Things We Fear

by Glenn Rolfe

“Uh, shouldn’t we order? You must be starved by now?”

  “I can wait. What’s the title?”

  She rubbed her neck, her gaze strayed.

  “It’s all right. You don’t have to tell me.”

  “No, I’ll tell you, but if you laugh…well, you’ll probably laugh.”

  He straightened up and placed his formerly fidgety hand over his heart. “If I do, you can…well, you can call me an asshole.”

  She gave him half the smile he was looking for.

  “Okay.” She dropped her gaze to the floor. “Summer of the Goddess.” Her eyes snuck their way back up to his and waited for his reaction.

  “What’s it about?”

  “Whoa, hey, guys.”

  The lights dimmed in Emily’s eyes. Aaron turned and saw Matt Holmes striding toward them. Shit. Decked out in his expensive shades, an open button-up white shirt over a wife-beater, and a pair of white shorts and Tevas, Matt Holmes looked like a yuppie scumbag straight out of a ’90s flick. He stopped next to their table and placed his sunglasses on top of his gelled hair. He reeked like he’d taken a bath at the Abercrombie and Fitch down the hall.

  “Hey, Aaron,” he said. “Don’t suppose Em told you about my being her Superman the other day?”

  “Yeah, actually, she did mention it.” Aaron turned his gaze back to Emily and caught her eye-roll.

  “Thanks again, Matt. You got me on my way.”

  “See you made it to Portland. Do you have a cousin or girlfriend down this way? Well, besides Aaron here.” Matt pointed a thumb in Aaron’s direction, and then turned to him. “No offense.”

  “Nope. Just came down for some shopping and some good food.” She smiled at Aaron.

  “Huh. I swung by your place this morning to see how you made out,” Matt said. He had his arms crossed over his chest and was staring at his forearms.

  “Well, thanks. I got it taken care of yesterday and then came down here.”

  Matt gazed from Aaron to Emily and said, “So what? Did you stay at a hotel?”

  “Umm, yes, actually. Uh…”

  Matt took a step back. “Whoa, are you two…on a date?”

  Emily’s cheeks went rosy. Aaron felt the warmth flood his own face. He glanced up at Matt just in time to see something dark crawl over his eyes before he placed his hands on his hips and applied the fakest smile Aaron had ever seen.

  “Okay then. Is it lunch and a movie?”

  “More like brunch and the beach,” Aaron said.

  “Aaron says I haven’t lived until I’ve soaked in the Old Orchard Beach culture.”

  Aaron grinned. His mirth was short-lived as he noticed the pinched face of their uninvited guest. Matt’s nostrils flared with each breath he took. Aaron wondered if a person could actually breathe fire. And then, just like that, Matt’s lips and eyes relaxed. The perfect white teeth returned.

  “Well, I guess I’ll let you two get to it then. Nice seeing you, Em. Aaron.”

  Matt practically spat his name. Aaron watched him walk away. His body language screamed tense and bothered as he forced his way past a group of teens. Good.

  He turned to Emily. “Em?”

  “Yeah, I guess he thinks we’re besties now.”

  “Are you sure he’s not stalking you?”

  “It was pretty strange, huh?”

  “Yeah. And what’s up with the subtle interrogation?”

  “I don’t know. You think I might’ve given him the wrong impression?”

  “Probably not a very hard thing to do with a guy like him.”

  Aaron gazed back in the direction in which Matt had left and saw the guy push a kid out of his way near the exit. He’d thrown the stalker bit out there halfheartedly, but he sensed there was more truth in it then he would like. Matt Holmes had succeeded in squeezing another droplet of ink into Aaron’s sea of dread.

  “Come on.” Emily rose out of her seat and took his hand. “You owe me a lunch.”

  Chapter Ten

  Fucking bullshit. Matt Holmes plowed past a couple of hipsters, shoving them out of his way. They barely offered up a whispered “hey”. Pussies. Just like Aaron Jackson. That’s who Emily had come down here to bang. Well, Little Miss Sunshine was fucking in for it now.

  The sun’s brilliance only added to his foul mood. He fucking hated the heat. That’s why he stayed in Maine rather than run off to Miami or L.A. He headed over to Emily’s Jetta. He took a peek around to make sure the coast was clear. It wasn’t. There were people everywhere. Nobody had anything better to do than file into the shitty Maine Mall and tread the hallways like a bunch of rats in a maze.

  Fuck it. Probably catch me on surveillance video anyway.

  He was being hotheaded. That’s the kind of mind-set that got you caught. And this bitch ain’t worth getting thrown in prison. He decided to follow the two love birds and see where they ended up. If he could get them alone somewhere…

  He drove around the parking lot until he located Aaron’s shitty car. They were parked in the same relative area. He decided to hang back by the entrance/exit, parking among the cars in the lot to the abandoned Chuck E. Cheese’s.

  It wasn’t long before they walked out, laughing it up.

  They split and headed for their own vehicles. He wondered if their date was over. He doubted it. They’d mentioned the beach, unless they were fucking with him. He decided to follow Emily, either way. For once he wished he had a generic car. At least the city was filled with SUVs. He probably blended in better than he thought. The Jetta pulled around and waited for the crappy Honda. Isn’t that cute.

  He ended up following them back into Portland. He nearly lost them in the Old Port. Hipsters by the millions flooded every inch of the cities side by side with just as many tourists. He found them pulled up to the Residence Inn. Emily pulled her car into the hotel’s garage and reappeared a couple minutes later. She hopped into the Honda.

  Matt held his jealousy in check as best he could. He picked up his cell phone and told Siri to find the phone number to the Residence Inn in Portland, Maine. As he followed them out of the city and toward Interstate 295, he secured himself a suite at the inn. He was half tempted to go back and wait for them there. Just in case Aaron was holed up someplace else around town, he stayed the course. They headed south. He followed them off the Old Orchard Beach exit and down Route 1.

  * * * * *

  “Good afternoon.”

  Heather opened her eyes. Jesse’s face hid behind the long black hair hanging over his nose and down to the matching patch of dirt he’d grown under his chin since last she’d seen him.

  Heather smiled. “Mornin’, darlin’. Who let you in my bed?”

  “I charmed my way in here fair and square.”

  She thought about how her heart had sped up last night at the sight of him waiting for her on the stoop when she got home from work. He was a gorgeous boy. She propped herself up on her elbows and caught him gazing at her breasts.

  “Perv,” she said.

  He just grinned. His gaze stayed put.

  She crawled over him and let the sheet slip from her body as she straddled his nakedness.

  “Mmm. Hello,” he said.

  She rubbed herself over his erection, teasing him, but she wanted him too much to play around for more than a few seconds. She took him inside.

  * * * * *

  Afterward, she climbed out of bed, pulled on some panties and Jesse’s Social Distortion T-shirt, went to the kitchen and returned with two cups of coffee.

  “Shannon and Harry are up already, tokin’ it up.” She handed him the black-and-orange mug decorated with little black bats and sat next to him.

  “Thanks,” he said as he accepted the cup. “Yeah, I heard them going at it when I got up to use the bathroom a little while ago.”

  “Yep. Sounds about r
ight.” She took a sip of the warm joe. Cinnamon-flavored this morning. Heather hated that she would have to get ready to go back to work so soon.

  “What’s wrong?” Jesse said.

  “I don’t want to go to work.”

  “So call out.”

  “Can’t. One of the other girls quit yesterday. I need to go in.”

  Jesse set the bat mug on the nightstand and rubbed his rough hand down her thigh.

  Part of her wanted to purr, another part wanted to hide her leg away under the discarded sheet. She hated her legs. They were too thick. She felt like she walked around on two tree stumps, but Jesse didn’t seem to mind.

  Without a word, he leaned forward, moved his hand and placed his lips against her pasty thigh. She made a mental note to get her ghost-hued ass to the beach as soon as work allowed. She set her cup next to his on the nightstand and put her hands through his hair. He kissed his way up her thighs to her hips. She lay back and spread her legs. His mouth moved over her mound until his tongue found her warmth.

  * * * * *

  They fell back from each other for a second time, panting with delight. Heather thought she could stay right here for the rest of the summer, hell, the rest of the year. Jesse was sweet as sugar and made her forget her own hang-ups. There was something magical about his smile, his charm, his touch. She wanted to bottle this moment.

  “Okay, as much as I love this, I’ve got to shower and get ready.”

  “I’ll be right here when you get back.”

  She leaned over and kissed his mouth.

  “Sorry,” she said. She got up, gathered her clothes and slipped away to the bathroom.

  As she turned on the shower and looked at her work uniform hanging on the back of the door, she heard Shannon’s warped words from yesterday: “Aren’t you ever afraid one of these whack jobs is going to…I don’t know…call you up to their room and hump you until your head rolls off or cut you into little Heather pieces?”

  Yesterday, the question had made her laugh, but today it sent a chill through her.

  * * * * *

  “So you don’t go in? Ever?”

  Aaron knew he’d have to answer for his ocean aversion. “Nope. I’m not here for the surf.” He watched a fit couple pass by in skimpy bathing suits. “I like the people.”

  “You’re just depraved.”

  He smiled. “Not just depraved. I also enjoy the food.” He got up from the towel, brushed off the sand that had been kicked up by a couple kids who’d run by earlier, and reached for her hand.

  “Where are you taking me? I hope you don’t think you’re going to get me back to your love shack?”

  He loved this version of Ms. Young. The other one was always so quiet and professional. This girl liked good music, wrote books and had a sense of humor. Where had she been all his life? He let his gaze traverse her curves. She was every bit the knockout in the purple two-piece she’d let him help her pick out. “I owe you that lunch.”

  She grabbed her Nirvana T-shirt and reached for her shorts.

  “Come on, there’s no need to hide all of the goods.” He gestured around at the countless skin barers that surrounded them.

  “Okay,” she said. “When in Rome, right?” She dropped the shorts back to the beach towel, but still slipped into the shirt. “Is our stuff safe here?”

  “Sure. Does it matter?” They had left their phones and her bag at his place.

  “I guess not.”

  He led her to the boardwalk. They passed the henna tattoo shop—two teen girls who could have passed as sisters were getting matching blue hummingbirds across their ribs. The tiny sports card shop was next, followed by the used book store (buy two, get the third free!), one of ten sandal/sunglasses stores, and the new and blasphemous Verizon cell phone store—Aaron hated the outside invasion to his little throwback beach setting. Luckily, the Verizon store, MB3 Comix and the new teenybopper clothing store (he couldn’t recall the name) were the only new shops to pop up among the regulars who’d staked claims here as far back as the mid-seventies.

  They stopped at a long line that led to a hopping little fry shack.

  “Lisa’s Pier Fries?” Emily said.

  “A staple.”

  He watched her turn and look back toward the beach. “But the pier’s back there?”

  “Semantics. We’ll hit up Sully’s after for a couple of good drinks.”

  They waited in the line, behind a greasy guy all oiled up and hairy as an ape. Emily motioned toward his furry shoulders and cringed. They both stifled laughs. The line moved quickly. They got their large order of fries, agreed on the appropriate amount of vinegar to douse them with—a ton—and strolled back toward the pier.

  “Remind me to introduce you to the Hersoms.”

  “Um…okay.”

  “Mary and Gil. Nicest couple you’ll ever meet and great landlords to boot. Mary wants to meet you.”

  Emily swallowed a fry and smiled. “Already talking about me?”

  He wiped the salt from his lips. “She asked about my plans, figured out that they were with a girl, and is probably making plans for a dinner date at her house as we speak.”

  “That’s so sweet.”

  “Yeah, Mary and Gil are like surrogate grandparents. I would never say that to them, but I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual.”

  “Well, I’ll have to meet them.”

  He grinned.

  They fell into a comfortable silence. He gazed out at the sand and the power beyond.

  “So how come?” Emily said. She popped one of the fries in her mouth and reached for another.

  “How come what?”

  “Have you always been afraid of the water? Do you know how to swim?”

  He swallowed his mouthful of fries and considered how much to tell her. He didn’t want to scare her away. Yeah, fell into the part of the river we used to swim in as kids and a man with a pig nose and tentacles tried to pull me under, so now I avoid stepping into open bodies of water.

  “I do know how to swim, suppose I still do, right?”

  “But…”

  “But, maybe I saw Jaws too many times as a kid. Or read too many stories about Cthulhu.”

  “Come on, be serious. You can tell me.”

  Her brown eyes were peering into him. Right through his soul and into his depths.

  “What if I told you something tried to pull me under once? I almost drowned.”

  “That would make sense.”

  Sully’s was set up like a little tiki bar.

  “I used to watch that show Magnum, P.I. with my dad when I was a kid. This place reminds me of that. And of him.”

  “I never saw it.”

  “Well, they make the best tropical margaritas on the block. I’m buyin’.”

  They took a couple of vinyl-covered seats at the bar. A cheery Hawaiian fellow wiped a tumbler clean and moved over to them. “Duke Sulpico, owner/proprietor, what can I get for you kids? Oh, hey, Aaron. Sorry, I didn’t recognize you without all the hair.”

  “Hey, Duke. Two of your best Aloha Blues, please.”

  “You got it, bud. And who is this lovely lady here?”

  Duke whipped up the brilliant neon-blue drinks and set one before each of them.

  “This is Emily.”

  Duke took her hand and kissed it. “Aloha, pleasure to meet you.”

  “Aloha. Old Orchard Beach by way of Hawaii?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Duke comes here for the summers,” Aaron chimed in.

  “And the babes,” Duke added. At fifty-two, Duke’s Polynesian genes kept him looking young.

  “I’m sure you have your pick of the litter,” Emily said. She sipped her drink. “Mmmm. This is delicious.”

  “I thank you.” Duke bowed. “Nice to meet you,
Emily. You’ll have to excuse me.” He winked at Aaron and moved down the bar to a couple of portly ’80s holdovers dressed in Ratt and KISS T-shirts and stone-washed blue jeans.

  “Before you sidetracked me with Magnus and Duke and this gorgeous drink, you were sharing a story with me?”

  “Magnum, but yeah. When I was a kid there was spot on the river, right after the dam, where the current wasn’t too bad. There was a path that led from the road down to this tree with a rope tied to it. Someone very clever came up with the name the Ropes. I ran along the small bank and out over the water. I twisted just before I jumped so that I would twirl.” He stopped and sipped his drink. “I didn’t feel like I had pushed myself out far enough. Stupid me, I figured I would swing to the tree and push myself back out and drop in. You know, climb out and try again.”

  “Sure.”

  “The problem was that I was spinning. So when I lined up my foot to plant it on the tree…I kept spinning and ended up nailing the tree with my head and shoulder.”

  “Ow.”

  “Yeah. I sort of blacked out for a few seconds. When I opened my eyes, I was under the water. My shoulder was killing me, but I tried to get to the surface. The water was chest-deep in that spot. I should have come right up, but…” He felt the gooseflesh break over his skin. He was suddenly woozy and braced himself with his palms on the bar.

  “Are you okay? You’re eight shades of pale.”

  He nodded and sipped his drink. After the world swung back to steady, he went on.

  “I know it sounds ridiculous, but after I hit the water…I could swear something wrapped around my leg and pulled me down. It shouldn’t have been possible. Like I said, it wasn’t that deep, but somehow, at that moment, it was.”

  “I’m sure you’ve considered this, but do you think it might have been the bump you took on the head?”

  “Yeah, that’s what Dr. Lewis always says. Had to be, right?” He took the cool glass in his hand and stared into the mesmerizing blue liquid. “But it seemed so real…I looked down…and that thing was there, staring up at me with these beady black eyes.”

  Aaron peered over his glass at her. “You think I’m crazy now.”

  “No.” She took his hand from the glass and squeezed it. “I have no idea what happened to you that day, but it’s obviously still with you.”