"After The Move"
By Brian Roberson
I
Telly stood on the sidewalk next to the residential street holding a suitcase. He looked up at the sky with a perplexed expression on his face. Everything that was supposed to be there was there. The pale yellow sun was sitting high in the western sky. There were some puffy, fair weather cumulous clouds sitting in the sky like fat little Buddha's. To the east, a waxing gibbous moon was hanging orange and low in the horizon. There was no wind and all around was silent, except for a solitary crow that was harking away in a tree nearby. The sun looked pale and white, but the sunlight around seemed diffused and reddish. He looked around at the townhouses that surrounded him. They looked very modern, but also very old at the same time. Some were in pristine condition, others were decrepit, some were burned out or looked like they had been abandoned for decades. They were all triangular shaped, with brick trims and cedar board sides. Some were blue, others were brown, others red, or green, or grey, or so decrepit that they no longer had any paint on them. Some were very large, others were much smaller.
All around the houses were trees here and there, some which towered high up into the air. There were cedars, pines, maples, oaks. Car ports stood along both sides of the streets. They were open ended car ports with spaces for seven cars in each. There were open parking spaces between the car ports, with spaces for another five cars. There was plenty of parking.
Cars of various sorts were parked in the ports. Cars from the 1950's, cars from the 1980's, cars from every decade were represented. Some looked like they hadn't been driven for years, others looked brand new and well cared for. Telly looked all around him. The houses seemed to go in every direction, crowding themselves into the surrounding hills, snaking up and down hills and valleys. Telly could see a huge, 300 + foot radio tower in the distance, it's red light on the top blinking on and off like an eye. He could hear a river bubbling away in the distance.
He crossed the street and walked past the car port. He found himself in the middle of a communal area. To his right was a grassy quad area with two crab apple trees, and a large metal pipe arching out of the earth and back down again, a gauge of some sort was on the side of it. To his left, and to his front, were houses. There was a small wooden park bench. Red Bricks made up the floor of the central area, and a small fountain was playing in the middle. He then heard a door open in a house that was just past the second crab apple tree to his right. He saw an old lady emerge from the house, walking a black, shaggy dog on a leash. She guided the dog into the grassy area. Telly walked along the sidewalk and soon found himself facing the woman. She had on a dark pants suit with a white sweater and glasses. Her hair was grey and she looked quite old.
"Excuse me? I was wondering if you could help me. I just moved here, but I don't know which house is mine. Can you help me, perhaps?"
"You don't know which house is yours? How the hell do you not know which house is yours? That has got to be the most ridiculous thing I`ve ever heard!" The woman snapped while the dog stared at Telly with almost total disinterest.
"I...don't know...which one...it is..." Telly said, his narcolepsy starting to seize him. He staggered around with his eyes half shut, his ears ringing and the colors flickering in and out of a fuzzy black and white buzzscape.
"Don't know where your house is! You shit kid!" Telly could hear the old ladies voice echoing through his head. "Maybe if you actually looked you would see where your house is. Oh you idiot! You lying idiot! Liar! Liar! LIAR! LIARRRR!!!!!" He was now seeing an image in his mind of a frantic Springer Spaniel dog writhing and barking in a front of a window. The dog was becoming more and more agitated and crazy. Telly started screaming and tearing at his hair in his mind while he staggered and swooned around almost completely unconscious. The world was fading in and out of a dark field and he soon felt himself plunging into a deep, black abyss, screaming at the top of his lungs in absolute terror as he fell.
Telly suddenly snapped out of the narcolepsy attack. He had having more and more of these attacks ever since The Move. Sometimes he would have as many as five a day, assuming that it in fact WAS a day that he was thinking back to. He would often have frightening visions during the attack. He looked up and saw that the old lady and the black dog were both gone. He then decided to go into the house that he was standing right in front of to see if it was his. It was a large, three story brown house with several windows of various sizes all over it. He went into the small courtyard in front of the house and opened the door. Inside he saw all of the familiar furniture that he was used to seeing, so he knew he had to have the right one. To his right was a kitchen, and he saw his father sitting at the kitchen table. He had a teapot in front of him, and he was sipping on a cup of tea while smoking a pipe and reading an afternoon newspaper.
"Hello, Telly. Have you had a busy day?" His father asked.
"Dad! How can I possibly know an answer to that question!" Telly shouted in anger.
"I'm just trying to make conversation. " His father replied. Telly then dropped his suitcase to the floor and went to a cookie jar in the corner of the kitchen. He pulled out a package of Fig Newton's, pulled a few out of the package, and began eating them at the counter.
"Do you want any tea?" Telly's father asked.
"No Dad! I don't want any tea!! Why are you asking me that when you know I'm just going to say no?!" Telly screamed.
"Doug? Is that Telly?" Telly heard his mom say from upstairs.
"Yes, Doris! Telly is here now!" Doug shouted back.
"Doug is that Telly?" Telly said in a rude, mocking voice.
"Telly, don't be rude towards your mother, please?" Doug whined.
"I suppose I'm going to have to go find my room now?!" Telly snapped bitterly as he picked up his suitcase and stomped up the stairs. Telly found an empty bedroom.
"Telly?' He heard behind him. He turned around and his mother was standing in the hallway. Telly slammed the door in her face.
"AUGHHHHH!!! YOU DRIVE ME CRAZY!!!BOTH OF YOU!!! AUGHHHHHHH!!!!!" Telly began screaming at the top of his lungs in a total rage. He was then hit by another narcolepsy attack. He clutched his head in his hands and began staggering around the empty room as the scene began fading in and out. In his mind he was still screaming, but he was actually flailing around the room like a mannequin in a boat stuck in the middle of a hurricane.
"Telly? I need to talk to you. Can I come in?" Telly could hear his mother's distorted and echoing voice bouncing around the room and into his head. The sun was streaming through the uncurtained window.
"Telly?" He heard his mother say again. Her voice was reverbing like she was speaking through a ballpark PA. Telly finally spun down to the ground like a top and lay unconscious on the floor right next to his suitcase.
Telly was taking a walk behind the houses. There was a small road that ran behind there, beyond was an endless, slightly hilly plain that went all the way to the horizon. To the left of the road, a thorn hedge with barbed wire meshed through it ran parallel to the road, dividing the road and the steppe land beyond. It was then that a short, fat kid of about twelve or thirteen came along walking a small white whippet dog. The kid had a crew cut and a swarthy, Mediterranean appearance. Telly recognized the kid as Marion Dunstan. Telly also realized that he was no longer 24 years old, but was now fourteen.
"What's up, Hemorrhoid?" Marion asked.
"Nothing." Telly said.
"My parents are both working. Wanna come over?"
"Sure." Telly said.
The boys walked off while Telly watched from behind. He was 24 again and was watching his fourteen year old self walk off down the path with Marion Dunstan towards Marion's house a short way down the path. He tried to remember what Marion had wanted to take him to his house for, but he couldn't remember the reason. He followed closely behind the boys, darting behind trees and bushes to avoid being seen. He looked to his right and the old lady and the black dog were behind one of the houses, watching the boys walk off. He heard a buzzing, looked up, and saw a large hornets nest up in a tree. Large black hornets were buzzing in and out of it. He then moved on down the road and wound up right behind Marion Dunstan's house. It was the last house in the row, a dirt path leading up to the street ran between it and the next row of houses. He crept behind the house and looked into the glass sliding door that was behind the house. There, he saw himself sitting on the couch with Playboy magazines spread out around him. He had his pants and underwear down around his ankles. The fat kid Marion was on his knees in front of him, giving him a blowjob while he sat with his head back. Telly recoiled at the sight of this unwanted childhood memory that he was suddenly seeing, put his hands on his head, and began staggering toward the dirt path. The narcolepsy then hit him and he crumpled to the ground immediately unconscious.
Telly woke up a short time later. The sun was still hanging in the sky where it had been the whole time. He had a splitting headache. In addition to the narcolepsy, The Move had also been causing him splitting headaches. They usually didn't last long, so he got up and resumed his walk down the path. He soon found himself in a small glade, with a giant oak tree, a cherry tree, and a group of pine trees providing a small canopy. A small spring was gurgling out of the ground, and the water flowed down into a valley beyond where it drained into a creek, which itself drained into a large river that was flowing through. The back of the townhouses were still to his right. After emerging from the glade, he found himself in an open area. The row of townhouses cam to an abrupt halt at a steep hill, although the path continued on past them. He saw two women who were working on what looked like a large garden. One of the women, who was older, didn't even notice Telly. The other one woman, who looked around 18 or so, stopped what she was doing and stared at Telly while clutching her hoe in her hand.. Telly thought she was very beautiful. He gave her a small wave and she immediately dropped her hoe and began walking quickly towards the last house on the end.
"Hey, wait! Wait!" Telly called out as he began running up the hill from the path towards the blue painted house. As he began stepping around the garden, he froze when he saw a man sitting in a chair on the back porch, watching him.
"Please step no further. This is a sanctuary." The man said. The woman walked quickly behind the man, opened a sliding glass door, entered it, and slid it shut behind her.
"A sanctuary?" Telly asked. He looked at the man in the chair. The man looked like he had to weigh at least 400 pounds. He wore a white xxl knit shirt, a pair of jean shorts, and white sneakers with no socks. He looked absolutely huge. In one hand he held a bottle of beer, in his other hand he held a small fan.
"Yes. A sanctuary. We are a sanctuary from the likes of you. I would appreciate it if you would please leave. There is nothing for you here."
"The likes of me? What do you mean?"
"I don't have the time today to explain it to you, assuming that you don't actually know the answer. I have a sneaking suspicion that you do." The man said as he fanned himself with one hand and took a swig of beer with the other.
"I...I don't know. All I know is that ever since The Move I've been having these horrible headaches, or I pass out."
"Well you got off easy then! Some of us are still trying to clean up the mess that YOU made!" The Fat Man snapped. "That's why we're all here in this house. Don't come around here and try to come off like you're one of The Lost ! I can smell a Phony from ten kilometers away! Don't toy with me!"
"I'm...I'm not lying. Why does everyone think I'm LYING!?"
"Because after The Move everyone has been lying! Do you really require all of this to be explained to you?"
"I don't understand...I don't know what's happening..."
The Fat Man's features softened up a little. "Well...maybe you are one of The Lost." The Fat Man then stared at the ground a little, then looked up. "Tans Hansell!" He suddenly yelled out.
"What...?" Telly replied.
"Oh, I'm so sorry...you ARE one of The Lost." The Fat Man said. He then got up out of his chair, waddled over to Telly, and put his arm around his shoulder. He looked as though it was a struggle for him just to stand. "I'm sorry, but you have to be careful nowadays. Come, come inside. There's a home for you here, if you want a home."
The Fat Man then put his arm around Telly's shoulder, and gently guided him into the house.
End Of I