Reborn Chpt 5

David's history reveals itself.

Chapter 5

　

Friday morning and the hunger was already starting to return. David tossed in his bed, still thinking of the night. Thursday's are usually good for him he thought. Karaoke night at the Old House Tavern was a favorite. He never sang, he just sat at the bar and waited. Waited for the occasional soft voice of some sweet lass. A voice that, if he closed his eyes and tuned out all but just her, could remind him of Emily. It was easy enough to tune out the rest of the singers, although at times one or another have come close to making him break his rule.

The idiot and scum rule he liked to call it. His targets were always idiots or scum. They were easy enough to spot, the scum lurked in the shadows when alone, and the light when in groups. It made them easy targets.

The idiots were those with no thought for their actions, or the consequences they may have.

'It was idiots that killed Emily.' Sleep started to set in, as Emily drifted in to David’s mind.

Emily would take the bus to visit Davie in the VA Hospital. A bullet hit the flamethrower of the soldier beside him as they crawled through the hedgerows of Normandy during the summer of '44. The fire and blast took his arm, and left him burned across eighty percent of his body. The shrapnel ruined one of his kidneys and penetrated his skull leaving Davie little more than a vegetable.

David often wished they had left his son on that far off ground. Pneumonia had taken Pattie in '38, and now this. Often David cried in his room while Emily sat reading from the Bible at their son's hospital bed. David’s fall was just beginning.

Through the window of their third floor walk-up David heard the engine of the bus as it approached, and got up to watch her cross the street . David had been crying, and watching her helped him pull himself together. The bus stopped across the street, the brakes squealing. David spotted the pink of Emily's small round hat as she stepped of the bus, a long pink dress to match the hat, and a pink handbag and shoes completed the outfit.

"The shoes always complete the outfit." Emily would say, thought David. Seeing her always made him feel better, and today was no different.

Emily stepped into the market across the street, a pink blip moving from bus to door. It was Saturday and business was slow. Emily came out quickly carrying a paper bag with her purse dangling below. Emily moved to cross the street, looking up as she crossed to the window where David watched from above. Emily smiled, and raised her hand to wave, but was startled by the sound of the Dodges motor just before it hit her. The windshield shattered in a spray of red, and David watched his Emily as she tumbled through the air.

A groan escaped David, the image bringing him back from the slumber he had started to drift into.
"That idiot only did two years." David said aloud to the empty room. It was a couple on their wedding day. They had just left the reception and were heading for a honeymoon night at some hotel. He had been drinking and couldn't keep his eyes off his bride as she teased him from the passenger seat of the big dodge.

'Idiot's and scum' thought David as he fell deeper into sleep. His dreams drifting from image to image.

The years before Emily died were rich with memories, but not the years after. David had been an idiot. He had fallen from the world, and refused to get up. He planted his a*s on a bar stool, and every night he returned. A steady diet of cigarettes. whiskey, and bar food. A long blur of repetitive days that blended one upon the other. There were short images of unusual moments or events, but even these were blurred by the alcohol. Repetitive days turned to repetitive weeks, months, years, a death march to a grave David would have welcomed.
Suicide was never an option, he would not be denied his only chance at being with his family, so he trudged on in his march of repetitive years. Years that turned to decades until almost forty years later when his march ended.

　

Eighty six years old, his lungs fire that regurgitated stringy phlegm on a constant basis, the pain from his remaining kidney a constant reminder of a need to pass water that at times refused to do so, and his skin mottled and yellowing. David knew the end was near, and welcomed it.

It was a warm night in July, a Monday or a Tuesday. David had lost track of days by now, but the crowd in the bar was light. Last call had been rung and Marco was wiping down the bar as David finished his drink.

"Watch yourself walking home Dave." Marco said as David pulled his coat on. Marco said this every night, unaware of the irony it held for David, and every night Marco questioned if David would be back tomorrow.

David never moved from the brownstone he and Emily had shared. An anchor to her memory from which he could not cut free. The grocery was still across the street, it had changed owners and appearance, but always a grocery store.

David's lungs exploded in a flood of phlegm and blood as he approached the store to cross where Emily had crossed. David always crossed where Emily crossed. Davids lungs burst phlegm in a violent coughing fit. The force triggering a pain in his chest screaming which each violent outburst. David reeled to catch himself on a pile of empty crates in the alley beside the store, spraying them in fluids.

David never learned the name of the man who approached him as he leaned against the crates, his lungs screaming for air. David always thought of him as The Stranger. The shadow on the crates was the first sign David had of The Stranger's existence.

"I'm okay." David’s voice scratched as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, never turning to face The Stranger.

"Just leave me be." The pain of David’s chest screaming now, he leaned further against the crates for support.

"I will," The Stranger’s voice was low and rough like someone who has smoked every day of his life. The sound striking David's ears like a cold January wind, sending a chill down his spine.

The attack was sudden and vicious. The Stranger slammed into David’s back like a freight train. The Stranger’s knees shattering ribs as he landed atop David sending him sprawling into the crates. Thin wooden sides meant to hold in fruit, splintered and flew apart under the weight of the two men. The Stranger lunged for David's neck, missed and tore into his shoulder with a vicious bite. Pain flashed through David’s body like a blinding flash of light, instant and terrible. The snapping of David’s collarbone plain as powerful jaws collapsed upon it. David was pushed down, the splinters of wood punctured and jabbed into his skin as The Stranger lifted himself for the killing assault on David's neck.

The flash lit the alley and the blast sounded like thunder in David's ears as The Stranger flew from his back. The second blast was muffled as David started to fade, the flash a dull momentary glow. The sound of running steps approaching was followed by Marco's familiar voice.

"Dave....Dave....DAVE!, Marco shouted, and then just as David lost consciousness he heard Marco scream.

"Oh F**K, SHOOT IT AGAIN!!"

Cold metal against his naked back was David's next memory. His shoulder screaming in pain his eyes a blur of bluish gray. David reached forward to grope in the dark, surprised by the unexpected metal just inches above his face. David started to thrash, his fist wailed against the walls that surrounded him. The metallic crashing echoed about. The motion sending his shoulder into spasms. The broken ribs of his back painful as he thrashed. David’s memory of what had happened returned, and David started to scream. Not a word had escaped him during the attack. He never had time, it was so quick. Now he screamed in terror as if The Stranger were still upon him. He was screaming when the man opened the small door at his feet, and light flooded in, blinding David momentarily.

"Jesus Christ!" was all the man said as he pulled the tray to slide David from his crypt here in the morgue. It would be the last words to escape his mouth.

The light behind the shade glowed a familiar orange as the sun set.