|
DOORS
1
John Parker was one of those people that we all see every day, but
never pay attention to.
It's nothing
against him, it's just the way it is. John Parker is like that one
toy that we all had growing up; we
knew it was there, but it just
laid in a corner forgotten. Every once in a while we would play
with it, but only when
none of our other ones fit our mood.
Afterwards it was tossed back into the corner. John was not this
way by choice,
in fact he knew that he was like this, and he hated
it. On more than one occasion he had tried to change, and it always
blew up in his face. Call it fate or karma, but thats just the way
it is.
All his life John hated who he was.
He knew early on that he
didn't fit in with the other children. They all joined their
cliques and he wasn't in any
of them. Part of this was the fact
that his parents were very overprotective, while the other children
were playing
together in the park, John was home
with his brothers. He didn't fault his parents for this, he
believed they did
the best that they knew how.
His parents married young, so it wasn't like they had much of a
social life either. On
top of that when
your family is the welfare bums people usually don't want to
associate with you. Often he tried to
fit in, and this made him the
laughing stock of the group. So he realized that the best thing he
could do was to just
fade into the background. Sure, he
occasionally joined a group of others like himself, but even then he
didn't quite
fit in.
2
When John Parker graduated from high school, he thought that
things would be different.
Once he joined the work force he would
be the same as the others, so he thought. Same story, different
setting.
He
was the one that everyone had a job that they didn't want to do,
but other than that he was invisible.
Sometimes they
would need a laugh and he would be the butte of a
joke, and then fade into the background. Soon, it got to the point
where
John would show up, do his job and go home. He would only
associate with his coworkers if he had to. John hated this,
but he
hated the self consciousness that came with the laughing and put-
downs even more.
John attempted to
have a social life. He tried to hang out with
the people he knew from school, this worked for short time, but was
always
ended the same way. Things went well until they would lose
interest with him. Once again, that uncomfortable feeling of
not
being wanted came back and he would
slink into the background. He tried going to hangouts such as bars
and
malls, but was so self conscious
that he finally gave up. His routine soon became: go to work, come
home, go to bed;
repeat daily. Pay the bills and do the shopping on
payday and hurry back home.
John's home life was another disappointment.
He had always
dreamed of having a nice house in the suburbs with a nice vehicle
in the driveway and a big yard for
his German Shepard to be able to
go out and play. His neighbors would all know him by name and they
would visit each
other and have barbecues in the summer. Instead he
lives in a rundown little shack in a village that is mostly higher
class than he is. His yard is so small that he has to keep his dog
tied up so that he doesn't run off and end up someone
else's
yard. That nice vehicle, try a tired 1973 AMC Hornet. John liked
the car and started to fix it up, but between
lack of funds and
getting discouraged it never got finished.
3
To escape from his depressing
real life John became an obsessive
TV fanatic and bookworm. He would become so engrossed in the
stories that he felt
as if he actually part of the story.
Especially with
the television he felt as if the characters were his friends.
He
would make it a point to be home in time for his favorite shows.
When something good happened to one of his favorites
he would be
filled with a joy so great that he would burst. If something bad
happened or one died he often found himself
in tears. When the
unthinkable, finale or cancellation occurred, John couldn't help
feeling as if he had been betrayed.
Many were the nights that he
would fall asleep wishing he were part of one of the shows he was
obsessed with. When
he was ready to rip his hair out in frustration
at his despised job, he would slip off to join the explorers of The
Lost
World or sneak down to the Lanford Lunchbox to have a sandwich
and say hi to Roseanne.
John did have another interest
that was as strong as his love of
the television, and that was classic cars. Nothing was more dear to
his heart as
a classic car that was restored to the beauty and
splendor it had when it was new and on the showroom floor. John
held
them in such high regard that he would just stand there
awestruck in the presence of such a work of art. He frequently
yearned to own a vehicle that would make others feel the way that he
felt at car shows. After seeing their work on
TV, Boyd Coddington
and Chip Foose became two of John's biggest heroes.
4
John was feeling unusually
restless one night, so instead of
watching TV, he was on the internet. He was looking on a classic
car site when he
saw an article about a big car show that was being
held in Mount Lewis. What stood out was the fact that Boyd
Coddington
was going to make a special appearance. After checking
the dates, John was ecstatic to find that was his weekend off.
He
nearly jumped out of his chair when he looked up the driving
directions and found that Mount Lewis was only five
and a half hours
from his home in Littleton. At first, John was uneasy about the
amount of people that would be there,
but the chance to see one of
his idols in person was more than he could resist.
After some pleading and bribery,
John was able to convince one of
his brothers to stay at his home to look after his dog. He had
managed to save enough
of his paycheck to cover the cost of renting
a camp spot for the weekend. John planned to buy enough groceries
to
make it through the weekend once he got to Mount Lewis. With all
plans made all he had to do was contain his excitement
for two more
days when he would be off on the trip of a lifetime. Little did he
know how right he was.
5
The minutes seemed to drag on like hours on the Friday that John
had longed for. When quitting time finally arrived,
he was running
for his car. By the time his brother arrived, an hour after he got
home he was putting the last of
his supplies in the back of the
Green Monster, which was his nickname for the old Hornet. John did
a quick rundown
of where everything was and what Tim could have and
do.
After the formalities were finished, John was finally
off. He
was making good time as he headed south down the two lane highway.
He was lost in his thoughts as the miles
passed like songs on the
radio, and he felt like an explorer boldly sailing through the
darkness to a bright new land.
Two hours into his journey, John was jerked back to reality by
deafening explosion from above. The sky almost
immediately began to
assault the poor Hornet. John quickly switched the wipers to high,
but they did little to keep
the torrential rain from obstructing his
view. With his sight limited to a few yards in front of him, John
was unable
to make out the sign warning him of the sharp curves
ahead. He was also unaware of the steep hill that he was about to
descend. The hill sprang up in front of him like a giant and he
barely had time to jerk the wheel to get away from
the side of the
mountain. The bald tires on the Green Monster immediately lost
their grip on the wet blacktop. The
poor old car seemed to Waltz
down the road as John struggled for control. His efforts were in
vain as The Hornet collided
with the hillside. Inside the car,
John's head collided with the steering wheel.
Dazed but uninjured, John cursed
his luck. He got out and
surveyed the damage, the front passenger
side took the force of impact. The tire was flat
and he saw the
green stream running between his feet and knew the radiator was
gone. Knowing the Green Monster was
injured he began his cold wet
journey down the hill for help. A quarter mile down the road, he
was surrounded by a
blinding light. He stepped aside knowing he
couldn't be lucky enough to get a ride. To his surprise, the
vehicle stopped
next to him and the driver told him to get in.
Turning to face the vehicle he was shocked to see that it was a tow
truck.
The big burly man behind the wheel introduced himself as Dan
Goodman. He asked about the Hornet, and John replied
that it was
his car. Dan informed him that it was his lucky night because he
was on his way back to his shop. Dan
said he would be glad to give
John's car a tow into town and that John didn't owe him since it was
on his way. Once
the Green Monster was secured to the back of the
truck, they were on their way. John asked Dan if he knew of any
cheap
rooms for the night since Dan wouldn't get to the car until
morning. Dan replied that he knew just the place as they drove
toward town.
After dropping the car at his shop, Dan took John down the block
to a three story brick building
with a faded plastic sign on the
front that read "Valley Point Inn". Upon entering the building they
were greeted
by a slightly overweight woman, with the warmest eyes
and the friendliest smile that John had ever seen. She introduced
herself as Franny Goodman and welcomed John to her boarding house.
She led him up the stairs and down the hall to
the room she had
prepared for him.
John was amazed at how cozy the room was. It felt like home and
he was
immediately at ease. Franny told him that she hoped he would
enjoy his stay and that she would let him change into some
dry close
before he caught his death. She also told him that her room was
down the little hallway behind the reception
desk. Dan also said
his goodbyes as he needed to get home and get some sleep. After the
goodbyes, John changed into
some dry clothes and crawled into bed,
and was amazed that the bed was even more comfortable than it looked.
The
next morning John awoke feeling that he was supposed to be
somewhere else. Although he couldn't figure out where it was.
He
also had a hard time remembering much of the previous day, or for
that matter anything else. This alarmed John
as he always had a
good memory, sometimes too good of one. Deciding to ask someone for
advice, he made his way down
to the front desk. Franny was seated
there humming softly to herself while knitting. He approached the
desk and Franny
looked up at him with that warm smile of hers. She
asked what was the matter after looking into his confused face.
When
he told her of his lack of memory and how it was scaring him,
she nodded in understanding and asked him to come to her
room. John
followed her because their was something about her that made him
feel at ease. He desperately wanted that
feeling.
Franny led him through the door and to an overstuffed chair that
seemed to give him the biggest hug
of his life as he sat down. She
sat in the matching chair opposite his and began to speak. She
explained that the
world we live in is not entirely as it seems, nor
are our bodies our true form. Instead think of them as merely a
vehicle,
that our minds use to commute through each world. Much
like the way people have more than one car they use, our minds
also
have more than one vessel it uses in each of it's different commutes
through each world. There are many doors
that we use to travel
between these different worlds. Anytime that we are not conscious
in this world, we are conscious
in another. Conscious is just a
term being used to make the point. Sleep, passing out, and even
death are also meant
by the term. Of course death is the permanent
form.
John told her that he thought she was insane, but a part of
him
did believe her words. He found himself desperately wanting her to
be telling the truth. He also was puzzled about
how this pertained
to him, so he asked her to continue. To help make her point she
asked him to think of a dream and
asked how real it felt. He
admitted she had a point that at times it was hard to believe that
they were just dreams.
Franny stated that the reason we forget so
many of our dreams is that our physical brains would over load from
the
amount of information it would be bombarded with. Although
tidbits do get through, like little smudges of dust from brushing
against the vehicle as we go from one to another.
To answer his question about how this affected him, Franny said
that she must first straighten out some details of the previous
night. First and foremost he did not get out and walk
away from the
accident. Not in the world he thinks of as his reality. In that
world he is laying in a hospital, comatose
from his injuries. Which brought her to the heart of the matter,
coma victims are special cases where the person involved
is actually
in two places at once. Their mind is in one world while not totally
free of the other, like when your
jacket gets caught in a car door.
In such cases guides are sent to give the person an option of which
world they would
like to make their permanent one. In this one that
would be Dan and Franny. Dan's job is to go and find the trapped
souls
and he brings them to Franny who advises them of their unique
situation and helps them with the choice made.
John
replied that this was starting to make sense to him, but he
still found it hard to believe. He asked if their was any
way that
she could prove this. Even though bits of his other life were
beginning to surface. This life seemed to be
happier than the one
he was in just yesterday. Franny said their was and asked him to
turn and look at the television
to his left. As if the mention of
it were enough, it came on and he saw the events of the previous
night. Only this
time he was removed by the jaws of life and taken
away in an ambulance. Instead of sitting here talking with Franny,
he
was laying in a hospital bed hooked up to life support.
John's next inquiry was about this world, and how he would
know
if it was better than that one. Franny said that was something that
he would have to answer for himself. To do
this he would have to
remember how he felt when he wakes. Franny could see the answer
written on his face. So she
asked if he had anymore questions
before he made his decision. John thought long and hard before
asking if he was
being promised a happier life if he stayed. To
this she replied that he was only promised that his life would be
whatever
he made of it. Whether or not he was happy was up to him
and how he decided to use this opportunity.
John ended
his question and answer session by asking how long he
was allowed to stay here at the Valley Point Inn. Franny told him
that he could stay as long as he needed to and that she would be
here to help him. But, once he was ready he would
have to move on.
Just then the telephone rang and she
got up to answer it. She returned and informed him that
it was Dan
saying that his car would be ready in a few hours. John thanked her
as he got up and said that he wanted
to have a look around town. He
told her that he would return later.
Walking out of the boarding house and into
the midmorning sun,
John began to whistle. He felt the heavy burden of his past life
begin to fade, just like a bad
dream. In its place happy thoughts
of better times, were taking their place. He was filled with a
sense of a great
adventure about to begin, and an unfamiliar spring
was in his step.
THE REUNION
Okay, he'll be here any minute now, I think to myself as I
light another Pall Mall. I've
waited for ten years, what's another
few minutes. I hope he gets home soon, I'm almost out of smokes.
Looking down at
the pile of buttes on the ground, I think that maybe
I should quit. After I get my Susie back, I might.
All through
high school, Bob Henson has been making my life a
living hell. Every day at school it was beatings, wedgies, and
having
my homework stolen. The last straw was when he stole my
Susie McAdams the day before graduation. He thinks he is so cool
parading
her around to rub my nose in it.
I bet he'll never expect that I, Josh Daniels, was able to track him
down. It was really
easy, I just got his number from directory
assistance and told him I was doing a directory for our senior class.
Susie
will be so happy to see me here to rescue her, with the
help of Sampson. That is my hatchet that I spent hours sharpening
to
the point that I shaved with it. There they are, finally he will
pay, and Susie will be rescued. In my haste, I almost
fell over the
sprinkler. Got to calm down, I've come too far to screw up now.
They are in the garage, and walking
to the door leading into the
house. I sneak up to the corner of the garage. Patiently, I wait
until they enter the house
and begin to close the garage door. I
dive under it right before it closes completely. Crouching in the
corner, I listen
for them to go to the next room. Timing is the
key, if I move too soon it will all be over and my Susie will never
be
rescued.
After I cautiously enter the house, I follow one step at a time
until I am right outside the bedroom door.
I listen for the sounds
of him forcing her into bed. "Payback time, Bob!" I scream as I
burst through the bedroom door
with Sampson held high. I lunge
forward, and bring Sampson down with all of my might. I feel
resistance momentarily
as he hits Bob Henson's breastbone then he
sinks deep into his chest cavity. I struggle to remove Sampson as
Susie screams
at me, wanting to know who I am and what I'm doing
here.
Could it be, doesn't she remember me? "Susie it's me, Josh
Daniels."
Susie yells that there is no Susie or Bob. He must've
brainwashed her. I rush for her to hold her and help her remember
who
we are.
"In other news, the search for escaped mental patient Joshua
Daniels has ended tragically. Police were
called to the residence
of Dr. Phillip Carruthers after reports of a car matching the
description of one stolen from
the mental hospital where Daniels was
last seen. Upon investigation they discovered the body of
Carruthers who had been
brutally murdered in his bedroom and the
bodies of his wife Debra and Daniels laying beneath a second story
window.
For Action Five News, I'm April O'Brien."
|
