1
He never liked it there; Irvine, California.
There was something about it that irked him. Maybe it was the ominous whistling that crept through the cracks in his window frame every night or the loud rolling of glass bottles down the inclined road that he called his street. He couldn’t pinpoint it, but it was there.
Then, there was his wife. They’d been married 10 years, but he still couldn’t explain her. They had their tussles and their disagreements and always seeming to have the “Life would be so much easier if I was single” moments. But nevertheless, she was the fire that he didn’t mind standing over because it kept him warm. She was the cloud that he didn’t mind standing directly under because the rain that came down from it cooled him down and left him feeling refreshed. She would always be a mystery to him, in more ways than one, but he didn’t think he could ever love anything more.
Maybe that’s just who he was: Jackson Arron Yardley. He had never thought of himself as a comfortable person, either with himself or his surroundings. There was always something in the back of his mind that kept him from loosening up and enjoying himself. He wasn’t boring, by any means, but he could be tense. Hannah was probably the only thing keeping him sane, even though she always called him out for being tense. She’d try to get him to go for fun drinks with their friends, or go on fun days out to help him have fun with nothing on his mind, but he could never be like that. He was never the easy-going type. Maybe the traumatic childhood that he’d had, he learned to always be wary of people, and never relax enough to allow a situation to get the best of him.
His mind kept wandering as he snapped himself back into the real world, back behind the counter of Coffee Bravo, a small coffee shop in Culver Plaza. He stood leaning on the black marble, eyes darting from patron to patron as he sipped from his glass of water. Then, he turned his attention to the world beyond the sparkling clean windows - that he’d cleaned himself – to the passers-by that had decided to go to Starbucks instead. Consuming the last few refreshing droplets of water, he turned around and headed to the staff room to get a quick refill. The customers were extra boring today, so he wasn’t in any rush to get back.
There was an elderly man – Keith, or something plain like that – who regularly spent the entire time reading the local newspaper and taking short, pointless sips from his plain black coffee. His head was buried in the pages and his hands were turning black and powdery from licking his finger to turn the pages. There was a young, 20-something couple that sat opposite each other holding hands with their outstretched arms. They sat glaring longingly into each other’s eyes, sipping a shared lemonade through two different straws. Classic millennials.
It was a slow day in Coffeetown.
Jackson placed his small plastic glass under the nozzle of the water cooler and pressed the button, waiting for it to fill to an acceptably hydrating level. He felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket, startling him and sending a weird sensation through his butt cheeks. He took his attention off the water and retrieved his phone. Flashing up on the screen were multiple pointless notifications; emails from betting websites, a reminder that his car insurance was due for renewal and a few sports articles that were recommended for him to read. He swiped all of them off the screen and what remained was a text from his wife – which was weird because she rarely texted him while he was at work, she was too busy for that.
Jay, something’s happening. Please come home.
He quickly texted her back asking for clarification. He was beginning to get nervous and his palms were getting clammy. He had a knack for quickly overthinking every situation and feeling the worst would happen at any given time. The reply from Hannah came almost immediately. He took a calming drink of his water and looked at the new message.
I think people are trying to break in. They’re outside. I’m scared.
Now he was really nervous. He could feel his heart beginning to beat faster, almost pounding out of his chest. He rushed to the bathroom and dialled her number, taking a few deep breaths to settle himself as he waited for her to pick up. She did so after two rings.
‘Jay?’ Hannah said quietly and quivering.
‘Hannah, what’s wrong? What’s happening?’ he replied.
‘I-I-I don’t know. I can see a few people outside. They’re all in-in-in black, and they’re talking amongst themselves. I opened the window a little bit so I can hear them talking.’
‘Just, stay there, okay?’
‘But I can see them. They’re walking toward the door. They’re hiding their faces. What do I do? What do I do?’
‘Don’t move, okay? I’m coming now. I’ll tell my boss that I have an – I don’t know – a personal emergency at home.’
He hung up before she could respond, shoved his phone back into his pocket and burst out of the bathroom door. Coincidentally, his manager came around the corner at the same time and had to slam his feet on the ground and lock his eyes to stop, and avoid being bowled over.
‘Damn, Jackson, the stink that bad, huh?’ he joked.
‘I gotta go,’ Jackson replied, hurriedly taking his apron off and throwing it onto one of the brown leather chairs that filled the staff room.
‘Wait, what? It was just a joke, man. I’m sure it doesn’t smell that bad.’
Jackson stopped in the corridor outside the bathroom and turned back to face his manager.
‘Look, Pete,’ he said, a sense of urgency creeping into his voice, ‘this isn’t about you, this isn’t about work. I have to go. I’m not going to tell you why because, no offence, it’s not your place to know. But it’s an emergency, and I have to get home. So, please, just let me do this.’
Pete could see the worry in his eyes and could hear the trembling in Jackson’s syllables. He raised his palms, conceding the argument, and nodding politely to let him go.
‘I’ll cover until you get back,’ Pete said.
Jackson thanked him and turned around, bolting around the edge of the counter and almost breaking the glass panels of the door on his way out. He groaned to himself and started to run away from his regular life making coffee and serving lukewarm breakfast food. He liked the regular life; it kept him sane and grounded. Suddenly, everything came falling apart around him. He had one of those feelings that he couldn’t shake; a worrying feeling when something was about to go horribly wrong. He couldn’t stay away, though. He wanted to avoid it for as long as possible.
But no.
Instead, he headed towards the black hole that was opening before him.
