Immortal part 4

“I know a lot more than you think but,” he waved his hand as if to brush away something nasty and uncomfortable. “One of the things you don’t know about me is that I love monsters.”

            “Monsters?” I scoffed mockingly.

            “Monsters,” Emryl confirmed.

            “You mean like little blue furry puppets or…”

            “I’m serious, Syd. And you know what I mean.”

            “Like Frankenstein and vampires and…”

            “Werewolves and mummies and,” his voice trailed off when he saw the incredulous look that I knew was on my face.

            “Are you telling me,” I said with a forced calm, “that you were freaking out because you thought you saw monsters?” Over the years I had thought many unkind things about Emryl. I thought he was boorish and chauvinistic. Sometimes I even thought he was verging on stupid. I thought he was silly and impulsive. He could be rude and outspoken. There were times the mere sound of his voice was enough to make me want to gag. One thing I had never classified Emryl Pemstein as though, was crazy. He was weird maybe but who isn’t weird in their own right?  But could he be insane?

            “Not thought.” He muttered.

            “Not… thought…” I stammered in response. I couldn’t help it. A blinding rage took over. I reached out and as hard as I could I punched him in the arm. Then I jumped up and momentarily forgetting that we were in a chapel of a church, I let out a screeching yell and then hit him again.

            “Syd,” Emryl pleaded. He was scanning the chapel for other patrons, but aside from the priest, who was making his way over to us again, and the two of us, the chapel was empty. I wanted to kick him but I didn’t. I simply turned to walk away and get to class. I glanced down at my watch.  I was already fifteen minutes late and irritation flashed through me once again.

            But Emryl grabbed me and held me, “You don’t have to like it. And I know you’re not even going to believe me at first, but at least hear me out.”

            “I stopped believing in monsters, Emryl, when I was five years old!”

            “Sir, miss… I’m so sorry but… this is a place of worship and I must ask you to leave.”

            I could tell the priest didn’t want to chastise us and he was uncomfortable doing so but we were being very disruptive and my anger once again was channeled toward Emryl.

            “We’re going,” Emryl assured the priest and he stood rather quickly and once again grabbed my elbow. I tugged myself away from his grip and stomped towards the exit ahead of him. He caught up to me though and before I could heave open the heavy door Emryl grabbed it and he peaked cautiously out.

            “You have got to be kidding!” I cried irritably.

            “Just hold on for a minute. We’ve got to make sure.”

            “Make sure of what, Emryl? That no little green men are out there to get us?”

            He glared coldly at me but nodded. “Will you please let me explain?”

            “I’m late for class. You’re late for class. And there are no such thing as monsters. You’re wasting my time Emryl and do you know what?  I don’t want…”

            “I don’t know who else to turn to, Syd. Please.”

            It never occurred to me that Emryl didn’t have any other friends. I imagined him sitting around at night playing computer games online with a bunch of other math geeks. Everybody had friends, didn’t they? If I was the only friend he felt comfortable enough to share his problems, I felt very bad for Emryl Pemstein indeed. But I found that I was starting to feel for the guy and even though I dreaded doing it and figured that I would regret it, I agreed to let him take me down to I-hop for breakfast and a cup of coffee so that he could explain himself. “Your treat!” I told him firmly, waving my finger in his face. He agreed readily and threw both of our bags over his shoulder.

            I watched him as we walked. Emryl wasn’t a bad looking guy, really. I mean, he was a geek through and through with his big thick glasses. And his face was kind of pocked. As a teenager Emryl had the worst case of acne in the whole high school. He truly was a pizza face and he had been teased relentlessly. The acne had cleared up, but he was left with scars, a horrible reminder of the unpleasantness of his teenage years. He had thick, slightly curly dark hair. Sometimes I did have the urge to just run my fingers through it, just to see what it felt like. But since the hair belonged to Emryl Pemstein, I knew I never would.

            He was still acting kind of paranoid and weird. He continually looked behind him, and all around him and he kind of lowered his head into his coat, as if that would hide him. I was reminded of a turtle with its head just peaking out from its shell. If he was trying to be discreet, he was failing miserably. People would glance at him trying to figure out what in the hell he was doing and I wanted to tell him so but he looked so scared I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

            When we reached I-hop I was very relieved. I was embarrassed by Emryl’s behavior and I just wanted him to tell me his stupid story so that I could tell him what a stupid idiot he was, and then I could get on with my life.

            “What do you want?” Emryl asked.

            “Just some coffee. Emryl… you know this is ridiculous, right?”

            “Not so much,” he squeaked. “Look, Syd… I…” he cleared his throat nervously and suddenly he was smiling, “Hello.”

            The waitress looked bored but offered us a fake smile and asked us if we wanted something to drink before we ordered. Emryl told her that we both just wanted some coffee and water.

            He waited until the waitress had walked away again before he continued. “I’ve never told anybody about this before.”

            “It’s a good thing,” I mumbled callously. “It’s crazy.”

            “I’ve been studying monsters since I could remember,” Emryl told me, ignoring my rudeness. “I’ve read every book, I’ve researched and researched and…”

            “Emryl, you can’t research monsters!  They don’t exist. They are pretend. They are make believe. It’s fantasy and stories! It’s not real!” I exclaimed. I was growing increasingly annoyed.

            “All legends, all stories have some basis in truth. Sometimes the facts are embellished over the years, yes. Sometimes there are exaggerations and… when we were little kids we used to play a game, Syd. It was called the telephone game, do you remember it?”

            I rolled my eyes and sighed, “Yes. We all would sit in a circle and somebody would whisper something to the person sitting next to them. And then that person would whisper whatever they heard to the person sitting next to them. By the time we’d get around the circle though, what was originally whispered isn’t the same as what the first person hears after it’s gone all the way around. I remember.” I said impatiently.

            “That’s how it is with legends. That’s how it is with history. What we think happened… usually isn’t what happened at all.  Society, as a whole dismisses a lot of the more...” I could tell Emryl was struggling with the word he wanted to use and he finally settled on “unexplained events of the world’s history.”

            “Unexplained?” I asked.

            “Unpleasant, maybe.”

            “Well that’s not true,” I argued. “I know lots of the more icky and deviant behavior of mankind throughout the timeline of history!”

            Emryl studied me for a few seconds and shrugged, “Maybe you’re not ready.”

            “Maybe not,” I agreed coldly. “But do you know what? I’ve already missed class and you’ve got me here and,” I exhaled very loudly and I narrowed my eyes at him, “Okay… I promise I will not interrupt or say anything until you’re through.” I went through the motion of clamping my mouth shut, zipped my lips and threw away an invisible key.