Today Again: An Original Novel for steemit by dreemit Chapter Nine

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Chapter Nine

Caleb turned Grant’s car into Goemans marina, his hand shaking slightly as he pulled into a parking space. He rested his forehead against the steering wheel and listened to the car idle for several moments trying to gather the fortitude to step out and face it. This, the place that began his journey of the past six months and maybe the reason he was stuck in this fucked up time loop. Twelve days and counting.

It had been dark the last time he was here. He raised his head and looked around. Dark and cold and deserted. Everything always looked so much different in the daylight, particularly during the height of summer. What am I doing here? He asked himself, as he opened the car door and stepped out. Looking for redemption? He walked slowly toward the spot where his father had breathed his last breath, only vaguely aware of the people bustling around him, the sound of boat-horns and motors as they pulled away from the docks.

When he reached his destination he knelt down on the ground and bent his head. “You stupid fucker,” he whispered. He wasn’t sure whether he was aiming this at his father or himself. He sure the hell had been stupid that day, setting up the meet and greet with dear old absentee dad at a place that was ideal for a drug exchange. But he hadn’t realized the pigs were onto him. Those fools. Those worthless fucking idiots.

He’d had many long hours in his cell-like room at the rehab to relive those last moments. Walking up to his father, taking in his appearance and how much he looked like an older version of himself…

…“So what’s up old man, did you find Jesus? Or are you in one of those twelve step programs and this is the part where you make amends for all your drunken fuckups?”

His father smiled sadly. “No program kid, I just woke up one morning and realized I’d wasted most of my life on the poison. I hurt a lot of people along the way, but none more than you.”

Caleb shook his head, a humorless smile twisting his lips. “You just woke up one morning with an epiphany…well good for you. I mean that. But you’re thinking of a small boy who no longer exists. He’s the one you hurt, and unless you can turn back time? There’s no way you can make it up to him. Because me? I really don’t give a shit about apologies, they’re just empty fucking words. You really want to say you’re sorry, pull out your wallet, because in my world money is the only talking that’s worth a damn.”

“Okay. If that’s what it takes to make a start for us,” he reached for the inside of his coat…

“FREEZE! Put your hands where we can see them!”

Caleb turned slightly to take in the men in uniform that seemed to appear out of nowhere. “You have got to be shitting me,” he said under his breath. He chuckled darkly as he lazily raised his hands in the air.

“I just want to show my…” His father called out.

“Dad,” he cut him off with a hiss, “shut up and put your hands in the air.” He stared incredulously as his dad ignored him and shoved his hand into his coat.

“Get on the ground Sir!”

“Dad for Chrissakes, I don’t want your fucking money!” He hissed again.

“I just want to show you something….” His father said quietly and pulled his hand out of his coat.

The sound of a gunshot, blood blooming on the white shirt under his dad’s coat and dribbling from his mouth as he collapsed to the ground…uniforms charging onto the scene while Caleb stood with his mouth partially open, staring down at the crumpled form in frozen horror…watching in numb shock as someone pulled something out of his father’s hand, a keychain with a mini jet bomber hanging from it.... yanking out of a man’s grip, being pulled backward…spinning towards the source, a crunching sound as his fist connected with the man’s nose, being grabbed from behind and using his head to bash the assailant in the face, all the while roaring in rage and pain as he was wrestled to the ground and put in cuffs…

Turning his head on the pavement and staring into the lifeless eyes of his sire.

Caleb jumped to his feet and paced to the retaining wall, shoving his hands in his pockets and staring out over the water. “Why couldn’t I have relived that day?” He demanded …to whom he was speaking, he had no idea. God? He snorted, if there was a God He was a total fucking asshole…no fuck that, God was a She and she was a Cunt. Just like the mother who abandoned him as a child, and the best-friend….he squeezed his eyes shut as his hands clenched into fists. Why did he always come back to her? Lissa fucking Donovan, the traitorous back-stabbing bitch.

He opened his eyes and looked around. Why had he come? There was nothing here for him. Nothing but ghosts. He turned and strode back to Grant’s car pushing the past out of his head. He needed to get drunk. And for Grant to find him a female he could bear to look at in the harsh light of day. He wrinkled his nose at the memory of the trio of whores as he climbed into the car, supplanting Lissa’s face on that of the brunette’s, adding pocked skin and bad teeth to her once fine features. If she’d kept on going like she was when he’d last seen her five years ago, that’s about what she’d look like…he smiled cruelly, liking the image.

If there was any justice in the world she’d be a used-up whore with a foul smelling pussy. Fuck you bitch, he thought darkly, as he started the car and pulled out of the marina turning onto the road that would take him back to Grant’s.

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