Wayne and Beth
A Short Story By:
Michael Peterson
Wayne was sitting outside of his house, watching all the birds fly gracefully into the warm summer air. He relaxed, thinking of the old days when he sat on the dock at his grandmother's cottage, located on the waterfront.
His small Peaceful moment was ruined when a police car, followed by an ambulance, flew past him toward a crowd of people.
He got up, and quickly made his way to the scene. As he approached his destination, he noted it was outside a bar. He watched as cops surrounded the crowd, holding them back from a fight.
The two people fighting saw the cops and both, fighting along the way, ran into the bar.
He jumped by an officer who was not paying attention, and ran through the doorway, following the story.
'I always wanted to be a reporter,' thought Wayne.
As he entered the bar, he was greeted by a glass bottle flying at his head. Wayne was lucky enough to see it coming and dropped. Another police officer, who tried to pull Wayne out, took it to his head and fell, crimson glass shards in his hair.
Wayne saw the two fighters still at it while more people started to join.
'This is going to be a riot if the cops don't act now,' he thought.
His thoughts were interrupted when he saw movement form behind a flipped table. Wayne then saw a path to it on his left from behind the bar.
He moved swiftly to the other end of the bar, ducking everything from tables to people.
'What a day,' Wayne thought.
As he made it to the table, he saw again a slight movement, but this time caught a glimpse of a nametag. 'Beth,' it read.
Moving over the chair that blocked his path, he dove over and behind the table.
"You okay?" he asked
" Oh, I'm fine. How's your day going?" Beth asked sarcastically.
'Hehe, we'll get along just fine' Wayne thought to himself.
He was interrupted when the cops finally got into the door, clubs drawn. The people of the riot threw their hands in the air and were taken into custody.
"Well," said Beth, " Can I take your order?"
'Eyup, just fine,'.
3 Weeks Later…
Wayne woke up on what he called 'the most average day', Saturday. He called it this because of what people did and in what order they did it.
'First; shopping. Second; relaxing. Third; work if any.' Wayne thought in his head.
As he dressed, Wayne heard his phone vibrating on a metal locker cabinet. Everyone had one in the apartment complex.
'Gotta get a better spot for that thing,' he thought as he went to answer the call.
He glanced at his caller ID. It was Beth.
They had been hanging out for about a month now and just having fun. "Friends," Beth's words came rushing back to him. However, Wayne thought something more…
"Hello?" Beth said over the phone.
"Hey, hi, ya." Wayne said startled.
"Hey?" Beth said confused at Wayne's behavior.
"Sorry," replied Wayne.
"Ok, hey so, anyway, my sister is getting married in Florida and I wanted to go, and so she said that I could bring someone, and I wanna bring you, but if you can't that's fine. I know that you are an undertaker and all but…"
"I can go," Wayne said simply.
"Really? Cool! I'll see you at 9:00 this morning. We already have tickets, but, well I have tickets but you don't but..."
"Beth," Wayne said.
"...and so I think—,"
"Beth!" Wayne shouted.
"Oh, sorry, what?"
"It's 8:00, I'll be there in an hour. Okay?" he asked.
"Okay, good, see ya, bye!" Beth said happily.
"Bye." Wayne said, hanging up.
At 9:05, Wayne was sitting patiently as he waited for Beth to come out of her house. Her parents bought it for her because she paid for herself to go through collage.
Another minute passed. Beth finally came out with a huge box of assorted items for the wedding.
"Ready?" Wayne asked Beth, as she got in the car.
"Mph," Beth's answer was muffled by the box.
"I'll take that as a yes," Wayne said seriously as he pulled into the traffic.
2 Hours Later…
Beth was sitting in a window seat of the small sized plane. She glanced over at Wayne, who was looking very sick. She glared at him, worry building up inside her.
Wayne was scared out of his mind. He had never been on a plane before and something from his past killed his apparition for aircraft…
1987 December 23: 19:48—Toronto, Canada.
Wayne was extremely tired, Being almost 8:00 at night. He was used to being up late but this was different. He had been up all night traveling through a snow storm with his friends and family to get to an airport, and back to LA.
When he got to the teller, he handed her his pre-purchased ticket.
"I'm sorry sir," the teller said, "But this ticket is to a flight to LA in 30 minutes, you'll have to step aside."
"But I—," Wayne was cut off.
"Come on Wayne," said his friend Barry, "We are all very tired, just wait."
"Uhhh," Wayne replied, exhausted.
He then found a waiting seat in the lounge, and plopped himself down.
5 Minutes later…
Wayne watched as his friends and family flew into the midnight sky. He observed the beautiful stars and the large moon…
Suddenly, he heard a boom as the night was pierced by a light. Wayne then watched as his friend and families plane fell from the sky.
Wayne sat back in his seat on the plane and looked up at the ceiling, trying to clear his thoughts.
"You good?" asked Beth.
"Ya, I'm a bit sick that's all." Wayne replied glumly.
Beth stopped pressing even though she knew he wasn't ok. As the plane took off, Wayne started to get nervous.
'This'll be a long flight' Wayne thought.
At 1:30 Beth was sick of flying. She went to the bathroom 5 times now, just to get some privacy. She started to get board of sitting around so, she got up and walked to the snack bar near the front of the plane.
On the way there, she noticed a man with a cigarette in his hand. She kept eye contact for a second then continued to the front of the plane with one thought in her mind,
'This is a no smoking flight…'
Beth made her way back to her seat. On the way back she noticed a panel on the floor in a jumble of tubes and wires. She sat down in her seat next to Wayne. She started to smell something in the air. Gas. As the oxygen masks deployed, she had only a second to see the man with the cigarette click his lighter.
'No…'Thought Beth.
Wayne looked around him. He was very dizzy but what does it matter, he was dreaming! He felt wet, covered from head to toe. He looked at the fish swimming around and the strange figure above, sinking slowly.
Beth slowly sunk and hit Wayne. He realized he was underwater and started to pull Beth and himself toward the fiery surface.
As he emerged, he saw all the debris around him. He found the door to the bathroom, and slowly paddled toward a strange tower.
30 seconds later…
Wayne helped Beth to her feet, and up toward the door. As he opened it he could smell a strange gas. Helium.
Wayne then toppled over and passed out.
Wayne looked at the light coming from the ceiling. His head was spinning. He stood up, and just then Beth awoke.
"Uhhh…" Beth said.
"It's helium. It should go away soon." Wayne said in a high pitched voice.
Looking across from were they were, Beth noticed that there was a stair well that went down, into the building. As she walked over there she started to collapse. Wayne swooped in and caught her before she fell, and brighter back to the entrance.
"Lets wait," Wayne said
She just nodded and sat down.
An hour passed, then two, then three. The gas was still there slowly subsiding. Beth had mentally, given up.
She started to walk over to the steps.
Wayne stood to follow her.
"The gas is almost gone." he said.
"So lets go!" Beth said happily.
After you," Wayne said sarcastically.
Beth shot him a mad look, then she smiled.
As they made it to the bottom, they saw a landing with more stairs leading to an elevator. Outside the elevator was the man with the cigarette.
Beth woke with a start. She was scared out of her mind. She got up, and went to her kitchen for a glass of water. As she poured a glass she saw someone light a cigarette.
"You!" Beth shouted, enraged.
The figure ran to the elevator, pressing the bottom button and the doors closed.
"Beth! What was that?" Wayne said, confused.
"He blew up the plane!"
"Okay, lets wait for the elevator to come up and then go and find him," Wayne said confidently.
A few seconds later the elevator came back up and the two got in. Beth felt all the buttons until she came across one which was warm. She pressed it, as the elevator began to descend.
In a minute, they made there way to the level of which the cigarette man was on. They stepped out, and Wayne was greeted with a glass flying at his head. His vision faded out.
As for Beth, she ducked, then glanced around at what looked like a city. It was beautiful, yet horrid, for there were corpses of humans everywhere. She looked up and saw nothing but a can shaped item flying at her head and then a bang
Wayne looked over at Beth who was in straps, and had bandages all over. He looked up at a person in a red suit who asked loudly to be heard over the sound of helicopters,
"What's your story?"
Wayne was too tired and just passed out.
As all this happened, Beth had happened to look out at the ocean, and she swore on her grave, that a figure of the night waved to her, cigarette in its hand, before going into a tower