See Tom Run

by Scott Wittenburg

  “What?”

  “I cleaned up my room all by myself!”

  “That’s awesome, sweetie! I’ll bet your mom is very proud of you.”

  “She is-she’s gonna let me have my own birthday party next month!”

  “That’s really great, Kelli.”

  “Well, I’ll go get Mom now,” she said.

  “Thanks.”

  “Yes, dear, what is it?” Peg said.

  “Just letting you know that I’m on my way home. You want me to pick up anything on the way?”

  “Yes, now that you mention it. We’re almost out of milk and if you want any beer tonight, you’d better pick some up as well.”

  “Christ, I’m glad you remembered the beer! Anything else?’

  “That should do it for now. I’m going to go to the store tomorrow and will get the rest of what we need.”

  “Okay. I’ll swing by the market and be home in about fifteen minutes or so.”

  “See you then.”

  Tom cranked up the volume on the Accord’s CD player. As he listened to New Year’s Day by U2, he was reminded of the party that he and Peg were going to on New Year’s Eve. One of Peg’s friends was having a fairly good-sized get-together at their house and he was dreading the very prospect of it. He would be much more content drinking beer at home and watching the ball drop in Time’s Square with Dick Clark than facing an evening of socializing with a bunch of yuppie Bush lovers. Peg sure knew how to pick ‘em, he thought.

  Five minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot of the supermarket. He avoided parking anywhere near where he had parked the day before, still reeling from the fact that he had almost lost his life in this very place. He found a spot near the entrance, shut the car off, got out and entered the store.

  After he’d picked up the milk and a twelve pack of Michelob Ultra, he got into the express line. As he placed his items on the counter, he took one look at the cashier and did a double-take.

  The young girl looked oddly familiar. She was about eighteen or so, had brown hair and was quite pretty. He glanced at her name tag, which had Erin written in black Sharpie on it Erin, he thought. Why did he feel like he knew this girl?

  “Sir?” she said, staring at him expectantly.

  Tom wondered how long he’d been staring at her.

  “Oh, sorry! Yes,” he stammered, still trying to place the girl in his mind.

  “Paper or plastic?” she asked as she scanned the milk.

  “Um, neither, really. I’ll just carry them.”

  “That will be $13.79, sir.”

  Tom fumbled for his wallet and got out his credit card. He swiped it through the machine. Erin handed him a receipt and he signed it then returned it to her.

  “Thanks, have a nice day,” Erin told him as she handed him another receipt.

  “Uh, thank you. Can I ask you something, Erin?”

  “Sure.”

  “Have we ever met?”

  She smiled sweetly. “No. But I think I’ve seen you here before. In fact, I believe I waited on you yesterday afternoon.”

  Tom thought back to the day before, gazed at Erin and recalled that she had indeed been the one who had waited on him.

  “Oh, yeah, you did! Well, thanks for waiting on me again,” he said stupidly.

  Erin giggled. “No problem.”

  “Goodbye, Erin.”

  “Bye.”

  Tom placed the beer and milk back into his grocery cart and headed for the exit. Once he reached Peg’s car, he opened the trunk and unloaded the cart, his thoughts still on the checkout girl.

  He knew the girl better than that, he thought. In fact, he knew her quite well…

  But how? When?

  Slamming the trunk lid, Tom walked around the car and got in, his mind lost in thought. He started the car, threw it into reverse and backed out of the spot. He felt like he was moving in slow motion as he headed for the street.

  Her name was Erin. Why did that name seem just as familiar to him as her face did? He knew that girl, somehow.

  But she apparently didn’t know him. She had basically denied knowing him beyond having waited on him the day before. She had not shown the slightest shred of recognition while he had been standing there before her all that time.

  So he must be wrong, he decided. He must be confusing her with someone else.

  Trying desperately to dismiss it from his mind, Tom turned on the radio just as the Beatle’s Hey Jude was beginning to fade out. The song helped him put Erin out of his mind, but not for long.

  He recalled driving on a snow-laden highway in total darkness, a young girl sitting in the passenger seat. She was telling him her life story-how she had been orphaned and run off to New York with Kyle “Jesus Christ!” he cried aloud.

  Erin was Erin Myers. The girl he had rescued from those delinquents at the Waldorf Astoria!

  Tom nearly drove over the curb as the events came back to him in jumbled bits and pieces: The drive to New York in search of Erin and Kyle. The total desolation of New York City. Being assaulted and manhandled out of his Jeep in front of Macy’s by those lowlife assholes, Chappy, Hoops, and what the hell was his name? Bummer! That was it.

  His heart pounded furiously as Tom tried to negotiate a turn along Hartford Road. He realized that he was going to have to pull over before he had an accident. He made a right onto the next street and parked halfway down the block.

  Heaving a huge sigh, Tom killed the engine.

  What in the holy hell had he just been thinking about?

  Where were these memories coming from? Why did they seem as real as this street he was now parked on?

  Have to think this through, he resolved.

  He had been awakened in his Jeep by those three hoodlums in front of Macy’s, he recalled. One of them, the Brit, was going to shoot him. He’d made a break for it and ran like hell-could barely see a thing, it was so dark. He’d ducked into a store that had been looted and hid, but they found him. They had led him back to Macy’s and forced him into a goddamn hearse of all things!

  The subsequent events raced through his mind. Being locked in a room at the Waldorf where the maimed and tortured body of Erin’s old boyfriend Kyle was hanging from the ceiling, his escape to the elevator, his confrontation with Bummer (had he actually killed someone?), finding Erin in the room tied to the bed, their escape…

  Tom’s head was swimming. Why did these events seem so real-as though they had actually taken place the day before? How could they seem so real when in fact he knew they couldn’t be. He hadn’t gone anywhere yesterday but to the supermarket Then it hit him.

  Like a ton of bricks.

  Of course none of this had really happened. He had been dreaming it had happened He must have dreamed all of this shit while he’d been under the influence of raw gasoline and carbon monoxide!

  Tom drew in a deep breath and stared straight ahead.

  More accurately, he had probably been hallucinating, as well. The doctor had said that hallucinations were a possibility…

  Whatever it was, it hadn’t been real, thank god. It had just been the worse nightmare he’d ever had.

  And the longest one by far, he suddenly realized.

  But why was he recalling it only now?

  Of course, it had to be from seeing Erin and recognizing her. Seeing her at the checkout line had triggered his memory and made it all come back to him.

  He wondered now how much of the dream he could recall. He knew there had been more to it. Much more. What had happened leading him up to his being in New York in the first place? He knew he had been looking for Erin, who had been abducted by Kyle from his home, of all places. Why had she been in his house?

  Of course-the power outage! He had come home from the supermarket to discover that the power was out everywhere and that his family and friends had totally disappeared. In fact, everybody everywhere had mysteriously disappeared!

  Tom recalled the beginning of the dream now, from the moment he’d
discovered his family was missing to the wild chase in pursuit of Erin in his stolen Jeep on I-270 to the sudden unwanted appearance of Kyle at his home the next morning. As he recalled the events, he sat in utter fascination of the clarity of everything, how real and vivid it all seemed now instead of being some sort of vague, random recollection.

  Somethi ng special in those lethal gas fumes? he thought dryly.

  But the ten thousand dollar question was why? Why had he dreamt this absurd dream in the first place? Did it have some purpose? Was it some kind of spiritual sign from the heavens? Or had it simply been a random gas fume-induced, hallucinatory trip from hell?

  And why would he even sport the notion that it could have some real purpose in the first place? Dreams basically had no purpose, other than to help relieve stress. That was a scientifically proven fact, wasn’t it?

  Tom sat back in his seat and recollected the entire dream from beginning to end, astonished at the fact that he could actually do it. He recalled the drive back from New York to Columbus with Erin and what he had learned about her past: her being an orphan, the foster father who had molested her as a child, her troubled teen life at school and her running off with Kyle to New York City. Tom grew increasingly angry recalling how Kyle had not only emotionally and physically abused the girl but pimped her into doing kiddie porn movies so that he could sell them on the internet. Then he recalled how she had managed her escape from the lowlife prick down the fire escape and made it back to Ohio by the skin of her teeth.

  When Tom reached the part when he and Erin had returned to Columbus and discovered a suspicious car parked in his driveway, his heart began to race Donnie Shortridge! Now what in the hell had that been all about?

  Tom recalled how he had entered his home and found this strange hillbilly redneck sitting at the kitchen table with a gun pointed at him. Like a blast from the past, this character claimed to have been married to a girl Tom had knocked up and now blamed Tom for his being sent to prison for assaulting his poor wife in a blind rage.

  And that he intended to pay Tom back by robbing him blind and then killing him.

  How crazy had that been? He hadn’t even known a Donnie Shortridge, much less gone out with his wife Jesus Christ-he had gone out with his wife!

  Mindy Conkel!

  Mindy Conkel, he did know. And not only had he gone out with her, he had gone to bed with her. Just once.

  And that one time had been enough to get her pregnant!

  And now suddenly Tom was beginning to understand why he had had this crazy dream. He had felt guilty for blowing off Mindy when she had called him in New York to let him know that she was pregnant with his child. He hadn’t given the news much thought at the time-he had been way too wrapped up in his new life in the Big Apple to give a shit. In a nutshell, he had basically told her “too bad, so sad-”

  Wait a minute here!

  Erin had shown him a picture Tom recalled the very end of the dream. And like a bolt of lightening from out of nowhere, he was struck with why he had dreamed this dream and what he now had to do about it.

  Erin had shown him a photo of her birth mother holding her as an infant before she had been put up for adoption. The woman in the picture had been none other than Mindy Conkel!

  Was it really possible that he was Erin’s father? And that was why he had dreamed all of this?

  It had to be! As crazy and impossible as it seemed, this whole dream must have occurred so that he would discover he had a child running around in this world that he never knew he had. It was one of those weird, unexplained psychic phenomena like he’d seen on Unsolved Mysteries!

  He had to talk to Erin, he resolved. He had to find out if she really was his daughter.

  On impulse, he fired up the engine and pulled away from the curb. He circled the block and headed back toward the supermarket, trying to decide what he was going to say once he approached Erin with this. He realized it wasn’t going to be easy. “Hi again, Erin. I was just driving home with my groceries and started wondering if perhaps you are my daughter. I know it sounds a little weird, but you see, I had this dream yesterday and I-”

  Tom laughed out loud. Yeah, right-she’s going to think I’m a blithering idiot!

  As he drove through the intersection at Dublin Granville Road, Tom realized he would have to ease gracefully into this when he spoke to the girl. Maybe just start up a casual conversation and then ask if he could perhaps up meet with her when she got off work-that he had a couple of questions to ask her.

  And of course she would look at him oddly, no doubt wondering why this strange man old enough to be her father was basically asking her out on an impromptu date Frick it! he sighed. This would be more difficult than he’d thought.

  He reached the Jubilee Supermarket parking lot and pulled in. As he searched for a space, he spotted Erin getting into her car at the far end of the lot. She was probably just getting off work and heading home.

  Tom glanced at the clock in the dash: 4:05. That had to be it.

  He pulled into a spot and watched Erin start up her car and back out of the parking space. He waited until she drove past him and stopped at the exit before pulling out behind her. She turned left and was stuck at a red light on High Street. Tom pulled out and stopped behind her at the intersection.

  When the light changed, she turned left onto High Street and drove south several blocks before turning into a gas station and pulling up to a pump. Tom also turned into the station but parked beside the mini mart. He looked at his rearview mirror and saw Erin get out, swipe her credit card through the machine and reach for the pump handle.

  As he sat there, Tom wondered if it was such a good idea following her like this. He almost felt like he was stalking her. After all, he was a virtual stranger and when he approached her, she was going to feel intimidated if not downright threatened by him. Perhaps he should wait until he could speak to her at the supermarket another day.

  Erin placed the pump handle back into its slot and got into her car. Tom backed out and followed her. She continued south on High until she entered Clintonville and took a right onto a street just north of North Broadway. Tom followed behind, trying to keep as much distance between the cars as possible.

  Erin drove another block or so, then pulled into the driveway of a gray two-story house. Tom recalled that she had lived in an apartment building in Worthington in his dream. This was a house large enough for an average sized family to live in.

  He pulled up to the curb a couple of houses before Erin’s and parked. He watched her as she got out of the car and headed for the front porch.

  It was now or never, he thought.

  He jumped out and walked swiftly toward her.

  “Hey Erin!” he shouted.

  She glanced back at him. At first it looked as if she was going to ignore him as she continued up the steps to the porch. But she came to a halt on the porch and turned around.

  As Tom drew closer, she stared at him with a confused look on her face and said, “Hi. What do you want?”

  Tom caught up to her and smiled idiotically. “Um, I just wanted to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind. It will just take a minute.”

  Erin eyed him suspiciously and Tom could tell that she was more than a little put off.

  “About what?” she said.

  “Well, it’s difficult to say, really. Is there any chance I could buy you a soft drink or a coffee somewhere so we could talk? I’m afraid it may take a while to explain.”

  Erin suddenly lightened up a bit and smiled. “Okay, I guess that would be all right. Let me just run inside to let my brother know I’m home then we can go.”

  “Great. I’ll just wait here.”

  Tom stood by as she unlocked the door and went inside. When he realized that the teenager lived in this house with her family, he questioned how in the world he could ever fathom that she was his long lost daughter. He considered the absurdity of it all and was about to abandon the whole thing before he made a
n utter fool of himself when Erin suddenly came out the door.

  “Let’s go,” she said sweetly, joining him at the bottom of the porch stairs. “Where are we going?”

  Tom said, “How does Starbucks sound?”

  “Awesome-I’m in the mood for a great big cafe mocha!”

  “You’ve got it.”

  Tom led the way to Peg’s car, held the door open for Erin, went over to the driver’s side and got in. He started the engine, noticing out of the corner of his eye that she was staring at him.

  “I feel sort of weird doing this,” she confessed.

  Tom fastened his seat belt. “I don’t blame you at all for that. I realize this must seem very odd, but I want to assure you that I my intentions are good. If it would make you feel more comfortable, we could just talk here in the car or on your porch,” he added.

  She chuckled. “Oh, no-I would much rather be treated to Starbucks! And I’m not afraid of going with you, Mr. Grayson. My brother told me he’s seen you at Capital and that you teach there.”

  “Smart girl-you had him case me out while I was waiting, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah-one can never be too careful nowadays,” she said with a knowing grin.

  Tom pulled out and headed back toward High Street. As he tried to think of a good way to lead into what he wanted to say, Erin cleared the way for him.

  “Aren’t you the man they found unconscious in the supermarket parking lot yesterday afternoon?”

  “Yes I am, as a matter of fact. I was overcome by gas fumes and carbon monoxide.”

  “Wow, I thought you were the same guy when I saw you earlier at the store, but I wasn’t sure. I sort of doubted it since it seemed unlikely that you would be out of the hospital so soon. You looked awfully bad when they pulled you out and wheeled you into the ambulance.”

  “You were there when they did that?”

  “I watched from the store. It was snowing really hard so I couldn’t see what was going on very well. One of the customers came in who had seen everything and said you looked like you were dead!”

  “Thank god they were off on that call!”

  “So are you going to be alright? I mean, was there any permanent damage or anything from the fumes?” Erin asked.