Restless Spirits by Jean Marie Bauhaus

Author:Jean Marie Bauhaus
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Daydreamer Publishing
Published: 2013-12-21T23:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

I stood on the front porch. I could see the overgrown yard, and the sidewalk and street beyond. We weren't in the best part of town. Most of the houses across the street had bars on the doors and windows, and the ones that didn't had plastic taped over broken window panes. The house directly across had a junked out refrigerator sitting on the front porch and an old car up on blocks in the driveway. Garbage overflowed from the trash cans sitting on the curb and spilled out into the street.

It was the most beautiful sight I ever saw.

I savored the moment. On impulse, I tried to breathe in the fresh air. I couldn't, of course, but I could feel a breeze wafting through me, and it was a cleansing sensation. Giddy with freedom, I stepped down from the porch and made my way to the sidewalk. The street lights were too bright to make out many stars, but the moon was high and almost full, and gave everything an almost ethereal glow.

I closed my eyes and listened to the sounds of life all around me. Neighborhood dogs bayed at distant sirens, and a block or so over a car stereo thumped a heavy bass rhythm. Somewhere an owl hooted, and a nighthawk screeched. The steady thrum of traffic on the nearby expressway provided constant white noise. I opened my eyes. A police cruiser was coming down the block, but otherwise the streets were empty of people. Just a couple of blocks south, the street ended at a major arterial road, on the other side of which sat a dive bar that usually had cars parked out front at all hours of the day. It was dark and silent, its lights turned off and its parking lot empty, which told me it was super late--or super early, depending on your perspective. Local liquor laws forced the bars to close at two a. m. This time of night, in this part of town? Anyone walking around was either a potential trouble-maker or a potential victim.

I started down the street. After a couple of blocks I ran into one brave soul who was out in his bathrobe, walking his pit bull. I guess that made it pretty easy to be brave. A week ago that dog would have made me nervous, but now I could slip past it unnoticed. Except that it noticed me. As I drew near it stared right at me and growled low in its throat. I froze, forgetting for a second there that I couldn't be mauled to death.

"What is it, Duke?" asked the owner. "What do you see?"

As if in answer, the dog barked at me. Have you ever had a pit bull bark at you at close range? It's disconcerting, to say the least. Enough so that it shocked me out of my instinctual fear. When my heart failed to pound in my throat, I remembered my state of being, and felt stupid for being afraid.

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