And then, Eden…looking on as one life-his life, her life, their history, love and laughter, tears, hope, disappointments, fears and triumphs-spiraled away into darkness, splintered to smoke and ash…taking her with it while the other life rose to prominence, one of sorrow and heartbreak, failure and neglect. Amidst screams-his and someone else’s-Eden was torn from him. And all that remained was the rain and faint traces of laughter. The horrible laughter of something no longer human, disguised as the cackling of a sick old man.
As if awakening from a dream, Jeff realized he was on the street.
Fighting back tears of shock and confusion, he leaned against the side of a building, drenched and frightened. “What the hell’s happening to me?”
Something hit the wall, not far from his face.
Startled, Jeff pushed away from the building and turned in the direction from which it had come.
A surly-looking police officer tapped the wall next to him with his nightstick. “Come on, keep moving, no loitering. Let’s go, move it.”
“Officer, there’s no problem here, I-”
The cop nudged him with a beefy gloved hand. “Just move along.”
“I stopped to make a call.” He reached for his cell phone. It wasn’t there.
“Uh-huh. I’m not telling you again. Move along.”
Jeff staggered away, caught his balance then started off down the block. Doing his best not to appear too upset, he purposely moved in a slow, controlled stride, but noticed people were giving him an unusually wide berth. Most looked away as if repulsed. With his discomfort growing, he stopped in front of a large store window to examine his reflection.
Very slowly, he touched his hands to the face staring back at him.
Ernie Graham’s face.
11
“My God,” he whispered. “What have you done to me?”
Through the constant surge of people moving along the street behind him, he saw Foster Hope emerge with a devilish grin. “You wanted freedom from the rent, credit card bills, car payments-all of it. Your wish was for independence from those things. Now you have it.”
“But-”
“Don’t worry,” Hope told him. “Eden’s going to be just fine.”
“Eden,” he cried, his fingertips scraping down across the stubble on filthy cheeks that were not his own. “She…”
“Ernie Graham once worked for me as well. His wish was for a new life.” The old man licked his lips excitedly. “Your life, Jeff.”
“No…I…”
“And now I’ve given it to him.”
He continued to stare, transfixed by his reflection and what he knew to be impossible. “God damn you.”
“Indeed He did,” Hope sighed, “a very long time ago.”
Jeff turned from their reflections expecting to see Hope standing next to him. But there was no one there. When he looked back at the store window, Hope’s reflection had vanished as well.
“He’s still out there.”
As he sat up, Jeff’s perspiration-soaked back peeled away from the bed sheet. He squinted drowsily at the clock on the nightstand. The numbers were a jumbled blur. “Eden?”
“Hey,” she said softly.
“What are you doing up?”
“I couldn’t sleep.” Perhaps carelessly, she stood nude at the apartment window. “I needed something cold to drink.” She held up a bottle of water in evidence and then ran the cool plastic across her brow and down along her flushed cheek. “It’s after midnight and he’s still out there.”
“Of course he is.” Jeff swung his feet to the floor. “That’s where he lives.”
“It’s ridiculous. No one should be living on the streets in this day and age.”
Jeff searched the nightstand, located his eyeglasses and slipped them on. “Jesus, get out of the window.”
“It’s dark, he can’t see in.”
He sat on the edge of the bed and watched shadows slink along the smooth contours of his wife’s back. Glistening with perspiration, her flesh looked like it had been sprayed down with a fine mist. “I was having a dream,” he told her. “Just now, it woke me.”
“What was it about?”
“I was here, in the city, but I was lost and I couldn’t find you.
It was like I had no memory of the city at all. I just kept aimlessly wandering the streets looking for you. I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find you.”
“It’s OK,” she said. “I’m right here.”
“Yes.” He smiled. “You really are right here with me…aren’t you?”
“Of course, sweetie.” Eden pushed a wisp of short brown hair from her eyes. “Where else would I be?”
What he didn’t tell her was that in the dream he’d been running.
In a panic of frenzied terror he’d been sprinting through the streets of Boston as if a pack of wild dogs had been right on his heels…or perhaps as if he’d been one of those dogs himself…or something similar…feral and alone and lost in a rage of night, harsh, dangerous and without end.
“And I’m here, too,” he said, as if just realizing it, “with you.”
She cocked her head, baffled. “Are you still asleep?”
“No. No, I…I’m awake now.” He gazed at her beauty. “Come here.”
As she started toward him the buzzer for the door downstairs suddenly sounded, startling them both. Eden quickly threw on a lightweight robe and hugged herself, eyeing her husband nervously throughout.
Without a word, they crossed the apartment to the intercom just inside the front door. Jeff stepped aside and nodded for Eden to answer it.
She pressed the button. “Yes?”
“Eden!” a man’s frantic voice answered. “Let me in! Please, let me in!”
Jeff recognized the voice immediately but said nothing.
“Please Eden! You can help me, please- please -help me, let me in!”
She glanced guiltily at Jeff, unsure of what to say.
“Please! Let me in! I don’t belong out here!”
“I’m sorry, Ernie,” she said softly. “I can’t do that.”
She switched off the intercom, and together, she and Jeff returned to the bedroom. He slid into bed as she ventured back to the window for the bottle of water she’d left on the sill.
Eden looked at the street two stories below. The homeless man had returned to the base of their steps and gazed up at her, a crippling sorrow filling his eyes. For reasons unknown even to her, Eden felt inexplicably drawn to him ever since he’d first appeared on their street a few days before. She held his stare with an impassive version of her own. She could see his lips moving but couldn’t hear what he was saying, just vague whispers in the night.
She closed her eyes.
Behind her, she could hear Jeff slip out of his pajama bottoms, his breath heavy and excited. “Come back to bed, baby.”
Eden opened her eyes. The homeless man was gone.