“Ow! What the hell was that for?”
“You did this, didn’t you?”
“Did what?”
Jenna pointed to the truck on the floor. “That. You did it, didn’t you?”
“Are you crazy? Of course not. I wasn’t even in the building!”
“I swear to God, Marvin, if I find out…”
Marvin shrugged, turned, and walked through the closed door out to the street.
“Marvin? Marvin? …How did you…” Jenna walked to the door, stopped and raised her voice. “Does it hurt?”
“Does what hurt?”
“Walking through things like that.”
“Come through and find out. Come on… It doesn’t hurt, I promise. It just…tingles a bit. You’ll get used to it.”
She poked a hand through and waited. “It vibrates.”
Marvin shrugged. “I guess, yeah. Come on.”
She moved the rest of the way through and stood next to him. She looked down the street in both directions. “It’s weird. I can sort of see through you.”
“A lot of things will seem weird at first.” Marvin stood and watched her as she tried to adjust to the new sights, sounds and feel of being a deadhead.
After a few minutes, she smiled. Then she grabbed him in a hug and kissed him. “I missed you. It was tough.”
“I know.”
Jenna gaped at him. “What do you mean you know? How could you know, you weren’t there.”
“Oh, but I was. Every step of the way.”
“Really? You’ve watched over me this whole time? That was sweet.” The smile left her face. “Wait a minute… Every step of what way?”
“Every step of every way!” Marv watched her face change to one of confusion. “The missing sodas, the smell of food, the coffee, the wet towels.”
Jenna began to understand and the frown on her face proved it. “The soda can that flew past my face — that was you?” Marv nodded. “The broken window?” He nodded again. “The food on Mrs. McClaskey’s table on your birthday?”
“Yeah, that too.” A big grin spread across his face. “God, I loved that you had a party for me with all my favorites. The fact Larry was there and didn’t know the real reason for the dinner sweetened the pot.”
“Then Larry didn’t… Wait. What really happened to him?”
Marv shrugged and grinned. “I punched him.”
Jenna walked away and Marv ran to catch up to her. They appeared like any couple, well, to other deadheads anyway; side by side, out for an evening walk. “So, then, let me get this straight. The shit on the golf course: That was you? You hit Larry with the golf balls?”
Marvin laughed at the memory. “Yeah. What a big wuss.”
Jenna swung a fist through him.
“Ow! What the hell are you doing?”
“You asshole!”
“What?”
“That hurt like hell!” Jenna stared at him. “And now look what you did.”
“No! Wait a minute. I didn’t do this, I swear. Honest, Jenna, you have to believe me.” Marvin smiled at her. “I missed the hell out of you, though.”
She peered into his eyes for the truth then linked an arm through his and they strolled down the block. “You know, if I find out you put the truck on those steps and killed that sweet old woman…”
“I didn’t! I swear I didn’t.”
She gave him a sideway glance. “Yeah, well, I wouldn’t put it past you.”
Marvin stopped walking and tugged on Jenna’s arm. “Oh, Jesus H. What time is it?”
“I don’t know, why?”
“The guys are gonna wonder what happened to me. I told them I’d be right back.”
“Guys? What guys?”
“Tommy and Mike.”
“Who are Tommy and Mike?”
“New friends. Well, Tommy’s a new friend. Mike and I — you remember Mike, right? Mike Hamilton, my buddy from Harvard?”
“Now why would I know any of your friends from Harvard?”
“Oh, that’s right. Anyway, let’s head over there so I can let them know everything’s okay.”
“I’m not really in the mood for meeting anyone right now, Marvin.”
“You have to meet them at some point, it might as well be now.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re gonna love them. Tommy’s a goofy, sweet kid and Mike’s… well, Mike. And because that’s what I think we should do right now! And I’m sure they’re concerned about me.”
Jenna laughed and started walking again, but turned back in the direction of the condo. “Why would they be concerned about you?”
“Because I told them I’d be back in a little while and I’ve been gone for — I don’t know — a couple of hours at least.”
“You’ve been gone for two hours and that makes you think someone’s worried about you?”
“Yeah! What, you don’t think I’m worth worrying about?”
“Marvin! I just got here, can’t we spend a little time alone? You know, you can be such an arrogant prick sometimes!”
“And you can be a petulant bitch!”
They stopped in their tracks, turned to one another and laughed. Then, arm in arm, they walked back into the building. Jenna looked down at the bodies. “Huh, I wonder how long it’ll be before someone discovers us. Isn’t there something we can do?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know — bang on someone’s door, ring a doorbell. Rattle some pots and pans. I don’t know how this stuff works.”
“What difference would it make, you’ll still be just as dead.”
Jenna slugged him. “That’s a shitty thing to say!”
“Why? It’s true!”
“Hey, screw you, Broudstein!” Jenna started up the stairway.
“Hey! You better be nice to me, or —”
“Or what?”
“Or, I won’t teach you the ropes around here.”
“Oh, yeah, like I need your help. I can learn how to do things on my own, you know!”
Marvin paused. “Yeah, I know.” He smiled at her and took her hand, “But it’d be a lot more fun together, wouldn’t it?”
When they reached the top of the stairs, Marvin stopped and gave a small tug on Jenna’s hand. He nodded toward Colleen’s door, “What do you think, should we stop in, see how they’re doing?”
“That’d be sweet. But, let’s wait. I think we should give them some time to be alone. You know Patrick has been gone a long time. I’m sure they have some catching up to do.” Jenna shifted her gaze from the door across the hall to Marvin. “Since when did you become all…”
“All what?”
“I don’t know. Such a… What’s the word your mother always used… a mensch?”
Marv shrugged as he passed through the door to their place. He thought about his experience at Jason’s hands and a slight frown crossed his lips. “Trust me, you really don’t want to know how that came about.”
“Fine. Don’t tell me.”
A broad smile broke out and kindness lit his face. “I have no intention of it.” He uncorked a bottle of wine and poured some into the glasses Jenna had pulled down from the cupboard. Marvin handed her a glass and led her out to the balcony. “Besides, I’m not that different, am I?”
“On second thought, it might be better if I don’t question it and just enjoy it.” She clincked her glass against his in a toast. Marv heard a small, contented sigh escape from her before she said, “Yeah, it would…”
“What would be what?”
“It would be a lot more fun to learn things if we’re together.” Jenna smiled and looked out over the city and didn’t see Marvin wave his hand in greeting to the two men moving in the direction of the building.
An excerpt from
World of Deadheads
(jenna’s Gang)
“See? See? What did I tell you?” Marvin jumped from the booth in Epstein’s Deli where they gathered each mid-morning for coffee, and b
reakfast on the occasional Sunday, when the place was closed, that Tommy would fire up the grill for a crowd of regulars. Marv whirled around, his arms outstretched to include all the deadheads (as Marvin had dubbed them shortly after he’d died with sincere apologies to Grateful Dead groupies) still lingering over coffee or bagel they’d snagged from the case. Most of them had gotten used to his outbursts over the past fifteen months and ignored him.
“What? Dude all she did was ask a simple question,” Tommy said.
“Bullshit! She always accused me of trying to postpone the wedding and now look who’s hedging — again!”
“Marv, come on. All I asked was,” Jenna stopped to pause for a new tactic. “I mean, we’re dead, who’s going to care whether we’re married or not?”
“That’s not the point and you know it!”
“Besides, I’ve only been here for two months and here you are ranting about a wedding!”
“Oh, here we go with the excuses again, huh?”
“Come on, Brody. Sit down.” Mike pointed to the vacant seat. Mike Hamilton had been an old college buddy and they reconnected when he’d shown up at Marvin’s funeral. “You’re making a spectacle of yourself.”
“You know you can be a real bitch sometimes,” Marvin grumbled, but returned to his seat.
“And you can be an arrogant prick!” Jenna said pointedly.
Marvin peered at her out of the corner of his eye. “Oh…go fall down a flight of stairs.”
“Go play in traffic and step in front of a bus!” Jenna jabbed an elbow through his ribs.
Marvin and Jenna looked at one another and grinned. The verbal sparring had been one of the things they’d both missed until she died in the freak accident on the stairs of their condo building.
“Besides, Marvin, people started shacking up years ago. Shit man, the commune I grew up on, no one was married. And it was cool, man.”
When Marv spotted “Tina, I’ll-Be-Your-Waitress,” about to yank it off the table he picked up his coffee cup and it winked out of sight. She stopped short and the breath caught in her throat, but she managed to mutter a quiet “Jesus Christ!” I swear I’m not going nuts, but I don’t know how much longer… It’s better not to think about it Tina, just let it go. Let it go. and she turned to bus the other tables.
Marvin hoisted his cup toward Tommy. “Look hippie, in case you haven’t noticed, we aren’t living on a commune. That 60’s crap ended a long time ago.”
Mike tapped his arm. “And, as I keep pointing out to you Brody, we don’t exactly “live” anywhere, now do we?”
“But,” Tommy turned to Jenna with the mischievous grin they all knew could lead to trouble, “it might be a real gas.” He put a hand over Jenna’s mouth to stop her argument. “Just think about it. A huge, fancy wedding – and you know the place would be packed! – the dress of your dreams and it won’t cost you a dime.” He looked to Marvin and Mike for help. “I can get Davy to help with everything.”
“You know, Tommy, that face may have worked with Marvin but won’t go anywhere with me.”
“Oh, come Jenna! It’ll be fun. I promise. And we can get Davy to help. You know this kind of thing is right up his alley! Didn’t he pick out a fabulous gown for your funeral?”
Marvin broke in to a leering grin. “It was a hot one, all right.”
Jenna turned to stare him down.
“You’ve got to admit that,” Mike added.
“Yeah, Mike, it was quite pretty,” Jenna agreed. “But — ”
“And I’ll bet Nancy would be your maid of honor, and me and Mike can be Marvin’s best men. With Davy planning everything it’ll be bigger than Will and Kate’s!”
“Wonderful, isn’t that just what I need.”
“Come on, Jenna. Please?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Atreides is an author and playwright. His short stories have appeared in the Patchwork Path anthologies Treasure Box and Christmas Stocking. His first full-length, two-act comedy, Phallusies, opened to good reviews in Las Vegas in 2011. He is currently editing his collection of short ghost stories titled Voices from the Dead, due out in Spring 2013 and is working on World of Deadheads (Jenna’s Gang).
Visit his website and blog for more up-to-date information
www.paul-atreides.com
[Marvin's] World of Deadheads Page 28
