Epsilon, page 11
At one point, Mork & Mindy stood on a chair and opened the window, almost hitting his head. He lurched back and rolled out of sight. He heard a gasp from inside and the girls’ laughter. Once the hefty girl returned to the game, he resumed his position. With the window open, he could hear them now.
Time passed, and he eventually heard a car pulling up in front of the house. He scrambled to his feet and inched around toward the front, just enough to see around the corner. It was the Citation. Shannon’s mother had come to get her. It was about 10 p.m. and most places in town were already closed, so they were probably heading home straight away. He wanted to watch Shannon leave, then he’d call it a night. He knew something the girl enjoyed now. Somehow, he felt closer to her.
A few moments later, Shannon came running out of the house. He heard her ask her mother, “Were you waiting long?”
A voice inside the car responded, “Nope. You were very punctual. I’m proud of you.”
The girl got in, closed the door, and fastened her seatbelt as the car pulled away. As they drove off, he walked forward and stood just before the sidewalk to watch the taillights disappear down the glossy, rain-slicked street.
Instead of returning to his car immediately, he was lost in the moment. Then he heard a noise and turned to see the Mork & Mindy girl standing a few feet away.
“Excuse me, did you just see a car pull away from here?” she asked.
He had screwed up. He hadn’t followed his own rules. He had to improvise.
“Well, this is unfortunate,” he said.
“Umm… Pardon, sir? What is?”
He rushed forward and slapped his hand over her mouth. The girl’s eyes widened in surprise, and she swung a large crystal platter at his face. It shattered across his left cheek. He felt his nose get knocked out of alignment and blood on his face. There was also a hint of vanilla.
He brought his elbow to the side of her head, and she went down hard. he quickly dragged her back to the alleyway. This had turned into a complete cluster. This situation could not be allowed to be associated with his other girls. He’d look like a sloppy idiot.
Instead of his usual methods, he did everything completely differently. Cause of death, body disposal, it had to be different. She would be found close to home, unlike the others. Tolson couldn’t know he was haunting their community. If they did, he’d never be able to continue his observations of Shannon.
When he got home, he treated the wounds on his face. He suffered three pretty good cuts, and he had to pop his nose back into shape. The next night on the news, he would find out the girl was named Heather Lollis.
As he watched the news on Saturday, he held an ice pack on his swollen nose with one hand and nursed a cold beer in the other. A school picture of the girl was displayed on the screen as the reporter broadcast from Tolson. They said police determined it wasn’t the Sweet Sixteen Killer. Investigators on the scene were having trouble collecting evidence due to the rain which was washing clues away.
“Well alright. That’s good news, at least.”
The news report ended with, “Heather Lollis was just sixteen years old. Services are planned for Bradley Funeral Home in Tolson on Saturday, October 15th.”
The Demon held up his beer. “Here’s to you, Heather. You took some skin from me. I’ll give you that much.”
He finished the beer.
The Visit
Saturday, October 22, 1983
Shannon hadn’t shown much interest in socializing since Heather died. Leslie had offered to bring Melissa for a sleepover or even take the girls out for a meal and a trip to one of the bigger arcades in Wichita. Nothing seemed to be able to bring her out of her funk.
Saturday afternoon, Shannon was sequestered in her room when she heard the doorbell. She opened her bedroom door as Leslie walked by on her way to answer the front door. She assumed it was a package or something and was prepared to retreat back into her inner sanctum.
When the door opened, her eyes widened. It was Gig. He was carrying a guitar and some flowers. He hugged both ladies, and they asked him to have a seat. He apologized and said he’d be right back. He trotted out to his van and opened the back. He returned to the living room carrying a Marshall amplifier.
They spent the afternoon talking and listening as Gig plugged in his 1967 Fender Stratocaster Sunburst and played several famous songs and a few of the tunes he wrote for Rock Junction. While they listened, Shannon glanced over at her mom. Leslie had a look on her face the girl hadn’t seen before. She looked like a teenage girl dreaming about her first crush. It made Shannon see her differently. She liked how her mother’s happiness made her feel. It convinced her that her mom wasn’t kidding about having gotten over the breakup with Gig.
After the mini-concert, the three of them piled into the van and went to Pizza Planet. While inside, Shannon showed Gig her high score on Defender. “Oh my God, Shannon! You got, like, three times the next highest score! How’d you get so good at that?”
Shannon acted coy. “Well, I’ll have to tell you about that later. I was only going to double the high score, but I got carried away.”
Leslie saw the score, too. Like the paperback book, it was a splash of reality in the unreal weeks that had come before. It might be time to tell Shannon what she remembered. She decided to let the girl enjoy the day first.
Back at the house, they talked some more. Gig taught Shannon how to hold the guitar and where to put her hands. Shannon joked that she wished he had brought the guitar over two weeks earlier. She wondered if the heightened brain power given to her by the lights would have allowed her to learn guitar in one sitting.
As the excitement winded down, Leslie spoke up. “Gig didn’t just show up today. I asked him to come.”
Shannon looked to Gig. He said, “Leslie has been worried about you. She told me how your friend died…”
“She was murdered.”
Gig grimaced a bit. “Yeah, I know. You’ll think about it and dwell on it for a long, long time. Maybe forever. I just wanted to come by and remind you about life. You’ve lost your grandpa and a friend, and there will be many, many others. Time is one malicious asshole.”
“Gig!”
“Sorry, Leslie. Time is not kind. Let’s just say it that way. You have to keep living, though. Mourn, cry, get angry. It’s all part of outliving people you care about. Just don’t ever forget them.”
Shannon was looking down but nodded that she understood.
“As part of feeling alive, I brought these…” Gig reached into his jean jacket pocket and retrieved two tickets. He handed them to Shannon.
“AC/DC? For me?” Shannon’s grin managed to expose almost every tooth in her head.
“Well, I’d like to use the other ticket if you wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen with an old guy.”
Shannon prepared to hug Gig but stopped to check Leslie’s expression. “Is it okay, Mom?”
Leslie smiled. “Yeah, sweetie. I think you’ll have a great time. When is it?”
Gig accepted Shannon’s hug and spoke over the girl’s shoulder. “Next Wednesday, the 26th, over at Kemper Arena.in Kansas City.”
Leslie realized something. “Wait. On a school night?”
Gig gave her a look. Not bossy. Not angry. Just a look to say, “She needs this.”
Leslie backed up. He was right. Shannon needed a distraction. “Well… I guess it’s okay. She hasn’t missed any school so far this year. One skip-day won’t bring the world to an end.”
Gig picked up Shannon directly from the school. They arrived early enough to buy Shannon a Flick of the Switch Tour t-shirt and some snacks. The opening act was a group called Fastway. Shannon had not heard of them, but Gig gave her some background information about the band.
The AC/DC show cleared Shannon’s mind. She was so into the music that dark thoughts couldn’t find their way in. By the time the show was over, she was exhausted and her voice was a little hoarse from screaming.
Gig took the role of DJ on the drive home and played a variety of music on 8-track tapes he kept in a box between the front seats. He told her she should wear the tour t-shirt when she went back to school on Friday. “The other girls may look down on you, but you’ll be the dream girl for most of the guys.”
Shannon blushed. “I doubt that.”
When they arrived at the Brooks’ home, Gig and Shannon sat outside and talked for a few minutes.
“My birthday is on Monday, the 31st.”
“Halloween? Seriously? That’s cool! If my birthday was Halloween, every party would be a costume party.”
Shannon shook her head. “I’m at the age now where a lot of kids feel they’re too old or too cool to dress up.”
Gig laughed. “Yeah, and in two or three years, those same people will be having Halloween keg parties in college. Life is a circle. We just go round and round. No one ever knows what they want.”
“Well, I’d like you to come by on my birthday. I’m not having a party, but I’ll probably have a friend or two over. You talked to Melissa on the phone. I know she’d love to meet you. And bring your guitar! You’re really good.”
Gig promised to come by. It got quiet for a moment, then Shannon said, “There’s something else I was going to tell you about. Did Mom mention the lights in the sky?”
“No. No, she didn’t. Wait, do you mean back in 1968?”
Then it was Shannon’s turn to be surprised. “1968? No, wait… I mean a few weeks ago, here at the house.”
Gig had gone from mellow to being genuinely concerned. “They were here? Again?”
Now Shannon needed answers. “What do you know about 1968?”
“First, you tell me what happened a few weeks ago.” Gig had swiveled the driver’s seat toward Shannon and was looking her straight in the eyes.
Shannon recounted hearing the signal for months. She explained the night Melissa stayed over and being mesmerized by the three rotating lights. She told him how Leslie fainted, or passed out, or was knocked out when she saw them. Then she described her new abilities that lasted only three days. “That’s how I did so well on that arcade game.”
She told him that Leslie admitted remembering seeing the lights before but that the memories were all jumbled.
“Your mother probably didn’t remember anything before that night. She told me back then that she didn’t. Your grandpa didn’t like me much, but he told me on the phone that Leslie had been seeing lights in the sky. I was stuck in a VA hospital and couldn’t get out here to see her. Then, one night she didn’t come home. They searched for her and found her the next day. She was all scratched up and bruised. They thought she might have been attacked.”
Shannon was terrified. “What happened to her?”
“She couldn’t remember. Not only could she not remember the events of the night she disappeared, but she also couldn’t remember ever seeing the lights in the sky.”
They sat quietly, letting Shannon absorb the information. “That’s when I was conceived, right?”
“We believe so. No one believed any of the flying saucer shit. We feared she might have been raped. She kept insisting no one had touched her. She said she would have remembered that. I tried to believe she was attacked, but she actually got mad when no one believed her,” he said.
“I kind of got depressed and drank a little too much. I thought that since she kept insisting that she wasn’t attacked, it must have been consensual.” He hung his head. “I was young, arrogant, and stupid. I didn’t want to believe it could have been anything else. I felt betrayed. Instead of thinking about her well-being, I only thought of myself and my ego. I’ll never be able to make that up to her.”
“What does that make me?” Shannon’s eyes grew wet. She quickly wiped her face dry, hoping he hadn’t noticed.
“That makes you a wonderful girl and a terrific daughter. That’s all. If your mom is remembering things, she’ll talk once she has it sorted out. I don’t know whether there are U.F.O.s or not, but I know your mom has been through a lot in her life and has managed to stay a pretty cool kitty.”
They laughed and said goodnight. Shannon got out, and through the car window, reminded him to reserve Halloween for her. He tapped the horn as a final farewell as he took the driveway to the main road.
Inside, Leslie came out of her room and asked Shannon how the show went. She gave her mother the full details, then they went to their respective rooms. It was past midnight.
As she lay in bed, drifting off, she heard the signal. She realized it was late enough that the lights might be overhead. However, she was so exhausted from the busy day, she fell asleep quickly.
Shannon woke up and glanced at her bedside clock. The time was 2:14 a.m. She rubbed her eyes and scanned her room. Something had woken her up. A bump, a click, something.
She noticed her bedroom door was ajar. Her mother had probably gotten up to use the bathroom and peeked in on Shannon on her way back to bed.
She got up and went to the kitchen. They left the light on under the stove hood as a makeshift nightlight. It illuminated enough of the living room and the hallway to help them see when going to the restroom or the kitchen.
Shannon pulled open the refrigerator door. The fridge light temporarily blinded her. Her eyes hadn’t adjusted yet. She took out an open package of bologna and snuck two slices. Unfortunately, they were out of Ham and Cheese Loaf. She stood with the refrigerator door open as she ate the meats. Like a lot of kids, she had no idea how much electricity cost.
She finished and turned to go back to her bedroom, then stopped. Part of her wanted to see the lights again. The energy and abilities they gave her were intoxicating. She decided against it out of fear of being zapped again and not being found for over six hours.
Heading toward the bedroom, the house shook for a moment. The wind was really kicking things up outside. As she returned to bed and pulled the blankets over her body, there was a bump and a clanging sound outside. It sounded like something hitting the house and falling to the ground.
Odds were that the wind had knocked something over and was tossing it around. It was a regular occurrence when living in a wide-open area in Kansas. She got comfortable. In less than three minutes, she was fast asleep again.
Shannon woke up once again. She didn’t raise up immediately. She held very still, in fact. There had been a creaking sound. It wasn’t coming from the hallway. It was in the room.
She pretended to still be asleep and rolled onto her back like she was just readjusting her position. She stayed still for a few moments, then cracked her eyelids open slightly. Her heart was racing. In most situations like this, it was all in your head.
Standing in the dark at the foot of her bed has a large shadowy figure. With the overcast sky outside, the room was exceptionally dark. She acted on reflex and spun face down into her pillow and let out a small cry.
She heard another noise and then a creak. She looked up, and the shadowy figure was gone. Her bedroom door was halfway open.
She got up and let out a scream as she ran to her mother’s bedroom. Leslie sat up as Shannon burst in. “Mom! There’s someone in the house! A man, I think!”
Leslie got up and threw on a night coat. She pulled Shannon to a position behind her and entered the hallway. “Where did you see them, sweetie?”
“It was in my room and ran out.”
Leslie worked her way from room to room. Once they made it to the living room, she turned on the overhead light. The kitchen, living room, and laundry room were empty. Leslie moved to the exterior door in the laundry room and twisted the handle. It was locked. She checked the front door. It was locked and also chained.
“I swear someone was here.” Shannon was trembling.
“I believe you, honey.” Leslie picked the phone off of the wall and dialed the police. After a brief description of the situation, the dispatcher took their information and said a car would be sent within the next 30 minutes.
The police checked the entire house, the backyard, and wanted the key to the shed, just to be thorough. Shannon went to her room to get it from her jeans pocket. She realized her pants were on the chair in front of the vanity in her room, not on the floor where she had dropped them when she got ready for bed.
She reached into the pocket and found the key. Before returning to the living room, she looked around. Nothing else seemed out of place.
In the living room, she gave one of the police officers the key, and Leslie and Shannon followed them outside to the shed. The policeman unlocked the door, and everyone stepped inside.
“Does anything seem out of place?” one officer asked.
Leslie hadn’t been inside the shed in months, so she differed to Shannon. The girl looked around, but everything seemed to be the same as how she had left it the last time she listened to the radio.
Leaving the shed, Shannon looked for the cause of the noise from earlier. No stray objects were lying around. Nothing appeared to have blown over. Back inside, Shannon mentioned her pants not being where she left them.
The officers shook their heads and gave their assessment that it was all probably just paranoia. Apparently, since Heather’s murder, the police department had become flooded with reports of strangers, break-ins, and bumps in the night. The whole area was on edge.
Leslie volunteered that the murdered girl had been a friend of Shannon’s. Although she hadn’t intended for it to, the information cemented their theory in the minds of the cops. Shannon, upset by the death of her friend and knowing the killer was still at large, woke up from a nightmare and thought she saw a menacing killer in her room.
They weren’t trying to be patronizing, but it came off that way. After they left, Leslie sat with Shannon in the living room. “Is there any chance it could be like they said, sweetie?”
