Bud stared down at his bowl of Rice Krispies, marveling at the symphony of sounds created by Snap, Crackle, and Pop. It's been three days since his very vivid dream. A nightmare, really, with a stranger pleading for help and a creepy ghost threatening to devour Bud alive. But, since that night, Bud felt different. He hadn't had a drink since that night. Hell, he hadn't wanted one, and that was damn strange just by itself. He sensed that something inside had changed, and it had something to do with that dream. Or was it even a dream? Bud remembered the Roy Neary character Richard Dreyfuss played in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Like Roy Neary, Bud began to believe his encounter with the man in the dream was an invitation. Except, this invitation wasn't from an alien lifeform. It was from something in another dimension.
Bud couldn't think why he would receive such an invitation. He remembered his old high-school buddy Jessie Gutierrez's comments in the newspaper article. Jessie talked about 'unusual circumstances in the desert.' Bud decided he'd reach out to his old friend. That presented a problem for Bud. He wasn't sure how Jessie would react to his phone call. Bud isn't good at saying he's sorry, and that may be required - given that he's avoided his old friend for all these years. The feelings of guilt and remorse stirred as Bud stared at his cell phone. There was a bottle of Smirnoff just an arm's length away. 'Which one is it going to be, old buddy?'
Jessie heard his vibrating cell phone. He scrambled to find the phone, buried under the half-dozen newspapers strewn across the coffee table. Finally, he retrieved the phone and saw an incoming call from a number he didn't recognize. It was out-of-state, but he couldn't make out the area code. "Hi, this is Jess Gutierrez." There was a long pause. "Hello! Anybody there?" "Ah, hey... Jessie, it's Bud Granato." "Bud Granato! Now that's a blast from the past! How the hell are you, Bud?" Bud stumbled momentarily for his words. It had been years since he last talked to Jessie, and his friend's voice sounded different. "Um, yeah. It's been a while, man. Too long, Jessie, unfortunately, and that's my fault." "Nonsense, old buddy! It's good to hear from you, Bud. Your ears must have been ringing the other day, cause I was talking about you." "Oh yeah?" Bud asked. "Oh yeah, man!" Jessie replied enthusiastically.
"Somebody was asking what got me into journalism. I talked about when we were in junior high. Remember that?" Bud doesn't but is embarrassed to admit it, so he grunts approvingly. "Yeah, we had to put together that fake T.V. news program for our media arts class in ninth grade. You were amazing, man. All that research you did and the scripts you put together for all of us to read. You were the whole reason we aced that class!" "It was a team effort, Jessie, but it did get me thinking about what it would be like to be a big-time news anchor." "Exactly! Me too," said Jessie.
Then Jessie laid out his life journey since the two of them parted ways after high school. He talked about how he went to San Jose State after getting into their journalism program. He found a job at the San Jose Mercury News when he graduated and worked his way up from neighborhood beat reporter to a featured columnist. As Jessie talked, Bud was having difficulty bringing himself to believe he once knew the man on the other end of the line. Bud remembered Jessie Gutierrez as a shy, mousey awkward guy. If you looked in the dictionary under the word introvert - Jessie's picture would be plastered there. The only time Jessie would let go was when the two of them would steal booze from the local grocery store. After a few pops - they would hang out at Stoneridge Mall and hit on girls. Now here was Jessie, talking to Bud - self-assured yet modest at the same time.
"Jessie. How did you wind up in Parker?" Bud asked. "Sounds like you had a pretty good thing going on in San Jose." "Yeah, old buddy, that's quite a story, but the short answer is I found HER." "Her?" Bud asked. "Yessir! Bonny. And she changed my life. I met her on assignment for The Merc. I was covering a story about Native Americans' lack of access to affordable health care. One thing led to another. The next thing I knew, I was proposing to her." Bud started to laugh but caught himself. "But why, Parker?" Bud asked again. "Bonny is from Parker. Her parents were Native American. They passed on several years ago. They had lots of medical issues when they got older. Bonny is a registered nurse. When it got to the point where they couldn't get the help they needed, Bonny talked me into moving to Parker so we could take care of them."
"That's true love, old buddy," Bud said. "Yeah, absolutely, Bud. But it was more than just Bonny. I mean, I was fed up with the whole Silicon Valley thing. The Mercury News was good to me, but, you know, the traditional newspaper business is going down the crapper. "Boy, don't I know that!" Bud interjected. "More importantly, Bud, I had a moment of truth. I realized I'd been hanging on to some old crutches if you know what I mean." Bud knew what his old friend meant, and that made his stomach clench up in a knot. They had gone on many prodigious benders. Way too many for young teenage boys. "Bud. That stuff just wasn't working for me anymore, so I thought a change of scenery would do me good." Bud thought, 'Yeah, if only it were that easy.' "Bonny and one of her friends on the Rez got me to start thinking about what I was doing to myself, so I gave up the fight. I got off the pot and booze. I started taking some direction from people that I had to learn to trust..."
Squirming in his chair, feeling very uncomfortable and wanting to change the subject. Bud acted quickly. "Hey, Jessie! I saw that article in USA Today, the one where you talked about highway safety in Arizona." "Oh yeah, that!" Jessie replied. "I got several emails from some of my cronies at The Merc when that USA Today story came out. They started kidding me. They asked me. When did I start writing ghost stories?" "Ghost stories?" Bud asked. "Well, Bud, I told the USA Today that just before a rash of accidents, there was this one particular crash where a young man was killed in a horrible crash near Quartzsite. There were some interesting circumstances behind that crash. The local sheriff was chasing this guy, and he drove up the highway going in the wrong direction. The guy plowed head-on into a semi, causing a chain that killed a whole bunch of people. Most of the gory details were left out of the USA Today article."
"Anyway, here's an interesting angle, old buddy." Jessie's voice got quieter as if he thought someone might be listening in to their conversation. "After that first crash, a lot of the accidents around that area involved people who were in some way connected to the guy who caused the first crash." "Really? Ok, that is kind of weird," Bud said. "Then, several weeks after that first crash, there was another crash just a few miles down the highway. A guy from Parker and his family were traveling home from a vacation in California. I knew this guy. He was a local high-school teacher in Parker. I just happened to be returning from an assignment that evening when I drove past the crash scene. Here's the bizarre part... The guy driving the SUV was killed, along with his wife. His two sons survived the crash. One of them kept rambling about how his dad kept saying someone named Barry took control of the car and forced him off the road. That's when I remembered the name of the guy who was killed a few weeks earlier. Get this! His name was Barry. Barry Jankins! If that's not a Twilight Zone minute - I don't know what is!" Jessie started humming the Twilight Zone theme song.
Bud's head started buzzing. He had that feeling you get when you're really close to remembering something important. Yet it just keeps eluding you by the smallest of margins. Bud thought about the man in his nightmare. "Jessie, do you think there's a way I can see a picture of this Barry guy?" "Sure, Bud. There's a picture of him on the memorial website his daughter set up for him. But tell me, why are you interested in this? "Oh, I don't know. Just a hunch, I guess," Bud replied. Jessie gave him the URL to the memorial site. Bud opened his laptop and punched in the website address. Up popped the memorial site with a big full-color picture of Barry Jankins on the front page. Bud felt like a bolt of lightning had just struck him square on his noggin. There was total silence on the phone...
"Bud, are you still there? Jessie asked. "Ah...Ah... Ah... Jessie, this is gonna sound really weird, but I've seen this guy." "What!" Jessie exclaimed. "Yeah. Yeah. I had this super freaky nightmare. I'm out in the desert, and these giant saguaro cactuses are waving their long arms like I was passing by in a parade or something." Jessie busted out laughing. "Wow, Bud, that is funny, my friend." "Yeah, weird, huh. And there's this guy following me around. At first, I couldn't make out the guy's face cause he's just out of my field of vision. Then, suddenly, he's standing right in front of me, pleading for help. I only see his face for like a second or two when this ugly ghost jumps between the two of us and starts growling at me like a mad dog with its fiery breath and jagged razor-like teeth. I turned to get away, and the guy jumps in front of me again, pleading for help. Again, the growling demon jumped between us. This happened like three or four times, then I woke up."
"Jessie! The guy in that dream is the same guy I'm looking at here on my laptop!" Bud's voice started trembling. "I'm 100% sure of it," Bud added. "Woah! Heavy man?" Jessie said. "Yeah, ever since those dreams started, I've had this obsession in my brain like I've been invited on a supernatural adventure." "What are you gonna do about that, old buddy?" Jessie asked. "Well. I have some time off coming to me. Maybe I'll come out there for a few days and poke around." "Awesome, dude! Listen, you have got to stay at our place, Bud. Bonny and I would love to spend some time with you." "Thanks for offering, Jessie. I'll get back to you later today. Talk to you soon." "Ok, later, dude!" Jessie replied.
Bud put down the cell phone and typed AA.com into his browser. He began looking for the next flight to Phoenix. 'AA.com... isn't that ironic,' Bud thought. 'I can't seem to get away from Alcoholics Anonymous. I wonder if Jessie is involved in that outfit?' Bud finally had the answer to the invitation he received in his dream. He was excited. There was a purpose in his life! This was not the time to get bogged down in extraneous thoughts about the state of his sobriety.