Throwaway People

Death and Hope

Jim knew that she was too young for him. He was fifty-two, she was thirty-five. Jim wanted a permanent relationship, if Patty got involved with him that way, she would regret it. Patty would leave Jim for someone younger. As much as Jim had started to like Patty, he knew that any relationship just wouldn't last.

Jim had bought a sandwich at the Fresco's deli department to eat while he waited for Patty. He was sitting beside his cooler full of bottled water. He looked down Cresthaven towards the condos and houses that lined the street. That was when he saw Bill Miller.

Bill Miller was stumbling down the sidewalk towards the Fresco. Bill was roughly eighty years old. He saw Jim and headed in his direction. The two of them had often sat together and talked while Jim was waiting for Patty. Bill was wheezing and white as a sheet. He looked like he had run a marathon.

Jim offered Bill a bottle of water and urged him to sit down. Bill wanted to say something to Jim, it seemed urgent. "Just sit down and take it easy Bill." Jim urged Bill to take a sip of water.

"It came back. Been over seventy years, I heard about it coming back in the sixties, again in the eighties. Only I weren't here. Now it's back again." Bill said between wheezing and sipping at the water bottle.

"Listen, it's on Jackson, between Jackson and Haverhill. I don't know how it came back." Bill winced and fell backward.

Jim caught him before Bill hit his head on the blacktop. Lowering him down. Jim felt for the old man's pulse. He didn't feel anything. He yelled to a man passing by to call 911. The man hurried down the sidewalk. Jim yelled to a woman getting into her car to use her phone. She drove off as fast as she could. Jim saw another man on his phone.

"Are you calling 911?" Jim asked as the man walked up.

"Yeah." The man said.

A crowd began to gather. Jim got up. He grabbed his cooler with the waters in it, put the strap over his shoulder, and walked away. He knew Bill was dead. Old Bill was having heart trouble before this. Jim didn't know if Bill was better off dead, Jim just knew that Bill wasn't any worse off.

Green Acres, Haverhill: 3:30 PM

Bill had said 'it' was between Jackson and Haverhill. Something about something coming back every twenty years. Jim didn't know if the old man was just babbling or if he knew of something. It was worth checking out. It could be old Bill had a stroke and was just babbling. If 'it' was between Jackson and Haverhill Jim figured he could find out what 'it' was. If it was anything at all.

Jim walked up to where Cresthaven intersected with Haverhill. He walked down Haverhill towards 10th Avenue. As he walked he noticed the top floor of a boarded up building peeking over a strand of trees. There was a rusty chainlink fence separating the lot from Haverhill. Jim noted that the lot with the boarded up building had an empty lot full of vegetation on one side and a canal with a dirt road on the other side. The chain link fence on the canal side of the road was covered with three feet thick wild growth that grew eight feet high and hid the building from sight.

Across the street from the building was a high school. It had dismissed it's students thirty minutes ago. Jim saw some of the students still lingering around the grounds. He back tracked a little to the dirt road he saw next to a canal. Jim walked down the road until he saw a hole in the vegetation. Jim followed a narrow path through the vegetation until he reached the old fence.

Someone had cut the old rusty chain links some time ago. Jim pushed the fence aside to step out into a old parking lot. Despite the fact that the chain links had been cut in the fence, Jim saw no signs of anyone being there recently. No trash in the lot. Only dried up vegetation, leaves, and palm fronds. On the door was a padlock. It was old and rusted shut. Jim looked through the garage door windows. He couldn't see anything in the old garage.

Jim carried a folding knife with a four inch blade in his pocket. He took out the knife and worried the old latch from the dry rotted door frame. Once the latch was loose it feel to the side. Jim opened the door to see a office with a old metal desk in the center of it. On the wall to one side were empty, dusty shelves. There was a calander on the wall behind the desk dated 1987.

There was a door with a window that looked into the mechanic's garage on the left wall. On the far wall was another door. Jim took a quick peek through the window at the mechanic's garage. The old car lifts had been removed. Two work pits remained. Each about five feet deep. Jim opened the door and walked across the concrete floor to look into the pits. There was nothing but trash, some old tools and leaves.

Another door led into a electrical utility room. An old washer and dryer sat there rusting away. There was also a hot water heater. There was no exit from this room. Jim closed the door and opened the door to the back of the shop. There was a huge propane tank in the back of the building. Jim tapped the tank with his knife. The tank sounded full.

Jim came back to the office and checked the desk. There was a bottle of bourbon in the top drawer. A revolver in fair shape in another drawer. The bottom drawer was locked. Using his knife, Jim broke the latch open. In the drawer was a cash box. It didn't take Jim long to break open the cheap metal box. Jim smiled as he looked inside.

Jim looked at the calender. 1987 was two years after he graduated high school. As he looked at the bottle of bourbon Jim felt that it might have been sitting unopen in the desk for three decades. As for the rest of the building, if it had been abandoned thirty years ago it seemed in good shape. Jim could almost smell the old exhaust from the many cars that had come through the old auto shop. A lingering smell of tobacco from cigars or cigarettes.