Closer To Heaven-1 - Patrick Sean Lee (free e books to read .TXT) š
- Author: Patrick Sean Lee
Book online Ā«Closer To Heaven-1 - Patrick Sean Lee (free e books to read .TXT) šĀ». Author Patrick Sean Lee
ONE
January, 2014
My father was an astronaut I think.
I canāt be sure because I was only eight when they all died, and there is no one I knew back then that survived who could tell me if it was true. But Iām pretty sure he was. He worked in Marysville where we lived, and left each morning to go to his job at Cape Canaveral, somewhere outside of the city. I remember hearing that name one day and I asked him what Cape Canaveral was. He told me thatās where they launch rocket ships from, and that he was going to go there. Each day when he left to fly someplace he took his lunchbox with him, and my mother always kissed him goodbye at the front door, telling him to have a safe trip.
Munster, the boy I met after everything went to pieces just before Christmas, told me I was an idiot; that Cape Canaveral was in Florida, not California, and that my father had probably been on his way to the nutty farm, which Munster said is where I should be. I kicked him in the shins when he said that because Iām not crazy, and neither was my father. He said, too, that my father could never have been an astronaut because he wasnāt smart enough, and he bet Daddy never even flew a little plane, let alone a rocket ship. That he probably worked in a gas station because astronauts donāt need lunch boxes, and their kids donāt live in ghettos and wear crappy clothes.
I cried when he said that to me, and that made him feel bad because he apologized.
*
I met Munster when I was going up and down the street a couple of months ago, knocking on the Jamesā front door, and the Raineysās, and the Horvatās. Every one of our neighbors that I knew, and lots I had never ever met. No one would answer because they were all dead, even Jason Mark James who was in my grade at school, and lived four doors away. I didnāt want to think about him or his parents or little sister dead inside their house, and I began to cry. I went and sat down on their porch swing and put my hands over my face. I didnāt know what to do, and that scared me very much. I couldnāt call anyone because the phones didnāt work anymore, and neither did the TV or the computer. But then I thought maybe it was just our phone and TV and computer that didnāt work anymore. Maybe the Jamesā phone was still working, and so I jumped off the swing and wiped the tears out of my eyes. Somebodyās voice stopped me.
āHi.ā
Thatās what Munster first said to me, and I didnāt know whether to run away or jump up and down and clap my hands. He wasnāt carrying a gun or a knife or an axe, and that made me feel safer. I wasnāt alone anymore. He told me his name, and he hadnāt said I was stupid or crazy yet, so we became friends.
Munster told me not to bother trying to get into the Jamesā house because heād already broken in. They were all curled up together on their couch, he said, not breathing or moving, and he said, too, that heād tried their phone and TV, but didnāt bother with the computer. Nothing worked.
āIf you donāt believe me,ā he said, āIāll show you the busted window in the back where I threw a brick through and then went in.ā
I told him I believed him and then asked where he lived. I lived four doors up, and I pointed.
*
I slept at his house starting that night because he had lots of candles and a lighter and I wouldnāt have to cry and be so afraid at night anymore. I slept in his room. I didnāt want to fall asleep all by myself ever again, but I slept on the floor because girls donāt sleep with boys, at least until they get married, and I didnāt like Munster enough yet to get married to him. So I slept on the floor beside his bed with lots of blankets, and a candle sitting on a shoebox close to my head, but not too close. I was so happy to have a friend again, and someone who I could sleep in the same room with. Besides, his mother and father werenāt in the house, and it wasnāt spooky like my house. And it didnāt smell bad. Heād taken his mother and father out into the backyard three weeks ago and dug a grave for them, he said. I asked him if heād help me dig a grave for my parents the next day, but he said no. So I curled up and went to sleep and dreamed Daddy and Momma were still alive.
Me and Munster spent the next day and the next day and the next walking around the neighborhood where we both lived, looking for anything alive, and I didnāt cry so much, being with him. Munster threw more rocks through more windows a lot, and he went inside and then unlocked the front doors for me. Sometimes Iād go in, but I didnāt like the smell, so sometimes I wouldnāt go in. He took things a lot and brought them back to his house, and my house, now. I guess that was okay because the people were dead and werenāt alive anymore.
I thought I saw a dog down in the ravine near my house. It might have been a coyote, though, because there are lots of them around hereāor there used to beāand they creep around at night and eat cats that get out of their ownersā houses. If it was a dog I think it would have been happy to see us, so it must have been a coyote because they donāt like humans.
Yesterday I asked Munster why his parents named him that.
āThatās a funny name,ā I said.
āIt aināt my real name. I changed it when I met you.ā
āWhy?ā
āBecause I didnāt like the name my mom and dad gave me.ā
āWhat did you used to be? Maybe Iād like it,ā I said to him.
āIt was Francis. Francis Moreno Gardella. The kids at school made fun of my name, even though I ask āem to call me Frank, not Francis, which sounds like a girlās name. My friends called me Frank, but the older guys wouldnāt. Harry Podruski isā¦wasā¦in fourth grade, and I hated him. He called me Francine and sometimes he hit me if I told him to shut up. Iām glad heās dead.ā
āMaybe he isnāt dead,ā I said.
āHa! If he isnāt, then he will be if I see him ācuz I found a gun, and Iāll shoot him, just like I would if I saw that coyote.ā
That made me sad. I wouldnāt shoot the coyote, and I sure wouldnāt shoot Harry Podruski because that would be murder. I told Munster that.
We didnāt see anyone, not even the coyote again, and so we went back home each afternoon after walking around all day and sometimes breaking into dead peopleās houses. At night we played Scrabble, which I wasnāt very good at because I donāt know how to spell that many words, and I wouldnāt cheat like Munster did by looking in the dictionary. So we started playing Monopoly, but he cheated in that game too.
Thatās how we lived until the food at our house ran out.
*
It was raining. We were standing outside a gas station under the big awning. Each of us had a plastic bag filled with potato chips and candy bars and a few cans of Coke, but there wasnāt any lightning or thunder. It was one of those mini-mart stores, six blocks or so away from Munsterās and my house. I donāt remember the name, but after we went inside I saw the guy who ran it lying behind the counter, his feet anyway, and there was another guy and a woman lying on our side. They smelled and there were flies all over them. Munster told me not to eat any of the sandwiches in the cooler because there was no electricity and the mayonnaise and meat in them were probably rotten, and itād make me sicker than a dog. So, I didnāt. But we filled a few bags with stuff we liked that wasnāt meat, and didnāt have mayonnaise in it, and then we left.
It was starting to get dark and I didnāt want to walk anywhere in the rain because I didnāt bring an umbrella or even a raincoat. Munster said we couldnāt stay in the store because the flies had germs all over them and theyād spread them on us. Weād get sick and keel over like those dead people, so weād have to go back home and hope the flies didnāt follow us.
āIs that what killed everyone?ā I asked.
āProbāly not, but those people are all rotten and filled with germs, and the flies eat āem,ā he said.
āWhat do you think killed everyone then if it wasnāt germy flies?ā
He told me he didnāt know, but that it didnāt matter a bit anyway. Everyone except us was just dead. Thatās all he knew for sure.
āI donāt think everyone is dead,ā I said.
āYouāre crazy as hell.
āNo Iām not. And donāt cuss at me. We arenāt dead, so everyone isnāt dead. I want to go over to my auntās house, Munster. Maybe sheās alive. Can we go there?ā
It started raining harder and I could hear the drops of rain banging on the metal awning above us. It sounded like hail, but I didnāt see any. It was really noisy and it made me scared. Munster looked out at the big parking lot where the gas pumps were and then took out a pack of cigarettes heād stoled. Heād stoled a lighter, too, but I guessed since the guy who ran the store was dead that it was okay to take whatever we wanted. Except cigarettes because theyāll kill you just like germy flies. Daddy told me that, and so did Momma. But Munster lit one anyway, and I could see he was thinking, and that he wasnāt going to answer my question. So I asked him again. āCan we go?ā
āGo where?ā
Munster blew out a puff of smoke when he answered me, and he coughed. I knew that the cigarette would make him sick, maybe not as sick as those people inside who died, maybe from fly germs, but if he kept smoking them he would die just as dead. I didnāt tell him that because I was afraid heād get mad at me, so I just answered his question.
āI want to go to Aunt Marjorieās house. Can we go?ā
āWe canāt go anywhere until this fuckinā rain stops.ā
He used that word a lot. I told him that it wasnāt nice, that my parents said I shouldnāt use it one day when they were still alive and Iād asked them what it meant. I kind of knew. Itās just a word lots of grownups and teenagers use. Itās called an adjective, like stupid rain or dumbass rain, but they said not to use it because words sometimes have lots of other meanings. So I didnāt use it.
I told Munster he shouldnāt use it either a long time ago, but he said it was okay because him and me were the only ones whoād hear it, and if I didnāt like it I could plug my ears.
āHow can I plug my ears because by the time I do, youāve already said it!ā
He laughed. He knew I was right. That didnāt stop him, though. Anyway, no one will care if he uses that
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