by Lucian Bane
“Thank you for the lunch, Ms. Lynette,” Alice said.
“It was amazing,” Charlie added. “We’ll call you.”
“Who did you say your dad was?” she asked.
“Oh, Benjamin Rabinowski.”
“Rabinowski. That sounds…Russian?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Well, I would like to meet your family too,” she cooed, like he’d forgotten to offer. “But not today.” She sloshed her hand at him. “I have to go see about Jeffry. If I don’t make him eat, he doesn’t. He’s old,” she explained, smiling weakly and appearing nervous again.
“Well we’ll let you get to it.” Charlie aimed their steps toward the driveway, praying she’d not keep them any longer. “You have my phone number Lynn in case you need anything?”
“Well, I have it on the ID, yes.”
“Call me if you need anything. Even if you get bored.”
He took a chance and gave her a quick hug and she let out a shocked gasp as though never dreaming anybody would do that. “What a good boy you are. He’s a very good boy,” she said to Alice who nodded and gave his favorite half-moon-eyed smile while Charlie blushed. “Just like my Frank.”
And then that. “Thank you, Ms. Lynn. It’s…quite a high compliment coming from you,” he said, grateful to find a vague truth that fit. He tossed her a wave and smile and they headed off down the driveway.
“By Charlie!” she called. “Bye… Alice.”
Alice gasped and spun with a big wave and smile. “Bye Ms. Lynette!” She spun around, shoving her hands in her coat pocket as they walked, giggling. “I knew she liked me.”
“Of course she does,” Charlie laughed, needing to touch her again. “How can she not?”
“I’m kind of irresistible,” she agreed with a dead serious face that had him laughing more.
“Soooo irresistible!” he agreed. “And as soon as we’re out of sight, I want to see what was on that canvas and the note.” The sudden fall of her face made him tense. “That bad?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t let myself stare too long. But it was a painting of a man.”
“Let’s jog,” Charlie whispered.
The Mirror Looks Back
They ran to the cattle guard and the second they crossed it they kept running. A quarter mile later, he stopped, leaning over for air. “This is good.”
She pulled out her phone and opened her pics then handed it to him. He stared at the image of a naked man with his back facing them. It looked like he’d taken a shower in thick black paint and it ran down his body in rivers of pure wickedness. The way his head hung made him seem…depressed or defeated. He stared at the can of paint behind him with the brush handle sticking out of it. “What do you think?” he asked her.
“I have no idea,” she whispered.
He saw something red and zoomed in on the section of the canvas just beyond the man in the shadows. “What is that?” he wondered, enlarging it more.
“It’s like…a picture on the floor?” Alice wondered.
“Oh shit,” Charlie whispered, studying. “It’s a mirror. What the hell is that?”
“We need to enlarge this up on the computer,” she said, shivering next to him. “What did the letter say?”
He glanced up and down the road, realizing the sun was moving quick. “What time is it?”
“It’s four o’clock,” she said.
“It gets dark soon, let’s hurry. We’ll look at everything later.”
They hurried down the road and Alice said, “What in the world happened at the sink, Charlie? Do you think she’s crazy? She thinks her son is an angel, and she didn’t even mention her daughter. If I had to guess, she doesn’t like girls very much. Everything was about you and Frank. Did you notice?”
“How could I miss it? My skin crawled each time she compared us. And I’m not sure but it sounded like she was speaking in tongues.”
“Tongues?” she wondered.
“It’s something charismatic Christians do when praying sometimes.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s supposed to be the language of angels.”
“Really,” she cried, sounding shocked and impressed. “And people can speak it?”
At hearing she needed to learn this trick immediately he laughed and said, “It’s one of the gifts of the spirit. Like healing, and prophecy, and knowledge.”
“How do you get this gift?” she cried.
“You ask for it,” he said, catching her double-shocked expression.
This brought her sputters and, “Just ask for it?”
“That’s it,” he said, loving whenever she learned things about God. Like she was His biggest fan but never dreamed she might be allowed to speak to Him or meet Him.
“Like…how? And what is the gift of knowledge? I think I might have that.”
He put his arm around her and hugged her close as they walked. “It’s not the kind of knowledge you learn.”
“Then what?”
“Like when you meet somebody, and God shows you something about them you can’t possibly know.”
She gasped. “What is this gift for?”
“For you to help them with whatever He shows you.”
“Do you have this gift, Charlie?” she wondered now.
“I’ve…had it happen a couple of times.”
She came to a sudden stop and he turned to find her gawking at him.
“Come on,” he urged, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
She finally unglued herself from her spot, pointing at him as she hooked her arm through his. “You are a superhero and you didn’t tell me, Charlie Brown?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “I’m so not a superhero!”
“You pray, and God answers, He uses you in…helping people?” She choked on another gasp. “Did you pray for your dad?”
Charlie took a deep breath. “Of course, I did,” he mumbled, his heart getting heavy as he considered everything that was going wrong. “I prayed every day, morning and night.”
Please God…I believe you gave us this miracle. Don’t… no, I know you won’t let the devil take it. I know you won’t let him take my dad.
****
Ben shook his head at the knock on the door. “Not now,” he called. “I’m working.”
“Ben, please talk to me.”
He stared blindly at the computer screen, the smell of his incision making him nauseated. It was worse than ever. He wanted to call Dr. Wong and tell him, but he couldn’t have him coming back too quick. He needed to get to the bottom of Cheryl and his head. It finally hit him, and how he’d not seen it before was fucking astonishing.
The door suddenly opened, and he turned to find she’d used something to open it.
“Get out.”
“Ben, we need to talk.”
He slammed the laptop shut and paced next to the desk. “Where’s Charlie?” He needed to ask him questions about her. He remembered what he’d told him, then. To not trust him. Which meant he couldn’t fucking ask Charlie.
“Charlie’s with Alice, they went into the town, remember?”
“Right, and why?” he asked.
“To be teenagers, to enjoy a walk. Go to a movie? The park?”
He couldn’t stop pacing as he looked at her. Looking at him like she cared. He pulled the cap off his head and she gasped. “See that?” He leaned his head, showing her the symbols. “Yeah? Recognize those?”
“What…what do you mean?”
“You know…there’s been something…niggling in my head, in my head right here.” He tapped the back his skull as he paced. “Why does my wife seem to enjoy this new head, this new person so much? Why does she seem to be conditioned to him?” He eyed her as he stalked along the cliff-edge in his mind. “There’s not really anything you won’t do with me, right? You really fucking love it and I’m trying to figure out what happened, what happened before this operation.
I didn’t always work at home, I worked at…” he snapped his fingers, “…where was it that I worked?”
“You worked at Chelleron. For five years as the lead draftsman.”
He jabbed a finger at her. “That’s right and what kind of hours did I work?”
“Ben, what are you getting at?” she asked, appearing all fucking wounded.
“You know damn well what I’m getting at.” He shoved the exact fingers at her. “Four fucking hours is what it takes to get to Friend Nebraska from our house in Kansas. And hell, Frank, he could’ve made it easy and met you halfway, maybe drove the whole way, came all the way to our home? Right? And you fucked him there, and that’s why you never wanted to have sex?”
“Ben,” she whispered, tears now, and shocked brows.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he nodded with a dry chuckle. “You’re thinking Ben’s delusional. And hey, maybe I fucking am but what I feel when we fuck? How much I like it? Want it?” he seethed, baring his teeth, pacing faster. “And how much you like it and want it and that I know we’ve done it before? That’s not delusion! That’s fact. And why don’t I want to kill you huh? I thought about that too. What is it about you that is different to ole Frank?”
She stood there, rocking from foot to foot, tears streaming. “Ben, what if I can prove to you—”
“Prove what!?” he yelled. “You had this set up from the beginning. So, what kind of disease was it that I had? Some Gorham’s disease, yeah. I looked that up and guess what causes it?”
“They don’t have a known cause for it,” she cried, wiping tears. “I should know, I poured my soul out night after night looking for a cause and a cure!”
“EXACTLY!” he yelled. “And you found one just at the right time. Miracle upon miracles, you just so happened to have a psychopath boyfriend who was probably facing prison or death row who needed a scapegoat.”
“Ben, think about what you’re saying!”
“I fucking have! I can’t stop thinking about it!” he ground out. “It all makes sense, it all adds up,” he tapped on his forehead. “Now I have to figure out who the fuck your psychopathic boyfriend pissed off because whoever it is, is coming for him.”
“What do you mean, Ben?”
“It’s one of those doctor’s, that memory doctor isn’t it? He did something to my memories, he-he set a timer or something in my head, I’ve been reading up, they can do that, they can make it so you remember things at different times. They open new memories daily, I have that,” he assured, nodding. “New memories every day and allllll of them include you! What are the odds?”
“The odds are you have my husband’s memories!” she yelled at him. She stormed over and punched his chest with both fists. “Where is my husband! Where is Ben, give him back, you give him back to me,” she screamed.
He grabbed her wrists and dragged her to the door, locking it. “Looks like you pissed Frank off, honey,” he said, shoving her away and undoing his pants. “Seems like Ole Frank doesn’t like when you talk about dead Ben. Seems like Frank might be a little torn in his affections. He’s kind of pissed about you fucking around on his new self even if it was with him! One way or another, you fucked around,” he whispered, kicking his pants off as he removed his shirt. “And nobody fucks around on Frank.”
She ran to the desk and spun around, holding her phone up at him. “I’ll call 911,” she gasped, her hand shaking. “And you’ll go to a hospital, Ben,” she cried.
She gasped when the phone rang, looking. “It’s Charlie!” She held her other arm out as if to hold him off. Ben’s body heaved as he went to pacing before her.
“Go ahead, Cheryl. Answer it!” he grit, snatching the air toward her, wanting to break her neck.
“Charlie?” she answered. “Ohhh, hey, no, I…I was working out.”
“What a liar you are,” he said, watching her deception in action.
“He’s here. Yes, he’s fine. Uh, yes, sure. Okay.” She held the phone toward him. “Charlie would like to ask you a question. He said he…he had an…idea.”
Ben stalked over to her and snatched the phone, putting it to his ear. “Yeah?” He turned in time to see Cheryl running out the room. “Fucking cunt,” he muttered.
“What’s wrong dad?”
“Nothing. I need to go.”
“Can you come pick us up?”
“What? Where are you?”
“We’re in town. I have some information you would be interested in.”
“Tell me now.”
“Uh, well, I can’t really talk where I am, if you know what I mean?”
“Alice,” he muttered.
“Righto.”
Fucking cunts were everywhere. “Give me a fucking address.”
****
Charlie’s hand shook as he stared at his phone then looked at Alice.
“What?” she hurried.
“Something’s happened with my dad. Mom answered and I think she was crying. And when I asked if something was wrong, she said yes, sure. Charlie wants to talk to you.”
“Oh no, you think….”
“He’d hurt her? Yes. I do.” Charlie felt sick as he paced before the matinee sign at the theater. “He’s coming to pick us up, but now I don’t want you around him. God this sucks.”
“Can you call her back?”
He stared at his phone. “Maybe.”
“I can call Mr. Haiku and see if he knows anything?”
“Good idea.” She pulled out her phone and he grabbed her arm. “What will you say?”
She furrowed her forehead. “I can ask if he knows where your mom is?”
He couldn’t think of why that wouldn’t be okay. Scrutinizing every little thing in his life was exhausting. He felt like something might slip through, one small mistake that would bring a new nightmare. “Do it.”
She waited with the phone on her ear. “Hi Mr. Haiku.” She went into Chinese, dropping his mom’s name midway. More up and down flowy Chinese. She put a hand over the phone and whispered, “He’s going to find her. She’s there at the house.”
“What did you say?”
“That I needed help picking a gift for my mother.”
He let out a breath and leaned against the building. “You’re such a genius, thank you.” Did that mean his dad had his mom’s phone? Was he on his way?
He dialed her number, waiting through the ring. No answer. Great. He turned when Alice spoke more Chinese then hung up.
“He couldn’t find her. And the car is gone.”
“So Dad must be on his way.” Charlie located his dad’s number and dialed it.
“Yeah,” he answered, sounding annoyed.
“Oh, hey, is mom around? Alice had a question for her and she’s not answering her phone.”
“No, she’s not. What kind of question?” he asked.
“I think she wanted to get her mom a gift and wanted a woman’s opinion, something like that.”
“Well, she’s not here.”
“She must be busy at home. Did she want us to eat dinner as a family again do you know?”
“Why?”
“I just wanted to work on our little puzzle we had.”
“You find anything on that?” he all but demanded.
“Not really anything useful. But I did find the only tattoo parlor in town, assuming he used it. Was going to call it tomorrow and see what I could find out without actually asking.”
“Good.”
There was a span of silence and Charlie felt like his dad wanted to say something. “I see you at the theater,” he mumbled. “I’m pulling up now.”
“I see you too, bye.”
His dad hung up, leaving Charlie with the sudden emergency of was he safe enough to have Alice around. He had no damn choice now, he couldn’t leave her there.
“I need to talk to you,” his dad said when Charlie opened the back door of the car.
“Okay. When we get home?”
“I’ll drop Alice off and w
e can take a ride.”
“Okay,” Charlie said, squeezing Alice’s hand.
“Hi Mr. Ben,” Alice greeted cheerily like a clueless Alice would.
“Hi Alice,” he said with obvious masked suspicion as he eyed the mirrors, pulling onto the road.
Charlie made small talk with her to dispel the uncomfortable air his dad created. Keeping things seeming normal felt like the best solution. “Did you know this town has Carhenge?” Charlie asked his dad.
“Yes, I did. Why?”
Always suspicious. “Just thought it’d be cool to see. Maybe one day we can all drive to it.”
“For what?” he wondered, as though not comprehending.
“I would like to see how they are put together,” Alice chimed. “What did they use to make them stay? Are they balancing or did they glue them together?” She gave her innocent giggle while Charlie prayed his dad didn’t find something wrong with that.
“Sounds stupid,” his dad mumbled.
“They have a skating rink,” Charlie remembered.
“A skating rink,” he muttered dryly. “Because life is just grand and we should all go skating, right?”
“I don’t know how to skate,” Charlie admitted. “I can stand never going.”
“You can’t skate? I must teach you,” Alice insisted, amazed.
She went on about her adventures with skating and somehow, they managed not to piss his dad off for the remaining five minutes to the house. During all that, Alice took out her phone and texted him. Are you going with him?
He texted her back that he was.
You take my phone. It has tracking turned on and if something happens, I can find you?
You’re such a genius, he texted while she seamlessly carried on about the pros and cons of various skates as they traded phones and slipped them in their jacket pockets.
“Dad did you see the lake yet?” Charlie asked as they drove down the long driveway to the house.
“No,” he said in a low voice when they came to a stop in front of the house.
Charlie opened his door and helped Alice out, kissing her after he shut it. “Pray for me,” he whispered to her. “Watch out for my mom. Let her know everything we’ve learned.”
She nodded. “Bye. See you tonight.”
