“You know that he was impaled right?” Rob finally blurted after a few seconds of silence. Jim told him that was what he’d heard yesterday when he was walking around town and saw Rob stand up a little straighter. It was like a great weight had been lifted form his shoulders.
“Good,” he said with that sad little smile, “at least I wasn’t the one to tell you that part of it.” Rob stopped again and looked like he was thinking about what he wanted to say. There must’ve been a lot of information because it took a few seconds before he finally seemed ready to spill the story.
“It was real strange,” he began looking Jim right in the eye. “The moment we got out to where it all went down we could tell something just wasn’t right. It was almost as if something about the air was telling us to go back. That we didn’t want to see what was waiting for us in the woods. I myself wish we’d have listened to whatever it was. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what we saw out there.” Pausing again Jim could see Rob’s shoulders shudder at the memory. Jim wanted him to hurry up and tell the story but kept his mouth shut. If he pushed him he might not get anything at all. After a few seconds pause Rob started again.
“It was just getting dark and we were beginning to think we weren’t going to be able to find the place Tommy’s body was waiting for us at when suddenly we were there. After walking through some bushes and around this one huge tree we found it. Actually we almost walked right into him. After seeing what had happened we all wished it had been darker than it actually was. I wish I hadn’t seen it as well as I did. It just got worse once they brought the lights out, but luckily I wasn’t there anymore by that point. Anyway, Tommy was stuck right on the end of a tree just like we’d been told. Right through his chest.” Rob pointed at his chest as if to illustrate his point. “He must’ve somehow flipped over in the air or something because he was laying face up with the point coming from right between his ribs. It went straight through his back and out his front. Parts of his ribs were actually sticking out. There was blood all over the place. The leaves looked as if someone had taken a bucket of red paint and thrown it everywhere. I actually got a little sick and had to run off in the woods so I didn’t contaminate the scene or anything. After the initial shock of seeing his body wore off the next thing we noticed was where his stand was located in relation to his body. It was at least twenty feet away. That definitely wasn’t right. Tommy could’ve fallen from a tree and landed the way he had but in order for him to have landed on the tree he did he would’ve had to jump. Everything we saw just on a first glance was strange enough, but we were only half finished. The next thing we found after looking for a few minutes was…” Rob abruptly stopped as the door squealed opened announcing the arrival of someone. Jim cursed whoever it was before he even saw them. Rob wouldn’t finish his story with someone else there. It was bad enough he and Jill were hearing what was said. Rob couldn’t risk another person knowing the whole story.
The door finished its opening swing and begun its closing when the last person he wanted to see strutted in as if she owned the place. Maria looked from side to side like a dog searching for a scent before finally settling on Jim. When she saw him at the counter she immediately started walking towards him.
“Hi Jim!” she practically squealed as she pushed Rob out of the way. “I didn’t know you’d be here!” He was sure she’d known exactly where he was ever since he’d passed the restaurants on his way in to town. Why else would she be here? Looking over her shoulder at Rob for help only got him shrugged shoulders and fingers pantomiming the universal signal for craziness. Jim stifled his laugher by quickly coughing into his hand. Maria, seeing that she wasn’t getting his full attention spun around and almost caught Rob in the act of making fun of her. Luckily he grabbed a box from the shelf next to him before he was completely caught. Unfortunately he hadn’t looked at what he was grabbing. Seeing what rob was holding caused Jim to have to stifle another bout of laughter.
Jim knew a lot of things had changed since he’d left but he didn’t know Rob had had a sex change. The box he’d grabbed was for tampons and he was intently studying the directions for their use. At the sound of Jim’s half cough half laughter Rob looked up trying to act as if he’d just noticed that Maria was there. She just looked at him with a slightly raised eyebrow.
“Hey Maria! How’s it going?” Rob asked brightly.
“Oh, I’m fine but you look don’t look to well.” She said sarcastically. “Have you gained weight? You look like you might be retaining a little water. Is your monthly friend here for a visit?” Maria seemed to enjoy Rob’s confusion.
“No, not really,” Rob began before noticing what he held. Once he did Jim was surprised he didn’t drop it. He visibly turned a brighter shade of red then quickly said, “I, uh, need to go look at something over there.” Then quickly moved to the spot his pointing finger was indicating.
“Yes, you do that,” Maria said with a catty smile as she turned back to Jim.
“Hi Maria,” Jim said quickly feeling like he was caught in the cats’ claws. He wanted to get this unfortunate meeting over with as soon as possible. He still had stuff to find out from Rob then there was also the problem with working up the courage to ask Jill out. He hadn’t planned on doing it but seeing Maria the idea had suddenly seemed like a very good one. The only way to get past Maria and be able to do those things was to jump right in with both feet and hope it wouldn’t get to painful. “I was just talking to Rob here about old times. Haven’t seen him in a while, you know.” The look on her face told him she wasn’t buying any of what he was saying. The conversation had already gone on longer than he’d wanted it too and she hadn’t even said anything. Maybe if he kept talking she never would so he continued. “We were just trying to catch up a little before he had to go back to work. He was just telling me about the people still living in the area and some stuff about what had changed since I left. Hopefully he doesn’t have to be back at work too soon. I’d really like to talk to him a little more if he does.” He was hoping Rob was listening and would come to his rescue but apparently that wasn’t going to happen. He must have been scared off by his earlier confrontation.
Jim knew he wasn’t being extremely polite but he wanted to get rid of her as fast as possible so he could find out what else Rob had to say. Just before they were interrupted he was sure he was about to tell him something important.
“Was there, uh, something I could help you with?” he asked trying to prod her into getting to the reason why she’d come searching for him.
“I was just wondering if you were ok,” she answered sweetly. “I also wanted to ask if you needed anything or if maybe, you’d thought anymore about getting together. I’m here for you whenever you want me.” She put an emphasis on ‘want’ and he was sure it wasn’t by accident. Jim didn’t know what to do about the whole situation. He was slightly embarrassed. She was practically throwing herself at him in front of both Rob and Jill. It would be bad enough if it they were alone but this was ridiculous. “We could even do it tonight if you wanted,” she said pulling him from his internal debate.