The Beast of 1977 (Book 1)

Chapter 3

Mr. Mercer stopped the car in front of a shabby, one floor, white and black house and said, "I won't be able to come and pick you up till around eight tonight."

"That's cool, I'll just catch the bus home." Isaac nonchalantly responded while fixing his hair in the rearview mirror.

Mr. Mercer then began to fiddle with the car keys that were still lodged in the ignition until he was able to unhinge a rusty, gold key and hand it to Isaac.

"You be careful coming home."

"Yes, sir," Isaac replied as he grabbed the key that was still tightly gripped inside his father's large hand.

Without looking at each other, both men's hands grasped the others for a few moments. There were no words exchanged during the event, just heavy breathing and longing silence. Isaac's own hand was becoming increasingly sore with his father's paw gripping his, but the young man held on, and he held on some more.

"See you at home, boy." Mr. Mercer said as he released Isaac's sweaty hand.Isaac took the key and got out of the car.

With water in his eyes he watched as his dad pulled away back onto the main road before carrying on towards the house ahead of him.He didn't even want to ponder on how his father felt at that point, Isaac knew that it would only cause him to shatter right there on the sidewalk.

The neighborhood was a rundown excuse for a community. On both sides of the street sat six houses, four of the six on Isaac's side were boarded up, while the others were completely in shambles; all forgotten by a city that in and of itself was in the thralls of ruination.

Just as Isaac was about to step up onto the dilapidated porch, loud music could be heard clashing down the street. It was a dark green Volkswagen Beetle proudly playing Rose Royce's, 'Car Wash' for everyone to hear.

For Isaac, it wasn't the song that caught his attention, nor was it the volume at which it was playing, but rather the vehicle's color that seemed to mesmerize the man. Only his drooling eyes watched as the car tooled down the road. Its green tint flashed in his face like an explosion.Isaac stood on the porch and waited for the car to clear the street before turning and knocking on the front door. Suddenly, all he could see was the color green in front of him.

Standing there on the porch, Isaac could hear footsteps march their way to the door. He immediately wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans and waited ever so impatiently for the door to swing open.

Abruptly, the door opened to reveal a young, short, brown skinned woman with hair rolled up in pink curlers. The young lady's face instantly became mortified and nervously excited at the sight of Isaac.

"Isaac." She stuttered as though he were the last person in the world that she was expecting to see standing on the other side of the door. "I...I thought you wouldn't be here till tomorrow."

Smiling from ear to ear, Isaac said, "I wanted to surprise you."Isaac then stepped through the door and hugged the woman with such force that he could hear her bones pop a bit.

Quaintly, the woman unhinged herself from Isaac's grip before looking into his face and asking with a serious expression, "They still haven't figured out what's wrong with your eyes?"

Isaac drew back surprised, and with a confused glare on his face he remarked, "I get home after two whole months and you ask me about my eyes?"

"I'm sorry, I guess I still haven't gotten used to them." She humbly replied. "I sure wish I knew that you would be here today. I would've done something with this crazy hair of mine. How did you get here from

the hospital?"

Relaxing himself a bit, Isaac said, "Dad brought me." He then moved in and passionately kissed the woman on the lips. "Damn, you look fine."

"Negro, please, my hair is a mess, and I got a hole in my jeans." She callously waved off.

"You don't see me complaining, do you?"

"You sure look like you've lost a lot of weight." The woman studied Isaac from top to bottom. "Are you still in pain?"

"A little bit...here and there." Isaac carefully answered. "But, hey, I didn't come here to talk about me, Lynn. Where's that boy of mine at?"

"He's in there asleep." Lynn pointed behind her.

Isaac stood in the middle of the living room, only three inches away from Lynn, and stared her thin body up and down with both intense passion and empathy in his abnormal eyes. He could sense just by her shaky tone that his very presence was unsettling to her.

"Isaac...I—

Just then, a small, chubby-legged little boy clothed in a dark blue Batman t-shirt and diapers came waddling out of the hallway and into the warm living room. His bleary-eyed self nearly bumped into the hot kerosene heater that was positioned up against the wall.

Immediately, Isaac rushed over and scooped the sleepy toddler into his arms as though he were handling a pot of gold. He excitedly kissed the boy's soft cheeks and forehead while rubbing his thick head of hair.

"He's been such a good little boy since daddy's been gone." Lynn said while standing next to Isaac and caressing the child's cheeks.

Isaac sat himself and Isaiah down onto the couch and tried to wake his son from his hazy blindness.

"Wassup, little man? How you been doin'?" Isaac jovially laughed.

"Say, 'I've been a good little boy, daddy.' Lynn mocked as she sat down next to Isaac.

Gradually, the child opened his brown eyes and gazed strangely upon his father as if he were looking at a total stranger.Isaac continued to play with the baby until Isaiah began to anxiously wrestle out of his dad's hold and reach for his mother.

Isaac's entire body went completely numb at that moment. "Damn, Lynn, he wouldn't even let me hold 'em for two seconds."

Cradling the baby in her arms, Lynn patiently replied, "Well, he hasn't seen you for two months, Isaac. You have to give him time to get used to you all over again."

"Maybe if you would've brought him along when you came to visit me back in December, then he probably wouldn't act like that." Isaac pouted as if Lynnette were his greatest nemesis.

Lynn looked over at Isaac with a stale glaze in her eyes and said, "Isaac, I told you that I don't want our son to see his father in a place like that."

A few moments of blistering silence passed before Isaac spitefully turned his head and asked, "So, how have you two been doin'?"

Sighing, Lynn responded, "We've been okay. Got behind on the electric bill again last month. Mr. Harris said if it happens again then we'll have to find another place to live."

"Another place," Isaac gasped. "But you're only renting this shithole! How can he treat you like that?"

Rolling her eyes, Lynn said, "Isaac, I don't make the rules, I just follow them. Your father has been helping me, but...I'm tired of other people helping me out. If it's not your father then it's mine. If not my dad then it's my mother and sisters. I need my man to help me." She urgently explained while pensively eyeballing Isaac.

"Does your family know where I was these past two months?"

"No, Isaac." Lynn irritably groaned. "I haven't told anyone else."

"Look, I'll see if I can get my old job back at the— novelbin

"At where," Lynn contemptuously interjected. "Down at Larry's garage, where they also sell drugs after hours? Isaac, if your father knew all of that was going on there, he would have a fit."

"But he doesn't know!" Isaac intolerantly yelled.

"Shh, baby, it's alright." Lynn softly said into Isaiah's ears as she tried to console the startled baby that was beginning to sob.

Isaac shot up from off the couch and began to wander about the small living room that was full of nothing but two wooden chairs and a fireplace with pictures placed on the mantle above.

"Did Mr. Harris ever fix the backdoor?"

"No, he said that he'd have to replace the entire thing."

Out of agitation, Isaac rolled his eyes and stormed into the smoldering kitchen where he noticed a pot of greens boiling on the stove. He bypassed the cooking food that was making his stomach grumble to reach the backdoor.

The second he grabbed the door's knob Isaac tried with all his might to twist and turn the rusty thing only to discover that it was practically welded shut.

"It probably just needs some WD-40!" He proclaimed while making his way back into the living room. "These landlords will do anything to escape doing their job."

"Well, let's just forget about." Lynn sighed. "Since we've been here I haven't needed to use the backdoor for anything."

Sitting back down on the couch, Isaac smirked at Lynn, "I see you cookin' up some greens without me."

Grinning back, Lynn said, "Well, if someone had told me that they were coming home today then I would have made more."

"Later for you, girl, I'll go home and get some food then." Isaac playfully leaned over and kissed Lynn on the cheek. "I wanna take us out tomorrow."

"Yeah? You wanna see a movie or something?"

"What's playing?"

"There's this one movie called 'Fun with Dick and Jane' that looks kinda funny."

"Who's in it?" "Jane Fonda." Isaac simply glanced over and twisted his lips as to say that the idea was ludicrous.

"Okay then, turkey, do you have any plans?" Lynn jokingly shoved Isaac's shoulder.

"Instead of spending $2.20 a head for a movie ticket just so we can see Jane Fonda's skinny ass, let's all three of us go to Jimmy's and have pizza."

Lynnette approvingly shook her head and said, "Okay that sounds good. But I wanna hurry and get back before eight, because I wanna see this movie that's coming on about the slaves."

"Dad was talkin' about that in the car. What in the world is so important about this movie?" Isaac tossed up his hands.

Appearing surprised, Lynn replied, "You mean you haven't heard about it? It's called Roots. It's supposed to be really good. It's got James from 'Good Times' and O.J. Simpson in it." She eagerly explained.

Isaac disapprovingly sighed before uttering, "Lynn, the last thing I wanna see is more depression. I just got out of the nut house."

"Don't call it that." Lynn put her hand on Isaac's lap. "You were just...a little tightly wound, after what you went through in that house and all."

Isaac turned his head in the other direction and began to blush as though the subject were too devastating to discuss.

"Isaac, I just want you to know that if you want to talk about what happened at the house, or back at Ashlandview, I'm here for you." Lynn compassionately clarified.

Isaac looked over to see his son gazing wildly back at him as if his father's image were slowly becoming more and more familiar.

"Well, let me get lunch together so Isaiah can eat." Lynn feebly exhaled as she got up, with child in tow, from off the couch.

Isaac sat and watched as Lynnette carried on into the kitchen. In all aspects, he wasn't in any sort of mood to watch a movie or go out and face other people, but the desire to reconnect with his family was

so overwhelming that Isaac would have shed blood just to complete such a valiant mission.

Isaac realized the damage that he caused months earlier to both Lynnette and his father, and above all else he was bound and determined to make amends, even if it meant having to swallow chunks of pride along the way.

Just being inside the house alongside his girlfriend and son caused the young man to gulp deeply until he felt it hit the pit of his churning stomach. On one hand he was overjoyed, on the other, the front door was only a mere five feet away from where he was seated.

Distraught, Isaac stood up and began for the bathroom, but before he could even round the corner, he stopped in the hallway and caught his somber reflection in the small mirror hanging on the wall next to the clothes hamper.

It seemed that every time he happened to stare upon his own likeness all he could see staring back at him was an insidious man, someone that he hated more than anything in the world. There was absolutely nothing within his image that made him content.

He poked and pulled at his face before rubbing his arms up and down, just as he did back at Ashlandview, checking for any more pain that may suddenly arise without notice.

It was a relentless, tedious habit that he repeated five times a day, every day.