Falling Darkness

Bill Hamburger

       Falling Darkness: Bill Hamburger

            Doc’s POV

            He was solid as a rock. His chest, his eyes, his nimble fingers. I felt insane. He looked at the blood on my hands, sighed, and walked away. He walked away. All that had happened, all that he knew walked away with him. Rave was as good as dead.

Chapter 1: Lightbulbs

            I watched her run away. I knew that something had happened last night, something to push her over the edge and it wasn’t the bat. Rex ran after her calling desperately, trying to bring her back, but there were apprehensive tears in his eyes. Tank was in shock. He stood wringing his hands, watching the two get swallowed by green and brown. The forest was no longer beautiful. Guiltily, my thoughts turned to Bill Hamburger and how calm he would be in this moment, how intelligently he would reach a solution. Sadly I don’t possess that sort of intelligence.

            Each moment slithered by as if Time were walking through water, his cloak floating just above the surface. Finally Rex came back, out of breath and defeated. It felt like it was time to tell him whose son he was. Although Time passed slowly, I could feel it flying by under the surface as if Rex was going to be twirling through the forest in delirium next.

            “Rex,” I choked, feeling my resolution wither under his intense gaze.

            He walked towards me, sloshing unceremoniously in the chilled water. “What?” he was right in my face, his breath coming out in tight angry puffs.

            “Don’t let yourself slip away.” I told him, trying to be the wise man that I once knew.

            He paused, then nodded, turning his face away towards Tank who now shared an identical look. It was a look of pain and grief, one we all felt. How could we continue? Rufus stared fixedly at the spot where Rave had disappeared, rooted to his spot mournfully.

            “Come on,” I growled unexpectedly and coldly. “We have to make this anecdote.”

            Everyone began to pick up their packs and get ready to leave when we all stared at Rave’s. Nobody wanted to touch it. “Come on! It’s not like she’s dead! It’s not like she has the plague!” I roared.

            Rufus picked it up between his jaws, whimpering softly. He missed her just as much as we did. We started back to my Hummer, walking quickly up and down slopes and through leaves that with each touch reminded us of Rave.

            “Let’s rest,” I breathed when nighttime fell and stars littered the sky.

            I fell to the ground in exhaustion and Tank sobbed uncontrollably, trying to cover it with his arm. His sobs brought tears to everyone’s eyes. Rex coldly walked off into the brush staring straight ahead. He sat cross-legged in an opening and listened to the nighttime sounds.

            “Shh!” Rex suddenly hissed at Tank, standing up in excitement. “Don’t you hear that?”

            Tank’s eyes bulged in fear, fear that Rex would go crazy too, but then we all heard it. “First star I see tonight.”

            It was Rave’s voice! She was sitting in a thicket right in front of us, her eyes glazed over and mind lost. I pulled her into my chest, but her eyes didn’t see me, her hands didn’t remember my skin. Again my mind drifted back to Bill. I remembered one of my favorite memories with him, one I would never forget: He stood writing on the document on the clipboard, his lab coat gloriously white, and pens jutting out from his chest pocket. “Bill, why is a raven like a writing desk?” I ask, smiling already. “I haven’t the slightest idea,” he replies looking up and smiling back. I remember his even teeth and his intelligence most of all. I look at Tank and I could feel myself just remembering everything. Then I look at Rex and it seems that everything I knew about Bill was wrong. I look at Rex and I try to imagine Bill abandoning his child, leaving him on a stoop somewhere and I can’t do it. I can’t see clean, stiff Bill giving up on someone he loved; I just can’t.