A whisper of escape seemed to sit fresh in the air when you first walked in. The smell and ambience persuaded you to shed the outside from your bones and stay a while. The knotty pine wood bar spilled the secrets of patrons past, telling you to enjoy the music and the food and of course the liquid freedoms to help you forget all that troubled you.
A few steps down from the door’s landing and you were in the body of the big room. Paths of burgundy stones lined the floors, leading up to the corners of the bar and then back to the walls. The room reminded Jacob of the flavors and colors found west of the Mississippi. It offered a glimpse into the small rustic town of Arizona and West Texas. A great fireplace wrapped in shale stone was the centerpiece of the ‘Rust Bucket.’ When the fall and winter months requested it, the owner always made sure a welcome and inviting fire was burning.
“You might want to slow it a bit there,” Jacob said.
“Not at all. Just getting started. You want another?” Andy queried on the tail end of finishing number four.
“Sure. Need a few more to catch up to you,” Jacob belted in a laugh.
Across the bar and in the corner near the ceiling an old Panasonic TV was dialed in to their Station. He looked up to see his afternoon siblings doing their part in delivering a rendition of the news and weather. Jacob shrugged. The broadcast was the same, just different faces. The updated hurricane forecast narrowed the number of hours a little, but nothing dramatic. He smiled when he saw the National Weather Service bending a bit and conceding to include clouds and a sprinkle in the updated forecast.
“It’ll be rain,” he said to the beer in his hand, then winked before taking a swig.
“I know it will,” Andy replied on return from the bar with Miller longnecks in each hand. “You said that this morning … having second thoughts?” Andy continued while passing off one of the longnecks to Jacob.
“Nope, just repeating it is all. National Weather Service is leaning in favor of it too,” he said, pointing his beer toward the screen. Andy looked back up in time to see the last of the forecast before it cut to commercial.
“Good to know – Shalom,” he said pitching his Miller to the Panasonic before bringing it back to Jacob for an obligatory tap of the longnecks. Jacob and Andy toasted to friendship, the weather and mainly the ‘Rust Bucket’ for being open to serve good food and many beers to the crew of WJL-TV.
“Uh-oh, Jake, here comes Jill and she’s got a few beers in her and some eyes on you,” he finished as the longnecks clinked.
“She does not – and as the Boss, don’t you have to mind your P’s and Q’s around us? We’re just the minion … the impressionable peons,” Jacob retorted, laughing.
“Uh-uh, my friend! Not this afternoon Bud-dy, I’m just a patron in this Baaar like you,” he replied trying to take on a Pauly Shore persona. Only now the beers were starting to play mischief with his words. He laughed anyway.
Jacob turned as Jill approached. What Andy didn’t know was the two were already playing a good game of you flirt, I flirt. And that the game was turning serious and becoming more of a relationship. Their dating outside of the station grew steady. They exchanged more than phone calls and text messages these days. Sometimes Jill left a change of clothes packed in the back of her car. And sometimes Jacob left a change of clothes in his car.
Jill was an 8 to 9 out of 10. A true beauty, as his father used to say. Not a made-up beauty or false beauty where different cover-ups hide the skin tones. Or where fake eye-lashes dared to fall off like some rogue military spider out for vengeance on your nose and mouth. Jill was a true beauty that captured Jacob’s attention whenever she wasn’t looking and sometimes when she was. He watched her approach. He watched her long brown hair riding across her shoulders along her neckline and laying to rest just above her breasts. He watched the blue in her eyes as they met his and a smile broadened in response to his own.
“She is a true beauty,” he said aloud without considering Andy’s listening ears.
“Yes she is – I knew you liked that … you gonna tap that, aren’t you,” Andy said, breaking Jacob’s attention in time to see him wriggle his tongue and smack his lips with groans escaping between claps of his fingers.
“OK, Ewwww – so what, only four beers in and you take us back to the sixth grade?” Jacob said trying not to laugh but failing as he watched Andy continue the contorted lip dancing.
“It’s five, five beers! Hey Jake. Jake, ask her to call one of her girlfriends! We’ll double for dinner and dessert,” Andy slurred with an emphasis on the word dessert. Jacob stuttered a laugh and took the beer from Andy’s hands, placing it on the table.
“First, this isn’t some campy eighties movie we’re stuck in. So don’t make me feel like it is. And second, you’re getting drunk,” he trumpeted, raising an eyebrow while finishing the remainder of his beer. Jill stopped next to him. Leaning, she placed her arm across his back and laid a hand to rest on his shoulder.
“Hi guys!” she announced, smiling at Jacob and then to Andy. “What are the two of you doing all the way over here?”
“It’s umm … It’s ahhh – closer to the bar,” Andy struggled to say as he grabbed his longneck back from the table to drink. Jacob laughed at his friend, and then turned back to Jill. He could smell her hair and perfume as she leaned against him some more. She was inviting. Intoxicating.
“Just wanted to see the forecast,” he offered pointing up to the Panasonic in the corner.
“Can I have one of these?” she asked looking to the beers in front of Andy. Without waiting for a reply, she leaned over and moved across Jacob’s face. She pushed up on her feet, reaching past him for one of the beers. While doing so, she let all of her front come within an inch of Jacob’s imagination. Grabbing the longneck, Jill took the seat next to Jacob. She fixed a smile on her lips and her eyes on his.
Her smile and more immediate intentions admittedly caught him off guard, “Well, hello to you, too,” was all Jacob could think to say.
“You’re so damn cute – you know that,” she began and reached with her finger to play with the dimple in his chin. “You know … I’ve never kissed a man with a dimple in his chin,” she admitted. The kiss was a white lie and Jacob thought she said it as a courtesy to Andy who stayed close enough to listen.
“Neither have I,” he was quick to answer.
“Cute and funny. I like that,” Jill said, and favored him with a wrinkle of her nose.
“I think you need to tell your friend he’s got one already,” she indicated and motioned to Andy.
Jacob turned to see Andy pulling a cigarette from the pack of Red Mediums on the table. He flipped the cigarette up and put it in his mouth next to the one he was already smoking.
“Andy…,” Jacob began. When Andy turned towards them, Jacob circled around his mouth with his finger, “… you’ve got twins,” he said then tapped his fingers to his own lips.
“Huh?” he replied. Andy looked at Jacob’s hand and then looked down the narrow of his nose, crossing his eyes as he did. When he saw the twin cigarettes he burst out laughing. It was a hearty laugh. Jacob and Jill jumped a little to his boisterous response. But then they laughed along with him – it was contagious.
“Hahhh, Hahhh. I guess he was lonely!” Andy bellowed and then laughed even harder. Others at their table and the bar started laughing along with him. Like Jill and Jacob, it wasn’t so much about the twin cigarettes as it was about Andy and his contagious laugh. To Jacob’s disappointment, and maybe even Jill’s, the heat of their flirting calmed. Another time, he thought and enjoyed the moment laughing with everyone.
As the day moved later into the evening, more coworkers joined their end of the table. Many rounds of drinks and even some food made its way in front of the WJL-TV group. “You know it is starting to rain outside,” one of them said. “The sky went dark, the winds picked up, and well, there you go, rain. Is it the hurricane on its way?” he asked.
“Nope, just a good sized
cold front coming in is all. The hurricane is still a few hundred miles from us. It will be one of our news stories going in to the next few days,” Jacob exclaimed, wiping the sweat on his beer as he picked it up to drink. The taste of beer curled around his tongue and washed against the back of his throat. He looked up to the Panasonic in the corner. The news crew that gathered earlier was now watching a new set of faces deliver the forecast. He watched the satellite images of the swirling storm in the Atlantic and the projected path it would take in its journey over the ocean as it headed to make land-fall.
Jacob paused as a sudden strangeness came and hung on to him like an illness. When he looked at the swirling clouds, there was a void. It was as if a mental blanket or shroud were cast over his eyes. To the credit of his gift, from hail to snow to sunshine to winds and even the falling leaves of autumn, Jacob always saw everything – as easily as the beer in his hand. But this time he was blind. He could not feel the circling winds of the hurricane. He turned his head and let out a reserved giggle as though someone were watching and playing a prank. He turned left and right and then back to the image on the screen. He couldn’t see or feel what he was watching.
“Hey, so how did you know it was going to rain today?” Jill asked after pinching her fingers against his chin to pull his attention from the Panasonic. Jill startled him. He didn’t know she was there. Embarrassment turned his face red as he tried to put on a smile.
“He always knows,” Andy blurted. “He is the man with the sixth sense … didn’t you know?” Andy finished. Jacob turned in the direction of Andy’s voice which was carrying at least seven beers now, and one or more shots of Canadian Club.
Jill frowned for a moment as though wondering what Andy meant. She turned back to Jacob and smiled, her eyes reflecting the light of the Panasonic. Without warning she leaned in and kissed his chin. She held her lips there then put her hand on the side of his cheek and moved her lips full-on to meet his. The kiss started small, almost innocent. But as the breathing deepened, their mouths opened and he felt her tongue as her body pressed firm against his. Jacob started to go hard as Jill put her other hand on his shoulder and pulled him in to her. He felt lost in the kiss. For a moment he didn’t care about the hurricane or what he could and could not see.
“Now that is what I’m talking about!” Andy yelled as he banged the table top. Jill and Jacob jumped, startled by the hammering of Andy’s hand. Andy banged some more, and the bottles and dinnerware danced in response.
“Told you I never kissed a man with a dimple in his chin,” Jill said with a seductive smile, her grip on his shoulder holding him.
“Yes you did – you certainly did,” Jacob replied with a wink. He felt the heat in his face and hoped the red was hidden in the dark of the bar. Still smiling and releasing a girlish giggle, Jill sat back in her seat, while Jacob felt an embarrassing stir continue beneath the table.
“Awwwww, what? It’s over?” Andy asked, laughing. “Well, anyway. Like I was saying, what we have is a genuine sixth sense in our friend Jake here.” Jacob looked at Andy with amusement. He maybe even felt a little concern over what, or how much, he thought Andy actually knew. He never told Andy or anyone about what he could and could not see.
Jill leaned forward with seriousness in her eyes, “I thought the sixth sense was seeing dead people?” she asked with a flat expression. Jacob tried to hold the laugh in. It was a quick reply. Dead on the money, no pun intended. And perfectly timed to dismiss any of what Andy might be thinking.
“Oh yeah … right. Oops, wrong one,” Andy agreed. After a second to ponder, Andy started to laugh for no reason other than the pure joy of the alcohol induced buzz in his head.
Jacob reached over to Jill, and moved away a lock of golden brown hair from her face. He watched her cheeks flush as his fingers and hand moved past her face to carry the hair back behind her ear. And of course, he was reading her. Whatever hiccup he felt earlier was gone. He was on. He could sense what she wanted him to do next. What she was hoping he would do next. This time it was Jacob who was going to surprise her as he leaned in and let his lips meet hers. He slowly moved his fingers below her ear. He touched her skin just enough to feel her pulse. His hand cradled the side of her neck – a spot he knew she liked. His reading was right, of course, and Jill turned to accommodate his touch. He pulled at her lips with his own then paused and let their breathing talk before he turned to whisper in her ear.
“Superman’s Cape,” he breathed. Jill pulled her head back and looked at him, puzzled. Jacob saw the questions and concern in her eyes and maybe a hint of confusion or embarrassment in trying to figure out what it was he just said.
“What?” she asked. And before he could answer, Jacob felt the room turn on its side. He dropped his hand from her neck to his chair. He watched the ceiling throw itself to the floor in exchange for all the tables and chairs. “Jacob! You all right? What’s wrong?” he heard Jill say. The room was juggling the walls and the bar. Glasses and plates and liqueur bottles shattered in their exchanges of place. First from the floor and then to the ceiling and then back. Jacob turned his head to see Jill’s face a few feet above his. Her long golden brown hair dangled just inches from his own. He couldn’t read her anymore. He couldn’t read anything. He was a passenger on a ride and had no say in when it was going to stop. Jill spoke to him. He could see her lips moving but only heard the words of little bugs.
Troll mites started to laugh and chatter amongst themselves. They were talking of some grand plan to attack and defeat. Jacob was only vaguely familiar with the idea. He was no longer sitting next to Jill. He was on his back. His body was sprawled across the floor beneath the tables and chairs. The troll mites laughed louder. He heard their voices ringing in his ears with a pressure and pain that induced a deafness to the world around him.
“Andy! – Andy, help! There’s something wrong. I think he is having a seizure!” Jill screamed, as Andy’s face entered Jacob’s view of the room above him. The troll mites began gnawing at his toes. Jacob’s screams could be heard through the ‘Rust Bucket’ as the troll mites pulled his toenails from his feet. They were chewing on his fingers and arms and every part of him that lay on the floor. Fear and chaos swept through his mind as the pain of pins and needles from the troll mite’s teeth bit into him. Jacob threw his screams left and then right to the troll mite’s churning of their massive jaws from side to side. They ripped away at the clothing that was his flesh.
“Hold on, Jake! We have help coming! Someone hold his head!” Andy yelled.
The little troll mites used their powerful arms and picked up Jacob’s body. He felt his limbs wave in the air. He felt his bladder explode and his dignity run out of him in a puddle that settled all around him. With the troll mites’ claws latched into his skin, they started to shake every part of him. His muscles jumped and bumped on the floor with an electricity that coursed hot current through him. The strain tore at him and the shaking rattled his bones, teasing a breaking point he was sure would be reached any second.
“Breathe Jake! We gotcha, bud! Should we put something in his mouth or not??” Andy shouted.
The smell of gunpowder and burn began to fill his nose. The smell stung and watered his eyes. The troll mites gripped his skin harder. They used their teeth and nails to firm up their hold on him. They began to throw themselves up and down. Jacob could feel the troll mites rattling him. He was convinced their only purpose in life was to fracture and break him. As the violence of it went uncontrollable, Jacob lay witness to it all. He was just a passenger with no ticket to the next stop. It was just a kiss, he thought, I was just going after a kiss. He watched anguished faces come in and out of his view. He heard voices yelling to clear the floor and to call 9-1-1. The little troll mites that riddled him with bites and claw marks burrowed their way under his skin. They raced up under his chest and past his neck. They raced to strip his face of any composure he so desperately tried to hold on to. Jacob’s mouth slammed shut. He clenched
his teeth with a strength that he thought would break his jaw. His head slammed back, hitting the floor beneath him. His eyes rolled around to stare at his mind. The room fell dark while the troll mites chewed and scratched and clawed and stomped his body some more.
11
Sara opened her eyes to the sight of Jonnie sitting in front of the TV. He wasn’t watching SpongeBob. Instead it was a different show. She thought maybe it was iCarly or another one of those pre-teen television episodes the boys and girls liked. Her arm acted as a pillow, supporting her head the last hours. Now her hand and fingers paid the price in a numb deadness. Righting herself in the chair, Sara dragged her dead hand across the table. She grimaced at the touch of her skin. It was cold and alien.
“You OK over there Jonnie?” she asked amidst a grumble as a bee-sting tingle jumped in her sleeping hand.
“Mmmm-hmmmm,” he answered back with Sara already half expecting the answer.
On the table next to her dead hand lay the photo that Jonnie saved. Sara picked up the photo. She placed it perfectly square in front of her. She moved her fingers over the faces on it and smiled as memories woke in her mind. She could smell the air’s crispness from that cool morning. The smell held the faint scent of dew glazed grass as they walked across the lawn in front of the home’s For Sale sign. She could hear Chris’s voice talking to Kyle. She could feel a stir followed by a subtle butterfly kick from the life she carried inside her. Jonnie was over four months old and still very much a part of her. He was growing and waiting to join his family on the outside. Sara put her hand to her belly and looked over at Jonnie. Like it was yesterday, she thought, like it was yesterday.
“Did Kyle come back in?” Sara asked. Her dead hand was waking a little more and sparking a burn that worked deep inside. The burn spread like wind-swept embers and she flinched when she gripped her fingers. She picked up her hand and tried to shake the wake into it.
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