"Tommy's Story"
By Joseph "Maniac" Cirillo III
Day 1
Water is it? I can feel it covering my body. No, its rain, it must be rain. Normally I hate getting caught in the rain but right now this feels like the best feeling I could have, it's the first thing I've felt since I was plugged into the sphere and now I know for sure that I am defiantly not dead.
But where am I? It's so dark. I can't see a thing around me. I gotta reach into my pocket. It has to be there, it just has to.
Tommy reached into the pocket of his leather jacket. Sure enough it was in there, in the deepest part of his right pocket. He pulled out his trusty Zippo lighter and ignited it. The amber light from the flame shed the light needed on where he was.
"I'm in the back of my truck. How did I get here? I thought my truck was taken before the bar got torn up."
Tommy held up his Zippo. He stood on both of his two feet slowly in the back of his truck's rear. While the light was minimal, it was all he needed.
"Oh my god the bar!"
Tommy rushed out of the truck and right into the wreckage. The bar was destroyed in every way that was possible and in a few ways that were impossible. Timber lay all over the ground, neon signs that used to shine brightly over the bar were in shattered pieces all over the place. The video machines were smashed but otherwise in one piece. Everything that had been Tommy's life lay on the ground in pieces. It was destroyed.
"Gone, just gone. Everything that Jen and I had worked for…everything that we had, is dust."
Tommy held his head.
"This is pointless, I've got to get out of the rain before I get sick. I can deal with this tomorrow. Right now I just need some sleep."
Tommy walked back over to the truck door and finding it to be unlocked he opened it. His keys were still in the ignition, which were exactly as he left them. With a turn of the key he started the engine and turned the heater on. Slowly the car started to warm up, and he could feel the warm air blowing slowly on his wet skin. The warm air slowly took his chill from the rain away. Tommy turned up the radio and switched the channel, hoping to hear if anything was on the news about the events he had just been a part of.
"From the high desert in the Great American Southwest I'm Art Bell. I'll tell you folks it's been one hell of a night. I've been getting call-ins from all across the southwest saying that for the time being it seems the lights that have been moving across Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona have disappeared. While this seems to go against what my recent guest had said about this particular event in time, NASA has strangely enough confirmed unusual solar activity over the last hour. Whatever was out there, it appears that some one or some thing has saved us from it, and Art Bell and the rest of the Coast to Coast Radio crew would just like to say to whomever it was, if you're listening, we are in your debt. From the high desert, this is Art Bell signing off."
Tommy chuckled, closed his eyes and drifted immediately off to sleep.
Day 2
"…and it appears that those strange lights seen over the Northwest last evening was the lights from a Korean Typodong 2 missile that was being tested and failed to self destruct before being a violation of international law. The toll of those dead or missing is still in the process of being counted, but early reports are in the thousands, many of those being young children under the age of six. For our local network affiliates, this is Kyra Silver."
The sounds of the morning news report woke Tommy up from his slumber. He felt like he had slept for a thousand years but after checking the radio's clock it had only been a few hours. It was six AM, time for him to wake. The sun was starting to rise, casting a beautiful red sky across the sacred land. In front of him lay what used to be The Roadhouse, his girlfriend's bar. It was still just as destroyed in the morning as it had been the night before.
The bar was in Jen's name, but in her last insurance revision she had listed Tommy as a codependent in case something was to happen to her. She kept all the records in a fireproof box in a safe behind the bar. Tommy had to assure himself as he searched for what seemed like hours through the wreckage that these records would have survived a nuclear war.
There was rubble everywhere and before long he was covered in dust. The wood had been completely charred from fire and lay in splinters all over the ground. It made it hard to navigate through the pile, as pieces were all over the place. What was once the bathroom was now in the gaming area. But while it looked like it was impossible, it was still fixable. A beacon of light from the morning sun shined across the pile and Tommy could see a glare coming out of the pile. That glare could only come from something metal. He pulled back the rubble and sure enough the box appeared in front of Tommy. He pulled it out of the rubble.
Locked. Typical. If only he had something to break it with. He took the box and brought it back to the truck. He started the engine and drove into town. The radio fizzled back on.
"…and you just heard the number one requested song of the day, that was After Midnight Project with "Take me Home"."
Tommy turned the radio off. He was too burnt out to hear any more news.
"I'll drive into town, go to a hardware store, get a bite to eat, and contact the insurance company."
Tommy was starving, he hadn't had something to eat in over a day. First rule of business for the warrior was survival, and Tommy's stomach was so empty his whole body was cramping. He still had his wallet on him, the aliens hadn't seen fit to take it from him, as it was no value to them. All his money, his credit cards, and his driver's license were still on him.
He pulled into the local diner, a place he would go for breakfast occasionally before heading to work at the garage. The people there knew him pretty well, and they were nice. With the metal box under his arm, he walked into the diner and sat down at stools.
The waitress walked over and handed Tommy a cup of coffee.
"Tommy! Oh thank God you're all right. I had heard that the Roadhouse was destroyed last night! They said that you were in it. Some people went searching for you but couldn't find anything, the bar had been totally taken away."
"No Meg I'm fine. The Roadhouse had been caught in a bad storm. I guess I must've blacked out."
Tommy lay his head down and said, "But Jen and Enisi weren't so lucky. They died when the storm destroyed the bar. I was lucky, there's no other way to describe it."
"Oh my God Tommy, I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do for you?"
Tommy took a sip of his coffee. "Yeah, I was going through the wreckage and I found Jen's records for the bar. Everything in this box is all of Jen's insurance information, but I can't get the lock open. Is there anyone here with a set of tools on them? I'm afraid I can't find my wrench."
"Sure thing Tommy, I think Dave has a set of tools, he should be able to open those no problem."
The waitress walked back into the kitchen for a moment and brought out a stack of pancakes swimming in butter and maple syrup.
"It's on the house Tommy, eat up. I'll see if I can find someone with a set of tools."
As she walked away Tommy dove into his pancakes like feeding frenzy at sea world. The pancakes were nothing extraordinary but to Tommy's empty stomach at that moment they felt like mana from heaven. As he ate down the food, he listened casually at the conversation going on behind him.
"Phil, you've got a set of tools don't you?"
"Yeah hon I've got them in the truck. I need them for a job today. Lots of people's houses have been damaged from that storm."
"Could you help this friend of mine? He's having some trouble getting into his girlfriend's records, he needs to open them but they're locked."
"Sure thing. Should only take a minute. Was it a tough looking box?"
"No, pretty normal."
"Well there's a tool for that. There's a tool for everything."
With that the conversation ended. The waitress walked back up to him and said, "Don't worry Tommy, Phil said he'd open your box no problem. Just enjoy your pancakes."
Phil came back in with a pair of pliers and a hammer. He broke the lock in less than a second. After finishing the lock he looked right at Tommy.
"Is your girlfriend okay son?"
Tommy took another sip of his coffee and replied, "No, she's not. She died last night. I'm just trying to pick up the pieces right now."
The man opened up the box. All the records for the bar lay right in front of him, totally intact. Tax records, business information, and most importantly her insurance information. Tommy started to go through the paperwork while he finished his coffee. After some searching he found what he was looking for. Jen had listed him as next of kin. The bar was now his. He had to contact the insurance agency immediately.
Tommy took one last sip of his coffee and one last bite of his pancakes. He stood up and took his information with him.
"Thanks Meg, I appreciate it," was all Tommy could say.
The waitress nodded at him and smiled as he walked out. Tommy got back into his truck. Starting the engine he looked at the address listed on the insurance forms.
"Heading there would probably be a good idea. I could stake a claim in person. This shouldn't be an issue."
It wasn't an issue. Tommy went to the insurance company with all the documents he had. Since the bar was now legally his, and it had not been destroyed intentionally, the insurance company was willing to give Tommy the money needed to rebuild it.
Tommy was overjoyed when he heard the news, but there was something that still troubled him. After all that he had been through, he wasn't able to give Jen or his grandfather the proper burials they deserved. He had to admit to himself that he had not forgotten that it was his Cherokee roots that allowed him to survive the sphere. Grandfather had tried to tell him that neglecting his roots would bring about consequences, but he was just too stubborn to realize it until Jen had been taken from him.
He quietly drove back to the reservation where by now the sun was getting ready to set. He could hear the wolves in the distance preparing for their evening meals. It was beautiful on the reservation tonight. While he had denied it most of his life, it had always been beautiful on the reservation. He was always just so interested in leaving it that he ignored taking a true look at it. But now he knew that a part of himself was forever held here in this sacred land. Even with Jen and grandfather gone, he still had their spirits forever watching over him. He had to honor their lives by respecting this land and that honor would begin with him returning to his life.
He finally made it back to the remains of the Roadhouse as the sun was starting to set. He gathered up some of the building's timber and put it together in an area surrounded with some smooth round stones. A perfect bonfire was now ready, exactly as he had seen it in the Land of the Ancients. He pulled out his zippo lighter and lit the wood ablaze. It slowly caught fire, but once it started to spread it spread quickly. Within moments the cold blue of night was overpowered by the blazing amber of the fire.
Tommy looked long into the fire. In front of him burned a beacon to his people. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
Grandfather, speak to me. I need your guidance.
In a second he was swept away.
Day 3
Tommy emerged on a sun bathed valley. He recognized it immediately as The Land of the Ancients. As he walked through the narrow canyon that had become all too familiar to him during his experience on the Sphere he came into the open. Over the cliff was mountains for as far as the eye could see. Tommy turned to the fire that burned brightly in the center of the land.
"I need to know what I'm supposed to do now Grandfather. My life on Earth is nothing without you and Jen. What am I supposed to do here Grandfather? Please tell me."
In a blast of white light Tommy's grandfather stepped out of the fire and appeared in front of him. Tommy smiled seeing his grandfather was safe in his new home. After the Hunters had invaded the Land of the Ancients, he worried there would have been permanent damage to the sacred land. Enisi looked to his grandson with all the love he could give.
"The Earth still needs you in ways you do not yet realize. That is why you are still alive Domassi. We could not allow you to die while you still had important things yet left for you. Unfortunately it is not truly time for you to take the seven trials. When we received premonitions that the Dark Ones were about to invade our land the elders decided that you were needed to fight them and told me to accelerate your training. I told them that you were not yet ready to undergo the trials but they believed that given the circumstances you would be able to endure them."
"But I am ready for the trials Enisi!"
"Tommy." Enisi walked up to his Grandson and put his hand on Tommy's shoulder. "Just three days ago you didn't believe any of what you're seeing was possible."
Tommy lowered his head and shook it. He knew Enisi was right.
"Do not despair grandson, you will be ready in time. You must return to the land of the living and rebuild your life on Earth."
"But how? How can I go back to my life after all the atrocities that I've seen?"
"Tommy. Your life is very important. You can always trust in the Cherokee spirit to guide you."
"Do I still have the power grandfather?"
"You've always had the power grandson. I just helped you find it. The power will always be within you. Never forget that, because you are a Cherokee. You must go now but do not forget my words. You must rebuild."
"But wait, I'm not supposed to have these powers now! How am I supposed to live with them? How am I supposed to rebuild?"
A blinding flash tore through the sky, forcing Tommy to shut his eyes. For a moment he felt his entire body consumed by flame.
Day 4
A cold air passed over Tommy's body. Tommy opened his eyes and screamed. But slowly the world went back into phase. Had he been sleeping? How long had he been sleeping? Tommy looked down on his wrist and checked his watch. If his watch was working properly, an entire day had passed since he started his meditation. Had he been asleep for twenty four hours?
He gazed into the fire and saw that it was still burning brightly. How could he have slept an entire day?
Tommy stood up and walked back over to the truck. He was fed up and wasn't going to take it anymore. The bar was in a hopeless condition. Even if he got the insurance money for the cost of repairing it, it would not matter. Jen was not there to run it anymore. His life should have ended and it didn't. He should be dead but he wasn't. He might as well have died, he had no reason to live. Jen was dead, Enisi was dead, his future was dead and he was doomed to walk the Earth without a future, without a purpose and he was fed up with it. He turned on the ignition to his truck and fired up his engine. He didn't want to think of anything anymore, he just wanted to rest. He wanted to have a long rest in his own bed.
The first place he was headed was home. He lived in a small apartment just over the garage. The garage had been left untouched during the invasion, likely because there was nobody in it when he was at the Roadhouse. He pulled into the driveway and got out of the truck. He pulled open the garage door and pulled the truck in. There was little fanfare when he shut the engine off, but he was glad to be home.
He walked up to his small apartment and unlocked the door. He switched on the light and the bulb sparked to life for the first time in days. Home was a thirty by fifty foot square of an attic over his garage. He bought the garage shortly after he graduated high school. High School had been very bad to him and he had no interest in going to college. But without college the only thing he could do was find a job. Tommy had always liked working on cars as a kid, and as he knew all too well he was very good with a monkey wrench. Then the garage's owner had died and the property hit the market for a very good deal. He had to take out a few loans but he bought it and turned it into a lucrative business.
The building came with an attic apartment he promptly moved into. That was the same apartment he was living in right that moment. He had a small twin sized bed, barely enough for him to sleep in, let alone anyone else. Tommy walked over to the bed and sat on it. He took off his jacket and threw it on the floor.
He also had a desk for filling out all the paperwork he needed, and he even had put a picture of him and Jen together on it. Tommy looked up from the bed to the desk. When he saw the picture of him and Jen together he shut his eyes. He couldn't bear to look at it. He got up from the bed and slammed the picture down on the desk.
"No Jen…I can't…I just can't." He shut his eyes tightly and tears started welling up in his eyes. He walked back over to his bed and sat down.
He looked back at the desk as if Jen were sitting there on it and said, "I can't rebuild the bar. There's too much destruction. I can't rebuild it all by myself. I don't have the equipment or the manpower! It's over Jen! I'm finished with this!"
Tommy turned away, unable to look at the face down picture anymore. He got up and walked over to the bathroom. He turned on the sink and let the water fill up in the bowl. He took the water in his hands and splashed it onto his face. He looked back up to himself in the mirror.
"Real tough guy."
He eyed himself with hatred. He was no hero. He couldn't save anyone, not even himself.
"Can't do anything right."
He turned off the sink and pounded hard on the porcelain. It made a loud bang but didn't break. Tommy walked out of the bathroom.
A wave of exhaustion flew over Tommy. It was like he had been up for three days straight. He could not have been dreaming when he saw Grandfather, he had to have been awake. There is no way he could have slept for a day and be this exhausted. He sat back down on his bed and pulled off his boots. He took a deep breath and looked back at the empty desk.
"Jen…please talk to me."
He stared at the overturned picture.
"Jen, please."
The picture did not move. Nothing appeared to him and nothing happened. He was alone. Tommy put his head on his bed and closed his eyes. He fell asleep almost immediately.
Day 5
Tommy's phone started to ring. It startled Tommy out of his deep sleep. Tommy groggily got out of bed and picked up the phone.
"Hello," he said in a weak voice.
"Hello, is this Tommy?" said the voice on the other end.
"Yes. Can I help you?"
"Yeah, my name is Max Johnson, I'm a contractor. I got a fax from your insurance company. They said that you needed to rebuild a bar of yours that was destroyed in a storm."
"The Roadhouse. Actually Max…I don't think I'll be…"
"Great well it's really no problem. I think we could rebuild it in about two months."
"Two months? Are you kidding?"
"Well you see I have a large crew here of about forty men and we heard about what happened over there with all the destruction. We were all so upset, we heard people were dead and others were without homes. So you see all these construction companies called up the insurance companies over there saying that we'd be glad to help in any way we could."
"So why help me? I still have my home, it was just my girlfriend's business."
"Well you see they told us that you lost both your girlfriend and your grandfather in that storm. I just had to call and tell you we'd be more than happy to fix your place free of charge."
"Free? But the insurance money…"
"Is yours to keep to get your business back on its feet. Don't worry Tommy, we won't charge a dime."
Tommy smiled but he was a little skeptical of his good fortune.
"But how can you be so generous?"
"The damage done to your homes are now in the territory of the federal government. They've been hiring contractors left and right and paying us top dollar to fix people's homes. Your insurers referred us to you. I hope you don't mind us helping."
Tommy knew at that moment that Enisi was looking after him after all. He smiled for the first time in a long time.
"You there Tommy? Did I lose you? These cell phones are just horrible."
Tommy came back to himself and said, "No…not at all. In fact I would appreciate all the help you could offer very much. When can you get started?"
Day 6
The morning sky rose over the remains of what had been The Roadhouse. Tommy walked with Max up to the remains. Max was an older man, about forty years old. He wore a red flannel shirt and a yellow hard hat and his gut was slightly over his waist.
"This is it Tommy?" said Max.
Tommy looked back at him. "Yeah, this is it. This is all that's left."
"Whee doggie. I guess that must've been one hellova storm. I'll have to get my destruction crew out here to go through the rubble and get salvage and recycle everything we can. I'm sure a lot of this stuff can be reused in some way, and if we can't, we could just sell it as scrap and buy new stuff."
Max walked into the rubble and started going over it.
"You were in the bar when it got destroyed. How the hell did you survive this?"
Tommy knew that Max was no fool. He had to make sure his cover up was airtight.
"I don't know, I was knocked unconscious and ended up in the back of my truck. When I came to the bar was like this and there was no sign of Jen or Enisi."
Max nodded. He bought the lie.
"Terrible tragedy."
"Yeah. I guess so."
Day 60
The bar was shaping up nicely. Tommy helped Max's team out as much as he could, but he still had to make ends meet by working at the garage. It was still quite difficult work but he had found a new purpose in life.
Max's team had finished most of the work on the interior of the bar. All that was left was some aesthetic things that he could do himself. The lights were not yet in, and there was still scaffolding all over the place that had to be removed. However, the radio certainly worked, and most of the guys spent their nights listening to the local news or the Art Bell radio show.
"Hey Tommy!" It was Max coming out of the basement. After a few days of digging they uncovered the building's foundation. It had been entirely filled by layers of dirt and took some major digging to get at.
"What's up Max?"
"Yeah I found this box in the basement. It was buried pretty well but when we finally unearthed it we found the strangest thing. Nothing in here was touched, everything was in perfect condition. It has your name on it so I wanted to give it to you."
Tommy shrugged. He wasn't aware of any boxes of his stuff in the basement. Max handed him the box and Tommy took a look at it. It was in a Ryane Red box, one of the boxes that had probably ended up on the Sphere.
Tommy put it on the bar and opened it up.
"Your stuff?" asked Max.
Tommy looked at the contents, there was only one item.
"Yeah it's mine." He replied.
Tommy looked down into the box. Inside was his monkey wrench.
The End.