There's Something In The Air

HEAT

Chapter 7 - Part 2


The wind was up and blowing from the north - the weather was turning cooler in Matlacha and would stay that way for the next two weeks or so. The wind of course was just movement of air caused by temperature differentials and cooling effects of the ocean and land mass. The air itself was nothing more than oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen, smog, pollen, dust, moisture, and - Lou.

Lou of course was now floating freely in the sir around Matlacha but Lou was slowly gathering himself. It usually took about 3 or 4 days before he could become corporeal after a 'flame-out' - and then only if he found a suitable host.

Even though he was spread across about 50 square miles of Matlacha, Pine Island, cape Coral and Ft. Myers, Lou could still 'think' - in the sense that we can only pretend to understand how that would work.

Lou now realized that by 'body snatching' an 'animal' he could get bey close to his 'soul'. All he needed was enough time to touch 'it' and he would be free. He would trial this again a soon as he 'got himself together'. 

But for now he was entertaining himself by gusting the winds and causing various osprey and pelicans to misjudge their flight paths and crash into trees, telephone poles, etc. Death was Lou's greatest gift - and it was always better to give than to receive .. oh yes ... so much better ... 

He's Bad .. He's Nation Wide ...

HEAT

Chapter 7 - Part 1

Fill and Jenade had finished being interviewed by the Lee County Sheriff's office, the Ft. Myers Police, the FBI and soon - if what they were lead to believe, the CIA.

It had been three days since the incident at Barnhills and the subsequent disappearance of the woman, the ambulance and the two attendants. The story had gone 'national' and Matlacha was chock full of news people and vans with dishes on the top and folks running with video cams and mics everywhere.

Fill and Jenade were escorted from the back of the Lee County Sheriff's Office and into an unmarked car. Instructions were given to the officer driving the car to drive around for a while to lose whoever may be trying to follow and to return Fill and Jenade to Matlacha.

It took about two hours but eventually Fill and Jenade were dropped off at the base of Island Avenue and, in complete anonymity, simply walked to the main drag and then across the bridge to Bert's Bar & Grill.

Fill invited Jenade in for a drink, Jenade went to wave him off, Fill let him know he had no choice. Jenade shrugged and preceded Fill into the bar. Fill lead Jenade to the back of the bar and then outside on a deck that was over the river - he walked to the back where no one was sitting; Jenade followed and then sat down. 

When the basket of beer was delivered, Fill simply asked Jenade what the fuck was going on. Jenade didn't know but started talking about meeting this guy Lou and how things seemed to go downhill from there.

As Fill and Jenade were talking, adjacent to them, a seagull sat on the pier no more than 5 feet away. It shrieked what could be described as a shrill, 'me, me , me ... 

Jenade and Fill both turned to look, and at that moment, the seagull self-immolated - it was simply consumed in flames - what really scared the shit out of them - what really wouldn't allow them to sleep for a week - were the soul raking screams of the 2 ambulance attendants ... that the seagull kindly shared with them alone ...

That's Life

HEAT

INTERMEZZO 3

In the prison that was formed for 'Lou' - our universe - at the moment of it's creation, it's inception, it's genesis - 'Lou' was unknowingly joined by 'it' - but in so doing something happened that was not intended - the singularity co-mingling of 'Lou' and 'it' combined with an unthinkable amount of energy created a 'spark'. This spark would lead to what we call 'life'.

The 'spark', like a seed, lay dormant; but as particles combined into atoms into molecules into structure, form started to appear - form that was repeated infinitesimally over and over again.

The 'spark' randomly existed anywhere but only as a singular occurrence  So, even though there were infinite forms coalescing, the 'spark' was only randomly associated with one of them.

Maybe random is not quite the right word - it was randomly associated with one form because that is where 'Lou' and 'it' were associated. 

Approximately 5 billion years ago, a 'form' which will become a planet, takes shape from the dust grains revolving around a large, dense cooling cooling mass that will some day result in it's own accretion disc.

The 'spark' is contained in the dust grains surrounding the dense cooling mass. 'Lou' is also re-integrating - unbeknownst to Lou, 'it' is as well. Their child, if we can call it that - the 'spark', is about to start a chain reaction that is still unfolding today - we call it life - the dust grains become the Earth, the cooling mass is the Sun.

Against this backdrop, 'it' and 'Lou' will wage a continuous battle through the millennia; the first battles will be at the uni-cellular level - and on and on - thus, the affects of all previous confrontations will be  built into our genes and our reptilian memory.

We will have an unlimited capacity for right - and an unlimited capacity for wrong. 'Lou' and 'it' will be (and are) fighting inside of each one of us - every minute, every day. 

But one of them has a slight advantage .... inside of us .. and in the larger play, that is all of our interactions .. outside of us .... 

We'll need it ...

Cool Cat

HEAT

Chapter 6 - Part 2

Lou woke up in an ambulance streaking towards Ft. Myers - it had just crossed the Matlacha bridge heading out of town. There were two attendants working om him trying to staunch the blood coming out of 'her' ears. 

Words fail here because Lou simply reacted - we would say in human terms that he lost it. The ambulance, the 2 attendants and 'she' simply vaporized in what can only be described as a small nuclear explosion. 

Everything was vaporized in a very small contained area - all that remained were atoms - basically the air that we breath.  Nothing surrounding the ambulance was harmed; 'she', the 2 attendants and the ambulance existed now as the wind.

Lou, while simply random molecules, gathered 'itself' in a manner of speaking and simply became part of a palm tree - he needed time to think.

If he was ever to get close to 'its' soul he was going to have to inhabit something more robust than a homo sapien - he was never going to get within 500 feet. He wandered back through the millennia thinking about the various roles he had played in this game of life he had created for his own enjoyment. 

Lou of course was the Phoenix but he had to stop burning and rebirth long enough to snatch the soul - and then just like that he had it - he knew what he had to do.

Cats were revered in Egypt - yes - he remembered that  - I mean of course he did - he was the reason they were revered. As Mafdet he had presided over the raking of many Egyptian souls - many indeed. He loved raking the souls of cats - Bubastis was full of the mummified remains of those soul rakings.

Lou was the reason cats were personified with the destructive power of the sun's heat. If Lou inhabited a cat, he would have a fighting chance of getting close enough to 'it's soul, but would it have to be a cat .....

Lou laughed figuratively .. after all he was a palm tree ... the palm tree burst into flames and the home owner, watching it, fell down on his knees and began to pray .... 

She's All Ears

HEAT

Chapter 6 - Part 1

Fill was concerned about Jenade. As much as he tried to concentrate on his research he kept coming back to his arm and what he had seen through his camera. This part of Florida was an escape location for a countless number of folks who just wanted to drop off the radar. Fill was not tough - but he would not leave something like this one - once he thought someone was in trouble - he would go to the extreme to help them - beyond what normal common sense would allow or dictate.

Fill knew Jenade would be at Barnhills for happy hour and so he just found himself walking to Barnhills at 3 PM. Fill grabbed a bench seat by the canal at the back of the restaurant and waited.
Sure enough, at 3:30 PM, Jenade walked in and sat at the bar and just as soon as sat down, a beer appeared before him.

Fill watched for an hour or so - sipping his beer - Jenade had 6 in the same time - Fill was counting. Fill then moved to the bar and sat down about three seats to the right of Jenade.

Jenade was talking to himself - in French. Fill looked at Jenade and uttered the phrase for not understanding French. Jenade  started and looked at Fill and then smiled saying something about being an old man and rambling. Fill asked Jenade if he could join him and Jenade jokingly said if you're buying and Fill agreed.

Fill and Jenade had a few more and then Fill, knowing that Jenade was well adjusted by this time, told him that he had seen his arm the other day and it certainly didn't look like sunburn. Jenade started to laugh, but then quickly stopped and turned to look at Fill and it let Fill know it was a burn, just not from the sun. Jenade drank the pitcher dry.

Fill asked Jenade if he could help and Jenade simply told Fill to stay away - don't get involved - don't attract attention - 'his' attention.

Whose attention - Jenade simply said Lou. Who is Lou - and at that moment, the door to Barnhills opened and a woman walked in. There was nothing special about that, as many women walked through the door's of Barnhills - what was different was the fact that as soon as she made eye contact with Fill, both ears exploded in a flood of blood as she collapsed to the floor .... 

Louven The Oven

HEAT

Chapter 5 - Part 2

Lou is burning - literally - he is on fire.  He is in the oven of a crematory in Cape Coral along with an 89 year old great grandmother. Lou is at peace here and can think.

It is time to go looking for 'his soul' - but there is a problem - one he has never had to deal with before - it appears the 'soul' has come looking for him - and while Lou has no words for this and the words I will use can't describe Lou's feelings - it can be stated this way - 'the soul' is as strong as Lou and maybe - stronger.

While Lou may not have an advantage he has an angle - 'the soul' and he both inhabit a human organism - some are weaker than others - and Lou decides that it time to shed the one he now inhabits for one younger - more robust and stronger.

He is going to have to do something else - abandon his itinerant alter ego and adopt something that 'his souls' organism would feel passionate about excited about.

Lou was going to have to first find 'his soul' - and then observe the organism 'the soul' inhabited to understand what he needed to do.

The first task was to locate 'the soul' - that shouldn't be a problem given Lou seemed to become a blood fountain whenever he was close. Lou leaned his back and laughed - the temperature in the oven rose suddenly by 1000 degrees F, setting off alarms and causing the attendant outside to have a pulmonary embolism - he was dead before he splashed to the floor.

Soul Burn

HEAT

Chapter 5 - Part 1

Fill was out walking Four Door on the dock when he noticed Jenade watering the palm trees and shrubs. It was about 8 AM and Jenade was obviously favoring his right arm. Four Door barked at Jenade and strained at his leash to get to him, Fill just reeled him in like a tarpon.

Fill put Four Door back in the cottage, grabbed a book and headed back to dock to find some early morning shade to read. Jenade finally came over to water the grass and trees by the dock and Fill nodded and asked Jenade how he was doing. Jenade smiled and said he could have used one last happy hour the night before. Fill smiled back - yeah, he knew exactly what Jenade meant although it had been university days since he partied that hard continuously.

Jenade dropped the hose by accident and when he bent to pick it up he winced in pain. In fact he had to switch to his left arm to do that and that prompted Fill to make a comment about tendinitis in his right elbow from lifting too many glasses. Jenade smiled again and said no, he had just fallen asleep in the sun and it was badly sunburned.

Fill offered some aloe vera lotion he had, but Jenade said thanks but he had already applied some cream and it was feeling a lot better, although if he had a drink it would help. Fill went to the cottage and grabbed a beer and took it to Jenade who simply drained it on the spot. With a huge belch he passed the bottle back to Fill and smiled broadly now and went about his business.

It finally got hot enough that Jenade took his jacket off revealing an old stained and tattered T-shirt. Fill did a double take on the shirt - one from the late 70s - Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps - yeah, tell me about it! 

But what really got Fill's eye was Jenade's right arm - just where the T-shirt ended. Fill couldn't be sure but it certainly looked like a large arm and hand had burned the T-shirt and made a large palm 'burn' print on Jenade's bicep - not just burned red but also bruised yellow and blue.

The strangest thing though was that the palm lines and print lines were burned right in as well and they formed a pattern - Fill grabbed his camera and focused on the arm with his telephoto - the pattern was a phrase - it was 'rekar luos' - but the 'r's were mirrored ... wtf was that all about ....

Fill Of 'it'

HEAT

INTERMEZZO 2

Saint John, New Brunswick July 1954

A young boy plays on the veranda of a three story house that has been converted to apartments. The veranda on the third floor looks out over a small ravine. The back of the house faces Saint John harbour 150 feet below.

The front of the house faces an open area that is bordered by hard rock on one side and drops precipitously to the level of the next house. These houses have been built on a promontory that is high above the main street leading to the centre of Saint John proper.

The young boy is, and has been, hard to handle. Fifty years later he would be labeled ADHD - his young mother, who has her own issues, can`t cope. She lets the young boy play on the veranda while she tries to hold it together.

The veranda has a fence but the spaces between the horizontal members will not contain a young boy.

The young boy runs back and forth - it is a sunny day and he has boundless energy. He is alone - in ways he doesn't even contemplate yet - but ultimately alone.

He is aware of music - his mother plays it on the radio - `Too Old To Cut The Mustard Anymore' is one he will remember years later - right now he is vocalizing Bingo - Bingo, Bingo, where you going to go-ee-o - he is running with reckless abandon on the veranda - he is lost in the moment - he stumbles over his own feet and rolls - and simply, easily and unluckily - slips between the veranda rails and begins a free-fall to the hard rock 50 feet below.

The boy is thrilled by the sensation of falling - but just as he clears the veranda one level below - he feels a jolt - more than that, a physical push, and he falls inward and hits the first veranda floor - hitting his head and suffering a concussion.

He wakes in the hospital alone and tied down to his bed - he whimpers and wets the bed because he cannot escape the restraints. He will remember that moment as long as he lives.

So will 'it' - who saved the boy so that he could fulfill his destiny - Fill and 'it' have a date in the future - and 'it' doesn't know this, but Fill will return the favour ... 

Jenade is a Lou-ser

HEAT

Chapter 4 - Part 2

Lou sat down at the bar in Barnhill's and ordered a beer and a dozen oysters on the half shell. He loved the idea of swallowing something still alive - besides it was happy hour - 4 beer and a dozen oysters - $14. 

Jenade was sitting further down the bar with his friends and Lou couldn't figure out who was buying but the beer was being delivered fast and furious.

The bleeding and headache incidents were increasing in intensity and frequency and Lou was beginning to think he might have to adopt a pro-active strategy to find his soul, rather than sitting back and waiting for it to make itself known to him.

Lou was working with the crews replacing the old Matlacha-Mainland bridge; basically a gopher running for water and anything else the main crews needed. He didn't know how much longer he could work there because he was too close to relieving a couple of them from the ability to breath anymore.

Jenade's friends left in a flurry of maniacal laughter and belching and then all was quiet. Lou got up from his seat and walked to where Jenade was seated and sat down. Jenade turned to look at Lou and just for a second - the briefest moment in time, Lou's eyes seems to be consumed with flames. Jenade started and then Lou put his arm around Jenade's shoulder. Jenade laughed nervously, Lou leaned back and laughed loudly. Jenade's nose exploded with a nose bleed to end all nose bleeds.

Jenade couldn't be sure - too much beer. But in the mirror, where Lou should have been reflected, all Jenade could see were flames, a fire so hot that it seemed to burn Jenade's face. 

Where Lou's arm was wrapped around Jenade's shoulder, draped over Jenade's nylon jacket, the nylon was beginning to yield and morph - it was beginning to melt.

Soul Woman

HEAT

Chapter 4 - Part 1

Fill had developed a routine at Matlacha.

In the morning he would take his guitar down to the dock behind the cottage and play. He had a plan. He was warming his technique up so he could learn a number of new tunes to play with his friend Richard - who was a really good guitar player. Nobody was up at that point and he could simply pick away - to the osprey and the gulls.

After that he would eat and then do the reading/research he needed to do on the book and that usually took him into the late PM.

Then it was down to Bert's Bar & Grill for 'happy hour' - $1.50 pints and $4.00 blackened shrimp - sitting on Bert's outdoor patio and watching the boaters and the pelicans.

Today Fill was having an especially good time because the folks around him were being so bloody entertaining with their talk about politics and guns and Obama. He had to restrain laughter more than once as folks were going on about how gun control was the first step in a master plan to allow the UN to take control of the US, etc.

Fill could see Jenade at the the far end of the outside patio with some friends of his that hadn't seen soap or shower for a while. They were drinking $1.50 pints like they were going out of style and chain smoking like a ban had just been lifted on smoking.

Jenade was from Orleans France and had been here since 1968 when he came over to visit his sister who married a GI. Orleans was where the maid of Orleans, Jeanne d'Arc, one of the patron saints of France, was from.

Unbeknownst to Fill - the soul that inhabited young Joan 700 years ago was the same one that was now inhabiting him - and 'it' had similar work to do ....

Lou Fill

HEAT

Chapter 3 - Part 2

Lou had figured out long ago that if you were just showing up in any town intermittently it aroused too much small talk and suspicion. He showed up often and did small jobs - painting, grounds-work, light repair - whatever it took. He became part of the itinerant, derelict community. In fact it worked so well that folks didn't think about the fact that he had been in Matlacha for 85 years. If folks over the years had taken pictures of Lou, they would only notice a subtle difference in hair coloring and skin wrinkling. He had chosen this human host very well.

Lou was in Matlacha today watering lawns and picking up fallen palm fronds and coconuts. He kept an old 70s pick-up in town and threw everything in the truck bed and carted it to the landfill.
Lou never missed a happy hour - that is what the itinerants did - and therefore to blend in that is what he did. Lou was legendary for his capacity - actually he had infinite capacity - he had to pretend drunkenness after a while - again to blend in.

Lou could hardly stand the insect intelligence of the others and he looked forward to harvesting them and raking their souls with great delight.

This day Lou was working in mid-Matlacha and he caught sight of Jenade across the street working around three cottages. Jenade was talking to someone he had never seen before. All of a sudden a brilliant red jet of blood shot from Lou's right ear.  Lou immediately covered his ear and quickly got inside his truck.

Lou grabbed the steering wheel in both hands as 'pain' - something he didn't have a word for - racked his skull - the steering wheel started to melt - Lou's body temperature rose to a point where the ear self cauterized. Smoke rose from the truck seat where Lou was sitting and started drifting out the open windows.

The stranger Jenade was talking to turned and caught sight of the truck and the smoke. The pain in Lou's head increased - Lou started the truck, slammed the accelerator to the floor and peeled out onto the main drag heading towards the land fill.

Fill looked at Jenade and said, 'What the hell was that all about?'

Cinq A Sept

HEAT

Chapter 3 - Part 1

Fill had gradually gotten to know the folks in staying the cottages adjacent to him. They all got together at 4 PM every day - something they referred to as 'happy hour'. They discussed the events of the day but  very astutely avoided politics and religion. Snacks were always provided by someone and of course everbody had a drink of choice - Fill's today was Yeungling Amber.

David - of which there were two - so David north - was quite a project guy and needed something to work on to keep his interest up. He had repaired a picnic table the day before - replaced all the rotting top and underneath supporting members.

Fill had actually watched that episode - Fill liked work - he could watch it all day. His old man used to say that - not any more.

The reason Fill had become so fascinated with the picnic table repair was that someone had showed up out of the blue to help - and with a French accent no less. And when I say French, I mean Quebecois; not Parisian.

Fill could see that he wasn't adding much to the operation but he did add a a degree of humour and irreverence  which for a silent observer, can be a source of endless entertainment; and thus Fill's interest.

Fill gathered from the conversation that his name was Jenade - or most likely a bastardized version of his name that everybody could pronounce as opposed to his real name.

When Fill had let his attention to the repair lapse, all of a sudden Jenade was right there - 'what - no fish today?' - Fill was startled a bit but very quickly recovered - 'later'.

'That's quite a project you've got going over there', Fill said - 'oh yeah - but it's happy hour at Bert's so I'm done' - and - just like that - off he went.

Later that day at the gatherings happy hour - and not Bert's - conversation eventually turned to Jenade - originally from Quebec - came down here years ago - opinion differed on whether he was an alcoholic - opinion did not differ that he did indeed enjoy a drink.

He was living with an alcoholic - they couldn't remember the name - but it was in town somewhere - close to all the bars - where liquor was so cheap, alcoholism could be funded quite easily.

Not too far from Fill, in an old abandoned sailboat hull in the mangrove, Lou was playing with a BBQ lighter, shooting the flame directly into his eye sockets of an osprey he was tormenting. Lou now needed another derelict to befriend for a while. He had seen this character in town at the bars - a distinct French accent ....