A Summertime Journey

by Jerome Sitko

  Charlie swings open the creaky passenger door and says, “Get out, everyone, and piss to your heart’s content.” We all exit the vehicle, and as soon as I’m standing erect, my whole body tenses up and stretches toward the orange sky. That feels better. I thought that dick was never going to let us stop. I immediately look toward Charlie to see if there’s a reaction. Nothing. My thumb again caresses the rock. I pull the rock out of my pocket, and I realize it’s the first rock I threw off the roof. The stone is my talisman, gifted to me by Emma, although I didn’t know it. There’s nothing special about it; it’s the power that Emma has given the stone. She charmed it, and it will prove to be very important later in our journey.

  Holding the rock, my mind goes back to the terrible situation we’re in, and for a brief second, I think about running, running away as fast as I can, but to where? There’s nothing around for as far as the eye can see. Again, I look at Charlie for a reaction. Nothing. He is standing at the front of the car, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, smoke dancing with his every move. I glance at Jeremy and Joey. Side-by-side, sword-fighting with streams of yellow standing just off the side of the road. Can Charlie not hear my thoughts because of this rock? I think.

  I decide I need to test my theory: I drop the rock and think, Joey is a traitor. Why is he listening to Charlie? Without turning around, Charlie explains: “Because he is my navigator, Lance.” Oh fuck, he did it again. I turn slightly so I don’t get any dark yellow pee on my rock and relieve myself. I zip up my pants and bend down and pick it up. And then I think, If I grab Jeremy and we start running as fast as we can, we can escape. Scared shitless, I quickly look at Charlie—nothing. It IS the rock. I grip it tighter in my hand, so tight my knuckles turn white.

  Suddenly and with catlike finesse, Charlie leaps onto the hood of the Camaro, leaving two permanent dents where his feet land. “Boys, we’re almost there,” he says, and then tells us about the portal, our blood, and how Erebus will rule both worlds. His arms thrust toward the sky as if to pull the fallen angel from the heavens and bring it crashing down on us all. I look at Joey, Jeremy, and Jeremy looks terrified, my expression matching his. “We’re not getting out of this fucking place alive, are we,” Jeremy says to both of us, more a statement than a question. “We’re never going home, he’s going to fucking kill us, and you heard what he said—he needs our fucking blood for some kind of satanic ritual!” Jeremy finishes by kicking a dirt clod in front of his foot. He blurted it out so fast I did not have time to warn or stop him. “Get in, boys, it’s time to move. Jeremy quit being such a damn sissy your about to be part of something great,” Charlie says as he jumps down off the hood, just as gracefully as he mounted it. When his feet hit the ground, tiny red tornadoes dance around each foot and disappear into nothing. The car accelerates with the same sudden jerky force it stopped, and we’re on our way.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  ◊

  WE CONTINUE ALONG THE two-lane road out in the middle of the red desert for what seems like an eternity. Other than the road we’re on, I haven’t seen any other streets, not even trails. There are no physical landmarks to gauge our distance, and time has no meaning in this weird world. There’s no daytime or nighttime, and it’s always the same orange hue. I fall asleep, wake up, look out the window—nothing has changed, still red desert with no landmarks. It keeps recycling over and over with no end in sight. It gives me time to think (holding my talisman safely in my front pocket). How did we switch from our world to this world? How do we get back? How do we escape? I may never know the answers. I can now recall my first visit with Emma. How did I go from my bedroom to that cold stone room? Why haven’t I been able to remember any of it until now?

  “In Sheol, we cannot suppress your memories as we can in Adamah,” Emma says in my head.

  Oh good, you’re still with me, I respond. Why can’t you fight Charlie and get all of us out of here so we can go home?

  “I don’t know how to explain this to you, Lance. I cannot fight. I can only guide and assist because you are alive in this world and your world. The man you call ‘Charlie’ uses his army of grouplings, and he has more control over their minds because they have transitioned between living and dead. Our side believes that the two worlds need to be separate, the good and evil. Erebus controls Charlie, and they want both worlds merged so they can rule you and everyone in your world. That is why all of this is happening to you and your friends right now. I know this is a lot to think about, but know this—I am always with you, and we will win.”

  A million thoughts are racing through my head that I want to ask Emma when Jeremy interrupts us.

  “Dude, look at that. That’s the first thing I’ve seen since we’ve been out here,” he says.

  I sit up so I can see out the window better, and off to the right in the distance is a building. I can’t make it out yet, but it’s definitely a building.

  Joey sees it, too, and asks Charlie, “Can we stop at that building? What is it?”

  “It’s an old gas station and diner,” Charlie says.

  “Well, can we stop? We’re all exhausted and can use the rest,” Jeremy says.

  Rubbing the cords on his pants, Charlie says, “Ya, why not, let’s stop and get some rest and stretch our legs.” Little did we know that Charlie was going to show us his playful, sick side.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  ◊

  AS WE DRAW CLOSER to the building, I can see that it was once a gas station. The pump island is still standing with two gravity feed pumps attached, one red and one yellow. The glass bowls are missing, and the pumps themselves are rusted and long since inoperable. Over the awning, the rusted sign reads Shell Gasoline ~ Diner and a smaller sign reads Owned and operated by Garland and Genevieve Parsons. The building was yellow and red at one time but is now long faded and the paint chipped away.

  Joey pulls the Camaro under the awning as if stopping for gas. Once parked, he turns the ignition off, and all four of us get out, stretching and yawning. The building has two sides; one is the service station and garage, and the other must have been the diner. The front of the building displays rusted and faded signs, and some are lying on the ground, clearly long blown off, leaving only silhouettes of where they once prominently hung. Signs that read Shell Motor Oil, Puritan Motor Oil, and Gasoline .18½ (No Knock) lie on the ground. Around us is nothing, not one tree or bush, no hills; it’s flat and desolate as the rest of this world.

  Charlie swings open the diner door and in a deep voice, says, “Hi, everyone… did you miss me?” Who’s he talking to? I wonder.

  Once inside, I begin looking around. The inside does not reflect the outside of the diner. The interior seems brand-new: a counter runs the length of the restaurant, with a top made out of shiny, hammered copper. Fourteen chrome barstools with red sparkly vinyl seats provide the seating. Along the wall and windows are gray booths with Formica tops and red-and-white plush vinyl benches. The floor is red and white checkerboard tiles, and Coca-Cola signs and Elvis Presley memorabilia adorn the walls. In the far corner is a shiny silver Seeburg 45 rpm jukebox.

  Joey and Jeremy come in behind me and say, “WOW, look at this place,” at the same time. I was so consumed by the layout that I didn’t even notice the three girls standing behind the counter.

  Joey notices them first. “Hey, there are girls in here,” he says with a big smile that soon turns to a look of shock. One of the girls is Wendy. He remembers her from the apartment. “Wendy, right? Wow, what are you doing here?” he asks as he begins to move around to the side of the counter. Before she can answer, he stops in his tracks. He remembers her smell. Instead of excited, he’s now terrified.

  “Master told me to come,” she says, looking at Charlie, twirling one of her pigtails.

  “Joey, what’s wrong? I thought you would be happy to see Wendy. You have a crush on her, don’t you?” Charlie asks. Jeremy and I slide into one of the booths to see how this plays out
. “Charlie, her breath…” Joey says with a disgusted look on his face. Charlie is already waving for her to come over. Wendy wraps her arms around Charlie’s neck and puts one of her legs between his and nibbles on his ears. “There’s nothing wrong with her,” Charlie says as he turns his head and kisses her. All three of us are watching Charlie and Wendy; Jeremy and I are watching Joey for his reaction. Now Joey looks jealous. Jeremy and I don’t have any context, so we don’t understand what’s going on.

  The other girls have come out from behind the counter, and one walks over to the jukebox. Jeremy jumps up and saunters over to her and introduces himself: “I’m Jeremy.”

  She pauses and places her hand on top of his and says, “I’m Becky. What kind of music do you like?” Giggling, together they pick a song, “Light My Fire,” by The Doors. The girl with Jeremy is wearing Daisy Dukes and a skintight white tank top. She grabs Jeremy, and they start slow dancing.

  “Jo-Jo, don’t you like me anymore?” Wendy says, still hanging on Charlie. Confused, Joey starts second-guessing himself and wonders if he imagined Wendy’s smell from their first meeting. Plus, she looks incredible right now, wearing the same Daisy Dukes and a black tank top. Charlie pushes Wendy off of him and toward Joey. Charlie pushed her so hard that she slams into Joey, and he takes an involuntary breath when he catches her. He smells the sweet scent of perfume. Happy that he must’ve been hallucinating the last time, and now it looks like he was finally going to get lucky, he grins ear to ear.

  While all of this is going on, a petite girl who looks like Farrah Fawcett and I are having a great conversation while sitting in my booth. She tells me her name is Toni. She has her hand on my thigh and is rubbing it. I’m a teenage boy, so of course, I’m getting excited. All three of us have temporarily forgotten where we are and what we are doing. We’re having fun with these beautiful girls in this great restaurant, and we’re sure we’re going to get lucky.

  Perched on one of the stools, Charlie is watching all of us the same way he did when Joey killed Ryan; we’re all part of a personal play just for him.

  After a while, Charlie decides he’s growing bored and wants to spice the party up. I’m in the booth making out with Toni, my hand up her shirt, fondling her braless breasts. Jeremy and his girl are two booths down, and I think he’s even further along the bases than I am. Unlike me, Jeremy’s not a virgin. Joey and Wendy have disappeared into the kitchen area, but I can hear Wendy giggling and moaning.

  Charlie blinks, and the jukebox turns off, killing the music. None of us notice—we’re all too busy. As I’m making out with Toni, I feel something odd in my mouth. We stop kissing long enough for me to take it out. I turn my head and pretend to cough so I can spit it into my hand and rub it off onto my pants. We continue making out, and I feel something else in my mouth. I chew it, and it has a tainted taste. We stop, and I spit it out into my hand and look at it this time. I push Toni back so I can see her face, and part of her bottom lip is missing. Horrified, I scream and push her out of the booth, and she lands on her butt. She swings her arms behind her to break her fall, and her left arm hyperextends and snaps. Toni doesn’t notice it; she sits on the floor, smiling up at me.

  “What the fuck is going on!” I yell, looking at Charlie as I scramble to stand on the seat.

  Charlie smiles and says to me, “What! Don't you like my groupling? It looked like you two were getting along great. What’s wrong?”

  I jump down and start heading for the door, yelling, “Her lip’s missing, and she just broke her arm and didn’t flinch!” My eyes dart between her and Charlie as I walk, never turning my back on either of them.

  I pull on the door handle; it’s locked. Charlie has sealed the building so we can’t escape. I look back over at Toni, and her lips, nose, and ears are blue-green. She’s rotting away in front of me. When I screamed, Jeremy stopped what he was doing with Becky, startled, and he must’ve noticed the same thing I did: Becky, too, is rotting. At about the same time, we hear Joey frantically screaming in the back, and he comes running out straight for the door. He’s met with the same result: it’s locked.

  Charlie is laughing so hard he slips off of his stool and transitions into a mocking curtsy. Now with all three of us in the main area, he can finish having his fun with us.

  “Boys, what’s wrong? Don't you like your girls? Jo-Jo, I thought you had a special connection with Wendy—what’s wrong?” he says, laughing even harder, blowing air kisses at him.

  Before any of us can answer, Charlie looks at his imaginary wristwatch and says, “Time to get back on the road, gentlemen. If you want to say your last goodbyes to your dates, do so now.” He points at the girls who are now back to their original spots behind the counter, smiling at us with their putrid, rotting faces. “No? Okay, girls, thank you for the wonderful evening. You may go now. I’m done with you.”

  Toni produces a large carving knife from under the counter and uses it on the other two girls before using it on herself. The three of us are frozen, unable to move as we watch the murder-suicide. But is it really? If they’re already dead? The three girls dissolve into the Sheol atmosphere to await Charlie’s call when he wants them again.

  Charlie flicks his wrist, and the door swings open. He walks out and lights a cigarette by the Camaro. Stunned, we don’t know what to do. Joey starts slowly moving toward the open door, wiping his mouth with his shirt.

  Jeremy says, “What just happened? How are we going t—” I thrust my hand over his mouth so he can’t finish.

  “Don’t fucking say another word… don’t even think it. Charlie can hear everything and read our minds.” I have an idea. I pull the rock out of my pocket and motion for Jeremy to hold it, but before I give it to him, I say, “He can’t hear if you’re holding the rock.” Jeremy gives me a quizzical look, and I repeat, “He can’t hear or read your mind if you have the rock. It’s got some kind of magical power. I don’t understand it, but trust me.” I hand Jeremy the rock, and he takes it in his quivering hand and squeezes it hard like he’s trying to get juice out of it.

  “How are we going to escape?” Both of us look outside to see if Charlie heard. Nothing. Relieved, Jeremy opens up and starts rambling. I hold my hand out, and he passes me the rock. I tell him I don’t know how I know, but I assure him we will be all right. I don’t think he believes me. I put the rock safely back in my pocket, and we go outside. Joey and Charlie are already in their seats, and the Camaro roars to life. We get in, and dread fills us again.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  ◊

  THE CAMARO PEELS OUT, rolling over the gas signs on the ground, and our journey continues. We must have been driving for quite a while because I fell asleep. After the diner, I didn’t think I would ever be able to sleep again, and Jeremy seems different, more depressed. He keeps rubbing his lips and staring at his hands.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll be there soon, and you can go to sleep for good. Hang in there, warrior.” Charlie is turned around and looking directly at Jeremy. Jeremy must have been thinking in his head.

  I pull the rock out of my pocket and tap Jeremy on his thigh. With his eyes filled with despair, he turns and looks at me. I’m worried about my friend. I hope he can stay strong long enough for us to get out of this. He takes the talisman from my hand and mouths, “Thank you.” We continue driving for what seems like hours, and then Jeremy does it.

  I look over at Jeremy, and tears are cutting a path through the red dust on his face, leaving behind a trail for more to follow. He looks over at me with the desperate look and fright he had earlier. My eyes follow his hand as it inches forward and grips the door handle, everything happening in slow motion. The door swings open and he pushes it with his foot, simultaneously pushing Joey’s seat forward, he leans out, and then he is gone. I didn’t see him crash against the asphalt below. My mind was not able to process what was happening in time to react.

  The force from Jeremy pushing Joey’s seat causes Joey to sla
m on the brakes. The car screeches to a halt in the middle of the street, and I fly into the back of the front seat and send Charlie’s head into the windshield. Dazed and confused, all of us freeze for a split second and sit there trying to unscramble what has happened. Charlie jerks up and turns with such force, I think, How did he not snap his neck? Jeremy’s seat is empty, the vinyl where he was sitting just seconds ago shiny and red. I see my rock in between his seat and mine and scoop it up and quickly stuff it in my pocket. All three of us exit the vehicle. Joey and I are both worried about Jeremy, and I can’t help thinking the worst.

  We start running back to the lifeless mound lying on the ground behind us, with Charlie casually strolling like he’s taking an afternoon walk, pinching the cord on his pants each time his leg rises. Once Joey and I reach Jeremy, we immediately turn him over onto his back with a thud, blood covering our hands, but we don’t notice it. He’s not moving or breathing, his eyes lifeless. Every piece of bare skin is shredded, including his face and head. His nose looks like someone took sandpaper and sanded down the side of it, a gash replacing his nostrils. His shirt and jeans are threadbare and turning crimson. Oddly, I notice both his shoes are missing. With Jeremy lying there in a bloody mangled mess, I take the time to notice he’s missing his shoes. What is wrong with me?