AWOL: A Character Lost (15 page)

“I’m sorry if I frightened you, Danny,” the man replied.

He was a short guy, maybe five feet in height, wearing jeans and a buttoned up shirt. He had red hair and a small round belly. He wasn’t terribly obese, but Danny thought the guy could stand to lose a pound or two.

“I guess you’re wondering about the card.”

Danny looked down at his hand and the card he was holding.

“Nice house by the way, and I like your choice of cars. You have the Subaru Forester on one side – practical, great family car, your wife’s of course. Then you have your flashy number.” The red haired guy eye balled Danny’s car. “A 1970 Chevy Chevelle, black of course, white racing stripe, and enough horse power to erase the fact you are forty years old.”

“What are you doing in my garage? How did you get in my car?” Danny said this through the windshield as he realized he was still strapped into his seat by the seat belt.

“I’m designed to be a human cockroach, getting into places most people can’t.” The man didn’t move. He just stood there and talked. “I’ve been assigned to you.”

“Assigned, to me?”

The garage plunged back into darkness, and this time Danny didn’t bother with the small light. He opted for the big guns, the fluorescent light that was attached to the light switch on the wall. He unhooked himself, got out of the car, and walked over to the switch. He flipped it up and flooded the room with light.

The man was still there when the light came on. He seemed unfazed, staring at Danny, just standing there like a statue, unblinking, cold, and calculating, something about him screamed harbinger of doom.

“That number on the card.” Danny looked down at it. “You should only call it once it is all over. We’ve selected you for an important role.”

The man paused as Danny’s mind raced with questions, unfrozen from their state of shock. How did this guy know his name, where he lived, his car, where he worked? So many questions Danny wanted to vomit out of his mouth, but he couldn’t because the man was speaking again.

“By the way, before I go. Remember this. We got into your locked car and your home without an issue. It wouldn’t be so hard for us to make sure whoever you talk to doesn’t talk to anyone else about our meeting. It would be best, for now, if you just kept it locked away nice and neat. Mum’s the word, Danny, got that.”

After the man said this, Danny felt a small prick in his neck – someone else in the garage he didn’t see. He felt dizzy, and he had to lie down.

That’s exactly what he did.

He first went to his knees, gently, and then onto his side. He could see the red haired guy standing in his spot, watching. Danny fought the closing of his eye lids for only a moment, because they were closing whether he liked it or not. He curled up in a fetal position, and slept.

*

Danny opened his eyes and looked up into the face of his wife. She was gently shaking him awake. He was confused, still clutching the card in his hand. “Barbara?”

“Are you okay?” She asked, obviously concerned.

Danny sat up quick – quick enough to see giant stars. He was groggy, and he was dizzy; but his male instinct wanted to protect his family from the strange intruder. He leaped to his feet, eyes darting around the room, fluorescent light piercing them as they tried to adjust from sleeping darkness to harsh unnatural light.

The intruder was gone, and those stars he was seeing when he first woke up were now as big as the ones in the galaxy. He leaned on the car to steady himself. “Where did he go?”

“Who?” Barbara asked as she stood in front of Danny, making sure he wasn’t going to fall over.

“The man in the garage.”

“There’s no one here, Danny. Are you okay?”

Danny shook the cobwebs free and pushed the card deep into this pocket, eyes still searching, not wanting to give up. He looked in every corner, but there was no one there but the two of them. The red haired guy was gone.

“I heard the garage door open, and then I heard it close. I figured you were finishing up a song you were listening to, so I didn’t want to bother you. I got busy and lost track of time. I noticed it was an hour -”

“An hour? I was out for that long?”

“Yes. I didn’t realize it because I was busy with dinner.” She took a moment to look him over. He seemed fine, nothing bruised or broken from the fall, no signs of head trauma. “So what happened exactly?”

“One minute,” he paused and thought of the card.

She looked at him. “One minute, what?”

He thought of the red haired guy and his subtle threat -
“It wouldn’t be so hard for us to make sure whoever you talk to doesn’t talk to anyone else about our meeting.”

“Never mind, it’s not important. I’m okay. Let’s just leave it there.”

She studied him, still not buying what Danny was selling, but if he said he was feeling okay then she just had to trust that he was. “Well, dinner’s ready. I was just going to call Johnny in from his game.”

“What about Michael?”

“In his room, sulking, playing video games most likely.”

“Did he give you a lot of trouble?”

“No more than usual. Come on. Let’s get us fed,” Barbara replied, as they both made their way into the house.

*

Danny walked into the dining room, and looked the table over. It was laid out to perfection with the dinner plates, the silverware, napkins folded in nice rectangles, food staying warm inside covered dishes, and glasses in the right spot – full of water. It reminded him of the time when he stayed home, taking care of the boys, a stay-at-home dad. The job market at the time was terrible, so he just decided to stay in and raise the kids. It was cheaper than day care. During those times, Danny always tried to have a meal on the table for his kids and working wife to eat. That was before he went back to school and finished his degree.

“This looks nice.” Danny lifted one of the covers, and hot steam came rushing out at him. It was Broccoli, healthy, and sometimes okay for eating. “It reminds me of the time when I stayed home.”

“You never made a spread like this,” Barbara replied, walking into the dining room with bread in a basket. She put the basket on the table, completing the meal.

“No, guess not. I’m just saying it reminds me of the time when the kids were young, and we would have dinner together in here. A family eclipse, if you will, blotting out the world around us.” Danny took her in his arms, gave her a thank-you hug, and then kissed her, deeply, like when they were first married many years ago. He could feel that runner’s body underneath her clothes, could smell the shampoo in her soft brown hair, and he could feel those first signs of stirring below his belt.

She seemed to read his mind and returned the kiss, pressing her hips against his, allowing him to have this moment and to let him know without words that tonight it might be possible for them to do something together. She then pushed him away. “Okay stud, dinner’s getting cold; and you better get rid of that.”

Danny looked down at his crotch. At his age, it was easier to turn off than to turn on; so he took a moment and let it go limp.

“Which one do you want?” She asked, munching on bread, lips still moist from the kiss.

“I’ll take Michael. You get the easy one tonight.”

“When he’s with his friends, he can be almost as difficult.” She turned to leave and stopped. She turned back to him. “Did I tell you that I love you today?”

“No.”

She smiled. “I just wanted to say it. I hate days when we are so busy we don’t say it to each other.”

“I know, love you too.”

Outside they could hear kids screaming with joy. Someone had just hit a home-run in the makeshift baseball game.

Barbara exited out the front door and Danny made the long walk to Michael’s room. While Danny walked and climbed the stairs, he thought about the day, thought about the number on the card in his pocket, thought about the red haired guy he saw in the garage. What did it all mean? He was unsure, but he knew it meant trouble, bad trouble.

Danny reached the door to his son’s room and stopped.

This was a normal bedroom door, leading into a typical kid’s room; but beyond this door was something Danny thought he would never have to deal with, a difficult son. Don’t get me wrong, Michael wasn’t a law breaker or anything like that. He didn’t deal drugs or set houses on fire, at least as far as Danny knew. He was, for the most part, a good kid who was just trying to grow up and assert his independence. He was 14, and boys that age always find a way to push their parents out. They are almost up to driving age, about to have sex for the fist time, able to earn money with small jobs, and do so many things a normal adult can do. However, at that age, they aren’t adults; and they still have to be treated as such. It ways heavy on a teenage boy as he tries to deal with all he has to deal with. Michael was no exception, and Danny had to keep telling himself that.

He knocked on the door and his son, of course, didn’t answer. Show of wills, Danny understood that because he was just like his son at that age.

“Michael, dinner is on the table.” Danny was trying to remain calm.

“Not hungry.”

“You need to come down and eat. This isn’t a discussion.”

“I said I’m not hungry. Leave me be.”

Danny sucked in his breath, calmed his nerves, exhaled, and continued. “I’m coming in.” The door was of course locked. Danny smiled, oldest trick in the book. “What have I said about locking the door?”

“I ate earlier.”

Danny controlled his anger, and reached for the key. The lock popped, and the door opened before he had a chance to use it.

Michael walked back across the room and sat down in front of his video game, something involving zombies and a lot of shooting. He was dressed in jeans, dark shoes, and a tee shirt that had a death metal band on it. This was how Michael was trying to rebel, music wise. Because his dad was a heavy metal guy, he couldn’t really kick up the Iron Maiden or Judas Priest to piss off his dad when his dad loved those bands. So he had to go darker and more evil – death metal was the answer, something his dad hated and really never understood the attraction to. What Michael didn’t realize was that if he really wanted to rebel, he should have gotten into disco or hip hop. That would have really driven his old dad crazy, because at least with death metal (as bad as it was) it was still some form of metal. Danny never pointed this out to Michael, but he always kept it in the back of his mind, just in case he really wanted to mess with the kid.

Danny put the key back, and walked over to where Michael was sitting in a bean bag chair.

“Your mom made a nice dinner, and she wants all of us down there to eat it. It would mean a lot to her. She doesn’t get a chance to do this very often.” Danny looked at the screen for a moment as Michael zoned out. A zombie got his head wasted, blood and brains splattered.

“I’m really not hungry.”

“I know you are. You can finish this once you’re done.”

“Fine,” Michael replied, never taking his eyes off the screen. He shot four more zombies and a pedestrian as Danny watched.

“I’ll see you down stairs in five minutes.”

Michael ignored him, and Danny left the room, leaving the door open. He descended the stairs only to see Johnny come running past him, his mom on his heels.

“The game has been called due to dinner. Once Johnny was pulled, the rest fell like dominoes.”

“Michael is on his way down.”

“Was it that easy?”

“Easiest we’ve had it in a while.”

“Maybe he’s starting to soften.”

“Maybe he’s just hungry.”

Danny and Barbara made their way to dinner. A clean Johnny joined them moments later followed by Michael minutes after that. I can’t say all four of them ate and talked like some perfect family, but at least, for this night, they were all seated at the table at the same time. That in itself was a miracle.

Dinner finished, they all returned to their normal distractions.

The night arrived, and the night passed.

*

Danny was standing at the foot of the class, looking up into all those eager young faces. He did this every day, studying their eyes and expressions, trying to see if they had gotten the meaning of the day’s lecture. He could see the ones who had gotten it and the ones who didn’t.

The clock clicked.

Time was up.

He dismissed them, collected his things, and erased the board. He wondered while he cleaned if today’s lecture on Super hero movies, why they worked and why they didn’t, was actually something he should be teaching. Most professors who taught film went with the classics like Citizen Kane or Casablanca, both fine movies, cinema turning points, but Danny wanted to do something different. He wanted his class to be more modern, and less about the ancient black and white past.

The board cleaned and the desk cleared of his work. He made his way over to the teacher’s area. This wasn’t a grand area by any stretch of the imagination. It was small and compact with enough room for a few tables and chairs, a coffee pot, a refrigerator, a microwave, a small TV that was rarely used, and several vending machines. There were no windows in this basement room, just four white walls with overhead fluorescent lights and pictures of a mountain and a beach. These pictures were supposed to take your mind off the fact that you were in such a sterile looking room. Danny often looked at those pictures when he sat in there drinking his coffee or when he worked on his poetry. The beach picture took him away most of the time. It was a tropical locale, perfect sunset, perfect white sand, perfect waves lapping perfectly onto a perfect shore, and perfect palm trees all perfectly placed. It almost seemed photo shopped because of its perfection.

Today, the room wasn’t all that full, only two people in there when Danny walked in. He made his way over to the fridge, in order to get a snack, eaves dropping on their conversation, but not meaning to.

Mitchel or Mitch to his friends and family, the talker of the two, was a portly professor with salt and pepper hair aged about fifty years. He had a wife and two kids, along with an affair or two in his pocket. Mitch was a die hard Republican, and he was talking with Bobby (twenties, not married, fit, part time professor) who was an obvious Democrat right down to the eco friendly car that he drove. The two were having a heated debate about the Middle East Nuclear Arms Association.