The Ghost of Dome Rock Road

Bud Looks Up An Old Friend

Bud stared down at his bowl of Rice Krispies, marveling at the symphony of sounds created by Snap, Crackle, and Pop. It's been three days since his very vivid dream. A nightmare, really, with a stranger pleading for help and a creepy ghost threatening to devour Bud alive. But, since that night, Bud felt different. He hadn't had a drink since that night. Hell, he hadn't wanted one, and that was damn strange just by itself. He sensed that something inside had changed, and it had something to do with that dream. Or was it even a dream? Bud remembered the Roy Neary character Richard Dreyfuss played in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Like Roy Neary, Bud began to believe his encounter with the man in the dream was an invitation. Except, this invitation wasn't from an alien lifeform. It was from something in another dimension.

Bud couldn't think why he would receive such an invitation. He remembered his old high-school buddy Jessie Gutierrez's comments in the newspaper article. Jessie talked about 'unusual circumstances in the desert.' Bud decided he'd reach out to his old friend. That presented a problem for Bud. He wasn't sure how Jessie would react to his phone call. Bud isn't good at saying he's sorry, and that may be required - given that he's avoided his old friend for all these years. The feelings of guilt and remorse stirred as Bud stared at his cell phone. There was a bottle of Smirnoff just an arm's length away. 'Which one is it going to be, old buddy?'

Jessie heard his vibrating cell phone. He scrambled to find the phone, buried under the half-dozen newspapers strewn across the coffee table. Finally, he retrieved the phone and saw an incoming call from a number he didn't recognize. It was out-of-state, but he couldn't make out the area code. "Hi, this is Jess Gutierrez." There was a long pause. "Hello! Anybody there?" "Ah, hey... Jessie, it's Bud Granato." "Bud Granato! Now that's a blast from the past! How the hell are you, Bud?" Bud stumbled momentarily for his words. It had been years since he last talked to Jessie, and his friend's voice sounded different. "Um, yeah. It's been a while, man. Too long, Jessie, unfortunately, and that's my fault." "Nonsense, old buddy! It's good to hear from you, Bud. Your ears must have been ringing the other day, cause I was talking about you." "Oh yeah?" Bud asked. "Oh yeah, man!" Jessie replied enthusiastically.

"Somebody was asking what got me into journalism. I talked about when we were in junior high. Remember that?" Bud doesn't but is embarrassed to admit it, so he grunts approvingly. "Yeah, we had to put together that fake T.V. news program for our media arts class in ninth grade. You were amazing, man. All that research you did and the scripts you put together for all of us to read. You were the whole reason we aced that class!" "It was a team effort, Jessie, but it did get me thinking about what it would be like to be a big-time news anchor." "Exactly! Me too," said Jessie.

Then Jessie laid out his life journey since the two of them parted ways after high school. He talked about how he went to San Jose State after getting into their journalism program. He found a job at the San Jose Mercury News when he graduated and worked his way up from neighborhood beat reporter to a featured columnist. As Jessie talked, Bud was having difficulty bringing himself to believe he once knew the man on the other end of the line. Bud remembered Jessie Gutierrez as a shy, mousey awkward guy. If you looked in the dictionary under the word introvert - Jessie's picture would be plastered there. The only time Jessie would let go was when the two of them would steal booze from the local grocery store. After a few pops - they would hang out at Stoneridge Mall and hit on girls. Now here was Jessie, talking to Bud - self-assured yet modest at the same time.

"Jessie. How did you wind up in Parker?" Bud asked. "Sounds like you had a pretty good thing going on in San Jose." "Yeah, old buddy, that's quite a story, but the short answer is I found HER." "Her?" Bud asked. "Yessir! Bonny. And she changed my life. I met her on assignment for The Merc. I was covering a story about Native Americans' lack of access to affordable health care. One thing led to another. The next thing I knew, I was proposing to her." Bud started to laugh but caught himself. "But why, Parker?" Bud asked again. "Bonny is from Parker. Her parents were Native American. They passed on several years ago. They had lots of medical issues when they got older. Bonny is a registered nurse. When it got to the point where they couldn't get the help they needed, Bonny talked me into moving to Parker so we could take care of them."