by Rex Bolt
Pike couldn’t help notice the amazing girls down here, they were all over the place. God dang.
Chapter 17 Commotion
“I played some ball myself myself,” Mitch was saying. Pike was busy putting away the second of two club sandwiches.
“High school, JC ball and then I walked on at Michigan State.”
“You’re kidding,” Pike said. “What position?”
“Wide receiver. A slow white guy with decent hands.”
“That’s impressive.”
“Ah, you’re being kind. I wouldn’t mind watching you play though.”
“I’ve thought about quitting the team. It’s like I’m getting away with using that performance enhancing shit that they’re always banning guys for? … Except mine is a hundred times more potent.”
“Don’t do that, don’t quit,” Mitch said. “That would be unfair to your teammates, it would essentially discombobulate everything.”
“Yeah, that was kinda my thought,” Pike said.
The waitress cleared their plates and Mitch ordered a coffee and waited until it came. “What I’m going to tell you now,” he said, “it’s going to come across strange. You just have to keep an open mind, and hear me out.”
Pike didn’t say anything.
“There’s a guy wrote in about the teeth thing,” Mitch said.
“I know. My girlfriend saw that, which is how I found you.”
“Fine. Last few days, I’ve been scouring my database for anything similar. There have been a few … But first, you haven’t gone into it yet, who’s your dentist?”
“It wasn’t my normal dentist. We were on a trip. My mom made me replace a filling that fell out.”
“Interesting … on a trip where?”
“The southwest.”
“So, a small town dentist down there?”
“Not really. Albuquerque. Big office, part of a medical center deal.”
“Let me ask you this. What kind of filling did you get?”
“The old type, that has mercury. My mom didn’t like that idea, but the dentist said it would be stronger, since it was a replacement.”
“May I take a look?” Mitch said.
“Why not,” Pike said, and opened his mouth. There was one amalgam filling, lower right. The rest of his teeth were white.
Mitch was rubbing his forehead.
“What?” Pike said. “Now you’re going to tell me the dentist was an alien and he implanted me one of those things from a sci-fi horror movie? Where some guy goes to the doctor and they take this little black rectangle out of his forearm.”
“Implants, those are different,” Mitch said. “Not the same animal.”
“Oh.”
“No. Some of those, they’ve sent to labs, and there’s been documentation. They can’t fully identify the chemical makeup, based on our existing periodic table.”
“Whatever. Total crap,” Pike said.
“I would beg to differ with you there,” Mitch said. “But let’s leave the implant angle alone right now. That’s a whole ‘nother area.”
“You’re starting to kill me here. What’s my angle then?”
“Bottom line, I’ve found three cases that could be similar to yours. All of them posted in the last two years.”
“How similar?” Pike said.
“I have requests in to all three,” Mitch said. “The first one, a man in Florida. The second, a lady in Utah. And the third, the recent posting, that caught your girlfriend’s eye.”
“That guy, he died in Afghanistan. Or so the brother said.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, Cathy—my ex—she’s been conversing with him … ”
“Hmm,” Mitch said. “So … if I could ask you, Pike, do you feel pain?”
“I been through this a couple times. Not as much as I should, but yeah.”
“Well on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being what you used to feel, how would you rate now?”
“A 2 or 3,” he said. “I bleed and shit. Again, not as much.”
“Do you need as much sleep?”
“Oh yeah, you’re not kidding. I get just as tired as ever.”
“Can you see better?”
“I don’t think so … same thing with hearing and smelling, if that’s where you’re going.”
“Is … schoolwork any easier? Or possibly more difficult?”
“Nah,” Pike said. “Same brain, for better or worse … The only difference now, if I headbutted someone I might kill them.”
Mitch finished his coffee and cleared his throat. “No doubt I’ll think of more, but the final question for now: Is there any indication at all, that this may be … a passing thing?”
“You’re saying, could it be evolving? … That’s something I’m worried about every day. Some kind of mutation shit.”
“I was wondering more,” Mitch said, “if your situation might simply be temporary.”
“And it would just wear off? Quick as it arrived? Like a bad drug … or a bad dream.”
“Exactly.”
“If that happens, you’ll be the first to know.”
Mitch angled them left coming out of The Kettle and then turned right again down the main drag, back toward the beach.
“Where we going?” Pike said.
“Where else? Unless you have somewhere you need to be.”
“No I’m good.” Pike was thinking he’d sleep overnight on the beach if it were legal. Why not, it was warm enough.
They took a walk on the paved path that bordered the sand. “The Strand,” Mitch said. “These houses, as you can see, some a lot fancier than others. But between here and Hermosa, even a tear-down’ll cost you 10 mil, plus. Market’s red-hot.”
“Now that’s depressing,” Pike said.
There was some commotion near the water and a lifeguard was running, carrying his red rescue thing, which Pike assumed was a flotation device. Mitch had his hands up, shading his eyes, watching the ocean.
Without thinking about it, Pike started running across the sand. The lifeguard was swimming out now, toward a couple of people who didn’t look normal out there.
Pike ripped off his shoes and shirt and tore into the water, catching up to the lifeguard in about five seconds. It was a man and woman, Hispanic, and they seemed okay now. They’d been clinging together to a boogie board and a big wave must have displaced them and they’d panicked.
The lifeguard was asking them some questions, and suggested they take a break for a while. The man and woman thanked him, and came in.
Pike picked up his shoes and shirt and started back across the beach toward Mitch, who he could see watching from the same position on the Strand.
“The guy say anything to you?” Mitch said. “The lifeguard?”
“Not much. Just thanks for keeping an eye out.”
“That was some display.”
“It was? I didn’t do anything.”
“You did good, kid,” Mitch said.
Chapter 18 Hey PK
He took his time driving home, stopping a couple times to eat. He left his phone off the whole way. It gave him a chance to think.
Mitch was a nice guy, with a good heart. Yeah, he was satisfying his own curiosity, that was part of it, the whole damn thing playing out like a big dramatic mystery. But Pike didn’t regret telling him what was going on. In fact as he stared at the road now, nightime out there, it was a relief to get it off his chest.
When he got home his parents and brother and sister were sitting in the living room watching TV. Jackie and Bo were goofing around a little, not much though, and his parents looked grim. Something was wrong.
“What the heck?” Mitch said.
“Oh hey PK,” his dad said. “Thought you might have heard … A drunk driver, they killed someone.”
“Say WHAT?” Pike said. “Who … when?”
“We don’t know. Channel 4 keeps cutting in.
Was about two hours ago, on Birch and Ortega.”
Pike could picture it. It was only a couple blocks over from where that pothole thing happened, where he intervened with the road construction guys. Birch was residential, but fed into Highway 27, and drivers sometimes started picking up speed early.
He went upstairs and checked his phone. There were a bunch of texts. He wanted to call Cathy, make sure she was okay, but he knew she was. It would be a lame excuse to try to talk to her, which she didn’t want.
It hit him that he was pretty darn tired, and he sat back for a minute on the bed, one foot still on the floor, and he was out like a rock until someone turned on the shower and started banging around in the bathroom an hour and a half later.
There was a lot more on the phone now, some rumours spreading, and he turned on the news. It was an ugly scene. The way they were piecing it together, the drunk had crossed over into the oncoming lane and then lost control correcting himself, and ran up on the sidewalk, hitting a mother who was walking the dog with her daughter.
God DAMN IT.
Pike stayed in his room the rest of the night, checking his phone for updates.
Trying to wrap his head around yet something else.
What a downer, especially after the glimmer of hope today in Manhattan Beach.
By midnight it alarmingly surfaced that the drunk driver was Foxe’s dad.
Pike sat there stunned, wondering should he call someone, but who? And what would you say?
Fifteen minutes later they announced that Hailey Milburn and her mom were the ones walking the dog, and Hailey’s mom was hit and killed.
Pike felt a wave of emotions, the main one helplessness. Hailey was the younger sister of Audrey Milburn, who’d been in his class all the way through, since elementary school. Hailey was a sophomore, sweet girl, he said to hello to her sometimes when he’d see her in the hall. Audrey was a senior like him. Now they didn’t have a mom.
A whole mess of stuff continued running through his head at once. Foxe wanting to beat him up that time, and him feeling bad for the guy now, though that made no sense.
Audrey most likely had been out having fun somewhere earlier tonight. Pike would see her at school again, but it would all be different from this point on.
And poor Hailey. Having to witness it, be part of it. Wait with your mom while the ambulance came.
And the irony, the dog was fine, they announced.
Pike let all this simmer for a while. He wouldn’t be able to get any rest tonight.
Part of him felt ashamed, for dwelling so much on himself.
Except he knew it was unrealistic, that he could forget his own stupid situation and move on. But tonight he tried.
Chapter 19 Pin Drop
Sunday, people were solemnly stopping by the Milburn house paying their respects to the dad and to Audrey and Hailey.
Pike thought he should stay away from that kind of thing, that Audrey had too much on her plate this soon, but by the afternoon he heard from a couple kids who did pay a visit and it seemed the right thing to do.
The Milburns were pretty well off, and lived in a three-story brick Colonial on Ortega, fifty yards away from where it happened.
The dad was holed up in the bedroom, and now and then someone would head up there. Audrey was in the living room, dressed nicely, some make-up, trying her best to smile and say thank you. Hailey was in the kitchen, taking some frozen appetizers out of the oven.
Pike started to say something to Audrey but his vocal cords froze up, and all he could do was bend down and give her a hug. She felt warm, feverish. How could she not still be in a state of shock?
Audrey was going out with Jack Hannamaker, a linebacker on the team, and it took a minute for Pike to notice Jack, sitting on a folding chair off to the side, looking down at his hands and uncomfortably rubbing them around.
Pike stood there for five minutes, just as uncomfortable, and as he was leaving Coach came in. Pike thinking this was odd, was he apologizing on behalf of Foxe and the team, or what, but then he realized Coach taught a freshman health class that was required unless you played a sport, which Audrey and Hailey didn’t, so he must have known them from that class.
Coach was brief, and Pike left with him.
All Coach said to him on the way out was, “We’re off ‘till Wednesday,” meaning football practice.
Pike didn’t care for Foxe, but a part of him wanted reach out to the guy somehow, but that would probably be going too far.
***
The halls were pin-drop quiet at school on Monday, and not much different Tuesday. There were announcements both days, and brief assemblies. One of Pike’s teachers, Mr. Kiley, for math, asked if the class wanted to go ahead as usual, or spend the hour discussing the tragedy. Pike was surprised that the class voted to continue with regular math.
By Wednesday things at Hamilton were pretty much back to normal. Practice was lively, probably because guys had built-up energy with the days off. Friday night they’d be playing at Stevenson, a weak team they should dominate.
Pike had a thought. Since they’d most likely be way ahead at halftime, he’d tell coach his arm was bothering him, and that would let Foxe come in and play the whole second half. Even if coach knew Pike was jerking him around, he’d put Foxe in anyway.
But then after practice on Wednesday Coach huddled everyone up and announced that Foxe had quit the team.
That night Mitch called. He was enthusiastic. “Hey my friend, what’s happening?” he said.
Pike told him about the drunk driver mowing an adult he knew, and how in this little town most people have been affected by it in some way.
Mitch said, “I apologize then … Exceedingly bad timing.”
“No, no,” Pike said. “One thing has nothing to do with the other … Is there … anything?”
“Well there is a little bit, in the way of an update. Okay we’ve got the man in Florida and the lady in Utah that I mentioned? With cases similar to yours?”
“Yeah. Who both are convinced an alien implanted them, right?”
“Maybe, but forget that. I started them both off with a basic question, and they’ve both gotten back to me … I put it them simply: Did you receive an amalgam filling within six months of your physical change.”
“And?”
“They both said yes.”
It took Pike a long moment to process this. “Son of a bitch,” he said.
“I thought you’d be interested,” Mitch said. “Where we go from here, I have to figure it out.”
“What about the third guy, with the trucker brother?”
“Didn’t hear from him yet.”
“But what you’re slowly but surely telling me,” Pike said, “And I’m not even believing this … something in the God dang filling … really may be causing this?”
“That, or in the procedure itself,” Mitch said.
“Well, what’s in a metal filling, anyhow?”
“I’m working on it. Apparently a mixture of materials.”
“All right … but you know something? If this made any sense at all … You got a handful of people in the whole country, that this happens to?”
“I have no doubt there are many more,” Mitch said. “But you have a good point … Several very interesting angles to follow up.”
Pike was thinking I couldn’t care less about angles or what’s interesting for YOU. Get to the bottom of MY nightmare, how about.
But he knew Mitch meant well, and let’s face it, he’d come up with this piece now. Pike was afraid to go so far as call it concrete, but still it was something, and it wasn’t like he had anything else jumping out at him.
When he hung up with Mitch he wondered if Cathy had heard anything more from Reggie Riley, but it would be would way awkward to call her and ask.
Chapter 20 Over The Head
Things turned even uglier in town on Thursday. Foxe’s dad spent a few days in ja
il and then got bailed out. What he should have done, was go somewhere else. Stay with a relative in another town, check into a motel a couple hundred miles away, something.
Instead he went right back home, and the impression you couldn’t help getting was he was going about his business like nothing happened.
Of course he would have to contend with a trial coming up and he’d probably be sent away to prison, but you never could tell for sure how these things might play out once the legal system got involved. Pike knew from watching enough TV that there were weird outcomes sometimes, where murderers got away with it.
Either way, today Mr. Foxe was just a regular man living in town. He had a plumbing and heating business, and who knows, maybe he’d be back at work tomorrow installing a new hot water heater for someone.
Hailey and Audrey’s dad Mr. Milburn was apparently thinking the same thing. Thursday afternoon around 4, a few hours after Mr. Foxe got bailed out and was back home, Mr. Milburn rang the bell and when Mr. Foxe answered he hit him over the head with a baseball bat.
Luckily (or maybe unluckily) the door frame caught some of the blow and blunted it, and although Mr. Foxe went down, he wasn’t out cold, and he was able to recover and scramble off down the hall. When Mr. Milburn followed him with the bat, Mrs. Foxe appeared and let out a piercing scream that stopped him.
Mr. Milburn sat on the front stoop and waited for the police, and they took him away. So on Thursday night you had Foxe’s dad in the hospital, the same one where Pike visited that kid after the game, and you had Hailey and Audrey’s dad now under arrest.
Pike couldn’t help wondering, was there a way he could put whatever this power thing was to good use, and cleanly kill off Mr. Foxe?
It was an insane thought, he considered himself a peaceful person, but a part of him wanted to finish the job for Mr. Milburn. Wasn’t that a normal way to look at it?