Spokane Inhabitants

The shimmer of a far off sun ready to peek its head into the new day threatened to mess with Jay's mental state. He had been wandering back streets for an undetermined amount of time. He couldn't even remember when he’d started off last night and now his mind felt fidgety and a slight bit liquid. It had taken on this cherry jello form that rocked back and forth between his ears, yes he could actually hear it as it slid to and fro.

Even though the summer was completely gone, and the late autumn air reminded his gloveless fingers of that, he traipsed around the city with only the protection of a hoody worn thin from many washings. His fingertips were threatening to lose their circulation so he jammed them into the front kangaroo pocket on the navy blue sweatshirt. He thought it was odd that the rest of him was so warm, perhaps from the long ambling walk he’d been on while the rest of society slept. He’d make sure that he kept his fingers safe from the notorious morning frost that the inland North West was so generous with in late October.

Earlier the night before he’d felt fine and slid out the front door as his wife and four month old baby slept in drowsy-dream land. He just couldn’t sleep was all. That was what he was telling himself as he pulled the hoody over his head and leaned down to tie his black, recently unused work boots. He told himself that he just needed to shake a little pent up energy, then he’d come home, slide between the covers already warm from his girls and float into nothingness. After a little walk he could sleep and wake up right as rain.

Now, the sun was shooting golden daggers into his eyes, not full blown daylight but frighteningly close to. He didn’t feel right, he knew it. Jay was trying to think rationally though the night as he walked past one house after another, each one sending him a minute message that only Jay could hear. The hot anger, the white madness, the ultimately alive rush of excitement was welling up in him; he knew it was out of his hands now.

He already knew when earlier, in the small hours of the morning, he’d started to hear the Halloween displays telling him what to do. Six blocks from his apartment the slow breeze pushed its way through the decaying corn husks a scarecrow now used as arms. It caught Jay’s eye and when he looked he could see the smile grow from the pumpkins mouth. Subliminally, it said hi. That’s all. Jay knew what would be coming next; more conversations growing more in-depth as he trudged past more and more yards with macabre inhabitants left out in the cold.

He was a little shocked at how many people in the Spokane Valley really went all out in decorating their homes. The thought of carving a pumpkin had passed between him and his wife, but they decided against the mess of a rotting pumpkin that would need to be thrown away if it didn’t get smashed on their porch on Halloween. House after house held expertly carved pumpkins, swaying ghosts and grey eyed ghouls suspended from porches, many had tombstones with names of favorite fictional characters’ on them: Freddy Kruger, Jason, Michael Myers. It was the displays that had scarecrows incorporated in them that really spoke to him. The husk of an imaginary man; now just some dried hay and rotting clothes, so incredibly susceptible to incineration, somehow Jay understood.

Jay moved his right hand into his Levi’s pocket and found his lighter. Ordinarily, he’d take one of these walks and it would end with him standing in an alley next to some unknown garage, confused and yet focused. He’d be unsure how he got there; he just knew what he was there for. Tonight had resulted in an orange and now pink morning sky, a distant dog monotonously barking in someone’s yard down the street, as if he was the lone alarm calling out for no one to understand his barks.

The lighter slid from his pocket now poised above Jays head, with a flick of the turning wheel he’d lit it and held it close to the straw farmers had that sat atop the scarecrows burlap sack head. It quickly went up, engulfed in flames with small black pieces of charred shirt releasing themselves to the wind.

N N N

Jay sauntered into the kitchen; his hair still wet from the shower and kissed his daughter sitting in a baby bouncer chair on the kitchen table. His wife smiled over her shoulder as she tended two thick cut pieces of ham sizzling in the cast iron skillet.

“When did you get in, Hon, I didn’t even hear you,” she said.

“I walked in just as Jimmy Kimmel came on, so not all that late,” Jay said.

The small television cut from the national news into its local news spiel for five minutes on the hour every hour. Nadine Woodward had a grave anchor-woman expression as she read the day’s top stories.

“A series of unexplained arsons continue as the toll of scarecrows burned tops forty-eight today. Though, the police have no solid leads they do ask that anyone with information please come forward and call crime checkers. The suspect is believed to be a teen (way off, went through Jays mind) and he may also have been responsible for the mysterious garage arsons that have plagued Spokane for over six years (bingo). We now go to Othello Richard who is live at a Spokane Valley home where the arson struck just last night, Othello,” Nadine said.

“Thank-you, Nadine. As you can see the house behind me had two scarecrows last night but the inhabitants woke to see them on fire around 6 a.m. apparently their dog had been barking and the family looked out to see what was going on, that’s when they saw the frightening scene. It’s just too bad we don’t speak dog, Nadine,” said Othello with a ridiculously serious look on his face.

“Thanks Othello, now we turn to Tom Sherry with the weather. Tom, what’s it lookin like out there?” her body angled to send a silly smile Tom’s way, he sends the same goofy grin back.

Jay’s wife turns around with the skillet in her hand and slides the ham onto his plate, joining the two over-easy eggs. They both sit to eat breakfast together, shooting each other Tom Sherry and Nadine Woodward smiles over steaming mugs of homemade cappuccino.

“What is on the agenda for today, Honey?” she asks.

“How about I take my two best girls on a little neighborhood cruise? It’s sunny and crisp and we can look at the cool Halloween decorations people put up in their yards?” Jay was smiling with enthusiasm and held one tiny baby foot in his hand, looking at his daughter as if she’d give the okay.

“You are such a holiday man, I love it,” she said and cleared their plates. “Spokane is a wonderful place to live.”