**Hey folks this is a reprint of part 4 of The Man With the Hazy Suit that originally ran on May29, 2010. I have been few and far between regular posts this summer, and that is the same thing that has killed some of my favorite TV shows, like Alias. So I am going to rerun the whole story and finish it strong! Thanks for reading for the first time or rereading if you have been here before. The Choose your own adventure aspect is not available anymore.**
Hello all! It has been a less than ideal week for writing so this is a shorter part of the story.
I am kicking around the idea of recording each of these stories and adding them as a downloadable mp3 each week with the whole story coming at the end. What do you think about that?
No other explanation, lets get on with it!
If you haven’t yet, Catch up here!
When we left our story last time:
I flipped on the radio as I dressed. After some chatter and worn out banter by the DJ’s they began to read news. I had just picked up my Taco Barn uniform and I stopped at what I heard. “…girls under the car and then the car set on fire. No details have come out yet but it looks like murder. I’m surprised no one saw this happen” I did. It may have been a dream but I saw it happen. What could I do about it though?
Nothing I decided, just a strange coincidence. Maybe I was psychic like on some of those TV shows. Maybe I could be that detective who saw things before they happened and could fix them. Maybe I was just losing my mind. I held a strong possibility for the latter because I had convinced myself that I could smell gas on my Taco Barn uniform as I dropped it into the hamper. Foolishness.
I went to work still pondering the dream.
And now we join our regularly scheduled program already in progress:
My shift at the Bagel Hut was a wreck. I was so tired I think I went through a pot of coffee myself. My boss was so pissed at my lack of work he sent me home early to “Get my head right.” He had seen Cool Hand Luke too many times. But I went home.
So there I was, home. Home and sitting in my recliner staring at the nothingness on the wall. I finally was so tired that I fell asleep sitting there, still wearing my Bagel Hut shirt.
I dreamed about the Man in the Hazy Suit again. He walked through a library at what must have been the University. He walked through the library carrying his red plastic gas can and stopped to look around. No one seemed to notice this man, garbed in a hazy, long black coat and old fashioned fedora. No one noticed his gas can.
The library was crowded today, the small round tables filled to the capacity of 4 nearly everywhere he looked. Conversations over textbooks and notes intertwined with conversations about last night’s escapades. Voices and the clack of keyboards all contributed to a dull hum that seemed to be coming from everywhere.
The sunlight that filtered through the many skylights was bright enough to render the reading lights on each table useless, yet they were lit anyway. The man walked around the tables seemingly in an aimless daze, but with that same…searching that he had outside of the car from last night’s nightmare.
He must have found something because he wove through the rest of the tables and walked slowly towards the center of the library. There was a bank of elevators lining a central pillar in this 5 story library. He walked purposefully that way, moving like a snake, or water even, just flowing through the dense crowd.
When he reached the elevators, he didn’t press any button. He just turned around, briefly surveyed the room, and checked his watch. I was puzzled. What was he doing? It was then that he looked directly at me and winked. I froze with a wide-eyed stare. He then knelt as if to tie his shoe and disappeared.
I looked frantically for him and then found him, heading out of the back doors with a curvy, redheaded girl. His left arm was draped casually across her shoulders and his right held the gas can. There was something very familiar about the girl, kind of like the girl that sat across the aisle from me in philosophy.
The one I took out last week. Her name was Karen, and I thought we had something that may turn into something else, and here she was heading outside with this guy. I tried to push my way through the crowd to the door but I wasn’t moving very fast. The man in the hazy suit turned at the door, stared right at me, and smiled. He knew I was there. And he was being vindictive.
I woke up with a start, sitting in my chair, sweating in my Bagel Hut uniform. Luckily I had tonight off from the Taco Barn. I was going to sit here and try to rest up. These last few nights have been hard.
I got up to change my clothes and take a shower. I smelled of bagels and fear sweat and slightly of gasoline, but that must have been my imagination. Cleaned and refreshed I headed to the kitchen to make some dinner. I flipped on the television as I walked past. The commercial ended and of course the news came on.
The reporter started, “And in a sad story, local university student…” I dropped the pan I was getting out as Karen’s picture flashed on the screen. “…was killed last night just off of campus. She appears to have been beaten and then set on fire. Police are investigating similarities between this murder and a few others that have been happening lately. More on this story as we go to…” I had seen her leave with the man in the hazy suit. I could have stopped this one as well. What was going on???
Join us next week for more from “The Man In The Hazy Suit!”
Thanks for coming by and reading!
have a great weekend!
-Justin
