As if able to sense her anxiety, he snickered.
Raising an eye over the laminated menu, she said, “What?”
“Oh, nothing.” He snickered again, sucking in his top lip, hissing air through his nose and mouth like a vacuum hose loosing pressure.
“You’re making fun of me.”
“Me? Noooo, not at all. I just wish you’d let me order for you. I know this menu back and forth.”
“True. But, you don’t know my tastes back and forth. So, I’ll order if you don’t mind.”
“Re-yawr!” He clinched his hand like a claw and pawed at her. “You’re a feisty one. I like that.”
Haley stopped herself from rolling her eyes.
She caught her smeared reflection in his menu. The smooth slant of her neck was bordered by gorgeous hair hanging perfectly around it, curving over her jaw-line, as if massaging it with the golden locks. She caught his gaze lowering to her breasts. Her shirt was low enough that he could see the top mounds of her cleavage. He cleared his throat. Sweat had beaded along his brow and hairline.
And, I’d given Carlee a hard time…
Haley sat the menu down. Noticing Jonesey was having a hell of a time adjusting his pants, she was prepared to tell him to take her back to the office. She could no longer handle his eyes staring her up and down. But, the appetizers being placed in front of her distracted her long enough to notice the waiter.
He looked very familiar. Just a year or two younger than her, his handsome face was smooth and clean. His hair, a little lengthy, hung just slightly in his eyes. He nervously combed his hand through it.
Alan Somerson. She hadn’t recognized him in the uniform. She didn’t know he worked here. Being so used to seeing him at the book store in regular clothes, the white buttoned shirt and black pants had deterred her. Not to mention the bow-tie. It looked hideous around his neck. The red apron only added to the blandness. She realized she was ogling him, and quickly tried to hide it from her lunch companion, but judging his sneer, he’d already noticed.
Alan removed a small, white pad from his apron. Then searched the other pocket, his shirt pocket, pants pockets, and couldn’t find whatever it was he was looking for.
Clearing his throat, Jonesey leaned forward. “Behind your ear, son.”
He slowly raised a hand to his ear. A pen was nestled securely behind it. Laughing, he removed it and clicked it, ready to write. “Whoops, forgot it was back there.”
She smiled at his cuteness. He hadn’t even noticed her yet and she found that just as adorable. She was extremely nervous to talk to him. It was hard to deny she had a crush on him, but normally in the book store, she had no problem keeping the conversation going. Seeing him out somewhere else made it different somehow. Glancing at Jon
esey, she could see the bubbles of jealousy clucking in his throat.
“Okay,” continued Alan. “Let’s get this show going. Sir, what will you be drinking today?”
“Oh, just the house wine and the same for the lady.”
Nodding, Alan started to write it down.
“Actually,” interrupted Haley, “I’d like sweet tea if you have it.”
“Sweet tea?” Turning his attention to her, Alan’s face lit up. “Haley?! This is quite a surprise.”
Leaning closer, she said, “Surprise,” keeping it quiet as if it were their little secret.
“It’s good to see you. And yes, we do have sweet tea. The best in town. I’ve been sipping on it all day.”
“Good, sign me up.” She laughed. “I didn’t know you worked here.”
“Yeah, just a day here and there when I’m not at the bookstore.”
“Wow, you keep yourself busy.”
“Not much else to do.” He said with a shrug.
If Jonesey weren’t sitting across from her at the moment, she’d use this as her chance to offer him something to do, like taking her out on a date.
“Haley, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”
“Oh right, Mr. Jones….” The way he cringed at her reverting back to the
mister
label did not go unnoticed, but she couldn’t care less. “This is Alan. Alan, this is my boss Jonesey….Uh--M Mr. Jones.” She bashfully laughed.
Alan extended his hand to shake, “Nice to meet you Mr. Jones.”
But, it was ignored. Sitting with his hands in his lap, he clucked his tongue as if trying to fetch something from between his teeth. “The pleasure is all mine, I’m sure.” He put on a hideous smile so bogus it could have been purchased from a store. If Haley would have already eaten, the food surely would have come up.
Alan devoted his attention back to Haley. “So, will you be coming to the weekly shindig tomorrow night?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.”
Jonesey intruded, “If you don’t mind my curiosity, what’s the weekly shindig?”
Haley wished he would just go away. “Alan owns Second Chance Books, a used bookstore, and on Tuesday nights, he keeps the store open later to serve coffee and pastries to the public. It’s a lot of fun.”
“I see.”
“The books are fifteen percent off.” Alan added, “It’s a pretty big deal.”
“It’s gotten me so excited that my throat is parched. How about those drinks?”
Haley watched Alan’s smile fade. “I’ll make sure you get your drinks.” Quickly, he walked away.
“Won’t you be coming back?” she asked.
Alan didn’t bother turning around, didn’t even show if he had heard her. He just continued moving steadily through the tables.
Haley lowered her head and focused on the menu, but nothing looked as delicious as before. Jonesey had ruined it for her, hurt Alan’s feelings too. That was the worst part of it. She could go without lunch, but knowing Alan was probably upset really bothered her.
“Hmmm. Nice kid, kind of goofy, but he seems like a lot of fun.”
“Don’t you think you were being…?”
“Being what?”
“Honestly?”
He nodded.
“An asshole?”
Gasping, he grasped his chest. “Was I? If I came off that way, I apologize. Honestly, I’m very interested in books and coffee.”
“Yeah, sure you are.” Her retort sounded snottier than she’d intended.
He placed a hand over his heart. “I am. Scout’s honor.” He chuckled. “So, what time do you want me to pick you up?”
“I’m sorry?”
“For the shindig.”
“Um, I don’t think that would be such a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“You’re my boss,
and
you’re married. You’re my
married
boss.”
“Listen, I just want to go to this thing and since you’ve been there before I figured we could go together and you could show me around, fill me in on the gossip and whatnot.”
“There isn’t any
gossi
p.”
“Well, then we can just talk about us.”
“Mr. Jones, please understand, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Of course. I understand. It was just a suggestion. But, I am interested in checking it out, though. So, I suppose I’ll just meet you there.” He raised the menu, disappearing behind it.
Haley wondered if he’d notice her leaping the fence next to them and running into oncoming traffic. Maybe jump on the back of a truck, letting them take her to whatever their destination might be.
“Maybe
I
should order some sweet tea.” He added.
She groaned, not caring if he noticed or not. Her legs were too weak with shame to attempt an escape. She was stuck there with Jonesey for another hour, at least.
(I)
By the time Joel had finished mowing the front yard, the maniac had already taken care of everything else quickly and efficiently. Joel put the push mower back inside the shed. Then he returned the weed-eater to its rung on the wall. Finished, he stepped out, closing the door behind him. His clothes were drenched in sweat. His hair was soaked against his scalp. He hadn’t eaten anything all day and felt very lightheaded.
He found the maniac standing at the edge of the yard, staring into the woods. Joel wanted to show him the basement. After a few tries, he was able to get his attention and lead him to the side door entrance.
“The basement’s over here.” He glanced behind him. The man followed sluggishly. Joel wondered if he was tired, worried about something, or distracted.
The basement was stocked full of oddments. Old boxes had been put down there, their contents forgotten. The smell was thick, a combination of mud, rust, and dirty water. Joel walked to a corner and sorted some boxes. Sifting through old clothes, camping gear, and the tent, he finally came across a brand new air mattress still in the box. They’d bought it last summer with intentions of going on a family camping trip, but the summer had quickly gotten away from them.
He tore it out of the package and dropped it on the dirt-coated concrete floor. The included air pump was nothing more than a thin tube and footswitch. While the man stood over him, Joel inserted the tube into the air cylinder, fastened it, and dropped the switch on the floor. He stood up, stomping the pedal, and said, “I know it’s not great, but it’s the best I can do right now. I’ll sneak you some blankets and let you use one of my pillows. Sometime we’ll sneak off to the store, and I’ll get you some stuff. Can’t cost much, because I don’t have a lot of money. Sound good?”
He plodded a few more gusts of air into the mattress, removed the tube, and clamped the insertion tab into the cylinder to hold it in. He stood up with a groan. He was beat. Today had been the hardest he’d worked in a long time. Smiling admiringly at the mattress, he said, “What do you think?”
He turned around.
The man was gone.
“Hello?” He passed the water heater and stepped around a tower of boxes. The side door stood wide open. He gasped, “Oh shit, he’s gone!” Then he ran out of the basement on legs that seemed to be working against him. In the yard, he spotted the maniac standing back at the launch of the forest where he was previously.
His arms hung limply by his sides as he stared motionless into the thicket of trees. Joel approached him carefully, so as not to startle him. He wanted to say the right thing. Obviously, there was something about the woods. Either somewhere he wanted to be, or something he’d left behind.
“Is everything okay?” He didn’t respond, which worried Joel a little. He’d reverted back to the silent treatment. “Something out there that you want?”
A light shrug.
Well
,
that’s a start.
He noticed the dog tags were hanging outside of his shirt again. He took a step closer, hoping to read the name stenciled on the thin metal. Noticing his approach, the man grabbed them, and tucked them back into his shirt.
“Sorry,” he said. “I was hoping to find out your name.” Sighing, Joel adjusted his shorts that clung against his legs uncomfortably. “Do you
have
a name?”
He glanced down at Joel. He felt toddler-like compared to him. “Care if I come up with one for you?”
The man nodded.
“”You
do
care?”
Another nod.
“Oh… well…what’s your name? I can’t just call you
Hey
or
Man
all the time.”
The maniac looked around the grass, then stooped to pick up a stick. He snapped it in half, and using the sharp end, began to carve something into the dirt.
Joel stepped closer, squinting his eyes as he tried to read what he was writing. “Pillow…” He focused on the last four letters the hardest, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t figure them out. “I can’t tell what that says. Pillow what?”
The man tossed the stick away. He pointed at the word
pillow
again, then pointed at his face.
“Pillowface?”
He nodded.
“Your name’s Pillowface?”
Standing up, Pillowface patted Joel on the back. He wanted to ask him more questions, like why was he called that, and where it came from, but decided not to pry any more than he already had.
Pillowface returned his attention to the woods.
“Are you homesick?”
He shook his head.
“Then why are we staring at the woods?”
He pointed into the trees.
“Oh jeez, all right. I’m not really sure what you’re telling me here. Do you want to go out there? In the woods?” He nodded. “Okay, we’re getting somewhere.” He nervously chuckled. “Is there something out there that you want to see?”
Pillowface shoved him. Laughing, Joel staggered back, and lost his footing. He fell on his butt, hard. “Ow…” When he looked up, he saw Pillowface pointing to the woods again. “I don’t get it…” His ass was throbbing. The fall had apparently jarred it up into his spine. Even his shoulders were hurting. Pillowface scooped him up off the ground. Instead of setting him down on his feet, he threw him over his shoulder. Then they were heading for the woods.
“Whoa, easy.” He didn’t like this, the way he was being handled. It was scaring him, though he didn’t want to admit it. He’d grown to enjoy the idea of the two of them being friends. The way he was tromping through the woods, with him dangling over his shoulder, he couldn’t help fearing Pillowface wanted to add him to his list of victims. A few months from now, someone would find a link to his own headline that read:
Dumb Local boy tries to befriend Maniac!! Goes missing!!
“Hey, put me down.” He tried to sound playful, but
knew his voice was too shrill for it to have been believable.
What’s he doing with me?
God, he’s going to kill me. After all I’ve done for him and he’s going to take me into the woods and butcher me. Why? I thought we were friends…
“Seriously, drop me, man.” Pillowface stopped marching and tilted his head to the side to look at him. Their faces were close. Joel could feel gusts of warm breath on his cheek, and smell the aroma of decaying teeth and stale food. “I don’t like being up like this. I didn’t do anything to you. Just helped you, that’s all. Why are you doing this?” Joel’s eyes flooded with tears. His voice became unsteady. He tried to sound tough, but failed.
Pillowface slanted his shoulder, allowing Joel’s weight to shift. He slid off. But, before striking the ground, he felt two meaty arms wrap around his stomach and chest, and flip him over, placing him on his feet. His legs wobbled, knees clamoring together. Joel felt dizzy. Around him, the trees looked as if they were swaying this way and that. The ground seemed to be doing the same.
Slowly, his eyesight began to clear. As it did, he noticed he was alone in the woods. All he saw were trees, and all he heard was the chirping of birds and buzzing of pesky insects.
Pillowface was gone. Vanished.
“Hey?!! Where’d you go?” He spun around. Looking from side to side, he found no trace of Pillowface.
Probably ran off because of how I was acting.
But, what did he expect? Carrying him like that…what was he supposed to think?
Joel sighed, mortified over how he’d reacted.
Like a baby.
It seemed more logical that he was only hauling him because he’d been too dumb to understand what Pillowface was trying to tell him. He’d given up and was going to show him. Joel wanted to catch up to him, so he decided to continue heading in the direction that Pillowface had been carrying him in.
It wasn’t long before he found him. He hesitated calling out for him, not because of his embarrassment, but because of what he was carrying.
Draped over his shoulder was a body. A woman. Nude. There was a large gash across her throat and various others spread over her body, short and long. Her back was bent at his shoulder, and her face directed toward Joel. Her lifeless eyes seemed to be staring straight through him. He shivered, feeling as if someone was squeezing his stomach with icy hands. At one time, he figured she had probably been very pretty. But, her hair was mussed with solid red clumps, and her face was swollen and bruised. Her mouth slacked open, yawning gawkily off to the side.
He’d never seen an actual corpse before. Other than Rusky, she was the first. He chose not to witness what was left of his parents lying in their coffins, so she’d been the one to pop his corpse cherry. Sure, he’d seen them in horror movies, but this was different.
Real.
As disgusting as they appeared on film, there was no comparison to how disturbing this woman looked.
What was he going to do with her?
Joel felt a quiver of excitement when he recalled she was naked. He wondered if he could get close enough to see her tits, possibly between her legs. Just as with the corpses, he’d seen naked women in the movies, but never in reality. Well… there was that one time with Tonya, and then another time, but he was so far away it was hard to tell what they looked like, so he never counted that.
But, he’d never seen an actual…pussy. And, he’d always been curious. Even at a younger age he was fascinated with women. The way they looked, smelled, and felt. What would it feel like to touch
her
? Squeeze her? Finger her? He’d heard the guys at school talk about doing those kinds of things with their girlfriends, or various other girls all year long. For the most part, he was pretty certain they were all lying. None of them had probably even kissed a girl, let alone done sexual things with them. But, if given the chance to do some of those things with this woman he could go back to school and tell the guys what it was really like.
She’s dead
, he reminded himself.
That’s gross. What’s wrong with you? Getting hard over a dead body?
He wasn’t having any trouble ignoring the reality it was a dead body. Knowing she was open and vulnerable for his eyes to see and his hands to explore caused him to ache. His penis began to grow, becoming hard and stiff. He adjusted his shorts so it could have the room it needed to expand.
Pillowface gave Joel a quick glance before moving on, the dead woman’s upper torso dangling behind him like a cape.
(II)
Joel kept a short distance behind Pillowface while they walked. After several minutes he stopped near a stream snaking through the woods. The current was heavy for the gulley’s size.
Spirit Creek.
Joel had heard stories of people being sucked into it and dragged downstream to the waterfalls, and then they were never heard from again. He figured that was bullshit, but the fear it might happen was always there.
Approaching the hurried water, Pillowface pulled the cadaver off his shoulder and chucked her in without wavering and ending Joel’s perverted fantasies of getting to fondle her. His heart broke as she disappeared in the rivulet farther up the course. He briefly considered tracking the stream to find her, but knew it was pointless to try.
Then he noticed Pillowface was looking directly at him.
He didn’t seem pleased.
With his arms folded across his chest, he titled his head, questioning him with his eyes. Did he have an idea of what he’d been thinking, or what he wanted to do with the woman?
Why
had
he wanted to do that so badly? Now that she was gone, so were those urges that had consumed him just minutes ago. In their place were deep feelings of guilt and shame.
Pillowface approached him, taking long strides with his steps. He was dark with the needle-like rays of sunlight backing him.
It would be a cool camera angle.
“Hey,” said Joel.
Pillowface answered with a heavy exhale.
“I was just…curious…to see what you were doing.”
Pillowface glanced behind him, then turned back to Joel.
“I saw her.” Joel looked down, kicking at a broken stick. “I mean, I won’t say anything. It didn’t scare me.” He was lying; it had terrified him, and even worse had been his own sadistic thoughts. “I’ve seen them before.”
In movies
. “So, I can handle it.”
He truly doubted he could handle much more.
Pillowface placed a meaty hand on his shoulder, and lightly squeezed, assuring him everything would be fine. Then he turned and began walking. Keeping to the left, Joel trotted behind him like a puppy nipping at his heels.
“What are we doing now?”
Joel followed him through the woods. Though, he’d practically grown up having adventures out here, it all looked and felt different. They appeared to be darker, more mysterious, and maybe even more evil, as if something sinister lurked out here. It was a feeling he’d never experienced before, an overwhelming understanding that things weren’t as innocent as people had led him to believe. After his parents’ death, he’d begun having suspicions, but now, trudging through the forest on a mission to God knew where, he was certain the bright armor he’d been promised was a happy life was actually a rusted illusion, cracked and littered with ill will and pain.