PRL Serials

The man eventually makes his way back to the convenience store after a few minutes on the bed in his motel room. He had to settle his heart that was pounding in his chest and he could feel it hot around its edges. His mind replayed the scene at the store over and over. He knew that he was careful not to let his face be seen but he had not witnessed the explosion first hand, he’d heard it about a minute after fleeing under the cover of the fog he created from nothing, and he sat wondering how it could have happened. Of course it was his fog that appeared out of nowhere and blinded the police officer who had responded quickly to the dispatcher because his new girlfriend’s son was the clerk at the store. The fog obscured the officer’s vision and he’d hit the gas pump. It was the bright, orange red explosion that killed the officer and his partner instantly, as well as a recent college grad who was also a single mother. Three other people were injured but would eventually recover.

The man walks unsteadily to the store and he sees Sandra crying in the arms of a firefighter who is keeping her from getting any closer to the scene.

“That’s my Gary, I know that’s him.” She watches as a young boy is attended by paramedics but she is too far away to be sure. The firefighter escorts Sandra over to the boy being wheeled to an ambulance on a stretcher and even from far away, the man knows that it is not Gary. He can tell when Sandra walks away with no expression on her face and as she approaches the man, he can’t tell if she is relieved that her son is not one of the wounded or if she is full of worry for her son that is apparently still missing.

The man feels terrible. Looking at the scene at the gas station, he knows that it is all his fault and he begins to cry thinking about the lives that he has ended, but he follows Sandra back to the motel because she looks worse than he feels and she seems to need someone.

When he is back at the motel, Sandra’s door is wide open and he looks in at her bawling on the edge of the bed. He walks in and closes the door behind him.

“I’m sorry you didn’t find your son, I can’t imagine how you must feel…” The man manages, wanting to be helpful to someone.

Sandra doesn’t acknowledge the man, but she talks out loud, “I just hope he ain’t in no trouble. What if he’s in trouble?”

The man sits next to her to put an arm around her shoulder and Sandra sees him then.

The man says, “He’ll be back, its not late yet.” But it is well after midnight.

“Will you stay with me until he gets back? Pray with me.” Sandra looks helpless and the man can’t deny her. She grabs his hands and begins to pray aloud that her son will return safely and as she pleads for the safety of her son, the man thinks about the people who died at the store and how no amount of prayer would bring them back. He feels the guilt making his stomach upset and he wonders if his presence will jinx Sandra’s prayer.

“It was me.” The man says suddenly, interrupting Sandra who is looking to the ceiling with her eyes closed. When she opens them, she sees that the man is broken. His mouth is open and he struggles to continue. His eyes are wide and she can see the whites full around his dark brown pupils. Sandra is frightened by the look on his face and he is no longer youthful and handsome.

“I killed those people.” The man manages and he feels like a scared little boy. He wants to be home, he wants to hide out on the lake. But he could never go back there now. He would have to tell his family what he had done while he was supposed to be making his father proud out on the road on his own. It was by far the dumbest thing he had ever done even though his heart was in the right place.

“How, baby? You blew up the gas pump? Ain’t no way that was any of your fault. They said the police officer couldn’t see nothing.” Sandra tries to soothe the man even though her eyes are still puffy from mourning her lost son.

“But it was me, I know it was me.” The man tells Sandra everything. He needs to say it out loud, to confess, even though he isn’t Catholic. His family is Baptist, though only his mother goes to church regularly. Usually, the man’s entire family only went to church on holidays and special occasions when his mother insisted on everyone’s attendance. The man had grown up very respectful of his mother’s religion, though, and he was raised to fear the consequences of being a bad person. It was his fear of God that kept him a virgin, even though he can literally have have sex with any woman he can imagine. He figured that if it was a sin to have sex with real women before he was married, then God would surely frown on him making women out of thin air to have sex with.

The man knows the penalty for taking lives, it is sure damnation and the man knows that his soul will burn if he tries to keep his involvement in the explosion bottled up inside. But Sandra is unsettled by his confession that includes the admission that he is able to make things out of thin air.

“You must be tired, why don’t you go get some rest.” Sandra suggests and the man goes back to his room and cries like a baby until he falls asleep.

The next day, Sandra wakes him with knocks on the door.

“You feeling any better?” She asks and the man tells her that he won’t feel better until he confesses to the police.

“They’re gonna lock you up for being crazy. You should’ve heard yourself last night. Can’t nobody do the stuff you was talking about.” Sandra says.

“Did your son make it back?” The man asks.

Sandra looks away, “not yet. I guess he still mad at me.” Apparently, Sandra and her son were escaping Sandra’s abusive husband. Her son didn’t want to leave Knoxville, he didn’t want to stay with Sandra’s family in Little Rock, AK where they were headed. “I reported him missing to the police. Hopefully they’ll find him soon so we can get back on the road.”

The man makes a silent resolve to stay with her until she finds her son. He also decides that he should apologize for his confession that he knew sounded crazy. He had learned his lesson about sharing his gift with others and he would not make it again.

Over the next couple of days, the man spends a lot of time with Sandra. She reminds him of his mother and his sister and he is happy to have the surrogate. He has nightmares when he sleeps that causes cold sweats and makes it impossible to sleep through the night. And usually when he wakes in the middle of the night, Sandra is still up, leaning in the open doorway of her room, blowing smoke out into the darkness.

The second day after the explosion, the man wakes from a nightmare where a young girl is crying for her mother who burns alive in a huge orange flame. He wipes the sweat from his face in the bathroom and then decides to see if Sandra is still awake. He finds her with her door open and she invites him inside. The man closes the door behind him.

“That explosion is still giving me nightmares, I just keep thinking about the people that died.” The man tells Sandra.

“That’s what happens when we get that close to death. We can’t help but think that it could have been us that’s dead and gone. It’ll pass.”

And just as Sandra finishes, there are loud knocks on her room door. The man panics, sure that the police are coming to get him, sure that it is time to pay for his crime.

And then they hear a man yell loudly, “Who the fuck you got in there Sandra? Huh? You run off with my son and you already fuckin somebody else? Open this damn door!”

“It’s him, my husband.” Sandra is panicked, the man can see that she is more afraid than he has been since the explosion. “He is crazy, we gotta call the police.”

Before either of them can find the phone, they hear gunshots rip through Sandra’s door, and both fall to the floor. The shooting lasts a while before they hear the sound of police sirens, and then more yelling outside. Sandra’s husband is apprehended and when the police make it inside of Sandra’s room, they find her crying hysterically. The man has been shot and he lies unconscious on the floor.

The man opens his eyes and he is in a hospital. He knows immediately where he is, he can tell by the sounds around him, the cool of the room, and the smell. He sees Sandra sitting in a chair next to his bed and when she notices that he is awake, she stands at his side.

“How you feel?” She asks, and before he can answer she says, “if anybody ask, tell them I’m your mama.”

And then the man notices that he is handcuffed to his bed.

“They say they got video, man your height at that store with a gun right before the explosion.” The man’s heart begins to race as Sandra fills him in before a local detective comes back from the bathroom. “That story you was telling me is true?” Sandra asks.

The man is broken again, unable to answer her.