January 23
The birds were singing a tune of indefinable origin, probably Japanese. The cars started like normal, save for Mrs. Upton’s Chevy. The sun did, yet again, rise in the East and it seemed as though it had similar designs on setting in the West. We couldn’t be sure. Not today. Not on this day, for this was no normal morning.
Kristina woke up early and made herself a pot of coffee. Today was gonna be a rough kind of day.
She flicked on the small television in the kitchen. The roar of static came through the tiny speakers on the Pioneer 15 inch LCD Television she had bought at CostCo for $239.65 on February 12th of last year. Channel Five was a little snowy this morning.
Kristina puttered about the kitchen in haze, she’d been drinking herself drunk every night to get to sleep since he’d walked back into her life.
She walked over to her word of the day calendar and removed January 22.
“Sumptuous” she repeated, like the calendar wanted her to.
What would January 23rd’s word be? The excitement was palable in Kristina’s Rhode Island home.
As she took a sip of her scalding hot coffee she was alarmed to see that the calendar went immediately to January 24th. She looked quizzically at the cheap gift her aunt had gotten her for Christmas the previous for a moment.
Then she remembered everything all at once. She dropped her coffee mug - it shattered all over the linoleum floor. She quickly put the calendar down and tried cleaning up the mess she had just made but she was overcome by sadness incarnate. She wept openly with shards of glass, or whatever the mug was made of, littered about the recently refinished kitchen. She got down on all fours to shoulder the burden of remembering. The shards cut her hand.
Her television had just conquered the static. Channel Five came in clear as a bell. She looked at it through tear soaked eyes to see his face on the screen. The announcer said:
“…and of course we all remember the near cataclysmic events that occurred exactly three years ago today. Attempting to complete a dastardly plot, Ringu Dashin was foiled by the brave Tex Savory, who gave his life to heroically save mankind. All of us here at Channel Five - and around the world - owe Tex an incredible debt of gratitude. Thank you Mr. Savory, thank you.”
Kristina fumbled for the remote, finding out on the floor near the cupboard, and she quickly turned off the television. She dropped the remote and put her head in her hands.
Had it really been three years?
Kristina couldn’t believe it. It had been three years since she last touched her one true love.
She wiped her eyes and started picking up the pieces off the ground - much like she’d been doing lo these last three years. She sat at the round kitchen table she’d bought at Lowe’s and let out a deep sigh.
It was time for a bath.
Kristina grabbed her Herbal Essences bubble bath and disrobed. The water was warm and soothing. She needed this.
Just as she descended into the tub footsteps could be heard slowly making their way to her bathroom.
Kristina was frightened.
Tap
Tap
Tap
The footsteps were getting closer.
Tap
Tap
Tap
The were in front of her door.
Tap
The handle jiggled and the door opened slowly.
“TEX!”
“Don’t I know it baby?”
“But…but…I watched you die! Today! Three years ago! Why did you have to do it?”
“I could never save you kid, so I had to save the world.” Tex chuckled. “Turns out that was easier.”
“But…where’ve you been? I’ve needed you!”
“Dead men don’t get to tell tales kiddo. Where I went you can’t follow.”
“There’s so many questions I have to ask you…I don’t know how to feel…I’m relieved, angry and…Tex I’m in the bathroom! Get out!”
“Listen to me, bitch. None of that matters. Someone is trying to uncover my secret. Someone is trying to find me. Someone I thought died a long time ago.”
“Ringu? He’s back?”
“And better than ever. And he’ll stop at nothing until…”
“Until what? Tex?”
“Tell me you still have it.”
“Have what?”
At this insolence Tex let fly his back hand and slapped his long lost love across the face. It was how they communicated.
“JESUS TEX!”
“Sorry.”
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!”
“Kristina. Do you have the package I gave you that day?”
“Of course I do! It’s down stairs in the - TEX!”
What happened next no one really knows. What we do know is that Ringu Dashin had followed Tex to Kristina’s apartment. We know that after making it there he shot Tex in the back of the head, killing him stone dead - again. We know that after a struggle Kristina escaped - naked - into the streets of Providence. What we don’t know is who, how or where Tex’s body ended up. We don’t know how Ringu found the wily ex cop. But we do know how Ringu Dashin died and why he was discovered by the police with the left side of his face completed melted through to the bone.
He got too close to the Jade Monkey…
And now it was loose.
