He’s
Getting Here Soon
James McIntire
You want to
know all about it? Makes sense. It is something that quite literally doesn't
happen every day. Well, maybe it might, and we just don't know about it. It's
not advertised by anyone looking to not get jammed up. Like me. Make one
mistake and bam, it's a padded cell, probably for life. But I am quite sane. I
know damn well what I wanted. Anyway, back to the point. How can I compare it?
Oh, I know! You know that Johnny Cash song about building the car piece by
piece? It's kinda like that. Just substitute the car with body parts.
Let me give
you some background so you can better understand. When I was a kid, I had no
real friends except one. His name was Jackie. Now my parents swore up and down
Jackie wasn't real. I made him up with my imagination or some other nonsense.
Oh, he was real, alright. He talked to me all the time. We played games
together. He warned me about other people. He would say, "You gotta watch
out man, they ain't real". I asked him what that meant once. "They
can't see me because they are the ones ain't real!" he said.
That stayed
with me for a long time. My parents had me talk to shrinks like we are talking
now. It wouldn't work on me then. Doubt it changes anything now. Jackie was
real and he was my friend. What's that, you ask? What do I mean: was? Well,
here goes. This is the part you been dying to hear about. The thing that got me
all wrapped up in a tight jacket with soft walls.
Well, here
it is. Jackie stayed with me my whole life up until recent events. He helped me
with everything. The man had all kinds of good advice and good ideas. Helped me
get a job down at the factory making tires. He helped me find an apartment for
cheap in the middle of the city. He helped me avoid the fake people too.
I never went
out and wasted money on these so-called people. Jackie knew every one of them
was full of it. They were the ones that were bullshit. He was real and they
couldn't see him.
One day
Jackie spilled it all to me. He told me why they couldn't see him. Turns out
these fake people vanished Jackie and some of his friends to what he called the
Void Land. You see, he escaped but couldn't take his regular form again. His
real body was destroyed by these so-called fake people. Though he escaped in
spirit his friends were not so lucky. These fakes killed his friends when they
sent them off to that faraway place. Jackie wasn't vengeful. He said to me, "They
don't even know they are to blame. When things happened the way they did it was
immediately erased from their minds. They subconsciously did this to us."
It's tragic.
They don't even know they are responsible and that includes you too! So that
conversation laid the groundwork for what came next. Lying in bed not able to
sleep I asked Jackie if he was there. He answered me and here's what played
out.
“Jackie, I
had an idea but I need to know something.”
“Yeah,
shoot.”
“If you were
to receive a new body, could you be you again? And could you stay you?”
There was a
long pause and then I hear, “You crazy son of a bitch! That just might work!”
We talked the whole night about how it could work. It was simple, really it
was. Jackie told me the rules for his spiritual transference. You see for all
of you fakes you only need the single vessel. The full body. Jackie would need
the right pieces and parts to allow him to transcend. We had some serious work
ahead of us but all easy tasks. Just a lot to do at once was all.
So now here
comes the messy part. During our little planning stage, we agreed that you
guys... You fakes weren't real people anyway. So we planned to take the pieces
off of some of you. The way I see it you all owed Jackie anyway. One by one we
found some fakes. Jackie wasn't particular either. It didn't matter if it was
man or woman. Just had to be adult aged for it all to work out.
You want to
know about the work? That it? Sure thing. So, me and Jackie worked as a team
every night for an entire month. We would wait for the right opportunities. A
couple of the fakes were taken off the streets. The homeless ones. Which is
kinda wild to think about given everything Jackie told me. Anyway, we started
with the ones congregating in the back alley of the apartment building. I would
wait until one of them was alone by the barrel fire they started. I could take
on more than one with Jackie's help but I didn't want to scare them off. Needed
the fresh pieces if we were going to pull this off.
The homeless
got wise to something happening and the remainder of the group started hanging
out somewhere else. We didn't want to venture too far from our home, because
lugging bodies across the city would raise a few eyebrows. We wanted to hunt
from the radius of our place. So the homeless were off the board and that left
anyone passing through that alley. You want the count? Man, I couldn't tell you
for sure. We bagged up everyone. A few hookers, some delivery people, business
types looking for a shortcut. We only went out at night and it's wild how many
different people pass through a place like that.
It's dark
and filthy, for one thing. Rats hang out and eat the trash or sometimes the
leftovers that we would dump there. Rainwater would build up into dingy puddles
older than time itself. You also had to watch out for heroin needles lying
around. Also older than time itself.
The point is ain't no one was
looking for anyone or anything in a place like that. At least not anything
good. So we would go down, knock ‘em out. Or if we thought someone was coming,
do the deed right there in the alley. For those we knocked out, we carefully
and quietly snuck them back up to the apartment using the maintenance stairs
that led to the alley. Jackie was real good at keeping us safe and sound during
those runs. I used to get real nervous thinking someone would see us. They
never did.
Then how did we get caught, you
ask? I'm getting to that, but first, you gotta know more about the process. The
deed so to speak. We had a few tools at our disposal. A hacksaw and a hatchet.
You know, things like that. Depending on where we worked we had to be quick and
quiet. Had to ensure they died real fast so as not to make any noise. Jackie
always suggested slashing their throats when it came time to find the pieces we
needed. He was real smart I tell you.
We chopped off arms and legs.
Took several tries to find the right pair. Problem is, Jackie being in that
invisible form he was drained of his ability to know which ones would help him.
You could have two legs or arms from one body but they never matched up to what
he needed. We just kept trying. When we found one Jackie would tell me. He
would say, "I feel it! I feel it! It's real!" That's how we would
know. So the limbs were snagged up along with a decent torso. The remains were
tossed in the trash throughout each hunt. No one was looking there anyway.
Or so we thought.
With the pieces we found, we
started sewing them together. Jackie walked me through the process of lining up
the thread and needle and working the seams. The torso was that of a woman's
body caked in dry blood. He didn't mind. Jackie as a being was above such concepts
of flesh. He was advanced in a way that we will never understand. The body we
built for him was worthy of not just a real person but a messiah. A god if you
will. That was Jackie coming to save my soul from all of you. All we needed to
finish the work was the perfect head.
Then one day it came to us. A
delivery man with long hair and a beard knocked on my door by mistake. It was
destined to be and Jackie was feeling it too. With no one else out prowling the
upper hallway of the complex, I forced the man inside my apartment. He cried
out for help. I wrapped my forearms around his neck and forced him to the
ground. His body knocked over the end table and smashed the lamp. He rolled
around gasping for breath.
Upon Jackie's request, I removed
the extension cord from the lamp and strangled the man with it. I felt sorry
for the fakey in light of what Jackie told me. That was until he told me more.
Jackie told me he recognized this fake as one of the ones directly responsible
for the deaths of his friends. This was truly meant to be.
We removed the head from the
fake body and sewed it onto the real McCoy. We took a moment to admire the
work. It sat there on the white porcelain toilet of the bathroom with blood
pouring down and staining the sides. The eyes of the head looked like something
from Looney Tunes. His tongue hung out of his mouth. Bloody drool stained the
beard in almost a pattern. Overall, I could tell the face was happy. You could
see the crusted bloody lines from the stitching we did. The entire torso,
breasts and everything, was covered in both fresh and dried up blood. It had
one muscled-up arm and one smaller one. The legs seemed even in length. Of
course, I didn't get to see it in action.
It was perfect; the only thing
missing was a crown or a cape. Something to symbolize the occasion. Jackie was
going to ascend from the spiritual plane and come back to flesh and blood. I'll
never forget it, man. He looked at me with tear stained eyes and he said thank
you. I asked him, what happens next? He placed a hand on my shoulder and said
it was time. Jackie approached his new body and looked back at me with a wink
and a grin. He said, "It might take a minute but I'll be right back,
partner."
Then for the first time in my
entire life, everything went silent and I was truly alone. He just vanished.
Disappeared with no blinding lights or fading to black. Jackie was just gone. I
knew where he was and what he was doing, but it was oh so hard man. He was the
only friend and companion I knew. We’d been through so much. I just needed to
remember what he said, it would take a minute. Well, I didn't get to see it.
The police busted down my door
shouting about "Hands on your head and get on the ground!" Turns out
someone found some of the leftovers from the last run we did. They called the
police. On top of that apparently, someone did see us carrying the bags of
trash out. We were so careful man but one tiny whoops got us jammed up.
They were so unprofessional too.
One of the Officers vomited all over Jackie’s new body when he laid eyes on it.
I was hoping so bad when they were reading me my rights and pinning me down to
the floor, Jackie would leap from that toilet and make ‘em back off. I was
watching from the vantage point of the tile floor. Waiting for Jackie to come
off it and start fighting or dancing or anything to get these fools to see the
bigger picture. The short of it is he didn’t. They took me down to the station.
I told them the same story I’m telling you now. A few phone calls later here I
am.
Jackie had good intentions and
he deserved for this to work. I don't know if it did. Maybe it didn't, maybe it
was never going to work. It was my idea after all. It's my fault then. Or maybe
it did work. If so, where is he to prove to everyone I am not crazier than horse
shit! Why am I here footing the bill? All my life it was a team effort! We did
this work together! I'm sorry, it just upsets me. I am calm. I am calm, see?
Look, Jackie believed that this would work. More so, he believed it could be
key to getting his people back. If it worked for him it might the others. I
just don't know what happened, is all.
Wait. Wait, you hear that? Come
on, I saw that look on your face. You heard it. You hear the entire thing
playing out right now. Someone shouting for help. I know you hear those wet
footsteps. The patter of bloody feet coming down the hall. Getting closer. Wait
for it. Wait for it. There, I see it in your eyes. You can’t tell me that
someone didn’t just knock on my door.
