Dressed in his slightly tattered grey winter coat, a Cleveland Browns knit hat and a Band-Aid in the
center of his forehead, Isaac stepped inside and gladly shook Levin's hand.
"Hi, Isaac," Levin warmly greeted.
Rubbing his cold hands together, Isaac smiled back, "How ya doin', man"
"Well, why don't you have a seat?" Jeremiah said as he sat himself down behind his compact desk.
Isaac took off his coat and hat and laid them on the leather couch behind him. He then tried to caress
some warmth into his arms. He was wearing a green Izod sweater and a faded pair of blue jeans, and
even in all of his layers the young man still felt like a six foot tall ice pick.
"Can I bum a smoke off of you, my man?" Isaac anxiously asked.
"Sure." Levin strangely eyed Isaac as he opened a drawer within his desk and took out a pack of
Marlboro's.
Isaac secured the cigarette from the doctor and waited until Levin whipped out a lighter to ignite the tip.
"I wasn't aware that you smoked." Levin curiously grinned.
Isaac sat down in the chair in front of the desk and stated, "I don't smoke in front of my father and kid.
But anywhere else, I'm game."
"I understand." Levin nonchalantly waved his hand. "Everyone here seems to frown upon anyone who
smokes anymore." He hopelessly sighed. "So, how are you doing these days?"
Gradually coming down from his cold fit, Isaac explained in between puffs, "Not bad. Been looking for a
job. And I got engaged the other night."
"Congratulations!" Levin lit up. "When is the wedding?"
"My lady says she wants a spring wedding, so, I figure it'll be sometime around April or May."
"Super, just super," Levin graciously smiled.
Isaac stared pensively at the doctor while taking a long drag on his cigarette. He wasn't accustomed to
being around such a young looking professional man. In a way, it put him at ease, it made him feel as
though he didn't have to live up to a lofty, generational expectation that seemingly everyone over the
age of forty had already set for him.
Studying Jeremiah with a keen eye, Isaac cunningly grinned, "You sure you're a psychiatrist and not
some college kid trying to get extra credit from his professor or something?"
Levin just sat back. "I'm actually five years older than you. I received my bachelors from Ohio State
when I turned twenty-three. I hope that meets your standards." He cracked a smile.
"Man, you must've been real smart back in high school. If it hadn't been for me smoking since the
eighth grade I probably would've joined the football team. And who knows, maybe the NFL."
"My dad once told me that smoking was the poetry of liars. It hides the true you behind a façade of so
called lethargy."
Isaac screwed up his face and giggled, "Your dad sounds like mine. I swear, that man can recite just
about every verse out of the bible, and ninety-nine percent of the time I don't have a damn clue as to
what he's talkin' about."
Jeremiah joined in on the humor while unhinging his tie. "I have an uncle who happens to be a rabbit in
Utica, New York. Till this day the man still gets me to recite verses out of the Tanakh."
"Does he have that real deep Jewish accent? You know, like he's gagging on something whenever he
talks?" Isaac smirked.
"Yep, that's my uncle Jerome alright." Levin lightheartedly chuckled.
"Don't get me wrong, I love my dad to death, but you get tired of always hearing bible verses night and
day. You would think after hearing it for twenty years that I'd have the whole bible memorized by now."
Isaac joked while squashing the butt of his cigarette out in the glass ashtray on the desk.
"So tell me, how do you and your father get along?"
"We're cool, I guess." Isaac exhaled.
"Just cool," Jeremiah queried.
"Yeah, I mean, besides what happened back in November, me and him see eye to eye."
"You mean with what took place back at that house? Doctor Sanyupta never went into much detail back
at Ashlandview."
"No, I mean me trying to hit my dad."
"Oh really," Levin panted. "What brought that on?"
"I don't know." Isaac sulked. "I wasn't exactly myself at the time. I swung at 'em, next thing I know, I
wake up in my bed with a swollen jaw."
"It was that bad, huh?"
"Have you ever seen my father? The man isn't exactly a lightweight, if you catch my drift."
"How did you feel when your father brought you to Ashlandview, Isaac?"
Isaac sat back in his seat and rolled his eyes upwards as though he were ailing. "At first, I was pissed. I
was pissed at a lot of things at the time. But when I finally came to and realized what I had done to both
him and my lady, him sending me to that place made all the sense in the world."
Levin pointed his eyes down at his desk and said, "Doctor Sanyupta mentioned that your mother was
deceased."
"Yeah, she died six years ago from a brain tumor."
"Would you say that her passing brought you and your father closer together?"
"I don't know, like I said, besides November, we always got along. If anything changed after my mom's
death, it had to be that my dad stopped working so much. I think he slowed down so he could spend
more time with me."
"You keep mentioning November." Levin insisted.
"Hold it right there." Isaac adamantly pointed. "I know what you're trying to do. Sanyupta did the same
thing. So before you try and go back in time with me, understand, I can barely remember what
happened yesterday, let alone three months ago."
"Really," Levin's eyes opened wide.
"Yeah, I keep on having these...blackouts. Sometimes I can't remember things. Hell, I can't even
remember how I got this knot on my forehead." Isaac pointed to his skull.
Levin picked up his ballpoint pen and began to jot something down on a piece of white notebook paper
in front of him.
"Doctor Sanyupta mentioned that you suffered from blackouts before. Have you seen a doctor about
them? Are any of these blackouts preceded by headaches of any sort?"
"Look, I don't have the money to go see a doctor just so he can tell me to take some Anacin. If it
weren't for the state paying for this visit I wouldn't be here now."
"I really want to get down to the root of these blackouts, Isaac, especially since they began after the
incident in November."
Isaac squirmed about in his seat like an impatient five year old at that moment. He tried to cut his eyes
away from the doctor's, but Levin was seemingly just as persistent in reaching his patient.
"The other night, I remember talking to my dad. Then I went and made some popcorn and watched
some TV. After that, everything went dark. When I woke up the next morning, I was hanging out of my
bed with the covers wrapped around my neck."
"I see." Levin murmured, still scribbling away on his pad. "Any headaches?"
"No, not really," Isaac shrugged. "And then there was yesterday. I remember waking up, eating
breakfast, talking to Lynn on the phone and then my dad taking me down to his job to see if I could get
on. Then, we got back in the car, my dad stopped at a red light, and...that's that." Isaac heavily
pondered while staring endlessly at the brown carpeted floor.
"Doctor Sanyupta did mention that you would see...another person in your bedroom from time to time."
Isaac blushed before he turned his head and exhaled as if he were too ashamed to hear anything more
come from the doctor's mouth.
"Isaac, look," Levin steadily spoke, extending his right hand outwards to Isaac, "it's just you and me in
here. The only other person that knows about this is Sanyupta. I'm not trying to pry, I just want to make
sure that you're okay."
Isaac looked up and coughed, acting as though he were trying to find the proper words to say at that
stage.
"Look, ever since what happened back in November, I've been seeing this...thing. I'm not even gonna
call it a person because I never see its face. It just comes out of nowhere, and then it just leaves. It
never speaks. It just walks around. I don't know if it's a ghost or if it's all in my head." He bashfully
explained. "Shit, I feel like Ford. I'm falling all over the fucking place."
"Isaac, I understand that you don't want to talk about what took place inside that house, but piece by
piece, it'll start to come together for you. I mean, I heard when they first brought you to Ashlanview that
you were a...for lack of a better term, a wreck. But after only a few weeks, you've made significant
improvement. You're a totally different man."
Blushing, Isaac began to snicker to himself as if he were recalling something funny before he said, "I
guess Sanyupta told you about what I thought I was."
Levin sat back and took off his glasses. "Uh, yeah," he modestly answered. "I'll admit that it's not
exactly what I expected to hear from a man like yourself."
"What you really mean to say is that you've never heard a colored person sat that he was a...you
know...that thing."
"I thought you people didn't like to be called colored." Levin haphazardly jibed while apparently waiting
for a smile to make its way to Isaac's face.
Isaac glared oddly at the doctor before laughing. He got the joke, he was just awestruck at the sheer
boldness of the person who was telling it.
"Isaac, look, I've been in this profession for two years now, and so far I've had three people tell me that
they were vampires. One guy that swears he's James Bond. Another person tell me that he's the
reincarnation of Attila the Hun, and a woman who believed that she was a ghost, even though she was
about as alive as you and I are right now. What you think you are is the least of your problems. It's
normal to have these thoughts. You saw three of your friends get killed. That would give anyone a jolt."
Isaac dropped his head and said, "Those cats weren't my friends. And as far as what happened back in
November, let's just say, for now...I got caught up in something totally unexpected."
"Well, speaking of the unexpected, I happened across some of your x-rays from your hospital visit after
the incident. Isaac, I just have to know, were you beaten up that night? Because your x-rays revealed
significant damage to your entire skeletal system. Extreme muscle strains. And even more amazing, it
appeared as though your body healed within days." Levin explained, sounding astonished.
Isaac once again regressed into his vegetative state of silence. He was determined not to go back in
time at all costs.
"I just can't even begin to imagine the utter pain and agony that you went through." Jeremiah nearly
lost his breath.
"Well, all I can say is that...I wasn't beaten up. And you're damn right, it was painful." He gritted his
teeth.
Just as it looked as if Levin were about to throw another barrage of inquiries at Isaac, he paused to
examine the young man who suddenly took on the eerie appearance of someone who wasn't even in
the same room alongside him.
Isaac sat in his seat, slumping closer and closer to the floor like he was about to melt right out of his
chair.
"I miss my mom." The young man uttered in a tone that seemed so distant.
"I beg your pardon?" Sitting up, Isaac reiterated,
"I said, I miss my mom. Sometimes she could be just like my dad, spitting bible verses left and right,
but for a long time, she was my best friend. I was the one that pulled away from her. I got to that age
when I thought I was too cool. Couldn't nobody tell me shit. I'll never forget the day before they took her
to the hospital, she and I argued because I wasn't doing my homework. That was the last time I spoke
to her before she passed. I always blamed myself for her dying."
With a look of syrupy sympathy in his blue eyes, Levin got up, sat down on the edge of his desk in front
of Isaac and said, "Guilt binds us in all sorts of trouble, Isaac. This so called ghost that you see, this
mythical creature that you think you are, it's all part of the culpability that you've been carrying all this
time. It finally materialized when those men were killed in that house. Do you feel guilty that you were
the only one that survived?"
Isaac's eyes shifted upwards to the doctor's face. "Guilt had nothing to do with what happened that
night. Everything that I felt that night was real. I'm talking about a second chance. When I was laid up in
Ashlandview, I got a chance to do a lot of thinking. I got a son. I look at a lot of brotha's out there now,
fuckin' up, doin' things they're not supposed to be doin'. I swore that I'd be different. I want my son to
look up to me like I look up to my dad. I want my fiancé to have a man that she can depend on. I swore
to God and even my own mother that I would be different. God spared my life that night because he
wanted to give me a second chance."
The more Isaac spoke, something inside of him began to twist and turn, much like a stomach ache, but
on a less gut wrenching level. He felt a crucifixion taking place.
"I was wrong. I was wrong about everything, but now, I can change things." Isaac continued on. "What
happened to me that night hasn't happened again since, and I wanna keep it that way."
Jeremiah, with a glare of confidence on his face, got up from off his desk and stuffed his hands into his
pants pockets.
"So, is that it?" Isaac eagerly asked.
"Yeah...yeah, I think so." Levin smiled.
"So tell me, do you still think I'm crazy?" Isaac questioned while stepping over and picking up his coat,
only to have several Crayola crayons fall from out of one of the pockets. Giggling while picking up the
crayons, the man blushed, "My son and I were coloring together last night. That boy stuffed crayons
any and everywhere he could, even in the toilet."
"Well, you're either crazy or you're the most rational man of the decade." Levin gladly remarked. "But I
would like very much for you to see a doctor about those blackouts. That's something that could be
potentially dangerous in the long run."
"I'll see what I can do, man." Isaac replied in a patronizing fashion before shaking the doctor's hand
and heading for the door. "Oh, and be careful taking I-75 home this afternoon. There's a real big
accident out there."
"Okay," Levin shrugged oddly, "but it's only 10:41."
Isaac cunningly smirked and asked, "Its Friday, aren't you people supposed to stop working by
sunset?"
Jeremiah dropped his head and grinned back, saying, "Touché, my friend, touché."
"Ay ees. (See ya) Isaac spoke while walking out the door and heading towards the elevator. However,
the closer and closer he reached the doors, Isaac found it increasingly difficult to ignore his full bladder
that possibly would not survive an hour long bus ride home.
Aware of the bus' strict schedule, the man turned and jogged back down the opposite end of the
hallway that led to the men's bathroom.
The instant he stepped inside, Isaac didn't even bother to look around to see just who was in there
along with him. He stormed his way into the first stall, locked the door and unzipped his pants.
Immediately, the intense rush was a miraculous relief that he had been holding in for at least an hour. It
was orgasmic enough to where Isaac had to close his eyes just to savor the moment.
The end was nearing. Just mere seconds away from finishing the last few drops, something from
behind pulled Isaac backwards into the stall's door.
A steady stream of urine sprayed all over both the stall and Isaac himself. The young man sat there on
the floor before going to his knees and swaying side to side in an entranced state of mind.
There was something lingering about inside his mouth, like a word that was hanging on the very tip of
his tongue. Isaac continued to bob from side to side while urine dripped from his midsection. He felt so
sleepy all of the sudden; his eyes would hardly stay open.
Right then, someone walked into the bathroom. Immediately, Isaac stood to his feet and turned to face
the stall door before groaning, "Tuo." (Out)
The person on the end of the stall was washing their hands. In Isaac's ears all he could hear was
water, water that sounded as if it were a raging waterfall.
"Tuo," Isaac again moaned, nearly snarling as he scratched at the door with his own right hand.
"I'm sorry?" The man on the other end stammered. "Do you need help in there?"
"Tuo," he continued on.
A brief silence prevailed inside the bathroom before the man said out loud, "If you need help in there I
can—
"Tuo," Isaac aimlessly rambled on.
Isaac could hear footsteps before what sounded like the bathroom's door being opened and shut
echoed inside.
The stall's latch slid in the opposite direction. The door slowly swung open, allowing Isaac's half naked
body to exit. With his pants still hanging down around his ankles, the young man caught a glimpse of
his reflection in the mirror just a few feet ahead.
He stumbled and plodded along the way while still mumbling his repetitive word. The instant he
reached the mirror, Isaac scraped his right hand across the glass and examined his face, as well as his
bleeding forehead from where the Band-Aid was peeling off.
"Tuo...tuo...tuo...tuo."
Without looking, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out coins, lint and crayons. However, out of
all the items that spilled to the floor, the only one that remained stuck to his hand was a green crayon.
With the crayon, Isaac began to blindly scribble lines and peculiar childlike shapes on the mirror while
uttering "tuo" over and over again.
The doodling went on seemingly for minutes until strange and uncoordinated lines began to take on a
form; the form of words.
His fingers barely had a grip on the crayon that he was using; they were loose and limp as though he
had forgotten how to use them.
On the mirror, in green Crayola, Isaac's hand wrote: Won tuo. (Out now)
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