TWO - Wait It Out

Jairus is introduced, and his world turns upside down.

 TWO �" Wait It Out

 

 

 

 

 

         Monday morning.        

 

And so his adventure begins yet again the same way it was yesterday:

 

1.) Wake up.

2.) Take a nice long piss.

3.) Brush teeth.

4.) Jump in to the steamy hot shower.

5.) Get dressed, groom hair.

6.) Eat a tasty fruitcake bar.

7.) Watch the day’s forecast on Action News.

 

“Another cold one today, folks. With two weeks in to our beloved seasonal spring, temperatures aren’t exactly keeping up to par. Currently the temperature is at a cold thirty degrees Fahrenheit. By lunch time things should warm up to about forty degrees, but that won’t stop th�".”

Jairus’ curiosity is deeply satisfied, despite only being partly aware of the day’s forecast. He puts on his warm dress coat and steps outside of his apartment and confidently walks toward his car.

That’s right, Jairus. You are a confident man. But your windshield is covered in frost.

“Sonofa...”

Jairus immediately races to his trunk to look for the scraper but to no avail. This is where his weakness lies: he is useless when under pressure. Instead of turning on his engine to speed up the melting of the frost, Jairus rushes back into his apartment to look for the windshield scraper. He then passes the bathroom, heading straight towards his bedroom for the scraper, but suddenly stops and steps backwards. He peeks back in, noticing that the hygiene items neatly placed on his sink are disheveled. With that, a sting of nervousness streams within him.

“Hello?”

He steps his way into the bathroom towards the shower curtain. He gives a hard stare to it, but he does nothing. He firmly believes that there is no one behind the curtain, yet he doesn’t look. Being that no one has yet to do him harm he steps out of the bathroom and works his way back towards his bedroom. He grabs his scraper and rushes back out to his car. He is now fifteen minutes early instead of twenty.

As Jairus approaches his car, he realizes that his keys are no longer in his pocket. He turns around and rushes back up into his apartment on the third floor and right back down to the car door again. He still has no keys in his hands. He is now ten minutes early. As he impatiently and frantically scours for his keys his ten minutes become five, his five becomes three, two, one. Jairus Roberts, you are no longer early for work. You have to leave now if you want to make it there on time.

This has never happened to him before. He is a man of routine, of order. There is no chaos. This thought deeply upsets him. He rests his head against the glass of the driver’s door and bumps his forehead against it several times, hoping that this would make him clear his mind. He removes his head from the glass and lowers it to the ground, thinking that somehow it may be under the car. He looks, and to no avail does he find the keys.

However, as he is still gazing under the car, a pair of keys is lowered next to his face, and just as the jingle of metal clashes with the pavement a “here you go” is uttered from a young lady.

“Aw, thanks! You’re a lifesaver!” Jairus pulls his head out from under the car and looks up to the source of the voice, and a young teenage girl stands there.

“Whoa. Nice trendy clothes you have there.”

“Gee, thanks,” replies the girl. “But I ne�".”

“Sorry, but I’m not interested.”

The imminent reminder that he must leave now for work rudely interrupts the girl’s mid-sentence speech. Jairus unlocks his car door, throws his body into the seat, and slams the door shut. Routine has arranged for him to gently set his self into the seat and rest his hands on the wheel. ‘Feel good about yourself,’ is what he normally thinks. To hell with that thought, bro. He shoves the keys into the ignition and takes off without hesitating, and as he pulls away the girl in the background throw her arms up in an irritated manner.

And the desperate search began for the shortest route from the suburbs to downtown. Oh, wait. There are no shortcuts. And your windshield is still not fully defrosted.

“Go! Go! Gogogogogogogo!” he shouts, laying on his horn, hoping that this will encourage the drivers in front of him to speed through yellow lights, stop signs, and the likes. This isn’t like you, Jairus.

He floors the car into the company parking lot, and fishtails it into an empty parking spot. He aggressively storms into the store, pummeling the doors wide open. The manager runs up to Jairus.

“J.R.! You’re fifteen minutes late! This isn’t like you. What happened?”

“The worst morning of my life,” grimly responds Jairus.

“You already have a customer waiting for you. She’s sitting over there.”

The manager points to the waiting area, and in the corner is a beautiful young woman. Shocked and somewhat terrified, Jairus violently throws a nosy face toward the customer, but slowly calms his nerves after reassuring himself that it’s not the girl he rudely stifled. Jairus puts his worries aside and walks over to the woman with a big smile on his face. “Can I help you?”

“Well, if you can give me a better plan than my boyfriend, then maybe, just maybe, yes.”

The woman stands up, puts her arms around his shoulders and tenderly kisses him. “Hello, my love.”

“Hey, Kat. How was your weekend trip?”

“It was alright. Business was good, but it would have been better if you came with me.”

“I know, I know. Guilty conscience. I’ll make it up to you.”

“Oh, really? How so?”

“I’ll surprise you.”
         “Ha. I’ll definitely be surprised if it comes from you!”

“Ouch. Just you wait.”

“…I’m waiting.”

“Alright. Dinner tonight at Mexico City. Eight o’clock sharp.”

“Wow. Now that is a surprise! Sooo…being that you’re late and all, I have to get to work, but I just want to be sure that you’re okay. I think that’s the first time I know of that you have been late for something.”

“I’m okay. I just had an upside-down morning.”

“We all have those at times. Alright baby, so I’ll see you eight o’clock tonight at Mexico City.”

“Yep.”

“Love you.” She gives her signature of an exit by kissing his cheek.

“Love you too.” And he just smiles as she walks out the door.

Wow, do you have it made, Jairus. She is dangerously beautiful. Be careful not to lose sight of that.

And so Jairus’ day continues the way it does every day. Did you know that he is the leading sales rep in the region? As the morning travels along he sells phones left and accessories right, knowing exactly the type of phone and service the person will need as he or she enters into his territory. The rest of the store staff despises him. Why? Because he gives his job 110%. With that, lunch comes too quickly, and off he goes to get himself a nice chicken teriyaki sub. Oh yeah. Sink your teeth into that delicious toasted sandwich. You are the man… well…

As Jairus walks back into the store, the manager rushes him.
         “J.R.!”
         “Yeah.”

“You have a customer!”

“I talked to my girlfriend already this morning.”

“Not what I mean. There’s a girl over there who only wants service from you.”

Jairus looks back to the same spot where his girlfriend was earlier this morning�"in the lounge at the corner of the store. “What!” Jairus pulls the manager aside. “I’m not talking to her! I just blew her off this morning!”

The store manager gives a dirty stare. “You were plenty late this morning. I have leverage to overthrow you.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Nothing personal, but… do you know how bad you make the rest of us look?”

Jairus retorts by rolling his eyes. “Whatever.”

“Now do it.”

He walks back to her and clears his throat. “Miss…uh…mmm…is there something you need?”

“Yes.” The girl looks up to him after replying.

“So what kind of phone are you looking for?”

“Huh?”

“Huh?” Jairus chuckles.

She stares at him waiting for a reply.

Jairus breaks the silence. “You really aren’t from these parts of the woods, are you?”

“Yeah. What gave it away?”

“Probably the weird Chinese clothes you have on.”

“Chinese?”

“Sorry. Japanese.”

“What?”

“I-I mean…Viet-korea-TAIWANESE!”

The girl turns away and stares out the window. Jairus, embarrassed, shrugs his shoulders down. “…I see. So where are you from?”

“Avani; more specifically Media.”

“Where is that?”
         “Not very close to here…” says the young lady as she continues to look outside the window.

“Where are your parents?” wonders Jairus.

“My mother was killed, and my father became a villain.”

“Villain? Don’t you mean criminal?”

“Technically, no, because he was the law.” She exhales deeply and looks him in the eye. “Jairus, I need your help.”

Jairus takes a dramatic step back. “What! How do you know my name?”

“The mirror�"it told me… and… it’s on your chest.”

“Oh…the nametag. And the mirror…”

“The mirror.”

“Ah, the mirror.”

“The mirror.”

“THE mirror…glass�"oh, I get it! Look, if you want Internet service via FIOS, you have to go to www.ve�".”

“I didn’t come here for that.” Her frustration is consuming her. “I came here for you. Look, Jairus. I live in a different world. I’m not from Earth.”

“I can tell.”

“Something terrible has happened to my country, and you are one of only ones who can help me stop a threat so huge that it will soon destroy my world.”

“Look. I work in a wireless phone store. I help people make the right decisions about how much to spend on phones and services, not saving the world. Besides, you’re beginning to creep me out. If you’re not here for a phone, accessories, or service, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

The young lady looks to the ground and sighs. “This is hopeless. Why am I even in a different world asking for a stranger’s help who turns out to be an idiot? There must be someone at home I can find.” She turns away, clearly discouraged and walks out the door. Jairus continues to watch her as she walks along in the parking lot while pulling out a mirror. The mirror begins glowing, and a bright, blinding light emerges from where she stands. Being sensitive to the light Jairus turns away, and when the light dies he turns back to the source. The girl is gone, and everything appears normal. Jairus, in disbelief, looks back to the employees and customers. They have no idea what just happened. As a result, Jairus believes that he is just becoming lethargic and focuses on the next customer. But his days will never be the same, ever again.

His afternoon of sales becomes pathetic. Each and every person he interacts with leaves the store without purchasing anything. It was as if the girl left with all of his mojo. But it doesn’t stop there. Soon complaining, unhappy, aggravated customers chew him out and curse him up, and the more he makes contact with people the angrier becomes. He is incapable of understanding how his high-spirited day plummeted to hell. The first thing he blames is the bad morning start. It must have been that, he thinks.

The workday comes to an end, and Jairus, aggravated, leaves for dinner at Mexico City. He has never gone an afternoon without selling anything. But his aggravation quickly transforms to bewilderment as he begins to ponder about the girl… ‘How did she just… disappear like that? Was she serious? Is she on drugs? Is she a magician? Or am I hallucinating? Why would she ask for my help? There are seven billion other people to choose from and she chooses me. Why me? Is she even real? Or maybe she’s just mentally inept?’

He pulls up to the restaurant and pauses for a few moments. He unwinds his mind and dives deep into the void of the unknown. He doesn’t think about anything, in fact he just spaces out. It’s almost therapeutic. There is no pain. There is no stress. There is no frustration. There is only an ocean of black noise that quietly hums tranquility. However, the soothing meditation session abruptly recoils back into reality when an emergency vehicle screams by with buzzing lights. Although the emergency vehicle is gone, the shrieking sound of the siren continuously pummels back and forth like a pinball within the walls of his head.

Jairus once again finds himself deep within his own walls. Bright, colorful lights of orange, red, yellow and purple flash before him. The lights soon materialize into the walls of a pinball machine that he appears to be trapped in. From behind him he can feel and hear some massive object tumbling its way towards him. As he turns around he sees the pinball in the distance. As it rolls down, a flipper pops it back up and it hits a bonus marker, which lights up in a blinding manner. Jairus clears his eyes and finds the pinball going straight for him. But before the bugger hits him it dramatically stops in mid-tumble. The shiny ball promptly begins levitating and shaking violently until it ruptures into the shape of a woman, who stretches her body wide with a smile, expressing her freedom from being trapped inside the ball. She then turns her attention to Jairus and starts drifting towards him. A conversation is engaged between the two of them, but when the metallic woman speaks her sounds come out as deafening sirens as from the emergency vehicle. Jairus immediately winces, clutching his ears as the harsh sounds feel like a record skipping and scratching.

He slowly opens his eyelids and finds her lips right before them. ‘Freedom. Freedom. Freedom,’ they seem to be saying. And just like that the siren stops, and so does his present recollection of where he is.

“J.R.! Hey! Snap out of it!!!”

The present reality opens like the floodgates of a dam, and Jairus returns in shock. “Oh, wow… I’m sorry! I spaced out for a minute,” he admits, rubbing his eyelids.

“A minute!? You’ve been like this all dinner long!”

“What?!”

Jairus looks up and sees Kat at the other side of the dinner table amid a large and fancy restaurant, probably Mexico City. Looking down he notices a plate that has been scraped clean, a glass of wine that has been consumed, and a cloth that has face marks of food on it. All of this is clearly his, but he has no recollection of it. Then he notices sewn into the cloth napkins the words ‘Athletic Club Restaurant’.

“What�"! What did I eat?” he asks.

“You’re joking, right…?” she scoffs.

“No. I’m totally serious. I don’t remember what I ate.”

“Ok, hot shot. Enough with the evasions. I know something’s wrong, so you better come clean.”

“What am I evading? Wait a minute. What time is it?”

She gives him a wicked stare, one of those stares, you know, where the woman has decided not to engage or allow any physical/sexual contact for the next few weeks. Ugh.

“Aaahhh! Excuse me, my man�"” Jairus pulls aside a server who nearly passes him. “What time do you have?”

Pulling up his sleeve the server looks at his watch and diagnoses the time. “Nine thirty.”

“What the�"! Kat, I need to go splash some water on my face.”

“What’s wrong with you? I swear if you’re cheating on me you better just say it.”

“I’m not cheating!!! There’s just something wrong with me that I can’t explain right now because I don’t know how to!!! So just give me a minute to clear my head, for crying out loud!”

An aggressive thumping of her heels and clearly indicates that Kat is riled with the situation. She grabs her purse and rests it on her lap. The jerk of her knee begins hitting the table. Her eyes twitch as if there is a sty buried in the eyelids. She’s ready to boil over with anger.

“I’m leaving.” She backs her chair up, and before she exits Jairus does the routine ‘men-have-to-have-the-last-words-in-a-conversation-no-matter-how-scathing-they-are’ closer.

“I’m not surprised.”

Her fire explodes into molten lava as she kicks over the chair and storms out. Jairus just sits there, once again trying to find the answer to his self-destructive day, refusing to blame said self. Oh, if you could see his face right now. All eyes are on him. Wow. He is hot with anger. Funny thing is that he doesn’t get angry. Anger management was his forté.

Jairus rushes to the bathroom, quickly ignoring the imposing embarrassment of the situation. He lowers his hands under the faucet, and it immediately switches on. The refreshing feel of water splashed on his face somewhat relaxes him. But as he stares deeply into the mirror set before him, that looming question refuses to dissipate from his mind�"‘What is happening to me?’

“You are being called, Jairus,” says a strange voice.

The sheer fact that a stranger called out his name in a public restroom frightens him.

“What! Who are you?” Jairus quickly demands.

A tall, bald man stands behind him with a tone of authority. “My name is Elvis, and your summon to our plight is imminent.” But when he turns around this man ‘Elvis’ is nowhere to be seen. He can only be seen through the mirror.

“Please not another hallucination.”

“Tis not. Touch the glass.”

A moment passes as Jairus thinks about his decision. What does he have to lose? He’s already going mad. Might actually end up doing some good.

Jairus raises his hand and touches the glass with his index finger. Just as he does so the glass creates a ripple effect. The strange thing that appears normal feels like a liquid pool of sticky oil. Now he knows that he’s clearly insane. ‘Ah, what the hell?’ he thinks. ‘This little world of mine is already upside down today. Let’s see how far down this hole will take me.’

Mr. Perfect mounts himself up on to the sink and takes a deep breath, but just as he does so he slips and plummets into the mirror, swiftly being sucked away from the world he once knew.

 

Tuesday morning.

 

And so his adventure begins yet again the same way it was yesterday:

 

1.) Wake up.

2.) Take a nice long piss.

3.) Brush teeth.

 

And then he goes back to bed.