitcase. He ran up the walk and he took it from the old woman. “Here,” he said, “let me help ya with that.”

  “Thank you, Sam,” she said.

  “Where you headed?”

  “I’m going to Tommy’s house. The end of the world is coming and I want to get a good seat.”

  “Is that right? Huh, I never heard that.”

  Tom barely heard them. His head was spinning and he felt like he was going to throw up. The logical half of his brain was battling it out with the crazy side. Tom was all-too aware of his family history. He knew that if he allowed his brain to slip a gear, there would be an irreversible chain reaction. He had seen it happen before. They walked out to the back of the truck and Sam tossed in the suitcase. Levitz grunted. “What the hell was that?” he asked, his voice muffled by the rug.

  “Oh, sorry about that, sir,” said Sam. “I almost forgot you was back there.”

  “Change of plans,” whispered Tom. “We’re taking Mrs. Kindersley back to the house.”

  “What? Why the hell did I have to ride along?”

  “I don’t know,” said Tom. “Just keep quiet and enjoy the ride.”

  Tom climbed into the backseat of the crew cab. Sam helped the retired schoolteacher into the passenger seat and then he got behind the wheel. He started the Ford and pulled away from the curb. “So, he said, casually, “we got a United States Senator in the back of the truck.”

  “Yes, I know,” said Mrs. Kindersley. “I must say that I don’t approve of his politics. Did you know that he voted to cut Social Security on two separate occasions?”

  “No, I guess I never heard that. I kind of been out of town.”

  “Don’t you mean up the river?”

  Tom stared out the window as the battle inside of him raged on. The old woman wasn’t dealing with a full deck. Like his own mother, she had started to lose touch with reality the day her husband passed away. The only logical explanation was that she had written the last journal, herself. Still, that didn’t explain how she had known about Senator Levitz. That added fuel to the fire burning on the crazy side of his brain. Tom fought to put things into perspective. He only got as far as Shari before he gave up.

  “Alice,” said Sam, “so you’re telling me that you didn’t vote for Senator Levitz?”

  “Good heavens, no,” she said, tossing her head back with lau
ghter. “I don’t even like him.”

  Tom leaned forward in his seat. “But didn’t you just call him the Chosen One?”

  “I did, but that doesn’t mean I agree with his politics.”

  Tom shook his head and stared out the windshield. “You need to be in the right lane. Sam, where are you going?”

  “I know a different way. I think it might be faster.”

  Orange construction signs and barrels lined both side of Central Avenue. The work had stopped, but the damage had been done. Mrs. Kindersley braced herself against the dash and laughed as the truck bounced up and down on the ruined pavement. Tom looked out the back window and watched helplessly as Levitz, still rolled up in the rug, bounced up and down. He was angry with Sam, but he didn’t have the strength to argue with him. They continued down Central until they reached Broadway. Sam took a right. The construction signs were gone, but the pavement only seemed to deteriorate.

  The hardest thing for Tom was the thought that his life, including his marriage, had been preordained. Just thinking about it gave him a headache. Did Shari actually love him, or had she been preprogrammed to fall in love with him by a higher power? Inside his head, Tom tried to flip that around, but he couldn’t do it. His very foundation stood on his true love for Shari. Tom grabbed the back of the front seat as Sam swerved to avoid something in the road. Old Mrs. Kindersley laughed like a schoolgirl.

  Tom thought about how he was going to explain Alice Kindersley to his mother. The two had never been the type of neighbors who borrowed sugar and traded recipes. Since they had become widows, their relationship was more of a Hatfield/McCoy type of thing. They spied on each other and Tom thought it might possibly kill them if they actually agreed on anything. Mom wasn’t going to be happy to see Alice, Tom was sure of it. And then there was Marie to consider. Like him, Marie was the common denominator. Unlike him, Marie played both women like a string fiddle. Marie loved to stir the pot and she had brewed up plenty of wicked arguments between the neighbors. Tom wondered why the women even tolerated her, but he knew that good or bad, Marie had become the spice in their bland lives. Which side Marie would choose, Tom could only guess.

  Tom pushed the thoughts out of his head and began to consider the journals. He didn’t want to read them. If what Alice had told him were true, the journals would contain events in his life that had yet to happen. No man should know his ultimate destiny, or at least that’s how Tom felt about it. What if the journal spoke of an impending injury or death? Tom knew that he would do everything he could to make sure they never happened. Another thought came to him, were prophets right about everything they wrote about? Tom didn’t know, but he doubted it. He imagined Norma after a bad day, drinking wine, and then picking up her pen to write about the future. This thought troubled him.

  The Ford veered hard to the left and Tom was shocked to see that they were pulling up to the gate. Tom climbed out and swiped his card. He got back inside and rolled his eyes as Sam raced around the S curves. Tom noticed a pair of tire tracks that left the driveway and headed down behind the big house. Was someone back there? If so, who could it be? He was thinking about this when the truck stopped and he stepped outside. The driveway was littered with cigarette butts. Tom looked at the squashed BMW and things fell into place. Shari hadn’t left her car out in the driveway, Tom was sure of it. He ran into the house to find his mother.

  Chona met him at the door. Her face was frantic and she shoved one of the journals at him. “You need to read this,” she said, nearly shouting at him.

  “Where is my mom? I need to see her, right now!”

  Chona shook her head. “I haven’t seen her. Tom, you need to read this before you see Shari. Something has happened.”

  From upstairs, Tom heard the sound of something heavy bouncing on the floor. Tom gasped and tried pushing Chona out of the way, but she had been waiting for that and she grabbed him by the arms. “What is going on up there?” he asked, struggling to break free. “Let me go!”

  “Not until you read this part in the journal. You need to trust me, Tom!”

  Senator Levitz stepped inside, complaining about something, when he heard the thumping. “Dear God,” he snapped, “what the hell is that?”

  “Go see for yourself,” said Chona, “but don’t you dare untie her.”

  Hearing this, Tom became a madman. He thrashed his arms and used his legs to crush Chona against the wall. The next thing he knew, Sam had waded into the fray. Sam held Tom by the neck. “Let me go,” he squawked. “I need to get up there.”

  “Sam, he has to read this part in the journal,” shouted Chona. She stepped away from Tom and set the journal down on top of the table.

  Alice Kindersley walked inside. “Oh, what a beautiful house,” she said. From upstairs, the thumping became a booming and Alice’s expression became sad. She looked at Chona. “The demon is here?” she asked.

  Chona nodded. “It got here as soon as the guys left. The thing is really pissed off. I’m glad Shari was tied up.”

  Tom struggled to break free of Sam. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “The poor girl,” said Alice, adjusting her glasses. “Tommy, I’m afraid your wife is possessed. You would have seen it coming if you had read the journals. How did you ever graduate high school?”

  Senator Levitz scrambled down the stairs. His face was chalky white. “The bed,” he grunted, “it’s bouncing up and down!”

  “Hello,” said Chona, dragging out the last syllable. “I’ve been here all afternoon while you guys have been out gallivanting around.”

  “Ah Jesus,” said Sam, “I didn’t know. I never would have left you alone if I knew that was gonna happen.”

  “You would have known if you had done some reading,” said Alice.

  Tom, using the last of his energy, twisted free of Sam. “Will you all just shut up and explain to me what is going on?”

  “Read the damn journal!” shouted Chona. “It’s all in that book!”

  “Yes, Tommy,” agreed Alice, “read the damn journal.”

  “Shouldn’t we call a priest?” asked Sam.

  With the crashing sound ringing in his ears, Tom sat down at the table and took the journal. Chona jabbed her finger at the top of the page. “Start there,” she ordered.

  And Tom read. When he finished the first page he looked up. “Wine,” he said. Sam nodded and walked towards the kitchen.

  “Wine sounds wonderful,” said Alice.

  “Yes, it certainly does,” agreed Levitz.

  Sam stopped and looked at Chona. She nodded her head. Tom continued to read, but the words were so terrible that they brought tears to his eyes. If what he was reading were true, Shari had become possessed by the demon, Naamah. He stopped reading and said the name out loud.

  “Naamah?” asked Levitz, pointing upstairs. “That thing inside Shari is Naamah?”

  Alice nodded her head. “You would have known that if you had read the journals,” she said, wagging her finger at Levitz. “So, you’re familiar with Naamah?”

  “She and Lilith came to Adam after Cain killed Abel,” said Levitz, sticking his big nose in the air. “I’ve studied the Zohar. When Adam and Eve were separated, for like a hundred years, I think, Lilith and Naamah bore Adam’s children.”

  “A hundred and thirty years,” said Alice, “but go on, I’m very impressed.”

  “Well, their kids became the Plagues of Mankind. Am I right?”

  Alice nodded and clapped her hands together. “What does this mean?” asked Tom. “Who is this Naamah?”

  “She’s one rotten bitch,” said Alice.

  “She sure is,” agreed Levitz. He then turned to Chona. “You should have warned me. I could have been killed up there!”

  “Why is she inside my wife?” roared Tom.

  “I hate to be a spoiler,” said Alice, “but your wife is pregnant.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  The booming grew to a feverish pitch. Glass shatt
ered and the dining room suddenly grew chilly. And then things went silent.

  “No,” said Chona. “And if we don’t find a way to get rid of her, your baby will become the next Plague of Mankind. It’s all in there, just keep reading.”

  “Oh my God,” groaned Tom, “could things get any worse?”

  Chona and Alice exchanged an odd look, but they said nothing. Sam came out with two bottles of wine and a stack of plastic cups. “Looks like everyone could use a happy hour,” he said. “This ought to cheer you up.”

  Tom sipped his wine as he continued reading. He read thirty pages while the others talked about the weather and other such nonsense. When he finished reading, he slid back from the table and finished his wine. “Something isn’t in here,” he said.

  “Don’t be silly,” said Alice. “Everything we need to know is in those books.”

  “No,” said Tom, shaking his head, “it isn’t. There’s a wild card in the deck. Actually, there are two of them.”

  Alice Kindersley gave him a puzzled look. “Spit it out, Tommy. Or I’ll whack it out of you with a ruler. I can still do that.”

  Tom pointed toward the far wall in the living room. “Unless I’m very wrong, I think my ma and Marie are inside the big house, as we speak.”

  “I’ve been wonderin’ where they were,” said Sam.

  “Don’t fool around with me,” said Alice. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Oh, I’m very serious. I think they used a ladder to climb in one of the back windows.”

  “They would do somethin’ like that,” agreed Sam.

  Alice slammed her bony fist onto the table. “You have got to get them out of there! That house is the portal to hell! They could open doors that could never be closed. Three thousand years of fire and brimstone! Damn it, I’ll bet it was Marie who put her up to this. She’s no good.”

  “That’s the understatement of the year,” said Sam. “I hate that bitch.”

  Chapter 27

  By this time, Marie and Doris were nearly out of their minds with frustration. They seemed to have discovered the temple of gold, but they couldn’t see past the end of their noses. They stood in the pale light of the staircase, wringing their hands. “This is just great,” said Marie. “You couldn’t have hung onto those matches, could you?”