Cigarette Regret
Chapter 2
“Adonis!!” I hear a woman call from the hallway outside. “Adonis, are you home?” The phone operator repeats different names, again and again, hoping to hear a response from me if she should find the match."Adolf? no can't be. Adelle? I can't tell, she was whispering, or he," she answers someone else in the background, "Adam? Adler? Abel?"
"Adonis," I whisper as loud as I could into the phone, far too weak for my neighbor outside in the hallway to hear me.
The emergency operator responds, "I think he said Adonis, can you run a search on that name for me?" she asks her colleague, who affirms.
“Caldwell” I whisper as my eyes darken their gaze slowly as I drift away into a dream.
"Callwell, he said he Calllwell," I hear her muffled words from the phone, now far awy from my hand, laying on the floor under the coffee table. How I wish I purchased that fancy oak table. Would have looked so sweet from this angle, as I lay here with my face drenched in a pool of my own blood and saliva. She continues on the phone, begging me for a response, but I can't; honestly, I just don't want to. Who has the energy to drag their body a few more feet for something that might never happen. It's just not worth the frustration.
Plus, with all the ostriches running around, it's hard to get my sights aimed at the head of the rhinoceros heading directly towards me at full speed. He must think that stupid looking horn is going to scare me.
"Excuse me? I'm a lady, jerk!" the rhinoceros corrects me.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"Well now you do know," she asserts.
"It's a good thing I didn't shoot this rifle at you," I jokingly attempt to diffuse her anger.
"Good thing for you," she responds.
"I'm sorry, I'm just so tired lately, haven't had much energy it seems," I confess to her, disarming her threatening tone.
"Well you should eat better, have you had rhinoceros?"
"I can't say that I have, no, but I can't imagine it would taste very good, probably not as good as chicken," I venture a guess, confused by her response.
"Well here," she offers as she pulls a layer of muscle off of her thigh. Her pink skirt drops casually as her revealing gesture catches my stare. She smiles quite approvingly.
"Rhino's can taste good twice if you play your cards right," she flirts.
"I can wait to eat," I offer her, catching her by surprise. The astonished look on her face quickly turns to appeal as she struts towards me slowly allowing each step to linger in my mind as she rips her skirt off.
"Let me clear that out of your way," she counteroffers, now steps away as her skirt goes flying off in the wind, swirling around as it burns away in the far-off sky.
"What? clear what?" I answer in confusion not realizing she stands before me naked, beautiful female legs strutting towards me, though never quite reaching me.
"Baby, I like your style," she softly speaks as the sultry sounds slip passed her lips.
"You do?" I ask still confused, but then, "Oh!" I finally vocalize as the naive moment disappears, replaced by a sexy gray woman, naked from the waist down with translucent arms. She grabs me by my replication module; it complicates the relationship.
"I thought you were gonna give me a ride into the next town where I could catch a flight to Pakistan?" I ask her, unsure of my own travel arrangements.
"Oh, you're not going there honey," she states, correcting my plans.
"I'm not?" I answer, confused by her knowledge of my intentions.
"No sweety," she confirms.
"Why not? I've never been there. It'd be nice to..." I ramble until she finally interrupts me.
"Because you're going to heaven honey."
"Heaven? Oh no, we can't do that, I'm..." I state with a deep guilt in my voice and an even deeper remorse for the pleasure she continues to impose on my will.
"I know honey, you made that clear already. Don't you remember when we cleared that up?" she again states, once again drawing extra attention to the word <i>clear</i> with a strange emphasis on the word that doesn't quite make sense in my mind.
"Are we going to heaven now?" I ask her.
"Not quite yet, you clear?" she states with an implied anger and resentment I can't seem to understand in either cause or intent.
"I don't understand?" I offer her in a solemn attempt at convincing her of my innocence I had to yet to determine the need for.
"Oh you're gonna clear it up yourself," she once again states with a strange emphasis on the words.
"How clear?" I finally ask, unsure of the meaning of the word in her statements to best identify the proper question to ask of her.
"CLEAR!!!!!!" the medic screams as the electricity surges through my body, tearing the death away as they pull my heart back to life.
“Hey! Get out of there!” the officer commands my best friend as she shies away from the red watering puddle cradling my mind. She releases a resentful bark, begrudgingly acquiescing to the human's command, despite her implied claim on the prized puddle.
"WAKE UP!" the medic again screams, only to add a sharp slap across my face.
The eyelids squint as I barely make out the person I intend on slapping back in a few weeks. I rest my eyes from the agony surrounding my torso. The pain has all but crippled my senses. I feel another slap on my face.
“We're losing time, you know?” the heavyweight tire iron states as his left wheel delivers a sharp jab to my ribs.
“Can you open your eyes?” I inquire of my opponent, hugging each other as our bodies redistribute our weight against the other.
"Not really," he answers before another sharp jab sends me flying to the floor.
A new voice emerges. I feel pressure on my brow as my left eyelid is forced open.
"Hey in there," smiles an angelic figure too bright to focus my eyesight on directly.
"Hey," I answer like a child being introduction to a group of other children already acquainted among each other.
"What do you think?" the angel inquires.
"I'm not sure," I answer, implying my understanding of the nature of the question, "maybe more time, maybe just let it sort itself out."
"That's not the man I know and remember."
"Your compassion is a difficult lesson for me," I confess.
"No it isn't," the angel quickly corrects with a smile.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," I concur, "I'll need a lot more gifts and miracles to make this work.
"Whatever you need you shall have," the angel concludes, filling me with eternal love in waves that crash into me with a euphoric sensation that compounds against each previous wave as she drifts away from my view.
"CLEARRR!!!" The medic shouts as the paddles press against my chest. My eyes open. His thumbs haven't released the voltage yet, "Whoa! Did you see that?" He asks of his partner as he pulls the paddles off.
“He’s alive, let’s get him out of here” the partner responds, ignoring the creepiness felt by his partner at my sudden reemergence from near death.
“Hey! Wake up!” the medic shouts again as he slaps me back into consciousness. I feign away from the flashlight bouncing between my eyes.
“We’re done with the paddles, but we better hurry, or I think we’re gonna lose em again.”