Confabulation (The Department) Read online

  CONFABULATION

  by

  R Thomas Brown

  Confabulation

  © 2012 R Thomas Brown

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  All characters in this compilation are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  For Sarah

  CHAPTER 1

  Henry knew, without doubt, that he’d worried about his wife’s safety for years. He just wasn’t sure when exactly he became aware of it. But worried he was, she was leaving for the day, and he needed her to stay.

  Henry Adamson walked from the kitchen bar to the fireplace and back again. He repeated the path again several times, growing faster and more animated with each pass. He looked up and stopped when Kelly walked into the room stuffing her wallet and makeup into her purse. "Kelly, why do you have to go shopping today?"

  "Henry, I’m not discussing this anymore. I’m tired of arguing about what I’m allowed to do. I’m going." Kelly pushed past him and opened the door to the garage.

  "Look, I’m not the one who’s in danger."

  She stopped. Turned. “Enough, Henry. I don’t know what’s got into you lately. You follow me around. You skip work to spy on me. And you keep harping on me about this shit. For the last time, I’m not in any danger.”

  “Not that again. We’ve had this conversation a dozen times. You admitted it. You asked for help.”

  “What? When.”

  Henry thought. He knew she had. He could see her face. Scared. Hear the words. Feel the tears running from her eyes onto his shoulders. Feel her shaking as she begged to just be safe. It was all there, the whole scene, but he couldn’t place it.

  “When, Henry? When did I ask for this?”

  “Don’t change the subject, Kelly. So I didn’t mark the damned date on a calendar, that’s hardly the point. We both know you’re in danger.”

  “Fine. Give me a hint. What’s the big danger out there.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know? Are you joking? You want me to stay locked in the house because of ‘you don’t know’.”

  “Kelly, what’s the point of getting into this again. We’ve already gone over it. You were scared and don’t know where the threats coming from. We need to protect you.”

  Kelly opened the garage door and stepped into her car. "I’m going Henry. Think about this, and how you’re going to get me to forgive you when I get back." She slammed the door to her car and drove away.

  Henry stared as the garage door closed and replayed the preceding events in his mind. He hadn’t intended to fight with Kelly, but she refused to stay home or to let him go with her. He just needed to keep her close. Needed time to figure it all out.

  He insisted that she stay with him, but that’s when the fight began. He tried to calm her down, but the thought of her being alone drove his nerves to the edge and he found himself incapable of restraining his tirade.

  Henry stood, numb, for several moments. Soon, his anger over the fight and the danger to Kelly receded. He was worried about her. Something had seemed wrong for awhile. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach. He knew it had been longer, but it seemed more acute in the past couple of weeks.

  He was trying to get out of the office early. Facilities people were banging around in the ceiling above his office and he wasn’t getting a damned thing done. He had a deadline for some marketing campaign analyses coming up, and he felt he’d be more productive at home.

  As he waited for his laptop to shut down, he focused on the bridal portrait he kept on his otherwise empty glass desktop. Kelly had been travelling much more lately, and had been out for a few weeks that time. He knew she enjoyed the importance of her cases, but he hated being separated from her. He rested his head in his hands and thought back to that warm sunny day when they said their vows in the Japanese Gardens.

  Though it had been more than a decade the subtle changes to Kelly's now less than raven black hair seemed to only make her more beautiful every day. Wistfully, he stared down at his stomach, which protruded slightly over his pants when he sat, and wondered when he had let himself go. He shook his head, and grabbed his roll of fat. "Why are you here?" A quick glance at his filing cabinet and its hidden stash of cookies provided the answer.

  Her plane was due back that night, but Henry found it impossible to be happy about it. His thoughts just kept going back to the last time she’d been overseas. How she came back so happy and eager to spend time with him. How that deteriorated into anger and long hours at the office. How she came home crying about someone following her on the trip. How she could feel their eyes on her still.

  His anger grew. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so scared and angry. He gritted his and headed out of the office. He was angry. Angry at himself for not protecting her. Angry at her for going away again after what she told him.

  He started his car, the same Ford Taurus he’d had in college, and headed home. His mind conjured images of his wife being chased by a man. Faceless. He didn’t know who the other man was, but he has his suspicions it was one of the other lawyers. The long hours gave them so many opportunities to forge a friendship that could give any of them the chance to hurt her.

  The faceless man changed, taking the shape and image of those he knew at her firm. Any of them could be the one. He’d hated them all for so long anyway. He wouldn’t have admitted that in the weeks before, but he was sure he’d always resented their time with his Kelly.

  The man, in all his faces, moved behind Kelly. Closer and menacing. The image would not leave his mind. He tried to force it out, but it was stronger. Only grew more vivid. And bloody. Kelly dead. The man laughing, blood on his hands. In vain, he tried to shut his eyes to stop the thoughts. Tried to conjure up the happy times he knew had been there, but seemed consumed by his anger.

  "Damn it!" He slammed his fist into the back of the seat next to him, and again struggled with the key. Fighting the tremors in his hands, he finally succeeded and darted out of the garage, squealing his tires as he sped away.

  He wove through traffic; barely seeing the cars ahead of him as he wondered what kind of man could pose such a threat. Wondered how he had ignored this anger and pain for so long. He drove on, darting around slower vehicles, trying to push away the thoughts, but grasping for that something else just beyond his memory. That thing that annoyed him but offered hope.

  He glanced at his rear view mirror, hoping there would be an answer there, or just hoping those visuals would replace the ones on a loop in his mind. Fortune did not smile on him. The images roiled. But he could feel it. The something else. The reason he wanted her close no matter what she had done. He knew only he could save her. That he had to stop them.

  He was sure of it. Didn’t know how, but he was sure. Someone was after her. He needed to protect her. Keep her safe and secure. Keep her close to him no matter what she said. There was an enemy out there. Somewhere. Anywhere.

  He glanced at his mirror again before noticing cars speeding across in front of him.

  "Shit."

  He stomped on his brakes and his car came to a stop a few feet inside an intersection. Henry took deep breaths and slowly stroked his chest, trying to calm h
is nerves as cars passed by honking and gesturing at him, answered only with a wave and sheepish grin.

  A car stopped in front of him, and the driver, an old woman with dentures half out of her mouth, shot him the finger. He smiled and waved. To his right, two men in blue stared at him from behind sunglasses. Henry waved, and they walked off, without acknowledgement. Henry shrugged and headed home. He was intent on make sure Kelly was safe, and with him.

  His efforts had clearly failed.

  Henry stormed to his bedroom and pounded on the mattress, imagining it as the source of the danger, wherever it was. It had been two weeks and he still couldn’t put a finger on who was out to get her. He knew, just knew, it was one of the lawyers. But since she wouldn’t admit there was any danger, he didn’t know where to start. "I’ll stop you, you son of a bitch. I’ll just go to where she’s shopping and watch her. She’ll be fine, you’ll see."

  Henry ran to his car, and screeched his way out of the driveway. He wove through traffic and dodged cars as he drove past red lights. He saw the open-air mall where Kelly has said she would be and turned hard to his left. Breathing was difficult, but he couldn’t stop until he found her. He drove around the shops, bouncing over speed bumps, and honking at pedestrians who didn’t understand his urgency. "I know she’s here somewhere." He drove through the parking lot, looking for either her car or her friend Debbie’s. "Where is she dammit?"

  He drove to the other shopping areas in town that he knew Kelly frequented. He stalked the parking lots and watched the doors to Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. He cruised by the patios of Blue Goose and Rockfish, hoping to see her having a drink with friends.

  Nothing.

  After several hours of searching, he elected to return home and wait for her there.

  He parked his car and then stood in front of the house. "Shit, it’s already four. Where is she?" Henry walked to the sidewalk and peered down the street in both directions. After making sure that he didn’t see her car coming, he grabbed the hose from the garage and began absently watering the lawn, waiting for her return. A few hours later, he noticed the stream pouring into the street and turned off the water. Checked his watch. "It’s after seven."

  The water cascaded over Henry’s feet, but he made no effort to correct the problem. "I can keep track of her, I know I can." Henry stared at the ground.

  He threw the hose to the ground, and walked over to the faucet. After turning it until he thought it would break loose, he punched the brick wall. He stared at his throbbing hand and the trickle of blood from the scratches and smiled. Took a breath. He shook his head. "I can do better. I’ll do better."

  He fell to his knees and began crying. What if he had failed? They’d fought and she left. What if she were already dead? "She can’t be dead,” he wept. “I have to protect her. She can’t be dead."

  "No. Not yet. I’d know. Got to keep fighting." Henry resumed his search of the street and saw her car coming over the small hill to his left. Anger and fear caused by her unreliable information about her plans replaced the brief joy he had from seeing her. He opened her door helped her out of her car. "Where did you go today?"

  "I went shopping, Henry. Just like I said I was."

  Henry could tell from her tone that the day’s separation hadn’t removed the anger from their fight. He figured finding him standing outside at night didn’t help. Unfortunately for Henry, his fear didn’t allow for much more reasoning. "I meant, where did you go shopping? I only ask because I tried to get a hold of you, but I couldn’t."

  "I had my phone on, I didn’t hear it ring."

  "Oh, not like that. I was out running errands and I went by the shops trying to find you." He cringed as soon as he saw Kelly’s face change shape. Her furrowed brow gave way to arched eyebrows, and Henry knew what was coming.

  "You followed me? You tried to track me down like some criminal? What is wrong with you, Henry? You’ve been crazy for two weeks."

  Henry stepped back as she slammed her car door and stomped into the house. "It’s not like that, Kelly. I was out and was just going to stop by and say hi."

  She turned back and glared at him. "Really? What errands did you have thirty miles from our house."

  He knew she didn’t like feeling handled. She had made that very clear from the time they first went out. They had gone to a shooting range, and he tried to help her. Even though she had never fired a rifle, she was incensed that Henry had decided she couldn’t figure it out. It took a few hours for her to calm down that day, and he had even lower expectations now. His fear and anxiety threw his normally well-developed lying skills out of alignment. "Just errands."

  "Ha! You could at least think of an excuse before you start making up ridiculous lies like that one." She dropped her bags and walked to the back of the house.

  "Kelly, I was worried when you weren’t where you said you’d be."

  "Henry, I’m an adult in case you hadn’t noticed. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you’ve never tried to control my life. We’ve been over this before, and you said that you had no desire to have a wife that need to be protected. I’ll tell you something, if you plan on changing things now, you’re not going to have much success."

  "Kelly, please just listen."

  "No, Henry, I won’t listen. I’m tired, and am going to bed. I think you’ll be sleeping in the guestroom tonight."

  "What?"

  "Don’t worry, Henry." Kelly was quite good at reducing people with sarcastic comments. It served her well as an attorney on several occasions, and Henry could feel that he was about to receive the treatment. "I’ll be right in here, so you’ll know where I am. When you figure out how to treat me, I’ll think about letting you sleep in my bed."

  Henry knew better than to continue fighting. They had only fought like that twice before, and he learned the hard way that he could never hope to change her mind. He picked up his pillow and walked out of the room without speaking. He heard the door slam behind him, and he stepped slowly into the guestroom.

  He flopped onto the bed, trying to make sense of things. He knew how he felt about her. How he loved her. How he trusted her. But how could he trust her to be safe when she wouldn’t admit there was any danger? His heart raced as he thought about, and he knew it was real. The most real thing in the world.

  Henry gripped the sheets and pulled as the anger built. He repressed the screaming that tugged at his vocal chords, and continued to pull until the sheet ripped. He fought through the taunting in his head and struggled to sleep. Only able to enjoy rest for fifteen minutes at a time, he turned on the television to watch some mind numbing television. Though the shows were as pointless as he had hoped, he received no rest during the night.

  Finally, he gave in to sleep at four in the morning.

  With a new day, Henry considered what had happened. He felt able to think more clearly that he had the day before. Than he had in a days. He pulled his shoes on and ran to the corner grocery store where he picked up some flowers and breakfast food. While he shopped, he whistled, both to proclaim his newfound hope, and to overpower the fear within.

  A couple of men in suits walked by and gave him an odd look from behind sunglasses. He just nodded and kept whistling.

  Once home, Henry opened the bedroom door slowly, and praised himself for lubricating the hinges recently. He tiptoed across the room, holding the bouquet of roses behind his back. He knelt down and blew gently in Kelly’s face until she began to stir. "Good morning, Sweetie."

  "Henry," she said as she rubbed her eyes, "what are you doing?"

  "Just saying I’m sorry." He put his hand under her back and helped her sit up. After he handed her glasses to her, he presented the flowers.

  She blinked several times and smiled. "They’re gorgeous." She looked up at him. "Sorry about last night."

  "Don’t be. I was acting crazy." He held his arms out and they shared a long hug. "So, do you want strawberries or cantaloupe with your pancakes this morning?"<
br />
  "Ah, the joys of the post fight breakfast." She laughed and stroked her chin. Some of the biting tone was still present from last night, but enough humor crept through to make Henry happy. "Do we have oranges?"

  "I think so. Oranges it is." He kissed her forehead, and walked to the kitchen with a bouncy step.

  Henry poured the thin buttermilk pancake batter into the pan. As he waited for the edges to brown, he glanced at the picture of the two of them at the Empire State Building. They spent a month in New York when she was working and he’d been laid off from a telecom company a few years before.

  In the background he could see other attorneys who joined them for sightseeing that day. They huddled in the background. Leering at Kelly. Whispering to each other. He thought back to that day. He could feel them watching. Feel their eyes and almost hear their scheming voices.

  "I’ll be keeping my eye on her. If someone hurts her, I’ll make sure they’ll never hurt anyone again. Dammit." He scraped the black remnants of a pancake from the pan, and pushed them into the disposal.

  CHAPTER 2

  Henry checked his watch for the third time that minute, shifted his position in the uncomfortable chair and glanced at the ‘Human Resources’ sign on the wall. He resented being forced to attend the meeting, and always hated being forced to wait when he had an appointment. After sighing, he walked over to the receptionist near him. "When will she be back?"

  The sharp-featured, bespectacled woman stared at the screen in front of her. "Her meeting was scheduled from eight to ten; she should be here any minute."

  "First, it’s now ten-thirty, so her scheduled time clearly means nothing. Second, why did you schedule me for nine-thirty when she had a meeting until ten?"

  She glanced up, and glared through her glasses. "Your meeting was scheduled before the one she is in now."

  "Then why did she accept a meeting that interfered with this one?"