The Gods and the Builders

by Brandon Hale

  “That’s obvious,” Jerry said. “Listen Shirley, I don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but I really don’t think you being here when she gets home will make anything better. For you or Alice.”

  Lauren stood up. “You’re right, of course. Thanks for your time, Jerry. I’ll figure things out. I’m just not in my right mind right now.”

  She walked to the door and stepped into the hallway. “Thanks again,” she said as she closed the door.

  “Dammit,” Jerry whispered, then said, “Shirley, hold up.”

  Lauren pushed the door open.

  “You don’t need to be by yourself while your husband is on a date,” Jerry said. “Want to go out and have a beer?”

  “So you’re suggesting I deal with his date by going on a date with the spouse of the person he’s dating?”

  “That‘s an awesome plan,” Jerry said. “Except I’m not interested in dating. Hell, I‘m still basking in the realization that I‘m single again. I‘m just suggesting we go to Bennett‘s Bar, hang out, and have a beer or seven.”

  “Beer tastes like crap,” Lauren said. “Besides, a depressant isn‘t the wisest way to handle being depressed.”

  “Okay,” Jerry said. “Way to use logic to piss all over my attempt to help. I don‘t think you understand the rarity of the event you‘re witnessing here. I never do anything to help other people. I‘m sure that‘s part of the reason my significant other is on a date with your husband.”

  “I wouldn’t mind some coffee,” Lauren said.

  “Do you mean normal coffee,” Jerry said, “or the pretentious stuff at the coffee shop toward the end of town?”

  “I happen to like the pretentious stuff,” Lauren said.

  “Cool, me too,” Jerry said as he picked up his Jacket from the back of the couch. “White Chocolate Latte, here I come.”

  The coffee shop was mostly empty. Lauren and Jerry sat at a table toward the back of the room, right next to the rear exit. Lauren had suggested they sit there, just in case Alice and Arthur decided to get some coffee. At first, the conversation had been slow and awkward, but by their third cup of coffee, the conversation and time seemed to be moving along quite nicely. They had been there for an hour before either of them even thought to check the time.

  “Do you have somewhere to be?” Jerry asked.

  Lauren stared at him for a moment, then said, “Think about what you just asked. What plans could I possibly have?”

  “Oh yeah,” Jerry said. “You know, I still can’t believe you’re a minister.”

  “Does that make me less cool?” Lauren asked.

  Jerry smiled. “It makes you more cool,” he said. “It means you have conviction. I admire people with strong religious beliefs as long as they don’t use those beliefs as an excuse to start judging me for being a total ass.”

  Lauren chuckled. “I don’t need my religious beliefs to judge you for being an ass.”

  “Exactly,” Jerry said, pointing at her. “And that’s why it makes you more cool.”

  “Do you have religion?” Lauren asked. “And no, I’m not trying to recruit. I’m just curious.”

  “I don’t,” Jerry said.

  “Why not?” Lauren asked. “And we can totally change the subject if you want. I know a few people that aren’t completely comfortable talking about religion to a preacher.”

  “Oh, I don’t mind a bit,” Jerry said. “As long as you don’t get all worked up when I don’t believe in the same things you do.”

  “Doesn’t bother me a bit,” Lauren said. “I’m not a missionary. I’m a minister. I see very little value in recruitment practices. I don’t want people to join my church because they feel pressured. I want them there because they want to be there. Besides, the whole recruitment thing just feels icky to me. It makes religions and cults too similar for my tastes.”

  “I like you, Shirley,” Jerry said. “I really do.”

  “Thanks,” Lauren said. “So why don’t you have any religion?”

  “I used to believe in God,” Jerry said. “I suppose I still do. Just never really think about it.”

  “Why not?”

  Jerry took a sip of his coffee, then thought for a moment. “I think it was probably sucked out of me with the air that was stolen by aliens.”

  “If that was a joke,” Lauren said, “it fell pretty flat. I don’t even understand what you were trying to say.”

  “Me either,” Jerry said.

  “So what’s something you’re passionate about?” Lauren asked.

  “Nothing, really, “Jerry said.

  “Come on,” Lauren said. “I don’t believe that. Everybody has something. Those drawings of yours were pretty spectacular.”

  “The drawing isn’t really a passion,” Jerry said. “It’s more an escape from passion.”

  “Peace,” Lauren said.

  “Yeah,” Jerry said. “Peace. When I’m drawing, my mind is blank. It’s an enjoyable sensation.”

  “So you’re passionate about the complete absence of passion,” Lauren said. “Deep.”

  Jerry laughed.

  “Jerry,” Lauren said, “thank you for doing this.”

  “No problem,” Jerry said.

  “It really wasn’t a good time for me to be alone,” Lauren continued. “I was feeling weaker than I’ve ever felt. Who would’ve guessed that I’d find comfort in the spouse of the person my husband was seeing.”

  “When are you separating?” Jerry asked.

  “Tomorrow,” Lauren said. “And I think I know what I want to say to Alice now.”

  “Which is?”

  “I just want to tell her that I don’t think she’s a bad person,” Lauren said. “I don’t know why, but that’s important to me. She knows Arthur is married, and it’s wrong of her to be involved with him. But I’m not going to damn her for eternity because of one judgment error. I’ve made plenty. I want her to know that I genuinely wish her well. Her and Arthur.” She wiped the tears from her eyes. “I promise I don’t normally cry like this.”

  “I believe you,” Jerry said. “And I think I understand what you’re saying. You want them to know that you forgive them.”

  Lauren laughed through the tears. “That sounds so… pretentious.”

  “Normally, I’d say it sounds very pretentious,” Jerry said. “And snotty. And judgmental. But coming from you, it honestly just sounds… genuine.”

  Lauren put her head in her hands and sobbed for the second time that day.

  Jerry wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. This woman was practically a stranger, after all. Ultimately, he reached over and simply put his hand on hers.

  “Okay, I’m a little freaked out here.”

  Jerry looked up to see a man standing by the table. Alice was standing beside the man.

  Lauren looked up. “Arthur,” she said. “Holy shit.”

  “Is this place open for twenty-four hours?” Jerry asked.

  “Yeah,” Arthur said. “They keep it open for the college students. Why?”

  “Because,” Jerry said. “I think we’re all about to have a very long conversation.”

  Jerry, Lauren, Alice, and Arthur

  Jerry sipped his fourth cup of coffee as he watched Alice and Arthur sit down. Lauren was drying her eyes.

  “So,” Jerry said. “I guess you’re wondering how we know each other.”

  “I think I know,” Arthur said. “She came to your place to wait on Alice to get home.”

  “Okay,” Lauren said. “I guess you know me better than I thought.”

  Jerry smiled. “So who should do the introductions?”

  “Not sure that’s really necessary at this point,” Alice said.

  Jerry looked at Alice, then at Arthur, then Lauren, then back to Alice. “Okay,” he finally said, “am I the only person appreciating the humor in this situation?”

  “I think so,” Alice said. She turned to Lauren. “Why did you come to my house?”

  “That’s an easy
one,” Jerry said. “She came to forgive you for being an adulterous whore.”

  Arthur stood up, knocking his chair to the floor. “What did you say?”

  “Easy there, hero,” Jerry said, showing Arthur both his palms. “You don’t want to get us thrown out of here. Tasteless humor is my thing. It goes into overdrive when I’m nervous. That’s all.” He turned to Alice and said, “Tell him.”

  “He’s an incurable asshole,” Alice said. “To be honest, it’s one of the things that made me fall for him in the first place.”

  “That makes me feel much better,” Arthur said as he picked up his chair and sat back down.

  “You should know,” Lauren said, “that Jerry defended you when I came to your house. He very specifically said that you’re a good person and you wouldn’t do something like this lightly.”

  “I didn’t say that,” Jerry said. “Alice, she’s lying.”

  Lauren laughed. “You know, I’m starting to agree with Jerry about one thing. This entire situation is so absurd, it’s impossible to ignore the humor.”

  “There’s very little humor here,” Arthur said. “And I think Alice asked a good question. Why did you go there?”

  “I answered that,” Jerry said. “Just leave off the adulterous whore part.”

  “You seriously went there to forgive her?” Arthur said. “You obviously looked up her address from my files and you went to her home. And you’re telling me you did this because you wanted to forgive her? I’m sorry, but that sounds like complete bullshit to me.”

  “I guess we‘re back to you not knowing me at all,” Lauren said. “I don’t know exactly why I went there, but it wasn’t to start trouble. Revenge isn’t part of my system of beliefs.”

  “Let me just say two things,” Jerry said. “First and foremost, Alice, I did not defend you when she arrived at the apartment.”

  “Yes you did,” Lauren said.

  “Shut up,” Jerry said. “And the second thing I’d like to say is to Arthur. Your wife did show up for no other reason than to make peace with Alice. She actually felt compassion for her. She worried that Alice my carry the guilt of being a home-wrecker with her forever. And she wanted to make sure Alice understood that she wasn’t the cause of your marriage’s ultimate demise. So why don’t you quit being an insufferable prick. Your wife is the only person at this table that’s done nothing wrong.”

  “Wow,” Alice said. “Why have you never defended me like that?”

  “Honey,” Lauren said, “he did. To me. Earlier tonight.”

  “Okay, fine,” Arthur said. “You went there to make peace. I’m still curious as to how you wound up here, drinking coffee with her semi-psychotic boyfriend.”

  Jerry looked at Alice. “You’re leaving me for him? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a real problem with you leaving me. I’m kind of a dick. You definitely deserve better than me. But is he really better? He seems like me, but without the charm. Isn’t that kind of like retiring from golf so you can move on to the professional putt-putt circuits?”

  “He’s normally much more charming than this,” Alice said. “I think this situation just has him a little flustered.”

  “Still waiting to find out why you’re here,” Arthur said.

  “He advised me against waiting on Alice,” Lauren said. “And I agreed it was probably a bad idea, so I left. But he was concerned about me being alone, so he asked me to come here and have some coffee.”

  “You did that?” Alice asked.

  Jerry smiled apologetically.

  “I don’t know you at all,” Alice said.

  “Hey,” Jerry said, “you told the teacher I’m psychotic.”

  “I didn’t tell him you’re psychotic,” Alice said. “I just told him about the abduction. He deduced the psychotic part.” She turned to Lauren. “I don’t know if you appreciate the significance of the event you witnessed tonight. Jerry doesn’t do nice things.”

  “Told you,” Jerry said.

  Lauren laughed.

  “Okay,” Jerry said. “I’m going to just lay this out here. This is the most fun I’ve had in a very long time.”

  Even Arthur laughed. “This is the most surreal damn thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. What’s this mean?”

  “It doesn’t mean everything’s fine,” Lauren said. “It’s not. There’s a lot of pain sitting at this table.”

  “Pish posh,” Jerry said.

  “Don’t be stupid,” Lauren said. “I suspect you have more pain inside you than all of us put together.”

  “I suspect you’re right,” Alice said. “Earlier tonight, I felt good about the direction of my life.”

  “Thanks,” Jerry said.

  “Hear me out,” Alice said. “I felt good about it earlier tonight. Not perfect, but good. But when I walked into the coffee shop and saw you two sitting there…” She looked at Lauren, “Please understand, I didn’t know who you were at first, so I just thought Jerry was seeing someone else.”

  “And that didn’t make you feel good?” Lauren asked.

  “No,” Alice said. She turned to Arthur. “Don’t get me wrong here. I wasn’t mourning the loss of my relationship with Jerry. That was a complete nightmare.”

  “Thanks,” Jerry said.

  “Let her finish,” Lauren said.

  “Thanks,” Alice said. “I wasn’t mourning the loss of our relationship. I didn’t feel jealousy or anger or sadness. I felt fear.”

  “Fear of what?” Arthur asked.

  “Fear that Jerry didn’t need me any more,” Alice answered. “Fear that I would never see him again. Until that moment, I thought I would be fine with purging him from my life entirely. Now I realize that’s not the case. He’s quite possibly the biggest asshole I’ve ever known, but I need him to be okay. I don’t know why.”

  “When I came in here,” Arthur said, “and saw you two, I felt betrayed. I felt angry and hurt. It took that moment for me to truly understand what I’ve put you through, Lauren. And I don’t know how to take that back.”

  “You can’t,” Lauren said. “But I think we can move beyond it.”

  Arthur looked at Jerry. “I’m sorry I called you psychotic.”

  “Fair enough,” Jerry said. “I’m not even remotely sorry I called you an insufferable prick.”

  “It’s his way, Arthur,” Alice interjected.

  “So what now?” Lauren asked.

  Before anyone could answer, the coffee shop’s lights flickered once, then went out, leaving everyone in complete darkness.

  Chapter 2

  The Arrival

  “Great,” Jerry said. “Now we don’t have background music to fill the awkward silences.”

  “Not really witnessed any silences yet, sport,” Arthur said.

  “Was that a dig?” Jerry asked. “I’m not sure, but I think old Art there just gave me a dig. I think he’s starting to like me.”

  From the front of the coffee shop, the young man behind the counter said, “Just hang tight, folks. I’m sure we’ll have power back soon.”

  “Something’s wrong,” Lauren said as she looked out the window. “It’s too dark out there.”

  “It’s a power outage,” Arthur said. “Of course it’s dark.”

  “No,” Lauren said. “There’s a street right outside that window.” She stood up and began to feel her way to the front door.

  “She’s right,” Jerry said as he followed her. “Where are the cars? There are no headlights out there.”

  Arthur and Alice followed. They all made their way to the door and stepped outside. Due to the moon, visibility was better outside. They could see the street clearly. The road beside the coffee shop wasn’t empty.

  Cars were lined up and down the road. None of them were running. Several people were stepping from their vehicles. There were no headlights. Nobody’s interior lights turned on when they opened the car doors. Nobody even had a flashlight.

  “What the hell is going on?” Alice ask
ed.

  “Is that a helicopter?” Arthur asked.

  Down the street, they saw what appeared to be a spotlight coming from the sky.

  “Something’s not right about that light,” Lauren said. “It’s too white.”

  “There’s another one,” Alice said.

  They looked across the town and saw several of the strange white lights beaming down from the sky. They couldn’t see what kind of aircrafts were actually carrying the lights. They could only make out black, round silhouettes somewhere behind the beams.

  “Holy shit,” Arthur said. “What are they?”

  “I don’t know,” Lauren said. She glanced beside her and noticed Jerry for the first time since coming outside. “Jerry? You okay?”

  Jerry was standing on the curb, staring at the sky.

  “Jerry,” Alice said. “Honey, answer me.”

  Jerry simply stared at the sky, an expression of terror on his face.

  “Jerry,” Arthur said, “do you recognize them?”

  “Shut up,” Alice said.

  “Let’s get him back inside,” Lauren said as she grasped his arm. She tried to move him, but couldn’t. “Jerry, come on. We’re going inside.”

  Jerry continued to stare at the sky.

  “Help her,” Alice said to Arthur, but before either of them could move, all the lights in town turned back on. The headlights of the cars turned back on, and several car alarms began to scream.

  Jerry blinked a few times, wiped the tears from his eyes, and said, “Did that just happen?”

  Lauren looked at the sky. The strange flying lights were gone. “I think so,” she said, then turning back to Jerry, added, “I think there’s a history with you that nobody’s told me about.”

  “Shall we continue our conversation?” Arthur said.

  They all silently stared at him.

  “What?” Arthur asked. “Is he the only one that gets to make lame, inappropriate jokes?”

  Traffic was beginning to move again, but most people were simply getting to the nearest parking space and getting out to look at the sky.