Between the Lanterns

by Bush, J. M.

  Between the Lanterns

  J.M. BUSH

  MilkMan Publishing

  Copyright © 2016 James Michael Bush, MilkMan Publishing

  All rights reserved. This Book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Edited by Matt Rance @ Proof Professor

  Cover design by Stefanie Saw @ Seventh Star

  Interior artwork created by Ammar Khalifa

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing, 2016

  ISBN: 0-9972842-3-4

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9972842-3-2

  MilkMan Publishing

  914 El Dorado Drive

  Dothan, AL 36303

  www.eatplaywritetravel.com

  This book is dedicated to my hometown, Dothan, Alabama. I resented you when I was young, but now I understand what makes you great. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, as they used to say, and I’ve been about as far away from you as possible for a long time.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I’d like to thank everyone who bought my last novel. The outpouring of positivity from readers has been incredible. I hope that this book can match and surpass the success of Storm in Shanghai. In addition, I would like to thank my beta readers for Between the Lanterns: Brad Clayton, Candace Strickland, and my wife Merissa Lulling Bush. With the feedback I received from you, this novel went from pretty good to wonderful, and I am forever in your debt for that.

  Perhaps most importantly for this particular novel, I would like to thank my friend Bobby Lee Hill, whose song “In Between the Lantern” inspired the story found within these pages. Your music has always made my heart dance, and I hope that I did your beautiful lyrics justice with this book.

  Between

  the

  Lanterns

  Preface

  They met between the lanterns on West Main Street. The ones at the very end of the downtown strip of shops, all the way down past the bars and restaurants. All the way down past the clinic, the Baptist church, and the new office buildings. Those two lanterns hung in the air, levitating like all the other ones in New Dothan. There was nothing special about them. They gave off the same light as the others fueled by the Tesla generator outside of town, providing pure, clean, wireless energy. No poles were holding them in place. The magnetic levitation plates on the bottom kept them at the perfect ten feet above the automated sidewalks. They were normal, everyday lanterns. And that is where they met for the very first time.

  Samantha was returning home from a long day waiting tables at Cheryl’s Diner. A throwback to the old days, reminiscent of the food you would find at Waffle House…when those still existed. The food was probably the best in town. Home-style cooking made with love, heart, and soul. Most of the people in New Dothan wouldn’t eat there, though. Cheryl’s Diner still used real meat, real vegetables, and real, home-made bread – a. All of the ingredients obtained from a small farm in Headland Town, where the last remaining farmers in the area still held onto the old ways.

  Nowadays most everyone had a Nutricator in their homes. A technological marvel, as they advertised Nutricator, could create whatever you wanted to eat using processed protein and fiber to provide a nutritious meal for the whole family. Ask for pizza, you get it. Hamburgers? Sure. Duck à l’orange even. The problem was, it was all fake.

  Samantha hated food from a Nutricator. She loved taking the time to break ingredients down and then use them to create something that took time and patience. She felt that Nutricator food was bland. It only “kinda sorta reminded you of what you really wanted,” she was fond of saying. But it was quick, easy, and most importantly, it was popular.

  August was on his way to the hardware store. He had just rented a new apartment out past the end of West Main Street and was trying to fix the place up. It was a dump, sure, but it was his dump. It was all he could afford from his meager wages working on the line of the industrial factory outside of town. The one where they made all the major components for everything computerized in the area. They built the chips, motherboards, controllers, and activators for just about every modern device available. They were part of a worldwide conglomerate that owned almost everything and everyone. Montek paid their employees extremely low wages, even though they were a financial giant, which is why August could barely afford his tiny, run-down apartment.

  As they walked down the street, both avoided the automated sidewalks because, well… legs were made for walking… not standing idle. So they strode towards one another from opposite ends of West Main. The moment they crossed between the lanterns, all of the lights in town went out.

  Samantha and August each gasped loudly at the exact moment utter darkness fell upon New Dothan. Instinctively, they both reached out for something... anything to hold onto. Their hands connected in the dark and their fingers intertwined like the wool woven into an intricately patterned sweater.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got you. I’m here,” August blurted out for some reason.

  “And who might you be, sweets?” Samantha said, adding, “And may I ask why you are holding my hand?”

  She grinned saying this, feeling no threat coming from the man in the dark. Samantha had seen him coming towards her, and he was a rather attractive fellow. Probably in his mid-twenties, with very dark skin like that of a West Africann, close-cut hair, and an average physique; neither fat, trim, nor athletic - jjust somewhere deliciously in the middle. His eyes were bright, and his face was gorgeous.

  August had no idea that it was a woman in the dark until she had spoken to him. He felt rather embarrassed now at having said what he did, not to mention he was still holding her hand… Bbut then again, she was still holding his hand right back. He now wished that he had been paying attention, so he would know what she looked like.

  But August, as usual, had been lost in his thoughts. Often he thought of song lyrics, or sometimes stories, but mostly he just imagined himself anywhere but living in New Dothan. It’s not that he hated the town. In fact, he thought it was full of decent enough people, even if they flocked to buy any new gadget on the market while throwing out tried and true traditions like yesterday’s potato chips. The history of New Dothan was also rich with great characters and steeped in wonderful stories of kindness; even if most of the residents had forgotten them all.

  No, it wasn’t the specific town of New Dothan that bothered him. It was just that he had always lived there. August had never, not even once, left the Wiregrass area. So it was pretty much all he wanted out of life these days – to save enough Credit and find a way to travel the world.

  Just as August was wishing that he knew what this mystery woman looked like, the lights in New Dothan came back on as suddenly as they were extinguished a minute before. And August almost fell down from the shock of seeing her.

  It felt like getting hit by a truck. It felt like for his entire life up until that point there had been a giant hole in August’s chest, but with just one look at the shining light of this woman’s face that abyss became full, even if only temporarily.

  This feeling wasn’t mere sexual attraction, either. He felt no animalistic urges to lie down with this gorgeous lady and continue the overpopulation of planet Earth. It was something much deeper than that, and more painful, too. It was agony and nirvana at the same time. She looked at August, and he felt that nothing, no matter what else he ever accomplished in his pat
hetic life, would ever be as wonderful as when she looked at him.

  “Are you ok, sweets?” Samantha asked.

  August could only stare for a moment, before stuttering in reply, “Uh, what? Sorry… what’d you say?”

  Samantha smiled. It felt good to be noticed by an attractive man.

  “I said, are you ok?” she repeated herself. “You’re staring, you know?”

  August realized he was making a fool of himself in front of the most beautiful womean he had ever seen. She wasn’t beautiful by the standards of modern insane media. She was nothing like all the women he saw in movies and on TV, who were too thin and plastic. And, just like food from a Nutricator, they were all fake. These women may have been composed of organic parts, but a machine had artificially assembled those parts; they weren’t natural.

  This woman, though, with her straight, shoulder -length black hair, almond -shaped eyes, that perfect skin tone that only East Asians could obtain, and the small spread of freckles across her face;: she was radiant like a sun.

  Not Earth’s sun, though. It was too dim to describe her. No, she was radiant like the sun of a distant planet that could melt the Earth from across the galaxy. Of course, the way that navy blue dress with white dots all over it fit the delicate curves of her small breasts and backside wasere also quite compelling to the young man.

  “Hello?” Samantha said., “You’re still staring. Kinda freaking me out there, sweets. Are you ok, for real? Did the blackout fry your brains or something?”

  “Am I ok?” August dumbly asked, “I ain’t sure, to be honest. But I think now that I’ve seen you, I could be. I’m…” Hhe cut off abruptly.

  August almost gave her his name. Almost. But he had been rejected and broken his whole life. Not just by women, but also by co-workers, his parents, and his friends; even his dog had run away. So, he decided not to open himself up for more heartbreak.

  “I… I’m fine, ma’am,” he stuttered. “I’m sorry for spacin’ out like that. I’ll take off now. That is if you’re ok?”

  Samantha smiled even wider. She thought this boy was too damn cute. “Yes, sweets. I’m alright,” she said kindly. “Thanks for your concern.”

  “Ok, great. Great. Well, I’ll, uh, stop wastin’ your time, then,” August told her.

  “See you around.” August realized he sounded foolish, but he couldn’t help it.

  She was that entrancing.

  “I hope so, sweets. Maybe we’ll meet between the lanterns again,” Samantha said, and she meant it. He was put together real well and seemed like a very nice man.

  August, too, sincerely hoped they would meet again.

  Chapter 1

  THAT AIN’T FOOD

  Several weeks passed. Samantha continued to work away at the diner. It had been six years since she had started working there. It wasn’t glamorous, and it barely paid the bills. But none of that mattered to Samantha. She was happy making real food. She was pleased to make anything with her hands, actually.

  When she was off work, she made origami swans or paintings of the night sky. Sometimes she attempted woodworking. Sam found that very satisfying and she was getting pretty good at it. The sense of satisfaction in taking some wood and turning it into whatever she could imagine was wonderful.

  Sometimes she made figurines of fish or bears. Other times she tried bigger projects, like the bookcase in her living room. Maybe it was a little bit crooked, but she hadn’t gone down to Montek.Mart and bought it. Samantha had made it with her own two hands, and that was worth a few books falling down every once in a while.

  One afternoon at work, the diner was unusually busy. Most of the time they only had ten to fifteen customers all day, but on this day all twenty seats in the restaurant were full, and two more people were waiting outside for a table to open up.

  “Tara, why on Earth is it so busy today?” Samantha asked with wide eyes.

  “I have no clue, Sam! Isn’t it wonderful?” her co-worker and financial partner, Tara, replied. “I wish every day could be like this. With tips like this, I could afford a Nutricator for my apartment within a week!”

  “Why in Heaven’s name would you want a stupid old Nutricator, Tara?” Samantha asked, truly disgusted. “That ain’t food. That is just glued- together by-products. It’s sick, is what it is, sweets.”

  “Oh hush, Sam,” Tara replied. “Not everyone loves to spend hours making dinner every night. Hell, I work in a diner:, the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook more damn food. Anyway, take this pie over to table 10, please and thank you.”

  She could not understand why a woman like Tara, who could cook every bit as well as Samantha, would buy a damn Nutricator. It made no sense at all. But different strokes for different folks, they used to say. She grabbed the chocolate pie and headed over to table 10, where sat a lonely old man sipping a cup of freshly brewed Folgers.

  “Here you are, sweets: a delicious slice of chocolate pie,” Samantha said, laying the plate on the table. “I’m so jealous of you! Now I might have to eat a slice on my break in just a bit. You enjoy it, now.”

  The elderly man smiled at her with tears in his eyes and looked down in shame. Samantha couldn’t begin to wonder why this gentle, older man would be so sad.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am,” he said through the frog in his throat. “I just realized that I only have enough Credit for the coffee. It sure does look delicious, though. My apologies, Miss.”

  He started to get up and gather his coat to leave, but Samantha was not about to allow this old gentleman to leave the diner on an empty stomach. She couldn’t really afford to buy him the slice, and there was no way Tara would let her give it away. Samantha was just going to have to hope she wouldn’t get caught.

  “You sit right on down and eat this pie, sweets,” she whispered in his ear. “It’s on the house since you’re such a handsome fellow. Just don’t tell the boss lady, ok?”

  Tara wasn’t technically the boss; she was just in charge of the financial side of the diner. But he didn’t need to know all that, so Samantha winked at the old man and he grinned bigger than he had for years.

  Even if she did get caught, even if she had to pay for the slice of Cheryl’s Famous Chocolate Pie out of her tips for today… she felt it was damn sure worth it just for that warm smile.

  “Thank you so much, ma’am. I really do appreciate your kindness,” the old man said. “I wish there were more good people like you in this world.”

  Samantha rubbed his shoulder and leaned down to whisper again in his ear, “Just between you and me, sweets? I don’t plan on paying for this pie. So, actually, could stealing a piece of pie for a stranger be considered kind? I’m not so sure.”

  “Honestly, ma’am, right now I can’t think of any kinder act in the entire world. Thank you, again,” he said softly, not wanting to get the nice waitress in trouble.

  She gave his old shoulder a pat, tossed him one last wink, and headed off to fill more cups and take away some plates.

  -

  August was on his way back to the hardware store. Again. In the past few weeks since they had first met, he had really gotten his apartment in decent shape. August had fixed all of the light fixtures, so they all had access to the wireless Tesla generator, instead of just the one in the kitchen and bedroom. That was a welcome fix, as now he could use the bathroom at night without… unfortunate consequences.

  He had patched the holes in the walls and put down some throw rugs to cover the scratches on the floor. Most bachelors would either be wealthy enough to stay at a much nicer place, or just not care one bit about a crummy-looking apartment. August just liked to do something with his time, honestly. He loved to work with his hands. He wasn’t much of a maker, yet. August wanted to invent tech; he just didn’t trust himself enough. He was pretty damn adept at fixing things, though. If something broke, August could make it work as good as new, or good enough.

  He was pretty good at odd jobs and fixing up stuff at home, but Au
gust’s real talent was with machines. That was funny to most people he knew because he didn’t seem to like machines all that much. He didn’t own a Nutricator for one. He also had a cellphone instead of a SmartChip. August refused to have one of those things implanted in his ear. He helped make them in the plant outside of town, and he saw how dirty some of the fingers were that touched those chips. “NO THANK YOU, SIR,” he would say.

  August had modified his cellphone to function like a SmartChip, though. It used Tesla power; so it never needed charging, and he connected it with the Montek.Communication satellite for free unlimited calls and Net surfing. It wasn’t exactly legal, but no one would care if one little guy was piggybacking off of a multitrillion-dollar conglomerate.

  Today he was headed back to the hardware store, not to buy anything, but to go out back and see if they had thrown anything useful away. It wasn’t against the law to dumpster dive, and he had found a lot of great stuff back there before; like wood to fix his floor with, a handsaw to cut the wood, and lots of broken power tools that he could fix or take apart to scavenge pieces. He had no real plan or idea of what he wanted to find today; August was just bored and wanted something to do. He walked down West Main Street;, just like he had every single day since the night, he met her.

  Every day he walked between the lanterns and looked for the beautiful Asian woman with freckled skin and shoulder-length hair that swished when she moved. He thought of her often. Her dark eyes with a bit of brown, her smile that was a little bit higher on one side, and the way she had called him, “sweets.” It was driving August crazy. He dreamed about this woman nightly, he thought about her while working on the assembly line at the plant, he pictured her sitting next to him while he ate his simple daily lunch of processed Nutricator sandwiches, provided free of charge by the company.