The Demon Pool (42 page)

“I will.” She sounded as if she meant it. “Aloha,
Jim Demore.”

“Aloha ...” He looked at her name tag. “...
Debbi.”

Jim left the counter feeling better and made his
way to security. The line was long with dozens of people trying to escape
Florida’s almost perfect winter weather for the more perfect winter weather of
Hawaii. Phantom pain kept him company while he waited his turn. At the security
podium, Jim told the TSA officer about his leg and showed him his FHP
disability retirement ID card. The officer called his supervisor and they
escorted him to a private area.

The TSA officers were almost too courteous. They
scanned Jim with a handheld metal detector, had him strip off his pants in
order to check the prosthesis, and, once he redressed, politely escorted him
back to have his carry-on checked. Overall, not a bad experience. Even retired,
sometimes it paid to show the Gold Card.

Jim sat in his flight’s waiting area. The big jet
squatted at the gate. The only thing holding him to Florida now was gravity. In
a few minutes, the jet would take care of that physical reality.

He stared out the huge window, alone with his
thoughts. Human beings had overcome almost all of the limitations of living on
earth. They had extracted the planet’s wealth, protected themselves from much
of what nature and God were able to throw at them, and had even overcome the
force of gravity to defeat the restrictions of time, space and distance.

Yet regardless of human progress and human
potential, he’d found a realm that humans could penetrate only at great risk to
life and soul. The evil behind the evil. That a metaphysical world existed, Jim
no longer doubted. But how it came to manifest itself in his life still left
him with unanswered, and possibly unanswerable, questions.

The gate agent made the boarding announcement and
Jim got up and took his place in line. Today, he chose not to take advantage of
his new “handicap” to board early. A small piece of stubborn pride.
The Few,
the Proud, the one-legged Marines.

In someone else’s mind, the thought may have
sounded bitter, but for Jim, no bitterness. Simply the recognition of a tangled
reality. The old twisted up with the new.

He found his window seat in coach and tried to
get comfortable. Although it would probably freak out his seatmates, he could
always take off the prosthetic if he needed to.

As the plane taxied away from the gate, he
thought about Saffi and their last moments together. She had shared a Bible
verse with him about what she called “the new life in Christ.” Despite her
gentle prodding to put his faith in Jesus, he had not converted, but he liked
the verse.

Old things are passed away; all things are
becoming new.

The plane moved to the beginning of the runway,
turned, and paused. The engines roared and the jet rolled forward, picking up
speed. Lifting off, it escaped both gravity and Florida. The pilot turned the
plane, preparing to chase the sun westward.
Old things are passed away; all
things are becoming new.

Jim prayed that for him, it would be true.

The End

Richard B. Dwyer
lives in Austin, Texas
with his wife and their poodle-bichon, Max. Richard studied fiction, poetry and
screenwriting with National University, graduating with an MFA in Creative
Writing.
The Demon Pool
is Richard’s debut novel.