Part Seventeen, Act Three – The Giant gets a Call
Bill started his show as he normally did. The card trick and the moving curtain trick. He kept hoping that before he started the main part of the show, the voices would come back to him.
Natasha was watching from the doors of the grand ballroom. Bill was in a mess, but she had confidence that if he didn’t hear the voices, he could fake it.
It was that part of the show where Bill would normally hear from someone an audience member had lost. He approached a table, “Your name is Amber?” he asked the woman at the table. “Damn.” he thought, “It’s April, not Amber.”
Before he could correct himself, the woman said, “April.”, in a loud drunken voice. “Close, but no cigar.” She turned toward the man sitting next to her. “I told you.” She tried to whisper, but said it loud enough for the whole room to hear, “This is all Bullshit. Let’s get the fuck out of here.” She grabbed her coat from the back of the chair and began stumbling across the room. “April.” She yelled at Bill and walked out. The man stood up and left with his apologies a few seconds behind her.
“Let’s hear it for April.” Bill said, getting a small smattering of applause. “Go get some more of that good scotch,” he chuckled. He was starting to panic.
Natasha had been watching and was about stop the show. Bill saw her moving toward him and he held out a large hand to indicate for her to stop. “I got this.” He thought. He walked to the next table. “Your name is Michael?” he asked reading the place card right.
“Got it.” Michael said. The applause grew a little louder.
“Michael, you’ve recently lost someone close to you?” Bill asked.
Michael’s voice quivered as he answered, “Yes.”
“It was your father?” Bill asked.
“Yes.” Michael said again, with tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
“Michael, your father wants you to know that he’s proud of you.” Bill continued, “He thinks you are doing a good job as the man of the family. He wants you to know that it’s ok for you to get on with your life. He says thanks to you your mother can handle things on her own.”
As Michael stood, Bill walked over to him and embraced him. Michael was now sobbing. “I’m trying the best I can.” He told Bill, “It’s hard, you know?”
“I know Michael but you are doing a good job.”, Bill replied, “Your father knows that.”
Michael sat bad down and the room erupted in a hearty round of applause.
“You pulled that one out of your ass.” Bill thought, as he walked back to the front of the room. He glanced over at Natasha and she smiled and gave him a thumb’s up.
Bill was walking toward a table in the middle of the room when suddenly he felt like could not breathe. He fell to the floor and at once the whole room went white. A blinding white light. He had the feeling that several people were standing over him. Dark people, with oddly painted faces. He thought he had caught his breath when he felt a cloth being wrapped over his mouth. It felt like he was breathing through a wet towel.
He could not move his arms or legs. Then his eyes were covered with the same type of cloth. It smelled like the rags had been soaked in pine cleaner.
All at once Bill was looking down on someone wrapped in dingy white rags. He felt like he was floating several feet above the scene. Next to the wrapped body were three white jars, with strange looking lids. One was the shape of a cat’s head, one was the shape of a dog’s head, and one was the shape of a bird’s head. Each of the lids were painted in bright blue and gold. There were four brown skinned people standing over the body, all with bare torso’s, except for one. The one standing at the body’s head was dressed in a white, blue, and gold robe and he carried a long staff with a curve at the top. The four men stopped for a moment and looked up at Bill as if they knew he was there, then continued wrapping the body.
Bill could not move again, and he knew that the body being wrapped was his. He struggled to work one of his hands free, and then the other. Pushing the three attendants aside he started tearing at the wrappings covering his eyes. Then he started tearing at the wrappings covering his chest.
The crowd hovered over Bill, wondering if this was part of the show. Natasha rushed to his side and asked for someone to call an ambulance. Bill was flailing about and tearing at his clothes. He had scratches on his forehead and dangerously close to his eyes. “Now.” She shouted. Someone from the crowd ran out of the room to the check in desk.
Bill saw another flash of light and could see Amber sitting in a white cloud. He was suddenly cold, he started to shiver violently.
Natasha pressed down on his shoulders trying to keep him from hurting himself. She thought he was having a seizure of some sort. His skin was cold, and had started to turn blue.
As Bill was looking at Amber, she raised her head. “Help me Bill.” Her heard her say, “Ken knows where I am.”
Short Stories