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 ....