Jason Deas - Benny James 02 - Pushed (3 page)

“You promised,” she said, rubbing a hand against his chest.

“I did promise,” he answered, fully under her spell.

Benny touched Lizzy’s panties for a third time, and the rest as they say is history.

Chapter 3

Brother Jim woke up in Room 14 of the Tepee King motel in St. Augustine, Florida. He wasn’t sure how he had arrived in the city and didn’t remember checking in to the dive. There was a lipstick smudge he noticed on the white oxford he slept in. He imagined a struggle; he saw in his mind a beautiful young girl’s face scraping his chest.

Jim ripped the shirt off, snapping the buttons as they popped across the bed and onto the floor. He removed his belt and pants and struck each of his naked legs with violent whips. He repeated the actions until the feeling in his legs turned from pain to nothingness. He fell to his knees and prayed.

Jim prayed for guidance, strength, and foresight. He prayed he might make his daddy happy. He prayed for the blackouts to end. After the prayer and self-punishment, Jim turned on the television and found a 24-hour news station.

 He wasn’t allowed to watch television. His daddy said the devil created television for sinners. Jim scanned the ceiling for cameras and looked under the bed. He checked behind the shower curtain and peered out the peephole.

Once he felt the room was free of suspicious surveillance, he turned his thoughts to the tube. The anchor spoke of a young girl’s death, and the screen flashed the last picture taken of her in a beauty pageant dress. Jim thought she was lovely. Something about her seemed familiar, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. As he reached for his Bible, the news station played a clip of her, which included her voice.
Déjà vu
he thought.
I’ve heard that voice before
.

He turned off the television with a jerk, thinking he heard footsteps outside the draped window. Jim froze and listened. His heart pounded in his ears. Once he was sure the sounds and threat had passed, he relaxed.

Jim’s eyes scanned the room searching for an item to fill a need. He grabbed the comforter off the bed and tried to tear it, but the material was too thick. The sheet was almost old enough and with a few more tatters he might have been able to rip the fabric.

Between the sheet and the comforter was an old brown blanket in pitiful shape. Brother Jim pulled it to him and found a small hole. He pulled at the hole and soon had his entire hand through. Gripping the blanket firmly, he yanked and tore until he had a few strips of material.

He sat down cross-legged on the floor and rocked back and forth with the strips in hand. He began braiding them together saying, “Damn the snakes, damn the serpent. Damn the snakes, damn the serpent.”

He said it again and again until he finished braiding. With his creation almost finished, the last thing he did was to make a final tear in the fabric resembling a forked tongue. Jim sat the braided snake on the bed and said one more time, “Damn the snakes, damn the serpent.”

Getting up off the floor, he spied a book of maps on the crummy excuse for a table. Opening it, Jim noticed all the bridges were circled. He didn’t remember circling them. He didn’t even remember buying or possessing the map book. Frightened, he quickly closed the book. On the front of the atlas a message was written in deep black marker. It said, “Spread the Word.” It was his handwriting.

The word shower popped into his mind and he jumped again thinking he heard a voice. Walking to the shower, he stopped as he saw himself in the mirror above the bathroom sink. His long brown hair glistened with a thin layer of grease. His tangled beard pointed in several directions. His hollow eyes turned his stare away from the mirror. Rings under his sunken eyes told of all the time in recent memory that he could not remember.

In the shower, he soaped up and avoided his genitals. Feeling a sense of relief he washed his hair and shampooed his beard. After cleaning his body with a fierce scrubbing, Brother Jim ran a bath and prayed with the lights off. After the water cooled, he got out and dried his body. His mind filled with shame and anger and fear.

His brain felt as if it was floating inside of itself and he began to speak out loud to himself.

“I’m hungry.”

“
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
”

“Matthew 6:26,” Jim answered himself.

“I will take care of you.”

“Do you mean us?”

Jim was so confused.

Jim opened the bathroom door and spied a Burger King bag and a cup of steaming liquid sitting on the sink. He hoped it was coffee. He quickly looked left and right but didn’t see a soul. He stood as still as a statue and listened and did not hear a sound other than the distant sound of a highway, which reminded him of the ocean. Jim reached down and snatched the bag and cup from the sink and went back into the bathroom. He made sure the lock was secure and opened the Burger King bag.

Inside the bag he found a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit. Wonderfully greasy and hot hash brown bites filled a container, which sat atop a stack of napkins and four packets of ketchup. The smells wafting from the bag had his stomach turning flips of joy. Brother Jim devoured the food and sipped at the hot coffee. After a few bites, with the food calming his stomach and his mind, he exited the bathroom and sat on the bed with his food. He thought about turning on the television but decided not to, wondering who had delivered the food and thinking they might still be near. He wondered if he had brought it to the room himself.

All of a sudden Jim screamed, “Don’t question me!”

His own voice scared him

As he finished the last sip of the coffee, he started to feel what he attributed to the tiredness of a full belly. He sat on the bed and stacked a few pillows behind his back and head. He felt good and started to tingle. The tingle began in his toes and worked its way up his legs. It did circles around his knees, spinning his head in the process. His thoughts slipped to girls and breasts and bare stomachs as the tingle crept up to his genitals. In his mind, his fingers ran through blond hair. His hands caressed the hips of a brunette and just before he was about to disrobe a red-headed gal, he toppled over across the bed and passed out.

Chapter 4

Benny always teased Red that he lived like he only had a couple of bucks in his pocket, when in fact Red had made two pretty significant purchases. The first thing he bought with the money Benny had collected for him was Benny’s house.

Benny had been kidding himself for years that he really lived there when, in actuality, he spent almost all of his nights and time on his houseboat. Benny’s kind heart and the fact that he did not really need the money, allowed Red to acquire the house for a song. Red
did
play hardball at the closing and made Benny throw in the cat Jezebel, which Benny was glad to do.

Benny had treated Jezebel with nothing but the utmost respect, but she would not give him the time of day. She had never let him pet her or even get close to her. The moment Red entered the house she jumped in his lap and the two were inseparable. She followed him around as if he were the pied piper. He had changed her name to Galaxie, which he insisted she requested after hearing a Blind Melon song with the same name.

At times Benny wondered if he was crazy because he found himself actually thinking that Red and Galaxie could communicate on another level that was terribly abnormal.

The second purchase Red made was the lot next door. The old folks who had lived there were ready to make a life transition to a retirement village in town but didn’t want the hassle of trying to prepare a house for sale, and they did not want to deal with a slew of people coming to view the property. The house was ancient and beyond fixing up.

Red knew they were unhappy and, with Benny’s help, made them an offer. They accepted. A week after they moved out, Red had the place bulldozed. In its place and the surrounding area that had been the yard, he created a magnificent garden that was his pride, joy, and his reason for living.

Ned, the local technology nerd who did research for Benny and had become close friends with Red pulled into Red’s driveway. Ned was Red’s seed dealer and closest confidant with all things gardening. Red had been raised by deaf-mute parents, which explained most of his abnormalities and he knew a strange mutation of sign language that he and Ned used along with speech to communicate.

As Ned was about to slam his car door shut, he noticed Red asleep in the middle of his massive garden. The first time Ned witnessed this strange sight he almost called 911, when Benny stopped him and informed him that Red liked to sleep among his vegetables, as he thought it enhanced their growth.

Ned gently shut the door to his car and spied Galaxie lying next to Red. Galaxie spotted Ned and lovingly pawed at Red’s forehead. Red stirred and sat up. He rubbed his face, wiping away the sleep and at the same time smearing dirt all over his tanned face. Benny always said Red looked like a redneck lifeguard. Handsome and country all rolled into one perfect package. Red had brown eyes and brown hair that was longer than most young men his age. His body was lanky but firm and stout like a man who had worked everyday of his life doing something physical. What made it all strange was how he carried himself like a timid monk.

Ned walked slowly toward Red, giving him a moment to wake up and to figure out where he was in the universe. Ned felt a warmth growing inside him as most people did when graced with Red’s company.

Red popped up and looked down at Galaxie who was looking at him. “You good, good girl, Galaxie. You take care of Red and Red take care of you.” Galaxie rubbed against Red’s leg and he bent over and scratched the top of her head.

“Snap out of it buddy!” Ned called as he walked over to Red.

The two men shook hands and exchanged a warm look.

“I haven’t seen Benny around town in a few days,” Ned declared. “I thought you would probably know where he’s run off and gone.”

“Bendy in bad, bad trouble. Red worried about Bendy.”

“What did he do?” Ned asked confused.

“He not doing nothing. What somebody be doing to him be the bad, bad way to treat a peoples.”

“Oh,” Ned said, utterly confused. Thankfully, from his experiences with Red he knew if he let him keep talking it would all eventually make sense.

“When me and Bendy throwing strings into water and pulling out fishes, Vernon come on dock looking like he poop he pants and tell Bendy that Reverend Jim need to do some talking with him for money.”

“Oh, I see,” Ned said, nodding his head up and down with understanding. “Reverend Jim has hired Benny to help with the case of finding his son, Brother Jim.”

“That be what I just say,” Red shot back, looking at Ned like he was thick.

“You certainly did,” Ned conceded. “Well, is there anything you need?”

“Nope,” Red said. “You need something from Red.”

Ned was not sure if this was a question or a statement.

Thankfully, Red finished his thought and said, “You need a bag of vegables from Red garden.”

“I would love a bag of vegetables.”

As Red walked the garden and filled a brown paper bag with vegetables for Ned, Galaxie followed. Ned watched with wonder. Red talked with her the entire way around the garden and showed her some of the vegetables he picked. At one point, they both stopped simultaneously and looked up. Three crows flew over, and Red dropped the brown bag. Red didn’t move and Galaxie hissed and mewed as if she was injured. Red’s face paled and his hands trembled. After a full minute, Red picked up the bag and walked over to Ned.

“Did you seeing that?” Red asked Ned.

“The crows?”

“Three in crows equal gray news.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“I don’t heared it, I knowed it,” Red answered. “Mama always scared of crows and call thems black angels. Daddy say not to be scare until they come in threes. I see three sitting on he tractor the day before he dead. I didn’t believe. Now, Red believe.”

“So, what do you think it means?” Ned asked.

“I don’t thinking, I knowing,” Red said seriously. “The black angels be flying south. Bendy south in Florida. Bendy in trouble.”

Chapter 5

Reverend Jim’s mega church sat atop the highest point in Coldwater County, Mississippi. The steeple could be seen from miles and the chiming of its bells could be heard from even farther. Reverend Jim’s compound was positioned west of the church, so he could see the sun rise over his church each and every morning.

His compound consisted of his incredibly large residence, his office, and a multitude of office buildings disguised as barns for his closest and most trusted employees. There was also a studio for taping Hollywood quality productions. It was equipped with the latest and best sound, video, and lighting equipment on the market.

Reverend Jim had a gentleman on his books who had received a prestigious award for work he did on a film for Hollywood about pirates. His services cost Reverend Jim a fortune, but in his mind they were well worth the price.

The compound was surrounded by an enormous metal fence, surveillance equipment, and security guards. The office buildings/barns on the compound were mostly painted red, which was not an uncommon sight in the country side. The one that housed the office of Reverend Jim was gold and adorned with a singular silver star that was fashioned as a weathervane but exceedingly oversized. Reverend Jim’s weathervane did not point north, south, east, and west, as most did. It had an arrow pointing upward to heaven and one down toward hell.

The interior of his office contained one enormous room. In the middle, a rectangular stage rose five feet above the ground floor or about half as high as a loft might. In the center, sat a piece of furniture and a work of fine, high art—Reverend Jim’s desk. The desk itself was enormous. It went left, it went right, and it basically wrapped around the red leather chair that was a whole other story entirely.