ALONE

ALONE

The moment he walked out of his house, he felt like something was wrong.  It was too quiet.  Only the red and brown autumn leaves raced down the usually busy street he lived on.  One could usually hear screaming of little children as they played at the park the next block over, but not a happy sound could be heard. 

He sat on his porch for a while, smoking a cigarette and thinking of work the day before.  He had gotten a pay raise at his job, and had called Maria that night to ask her out for a night on the town.  She was his best friend, and was always willing to party with him.  They weren’t together, but he could see it happening in the future.  He let daydreams of the dark skinned Latino girl dance through his minds’ eye, his stogie forgotten.  It quickly turned to ash, and fell into a small pile by his feet. 

He looked up, and noticed how strange it was that no cars had driven by.  No one had come out of their homes to get their morning paper.  It was all still too silent.

‘I’m going to call Maria, and see if she knows what’s going on,' he thought.  He walked back inside, maneuvering through the house to his bedroom.  He picked up the old cradle phone, but there was no dial tone.  Only silence.  He checked to make sure it was plugged in and it was.  He tried again, and heard nothing.

That's when the hairs on the back of his neck tingled, standing straight up.  No, something was really not right. 

His keys jingled harshly when he snatched them up by the lighter leash, and even more so when he ran back out the door.  He unlocked his car with the push of a button, and quickly got behind the wheel.  As the engine roared to life, he wondered belatedly if he should have brought his jacket.  ‘I’m in too big of a hurry to go get it now,’ he thought, nodding in agreement with himself.

He began the short trip to Maria’s house, keeping an eye out for any other being.  There, a dog!  But it wasn’t moving either.  Just standing by the fire hydrant with one foot raised high in the air.  He passed it by, his brain feeling muddled and confused. 

He came upon a red light.  “Ring around the rosie.  Pockets full of posie.  Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.”  He shook his head in bemusement, chuckling after the age old song had passed his lips.  His hand reached for the radio dials.  Nothing.  Not even a buzzing.  His fingers tapped his right leg as he waited for the light to turn green.  ‘Why is it taking so long?’ he wondered.  He looked around, growing quickly bored with the scenery.  He never did like this town.  Too many hicks, not enough chicks.  After another minute of waiting, He ran the red light.  There was no one to see him do it anyways. 

Maria’s house had a long gravel driveway, and he took it to the house at twice the speed he should have.  She had the most beautiful garden, filled with roses, peonies and lilacs.  As he parked the car, his vision blurred, things around him going all fuzzy and spinning madly.  All of a sudden it was alright again.  He was surprised, however, to find himself on the porch by the front door instead of in the car.  He didn’t feel dizzy, and wondered momentarily what was going on.  Then he rang the doorbell.

Although he knew he shouldn’t have felt so disappointed, he still was when no one answered the door.  ‘There’s no one but me.’   When he turned back to the driveway, he noticed Maria’s car wasn’t even there.  He remembered that they had gone out together the night before, but he couldn’t remember what they had done.  ‘She had smelled like beer.’  They had both had a few too many beers before he and Maria had left.  He wondered where his best friend was now.

He got back into his car, and pulled it around, taking the long driveway back to the street, feeling very sad and alone. 

He felt as if the world around him stood still, and in a way it was.  The wind blew, and the sun shone, creating shadows everywhere.   He couldn’t feel the heat it gave out, but that didn’t really worry him.  What worried him was he had once again stopped the car.  The dog by the hydrant still had its leg lifted in the air.  It made nary a move, though the wind shook its shaggy fur. 

He stepped out of the car, and walked towards the mutt.  He bent down to get a closer look.  The dog seemed completely lifeless and full of life at the same time.  He poked a finger at it to see if maybe it would fall over, but as soon as he touched it, it came to life.  It yapped and yapped, licking his fingers and face.

He screamed and fell back, grunting as his rump hit the sidewalk.  The dog took this all in stride, and kept up its happy dancing.  Its happy attitude soon had him laughing.  “I’ve always wanted a dog,” he said aloud.  He patted the mutt’s furry head.  It gave him another happy lick. 

He stood up and stretched.  For a moment his body felt like it had been hit with a train.  He cried out in pain, but the feeling was gone in an instant.  He shook his head to clear it, and then looked down at the dog.  “Hungry?” he asked it. 

“Yip yip.”

“Okay then,” he said, “let’s go find some lunch.”  He picked up the small furry dog and walked back to the car.  The moment he opened the car door, the dog seemed to know where it was wanted.  It hopped from his arms and into the passenger seat, wagging its little tail.

The café was deserted, but he expected that.  He didn’t expect what was on the first table, though.  Steaming hot buffalo wings, fries, and fried okra.  There was even a bowl of dog food on the floor for the mutt.  Next to the plate, there was a beer bottle.  He reached out to touch it.  It was ice cold.

He looked around to see if someone else was going to claim this meal, but then remembered.  “All alone, except for the dog,” he muttered.  He sat down on the chair, and pulled the plate closer.  He didn’t really smell an aroma coming from the food, but he was too hungry to care, and dug into it anyways.

The beer was left untouched.  He felt like he’d had enough alcohol to last him a life time. 

When he was finished, he wiped his mouth with the white cloth napkin, and stood from the table.  His belly still felt empty, but his hunger had abated.  He rubbed a hand over it and sighed. 

“I wonder where Maria is.  She always meets me for lunch.  It’s a shame she missed this.  That was the tastiest meal I’ve had in a long…“  He stopped short.  “Huh.  I don’t even remember what I ate now.”  He licked his gums, but tasted nothing.  When he looked again at the table, the plate, napkin and beer were gone.  “How strange.  I could swear that I just ate something.”

 He looked at the dog, as if it knew the answer.  The mutt gave him a blank stare, before lying down with a whine.  His food bowl was also missing from under the table. 

His hands shook as he removed a cigarette from his pack, and they trembled more as he tried to work the lighter.  His head hurt from the pain, the pain, the pain. 

The ashtray on his coffee table was spinning on its own, around and around.  He reached a hand out to stop it.  It quit spinning.  He smiled, and deposited the ash from the cherry.

The dog lay asleep on the floor.   His whiskers gave a twitch, and his legs moved a bit, as if he was running. 

With a humored snort, he looked around his living room.  Then his face paled.  ‘How did I get here?  I was just at the café, eating… something.  Where’s Maria?  It’s almost time for the football game now.’

He walked to his room, and picked up the phone.  It fell from his hand as he suffered another wave of pain, this time in his legs.  He fell to the floor, whimpering.  His legs felt as if they’d been crushed, run over by a steam roller or something.  “Maria!” he croaked, tears pouring down his face.  “Maria, somebody, anybody!”

He laughed as Maria sped down the gravel road, headed back to town.  They were on their way to the club to dance and hang out with their other friends.  The loose gravel made the wheels waver, and the swaying movement made him laugh harder. 

Maria looked at him and laughed with him, her beautiful eyes shone in the moonlight that was pouring through the sunroof.   Her black hair gently moved in the slight breeze coming through the cracked windows.  He grinned goofily at her.  She grinned back.

Then he was screaming as the car hit the ditch, flew through the air and wrapped itself around a tree. 

He knew he had to find her.  Maria was missing!  There was a game coming on and she had to come over.  She always looked so cute in her jersey, throwing back beers like the best of them and screaming when a touchdown for their team was made. 

He was worried, and it showed in the panicked look he wore.  He again grabbed the car keys, and whistled for the dog.  It came running and followed him out the door.  He didn’t bother locking it, he wanted to get there as soon as possible. 

He sped through town, and slowed considerably when he reached the gravel road he knew they’d been on.  He took the turns carefully, keeping his eye out for anything, anything at all.  His dog had his head out the window, lolling his tongue to catch the breeze.

There!  There was Maria’s car, wrapped tightly around the strong oak.  He pulled over and ran to it, hoping he wouldn’t find what he feared most.  He peered through the dusty, muddy glass, seeing almost nothing.  He wiped the window with his hand, removing some of the layer of dirt and grime.   Taking another glance inside, his heart flew to his throat as he saw his best friend staring at him with lifeless eyes.  He saw the beer cans that littered the floor of the car. 

How could they have been so stupid!  Tears poured from his face as he fell to the ground.

‘Where’s Maria? She was supposed to be here an hour ago.  We’re supposed to go clubbing.’

‘My beautiful best friend Maria starts college today.  She’s going to be a world renowned… something…  Why can’t I remember?’

There, in the back row of his Algebra 1 class, the most beautiful girl in entire school.  Maria Sanchos, Head Cheerleader, girlfriend of that dickhead Quarterback, Walter Ferris.  He smiled at her.  She grinned back, showing off brilliant white teeth.

He was in agony.  His vision was blurred even worse this time, and the world around him span.  He was so confused.  He just wanted it to end.  His body was on fire with pain, his legs, shaking hard from the torment of being crushed.  His head swam and everything started to get dark.

 

“No!  Maria, help me!” he screamed.  “Don’t let it end this way!”   His hands clawed the ground.  He thought if he could get to the car, he could save her, save them both, but the pain was receding, and everything went black.  His last sound was a sigh.

 

The machines were going crazy.  A nurse ran in and eyed the screens warily.  She turned to look at the frantic family.  “I’m so sorry, but we knew this could happen.  Your son, he’s going brain dead.  There’s nothing we can do to save him.”

His mother burst into tears and grabbed her sons’ hand.  “It’ll be ok, honey.  It will all be fine,” she said between sobs. 

After a few minutes, the machines quieted.  The only sound was the beeping of the life support, as it kept the blood pumping through his veins.

His father looked down at his still form.   “I think it’s time to let him go, Mary.  He needs to rest in peace, with Maria.  He will have wanted that.  You know how much he loved that girl.”

His mother nodded shakily.  She wasn’t ready to let go of the hand that lay in hers, but she didn’t stop her husband, Richard, from unplugging the machine.

“Noting the passing of Daniel Eugene Adams.  Time of death, 4:42am, Sunday, October 27^th, 2013,” said the nurse.  She wrote it down, and left the small family to mourn their son in peace.

When Mary and Richard got home, they saw a small stray dog on their porch.  It looked at them with huge sad eyes, and the couple shared a look.  They may have had a hole dug into their hearts, but they just knew they had to take this dog in.

The dog gave a happy “Yip yip” when Richard opened the door and told him to come.

The End.