The Memories Of Joh Baker

The Memories Of John Baker

There are many times when a memory shows up in the back of a person’s mind. The troubling thing is when it is a memory of something or some place that the person has never experienced. Some say that the memory is travel to an alternate reality or a suppressed memory of another life or even another life being lived by the dreamer. John Baker didn’t believe any of these as he went through his life even after the dreams started when he was ten or so.

He went to his school, Allegheny Heights P.S. 2, everyday. He was a good student who regularly got A’s and B+’s in nearly every class, If you asked him…he loved Science but, like most kids, he hated English and Math. He had a lot of friends and was just pretty much a regular kid.

At night, as soon as he fell asleep, he entered another world that was similar to his but different. He lived pretty much the same life except that he was living in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, He went to school, played base ball and hung out with friends.

Every night he lived out his live in Ohio and during the day he lived in Pennsylvania. After a time he started losing too much sleep which began to affect the way his life was going. His parents took him to doctors, put him in the hospital for tests and even had him put on medication to make him sleep but none of that worked.

“Mom,” he said one day. “I like the places I go to and the people I meet. The kids and the teachers are great there and I would like to keep going there.” Initially she refused but she saw how much it meant to him so she decided that she would stop all of the treatments and just accept her son and his little quirk.

Soon he started telling stories of what was happening when he “went away” as he started calling it. He described his friends as if they were real. “Dad you should have seen the home run Billy hit last night,” he would say. “It was the third strike and he just clobbered it. I have never seen anything like it.”

John’s dad looked out of the window and saw that there was three inches of snow on the ground and, when he reminded John of that fact John’s comeback was quick.

“No Dad,” he said with a touch of hurt in his voice. “Not here. I mean my other friend Billy…the one in Ohio. I played football with my friend Billy here yesterday. You should know that.”

Stammering, John’s dad tried to think of something to say until he finally admitted that he had no idea how John was keeping his lives straight but he wanted to know more…he wasn’t even sure that John was telling the truth.

“We went to the movies,” John said. “I couldn’t believe it. The popcorn was so good and I ate a lot of it. It had a lot of butter and I liked it.”

He thought about it for a minute and, after calling his wife over, he realized that John was saying he was full when he got up and, despite the fact that his mother cooked John’s favorite pancakes with real maple syrup, he didn’t even look at his breakfast.

“Dad, I must have eaten twenty pounds of popcorn and a couple gallons of Coke. It was all so good,” John added.

That went on throughout John’s childhood starting when he was just six years old. His parents thought that it may have been something to do with separation anxiety of his going to school but that was quickly dismissed by pretty much everyone who knew the story.

When he was a teen he got more involved with school…taking part in school plays, clubs and athletic teams. He was even voted as the vice president of his senior class. That didn’t leave him a lot of time for dating or anything like that but he was very popular with the girls.

It became more common that he was coming down for breakfast as tired, if not more tired, than he was when he went up to bed.

“Man Dad,” he said one morning. “I went to a concert last night and it was wild. I don’t remember who the band was but I know the music was great and we didn’t get home until 1:00. I was so tired I took my date home and then I just went home and climbed straight into bed.”

“You were out on a date,” he asked.

“Yeah, her name is Pamela. She is really pretty and I have been seeing her for some time now.”

Now, his dad was home all night. He knew that John didn’t go out and he wasn’t seeing a girl named Pamela. But, this was at least something he could check out. He called the operator and asked her to place a call for him to the Akron Beacon Journal. It took a couple of minutes but he did finally get through. He asked for the entertainment editor and asked if there was a concert in town the night before.

“I have a silly question,” John’s dad started. “I am in Pennsylvania and I was just wondering…was there a concert down there last night?”

“Yes sir,” he replied. “There was a concert out at the Cuyahoga Falls High School Gym. I wasn’t there and it wasn’t big enough for us to cover but I hear that it was a hell of show.”

John’s dad was in shock but he took a moment to thank the man before he hung up. He knew that John was always talking about his “travels” but this was the first time that he actually had the proof that they actually existed. Now that this had happened he and John’s mother started taking the stories more seriously. It seemed like their son was living two separate lives.

John was in high school for a couple of more years. During that time he played his sports, actually found a girlfriend and led a fairly normal life. He even won a scholarship to a college where he was to study journalism with a minor in creative writing. His parents didn’t really find this uncommon since he picked up poetry and some fiction writing in his junior year but the writings were always about something he experienced in his other life so no one could tell how much was truth, and how much was made up.

He took the scholarship and entered college the following September with the girl he met in his junior year. Her name was Angela Beth Turner and they were completely in love to such an extent that she took the same major so she could have the same classes as him.

She often heard him talking about Pamela and his other life. Initially there was a lot of jealousy but that subsided the moment that he told her that she was the one that he loved. She had no idea why she believed him but she did…at least on the surface…but there may have been a doubt that she never showed.

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He did still have the other life. Every night he would travel to Cuyahoga Falls to be with his friends. His relationship with Pamela was getting closer. They had started making love on a regular basis and he even got an apartment with her as soon as they left school. The thing was, he didn’t realize it but the memories and his other life never followed him over to that life. That other John Baker, who lived in Allegheny Heights didn’t exist, at least not to him.

He did have a job working at the Ascot Race Track as a waiter in the Jockey Club but it didn’t pay much and Pamela spent her evenings out working. She was a bartender at some bar in downtown Akron and she made good money doing it but she wasn’t happy having to work six nights a week until 2:30 a.m. The thing was there was a lot of stress caused by the relationship and John had the normal medical problems associated with it. He tried relaxing and having fun but those days faded away shortly after his graduation. Although he wasn’t married to Pamela their living together turned more and more as if it was a marriage. The thing was…he was only 20 and he knew that he still had a lot of life he wanted to live.

The next morning Pamela was still asleep when John woke up. He packed his clothes and then wrote a note simply saying that he needed his space and decided that it was time for him to leave. “It isn’t your fault,” it said. “It is all me. I just need to get away for awhile and this seems to be the best way. No tears, no arguing, just a clean break. I do love you I just have to do this.” It was cold and impersonal but that was the way he was.

He went into downtown Akron, took $250 he had in his pockets and bought a bus ticket. He didn’t care where the bus was going. He just had the urge to roam and, to him, this was the best way to cure the urge that was possessing him. He looked at the city name on the front of the bus. It read Cheyenne…the same city name was on his ticket. That was good. John always had an interest in the west and Cheyenne was as good a place as any to see what it was really like.

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“Honey,” John said while he wiped the sleep from his eyes, “I don’t think you have to worry about Pamela anymore. The other me just broke up with her and left town.”

Angela was still half asleep when he broke the news. She sat up in the bed, pulled the blanket up around her neck and just looked at him with a look of pure confusion.

“He just up and left her. All he told her was that he needed his space.”

“You don’t feel that way do you,” Angela asked as her look changed from confusion to concern. “I would never want to lose you.” Her eyes widened. They were still holding on to the last vestige of sleep but she was awake and a tear started forming in the corner. She wanted to hear the answer but, at the same time, she didn’t want to hear what he might say.

“Angela…my darling,” John said as he took her by the hands and kissed her. “I may be him in some freaked out reality but in this reality I love you. I do love you…I hope you know that… and I am never going to leave you no matter what he does.”

“I know you do Honey and I know that you’ll never leave me,” Angela said as she laid back down on the bed and put her head on his chest. “It just scared me a little bit.”

“Honey,” John started. “I know that scared you and I never want to do that again. I want to know one thing…”

“What’s that,” she asked.

“I was wondering...” He paused for what seemed like hours even though it was just a few seconds. “What would you say if I asked you to be my wife?”

Her eyes opened wide and she started crying harder than she ever cried before. “I’d say no Honey...I would say no.”

“What,” he asked with a strong sense of hurt and surprise in his voice.

She leaned over and gently kissed his chest. “Of course I would love to marry you,” she said with a giggle in his voice. “What on Earth would make you think I would answer any other way?”

They spent the rest of the day kissing, cuddling and making love all day. He kept reinforcing that he loved her and was never going to leave. He didn’t have to but he did anyway. For that day…they were a couple and they were happy.

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John got on the bus for Cheyenne. It was nearly empty as most of the buses were when they left Akron but there was a few people scattered throughout the seats. There was one man John noticed right away. He was older than John…maybe 45 or so and he was dressed for the west. He had on a big brown hat with a leather headband, a black duster and brown cowboy boots with silver trim and, John couldn’t believe it, five pointed spurs.

That’s someone I want to meet, John thought as he made his way to the back of the bus and sat in the seat directly in front of the man. “Hi, my name is John…John Baker,” John said sticking out his hand as he turned around.

The man took John’s hand shook with a very firm grip. “The name’s Salvatore Perez but everyone calls me Cheyenne Sal…everyone who I let get to know me that is.” He went on to tell John about the ranch he lived on. He didn’t own it. He was just one of the hired hands and he wouldn’t want it any other way. “I ain’t the kind to sit around doing paperwork all day. You put me on a horse and man…you’ll see me be one fucking happy man. I think it’s even better than being with a woman…but that’s fun too…it’s just a lot harder to find.”

By now they were somewhere out on Rt.20, close to the Indiana-Ohio sate line heading for Chicago and John was tired. He kind of figured that Sal was going to be there in the morning so there was plenty of time for them to talk when they got to Chicago and beyond. Sal agreed that a couple hours of shut eye might be a good idea so they both took a drink from a flask of Jim Beam Sal was carrying and they both quickly dozed off.

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“My God honey,” John said. “He’s living the life every man wants.”

“What life is that,” Angela asked with a touch of irritation in his voice.

“He just hopped on a bus and started going across the country,” he said with a smile. “Every guy, ever since he was old enough to know about the Wild West has dreamed of just chucking everything and heading out west to live the cowboy life. I remember watching Gene Autry and thinking how great it would have been to have lived back in the late 1880’s especially down in the Arizona Territory.”

“Is that really what you want,” she asked.

“Honey, I am not five years old anymore. I have a good life here and I would not give it or you up for anything in the world so…no…I do not want that life but Honey…if you don’t mind at least let me have the fantasy of being out there with him.” He knew better but, one, he wasn’t going to tell her that and second he was living that life every time he closed his eyes.

‘Okay honey,” she said with a smile. “You can watch the old movies, you can even dress up if you like and maybe someday you can go out west for a vacation but you just remember who you love and who you go to bed with every night and we’ll be fine.” He agreed…rather quickly for him but he knew that he loved her and she loved him and, at least, he was still going to be able to watch the westerns channel whenever he wanted. A lot of women he knew would not have given in that far.

“I know that men are just little boys in big bodies,” she said as she started laughing. “Hey, it could be worse. You could be into fantasy baseball or something like that.”

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The bus took a side trip and stopped in Fargo. It was sometime around 5:30 in the morning and the sun was just barely starting to appear above the flat horizon. They driver yelled that there was going to be a four hour stop for some maintenance they had to do to the engine. “If you don’t want to wait there’s a bus coming by in twenty minutes. You can catch that if you want but you’re going to be spending all day tomorrow in Ogallala and I don’t think any of you want that.”

“Where the fuck is Ogallala,” John asked.

Sal didn’t tell him where Ogallala was. Maybe he didn’t know. Maybe he just didn’t like the name but he looked at John, made a strange face and said, “It isn’t a place we’d ever want to go. The girls there aren’t very friendly and there is absolutely nothing to do. It’s one of those cities that closes down at 5:00 and don’t reopen until 5 the next morning.”

“I guess you’re right,” John said. He had never heard of the place so who was he to argue…besides that…maybe Sal was right and Fargo, even at this god-forsaken time, was the better place to be.

“Well, let’s us go check out what this place has to offer,” Sal said as he lifted off of his seat. “I saw a diner about a half mile back. Maybe we should go there and grab something better than the bus station crap we’ve been eating.” It didn’t take much convincing for John to agree. He was as tired as Sal was of under-cooked food and the other stuff they served that was more like cinders than it was food.

Sal was right. There wasn’t anything around for the half mile he said between the bus station and the diner. It was still dark enough for the neon to be on and the bright blues, yellows and reds made it look like it was an island in the middle of a starless ocean. The open sign flashed with big bright red letters.

There were signs on the windows advertising the daily specials, but to John it looked like they probably had the same daily specials for at least the last couple of years. The one that caught his eye was one that said, “Three eggs, pancakes and bacon or sausage -- $1.09. Home fries $.25 extra.”

“Sal, I think I know what I’m going to get,” he said while he looked at the other signs. Sal looked at the same sign and thought that he’d most likely get the same. After all it looked filling and didn’t cost too much.

They went in. The place was bare-assed empty. The only people there were the waitress and the cook. Now, the cook looked like the traditional diner cook John knew from the times he’d go to the Steak & Eggs on Market Street in Akron. He had a five o’clock shadow that hit five o’clock at least two days before. He had a tee shirt on that had a few stains. John saw egg, coffee and a couple he couldn’t figure out no matter how much he looked them and no matter what he was doing he had a sharp…a very sharp…meat cleaver in his left hand.

The waitress, on the other hand was young, maybe 25 John thought but she looked like she had already lived a long hard life. She was wearing a plaid dress that could have been shorter, flat soled black shoes and a really ugly white net hat. She had a name tag that read Phoenix. It was a strange name and it caught John’s attention

When she came over to give them their menus John stopped her and asked if her name was a nick name because she was from Phoenix. “No,” she said. “I have never been there. My mom was really into myths and she liked the way it sounded. Hell, she even lived there a couple months after Grammy and Gramps died in the car crash.”

‘Thank God your mom didn’t like the name Ogallala,” Sal said with a laugh.

Phoenix laughed the kind of fake laugh that says “I’ve heard that all before but I’m going to humor you so I can get a big tip,” and she went and got them each a cup of the stuff they called coffee.

“She’s kind of cute,” John said as he watched her walk behind the counter.

“I guess so. At least she’s got herself a decent rack and a nice firm little ass.”

They looked up and saw that she was standing right there with two cups of hot black coffee. She didn’t say a word; just sitting their coffee down on the table. She glanced at John and took a long, rather vicious looking, stare at Sal. She wasn’t happy and they both knew it.

‘I don’t look at those things,” John said with a smile. He knew that he was lying but, in his mind, it sounded noble. It must have worked because; although she was still scowling at Sal she had a smile for John. They sat there for two hours just talking, drinking the free refills on their coffee, eating a couple pieces of chocolate cream pie and trying to flirt with Phoenix.

By the time they were done the sun had risen and the golden glow of the dawn had turned into bright sunlight but the air was still cool with the bite that only North Dakota has. There were a few clouds drifting by but they were the light kind that looked like a veil rather than actual clouds.

“What time you boys leavin’,” Phoenix asked.

“Well, the bus is leaving in a couple of hours,” John answered. Sal was starting to get pissed because this girl, this waitress wasn’t paying him the amount of attention he thought he deserved.

‘I’m getting off in a few minutes. How about I show you around a little before you go,” she asked John. “I’ll even show you places the people around here don’t know about.” John quickly agreed without looking at Sal or considering what he was going to be doing.

She went off to change as a new waitress, a red head named Penny, cleared away the five or six coffee cups and the plates that they had collected. She wasn’t as pretty as Phoenix was but Sal seemed to have quickly taken an interest in her so he didn’t notice when Phoenix returned in a sleeveless shirt and some very short pants. He also didn’t notice when she and John walked out of the diner and went down the street.

Two hours later the bus was fixed, John was there and he was sharing a long kiss with Phoenix but there was no sign of Sal anywhere. “I wonder where he is,” John asked without really expecting an answer. By now the door was open and people were starting to file back into the bus. John reached into his pocket to get his ticket and found that he not only had his but he had Sal’s ticket too. He pulled them out and looked at them. “What the fuck?”

Suddenly the loud speaker announced, “Bus 42 to Denver, Cheyenne and points west will leave in five minutes.”

“What’s that,” Phoenix asked.

“Sal must have given me his ticket and now he ain’t here to get on the bus.”

“What re you going to do,” she asked with a shy smile on her face. It was obvious that she was thinking but he didn’t see it and he didn’t answer her. They stood there looking for Sal but he was nowhere to be seen. Then she asked again what he was going to do but this time she didn’t give him a chance to answer before she took the ticket and got on the bus. “You know, I didn’t like this town anyway.”

“Okay,” he said as he boarded the bus after her. There fifteen, maybe twenty, people on the bus and the back seats were empty so the made their way past the extended legs and kids already playing in the aisle, sat down in the back and started talking, and kissing, as the doors closed, the bus pulled out and started heading south.

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I can’t believe that guy, John thought. There is no way I am telling Angie about this. She’d definitely think that is something I’d secretly want and I don’t.

Just as he thought that Angela walked into the room, throwing some clothes at him and telling him that he had to get dressed in a hurry because her mom and dad called and they were taking them out to lunch. Now, this was big since he hadn’t met her parents yet and, they must have really wanted to meet him since they drove down from Jamestown, New York to meet him. “Honey, c’mon we have to get going. It’s almost noon and their waiting down at the Steak Shack and I told them we’d be there in a few. I didn’t know your ass was still in bed.”

“Sorry Hon, I had a big night last night,” he said as he started putting on his clothes. It wasn’t until he lifted the shirt that he noticed the collar. It was a dress shirt. “Where did this come from,” he asked. “I don’t even own a shirt like this.”

“They called at last night and said that they might stop by so I went out and bought that for you so you’d make a good impression. Now, I don’t mind your clothes, I really don’t, but they are conservative and…well…you know.”

‘Why didn’t you tell me last night?”

She got a slightly angry look as she answered him so he knew there was no way that this was going to turn out good. “I did, at least I tried, but you were pretty zoned out by the time I got home. You probably didn’t hear me,” she said. Then she asked the question he didn’t want her to ask. “What was it that got to you like that? What is the other you up to now?”

He knew he didn’t want to tell her the truth so he took the truth, toned it down and she got the PG-13 version of it. “He went to Fargo…”

“North Dakota? What the hell is he doing in North Dakota? I thought he was going to Wyoming?”

“Yeah, Fargo, North Dakota. The bus broke down and he and that guy Sal went and had breakfast and looked around town for a while. They stayed there for four hours and when the bus left Sal wasn’t there to get back on so the other John went on by himself.” John knew that it wasn’t exactly the truth but, with the stress of her parents coming, the one thing he didn’t want was to have an argument with her.

“Where is he headed,” she asked.

“Cheyenne, Wyoming…didn’t I tell you that,” she said.

Angela thought for a minute and realized that he did tell her the day before she just didn’t remember. “Oh yeah, I remember now. You know that IS beautiful country,” she said.

He thought about it and agreed. He always loved those old movies where the mountain men rode the trails, trapped, herded cattle and always got the girl. Well, at least one part of that is coming true for him, John thought. Maybe someday…maybe for our honeymoon Angela and I will make it to the Rockies. Not to Cheyenne of course. It would be too strange running into the other John some evening. I don’t think I could handle that and could you imagine how Angela would react?

The lunch went well, at least from John’s point of view. It was a lot longer than he expected but they seemed to like him and that was what mattered. They spend the rest of the day together. He and Angela showed them around town and, in the evening, John took them to a small community theatre and they watched a locally written musical called Winter Dance Party 1959. They seemed to like it and actually got up and danced a couple of times. Then he got them a room at the Allegheny Inn out on Walnut Tree Rd.

When they finally got home Angela kissed him very passionately and thanked him for being so charming. This, to John, was a lot better than the stress he and Angela shared earlier in the day.

They showered, made love and set the alarm for 7:30 in the morning so Angela could get a chance to say good bye to her parents. Then they made love again and finally turned off the light and the TV and went to sleep.

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They were sound asleep when the bus pulled into Rapid City, South Dakota but the driver made sure that everyone knew that it was a thirty minute stop for dinner. He even made it a point to shake them after everyone else got off the bus. Phoenix was the first to regain her senses and, as soon as she did, she kissed John, waking him up.

“Honey,” she said, “we have to go get something to eat.” John wasn’t hungry. He just wanted to sleep but she insisted and nearly dragged him off of the bus. Once they got inside they both ordered the same things for breakfast and, as soon as they got it from the cook, they went at sat down at a table close to the front window of the station. As soon as they sat down Phoenix said that she had an idea.  The thought of that scared the hell out of John but he sat there and listened. “I know that we just met,” she started. “I really do like you more anyone I have ever met and I would love it if we went to Las Vegas before we go to Cheyenne.”

“What would we do there,” John asked.

“We could get married,” she said with a scared, shy yet brave smile.

John thought for a minute. He’d done stupider stuff than what she was asking and he did really get turned on by her. He liked the way she talked, the way she cuddled with him and even the way she said his name. Maybe he didn’t love her yet but he had a feeling that it wouldn’t be long before he did so he looked at her, checked his wallet and handed her $100.

“What is this for,” she asked. “I am not that kind of a girl…I thought that you were a nice guy and you do that.” It wasn’t hard to see that she was hurt and it was even easier to know what she thought the money meant. She raised her hand to slap him but he grabbed it before she had the chance.

Reaching into his pocket he took his ticket and handed it to her. “You silly girl…you silly little girl. I gave you that money to take my ticket and yours and go over there to the ticket counter and exchange them for tickets to Vegas.” She jumped up, took the ticket from him and gave him a big hug and an even bigger kiss. “Well, get going,” he added with a smile and a slight laugh.

It took her about fifteen minutes to get the tickets. While she was doing that he was getting his luggage off of the bus.

“John, I got the tickets but the bus for Las Vegas doesn’t leave until 8:30 tomorrow morning,” she said. John looked at the clock. It was 7:30 and, when he looked out of the front door of the station, he saw that the sun was a little over the horizon. It would be night in another hour or two…maybe two and a half but that would be pushing it.

“We’re going to have to spend the night,” he said as he emptied his pockets. He had $45 left from the money he started out with. A room at anywhere near halfway decent was going to run at least $60. “Do you have any money,” he asked.

She opened the small bag she was carrying and found $20 hidden in one of the pockets.

“I have an idea,” John said. “What do you think of camping under the stars?” She wasnt sure what he was getting but she said that she would do anything as long as they were together. “I saw a park across the street when we pulled in…how about us spending the night there. That would give us enough money to eat on tomorrow and then get married when we get to Nevada.” She agreed.

At 8:15 their bus left and they were stranded in a town neither of them ever imagined or visited.

They spent the next couple of hours watching the TV in the main section of the station and drinking free refills on the coffee the got when they came in. At 11:00 they were chased out because the last bus, scheduled to go back to Fargo and then on to Chicago, Detroit and finally Cleveland, went through. There was no one who got off and no one got on but it stuck around for an hour before it departed.

They crossed the street and entered the park. It was beautiful, even under the dim yellow lights of the lamp that lined the walkway. John looked up and the trees were so thick that you couldn’t see any of the sky. It was just pure darkness. Near the center of a big grassy area he saw a bush. It was big and made up of clumps of smaller bushes. He walked over, knelt down and crawled in. It was perfect. There was just enough room for him and Phoenix, especially if the cuddled really close, so he took four shirts out of his bag, rolled them and put them at one end of the room. He called her in and she looked around and said something that made him feel good about everything that was happening. She looked at him, hugged him and told him that she wanted to come back to that same park and that same bush on there honeymoon. She laughed, then he laughed and they settled down for the night.

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John walked over to Angela and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I have an idea,” he said.

“Okay,” she answered. It was a surprise but then again there was something every morning that surprised her.

“I’m going down to the sporting goods store and pick up a few things,” he said smiling. “You put some casual clothes in a bag and be ready when I get back.”

“Okay,” she said again. “Where are we going?”

He started toward the door but stopped and turned around. “I have this sudden urge to go camping and I have to pick some things up.”

“What did he do,” she asked. He knew what she meant and he knew that he better answer her.

“He’s camping…sleeping out under the stars,” he said. ‘It looks like a lot of fun and, I’ve never been camping in my life and I want to try it.” Angela knew it was something like that but she said that it was okay with her but she looked at him a minute and decided that it might be better if she went with him but before they went to the store they had to make one stop. Angela’s parents were ready to leave and she wanted to stop and tell the good bye.

They made it to the Allegheny Inn just in time. Her dad was putting the last of their luggage into the trunk of the car and was tipping the doorman when they pulled up.

“Hi Honey,” Angela’s mother said as she got out of the car. “We were just getting ready to call you. Your dad says that we’re wasting daylight so he wanted to get going.” Angela said that she remembered when she took trips when them as a kid and how her dad loved seeing the sunrise from the driver’s seat of his car. They missed the sunrise but it was close enough for her dad to be happy. Her mom took her off to the side and told her that they wanted to talk to John alone so she went, got John, took him to her mother and went to the hotel coffee shop for a cup of coffee while her dad joined John and her mother.

“John,” her dad said. “Angela has told us a lot about you and we think that she has strong feelings for you. All we ask is that you don’t hurt her. If you promise us that we will be happy.” John said that he not only promised that but he added that he had proposed and was looking forward to marrying her. “We know that…we just wanted to make sure that it was real and not something she was just telling us.” John confirmed that it was, in fact, true. Angel’s mom and dad welcomed him into their family, called Angela back and told her that they liked John and then they got into their car and drove off.

‘What did they say,” Angela asked.

“Well, I don’t know what you told them about me but they told me that you love me and they welcomed me to the family,” he said. “So, I guess there’s nothing left to do but actually do go ahead and do it.”

“What?”

“Screw the camping for now,” he said with a smile “Let’s go up to Niagara Falls and get married.” She didn’t know what to say. She definitely wanted to get married but it was still a shock. “Well, we can be in Canada in four hours, get the license and get married on Monday. What do you think?” She didn’t need to think anymore. She just jumped into his arms, kissed him and asked him if they had all the papers needed to get across the border. He said yes so she smiled and simply said…”Let’s go.”

They went and got a couple breakfast sandwiches and coffee, got in the car, drove up to Saegertown, got on Rt. 79 and headed north. Once they made it up to Erie John turned right onto Rt. 90 and 90 minutes later they were at the Canadian border explaining that they were going to get married.

“Most people get married and THEN come to the falls,” the border guard said.

“I know,” John said.

“Darling, we aren’t the kind to do things the way everyone else does,” Angela said as ash looked at the guard, smiled and looked over at John “Are we honey?” He didn’t answer, at least not out loud. He just shook his head and smiled at the guard. The guard took it as exactly what it was…a weak joke. Then he smiled at them, wished them luck and waved them through.

It was another thirty minutes until they got to the falls but it was a nice ride so it didn’t matter. They didn’t bother checking into a hotel. They rushed right over to the courthouse, filled out some papers, paid the fee and got the license. There was a three day waiting period so the wedding itself had to wait until Monday but that was okay. They had planned for the weekend anyway so they went down by the gorge and got a hotel. It was nice and the food was really good so they were set.

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The bus took a little over a day to make it down to Vegas. They took the time to talk between kisses and they really got to know each other. It seemed to both of them that they had a lot in common and, at least to John, it seemed like she may be the perfect woman for him.

It was nearly 1:00 a.m. when they finally pulled into the bus station. The first thing they did was head for a wedding chapel they saw a couple of blocks away. The “preacher” was dressed as Elvis. The service was beautiful and lasted about 25 minutes since he sang a couple songs before he got started but, by the time they left, they were Mr. and Mrs. John Baker.

“How much money do we have left,” John asked.

Phoenix checked her purse while john emptied his wallet and pockets. Together they had a little over $300. They looked around and found the nearest casino. John too $50 and went in. It didn’t take long. John wasn’t very good at cards so he lost $45 of their money within ten minutes. Then he took the remaining $5 and went over to the slot machines to try there. He hit for five or ten dollars a couple of times but not enough to any more than break even on the original $50. After another hour of trying, winning and losing he gave up and went back to Phoenix who had been waiting across the street in a coffee shop. He walked across and gave her a kiss.

“How much did you lose,” she asked.

“Nothing,” he said with a smile.

“Well then…how much did you win?”

He smiled again and told her that he didn’t win anything either. Then he took the $50 from his pocket and handed it back to her. He could tell that she was very mixed on what she was feeling. She was upset that he didn’t win but it was a good thing that he didn’t lose anything.

‘I have an idea,” he said. “Let’s go down to the strip and get a room for the night. We can call it our honeymoon.’ She smiled at the thought. “After all…this is our wedding night.” It was completely out of character for him but he realized that they had been together for a little while now and they hadn’t yet made love. They had kissed, cuddled and touched but for some reason he hadn’t pushed her to make love to him and, to him, it felt good for their wedding night to be the first time for them.

They went down to one of the larger casino/hotels and checked in. The room was a little over $100 but it was worth it. He was the only one with luggage so she spent the evening wearing some of his clothes. It wasn’t very sexy on her but in his eyes she was never more beautiful. They did make love all night and during that night she whispered to him that she had been a virgin. He said that he was honored to have been her first and then they both fell asleep in each other’s arms.

The next morning they both went down to the lobby. She kissed him and took $100, told him to wait for her and then she went into the casino. Two minutes later she came back and handed him the $100 and an additional $100 on top of it. “I went and played 23 on the roulette table. I won on the first spin”

“Why 23,” he asked.

“That’s the day we got married,” she said with a big smile.

John thought for a minute and reminded her that the day they got married was the 25^th.

‘No Honey,” she said. “That is the day we had the ceremony. I was married to you the minute you asked me and that was the 23^rd.’ John thought how romantic that was and he agreed that their anniversary would always be on the 23^rd no matter what that piece of paper said.

Later that day they went t catch the bus back to Fargo.. They watched bus after bus fill and leave. Some were headed south to L.A. while others headed back east. That was something that John did even consider. His life in Cuyahoga Falls was like ancient history to him now. From what he had seen of the west he liked it and he felt that it was where he wanted to spend the rest of his life.

Yeah, John had wanted to go to Cheyenne but Fargo wasn’t that bad. Besides that, how different could Cheyenne be from Fargo, he thought. If it wasn’t for that bus stopping in Fargo I would have never met Phoenix and I would be alone again. I should be grateful for that. Then his mind wandered to Sal. John wondered what had happened to him. Did he ever make it out of Fargo? Where did he disappear to that morning? I guess I’ll never know.

Their bus arrived at 11:00 p.m. and departed at 11:30. They settled into the same seat they had when they arrived. Phoenix never stopped smiling all the way back to Fargo. They discussed plans for their future, including that they both wanted two kids, a boy and a girl. She had called ahead and talked to her parents and her boss. Her parents were ecstatic and her boss, although upset, he said that her job was still there waiting for her after she took a couple weeks off to settle into married life.

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John and Angela got married the following Monday. The wedding took place in the county clerk’s office in front of two witnesses…his secretary and one of the other workers but despite that they were married and they both loved the idea.

The dreams continued but they were nothing like they were before. John saw that his counterpart was also living a happily married life. In the next few years john and Angela had three kids…twin girls and a baby boy. The other John also had children in his marriage…two little girls. They both had good jobs. Pennsylvania John worked in a public relations firm as a copy writer. Fargo’s John worked as a construction worker renovating old buildings.

Then, just as suddenly as they started the dreams stopped. John tried every night but he couldn’t get anything to come out. He even went to the extent of hypnosis to try to get them to start again but nothing worked. They were gone. John tried finding his counterpart by calling directory assistance but his number was unlisted and, despite the fact that he was John Baker, they would not give him the number.

Years went by and the lack of John’s other life was digging deeper and deeper into his soul. It was affecting his relationship with Angela who said that she missed hearing about what the other john was up to. It affected his work and the changes that took place in John’s personality scared those around him especially his relationship with his children. It got to such an extent that Angela took the kids and fled to her mother’s house and decided to stay there until he got his act straightened out.

A month after Angela left John was sitting on his couch, drinking a beer and suffering from the depressed state he was usually in. he had been reading books, watching shows and seeing everything else he could about alternate lived and suddenly he knew what to do…he had to drive North Dakota and find the other John Baker but he knew he could not do it alone. He called Angela who agreed to leave the kids with her parents for a week or so and travel with John to Fargo to see what had happened.

They left the next morning, following Angela’s father’s advice they left at sunrise. That was actually a big benefit since the sun was behind them they didn’t have the glare of the sun to worry about and they could take their time getting there. By nightfall they were at the Chicago city limits. They found a decent hotel, got separate rooms and stopped to rest for the long trip ahead.

In the morning they followed the same routine and, as the sun rose over Lake Michigan, they started off on the final leg of the trip.

Angela was more talkative than she was on the first leg. Maybe she was more relaxed knowing that he was going to respect her nervousness and maybe it was because she had a feeling that all of this mess would soon be over. Either way…the trip was a lot more pleasant.

They didn’t stop for the night. The two of them drove straight through to Fargo. Once they made it they stopped at a Comfort Inn out on Rt. 94 and checked in. This time it was not separate rooms. They got a room with a single queen-sized bed and, for the first time in months, he got the chance to be in love and make love to his wife again.

The next morning John and Angela went into town and looked up the address for the other John Baker. It was hard but they finally found his house and went over. Angela stayed in the car when John went to the door. He rang the bell and a little girl answered and screamed, “DADDY!” John just stood there and looked at her.

“Daddy isn’t here,” Phoenix said as she walked toward the door. The minute she saw him standing there her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “John,” she said and she started crying. “Is it really you? Where have you been?”

‘No,” he said as coldly as he possibly could. “I am looking for a man who lives here by the name of John Baker. I have heard a lot about him and I felt like I just had to meet him.”

“But…y…you look just like him,” she said as she started to cry. “He left for work one day about three years ago and no one has heard from him since. We filled out a missing person report but nothing ever came of it.” John told her that was how he heard about her John. We was walking down the street in Allegheny Heights and a Pennsylvania state trooper pulled up, threw him in the patrol car and spent the rest of the day questioning him about his disappearance.

“It took my wife coming down and telling the cops who I was before they’d let me go,” he said as he waved over to Angela who came over and introduced herself without revealing her last name. “Phoenix, this is my wife Angela,” he said before he caught the slip that he knew Phoenix was sure to catch as soon as he said it. Angela heard what he said and nearly fell back off of the step. John and Angela were right…she did catch it as soon as John said it.

“Phoenix…you called me Phoenix,” she said. Her crying stopped and it was replaced with a very strong, bitter anger. “How the hell do you know my name? Who in the fuck are you?”

John thought for a minute and looked at Angela as if he was looking for her to have some kind of magic that would make Phoenix forget what she had heard. She didn’t have that magic but she did have a logical answer. If there wasn’t a lie that could reverse the damage…then simply tell the truth. “Go ahead John…tell her,” she said. “You sure as hell couldn’t make it any worse.”

“Tell me what,” Phoenix said. Her anger subsided and was replaced by a curiosity mixed with a big dose of irritation. There was one thing that was plain to both Angela and John…this was not a woman who would put up with any bullshit so John would have to be very specific and very, very honest.

“First off…my name is John Baker and I live in Allegheny Heights, Pennsylvania and this all started when I was a boy,” he said. “I started having dreams about another boy named John Baker who lived in a city named Cuyahoga Falls somewhere in Ohio. It took me a while but I finally realized that it wasn’t dreams. I was living the other John’s life whenever I slept.”

“Bullshit,” she said with a voice the showed that her anger had returned in spades. “That is fucking bullshit.”

“Wait a minute,” John yelled as she picked up a vase and was ready to throw it…most likely at his head. “John met you at a diner at the edge of town. His bus broke down and he came into your place. There was no one there except you, the cook and John. There was another. His name was Sal…Cheyenne Sal. He disappeared and you used his ticket to go to Cheyenne. Instead of going to Cheyenne you changed and went to Vegas and got married. A preacher who looked like Elvis married you and you have a 45 of him singing Hawaiian Wedding Song. You keep it in the top right had dresser drawer under your family album and John’s favorite shirts.”

“How do you know that?”

Angela looked at her and the glanced at John and told Phoenix that it was because her John had lived a lot of life that the other John had lived. “I have heard so much about the two of you that I finally left him when the visions stopped because it really had a big effect on him and he took it all out on me and the kids,” Angela said.

“Then this is all real,” Phoenix asked. John and Angela both answered at the same time that it definitely was real just as one of the children and asked if they could play with daddy. Phoenix knelt down and explained as best she could to a five year old that the man she was talking to wasn’t daddy just a man who looked like daddy. The child was a little too young to understand but he went back into his room and started playing again. “Why are you here,” Phoenix asked as she sat down on the couch and stared straight out of he window.

“I have got to find out what happened to him to get my mind straight again. I have got to know why the dreams stopped.”

Phoenix looked at him, laughed and told him that the police and everyone else gave up looking for him a long time ago. “They figured that he met some other girl and took off in the middle of the night,” she said. “They told me that 98% of all men who disappear just don’t want to be married anymore so they just find someone and they split.”

John looked at her and reassured her that was definitely not what happened. “If he had just left…I would have known,” he said. “I have known everything he has done for most of our lives. Trust me…wherever he is…he is not with another woman.” John asked her where john was headed the last time she saw him and she said that he was working on a motel outside of town…somewhere out on 94 near.231.

Angela looked at John and whispered something to him that she definitely didn’t want Phoenix to hear. The hotel they were staying at was out on Rt. 94 and she thought that she remembered seeing a sign down the block that said, “State Rt. 231 -- .5 miles” “John,” she said. “We couldn’t…could we?” Neither of them said another word except to apologize for bothering her and thanking her for her help. Of course, this left Phoenix more confused than she was before but she just shut the door as they left and went in to play with her children. As Angela stepped out of the door she asked again, “John, we couldn’t be staying in THAT hotel…could we?” He didn’t answer.

“Let’s go back to the hotel and do some thinking,” John said as he took Angela by the hand and walked her to the car. She agreed as she held his hand tighter. “I hope we can find him soon. I can’t wait for all of us to go home and get OUR lives together again.”

“I do too,” she said as she smiled a very uneasy smile at him which he returned.

It didn’t take them long to get back to the hotel. Angela kept asking him what the last vision was that he shared with the other John. He tried as hard as he could, over and over again he tried, but he couldn’t remember anything. “John,” she said. “If you can’t, or don’t want to, remember this I not going to end and we are going to be right back where we started before we started this trip and this time I am NOT going to be coming back.” John agreed. He already knew it but he didn’t want to say anything. But he was glad that she did.

That night, back, at the hotel, he went to the desk and insisted on a separate room for the night. Angela looked at him and asked why. “I think I need to spend the night alone and not have you as a distraction,” he said. “Now, Honey, I have to do this.” She didn’t agree with it but she said that it okay as the desk clerk handed him the key to a room at the other end of the hotel. As he turned he looked at her and said, “Honey, I am going to say good night here and get down to the room. I promise you that I will be here in the morning.” She said that she knew and that she would be there waiting when the sun came up. Then she kissed him and, for the second time since they met, Angela and John went to sleep in separate beds. He went to his room and took a shot from the minibar and fell asleep in less than ten minutes.

The Final Goodbye

You know this wasn’t too hard to see coming. God knows that there were many warnings that it was going to happen. Maybe that was the problem? There were so many warnings that people just stopped listening and their thoughts went back to their normal humdrum lives. That had to have been what happened…people just turned numb to the idea that the world was going to end.

I just want to tell you before you continue that if you are reading this….I am already dead.

It all started, let’s see its September I think, so it started just about a year ago. The CDC was experimenting with some new superbug that they thought maybe hitching a ride back from the spaceships that travelled to the Moon and back. I think they were up to three or four flights a year and they knew that there was a possibility that someday something would come back. They took about a month to find it, isolate it, and create “breeding colony” for their research.  They found that it was airborne and it was extremely fatal to anyone and anything that happed to breathe it in.

Now, remember that the United States government did everything they could to keep it a secret and it worked until they tested it in a secluded valley out in Wyoming. The test was for a herd of cattle to be gassed and the measure the results. Needless to say it worked…a little too well. Unknown to the Feds there was a campsite on top of a mountain a couple miles away and when the gas reached them they all died within seconds. Their bodies were found a few weeks later half rotted and dehydrated. It was almost as if they died of thirst despite the fact that there was a creek less than fifty feet from their camp.

The government decided that more wide-spread testing was needed so they launched an attack on a small village in the country they were at war with at the time. There had been so many since President Bush launched attacks in Iraq in was hard to remember what country. Anyway, the entire population was killed. That weapon was perfect…it killed everything and it was easy to deliver. The thing was there was one thing that the government didn’t know and that was the way those creatures reacted after they were let loose in the air…they continued to live long after an attack.

By the time they learned that they had unleashed a pandemic on the world they had given it a name The Imperian Bow named after the mythological bow created by Hercules. It was said that it was the ultimate weapon and was used once during the war between the Greek gods and the Titans. The original bow was never found but this on proved that an ultimate weapon could be created.

It didn’t take long for the disease spread. Wyoming was the first to feel the effects followed quickly by the Middle East. It was spreading at a rate of more than a hundred miles a day killing every…humans, animals and even plants were affected. Within a week most of the western and central United States, Canada were wiped as were Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Greece. Cities, forests and water basins were empty.

Once they realized what was happening people tried finding places to hide but to no success. The underground places they were hiding had air brought in from the surface and their filters were not made to filter out something as small as the plague that filled the air. One by one their “safe” places became the 22^nd century versions of the ancient crypts of Egypt.

I guess I was one of the lucky ones or maybe not. I was in a Lear Jet flying from England back home to the United States when the worst of it was just finishing. I landed outside my hometown of Casper. My car was waiting in the hanger just where I left it so it only took me about ten seconds to get from the plane to the car.

It took me about twenty minutes to get in to town. It was hot outside. That was rare for this area so I turned on the air conditioner at set it to recycle the air inside the car.

As I was driving I saw corpses lying on the side of every street. Whole families were laying together some must have died separately while others were holding each other tightly as if they had a final moment or two to gather their loved ones close to them before they died.

Finally, I reached my house. I was afraid as to what I might find but I had to know. I pulled into the garage and went into the house. My wife was slumped over the kitchen table and the baby was in her highchair. My wife must have been feeding her when she died. I looked for my son. He was nowhere to be found. Then I thought about it for a minute. We had always sent him to camp the first week of September. Odds were that was where he was. Then I looked back to my wife and baby. My only thought was that I hoped that they didn’t suffer but as for anything else it was too late.

Before I left I walked into the bedroom and took a package out of the closet behind the door. I stuck it in my pocket and walked out, got in the car and left. I had nowhere to go and I wasn’t sure if I had enough time to do what I knew I had to do.

I took back roads all the way into the mountains. It was so quiet. There was not an animal or bird anywhere, God, how could a whole city’s residents just die off at the same time?

I finally made it to Dinwoody Peak and I was lucky…I found a road that lead up near the peak and it was a quick ride. When I got there I was having trouble breathing, I was sweating like race horse and my mouth was so dry but there was no water to be found.

I got out of the car with my package and started walking the last one hundred feet to the summit. I knew what I was going to do when I got there. That package I was carrying was a 22 caliber pistol. I wasn’t going to live on a planet all alone and I was goddamn if I was going to die like everyone else. Before I was going to do that though I wanted to write this and maybe leave it as a warning for the next version of human being. I just hope that they would be smarter than we were.

It is time to go. There was a beautiful sunset and that would be a perfect last memory for me. All I had to say was “The rotten bastards finally did it” and then it was finished.

The Lottery Challenge

I can still remember. Thinking back I knew how important that day was going to be. It would be a life or death chance that would depend on a ball rolling around in a big drum and a man pulling it and saying the number out loud. It was the 1972 Draft Lottery…the day that would decide if I was going to go to war or not.

I did my duty and, a month before my 18^th birthday; I went and signed up for the draft. I had to. My dad drove me down to the office himself, walked me in and stood there until I filled out the paperwork. Heck, after that was done he took me down to eat a hamburger at Mc Donald’s and then to the Marine Recruiting Office. They were happy that a “legacy” was signing up. I told them that I had head lice, and with my hair it was entirely likely, and they told me to come back at a later date. Anyway, a few days later I got my draft card…my lottery ticket with the prize…a trip to Vietnam

Now, it was not as if I hadn’t been lucky with lotteries earlier. I was. I had won the Ohio Daily Number twice that week…strangely enough with the same number…187. True it only paid me $80 but hey, money is money!

Anyway, I was at home. My dad was with me. He was a Marine back in WWII and he was hoping that I would get a low number so that I would have to go in and serve my country. My long hair, bell bottomed pants and love beads told him different but he still had hopes…silly old man.

There were 365 balls in a big slowly turning drum. It was funny. They, the United States Draft Board, made it look like it was any other lottery drawing. Hell, they even had a Vanna White looking girl taking the balls and putting them on a big board. Maybe it was more like Bingo but it reminded me of a game.

I knew one thing. If I, my birthday, could make it past number 185 I would be safe and the fear of being drafted would be over!

They started drawing. The first date they chose was November 17^th. It went up on the board and I sighed a sigh of relief. They were probably going to get their draft notices the next day. At least I had a waiting period of a few days if my number was drawing.

The lottery went on for hours without “Vanna” hauling my date across the stage.  Oh, I forgot to tell you…my birthday was October 22, 1954. Finally, I remember it was just about 9:00 PM and the lottery had been going on for about three hours when number 185 came up. The guy read the date …Oct…to…ber…twenty…third.

I broke down in tears. Vietnam would have to do without me…unless I decided to go which I had no intention of doing.

How did this story end you must be asking. Well, a couple years later I went into the Coast Guard. I was stationed at a base in Washington State where I met my wife Erika. We married had two kids and we still live, just outside that Coast Guard base.

One thing though…after winning the lottery three times in one week I never, ever played the lottery again. After all, hitting the Powerball could not even come close to the thrill lotteries gave me in that seven day so many years ago.

The Vampire Britiania

One of the things Allegheny Heights’ kids loved to do on cool autumn nights was to go and hang out in the cemetery. Their favorite wasn’t the big cemetery in the center of town. The one they liked to go to was outside of town. It was on the Pennsylvania historical site listing and because of that it was fenced in but the few stones that remained were visible through the fence. The gate itself was purchased from the estate of a mass-murderer and, outside of very few exceptions, the gate remains locked at all times.

The cemetery is old, older than the town itself. There are graves there with half rotten wooden grave markers with dates from the 1720’s. Others came from the revolution and the War of 1812. Unfortunately, the names of the dead have long since worn off from years of snow, rain and wind.

The kids found a way around the locked fence. The fence that surrounds the cemetery is always at ground level and the area around the cemetery is houses, yards and woods so the kids are free to do what they want and not be disturbed. They simply find a soft spot of ground in the woods next to the fence and then they dig down and simply crawl under the fence.

They have been doing it ever since the cemetery was found about seventy-five years ago. Most of the times they go in and look around, maybe have a few drinks and party into the late night. Others went in and used it as a place of contemplation and yet others used it as an outdoor bedroom where there were more babies created than there were bodies buried in the ground.

One day a group was digging just outside the fence. They dug for a good twenty- five minutes. The ground was soft and, for some reason, they decided to dig a lot deeper than they needed to get under the fence. There were a few rocks that they cleared away quickly and then they kept digging. Suddenly they heard a hollow sound and when they looked down they saw the wooden lid to a very old coffin. It was wet and rotten but it was still strong enough to hold one boy’s weight. Just as they started to talk about what they had found the wood crumbled and they were looking at a centuries old body.

“Look at that,” Frank Mancini said as he looked into the box. Then he looked out of the hole and saw that he was the only one who hadn’t crapped his pants and run home to hide under the bed.

After Frank pulled the pieces of wood from beneath his feet he finally saw the body. It was a young man. He looked like he was maybe twenty- five years or so. The boy figured that there was no way he was much more than that. He was dressed in a red army outfit. It was a little dirty but it wasn’t in bad shape. It was covered with gold and silver and he saw the last few threads of a red, white and blue flag. Frank thought a minute and put two and two together. A red outfit and red, white and blue cloth, he was looking at a British soldier…probably an officer. The thing was he noticed…the body was buried face down with a rock placed on its back.

“What in the hell is that,” Frank asked. It was like he was talking to the body. “Why would they do that to you? I have been to a lot of museums and never saw anything like that.” His confusion was easy to hear. “I wish I knew your name.”  He climbed out of the hole and sat on the side. “Well, my friend,” he said with a smile. “I think I am going to call you Benedict…you know like Benedict Arnold. You remember him don’t you?  ” Nah, maybe not,” he laughed as he got up, walked over to a tree and tied a red cloth around the lowest branch. With that he took the next half hour to fill in the hole making sure to make it look undisturbed. After all he didn’t want any of his so called friends to bring their parents, or worse the police, back and ruin Benedict…at least not until he was done with him.

Frank went home and went right to sleep. He didn’t tell his parents how his day was. That was rare for this thirteen year old boy. He usually bragged about everything and anything and usually showed his dad some new rock or something he had found on his wandering but tonight it was nothing…nothing at all.

He crawled under his blanket and another one he grabbed from the closet. They were pulled up around his neck and held tight but as warm as he was headed for a long night with dreams and nightmares which centered on Benedict and how he might have died. Each dream was very graphic and had increasing levels of violence so he was happy when the sun came up and the alarm let him know that he was going to have to go to school.

The boys asked him what happened after they left but Frank kept his mouth shut as to what he found but he knew that after school he was going to go back and see what else he could learn about Benedict and his grave.

The final bell rang and Frank and his group gathered onside the school. “No you aren’t going with me,” Frank yelled as the boys started hassling him about the grave. “You guys couldn’t handle it yesterday why would I think it will be any different now.” The boys begged and begged but Frank got increasingly angry until he just stormed off toward his house with the boys right on his tail…still asking, begging to go back with him. Ignoring them he went into his house and ate a snack…which took about an hour…and then, once the others were gone, he went back to the grave site and started digging.

The ground was wetter than it was the day before and it wasn’t the same color as the soil they dug up the day before. Frank didn’t notice but the surrounding ground was different too. It was newly disturbed to cover an area far beyond where they had dug earlier. That wasn’t the only thing he noticed. There was a large dog…a German shepherd if he was to guess right. It was lying dead about ten feet from where the hole was. It was torn apart and its blood covered the grass and leafs.

Frank looked a little closer at the dog and went back to where the hole was. He sat down and when he took his hand from the ground,  it was red and covered with blood that hadn’t clotted yet. “What the hell happened last night,” he asked. Then he thought there are some big hawks and eagles, as well as other animals that wandered through the woods. One of them must have attacked the dog and then took off before devouring the body. That thought both soothed and terrified the boy. What if it was still in the area and was coming back. He put the thought to the back of his mind. It wasn’t easy but he did it and then he went back to the grave.

He started digging and it wasn’t long before he had dug down to the wooden lid. The body was there just the same as it was the night before. He started digging on the sides and ends of the hole. He was going to make it big enough to see the entire body.

Once he got the body uncovered he was sure that it was indeed a British soldier from the Revolution. He had his gun and sword buried with him. His class was studying the Revolution and their book had plenty of pictures so it wasn’t a guess any longer…he knew what he was looking at.

Building up his courage he reached down and slowly and carefully turned the body over. It was very well preserved. There was not a bit of decomposition either in the clothes or the flesh which looked like it had just been buried the night before. Even the eyes were still there. They were bright blue with flakes of gold but still dry as if they were dehydrated but they were there and they were staring out at him. It was almost scary but he thought for a minute that maybe the soldier wasn’t dead after all…just sleeping but that was impossible. He stayed at the graveside the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening before he went home for his dinner and some desperately needed sleep.

A storm came in sometime around 2:00 AM. It was loud, bright and dangerous. The news said the next day that Allegheny Heights had three inches of rain, along with hail and damaging winds of up to 75 miles per hour. But by then Frank was sound asleep.

Sometime during the night, Frank didn’t look at the clock; he felt a strange feeling on the side of his neck. He said later that it wasn’t painful or anything. He said that it was kind of a tickle. A very intense tickle but it was a tickle.

Waking up he jumped up, the grogginess of sleep wasn’t there. His eyes were clear and he saw a small bat flying around his bedroom. He didn’t scream or anything. He walked out of his room, went to the closet and got a broom. Now, he was awake but still a bit, a wee bit disoriented so when he swung the broom he took out his lamp, the clock on the dresser and a small statue that his grandmother had given him the Christmas before. He never did hit the bat. It swerved out of the way each time he swung. He was so frustrated that he threw the broom, smashing a hole in his window. To make matters worse the bat followed the broom out of the small hole. After picking up the mess and putting some duct tape on his window he went back to sleep.

The next morning he woke to “Highway to Hell” blaring out of his alarm clock. He had the usual reaction of jumping up; pulling on the clothes that smelled the least out of a pile he had in the corner of his room…right next to his empty dresser…and then he rushed to the bathroom to shave the few whiskers he had and comb his hair. That morning the routine was the same until he looked in the mirror. There, where he felt the tickle the night before was a deep red rash. It looked like a brush burn but it wasn’t quite as red and although there were scars it did not show some but not a lot of bleeding.

“What in the hell,” he asked in a frightened voice. His mom was walking by and heard Frank so she stuck her head in and asked what he was talking about. “I don’t know mom. I woke up and there’s a rash on my neck. I don’t know where it came from.”

She looked at it and put some salve on it, gave him a kiss and told him to hurry down for breakfast. “Honey, it isn’t anything serious,” she said as she stepped through the door. “You probably got into some poison ivy. You know how that stuff is around here. You can’t get away from it.” He said he did and he went on with whatever he had to do. He took about an hour total. He had to figure out a way to cover the rash. He ended up stealing some of his mom’s makeup and covering it that way.

On the way to school he decided to swing by the grave site to see how it was. The ground was drenched. It was so wet that every time Frank took a step he sank into the mud up to his ankles. It took a lot of time and effort to move the hundred or so yards to the site. That gave him time to think and it was then he started to worry. Was the body okay? Did the rain and everything do anything to ruin it? He knew that it would be dirty. After all he opened the casket and never reclosed it. How could he have been so stupid?

Once he got there he was in for a shock…the grave was completely open…the dirt scattered all over the area. The edges of the grave were sharp and straight. That was something he never could have expected. The body was intact and yes, it was dirty…filthy as a matter of fact. The thing was it was out of the grave…almost ten feet away. He thought that it must have been the rain that moved the body until he saw a set of footprints moving away from the grave and back to where the body was laying.

Looking at the body he got a serious look on his face.  “Benedict,” he started. “Who was here playing with you last night?   Maybe you don’t know but I have to find out and soon.”

He dragged the body back to the grave and, not very gently, tossed it into the hole but before he did he smartly checked out the pockets in the uniform. He found a pocket on the inside of the coat’s breast. There he found a piece of paper. Opening it he saw that it read, “Darling Elizabeth, I will be coming home at the end of the month. I look forward to seeing you and the children. Here’s some news, we have driven the rebels back at a ridge in the west of the Pennsylvania Colony. It is such a primitive land. Bugs here are the size of bats at home. I was bitten by one a fortnight ago and it healed properly so I am not afraid. Please my loving wife…take care and care for the young ones.  Your loving husband, Michael.”

Frank looked down at the body. He was facing the sky and his eyes were open so Frank could look him deep into the missing soul. “So, your name is Michael,” he said. “It is nice to meet you Sir Michael. I hope to get to know you a lot better before I let anyone else know about you.”

Frank either didn’t see or couldn’t see that there was a twitch in the corner of the body’s mouth. It looked as if it were trying to smile or something.

“I have to go to school now,” Frank continued as if the body could hear him. “It’s kind of funny that we are studying the revolution.” He paused for a second as he kicked a small rock into the grave. “Somehow I doubt that you were any one important, were you? Nah, you couldn’t have been anyone.” Kicking another stone in, he turned and walked away. He yelled back, “See you later Michael. I hope you’ll still be here.” He laughed and took off running.

He didn’t stop at the grave after he got out of school choosing instead to rush home and call his friend to invite him for an overnight campout. He said that it was going to be in his backyard but he knew better. He and his friend Charlie were going to campout over by Michael’s grave. His friend, of course, said yes. He showed up just before sunset and they started out. On the way Frank told him the whole story about how he had found the body, dug it up and was now finding out who that man was.

When they got there his friend wanted badly to see the grave, the body and hear some more about the stories. Bullshit or not,  it was good listening on a warm summer’s evening and it would look really good if he could remember enough to tell his friends and maybe, just maybe sit down and write a short story or maybe a book about it.

Charlie walked close to the grave and glanced in. Michael was still there looking into the sky. His dead features and blank eyes terrified the young man to no end. He was shaking and nearly peed his pants as he scampered away. “Wha – wha – what is that,” Charlie asked.

“That’s Michael,” Frank replied with a laugh in his voice. “He’s dead and has been for a couple hundred years.”

“Bu – bu - but he looks so alive,” Charlie said as he back up further.

“I know. Ain’t it cool?” Frank took Charlie by the shoulders and walked him back to the grave. “Look at him,” Frank commanded. “I have been here with him for days now and he hasn’t moved or said a word. He is deader than that doornail they keep talking about.”

Neither boy looked directly into the face that was in the ground looking at them. Michael’s eyes had changed. They had turned from the dry lifeless they were a few moments before into bright shiny eyes you would expect to see from a teenage boy. As a matter of fact, if you looked carefully, there was a trace of a tear in the corner of Michael’s right eye and there was a feeling of pain barely hidden in their blank stare.

After calming Charlie down to where he didn’t want to run home to his mommy the boys went up on a nearby hill and set up camp. They spent the next couple of hours trying to gross out each other and talk about the hot sixteen year old with the 48dd boobs. They both had a thing for her but neither had the guts to say anything so the just talked to each other and fantasized about what they’d do if they ever got the chance.

Then, after all the girl talk, they decided to go down and look at the grave again before they went to sleep. On the way down Frank told his how Michael was ten feet away from his grave that morning but he made it sound like a joke. It sounded like a joke and Charlie was light hearted about everything until they got to the grave and Michael was not in his coffin.

“Look around,” Frank yelled.

The two of them covered an area of about 600 square feet without finding anything except their footprints and one other set they could not identify. Yeah, they were in a panic but they managed to control themselves as they searched. After about thirty minutes they stopped searching and it was at that moment Frank realized…someone stole Michael!

They didn’t stay after that. Both Frank and Charlie hurriedly packed up their stuff and headed back to Frank’s house where they spent the rest of the night camped out in his backyard. They talked about a lot of things that night…everything from cars to baseball and once again girls but never, not once, did the discussion go anywhere near missing dead bodies. The boys could tell exactly who was coming.

Sometime around 4:30 AM the boys, along with most of the neighborhood, were awakened by the sounds of sirens coming closer. Charlie called them out as he heard them, Allegheny Heights Police, state police, local fire trucks and lastly the town’s ambulance. The each drove by Frank’s house and it sounded like they stopped no more than a half mile away. Being a normal small town everyone, including Frank and Charlie, ran down Maple Leaf Rd. to see what was going on.

They got there a couple seconds before the crowd. One of the EMT’s working the scene was talking to a state cop describing what they had found. He whispered as not to panic anyone but Frank and Charlie were close enough to hear every word.

“I can’t imagine what happened,” the fireman said. “That was Mr. Falconer. Someone showed up and managed to get into the house. I don’t know how but he or she attacked Falconer and killed him. It was funny there were no signs of violence anywhere and the body was just laid out. It was as if the killer wanted to show her some respect after he or she killed them. The funny thing was…there was no blood. Not a drop anywhere to be found. Even the body was almost chalk white. That’s freaking huh?” The cop agreed and then they both went back into the house.

“You don’t think…,” Charlie asked in a voice so quiet he could hardly be heard.

“Nah,” Frank replied.

“Then where…,” Charlie started asking before Frank shut him up.

Before Frank could answer they heard a call come over the fire truck’s speaker. There were two more bodies discovered on the other side of town. Responders were warned to proceed with caution that there may be a murderer in the area. With that the police and fire truck left under full lights to see what was going on.

Frank turned to Charlie. There was a strange seriousness in his face. Both he and Charlie were thinking the same thing at exactly the same second. Could the man they Frank dug up…could he be responsible for what was happening? Could he somehow be alive enough to be killing people? “We have to get back,” Frank said. “We have to see…we have to find Michael and find out what is going on.”

They rushed back to Frank’s backyard, gathered up their stuff and they headed back to the grave. Charlie was understandably scared and, although Frank would never show it or admit it the thoughts of what they might find was too horrible to think about.

By the time the made it back the moon was full and was hovering almost directly above them. The blueness of the light and the high contrast of the shadows made their way look like something out of a bad horror movie but they kept walking. As the moved deeper into the woods the canopy blocked all the light from the moon. The path was totally black and it took awhile for their eyes to adjust to the darkness and when they were able to see they saw a man standing beside the grave looking into it.

“Michael,” Frank asked as Charlie hid behind the trunk of a large tree.

The figure turned toward them. He was still wearing the uniform. “I beg your pardon,” Michael said as he stepped away from the grave.

“Are you Michael,” Frank asked more directly.

“I am named Michael,” he replied with a thick accent. “My name is Captain Michael Frances Worthshire of His Majesty’s Second Battalion stationed in Boston in the Massachusetts colony. Frank reached out to shake the Captain’s hand but pulled it back just a quickly as he asked how he ended up in Pennsylvania. “We were sent by order of the king to travel to Fort Littleton. On the way we were supposed to trade with the natives to gain their allegiance to the crown.”

While Frank was standing there talking to him, he wasn’t paying attention to the fact that Charlie had snuck away and headed back into town.

“What happened to you,” Frank asked.

“I remember we were in a battle and there were a lot of bug around…big bugs and something bit me on the back of the neck. At the same time I felt a sharp pain to the back of my head and I was knocked out. When I woke up I was the only one left alive. It was terrible. Bodies, limbs and entrails littered the ground for miles. I started walking until I found a small settlement. They treated my wounds, except for one. There were a pair of small wounds on my neck and that caused the people to panic. As soon as I was able they carried me out of town and left me on the side of a road. After that I wandered for days until I collapsed where you found me. Some of the people from that settlement followed me. They beat me and tied me to the ground. When they finally decided I was dead, or near death they buried me.”

“What happened then,” Frank asked as his interest increased.

“I realized when they threw the last pile of dirt on my grave that I was not dead. Then I realized that the wounds on the back of my neck were something more than an insect bite.”

“What were they?”

“I heard stories when I was back in England about creatures in Europe who drink blood and, if they didn’t kill their victim, they became like them. We called them vampires.”

“We still call them vampires but they are nothing but legend and myth.”

“I am here. Am I a legend? Am I am myth? Vampires are real and I am one.”

“Then why aren’t you drinking my blood,” Frank asked as he started backing away. It was strange but Frank wasn’t feeling the fear he should be feeling. He was more curious than anything so he stopped in his tracks and looked directly into Michael’s eyes. He didn’t see the look that vampires had in the movies…Michael had a look of affection and friendship. Maybe that wasn’t really there but that was what Frank saw. “Did you feed on those other people?

Michael lowered his head as if he were ashamed or maybe he had a feeling that he did something that he really didn’t want to do. “Yes boy, I did feed on those people,” Michael said. He sounded almost apologetic when he talked about what he did. “I…my kind can’t survive on animal blood, It is not nourishment for us. We need to feed on human blood. Now that I have fed I will not have to for many years.”

“Why didn’t you feed from me,” Frank asked again as he stepped face to face with the vampire. It was only then that he saw traces of blood on the corners of Michael’s mouth and then he was hit by the sweet smell of fresh blood coming every time Michael took a breath. The combination of the sight of blood as well as the smell made him sick to his stomach. It was hard to keep from throwing up…there was a couple times when he had to swallow his own vomit…but he managed to keep his composure. “Why,” he asked again.

“When they buried me…” Michael started, “...they lined the coffin with silver. That held me in my tomb. When you opened the lid and you turned me to face the moon that released me but I have to return before the sun rises over the mountains at the end of the valley. If I do not return to the soil of my tomb…I will die an agonizing death.”

Just then Frank heard noise in the distance. He heard people yelling. It sounded like a lot of people, maybe the entire population of Allegheny Heights. Charlie did what he thought he did. He went to town and told people about Michael, the grave and how Michael was killed and rose as a vampire.

“Michael…,” Frank said. “…you have got to get out of here.” He knew what was going to happen. The people of the town had to deal with things like this before. Allegheny Heights, for some reason, was a center point for the paranormal. Some said that a cave in the mountains was a gateway to another dimension or maybe an entrance to Hell itself.

“I can’t leave,” Michael said. For the first time he was losing his calmness and he was starting to feel fear.  Even in war he was the one who remained calm and did his duty to the king. “The sun is going to rise soon and I have to stay on this soil. There is nothing I can do.”

Frank looked at the horizon and the sky was a bright orange. It would not be long before the sun was over the mountains and Michael would die in a ball of flame and smoke.

The sounds were getting closer. Frank thought about how stupid he was to bring Charlie there…how he should have kept Michael and everything a secret. By now they were close enough so the both Frank and Michael could see the glow of their flashlights.

“You have got to go,” Frank yelled. “You have to run away!”

“I can’t,” Michael replied. His voice was no longer smooth and unshaken. He was in the beginnings of a strong panic and Frank had no idea how to calm him.

Suddenly he came up with an idea. He only had a few minutes but he thought that it just might work. “Michael, you have to go bad into the grave. You have to be quiet and pretend to be dead again. That is the only way to save you.” Michael did as he was told, climbing down into the hole. “Whatever you do…do not move…do not breathe.” Michael laid down on the wooden floor. He looked restful as Frank replaced the lid and shoveled more and more dirt into the grave. He didn’t have enough time to fill the grave but he did the best he could.

It was just seconds after he finished that the crowd surrounded him. There were more than five hundred people surrounding him. Charlie was at the front standing next to the grave.

“Where’s the vampire,” a man yelled.

“Where is the killer,” another screamed.

Frank stood there silently. He wasn’t going to tell. He hoped that they would just up and go away but they didn’t.

“He’s here,” Charlie yelled as he pointed at the grave. “This is where Frank was when he showed me the monster.”

A group of men rushed and started digging. Another group stood at the side with knives, gun and clubbed.

“Get him,” the crowd was screaming.

Frank ran to the grave and jumped in trying to stop them from digging deep enough to find the soldier. The police were there but they were not there to help. They were there to stop anyone from interfering and that meant they were there to stop Frank. They grabbed him from the hole. They were not gentle as they dragged him out and handcuffed him to a nearby tree. He was crying and begging for them to stop but no one wanted to hear that.

The ground was soft from being freshly disturbed so it only took them a couple minutes to dig down to the coffin. The lid was shut tight but a couple of crowbars and four men lifted the lid easily. Michael was there lying perfectly still. His eyes were open and staring straight ahead. One of the men looked into Michael’s eyes and he saw something he could not describe when he was asked about it later. He was scared…so scared he stood there and shook. He stood there until Michael’s mouth twitched just a bit…barely noticeable…but it was still enough to be seen. “He’s alive,” the man yelled. With that he pulled out a twelve inch butcher knife and drove it through Michael’s chest and heart.

“No,” Frank screamed as the knife ripped into Michael’s body. The cops who handcuffed Frank to the tree and ordered the boy to be silent or else. “Why are you killing him,” Frank screamed even louder.

“I warned you kid,” the cop yelled as he slapped Frank and put a gag in his mouth.

This was too much for Michael to take. He jumped from the coffin yelling, “you leave that boy alone.” He reached for his chest and pulled the knife out. He stepped away from the grave and slashed the knife back and forth striking four people. “I said leave that boy alone.” He lunged toward the boy leaving space between him and the ground. “I will kill you all,” he yelled as he got close to Frank who was still gagged but crying and struggling against the handcuffs.

The cop was the first one to fire his gun. The bullet ripped through Michael’s side, throwing him off balance causing him to fall in a ball on the ground.

Immediately Michael was back to his feet in a crouching position like a wild animal stalking its prey. His face didn’t show any humanity at all. He was a blood thirsty beast and there was nothing going to stop him from protecting the boy. As he rose to his feet one shot and another rang through the trees. Within second every person who had brought a gun was firing. Pistols, shotguns, rifles and a few high powered weapons all filled the air with bullets and the sound of the shots combined into a roar.

In the end more than three hundred rounds were fired and Michael was laying in a puddle of black fluid that flowed from his veins.

Charlie was nearby crying and in shock from what he had seen. How could the people he grew up with turn like that he thought.

The cop went over to check the body to make sure it was dead. There were no heartbeat but there was a smell. The cop later said that it was the smell of death. After he said that in fact Michael was dead he went over and released Frank who immediately ran over to Michael’s body. He was crying and one of his tears touched Michael’s face and with that Michael twitched and his eyes opened. Frank said that there was a smile on Michael’s face.

One of the townspeople saw the movement and, without warning, ran over with a machete he used to clear brush and he took Michael’s head off with just one swing.

Frank screamed as the “blood” splashed all over him. Then he did something no one expected. He turned to the people and started at them. His eyes were deep and cold. His eyebrows were tightly squeezed together creating furrows that look as threatening as any boy could. He had turned into just as much of an animal as Michael was. It was a blood lust and that scared the hell out of everyone. Then, as if by a miracle Frank turned and run off into the woods and he was never seen again.

Michael’s head was burned and his body staked to the ground in a new unmarked grave in a local cemetery. The sacred ground was there to hold the body and keep his soul from finding his body.

Frank was never seen again although there were stories from towns as far as ninety miles away of bodies being found drained of all their blood. No one was sure if it was Frank or not but then again…no one could ever be 100% sure.