femur snapped in half. I pressed my eyes shut and screamed again as the giant black rubber tire rolled onto my body.
My eyes blinked open and I was back in the traffic studio, the reappearance of sound waking my brain to this fact. I started sobbing as I ran my hand along the desk and found my headphones through eyes blurry with tears. I felt so helpless, so alone. I desperately needed to stay alive long enough so that I could Be Well but it hardly seemed worth it.
“It's 2:18”
The chime. “Everything is all quiet…on…the Beltway. Um...uh... there is some road construction, if you traveling through the College Park area. In the District, some construction on South Capital St… elsewhere the roads are quiet…I am Greg Harris.”
“Uh,” said the anchor sounding confused, “thanks, Greg.”
I pulled my headphones off and cried, best to let it all out. I cried because I was not able to control myself. I hated the fact that I was weak to these emotions. I hated that I could not just keep it together. I hated that I wasn't good at anything, this problem that had led to all the others.
I pulled my head off the desk, wiped my eyes and pushed my chair away from the desk. I got up, turned around, and found myself nose to nose with Jerry Morris.
The crash victim was covered in blood which was collecting in pools around his feet. The blood ran in all directions, as if there was no gravity pulling it to the ground. The pools had a dull quality to them, like flat black paint. The ghost’s eyes were gone, replaced by light that beamed out of them.
I collapsed back into the chair, my mouth frozen in a silent scream. The scent of exhaust permeated every corner of the studio.
The lights dimmed. The only thing that I could see was the floor that Jerry stood on and the soft green glow of the TV monitors. My heart thundered and throbbed in my chest.
Jerry's sight settled on me. The light that blazed out of Jerry's eyes was the same as the klieg lights from the crash scene. Jerry's face was silhouetted, only shadows peeked out from behind.
Jerry got closer, slowly. I could see Jerry's skin was crawling with bugs feeding on the blood that covered him. The lights burned my eyes but I couldn’t look away.
Jerry’s mouth opened and the horrible snaky voice that was both a low roar and a high pitched scream at the same time came out.
“GREG!!! YOU DIDN’T TELL ME!!”
10
I listened to the rush of water from the giant series of fountains that made up the Navy War Memorial, alone on a bench. The noise from the fountain was deafening as water was shot from several surrounding jets. The memorial was the size of a full city block and honored its subject by featuring huge pools of water, blue, gigantic, and mesmerizing.
The sound of the cascading water calmed me; this was always one of my favorite parts of the city. I sat in soupy air that clung like a wall, the sun blazed down onto my scalp. Across the street was the National Archives, the columns looked like individual skyscrapers holding up the flat gray stone. I came to sit on this bench in my favorite part of the city hours before Be Well started. Being there calmed my nerves and they needed to be calmed.
As I have described to you, things didn’t go very well before the meeting. Chief among them the shift from Friday night into Saturday morning that I just finished telling you about. The young man who came into relieve me had found me in my chair, paralyzed with fear. I had managed to keep the screaming internal so that when I was found there wasn't any outwardly obvious terror. I fast walked out of the office, leaving him to wonder.
Saturday passed with a modicum of peace, sitting on my bed with the television on and maniacally massaging my temples. When the moment finally came on Sunday I went down to the Vienna station and took the train in. I had come early to Penn Quarter to sit at the Navy Memorial. The light blue water in
My eyes blinked open and I was back in the traffic studio, the reappearance of sound waking my brain to this fact. I started sobbing as I ran my hand along the desk and found my headphones through eyes blurry with tears. I felt so helpless, so alone. I desperately needed to stay alive long enough so that I could Be Well but it hardly seemed worth it.
“It's 2:18”
The chime. “Everything is all quiet…on…the Beltway. Um...uh... there is some road construction, if you traveling through the College Park area. In the District, some construction on South Capital St… elsewhere the roads are quiet…I am Greg Harris.”
“Uh,” said the anchor sounding confused, “thanks, Greg.”
I pulled my headphones off and cried, best to let it all out. I cried because I was not able to control myself. I hated the fact that I was weak to these emotions. I hated that I could not just keep it together. I hated that I wasn't good at anything, this problem that had led to all the others.
I pulled my head off the desk, wiped my eyes and pushed my chair away from the desk. I got up, turned around, and found myself nose to nose with Jerry Morris.
The crash victim was covered in blood which was collecting in pools around his feet. The blood ran in all directions, as if there was no gravity pulling it to the ground. The pools had a dull quality to them, like flat black paint. The ghost’s eyes were gone, replaced by light that beamed out of them.
I collapsed back into the chair, my mouth frozen in a silent scream. The scent of exhaust permeated every corner of the studio.
The lights dimmed. The only thing that I could see was the floor that Jerry stood on and the soft green glow of the TV monitors. My heart thundered and throbbed in my chest.
Jerry's sight settled on me. The light that blazed out of Jerry's eyes was the same as the klieg lights from the crash scene. Jerry's face was silhouetted, only shadows peeked out from behind.
Jerry got closer, slowly. I could see Jerry's skin was crawling with bugs feeding on the blood that covered him. The lights burned my eyes but I couldn’t look away.
Jerry’s mouth opened and the horrible snaky voice that was both a low roar and a high pitched scream at the same time came out.
“GREG!!! YOU DIDN’T TELL ME!!”
10
I listened to the rush of water from the giant series of fountains that made up the Navy War Memorial, alone on a bench. The noise from the fountain was deafening as water was shot from several surrounding jets. The memorial was the size of a full city block and honored its subject by featuring huge pools of water, blue, gigantic, and mesmerizing.
The sound of the cascading water calmed me; this was always one of my favorite parts of the city. I sat in soupy air that clung like a wall, the sun blazed down onto my scalp. Across the street was the National Archives, the columns looked like individual skyscrapers holding up the flat gray stone. I came to sit on this bench in my favorite part of the city hours before Be Well started. Being there calmed my nerves and they needed to be calmed.
As I have described to you, things didn’t go very well before the meeting. Chief among them the shift from Friday night into Saturday morning that I just finished telling you about. The young man who came into relieve me had found me in my chair, paralyzed with fear. I had managed to keep the screaming internal so that when I was found there wasn't any outwardly obvious terror. I fast walked out of the office, leaving him to wonder.
Saturday passed with a modicum of peace, sitting on my bed with the television on and maniacally massaging my temples. When the moment finally came on Sunday I went down to the Vienna station and took the train in. I had come early to Penn Quarter to sit at the Navy Memorial. The light blue water in
Similar Books
