Babble Bubble

Previously
“Charlie IS married?” Dana uttered dazed. She assumed, probably knew, but this still took her by surprise. “Charlie is married.”

CONTINUED

“Charlie, get up” the voice virtually commanded him, “and turn around.”

Charlie would do anything at that moment to not do that. He began listing every horrible act he could imagine and offered his performance of each one to any deity listening, but none answered. He swore to be the best Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, and Satanist, whatever it took if he did not have to turn around. No deity took him up on his offer. He offered to go right to a police station and confess to whatever it was he did if he could just leave right now.

“Charlie.” Obviously turning himself in was not going to be an option either. “I am here for you Charlie, not against you. I am here to help. Turn around and face me Charlie.”

Charlie slowly rose to his feet and turned around as slowly as humanly possible. His entire body was facing the source of the voice while his head was still turned around as much as he could. It was going to be the last thing to face whatever it was. He even closed his eyes so that he had a few extra seconds before he had to see it.

The voice was so large and full that the source of it had to be monstrous. He knew the voice and knew it was not where it was supposed to be. He did not need to see Michelle’s dead body and did not want to go home. He wanted this voice back in his head where it belonged and silent for just a few hours.

“It is not what you think Charlie” it said. It sounded smaller now. “Open your eyes Charlie.”

Charlie partially opened his left eye and saw a blurry collection of lines everywhere. Realizing it was his eyelashes; he opened his eye fully and still saw a blur. It took a few moments for his focus to return before he could make out… Adam.

“Still have that lighter Charlie?”

“Ye…ye…yea, “Charlie was officially confused. “Adam?”

“Yes. Adam, but not really Adam.”

With the night Charlie had and the morning he was having, this conversation was making sense so far. He was just happy it was not in his head this time. He was happy to actually see who he was talking to.

It certainly looked like Adam. It was obvious it couldn’t have been Adam really because it would mean Adam had not aged a single day, but it was a really good rendition of Adam from the early 90’s. It was Adam right down to the mostly shaven head with the “Hara Krishna” ponytail, badly shaven stubble, and blue “Adidas” shirt.

Charlie tossed Adam the lighter and Adam lit a joint. He took a huge hit and looked up to Charlie. “You don’t smoke anymore, right?”

“Yea, I mean no. I quit when I got married.”

“Just as well,” he said tossing the joint off as he approached Charlie. “You got to go home anyway.”

This Adam had a charm about him the original never could dream of faking. He acted like a man who has “read the script”. “Read the script” was a “Dead Shed” term for those characters that seemed to know things they should not know in a movie. The joke was “that character obviously read the script”. It transferred into what other people would call “déjà vu” or just sheer luck when something goes how you planned exactly. Adam acted like he never knew any other way of feeling.

“What are you?”

“I get the feeling you are not going to go home until we get past this. I suppose the closest thing to what I am would be a ‘Guardian Angel’, but I am not an angel and I do not really guard. I more guide, but “Guide-ian Angel” sounds horrible.
“Basically, me and mine are hiding and following and guiding you through life. Well, not just you but all your kind. We are evolution. We are inspiration. We are the muse. “Not out of benevolence so much as boredom on our part, but either way it’s what we do.”

“And you ‘guided’ me to kill my wife?” Charlie was getting that kind of rage a cat gets when you have toyed with it that one moment too long and it is no longer playing with you. Although he was not sure what this thing was, he was wondering if he could hurt it.

“No Charlie, you cannot hurt me and no Charlie, I did not guide you to murder. I took you as my project the day I gave you the lighter. I guided you to Michelle and I kept Kevin at bay. The problem was I was not alone with you. Like I said, Charlie, we.
“How can I explain this? Ever notice that voice in your head, your inner monologue sometimes uses ‘I’ and sometimes uses ‘you’? Did you never think that strange or did you just assume everyone did it? There are many of us working around you Charlie and we each have our own goals and objectives.”

“Then why don’t you stop them?!” Charlie could not believe he believed this, but it was sadly making sense to him.

“Because I cannot see them any better than you could see me before. We are only seen by who we want to see us and only when we want them to. That goes for each other as well.
“You must go home Charlie. You did not kill Michelle. She is home and worried.”

Charlie fell to the floor. He was with Adam up to that point. The memories were vague and short, but he thinks he has memories of the crime. He has spent the entire night tormented over the crime. He finally had accepted he had killed Michelle just in time to learn he didn’t. Charlie now hoped he was insane.

TO BE CONTINUED