Ghost Program (23 page)

   “Only a little,” I said.

   “You still think you’re up for driving to Seattle with me?”

   “Yes.”

   “Have you got anything to pack?”

   “There’s a trunk in my closet, towards the back.  Just... dump the stuff out that’s in there now, and replace it with my clothes.  You can fill it up to the top, then we can get someone to help carry it down the stairs.”  I sat up slightly and gazed towards the large window with its billowing curtain.  When I saw Gregg’s mother standing in the yard on the steps of the lit cave, I began to weep.

   Brent was alarmed by my sudden case of hysteria.  “Sam?  What’s wrong?  You’re not all right, are you?  Are you hurt?”

    I leaned my head into his lap and cried into it.  “It’s Gregg’s mother.  She wants to take him away.  Don’t tell him; he won’t come back.”

   “Don’t do this, Sam.  You’re hysterical.  Get ahold of yourself.  Just what are you saying?”

   I took a shaky breath, but couldn’t shake my panic.  “He’s not supposed to be here-- Gregg...”

   “I know.  He’s dead.  That would be a given.”

   “His family’s not here.  She comes sometimes to look for him; she wants to take him with her.”

   “Take him where?”

   “I don’t know.  But away from the earth.”

   Brent spoke slowly.  “I don’t know if what you say is true, but if it is...well, it is not for you to decide that he stays here.  That is entirely up to Gregg.”

   “I won’t see him again,” I said.

   “I know,” said Brent.  There was nothing more he could say, so he stroked my hair as I lay in his lap.  We were both quiet.  Even now, I think that form of intimacy to be so much pleasanter than anything physical.  I’d of course come to the same conclusion that Brent had, and eventually my tears stopped.  It was time for Gregg to leave.

   Gregg burst into the room, smiling and carrying my discarded crutches.  “I think you’ll be wanting these,” he said, leaning them against the footboard of the bed, displaying his usual alacrity and friendliness.

   Brent gently plied my head off his lap and sank it into a pillow.  He looked nervously towards the window and at the gowned woman who stood below. 

   “Might we go out into the yard, Gregg?  I’ve got something to discuss with you,” Brent asked, a little embarrassed.

   “Well, sure,” he said.  “But why is Sam unhappy?”

   “I- I’m okay,” I said, reddening.

   Gregg frowned, sat next to me on the bed, and gave my hand a cold squeeze.  “I’m sure that whatever it is, we can work it out.  Have some faith, sister.”  He kissed me on the top of the head.

   “We’ll be back, Sam.  I’d like to talk to Gregg in some privacy,” said Brent.

   Gregg followed Brent out my bedroom door.  I watched out my window.  A minute later, I saw Brent and Gregg enter the yard from the kitchen door, then I saw the brown-haired woman rush towards them, her eyes bright, hopeful.  She mouthed a few words to Gregg, and he nodded, then she took him up in an embrace.  Gregg pulled away and made a motion as if to return to the house, but Brent caught his sleeve.  They exchanged a few words, after which Gregg hung his head for a minute, looking somber.  Gregg then shook Brent’s hand and followed his mother up the brightly lit steps.  The cave disappeared, and Brent was left standing alone in the yard.  I noticed that the fountain was running for the first time ever in my life, cool water cascading over its levels, then I sat up a little and closed the curtain.

*****

   “
So this is it then, huh?”  I asked, looking around Brent’s little apartment.

   “Sorry, it isn’t much.  I was on a tight budget,” he said.

   “No, I ...like it.  I’ll have to get used to cooking on a hot plate...”

   “There’s a microwave,” he interjected.

   “And a plant...”  I leaned my crutches against the sofa that stood against the wall of the studio, studying his potted succulent.  On the other side of the room, in a small alcove was a double mattress on the floor.  Brent’s apartment seemed a celebration of simplicity.  I sat myself down on the couch, huffing a little as a bandage came loose.  Outside rain pattered on large windows which overlooked a dreary street in University district.

   “So we don’t have to be in class for a few weeks.  What do you want to do?”

   “I was supposed to meet that lawyer.  Do you think I can call her to come up here?”

   “I’m sure you can.”

   I had mentioned the woman’s call on the car ride up the freeway.  During the long ride, I had asked Brent what had happened out there in the yard with Gregg.  He said very little except that Gregg had been had been reluctant to leave with his mother.

   “We could go to Pike Place,” I said.  “Do a little shopping?”

   “That’s right.  I’d love to take you shopping, to buy you things.  Why not?  You like to shop...oh, but about that.  There’s something I wanted to mention, now that you’re here in the big city.  It’s not really safe to go anywhere by yourself.  This neighborhood is chock full of crackheads, homeless people....probably rapists, too.  A lot of robberies.  It’s not Seaside.”

  
I began to laugh as Brent sidled next to me and put his arm over my shoulder.  “Really?  You mean it’s not safe like Seaside?  Oh.  Wow.  If it’s worse than Seaside, I may as well give up.”

   “I’m serious,” he said.  But then he started to laugh, too.  “Oh man, I must have sounded like such an ass saying that.”

   “You sort of did.  And you
are
an ass; laughing makes my ribs hurt.  Damn you!  The one thing I wanted to avoid doing, and now you’ve made me do it.”

   “Oh, I’m sorry, Sam.  I’ve got a little 7-up and vodka.  Let me fix you a drink.  I don’t want you in pain.”  He got up and walked towards his little refrigerator.  I didn’t know how so much stuff fit inside such a small apartment.  “This stuff is good, makes you totally numb.  Try not to laugh, it’s hard on your ribs, isn’t it?”

   “Yeah, that’d be good,” I said, then started laughing again.

   “I’m serious.  Stop.”

   “I’m trying.”

   “I’m almost done with your drink, honey.”  Brent walked toward me and handed me the glass of sweet liquor.  I took a sip and found it fresh and delicious.

   My cell phone beeped so I picked it up.  “Hello?”

   “Sam?  Where are you?”  Mel’s voice.

   “I’m in Seattle.”

   “Oh.  Hey, did you hear what happened?  Some weird shit.  Everyone’s talking about it.”

   “No, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

   “That little rundown Victorian by the community college.  Apparently, it caught fire today, which by itself isn’t real interesting.  But it’s what the firefighters found in it once they got inside.  There was a guy, dead from the fumes but that’s not all.  There was some girl tied up in the basement, and she was alive, and they found her.  And she’d been in that house all of three months against her will, missing from some other city or state.  If the house hadn’t burned, they never would have found her, never would have known she was there.”

   “The house on the corner?”  I had a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach.

   “Yeah.”

   It was the one I’d seen creepy guy go into then.  I should have figured there was something wrong with the place, but at the time it didn’t occur to me.

   “Are you okay?” asked Mel.  “You’re being awfully quiet.”

   “No, I’m fine.  I was just thinking.”

   “I know; it’s weird, huh?”

   “Yeah.”  Did creepy guy have an accomplice living in the house or had he shown up to watch whatever immoral acts took place in that basement?  What I really believed is that he had attempted to lure me into the house knowing that I too, would be taken prisoner, never to see my family again.  Such was the agenda of  Roland Jennings, a man whose life had been dedicated to the willful infliction of injury on other people, a man whose mere existence was in itself morally reprehensible.  I was glad Tony had chopped off his head and that previous to that, he had been hung.  Maybe his second death would take for good.

   “So you’re at UW now?” asked Mel.

   “I’ll come down sometime on the weekend.  Or you can come up here.”

   “I’d like that,” she said.  “Look, I have to go.  I’ve got movie tickets.  Just called to give you the scoop.”

   “I appreciate it,” I said.  “Call me in a few days.”

   “Will do.  Bye,” she said and hung up the line from her end.

   “Who was it?” asked Brent, sitting next to me.

   “Mel.”  I related Mel’s story to Brent who was equally creeped out as I was.

   “Yuck,” he said.  “It takes all kinds.”

   “I know.”  As I thought about Mel’s story, I frowned and stiffened.

   “Now that you’re here, relax,” Brent advised.  I know you’re not doing so well.  You don’t have to cook or anything.  I’ll pick up some tacos for us later.”

   “From that taco stand you told me about?”

   “Yeah.”  He held my chin, pulling my mouth slightly open with his thumb and finger, brought his lips to mine, and kissed me lightly.  He stared into my eyes, then lifted my shirt up to look at my bandages again.  “How does it feel?”

   “Stings a little,” I said.

   “The problem is this waistband on your leggings.  I think it’s rubbing the bandages.”  He pulled off my shoes, placing them neatly by the couch, then gently slid the waistband of my pants down my hips and slipped the them off, folding them and placing them by my shoes.  He grinned.  “That’s a little better, but now we’ve got the edge of your panties which, if you move around too much is going to slide up and knock your bandages clear off.”  He very gently slid my panties off and tossed them on the floor.  “Now, that’s what I call comfortable.”

   My heart pounded in my chest, and my mouth felt dry.  “Uh, Brent.  I’ve never been with... a man.  I don’t...”

   “I told you to relax, didn’t I?  I’m not going to hurt you.”  His fingers traced circles in my pubic hair then I felt him spread my thighs open.

   I made a whimpering sound.

   “Come on, have a little trust, okay?  I told you there’s nothing so bad here.”  He smiled, and his grey eyes looked honest so I felt myself relax a little.

   I took a deep breath and watched him as he placed his lips in between my legs and alternately sucked and licked me.  There was no pain, only pleasure.  My fear lessened, and I closed my eyes and just let the ardor of his unanticipated touch was over me.  Brent never took or expected anything for himself, and our love-making was limited to one long kiss in a place I’d not expected it.  Throughout it all, I felt his warm hands warm my thighs.  He asked for nothing in return, and I was grateful for that as I was young and still a virgin.  Afterwords, he placed a blanket over me, muttered
I love you, Sam
, and went out to buy some tacos and sodas, leaving a small television set on for me to watch.

   I felt it an irrefragable truth that his words were sincere.

*****

♥
Afterword
♥

  
S
easide community college felt terrible over what had happened to me, and the programming instructor assured me that Mr. Breame had intended to give me an A in the class, so that’s what showed up on my transcript.  That quarter, I was awarded with a 4.0 gpa.  

  
B
rent and I got along wonderfully, and after the summer I didn’t move into a sorority as I had promised mom.  Happily, I stayed in Brent’s apartment.  We grew closer and closer, until we finally made plans for marriage, but decided that we’d wait till after we received our degrees.  The city was exciting, but I missed Seaside.  People in Seattle were strange, a lot of them dressed all in black or seemed angry, and I wasn’t used to the strange culture that existed outside of the small towns and suburbs.  So Brent and I decided that we would raise our kids in Seaside.  I mean, why not?  We grew up there and turned out all right.

 
M
el came up to visit us sometimes on the weekends or we went to Seaside to see our folks.  I never heard from Gregg again.  I missed him, but I was glad that he had gotten to the other side,  and though I didn’t know what lay beyond the earth, I guessed that it was something good.

   I
visited Veronica at her house several more times, but didn’t hear that the Dark Lord had brought her anymore rescued women.  Veronica told me that Karen had helped Tony cross into the afterlife because she didn’t feel he belonged on earth.

 
I
don’t think that I would’ve bonded to Brent so well if we hadn’t have gone through so many struggles, and in a way, I was grateful that life in Seaside hadn’t been too easy.