Masks...Chapter Two

Jeremy Stone ran his fingers through his black, oily hair. He picked up the Mountain Dew can beside him and poured it into his empty coffee mug. Drinking a slug from the glass, he stared at the clear Microsoft Word page that shined blankly on the laptop screen. He sighed. Two years since his last publication. He grabbed a cigarette from the Marlboro pack that was setting on his cherry wood table. He pressed his lips to it and lit the end. Inhaling the smoke, he got up and started pacing around the room.

 

He walked over and stood in front of the air conditioner, allowing the icy air to dry his sweaty brow. You would think he’d been working out in the field all day, by the looks of his sweaty t-shirt and ripped jeans…but no. Jeremy had been sitting in the makeshift library of his disorganized apartment, writing away. He glanced around at the scattered papers that lay strewn across what once was a coffee table. His living room had been turned into a laboratory. He experimented new stories, new plots, new characters…none were successful.

 

Jeremy crushed the cigarette in the overflowing ash tray and sat back down. He ran his two hands through his hair, back and forth, letting out a frustrated grown. His fingers touched the familiar keys, but nothing but familiar barricades came to his mind.

 

Ring, Ring.

 

Jeremy turned to the coffee table where a few papers were vibrating. By the third ring, he had uncovered the bright red telephone under the stacks of paper. He paused.

 

He hesitantly answered, “Hello?”

 

“Hey, Stranger!” exclaimed a woman’s voice on the other end.

 

He stopped, speechless. Was it really her? They hadn’t talked in years. He really couldn’t correctly distinguish her voice. It had been so long. But he was pretty sure…

 

“Hello?” the girl repeated.

 

“Uh, hey, Sis,” Jeremy answered, testing to see if it was really her.

 

“I’m surprised you knew it was me,” she answered. “How are you, Jerry?”

 

He hadn’t heard that nickname in awhile. His sister, Gabriella, or Gabby as he called her, was a pretty girl in her early twenties. Gabby and Jeremy were twins, but far from identical in any way. Both were adopted, and they were the only children in their family. Gabby had flown right through her school, even getting a scholarship, but she settled for a local college instead. Jeremy, on the other hand, had busted his butt trying to get through school, but had finally made his way to the same local college where he was known as “Gabriella’s brother”. Tearing away from her when they graduated, Jeremy moved to Chicago and left his sister in the small town of Huntsville, Illinois. There Gabriella was the top investigator for the “local” newspaper. Gabriella was far from humble, which pushed Jeremy even farther away. He hadn’t heard from her since she called a couple years ago to congratulate him on his “little book” he published. Why was she calling him now?

 

“Hello?” Gabby asked again, sounding a little irritated by the silence on his end.

 

“Uh...Hey,” Jeremy muttered. “I’m good. How are you?”  

 

“Oh, I’m great,” she exclaimed. “Just got promoted to editor of the Huntsville Gazette a few weeks ago.”

 

Oh, that’s why she called.

 

“That’s really good, Sis,” he answered, running his fingers through his hair as he began to pace the floor, or at least the floor that was available for walking on.

 

“Yep! So Jerry...”

 

Jeremy stopped and braced himself for something big.

 

“I haven’t seen you in awhile. Why don’t I came up there and visit?” she said in a way more like a statement not a question.

 

Jeremy’s jaw dropped. He hadn’t talked to her in years, and she was ready to invite herself over here? No way!

 

“I’m driving now,” Gabby said nonchalantly.

 

“Okay…” Jeremy started, trying to think of a way to say he didn’t want her in the same state with him, nevertheless in the same apartment!

 

“Great! I’ll see you in a few hours!”

 

Click.

 

Jeremy set the phone on the cradle. There was no way she was driving to the city just to give her twin brother a bear hug. Something was up. His imagination suddenly went rolling in all directions as he thought of scenarios that would bring her miles away from her own little world of Huntsville that was centered on her. At least, she got his imagination rolling. Jeremy quickly sat down and let his fingers jolt across the keypad, as he wrote down the conversation, exaggerating his response to make it more interesting. He stopped and reread what he had just written. His character appeared to be sharp, funny, and stern…everything Jeremy wasn’t.

Jeremy sighed and looked around the room. The living room was covered in papers. She’d have a field day if she saw this. He quickly threw all the papers into his bulging suitcase and threw his folders in the closet of his bedroom. He checked his guest bedroom…cluttered. He heaved the stacks of books into the room across the hall, and dropped the rest of the books in the closet. His apartment only had two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room slash dining room. The dining room table is where he sat his laptop and some of his other papers. He ran to the dining room like his sister was coming up the stairs right then. He pushed his laptop in its case, and ran to his bedroom where he found a little room to squeeze it in the closet.

 

He finally stopped and glanced around the strangely vacant living room. He hadn’t seen it this clean in years. Other than a few coffee mugs and dirty dishes, his apartment was pretty spotless. After making up his bed, washing the dishes, emptying the ash tray, and vacuuming up the small shreds of notebook paper he found his place gleaming. Jeremy dropped to the sofa and ran his fingers through his now soaking wet hair. He stared down his sweaty shirt, analyzing himself. He’d have to be cleaned up.

 

With a quickened step, he headed back down the hall to the bathroom. Jeremy slid the shower door closed and turned the knob to release the hot water.

by Burning Rain