Chapter Twelve: Jimmy

 

Mark found him in the fields, between Main Street and Second Avenue, since the fields were now integrated within the town. The rest of Jimmy’s afternoon was going to be busy pulling the weeds infiltrating his cabbages. He was against pesticides when hard work was just as good for ridding invaders from his vegetable rows. Plus it wasn’t healthy feeding poison to the children in his town. That was the way he saw things anyhow.

Mark waved. “Is it okay for me to walk over to you?”

“Sure, don’t step on anything green.” Jimmy tilted his hat back, wiping his brow with his forearm. The bright sun shone over the crops, providing essential nutrients and the heat rising off the ground penetrated every pore in his skin. Sweat covered him the way he liked it. He loathed cold weather. Whereas summertime filled him with happiness during the long days of doing what he loved.

Mark performed a precarious dance over the cabbage rows. He wore shorts and a Dallas Cowboys t-shirt with a big navy star on his chest. He had finally caught up with Jimmy in height last year, but where Jimmy was thin like a rail, Mark was broad like a sturdy log and muscled from time spent in Hunter’s weight room. Jimmy didn’t have to lift weights. By the time he was finished with his cardiovascular activities, out in the hot sun, he was too tired to think about lifting. Plus, after one to two hundred scoops with his shovel, he pretty much had all the muscle tone he required.

“What’s up?” Jimmy asked.

Mark scratched the back of his blonde head shining under the sun and looked around with worried eyes that didn’t settle well with Jimmy. “Have you seen Catherine?”

“Not since breakfast. Why, who’s looking for her?”

“Molly and Ginger came by the house. Nobody has seen her since breakfast.”

“I thought those two were working on the streetlights this afternoon.”

“Yeah, well, I guess they got sidetracked looking for Catherine. It’s not really like her to go missing. Especially when that means missing lunch or any meal for that matter. I’ve never seen someone so small eat like I do.”

“You are a growing boy.”

Mark smiled. “You still upset that I finally caught you.”

“Heck no, I like the company up here.” Jimmy removed his gloves and beat the dirt off on his jeans before shoving them into his back pocket. It was mid-afternoon, and along with the manure this morning with Billy, he’d been weeding the cabbage patch for a couple of hours and he felt his energy drained. “I’ll help you search. Where have you looked so far?”

“You were my first stop, but Molly and Ginger have been at it for a little bit. I think they were going over to the school next.”

“Did they check with Roger and Emily? If she’s hiding out, she’d be with them.”

Roger and Emily had been Catherine’s adopted family when the plague hit long ago. They took care of the little girl before she became the saint she was now. Catherine had spent a lot time with them since their arrival in Independents, remembering the little girl she was and taking her mind off the ugliness of the apocalypse she was trying to prevent.

“They probably did, but I’m not a hundred percent sure.”

“Let’s go see for ourselves. They might be in school.”

“That was pretty smart running those industrial fans over there. Kids get hot, they go to school and Vanessa can give them something to do.”

“That was the plan,” Jimmy said. “We got to get these kids smart about something.”

They left the fields. Mark took his time navigating through the rows. Jimmy didn’t tell him not to worry about stepping on the cabbages so much, he thought it was funny. Jimmy’s long strides brought him out to the back of a house where Emma lived. He knocked on her screen door, peering inside. She opened it seconds later with a perturbed look on her face.

“I am in the middle of an appointment,” she said, a pair of scissors in her hand.

Jimmy looked past her and saw one of the Brittanys sitting in the barber chair that Scout had found for Emma’s new occupation. He gave the Brittany a wave and then looked back at Emma. “Have you seen Catherine recently? She wasn’t at lunch and we’re trying to hunt her down.”

“Well, she’s not in here. I haven’t seen her all day.”

Brittany shook her head to the question also.

“All right, I’m sorry to disturb you.”

“Oh that’s okay. I’m just really booked today. Everybody wants a new haircut for the summertime. Would you like to schedule an appointment? You’re looking a little shaggy.”

Jimmy took off his cap and rubbed his head trying to judge what she meant by shaggy. “Maybe I could stop by tomorrow afternoon?”

Emma held up a finger and stepped back into her salon. She looked at a spiral notebook and returned her attention to Jimmy through the screen door. “I have availability at three tomorrow.”

“Perfect, I’ll see you then. Thanks, Emma. See you, Brittany.”

Jimmy turned and found Mark smiling at him.

“What?”

“You actually trust her with a pair of scissors?”

“I heard that, you hippie,” Emma said.

Jimmy and Mark took off again before a flying pair of scissors cut through the screen door. They walked between the houses to the front, past the outhouse, and to the street were Mark wouldn’t have to worry about stepping on the crops. They caught up with Dylan, who was carrying his fishing rod heading home after a successful trip to the lake.

He gave them a big smile when they admired his stringer full of fish. “They were really hitting today. We might have us some good eating tonight, other than chicken.”

“Nothing wrong with chicken,” Mark said.

“Except having it four times a week,” Jimmy said. “I call one of the fish.”

“I’ll let Brittany know. I better get them cleaned up first. She doesn’t like cleaning the food, only preparing it.”

“That’s all she needs to do as far as I’m concerned.” Jimmy patted Dylan on the back. “Make sure I get a good fillet, deep-fried.”

Dylan smiled at him. “That’s one of the perks of leadership.”

“You better believe it. You haven’t seen Catherine anywhere by chance? We’re trying to find her. She wasn’t at lunch.”

“I wasn’t at lunch but nobody is looking for me.”

“You can take care of yourself,” Mark said.

“And Catherine can’t?”

Jimmy nodded. “You have a point, but she normally doesn’t miss a meal so we want to make sure everything’s all right.”

“Haven’t seen her, but I’ll keep an eye out.” Dylan hefted his fish and regained a better grip on his stringer. He saluted Mark and Jimmy with his pole and continued on his way to do the cleaning for supper.

Jimmy and Mark continued to where Roger and his sister, Emily, lived. The house was big and white near the end of a town that was basically one big neighborhood, with a total of fifty two houses. Most were occupied, and the seven that weren’t used for living were used to replace the buildings lost when War burned down Main Street.

Louis had a medical clinic in one house. Mark used another as a police station where the guns were locked in safes, and a jail cell that kids called the naughty room. The sewing center occupied another house where the Jenson sisters had taken over the affairs of mending and creating clothes for the town since Molly found a desire to be a psychologist and Ginger had a baby and was too interested in doing everything else. The schoolhouse was still the school and Brittany’s was in the old auto warehouse, but despite the fires of War and the bugs of Famine and Pestilence’s plague, life in Independents continued, stronger than ever, in Jimmy’s opinion..

Mark knocked on the door as Jimmy stood off the porch, inspecting the house. “Is their house on the list to get repainted this summer?”

Mark stood back from the door. “I’m not sure. Isn’t Ginger heading up that department now?”

Jimmy frowned at Mark’s smile. “You know she is. I wish she’d quit volunteering for everything. She has to raise our son for crap’s sake. She can’t be hauling him around to do every job in town.”

“Yeah, but she has some good ideas. I like her ‘Beautify Independents’ slogan. It has a nice ring.”

“Thanks again for seconding the motion when she brought up her plans at council. You made her happy.”

The door behind Mark creaked open. “I seconded the motion because I could tell you weren’t happy about it. You really need to lighten up.” Mark smiled and turned back to the door to address whoever had opened it.

Jimmy was sight-blinded by staring at the sun glare off the white paint.

Mark backed up into him and they both tumbled to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.

Out of the door stepped Jimmy’s nightmare, a giant shadow dressed all in black, his pale hands stretched towards them and his pale face topped by his shock of red hair.

“Patrick,” Jimmy said.

Patrick’s hands kept pushing through the air between them and then they stopped and he laughed, a deep rumble. “It’s so nice to be remembered. Hullo Jimmy. Hullo, what’s your name?”

“Muh, muh,” Mark said.

Patrick waved off his attempts to speak with a pale hand. “Don’t sweat it, Mark. I know your name. That’s the badass thing about being Death, I know everybody’s name. Sometimes I know their dates too. When they were born and when I get to see them for their final ride. I usually have to stare real hard at them until it finally comes to me.”

Patrick peered at Mark with one dark eye to put a cap on his pronouncement.

Jimmy felt Mark shivering through all ten seconds.

Patrick stood up again with more of the rumbling laughter, covering his belly like his sides hurt from being so funny.

Jimmy scooted out from under Mark and regained his feet. He gave Mark, still shaking after Patrick’s awful stare, a hand up.

Jimmy found his backbone, one because this was his town, and two because he was given sainthood from God and was pretty sure he would be protected, and three, Patrick was an asshole before he died and now he was an even bigger asshole. Some assholes shouldn’t be given a second chance to stink up the planet, but the choice wasn’t Jimmy’s to make.

“So are you about to bring Death to Independents? Because I think you’ll find we have a lot more fight in us than the last time you were here.”

Patrick poked his tongue into his cheek and gave Jimmy an unimpressed wave of his hand. “I’m not here to start nothing yet. I wanted to stop by and check on little Cat. Tell her the news about your brother, but she already knew he was dead. That spoiled all my fun.”

“What?” Jimmy swayed until Mark grabbed his bicep and helped him hold it together. “What did you do to my brother?”

Patrick held up his hands. “I didn’t do anything. I promise. He decided to play cowboy and robbed one of the cafeterias in Denver. He got buckshot right in the back. Poor kid didn’t even have a chance. Died right there in my arms as I held him like a momma would hold her babe. I even have his soul tucked away for safe keeping.”

“You took his soul?”

Patrick poked his tongue into his cheek again. “Well you don’t leave something like that lying around. Who knows what could happen. No worries, I’ll give it back to your boyfriend, the angel. He’ll put your brother back again, trust me.”

“What do you want from us?” Mark asked.

Patrick peered at him again, but this time Mark didn’t budge. Patrick nodded respect at him. “You’ll find out soon enough. Take care of the little Cat. She’s pretty shook up about all this. I have to get back to Denver.” Patrick smiled. “I got me a date with an angel.”

Patrick laughed and the rumble reverberated around the yard as the big kid disappeared in a cloud of black smoke that stank like eggs gone rotten.

It took Jimmy a long moment to regain his thoughts. He looked up at the door to the house. Catherine stood there with tears in her eyes.

“Is it true?” Jimmy asked.

She ran off the porch and wrapped her arms around him and squeezed, not in her normal playful way, but one that told Jimmy that he had a lot to fear.