by Amy Simone
“Please help, please help,” she whispered, all the while wishing she could consult the Coach.
Ralph and company were now leaving the restaurant. Cassie chose not to follow. There was nothing she could do for now.
She felt the wind push against the backs of her legs as the clouds sped up and slammed across the sky.
“You have all the answers.”
Cassie twisted around to see who was speaking. All she saw was the large statue of one of the Rayne frogs. They dotted these mascots all over town. After all, it was the frog capital of the world. Someone did some of them in metal, some in concrete. Each brightly colored frog held different poses. The McDonald’s on the Interstate even had one displayed in front.
“Excuse me?” she asked.
“All you ever needed to know is inside you.” Yes, the voice was coming from the frog. Cassie screwed her eyes tighter, watching closely to see if the thing would move.
“You thought we see nothing, didn’t you?” the frog asked her. “T’aint so, we see all.” He harrumphed deeply. It almost sounded like a private admonition. The town painted this frog an obscene green, almost chartreuse, with pink and black freckles on its back. A whimsical top hat with bows dressed his tilted head making him look permanently curious. Somebody had added pink to the tips of its feet, so the poor thing was condemned to wear fingernail polish. She saw a few piles of dog excrement nearby in the surrounding grass.
Cassie walked over to the statute and put her hand on it. A slow warmth radiated out, building up in temperature the longer she held her hand down. In less than a minute it felt like her hand would burn.
“Yow!” she said, pulling back.
“Got cha,” the voice said. “Now you run along. You’re blocking my view. I keep count here. We track frog casualties. Want to know how many frogs got served up here last week? I’m your man. There is the restaurant count, the road kill. I know all the latest numbers.”
Sure enough, when Cassie looked about she saw that the statute had a direct line of sight to the rear loading dock of the eatery. A chill went down her.
“I’m so sorry,” she told him.
“Scram,” was all he said.
25
Normal Life?
Cassie realized she wasn’t too far from I-10. She walked up to a gas station and climbed into a Fed Ex truck. She knew that the Fed Ex distribution facility was in Carancro and knew that she could get home from there. It might take a while, but she could do it. How she wished she knew a way to make all this go faster, but she didn’t. It was late once she walked back into her house. Tiger clarified that he felt cheated in the food department. She fed him quickly and returned to her bedroom. The laptop sat on top of her covers, just purring away as if nothing had happened.
Her email had some new messages in it. She touched the keys reluctantly, ever worried that the machine might spring another surprise on her.
Her in box held messages from the new dating service that Hayworth insisted she try.
Cassie slowly rolled her eyes. But then the memory of her mother threatening not to babysit the boys unless she gave it a chance, broke through. Watching her boys having fun with Ralph’s new girlfriend also bothered her. When would she get to have a chance at any normal life? She was still young. She looked up at her dresser. Still in her jeans, with sheets wrapped around her legs, she saw the small night stand light resonated off of her newly blond hair. She almost didn’t recognize herself. Who was that looking back at her in the mirror? On a lark, she got up and applied some makeup to her face. That was better.
While sipping on some wine, she read some men’s profiles. They made her heart bleed. So many seemed so sweet and good natured. Most of the time that’s all men were—especially with women. Hesitantly she made a profile for herself. She was careful not to include too much. Her on-line name she used was Danielle. Eventually her profile read like this: I’m a fun outdoors type girl who loves family and home. Enjoy restaurants and movies. Looking for optimistic, confident man with a sense of humor and personality. Like movies and travel, too.
The next morning her in-box was full of messages from the dating service. She reasoned she’d had been tipsy to have allowed herself to even post within the group. Guiltily, she closed her computer. There was still a lot to pack so she could move out of the house—and more mowing, always more mowing.
As she walked into the kitchen it shocked her to see strangers sitting at her coffee table, all drinking coffee.
“You wanted to meet us,” one man said. “Here we are.”
“Oh no,” she moaned, knowing full well that her laptop had done its magic.
“We’re harmless,” another of the men said. “Just wanted to hear what you have to say for yourself.”
Cassie looked down at herself. She was wearing some old running pants and a tee-shirt that had a few holes in it. “Let me go change,” she said.
She rushed back and quickly pulled herself into a more presentable form. While she was in her bedroom, she opened her laptop and hissed, “What the hell have you done?” The machine stared blankly at her. It wouldn’t even turn on.
She peeked around the edge of the hall. There were five men in her kitchen, all calmly making themselves at home. One read the paper which he must have picked up from the top of the drive; another was making a fresh pot of coffee; a third poked his head into the fridge and the other two were sanguinely drinking away.
“Got any eggs?” one fellow asked. “I’m kind of hungry. Came down all the way from Nebraska.”
Cassie took a deep breath, re-entered the kitchen. “Coming right up,” she announced. “I guess we need to introduce ourselves.”
This was not what she had in mind when she’d posted onto the service the night before. This portal thing was scaring her. She knew she had to get them away from her house, but how? Dating and trying to act normal in front of this crew was not something she could do just now. Everything was too overwhelming.
Playing the polite hostess, she fed them and kept up a light conversation. All the while, her mind buzzed with how to ask them to disappear. At her first chance, she returned to her laptop and begged it to erase the men, to allow them to go on their way. She returned to the kitchen. Only one remained—his name was Bruce.
“Ha,” he said. “they encrypt my code.”
“Please go on your way,” she said. “I’m too busy today.”
The fellow stood up. He was tall and had a mountain man-type appearance with his full dark beard and long-sleeved plaid shirt.
“No, you’re not.” He walked towards her, gently gripped her arm and drew her to his chest. “You need this.”
At first Cassie tried to resist and push off. Bruce’s arm held her fast. He lifted her jaw with his hand and pressed into her. It was all she could do to stop what he was doing.
“Please don’t,” she began.
“Don’t what?” he laughed. “You know you want it. Why did you write that wonderful post back?”
“What do you mean?”
Bruce laughed again. “You don’t? What a surprise you are. Don’t be a tart.” He kissed her again.
She pushed away. “You are too much. I do not understand what you’re talking about.”
His face darkened for the briefest of moments, then he was light again. “Here, I’ll show you…”
Bruce pulled out his phone from his back pocket, clicked to her message and faced the thing at her.
As she read it, her face fell. “Oh my God,” she said, “that wasn’t me.”
“Really? Then how the hell did I get here?” he asked. “And the others?”
The message time stamped 2 a.m. was a long, heartfelt one. It concluded with: “I’m all yours. Here’s my address...”
Cassie kept shaking her head from side to side. It was the darn laptop again. It had to be. She knew she didn’t drink that much the night before.
Bruce watched her quietly, slightly smirking. “You know what’s happening�
� you have unfiltered thoughts and they are coming through loud and clear… That’s all it is. Let’s back up,” he suggested. “My little scared little bird… you need to learn how to fly.”
26
Up Up and Away
Before she knew what was happening, Bruce led her outside.
“Look,” he said, pointing across her massive front lot. “All that space. It’s a beautiful thing.”
“So?” she said dumbly. “It’s space I’ve got to mow.”
He tightened her close to his ribs. She did not see how she would get out of his grip. Then he checked his watch. She saw the clock face hands were moving backwards.
“Hey,” she said, “not so tight.”
Without warning, he lifted her off her feet and now she was in the air looked down at the rooftop of her house.
“Put me back,” she whined.
He held her to his side; only her legs dangled helplessly as he rushed them airborne over the neighboring sugarcane fields.
“Like what you see?” he asked.
“Where are we going?”
They seemed to go further up and faster. She felt dizzy.
“I’m taking you back,” he explained.
Sure enough, he flew her back to the house she’d grown up in—her parents’ place in Scott. It didn’t take long. Softly he touched down in the backyard.
“Your dad’s here,” he whispered. “Coach sent me to get you. He is worried. You need to see something.”
Cassie burst out, “My dad?”
“Yes. Don’t startle him, though. Walk gently and move delicately.” Bruce led her to the back porch. Together they crept up the short set of stairs. He motioned for her to look through a window.
Cassie cupped her hands around her eyes to block out any sunlight and see better inside. Her father sat at his desk, then turned to a big table to examine large maps of the Gulf. He was puzzling over something. He wore his usual white button-down shirt and had his sleeves partially rolled up.
“When was this?” Cassie asked Bruce.
“A few years before he died,” Bruce explained. “Your father had discovered something about a big field. But that’s not the important part. Now watch.”
Cassie returned to the window. Her father pulled out his big checkbook, the household checkbook… then he was calling for her mother. He wrote out a check, handed it to her and must have told her something very nice. Hayworth hugged and kissing him all over. Then she called for their girls.
“I remember that day,” Cassie told Bruce quietly. “He gave her a lot of money and told her to blow it at the mall—on us and whatever she wanted. Normally my parents didn’t do things like that. He played the market sometimes.”
“I know,” Bruce told her.
Cassie was curious about how she and Catherine looked. She looked like a tomboy compared to Catherine’s girly appearance. Cassie’s dad tousled her hair and patted Catherine’s shoulder as they left. Hayworth left the room after blowing him a kiss, then changed her mind and came back to give him a passionate thank you kiss.
“That’s more like it,” Cassie agreed as she spied on her parents.
“They really loved each other.”
As her dad settled back into his office chair, Cassie looked at Bruce. “Why did I need to see this? I knew about it already.”
“You’ve forgotten how to give to others. Your dad lived by that.”
“What do you think I’m doing raising my boys? Doesn’t that qualify for something?
“You’ve been buying and selling. Consume, consume, consume…” He cocked his head, eying her, then sat on the porch railing.
Cassie glanced back towards the window. “Hey, can they see us out here?”
“Nah.”
She shrugged, then gave a little start. “I only have two days…”
“’Til what?” he asked.
“If I don’t give up my computer my oldest gets cancer.”
Bruce nodded. “What are you going to do?”
“Get rid of it. I am tired. If I never see this other world or whatever you people are, I’m fine with that. I just want my son to be healthy.”
“Now, let’s think this through.” He gestured towards Cassie’s parents’ house. “I’ve shown what I needed to show you here. You good?”
She said, “Yes. Maybe I need to join my dad,” she added darkly.
“Now come on.” He swept her into a side embrace, and they were off again.
“I’m checking with the Coach,” he told Cassie once he’d returned her home.
“I wish my sister had never introduced me to that woman.”
“It’s not so much the woman,” Bruce said. “It’s the husband.”
“Both of them.”
“Tell you what, I’ll stay here.”
Cassie clammed up.
“Your kids won’t even know I’m here.”
“Josh sees things,” she noted.
“The young ones often do. I don’t have to stay inside,” he told her.
They were standing on the front porch, talking. Cassie felt a wave of fatigue wash over her. She only had a day and a half now. Everything seemed to be crashing down on her—the need to find a new place to live; the move; her mother leaving; having to find a job; her losing her husband and now her son getting sick.
“Do me a favor,” she said to her new friend, “Hurry. I need a solution and I need it fast.” Her voice broke.
He held her for a few long seconds, then looked at her face. “I’ll be back,” he told her. Then he disappeared.
27
Work Calls
Ralph dropped off the boys. Cassie hugged them to her as they walked into the house. She couldn’t refrain from checking and re-checking Caleb’s face and asking him more than once how he was feeling.
“I’m fine, mom. What’s the big deal?” he finally asked her.
She wanted to cling to both of them, to snuggle under some covers and never come out.
Later that night Bruce appeared in her living room, sitting in Ralph’s favorite chair. Cassie fought off the urge to tell him to change locations. It just didn’t feel right.
“Turn on the TV,” he told her. “That way we can talk and not wake up your kids.”
With the soft drone going on behind them, Bruce informed her that, “He said that you give the computer to them and do not accept payment.”
“What?” she asked, surprised.
“I’m repeating things word for word.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No money. Just hand it over. These things have a way of working themselves out.”
“Then I will lose my connection with everything.” Cassie pointed at him directly. “I mean, I know I get aggravated but I won’t be able to check on my son’s cancer for instance.”
“Just do as the Coach says.”
“I’ll think about it,” she said sorely. “I’m tired. Good night.”
Cassie left the room. She couldn’t believe that the solution would mean not even recouping any money for her strange and powerful computer. How could she trust a process she didn’t comprehend?
She checked her sleeping sons. They both looked so peaceful.
Tomorrow would be another day. According to Annie, now witch, it would be Cassie’s last chance.
Feeling like a petulant child with a toy, Cassie took the laptop into her bedroom, plugged it in, and opened it up. This time, the machine only operated as a normal computer—allowing her to surf the Net, check her emails, and look at some YouTube videos. It was as if the computer knew it would be re-homed.
One email jumped out her. She’d gotten a call back for her interview with the package distribution center. That was good. She’d drop off Josh at her mother’s tomorrow and go in for the second round of interviews.
The next day, after Caleb left for school and she dropped Josh off at Hayworth’s, making it just in time for her ten o’clock appointment. The interview went fairly well. She’d worn s
imple clothes, figuring that working for what would be a loading dock, signaled her intent to be an earnest warehouse worker.
When she got back in her car and started it, though, she found the steering wheel would not turn. Instead, the car seemed to glide, steered by an unseen hand. Unable to shut the thing off, she prayed silently as her car drove itself straight to Annie’s shop.
“Darn it,” she said. “Not this.” The door clicked, it had unlocked itself as it shut down the motor. Some type of autopilot was in play.
“I don’t want this,” she said out loud.
There was a strong rapping on the driver’s side window. She looked over and saw Annie on the sidewalk, beckoning to her.
