Infinite Time: Chapter 02- Rain of Brass Petals
Feb22
[Infinite Time]
By: Baz
[Chapter 02: Rain of Brass Petals]
[Akrest]
I awakened in my apartment disoriented and dehydrated. My head pulsated so hard it nearly made me throw up. I tried sitting up in my bed but was quickly pushed down by an oddly strong hand.
“No you don’t!” the man scolded. “You need to lay down and relax, buddy. You made quite a scene at the funeral…”
The more he spoke the more his face was drawn in my mind until it was clear who he was.
“Volt? Is that you?” I asked, trying to turn my head to look at him sitting beside the bed.
“Glad you still recognize my voice, you prick.” He answered coldly.
He hadn’t changed a bit. His real name was Atlas, but everyone called him Volt because of his spastic, vulgar and eclectic personality. I became his friend in one of the many middle schools I attended back then but made the mistake of forsaking him for Agate. He was one of the few friends who stuck with me as I was dragged from town to town, he’d always come over every weekend and we’d spend our time together gaming. He was also the only one of my friends who was gay. It’s not that I really gave a shit about other people’s sexuality, I just always thought that that was their business, not mine.
I finally managed to turn on my side and looked at him. He was completely different from how I remembered him ten years ago. He was very feminine back then, but now he was burly and spoke with a rugged, dry voice. His porcelain, soft alabaster skin was pristine still, not a wrinkle in sight. He had green eyes and bleach blonde hair. His natural brown coloring was only visible in his roots and eyebrows. Now he wielded a goatee and had various piercings on his ears, lip, and god knows where else. I understood his coldness towards me, I had screwed him over right when he moved to Seattle to live closer to me.
“You were at the funeral? I didn’t see you in the crowd.” I pointed out.
“Yeah, I had arrived just before your now infamous speech.” He handed me a cold beer. “Was there some of Oprah Winfrey’s eulogy to Rosa Parks in there? I noticed some of Senator John McCain’s speech to Mark Bingham in there as well.”
I laughed. “Don’t hate on me, I didn’t have anything to say really. Not to mention that I made the speech about an hour before the service was to begin…”
“You’re the only dude I know who has nothing to say at his late wife’s funeral.” He said as he took a hearty swig of beer.
The beer tasted horrible, I was never really a big fan of it. I preferred either hard liquor or the cheap wine coolers in the back corner of the store. I took another swig hoping to get rid of the nasty taste and regretted doing so. I sat up a bit and looked around my messy apartment. Amongst the many posters of bands I loved like Linkin Park, Tegan and Sara, Brand New and Modest Mouse, there were a few pieces I drew mixed between them as they covered virtually every wall in the bedroom. I remember Agate getting really annoyed with my obsession with music. I would play it in the car when she would try to talk, I would listen to it in the shower, at night on my Zune HD, on my computer, I could never get enough.
“So I had this dream when I was unconscious,” I began. “I was in a field of flowers, buck naked and Agate floated down from the sky above me. We made love, which is totally unlike me, and then I woke up. It was really strange but also felt very natural to me.”
“Yeah I figured you were having some wet dream because as I carried you back here, you, uh, made a mess of your pants, buddy.”
I was embarrassed and annoyed at the same time that he continued to call me buddy even after all these years. I looked away from the posters back to him.
“Well it could’ve been worse…” my voice trailed off as I entertained the thought of doing something even more obscene in my sleep.
“I suppose. What was up with you screaming at everyone?” he asked concerned.
“All I know was I was giving the speech in front of all those people and then suddenly something took over me.” I explained, “You of all people know that I am not a very angry person. Well, at least not that angry.”
He stood up and nodded as he began picking up around the place. I tried to get up and help him, but quickly became disoriented and nauseated as soon as I stood. I sighed and fell back into the ocean of fluffy, soft blankets and pillows. I started to think of the possibilities of the funeral outburst. Did I have multiple personalities? Was I that unstable? Was I possessed by something? Round and round question after question rattled my already throbbing brain. I reached for some aspirin on the nightstand aside the king size bed.
“So are you still with that one dude?” I asked Volt, trying to make small talk and seem somewhat caring about him.
He turned to me and set down miscellaneous junk I had thrown around the room in my seclusion. “No I’m not with Vincent anymore- he turned out to be like every other gay dude: a horny douchebag. But thanks for asking about my life.”
I laughed and finished up the grotesque beer, I wondered if the attendees of the funeral were pissed off at me Then again, they had it out for me at the start me of dating her. Volt was never the same to me after I moved in with Agate and cut off nearly all communication with him. The more I was around his new masculine persona, the more I realized that he was always like man he is now deep inside. It was just covered up by a lot of attitude and estrogen I suppose. He sat down on the bed beside me and finished his beer.
“The more things change the more they stay the same, eh?” he looked to me for affirmation.
I nodded and went after his empty beer, brushing against his hand as I grabbed it and threw it in the trash beside the nightstand. He looked up at me and I looked away quickly, this was really uncomfortable.
“Awkward…” I laughed, the beer had a stronger effect on me than I anticipated.
“Yeah, you’re like a brother to me.” he made a disgusted look at me.
He pulled out a crumpled up envelope from among the remaining trash on the floor.
“This is from Agate. Looks like you didn’t read it yet, it’s sealed.”
I grabbed the envelope trying not to look as eager as I really was. How had I missed this? It was postmarked and everything. I tore open the seal and immediately smelled that familiar sugar-coated perfume. Volt picked up the discarded envelope and perused it.
∞∞∞
[Volt]
As soon as I picked up the envelope Akrest had ripped open, I checked the date. Yesterday? That’s not possible! Before I had a chance to show Akrest, he began crying as he was reading the letter. I wasn’t sure what I should do, I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea if I tried to hold him. So I just looked at the ground until he was finished reading the letter sent from the dead. I looked over to him and watched him neatly fold up the paper and place it in his wallet. He looked over to me and lunged at me, sobbing relentlessly.
“Hey, it’s going to be alright, I know it’s hard.” I sympathized.
In all honesty I didn’t know what it was like to lose someone you love. I never truly experienced love yet. I’ve had my fair share of lust and mindless fucks though. After five minutes or so he came around and looked at me, collecting his thoughts.
“She said exactly what I needed to hear.” He said in between sobs.
It was pretty strange being here with him, I had longed for his presence for quite a while now. Ever since that bitch took him, his friends and I were fucked over. I put the postmarked envelope in my pocket and decided it was best to not tell him about the date it was sent. I was a detective after all. I would get to the bottom of this and give Akrest time to grieve. It might be possible that she was alive; it was a closed casket service. He didn’t need to know, for if it was untrue and she wasn’t alive, it would devastate him even more.
I was going to head back to my place and begin my investigation, but seeing Akrest’s current state I decided to take him out.
“We should go out to a bar for some drinks, get changed and I’ll be in the living room playing Playstation 3 while I wait, okay?” I suggested.
“Actually that sounds like a great idea, give me five.” He said taking his shirt off and looking in his closet for a clean, less formal one.
I made my way to his television and booted up the Playstation. I was in the mood for Bioshock 2.
∞∞∞
[Akrest]
I quickly got dressed to go out to the bar. I really could use some downtime away from all this sadness. As we left the apartment, I should’ve known that the sadness would follow me close like my own shadow. I was out of my element and ready to have a good time. Anything to stop this disgusting sickness that wouldn’t cease.
We ended up at some local bar that I soon realized was more suited for Volt’s taste than mine. There were a lot of same sex couples, and it was obvious that they didn’t care who saw them have sex. I kept my hands in my pocket and tried not to touch anything as we approached the bar. I glanced at the clock and discovered it was almost midnight already. Volt asked the bartender for a screwdriver and I went for a jack and coke. The female bartender looked like she came out of an anime film and gladly served us drinks.
Come to think of it this entire place was very neon and futuristic themed. The bar was made out of some fluorescent green Plexiglas with various tags that drunk people wrote all over it with a permanent marker. The tag closest to me read: “Life is still sweet” with what looked like a pitchfork adorned with a halo above its tips. Looking at the amount of black lights in the bar this seemed more like a wannabe rave than a local bar or club. There were various pillars of Plexiglas complete with shelving that held bright lava lamps all over them and as I looked past the dance floor, I saw the furniture was mostly neon blow-up plastic chairs and couches.
“What’s up with all the plastic?” I asked Volt, unable to look away from all the fantastical fluorescents.
“It’s easier to clean up the mess I suppose, plus it looks more cool than a plain old bar.” Volt said, laughing a bit at the end.
As I sipped on my jack and coke, I realized more and more males were flocking to me. I tried to ignore them and focus on my drink. Volt began chatting with various gays and kept introducing me as his “straight friend.” I grew increasingly uncomfortable as the night went on and was hit on constantly. Volt went to the restroom with some dude he barely knew and told me to loosen up and have a good time as he left. I focused on my drink and tuned out everything around me. Guy after guy came up to me trying to get me to go out with them and dance. I finally was fed up with it all and left the bar.
The crisp, cold weather outside nipped at my face as I walked to the other side of the street. Walking alone in Seattle was something I never quite got used to, I was always afraid of the uncertain, especially at night. I picked up the pace and buttoned up my wool black jacket to defend against the chilly conditions. Winter had its grasp on the Pacific Northwest longer than usual this year. The season enveloped the trees and plants, suffocating them and sucking on the last bit of life they sustained. The pavement was a little slick from the rain last night and it beckoned me to fall. As I walked, Agate flooded into my mind again.
We were coming home from a fun concert one night in the summer two years ago. We held hands and huddled closely together as we laughed about old times and shared stories. It was times like these that I loved her deeply. I always felt like a little kid when she was around but felt like an old man after she was diagnosed. Her black hair was the same as always, shoulder length and infinitely distracting as it seemed to have its own physics while blowing in the wind. It would flutter up and down, ebbing inwards and outwards like an ocean dyed black. Her light blue eyes contained specks of green that eclipsed her pupil and the coloring seemed to darken or lighten according to her many moods. I remembered looking into those eyes the last few weeks of her life and seeing death take over their intense hue, voiding it of any color.
I glanced over at her as we rounded the last street corner to our apartment complex, she locked eyes with me and smiled like an angel. The moment was over and nothing stood beside me as I climbed the stairs to the doorway.
‘Why did you have to die? Why did you leave me with only a heart exhausted and a tongue that spoke rarely to any one anymore?’ The more I asked these questions the less apparent the answer became. I unlocked the door of apartment 13 with a rusty, slightly bent brass key.
Relieved to be home again my reclusive behavior would take hold of me for another week. Volt hadn’t called or visited and I was slightly happy for that. I didn’t want to face the world, I didn’t care for company. That long, arduous week was spent in my bed, staring at the posters I once took pride in. I had given up.
