Electro

by David Lisenby

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  It was near 5 o’clock when Harold made his way back toward the house. He had done a thorough job of pulling weeds but made a complete mess of himself in the process. He had mud splattered on his glasses and his feet felt like they weighed 50 pounds each with all the mud and water they had soaked up.

  He stopped at the water hose and rinsed a few layers of the mud from his clothes and boots before sloshing to the back door. He kicked off his boots and drenched socks and left them on the steps before stepping his bare foot onto the currently mud-free floor.

  He glanced over to the monitor (that displayed the live-feed of the eight security cameras around the property) and saw that Roxie’s truck wasn’t in its parking space. He knew that his mom wouldn’t see him (she was blind, remember?) and quickly began unbuckling his belt. He stepped out of his still muddy pants and reached out the door to drape them over the step railing. Deciding to keep his shirt on, Harold walked into the kitchen to find that Kay had started the pot of beans for supper.

  “Niiiiiiiice,” she purred from the other side of the room.

  “Don’t be looking at my bird legs,” Harold said as he turned to face his wife.

  “Mmmmmm. I’m lovin’ those sexy calves,” Kay said with a wink.

  Harold felt so vunerable. He felt like a piece of meat. His naked legs were on full display and that woman was sitting there with drool running down her chin. Oh, the humiliation.

  Not really.

  He leaned over and gave his wife a little kiss, turned and prissed his skinny butt at her as he walked to the bathroom to take a quick shower and change. The hot water sprayed over his skin with sufficient force to entice Harold to stay in the shower about 10 minutes longer than he had planned, but that little bit of extra time under the stream of hot water invigorated him and made him feel so much better. He hadn’t realized before entering the shower that his muscles were so tight and tense, so the relief the water provided was that much more comforting.

  He wiped the steam off the mirror with his damp towel and looked at his reflection. He leaned closer and asked aloud, “Is that a new black hair?” He moved his hair around a little with his fingers, apparently inspecting them one-by-one. “Nope,” he finally answered himself. “All grey.”

  After dressing, Harold crept through the living room and eased his mom’s door open a little. He could hear her shuffling around changing tapes in her reader. “Harold?” she said softly.

  “Yes, Mom?” he answered.

  “You walkin’ around the house with no pants on?” she asked.

  How does she know these things? “No ma’am?”

  “Umm Hmm,” Alice smirked. “Well. Wash your hands again before you touch anything in the kitchen.”

  Oh. Emm. Gee.

  “Yes, mother,” he finally said aloud. “Supper will be ready soon.”

  He shook his head as he backed out of the room and slowly eased the door to. He could swear that he heard his mother giggling as the door clicked closed. Harold kept shaking his head as he walked through the living room and into the dining room. Kay was pouring the batter for the cornbread into a pan.

  “I wish Roxie had made the cornbread before she left,” Harold mumbled beneath his breath. Everybody knew that she made the best cornbread over anyone else in the house.

  “What was that?” Kay asked.

  “Nothing, dear.”

  Harold pitched in and soon he was taking the cornbread out of the oven. Everything else had finished cooking at about the same time (don’t you love it when that happens) and both cooks worked together to fix plates for everyone. Harold placed his plate on the table and then delivered Alice’s to her. He returned to the table just as Kay rolled up to her place with her plate. Harold took his seat. The couple looked lovingly into one another’s eyes as they joined hands.

  After saying grace, Kay turned the volume on the television back up just in time for Alex Trebek to read the Final Jeopardy question in the category Design.

  “Switching the syllables in the German word for building of a home gave this design & architecture school its name,” he read. Kay guessed “adobe”. Harold thought a moment and guessed “bauen.”

  As the last two notes of the Jeopardy theme song finished the television and all the lights flickered and went out.

  “Really,” Kay exclaimed. She and Harold both shook their heads in frustration.

  “If it doesn’t come back on in a few minutes I’ll go out and start the generator,” Harold said. “Mom has been using her oxygen pretty regular today and probably won’t be able to breath comfortably without it.”

  “Amen,” Kay responded.

  They ate in silence.

  Chapter 3

  A journey of 1,000 miles

  Thump thump.

  Thump thump.

  Thump thump.

  Arlene’s heartrate was racing as she forcefully exhaled. She hadn’t realized she was holding her breath until she started feeling light-headed. She saw that her knuckles were white as she gripped the steering wheel tightly. Her eyes focused on a droplet of water and the tiny stream it left behind as it slowly trekked down her windshield.

  “Breath,” she reminded herself as she realized she was holding her breath again. Arlene was normally a very cool, calm and collected woman but now she found herself feeling a little rattled. She had been so wrapped up in her emotions that she was taken by surprise by the activity outside her vehicle.

  Everything was so out of control only a minute before. As she diverted her gaze around her, she found herself breathing more steadily and no longer had the feeling that her heart was going to burst in her chest.

  She released the steering wheel with her right hand and reached down to turn the key, hoping to restart her car and be on her way. Nothing. Arlene was confused.

  “Ah ha,” she said aloud to herself. She smiled as she grabbed the gear shift lever and returned it to the Park position. “It’s not going to do anything if you leave it in Drive, silly woman.” She turned the key again as she shook her head.

  Nothing.

  Arlene looked up into the rear-view mirror and then over to her side mirror to make sure any vehicles that may be coming up the road weren’t going to mow her over. She opened her door and stepped out onto the wet concrete.

  She slammed her door shut and walked quickly to the front of her car, stepping in front of it where she would have a little protection from the oncoming traffic. It only took a moment before she noticed that there wasn’t any traffic. There were several other vehicles on the highway, but they all seemed to be broke down just like her.

  “That’s odd,” she thought as she looked around. “Very odd.”

  Focusing her attention beyond the service road, Arlene could see a couple of people walking around the parking lot of a convenience store. She saw a man standing on a grassy knoll and beyond him a small crowd was exiting from various doors at the movie theatre.

  There were a couple of people that appeared to be upset but the others seemed to be more confused, based on the way people were milling about. It didn’t look like any of their vehicles were starting, either.

  “You o.k. lady?” a strange voice startled her. She diverted her gaze and saw a chubby little Asian man approaching her at a labored trot.

  “I’m fine,” she smiled back at the man. “Thank you.” She sensed that this man meant her no harm. The genuine look of concern in his eyes and the way he continued to approach her when he was obviously beyond the point of being out-of-breath indicated that he was sincere.

  The little cherub man stopped in mid-stride and came to rest beside the front fender of her car. He rested his right hand on the fender and leaned into it.

  Arlene cocked her head to the side slightly as he leaned. She was amazed at how far down her car tilted as he leaned against it. The metal of the fender was actually less than an inch from the pavement. He was breathing deeply, trying to catch his breath. She didn’t have the heart to ask him not
to destroy her car by leaning on it.

  The man looked up at her with a breathless smile on his face, holding up one finger and moving it in a swaying motion toward her. Looking at him more closely she was amused that he looked almost exactly like Mr. Miyagi in the face but had the body more of Fluffy when he debuted on the comedy scene.

  She raised her hand in front of her mouth to hide the laughter from him but couldn’t do anything about her shaking shoulders as she tried to contain her laughter.

  “You think I look funny,” the man said through raspy breaths. “Let me introduce myself…”

  They stared deeply into each other’s tear-filled eyes (hers from holding in an overwhelming need to bust out laughing; his from the lack of oxygen to his organs). The silence was palpable. He reached out to shake her hand, took a little bow and spoke, ”I am Tu Lang Dong.”

  I kid you not! That is what he said. With a straight face. He even sounded like Fluffy.

  “AH, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!” She couldn’t hold the laughter any longer.

  Arlene literally fell to her knees and laughed harder and deeper than she had laughed in her entire life. If there was a Top 10 list of the Greatest Laughs of All Time, this laugh would be in the Top 3 … Top 5 for sure. After a good minute of uncontrollable laughter, she was the one gasping for breath as the Asian man appeared to be leveling out.

  She looked slightly upward, directly into the man’s eyes as he winked at her. He had obviously had this reaction before. “Most people call me Ding,” he softly said as he made a clicking sound with his cheek. Arlene fell into another fit of uncontrollable laughter.

  “Papa,” the tiny voice finally registered, and Arlene slowly found her way back to reality, breathing heavily as the laughter subsided. She was barely able to make out the cute face of the petite Asian girl approaching her from the rear of the car through the tears that still flowed from her eyes. At least they were happy tears. The girl seemed worried and had an intense look of concern on her face.

  “Papa,” she repeated. “Is everything ok?”

  “All is well, Gong-ju-nim,” the man replied to the girl. She looked at her father. She looked at the woman. The woman looked at her as she attempted to regain her composure.

  “You didn’t tell her your name, did you?” she asked her father as she rolled her eyes.

  The girl didn’t look big enough to be a teen yet, but her maturity shined through in the way she admonished her father. She turned and looked at the woman with a new sympathy showing in her eyes.

  “Hi. I’m Kim,” she stretched out her hand to the stranger as she introduced herself. The woman accepted her handshake and looked into her eyes.

  “I’m Arlene,” the woman said with a somewhat puzzled look. “I thought …”

  It didn’t take but a second for the direction of the comment to hit the young girl. “Gong Dong?” she said as she again rolled her eyes. “My heaven, no. He’s the King Ding Dong and I am his Korean princess. Oh, my goodness! Gong Dong?”

  The three stood there on the side of the highway laughing together about their impromptu meeting. Kim and her father told Arlene how they had been following behind her when lightning struck a light pole as she passed by it. A glowing light sparked from the pole and surrounded her vehicle as she passed by. Neither of them thought anybody inside the small car would have survived such an electrical charge. They were amazed to discover the driver had come through without a sign of injury.

  “That explains why my car won’t start,” Arlene said when she heard the incredible story about the lightning strike right next to her car. “But what about your van and all these other vehicles?”

  Three pairs of eyes looked around and surveyed their surroundings. There were at least 30 other vehicles on the highway in front of and behind them that were in the same predicament. All dead.

  “And them,” Arlene added as she pointed in the direction of the theatre.

  No one muttered an answer. There was none.

  A good three minutes passed by in silence. Complete confusion enveloped the trio of commuters as they continued to survey their surroundings. Kim seemed to grow more and more antsy as the seconds ticked by.

  The young girl took out her cell phone and looked at its blank screen. She turned it toward Arlene and showed her. The more mature woman retrieved her phone from her pocketbook and gazed at it. She turned it toward Kim.

  Blank.

  “Papa,” she said as she clutched her father’s arm. “We need to get home.”

  “O.K. my sweet child,” he responded, sounding more serious than he had been thus far. “You’re right. Let’s grab a few things out of the van. We will have to walk, but if we hurry we should be there a little after sunset.”

  He turned to look at Arlene. “We live over by Lamar College,” he said to her. “You can join us if you’d like.”

  “Thank you,” she responded sincerely. “I live in Buna, so I have a lot longer walk than you. I’ll be just fine.” The words sounded confident but deep-down Arlene didn’t feel so sure. Maybe she could find someone with a running vehicle that she could pay to take her home.

  “Maybe we can keep each other company ‘til the Hwy. 69 split?” she asked a bit more expectantly than she intended.

  “Of course,” the jovial man answered. “Kim. You go get our things from the van and I will wait her with this pretty lady until you get back.”

  Kim gazed at her father. “Yes,” she said. “Mother would be pleased if she knew you were watching out for the well-being of a beautiful woman.”

  Arlene hoped the girl was joking. When she caught the wink from her as she turned to run toward the van she knew that there was no discourse in that family. She smiled at the cherub man as she passed him. She grabbed her car door and opened it; leaned inside and grabbed her .38 from the console and quietly tucked it into her pocketbook. (You really can’t tell who to trust these days.) She reached into the back seat and retrieved the bag of snacks she had bought when she stopped at the greatest truck stop ever a while back and, before exiting the vehicle, the half-empty bottle of water from its place in the cup holder.

  Before closing the door again, Arlene leaned back in and grabbed the first aid kit from beneath her front seat. She held up the bag where the man could see the words engraved with brown lettering on the red case: “Justin Case.”

  “You never can tell what you’ll need on an adventure,” she smiled. He nodded. She was surprised when Kim jogged up to the car just as she shut the driver side door. For a short little girl with short little legs this girl was quick. Arlene noticed she was wearing a backpack and was carrying something in her left hand. Seeing where the lady was looking, Kim held up her left hand to expose a little red case with brown engraving on it.

  “You never know what you’ll need on an adventure,” Kim said. Arlene looked at the chubby little man. The man looked at her. Both broke into laughter.

  Kim was confused.

  As the trio started walking westward on the interstate, Arlene glanced down at the red sneakers she had chosen to wear for her trip today for the sake of comfort. The light glistened off the wet shoes gave them a ruby-like appearance. Suddenly feeling carefree, she started skipping and singing at the top of her lungs, “We’re off to see the wizard. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

  Kim looked at her father. He looked at her. A light rain began to fall. They both shrugged. It wouldn’t be much longer and they would be rid of this crazy woman. The two Asians started skipping, trying to catch up to her.

  Have you ever seen a gnome skip?

  It didn’t take but about a quarter-mile before the pace turned into a walk. The nurse felt like she could skip all the way to Buna, but she could tell that wasn’t the case for the overweight man. He didn’t complain at all, just kept trying to keep up with the younger, skinnier females that accompanied him. “Besides,” Arlene thought to herself. “This will give me a chance to get to know these people a little better.”

  They cha
tted merrily along their way, seemingly oblivious to the rain that was falling around them. They talked about their families and their jobs. Kim and her father seemed surprised but genuinely impressed to learn that Arlene was a nurse and had devoted her life in service to the healing and comfort of others.

  Arlene, on the other hand, wasn’t really surprised but was genuinely amused to learn that her new Asian friends were the proud owners and operators of … wait for it … a doorbell company! Ding Dong Doorbells in Port Arthur, Texas. He really was King Ding Dong!

  The family had recently moved into their new home off Cardinal Drive in Beaumont. Close enough to the business to be there with no hassle but also close enough to the Lamar campus where Kim (who, it turned out, was a 19-year-old nursing student) could have a safe place to live until she graduated.

  Arlene talked about her four daughters and how her husband had died the previous year. They seemed to actually care and offered her a few comforting words and warm hugs. She didn’t mention the cancer. She didn’t feel there was a need to share that information with anyone until she had shared it with her children.

  The conversation lagged only when the trio passed one of the restaurants that lined the interstate and watched the people who had been eating a meal moments before being ushered outdoors when the electricity went out. Some of those people apparently could not get their car doors open and huddled under awnings and trees to keep from getting drenched. Others walked around in the rain, looking like a bunch of lost, wet puppies.

  Reaching the crest of an overpass, with a bayou beneath them, Arlene came to the realization that they had just about reached the point in their journey where she would have to part with her newfound friends. The next exit was the Hwy. 69 exit … the one that lead toward Lamar. When they arrived at the split in the road they stopped.

  Arlene looked down at the chubby little man, leaned over and grabbed him up into her arms and gave him a great big hug. “God bless you, Mr. Dong,” she said to him tenderly. “Meeting you really was the highlight of my week. You will never know just how much I needed you to come into my life.”