Demon Town, page 18
‘Darien?’ Mac did a double take at the doctor to make sure that this was in fact the same pompous prick that he had dealt with over the past several years. Definitely human.
“Thanks, Dr. Baker.” Lisa gave him a hug. “Say hi to Susan and the kids for me.”
“Yes, I will do that, Lisa.” Dr. Baker smiled at her again. “I do wish that you would find a better place of employment, though.”
“I know. I’m working on it. It’s just temporary until something better comes along.”
“Good. Glad to hear it.”
Mac waited until they were in Lisa’s car before he finally burst. “Okay, what the hell was that? What did you do to Dr. Baker? I’ve never seen him be so...nice.”
Lisa smiled. “I used to babysit his kids. He’s the sweetest guy if you get to know him.”
Mac shook his head. “I still don’t believe what I saw back there. Are you sure that you don’t have some kind of voodoo thing going on?”
She stared at him for a moment, smiled and waved her hands slowly in front of Mac’s face. “I am wise in the ways of the Force, young Skywalker.”
If Mac wasn’t head over heels crazy about Lisa Thomas before now, that was definitely the deal breaker. Quoting a line from Star Wars put her in the status of goddess. The world could end right now and he would die a happy man.
As Lisa pulled into the parking lot at Quincy’s, a feeling of regret came over Mac. This was the most time that he had ever spent with her and after he stepped out of her car, things would go back to the way they were before. Lisa being totally out of his league and still seeing her boyfriend Kyle. Mac would continue admiring her from afar knowing that Lisa and him were never destined to be.
“Can you handle it from here?” she asked him.
He wanted to tell her no, that maybe she should drive him home. After what he had seen of her tonight, he thought that just maybe she would if he asked her to. “Yeah, no problem. I usually drive home with both eyes closed anyway.”
“So I’ve heard. And how did that work out for you last time?”
“In the ditch on my roof, I believe.” Even with his swollen stitched lip, Mac grinned.
“Maybe try keeping it between the white lines this time.”
They got out of her car and walked around to the front of it. The smile left her face and Lisa’s tone became more serious. “It was Tyson and his crew, wasn’t it?”
Mac thought about lying to her like he had to the bouncer, but there was something in the way that she looked at him that prevented them from doing so.
“Yeah.” he nodded.
“I thought so. I remember seeing them all leaving just before they found you. What was it all about?”
“It’s been kind of an ongoing thing over the years. I guess tonight was the boiling point.”
Mac wanted to tell her more. All the things that he could see and do. The demons. Paul the angel. The 3M’s undercover investigation. He almost did, but thought better of it at the last second.
“Are you going to the police?” she asked him.
Mac thought about it and shook his head. “No, it would be my word against the four of them and it would go in his favor the same as how he walked away scott free after the Turbo incident.”
Lisa smiled as she recalled the news of Tyson running around buck ass naked in the snow and cold. “Did you guys have something to do with that?”
Mac did his best to look innocent. “Anything I say can and will be used against me in a court of law. Should I-”
“Okay, I get it.” Lisa gave him a playful push on the shoulder.
“You better get back to work. I don’t want you to get into trouble.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. It will be last call pretty soon. Somebody has to serve those drunks their drinks.” she smiled and winked at him once more and Mac wished there was a way to freeze this moment in time. “Okay. Straight home now, mister!”
“Aye,aye captain!” Mac saluted her. “Thanks for taking me to the hospital and helping me out with Dr. Baker. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem.” she smiled once more. “Just don’t lead with your face the next time you’re in a fight.”
“I’ll try to remember that.” he gave Lisa a hurt look and tried to think of something clever to say to keep the conversation going a little longer. As much as he hated to admit it, it was time to go. He stared at her as he tried to soak this moment in because he knew that it would probably never happen again. “Well, thanks.” Mac gave her a halfhearted wave and turned around and started walking toward his truck.
“Mac.” Lisa called out to him.
“Yeah?” He turned around to see her walking up behind him. Lisa stopped in front of him and gently kissed him on his swollen eye, then turned around without saying anything and walked into Quincy’s. He watched her all the way and when she was inside, Mac reached up and touched his eye where she had kissed him. A goofy swollen smile spread across his face and never left until he was sound asleep an hour later.
CHAPTER TEN
Mac actually made it almost two days before his parents noticed the damage to his face and then the shit hit the proverbial fan. It would have been a stretch for Mac to conceal his battered face from them until it was fully healed up, but he tried anyway. It beat the alternative of facing their combined wrath. Mac waited for his dad to leave the house the morning after his beating before he came out of his room. He managed to plant an image in his mom’s mind of his face without the swelling, bruising and stitches. She carried on about her business in the kitchen as usual and never noticed anything different about him.
After Mac had some breakfast, he drove into town before his dad came back just to be safe. He thought of Lisa constantly and drove around Paradise Flats thinking that he might see her, but had no such luck. Mac thought of maybe calling her or driving by her place, but that might seem creepy. Instead, he drove around some more and while he would normally stop by Mikey’s or Milo’s, he didn’t feel like seeing them and having to explain to them what happened last night.
He decided to visit Uncle Pete instead. Mac planted the image in his mind of his face the way it normally looked even though his uncle wouldn’t freak out like his parents would. There would be too many questions and too many unexplained gaps to fill in his story. The pair of them drank instead and talked about this and that, but nothing important. With Uncle Pete, Mac could just be himself and didn’t have to worry about being judged. Eventually, he had to go home and decided that he had better get back before supper.
His dad was sitting at the table reading his newspaper when Mac walked in. He looked up briefly and saw Mac’s face as it normally appeared and then went back to his paper without so much as a hello. So far, so good. His father still looked at him the same way- disappointed and upset. His mom was in the other room and Mac waited for her to appear so that he could send her an image of his face that she knew and loved minus the battle scars. Mac worried that he wouldn’t be able to pull off the juggling act going back and forth between his parents, but his father never looked up from his paper at all during supper, so he didn’t have to worry about it. This was a relief for Mac, but it also pissed him off at the same time. He spent the rest of the evening in his room even though his mom had told him that Milo had phoned and wondered what Mac was up to. He would phone him back tomorrow.
When Mac got up the next day, he showered and examined his face and body for damage. His ribs were bruised, but they were easy to conceal. His face on the other hand didn’t look much better than when he left the hospital. His eye was still swollen shut and his lip looked like hamburger. His bruising was a dark purple, but he could see tinges of green developing. Breakfast was the same as the day before. His father was outside and his mom had made him bacon and eggs to eat. Everything was going according to plan with his mom until his dad came in. Mac’s mind had been wandering between when he would see Lisa again, calling Milo back and the demon infestation problem in his little town.
“What the hell happened to you?” his father roared. Startled, Mac lost focus on his mom.
“Oh, my Lord! Darien, who did that to you?”
Now that he was busted, Mac did his best to explain what had happened using Lisa’s version of the story, but he appeared more heroic in his tale. Mac’s mom believed him, but thought that maybe he should go back to the hospital for another evaluation.
His father on the other hand just shook his head and muttered. “Maybe if you weren’t pissing your life away in the bars all the time, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen.”
With that he turned around and walked back outside. So much for being the hero of the story. It was almost a half hour after that when Mac’s mom finally finished examining him and decided that it was okay for him to drive into town. The reception from Mikey and Milo was only a tad warmer when they saw Mac.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Mikey growled, but at the same time it took a lot of convincing from Mac to keep him from going out that very instant and finding Tyson and his cronies and kicking the shit out of all of them.
“If you would have just come with us, none of this would’ve happened.” Milo scolded Mac.
“Yeah... well, what’s done is done.”
“Bullshit.” Mikey interrupted. “I’m going to rip that little chicken shit mother fucker’s head off when I see him next time. Then I’ll go after those other assholes!”
Mac shook his head. “As much as I would like to see you do that, Mikey...and I really would like to see you do it, you can’t.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Hey, I’m on your side here, but if you go after them, Sid Williams will probably send Jonathon Neale after you. In fact, I’d bet that Tyson and those gutless weasels are counting on it. I say that we ride this out and plan the mother of all revenges and get back at them.”
“Yeah, but after what they did to you-”
“I’ll heal. Besides, I wasn’t really that pretty to look at before. They probably did me a favor.”
“I don’t know how you can be so calm about this.” Mikey had been pacing the whole time with his fists clenched.
“I’m not, believe me. I’m going to get each and every one of those pricks back. And when I do, little Tyson will be wishing that it was just a snake in his pants that he has to worry about.”
“Come to the dark side, Luke.” Milo decided to add his two bits. “I like the way that you’re thinking.”
The topic of conversation turned back to their demon investigation. They were no further ahead and had no idea what was really going on in Paradise Flats. They laid out Milo’s flowcharts and notes and discussed their options. There was no way that they could go to the police without some kind of hard evidence that the demons walked among them. For the same reason, nobody else would believe them either. Perhaps it would be best to turn everything that they had over to Paul and let him find an actual private investigator who knew what he was doing.
Even with Mac’s ability to see the demons for what they were, the three of them were forced to admit that they were in over their heads. The month of December found them no further ahead in their investigation. They weren’t the right people for this job and the holidays were going to throw a kink in their plans anyway. Milo’s family was going skiing for five days over the Christmas break and Mikey was going with his family to visit his relatives in Southby for a week. They agreed that once everyone was back from their Christmas vacations they would meet once more and go over all the information that they had gathered and turn it over to Paul whenever he reappeared. He could do with it as he wished.
This would also give them the chance to think of a devious plan to get back at Tyson and his gang of thugs. It would have to happen before their window of opportunity with Mac’s power’s closed and before they told Paul that they were opting out of his plan. The three of them agreed that they would brainstorm during the week away from each other and make sure that Tyson and company got their due justice in the new year.
Until then, Mac suffered through the holidays and wished that he was anywhere else but home. His father would barely look at him and just grunted whenever Mac asked him anything. Mac’s mom on the other hand doted on him constantly. It was nice at first, but after a couple of days he felt like a little kid being smothered by his over protective mom especially since all of his injuries had healed up. It was the worst of two worlds; one parent who wouldn’t have anything to do with him and another parent who wouldn’t leave him alone. It was on the afternoon of Christmas Eve when Mac decided that he could take no more of his father’s cold shoulder attitude or his mother’s constant babying that he decided to go visit Uncle Pete. That would be a welcome relief or so he thought.
It was 3:30 in the afternoon when Mac stopped by his uncle’s place. He found Uncle Pete in the living room watching TV and drinking. A lot. There had to be over a dozen empty beer bottles and a half full bottle of whiskey on the coffee table in front of his uncle. Looking straight ahead at some old Christmas movie, he didn’t seem aware that Mac was even there.
“Hey, Uncle Pete! Merry Christmas!”
His uncle slowly turned his head towards Mac and clouded eyes tried to focus on who was talking to him. “Hey Mac.” he slurred. “Merry fuckin’ Christmas.”
“Are you okay?” Mac watched as his uncle turned his attention back to the television. He had never seen his uncle like this. Mac had drank with him on numerous occasions and Uncle Pete was the life of the party. He was always telling jokes and stories or busy laughing at something. He was what many people would refer to as a happy drunk.
The person who sat before Mac was anything but happy. He was barely coherent and reeked of booze. Mac sat down on the couch and watched Uncle Pete who looked like he had forgotten that Mac was there. Judging by the number of empties, Uncle Pete had plowed through a lot of booze and must have started drinking first thing this morning, which was not typical of him. Drinking by himself was really not typical.
“Did something happen, Uncle Pete? Are you okay?” Mac asked again.
Uncle Pete turned towards Mac once again and seemed to be noticing him for the first time.
“Hey Macaroni! Can I interest you in a beer?”
He reached down and pulled the last full bottle of beer from the case on the floor beside his chair and held it up. “What the hell?” Uncle Pete looked at the bottle and then back down at the now empty beer case and kicked it in disgust. “Who the fuck drank all my beer?”
Swaying has he reached forward, Uncle Pete grabbed an opener off of the coffee table and popped the cap off the bottle and handed it to Mac. He sat back and resumed his position on the couch and seemed to forget about Mac again.
“What’s going on, Uncle Pete? Are you okay?”
His uncle remained glued to the television and after a moment of silence, Mac wondered if his uncle had even heard his question. That was when he noticed the picture frame on the couch beside him. Mac had seen it many times before as it usually sat up on the china cabinet shelf in the corner. Checking to make sure that it was the same one, Mac looked over at the cabinet and saw the spot where the picture he was thinking of sat empty. Uncle Pete and Aunt Ellen’s wedding picture.
“Do you know what day it is, Mac?”
“Christmas Eve. December 24th.” Mac answered, but as he did so he noticed a single tear roll down his uncle’s cheek. Then he remembered.
“13 years ago, Mac. 13 years ago today I lost them.”
Mac knew that the accident that took Aunt Ellen’s life happened right around Christmas, but he always forgot the exact date. He wished right now that he had remembered it earlier because then he wouldn’t have stopped by to see Uncle Pete today. Now, he wasn’t sure what to do or say. Should he just leave? If he said the wrong thing was he going to upset his uncle even more? Uncle Pete was staring at him now with sad, vacant eyes and Mac felt even more uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry, Uncle Pete.”
“You’d think that after 13 years a person would be over it, wouldn’t you?” Uncle Pete shook his head and wiped the tears from his eyes. “In a way it still feels like it just happened yesterday. Man, I miss her, Mac. I wish that you could have known her better.”
“I remember Aunt Ellen always smiling and laughing.” Mac said before realizing that he probably shouldn’t have mentioned it. He half expected his uncle to break down, but instead a smile appeared on his face for a brief moment.
“Yeah, that was her. Ellen had the most beautiful smile. It didn’t matter how bad a day you had when that smile was there to greet you at the end of the day.”
Mac had heard many stories of his Aunt Ellen. Most of them were from his mom as the two of them were close. She caught Uncle Pete’s eye at a friend’s birthday party and the wild man fell head over heels for her. She was the kind of person who never had a bad word to say about anyone and was always the first person to help someone when they were down and out. Aunt Ellen was just an all-around kindhearted person who loved life and those around her. She was only in her mid-thirties when the accident happened. Losing someone so young and full of life was hard enough, but losing that same someone when they were expecting a child was devastating. Mac was still young at the time and didn’t recall all of the details, but he did remember how sad people were when the accident occurred.
“You know what I still don’t get, Mac?” Uncle Pete was suddenly more animated now. “Why her? Why my Ellen and why our baby? Why take them away and let that fucking prick Johnson live?”
Walter Johnson. He was an old farmer who lived east of Paradise Flats who for as long as Mac could remember was the town drunk. He had climbed behind the wheel after putting in a lengthy shift at the Flats on Christmas Eve thirteen years ago and drove through a stop sign and broadsided Aunt Ellen’s car. She was five months pregnant at the time, but suffered severe internal bleeding and died shortly after that in the hospital the same night.
