BOOM

  BOOM

  By

  Michael Whetzel

  I.

  (tick tick tick tick tick)

  Ulee was pissing on his car. Jeffrey Walls looked at the young man and his shoulders dropped. Every morning Ulee and Pierce met him at his car, and every morning he caught them doing something gross on or around his car. Well, except for that one morning when the only thing that greeted him was the steaming pile of dog shit that was sitting right next to the driver’s door. He didn’t see anyone near the vehicle that morning, but he knew it was them. It was always them.

  Ever since he bought the silver Nissan Altima, Ulee picked on him about. He just had to say something. At least that was how it began. Now they knew Walls wasn’t going to do anything about it, and they had taken their actions up a notch. And Walls wasn’t going to fight. He just was not one for confrontation. He couldn’t seem to find the strength to stand up for himself. He usually felt numb to those around him.

  Ulee turned at the sound of the vehicle’s owner striding up the sidewalk. Jeffrey had left the apartment a little earlier for work, thinking he could bypass this whole experience. He glanced at Pierce as he walked by. Pierce had a little gleam in his eye to match the multiple piercings tattooing his face. A smile crept across his lips as Jeffrey walked by.

  “Morning, Walls,” he said. Jeffrey nodded slightly his way, than turned his attention to Ulee.

  “Shit, Walls.” Ulee was zipping up his fly. “I’m really sorry. I had to go so bad, and….well, ya know.” Ulee grinned his big stupid What the fuck you going to do about it? grin. Pierce stepped behind Jeffrey.

  “I mean, its okay? Right, Walls?” Ulee flexed his muscular arms, covered with black inky designs of dragons and half dressed women. Even though Jeffrey was a head taller than both men, he seemed weak and complacent in his white shirt, striped tie, and khaki pants.

  “It’s fine. I need to get to work, Ulee.” Jeffrey barely mumbled the words. He didn’t make eye contact, only shuffled towards the driver’s door. Ulee stepped out of the way with a slight bow.

  “It’s such a nice car, Walls. Silver, man, that’s a tight color on those Nissans.” It was the same thing all the time. They always complimented him on the car. It was brand new, a graduation gift to himself, the only thing he owned that was worth something. “What do you think, Pierce?”

  Pierce slid up beside Ulee, the chains connecting his bling rattling slightly.

  “Well, I’m not much on those Jap cars. Seems like a bunch of rice eaters wouldn’t know anything about precision performance. But hey, it is a nice looking automobile.” Ulee nodded his head in agreement.

  Jeffrey grabbed the door handle. He quickly let go of it when he noticed it was wet. Ulee and Pierce were rolling on the grass laughing hysterically.

  “Just a little joke! I swear no harm!” Ulee was cackling like a hyena. “Shit, his face, Pierce.”

  Jeffrey held down the bile trying to escape from his stomach.

  Ulee had pissed on the door handle.

  (tick tick tick tick tick tick)

  Jeffrey pulled the car out of the apartment complex. He stopped at the small gas station on the corner and went to the bathroom to wash his hands.

  He scrubbed hard under the water, rinsing the soap suds down the rusty drain. Once he was satisfied the piss germs were gone, he splashed water onto his face and slicked back his hair. Jeffrey stared in the mirror at his reflection. His eyes seemed hollow. They were bloodshot from lack of sleep. The bones stuck outward from around the sockets.

  He rubbed the high cheekbones he had inherited from his father. He frowned at the pale skin stretched across his tight forehead. At least I got rid of the glasses. He hated the black horn rims, and opted for contacts his sophomore year of college.

  Jeffrey looked down at his shirt. There was a wet stain above the belt, slowly drying a soft yellow color. It was where he wiped his hand after getting into his car. Good thing he had an extra dress shirt at work in his locker.

  Those fuckers. I hate them. I hate them so much.

  The faucet dripped steadily in the sink.

  drip drip drip (tick tick tick)

  Jeffrey dried his face and brought out a small bottle of aspirin from his pocket. He hadn’t even made it to work yet, and the headache was already in full swing. He emptied half the pills into his mouth and slurped water from the faucet.

  (tick tick tick tick)

  He slammed the paper towels into the wastebasket.

  “Please fucking go away!”

  The door slammed against the cement wall as he stalked back to his car.

  II.

  It was going on three months since the noise had begun. The incessant countdown in his head, drumming away sleep and sanity inch by inch until it wore Jeffrey down to another level of numbness. After two weeks of no rest and throbbing headaches, Jeffrey finally went to the doctor for some help.

  He sat in the white observation room, looking over the diagrams describing particular illnesses he was sure he had or was surely going to get in this horribly unlucky life he led. When he had memorized all the posters in the room, he stared numbly at the white walls until the doctor arrived.

  (tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick)

  Like ants marching to the beat of the devil’s drum.

  The door opened and a short, balding man entered, stethoscope draped around his neck.

  “Hello, Jeffrey. I’m Dr. Neese.” Neese was reading over the notes and information gathered from Jeffrey by the nurse earlier.

  Jeffrey nodded his head slightly in reply. The doctor sat on a small stool and rolled over to the examination table. He looked at the young man seated in front of him.

  “What seems to be the problem?”

  Jeffrey sat up a bit straighter on the table.

  “You see, uhm, I’m having a little problem sleeping.” Neese nodded his head as if he already knew all the burdens that Jeffrey carried on his shoulders.

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I really haven’t slept in about two weeks. I keep hearing things.”

  “What kind of things?”

  “Noises.”

  “Like voices?” Neese started jotting notes in a small pad.

  “What? No, no, nothing like that.” Jeffrey was a little surprised at the question. But he understood the underlying meaning of it. I’m not crazy. No matter what you think, I’m not losing my mind.

  “It’s like a ticking. A clock ticking all the time.” He closed his eyes, feeling the lack of sleep weighing on him, but when he re-opened them the feeling softened.

  Neese shook his head and made a few more marks with his pen.

  “Let me ask you. Is the “ticking” more in your ears or in your head?”

  “Both. And it’s not just at night. I hear it all the time. At work, at home. I can hear it right now.”

  Dr. Neese rolled the stool back to the small desk and looked over the file folder. “Is there anything else you’re noticing with the sound? Fever, nausea, anything like that?”

  “No. I just hear the noise and can’t sleep. I mean, I’m not tired, or not as tired as I should be. I still go to work and everything.” Jeffrey took a large breath and let it out. “It just won’t stop. All day long I hear it until I almost forget about it. And then I notice it again.”

  The doctor nodded. He returned to the file folder.

  “It says here, Jeffrey, you just graduated from college. Architecture degree.” Jeffrey nodded. “It also says your parents died in a car crash your sophomore year. Neither one survived.” He looked up sadly at his patient.

  Jeffrey nodded again. Neese continued. “You don’t have any other family. You’re not married. What about work? How’s being an architect?”

  “I’m
not. An architect that is.”

  Neese seemed confused.

  “I couldn’t get a position. The economy is shit, I mean, excuse me. No one is looking for new architects right now.”

  “I see. The economy’s been crappy to us all.” The doctor smiled. “Even to us doctors.”

  He took out a prescription pad. “Here’s what I think. Physically you check out super healthy. So I’m thinking this is a mental thing.”

  Jeffrey began to object. Neese stopped him.

  “I know what you’re going to say. I saw the notes on the counseling you had after your parents’ death. I’m not talking grief related or depression mental thing. I’m talking more of a stress related condition.”

  “Oh.” Jeffrey nodded. “You know, I do feel stressed out a lot. I feel like a lot of pressure is always bearing down on me.”

  “Exactly. And that can lead to loss of sleep, which in turn can lead to the body experiencing even more stressful tendencies. In this case, the sound you keep hearing. It’s like a ringing in your ears.”

  Jeffrey watched as the doctor wrote out a prescription. “I am going to give you a powerful sedative to help you sleep. Do not drink alcohol with it and do not take more than what is prescribed. But it should fix you right up.”

  Jeffrey leaned back. “Thank you, doc. I’m glad you can help.”

  Neese smiled. “That’s what I’m here for.” He handed the slip of paper over to his young patient. “So it sounds like a clock, you say, ticking down to something?”

  “Yeah, like that stopwatch they always showed before 60 minutes.”

  “Huh,” Neese laughed, “I wonder what it’s counting down to?”

  There was a long pause before the patient responded.

  “I don’t know.”

  (tick tick tick tick tick)

  III.

  The pills did not work. He took the prescribed amount the first three nights, hoping upon hope he would finally sleep. Nothing. He doubled the amount the following night and then tripled it. By the end of the week he was taking six at a time and nothing changed. He spent most of his nights parked in front of the television, watching whatever late shows were lucky enough to get the 3 a.m. slot. After another week of no sleep, no rest, he began driving around the city and stopping at whatever happened to be opened.

  Jeffrey spent many nights walking the aisle of Big Mart, looking at clothes he could not afford or the big screen TV he dreamed of owning. One night he came upon a small set of workout weights that were heavily discounted. On a whim, he bought them. That night he started a steady routine of pushups, crunches, flies, and curls. I’ll wear myself out until my body has no choice but to pass out.

  It didn’t work. He never felt tired. But he found he did like the feel of working out, of pushing his body as hard as he could. He would sweat out the wounds of the day: Ulee and Pierce, work, bills and student loans, and gasping for breath almost forget about the sound. He would turn the water to burning hot in the shower, and there under the stinging droplets, it would come back from the depths of his mind.

  (tick tick tick tick)

  Jeffrey thought over all of this as he turned into the parking lot of High Tec Stereo & Sound. He had worked at High Tec for the past six months. It was the only job he could find after graduation. He garnered a nice windfall from the life insurance his parents had taken out, but it was almost gone having been swallowed up by the student loans needed for Georgia State. The electronics store wasn’t the ideal place Jeffrey wanted to be, but it paid the bills.

  He pushed open the glass door of the store and walked into the sweltering showroom. It was going to be a hot day, but Donovan never turned on the air conditioning.

  “We’re not one of those corporate box stores. This isn’t Great Buy or Stereo City. I’m small fish,” Donovan gritted between his nicotine stained teeth. This was the response whenever someone asked him why they never turned the air on. Jeffrey always wondered how much air conditioning they could have if Donovan didn’t own a brand new Lincoln Continental.

  He walked through the rear of the store to the employee locker room and grabbed the extra dress shirt in his locker. While he was changing, he heard Griffin come in.

  “Hey, Walls. Damn, you been working out.” Jeffrey quickly buttoned up his shirt in embarrassment. Griffin was the senior salesman at High Tec. He was a few years older than Jeffrey, but where Jeffrey lacked self-esteem, Griffin more than made up for in bravado.

  Griffin was very popular with the employees and customers, as proven by his being top salesperson every month for the past year. He also dated Allison, the store secretary, and the most beautiful woman Jeffrey had ever seen.

  “You ready to go out there and make some money, brother.” Griffin grinned maniacally at Jeffrey. “Let’s go find some suckers, yeah. Make some money and then bang some pussy, hey Walls?” Jeffrey looked at Griffin and tried to return his smile. It came out looking like a half-crazed leer. Griffin never noticed.

  Griffin fixed his hair in the mirror and winked at his reflection. He smacked Jeffrey on the shoulder and headed for the door.

  “Got to go see my bitch. See you out there, Walls.” Griffin strutted out of the room.

  Jeffrey slammed the locker door closed.

  (tick tick tick)

  They started every day with a store meeting, going over yesterday’s sales numbers and tracking the monthly quota. Donovan always leaned to one side, usually reading the paper while Darryl, the assistant manager, led the meeting. Where Donavan was overweight and balding, Darryl was fit and tan. He looked at each one of the staff: the four salespeople, two warehouse workers, and Allison. The meetings were usually short and sweet with Griffin always getting praise for setting some sales record.

  Jeffrey stood trying not to look at Allison. She was next to Griffin, who was patting her ass softly as Darryl yelled at one of the warehouse workers for checking in shipments wrong. She was wearing a nice pair of black slacks and a blue blouse. She was stunning with her blue eyes and blonde hair.

  Jeffrey watched as Griffin leaned over and whispered something into her ear. Allison giggled and slapped his wandering hand away.

  How could something so lovely be with something so horrible? Jeffrey stared at the curve of her neck, the soft luminescence of her skin. I’m not horrible. I’m a good guy.

  “Walls!”

  He looked up quickly. Darryl was speaking to him now.

  “I need you and the rest of the crew to step up today and sell something.” Jeffrey watched as small drops of spittle flew from Darryl’s lips. Donovan flipped a page of the newspaper.

  “Yes sir,” Jeffrey replied.

  “Remember, everyone who walks through our doors is a sale waiting to happen. It’s up to you guys to convince them of that. Watch Griffin. Watch how he talks to people and imposes his will on them.” Darryl nodded at Griffin. “You can learn a lot from watching him. And it would be nice if somebody else was salesman of the month for once.”

  “Not happening, boss,” Griffin chirped. There was laughter all around.

  “Now here is the new list of special offers. We got several coupons appearing….” Darryl droned on but Jeffrey looked out the front windows, wondering when exactly his dreams had started to fade away.

  His eyes began to flit as they shook from the noise calling out behind his sockets.

  (tick tick tick tick tick tick tick)

  IV.

  “What do you mean I can’t use both of them?”

  “Well, it plainly states on the ad, sir, you can only use one coupon per store visit.” This was the third time Jeffrey had been through this with the older gentleman. The man was trying to buy a new DVD player and wanted to use double coupons, which was not allowed. Jeffrey could feel his patience beginning to turn.

  “Tick.”

  “What?” The old man looked up at Jeffrey. Jeffrey looked back confused.

  “What?” Now what is this guy wanting.

  “What did you sa
y?”

  “I was saying that we cannot accept both coupons for the same….”

  “No. I want to use both of them. I cut them both out of your ad this morning.” The man’s face was beginning to turn crimson, contrasting heavily with his white hair and bushy eyebrows.

  “Jeffrey, can I see you for a bit?” Jeffrey turned to see Darryl standing close by. Griffin was next to him, smirking.

  “I can’t right now. I’m with a customer.”

  “Griffin will take over. Come back to the office with me. Donovan and I would like to speak with you.”

  Jeffrey sighed and turned to follow. The office meant a lecture. Great. He heard Griffin already charming the customer.

  “Don’t worry, sir. I’m going to take real good care of you.”

  “I hope so. That young man just doesn’t get it.”

  “I get it, sir. Believe me I do.”

  Darryl opened the door to the office. Donovan was seated behind the large oak desk. He grabbed a handful of jelly beans from a small glass bowl sitting next to a picture of his wife. Jeffrey sat down in front of Donovan and Darryl took a seat beside the door. Donovan threw back his head and shook jellybeans into his mouth.

  Jeffrey looked at the picture of the pretty wife. She was a sandy blond who looked ten years younger than she really was. Jeffrey had met her one time before at an office function. He remembered she had the body to match the pretty face.

  Donovan swallowed his candy and cleared his throat.

  “How’s it going today, Walls?” The boss started drumming his fingers on the desktop.

  “It’s okay, I guess.”

  “What was happening with that customer? The old man? It seemed like you were having some trouble there.” Donovan stopped drumming and leaned back in his large plush leather chair.

  “Well yeah, he wanted to use double coupons. He can’t do that.” Jeffrey looked straight at his boss. “You always said never take double coupons. It’s in the fine print and loses the store money.”

  Donovan laughed and Jeffrey heard a snicker in reply from Darryl.

  “You are right. We did say that, didn’t we Darryl?”