Mayor Thomas (chapter 1)

a fiction novel

(note: i started this novel in the year 2012, some of the premises may be a bit outdated, but of particular note, and somewhat prophetic is the self-driving cars mentioned in this chapter, and the voice-automated televisions, technologies that did not exist at the time. this is a spiritual-apocalyptic novel, if readers enjoy it, I will finish it, here, on substack, this chapter will be free, after that, subsequent chapters will be for subscribers only, with a teaser segment for free)

Chapter 1: May 19th , 2028

It was mid-afternoon on a hot summer day in a small municipal building in the downtown city of Trenton, Ohio. In an indistinct office, there sat a man at his desk, daydreaming about sipping martinis at the beach. 

Knock-knock-knock.

“Come in,” says the man sitting at the desk.

A young woman in her mid-twenties with shoulder-length blonde hair, a tight skirt, and a low-cut blouse steps in to an office. There are papers strewn everywhere and charts and graphs are hanging on the wall. 

She steps in and says, “Good afternoon, Mayor, how are you today?”

He shook his head and said “I’m fine. Just looking over these financial reports for the city.” 

Meet John Thomas, Mayor of Trenton, Ohio.

She giggled and said in her cutest voice “Oh, that sounds fun!”

He shrugged and said “Not really. Where do these idiots come up with this stuff? It doesn‘t make any sense, none of these figures are adding up, and I can’t figure out how we’re losing so much money.”

“I don’t know either, Mayor, is there anything I can help you with?” the young lady asked.

Yeah- a few things, he thought. The numerous smart remarks brewing inside his head had to be contained. After all, he couldn’t risk losing his job over a sexual harassment case.

“No, nothing for right now. I need time to think, please close the door,” he said.

Her name was Caroline Webb. She had been torturing the poor Mayor for months, wearing clothes that were appropriate for the office, but still capable of making a man’s heart beat. She had dropped subtle hints on several occasions that she might like to service the Mayor in other ways other than bringing him his coffee, and answering his phone calls. The thought tempted him every day, but not only was he a married man with a beautiful wife- but he was the Mayor! What would people think? He had worked so hard to get this job, and he wasn’t going to lose it to a post-grad prima Donna. Although he hadn't even been born yet, he remembered his father telling him stories about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office. Hey, but if Bill didn't lose his job then maybe... he thought.

He slapped himself on the head, "Concentrate!"

He looked around at the mountain of paperwork in front of him. All of the city’s budgeting, the financial reports, the charts, the graphs, it was all overwhelming. You see, Mayor Thomas never went to college. He had no training in accounting or finance at all, and the fact that he even got the career of a lifetime was somewhat of a lucky fluke. The only real skill that he had as far as a being a Mayor goes was the charismatic sales pitch he gave to the people that elected him. 

So you see, John Thomas was not really quite cut out for what a Mayor actually has to do. This entails sitting in an air-conditioned office, answering phone calls from people always griping about one thing or another, creating a budget for the City, and trying to find the taxes to pay for everything. It was just too much, he felt like a failure, and he felt like he was a man that made a lot of empty promises to people that he couldn’t fulfill. He started to understand that he was becoming what he had always despised. A politician that pledges to fix things, but when is elected, does nothing and leaves a trail of destruction behind.

Even though it had been nearly three years, it felt like just yesterday when he was running for the position. All the glitz, the glam, the fame, and the fortune were still fresh ideas in his mind at the time. If only he had known how really mundane and boring the job could be. Three years in, and he had still failed to show any promising results. The city was just as fucked up as it was the day he inherited it. 

The story of how he got elected is even more interesting. Mayor Thomas had never held a position in government or worked in an office environment, for that matter. The whole suit and tie thing was entirely new to him. He was 30 years old at the time and had no experience or qualifications to even be a councilmember, much less the Mayor. He had worked menial jobs his entire life up until this point. The only relevant experience he did have was being the senior class President at Trenton High in 2013. He knew what it took to get elected. Advertising, charismatic speeches, billboards with charts and graphs with lines always going up, and lots of lies (or promises, as he would call them). He started off with the internet, and read everything he could about how to run for Mayor. Then he wrote a petition, knocked on almost every door in the city, and got as many signatures as he could to get placed on the ballot. He invested his entire savings, and even took out a loan to start his advertising campaign. He made signs, put ads in the newspaper, started a huge social media campaign on the internet involving blogs and videos. It was all pretty simple, actually. He was young, he was photographic  (or so he liked to think), and he had a hell of a slick tongue. For a town with a population of a little over 3200, it really wasn’t that hard at all. He was surprised at how overwhelmingly he had beaten the incumbent Mayor Ted Jones, a seasoned veteran of 25 years. The city was overwhelmed with debt and there were rumors of corruption in the city council. Mayor Thomas presented himself as a benign savior, who would rid the city of its financial problems, and punish those who stole from the public. The election was a landslide, mostly in part to his up-to-date campaigning methods. The incumbent was a 69 year old man that didn’t put any effort into campaigning, he simply thought that there was no way he could lose to an uneducated and inexperienced 30 year old. After a brief celebratory ceremony, the rest was history, and John Thomas was hereafter known as Mayor Thomas.

The Mayor presses a button on his desk, and shortly thereafter, there's a knock at his office door.

“Come in,” he said. Caroline walked in and presented herself before the Mayor.

“Yes sir, how can I help you?” she asked.

“I can think of a few different things, but first, I need you to tell the other council-members that I’ll finish looking over these reports and have them ready by Monday. I have to take the rest of the day off, I’m not feeling well. Can you do that for me?”

“Yes of course, sir. I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. I wish there was something I could do,” she replied with a genuine look of concern.

“No thanks, that’ll be all. Have a good day,” he answered while brushing past her. The scent of her perfume was intoxicating.

God does she torture me, he thought to himself. Not only is it hard enough being a Mayor, but you simply can’t do your job when you’re fantasizing about banging your secretary over the desk every single day. If only she knew the real reason there were so many tissues in the wastebasket wasn’t because he had a runny nose…

He stepped outside the building into the parking lot, and noticed how hot it was outside. He said “temperature check” out loud, and his cell phone chirped back in robotic voice “96 degrees Fahrenheit.”

He remembered one day as a child, his teacher gave a lecture on global warming, and when he went home he informed his father of what he had learned. His father would scoff at him and tell him that it was just a theory that scientists made up so that they could receive government grants. He laughed to himself. Global warming was no longer a theory. It was just plain obvious to a man in the year 2028. 

John Thomas walks over to his slightly-used, but still relatively new 2025 red Mercedes-Benz sports coupe, and says “Home.” The car engine ignites, backs up, and sets off on the road through a series of stoplights and stop signs automatically, and on its own. At any time, John Thomas can seize control of the car manually, if he so wished, to get to his destination faster. You see, the car will only go the speed limit, whether it be 35mph or 60mph in the designated zone. This was a Federal Law that was passed by Congress in the year 2015, even though the public was outraged. If all cars were automated and not subject to human error, then why shouldn’t they operate at top speed? No one could understand the reasoning behind the law, other than a draconian government enforcing for the sake of itself.

Despite this, John Thomas is in no hurry to get home, and lets the car autopilot itself. He reaches for a cigarette, says “left window half-way down”, and exhales the poisonous fumes out of the car. He says “Call Joe”, and immediately the car speakers emanate the typical dialing tone that we all know so well. After a few rings a jiving voice emanates within the car “Hey, Mayor, is that you?!”

“Yes Joe, it is. What’s up, bud? Haven’t heard from you in a while,” the Mayor said as he took a drag from his cigarette. 

“Whaddaya talkin’ about, man? I haven’t heard from you! All big shot politician now, and its like I dropped off the face of the earth! Fuck you, man!” the jokester replied.

“Ah Joe, I’m really sorry. You know how it is, Liz is up my ass, everyone wants a piece of me, and I got so much shit to deal with. I hate it, man. I’m thinking about resigning.”

“Yo, cry me a fuckin’ river, man! Grow some balls and just admit you’ve been too busy to talk to your old boy!”

“Hahaha, you’re right, man. Look, let’s do something. I got the day off, and I’m taking a Mayor’s break for a couple days. I’m calling Councilman Jacobs in a minute to tell him. You down for some beer and poker?”

“Hell yeah! Just like old times, man. I’ll bring the boys. Just call me tonight when you get your shit together, alright?”

“Sounds good, buddy. See ya later.”

The car-phone automatically hangs up as it is programmed to recognize phrases like “See ya later” as the end of a call. Sometimes, the voice recognition develops a hearing problem, and in those cases you simply say “End Call”. Even in the year 2028, technology isn’t perfect. 

Soon afterwards the car is nearing the driveway of his home, and parks.

Mayor Thomas rubs his forehead, sighs, and says “Call Councilman Jacobs.”

“End call!”, he exclaimed immediately, and the car-phone ceases to dial the number.

I’ve gotta get prepared for this, he thought. Councilman Nathaniel Jacobs was going to get really pissed off if he didn’t Videocon him. He adjusted his tie, got out of the car, stepped inside his home, and sat on the black leather couch in the living room. 

Ok, what do I say… he thought to himself.

Councilman Jacobs was the most powerful man in the City of Trenton, although he actually held no executive power. He was the legislator of the legislature. He had been through law school his entire life and made a successful career as a prosecuting attorney. He made all the rules, and everyone bent to his will. He was 5 foot 8 inches tall, approximately 50 pounds overweight, 56 years old, with a monk-like ring of white hair encircling his otherwise bald head. He had been likened to Vice President Dick Cheney in the early 2000’s. He was also best friends with the previous incumbent Mayor Ted Jones. They played golf together, drank at the country club bar together, and lived right next door to each other. Jacobs would be content to barbecue Thomas‘ balls and invite his golf-buddies over for a cookout, given the chance. The only reason Thomas even has to call him, is that he is required by duty to notify all council members of any vacation days he uses. He is allowed to use them as he pleases which is one of the bonuses of being the Mayor. However, since Jacobs is the senior councilmember, he is the one that needs to be notified.

Mayor Thomas walked around his living room, stepped into the kitchen, and grabbed a bottle of fine brandy from a wooden cabinet. It was a gift from Joe last Christmas.

He poured a shot into a small glass, and thought… Poor Joe, buying Rich Me an expensive bottle of liquor, how back-asswards is that? He then chased the shot down his throat, while thinking of his gift to Joe. He had given him $20 and said “Merry Christmas.”

This is probably a hundred dollar bottle of liquor, he thought to himself, what a shitty friend I am.

Feeling a momentary sense of depression, he poured another shot, and chased it down quickly. The fire in his belly started to work its magic, and quickly all negative thoughts subsided and were replaced with positive ones.

Invigorated with courage, he rushed into the living room, sat on the couch, and yelled “Videocon Councilman Jacobs!” Soon after, what was once a clear translucent screen on the wall, lit up, and an image of the man himself appeared before Mayor Thomas, in exquisite high-definition resolution.

“What do you want, Thomas?”, the councilman said immediately before any exchange of formal greeting could take place.

“Hello Councilman Jacobs, I was just calling you to tell you that I have decided to take the rest of the day off, and the following 3 days as well.”

“Oh? And why is that, Thomas? You know I haven’t used a single vacation day in over twelve years! What gives you the right to take vacation? The city is drowning in debt, there’s disorder in the Council, and it’s your job to fix it! And you want not only one, but three days off?” his face turned red in the Videocon, steam started coming from his ears, and he was near the point of total rage. 

“Sir, I don’t have to explain my reasons to you. I will have the latest reports ready for the Council by Monday,” Mayor Thomas coolly and courageously replied.

“You bet your ass you will, Thomas. If you don’t, I will immediately call the council to have you impeached for lack of duty!  You’re nothing but a wet-behind-the-ears little punk who thinks he can be a Mayor. It‘s been three years since you‘ve been in office, and you haven’t accomplished a damn thing!”

“Duly noted, Councilman,” he adjusted his tie and gave his best smile, “Now if there’s anything else you wish to address, I have a vacation to attend to.”

“Enjoy it while you can, Thomas, because it will be the last vacation you ever have in this City,” veins bulged out of Jacobs’ bald red head as he ended the Videocon immediately.

“Well, that went over as well as I had expected. What an asshole,” he said to himself as he lit another cigarette and poured yet another shot of the fine brandy. 

Not a minute later, his wife Elizabeth walked in the door from her job as a sales clerk at JCP, hawking all the latest fashions. That’s JC Penney’s for those of you old-timers. They took out the Penney’s part out in 2015. 

“Hey, what are you doing home so early?” she asked. 

“I took the day off. And I’m taking the next three days off too,” he said.

“What? Why?” she asked.

“Because I feel like it. Is that alright with you?”

“Uh, yeah, but don’t you have all those reports to do?” 

“Don’t worry about my fucking reports, it’s my job and I’ll take care of it,” he started to get annoyed. 

She looked down and saw the bottle of brandy.

“Oh, so now you’re drinking, huh? You just wanna take time off from being Mayor when you have all that work to do, so you can sit at home and drink?” she snapped. 

He exploded. The bottle had been shaken, and the cap just popped off.

“Don’t fucking worry about my fucking job! If I wanna fucking resign tomorrow, I’ll do it! It’s bullshit anyway, I’m tired of all the paperwork, the calculators, the phone calls, and the fucking Council breathing down my ass! I needed a break,” he lowered his voice as he ended the sentence to try to evoke some sort of empathy from her.

“Well I hope you enjoy your break. I’ve gotta go pick Izzy up from school now,” she started to rush for the door, and on the way out added “Oh, and when you lose your job, I want a fucking divorce!” she yelled as she slammed the front door shut. 

“Fucking bitch!” he said out loud. He was already stressed out, and now this to top it off. A brief motion picture of him shooting Councilman Jacobs in the face and strangling his wife to death appeared in his mind in a quick violent emotion.

It wasn’t always like this. John Thomas met Elizabeth Kipling in the spring of 2018, outside of the car dealership he was working at. A beautiful blonde with a great figure came in to buy a car, and being the smooth salesman he was, not only did he sell her the car, but he sold her himself too. They exchanged numbers, went out to eat on several occasions, they fell in love, and before long they were a regular couple. Not even a year later, they were married and working every day (and night) on trying to have a child. 

It took a few years of trying, but on a Sunday, April 23^rd, 2023, John and Elizabeth Thomas gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Isabel. The child was born perfectly normal, with no complications at all. She weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces. They nicknamed her Izzy, and everyone always complimented the child on her blonde goldilocks. 

Everything appeared normal about the girl until she was a toddler. She was very precocious for her age, already knowing how to read without ever being taught. She used words that many adults didn’t even comprehend. The poor girl had a lot of problems though. She often had instances of psychic behavior. For instance, one summer day when the child was 2 years old, she was outside playing in the pool. She looked at the sky and screamed, for no apparent reason. “Moooommmmy! Hurry get me out, there’s a thunderstorm and it’s going to elec-tra-cute me!”

The sun was shining bright, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the sky was as blue as Marge Simpson‘s hair. Approximately thirty minutes had passed, when suddenly the tornado sirens in town started going off. Strong winds began to blow, and the sky turned dark as night. Black clouds suddenly engorged the sky, and began to rain torrential hell upon the earth. The lightning was fast and violent, ripping through the sky with its electrical fingertips.  The rain was pouring down so hard, and the wind was so strong that the tree in the front yard nearly uprooted itself out of the ground. That was the first sign that John recognized something was different about the child. 

Another time, while at pre-school, the teacher reported that Isabel had seized into some sort of epileptic fit, rolling around on the ground, and screaming “Mommy! Daddy! Please help me, it burns!” A week later one of the children that the Isabel had come in contact with, had died in a house fire, along with the entire family. Elizabeth, the mother, always played these instances off as coincidences. It was probably some sort of safeguard for her own mental well-being so that she wouldn’t think her daughter was a freak of nature. 

John Thomas, on the other hand, knew there was something more to it. 

His great grandmother, Eve, had been known to have psychic abilities. She told the doctors the day that she was going to die when they first diagnosed her with lung cancer in 2024. She passed it off as a joke to them, but it forever hung in their memory, “Well I guess I won’t make it till next Easter Sunday. Oh how I’ll miss the grandchildren’s egg hunt!” The next year, the day before Easter Sunday she died at 10:15pm at her nursing home. The doctors and nursing staff had remembered what she said the year before, and were in shock.

John Thomas knew that Isabel had inherited Eve’s gifts (if you want to call it a gift, that is). He tried to tell Elizabeth, but she shrugged it off as coincidence and superstition. When he really tried to press the facts, she would pretend to believe him and say “Okay, you’re right, honey.” 

John got up and walked over to the couch and sat down. He said “ TV on.” The translucent screen on the wall flickered on and the most recent channel, Lifetime, appeared on the screen. He watched it for a moment and saw a middle-aged woman clutching a knife and hiding from some unknown masked serial killer/rapist lurking in her home. 

“What in the hell…” he said, and proceeded to say “Channel Amazon.”

A moment later, the channel appeared on the screen and it was very similar to a website. Instead of pointing and clicking, however, you just have to talk to it in order to navigate. 

“Amazon search liquor,” he said, and a second later search results began appearing for various bottles of the top-selling liquor brands. You see, Amazon used to be a company that only sold books. Then they started selling computers. Now, in 2028, they sell everything. They are like the Wal-Mart of the internet. 

“Filter Brandy,” he said and images of bottles appeared on the screen with the most popular brands of brandy, with the best-rated products appearing at the top of the search result. He studied for a moment and then said, “Order Remy Martin.”

A checkout screen appeared, and he said “Confirm purchase.” The TV replied in a robotic female voice “Purchase confirmed, how would you like that delivered, Mr. Thomas?”

“Immediately,” he said, as that was one of the options.

“Your order will arrive in 30-45 minutes, thank you for shopping with Amazon.” the robotic voice said, and the screen showed a virtual receipt with a ticking clock widget for the delivery time. It was set at forty-five minutes and if the clock exceeded the allotted time limit, then your delivery charge was refunded back into your account. Now that’s customer service.

He changed the channel to a nature show and just relaxed in the armchair, sipping on the brandy Joe gave him last Christmas. This’ll make up for it… he thought. 

He dozed off for about a half-hour, and then woke up with a knock on the front door. A delivery-man in Amazon jumpsuit was standing at his front door with the bottle of Remy Martin that he ordered. He signed a virtual receipt, gave him a five dollar tip, thanked him, and shut the door. 

“Yeah, this’ll do the trick, can’t wait to see the look on Joe’s face when he sees this!” he said out loud. Not even a minute later, his wife walked back in through the door with Isabel at her side.

“Daddy!” the little girl exclaimed as she ran and jumped on him.

“Oh, whoa, whoa! Careful, I’m an old man!” he laughed and then hugged and kissed her on the cheek. She giggled.

“How was school?” he asked.

“Good!”

“Good? Well, that’s great. Did you learn anything?”

“No!” she replied.

“Well, that’s school these days for ya. Run along now and find something to do. Daddy‘s not feeling very well.” 

His little girl looked up at him with pitiful doe eyes and said, “But I missed you, Daddy.”

“Oh, you did? Aww, well come on up here and sit on my lap then.” he said. He was a sucker for his little girl.

The girl smiled and then jumped up and sat with him on the couch. 

As this was all happening, Elizabeth just sat there and watched. Finally she came over and hugged the back of his neck and whispered in his ear, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, Liz,” he said, “I’m just stressed out right now, I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“I know,” she said. “I’m just worried about the future, and our daughter.”

“Everything’s going to be fine, babe. Now what’s cookin‘, good lookin‘?” he asked, trying to liven the mood with a little humor.

“That’s all you ever want from me. And if it’s not that, it’s sex.” 

He had heard that line a million times. It went in one ear and out the other, as it usually did. 

She continued, “But I’m not sure, I’ll have to go look and see what we have in the refrigerator.” 

He nodded, but before she could walk into the kitchen he said, “Oh yeah, by the way! I called Joe earlier, and him and the boys are gonna stop on over later for some beer and poker. Is that okay with you?”

“Even if it wasn‘t, you‘d still do it anyway,” she replied. He had heard this line about a million times too.

He declined to start another argument, so he just said “Okay then, babe. Love you.”

She muttered “Love you too,” and walked away.

“Love you too,” said the little mime sitting in his lap. She giggled and stuck out her tongue at him.

“Teeheehee, you think you’re real funny, huh? I’m going to teach you a lesson about mimicking people!” he said.

He turned her over on his lap, and started spanking her playfully.

“Nooooo Daddy, stop!” she squealed and giggled.

He turned her over again and said “Alright now, seriously, run along, I need some time to think. Go help your Mommy.”

“Okay!” she said as she ran out of the living room. 

As he was watching the lions and tigers and bears, oh my!- on the Nature channel, he started to slip away into the warm caresses of a brandy-induced slumber…

Suddenly, it was winter and there was snow on the ground. Well, that’s strange. He was getting up to go to work, and he got in his car. The car wouldn’t start. Hm, must be the battery. He picked up his cell phone to call his wife for a ride, and the cell phone wouldn’t dial. Satellite’s out too? He got out of the car, unchained the bike from his fence, and got on it. I could use the exercise, it‘s not even two miles. When he got to the office, he noticed there were no cars in the parking lot. Where is everyone? Usually, he was late. He stepped inside and looked for Caroline. Normally she was next to the coffee-maker, brewing up a pot for the Mayor. She was nowhere to be found. In fact, none of the usual city employees were there. If there was some sort of holiday today, he wasn’t aware of it. He walked out back to the parking lot, sat on a bench, and lit a cigarette. All of a sudden the sky turned dark. The wind started to howl violently, the icy creek nearby began to flood, leaves were flying all around him, and he nearly fell off the bench. What the fuck! He ran for the bike, so he could get home and escape the freak storm that was soon to ensue. He began to pedal as fast as he could, going down hill, and as he made a right turn into his neighborhood, a noticed a flaming orb in the atmosphere crashing down towards to the Earth at an extremely high velocity. Is that a meteor? He noticed that it seemed to be coming straight for him, so he started to pedal even faster, attempting to flee the heavenly object. It sailed over his head and crashed to the ground in front of him in a flash of fire and light. He was thrown from the bike, and hurled to the ground. He was blinded momentarily, and rolling around on the ground in pain. His eyes began to focus and to his amazement, standing before him was a being of light.  It was in the shape of a man, and looked as if it was on fire. It had no distinguishable facial or physical features other than appearing humanoid. A deep, powerful voice emanated from the flames, and it said something that John Thomas would never forget.

It said, “John Thomas, I know you. I have known you from the time you were born. I am your guardian. The storm you have seen is a sign of your future. The people that are absent are the people that will die. You can’t stop the storm, John Thomas, but you can save the people. It is your job, your duty, to warn them of the storm that is coming.”

“What… who… are you?” the Mayor asked weakly.

“Silence!” the voice boomed, and the ground began to shake. “I have no name. We have no names. We are who we are, and I am who I am. Who, What, When, Where, these are questions that I cannot give you answers to. The time has come, John Thomas. Now is the time when your true talents and skills will be tested. It is up to you to rise to the challenge. You have been chosen. Do not fail Us,” the being commanded. 

The Mayor spoke up and asked, “I’ve been chosen for what exactly? What’s going to happen?”

“You will see soon enough. The darkest of all winters is coming. You will know what to do when the time comes. Do not doubt yourself. Until next time,” the being said, and instantly a supersonic boom shook the ground on which John was standing, and the being shot through the sky from whence it had came, and was gone before John could blink in utter amazement. 

John instantly woke up and shot up straight like a Jack-in-the-Box on the couch and looked around to see where he was at. He was completely bewildered as he looked around and saw the cuckoo clock on the mantle-piece in the living room. He sighed with relief. Home. 

A second later, something in the couch began to vibrate. He looked down and saw his cell-phone. It was Joe. He answered.

Joe said “Answer,” and then said “Hello?”

“Quit jerking off man, I’ve been trying to call you for the past five minutes.” 

“I was just taking a little cat-nap. What’s going on?”

“Well, I talked to Steve and Mike, and they said they’re ready when you are. I’m about to go pick ‘em up. You ready?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m just going to eat dinner real fast, so just come on over.”

“Ok, Mayor, we’ll be there when we get there.”

“Ok Joe, see ya soon.”

The phone still showed that the call was in progress. “Piece of shit,” he said, “End Call.”

He got up off the couch and walked into the kitchen. His wife was slaving over the hot computerized stove and he said, “Is it ready?”

“Yup, just got done,” she said.

“Alright, let’s eat.”

She called for Isabel and a minute later the family sat down to some home-made spaghetti and meatballs. They made small talk, and he made no mention of the strange dream that he had on the couch. At one point, he was staring at his food, his mind lost in contemplation.

His wife looked at him quizzically and asked, “Honey, are you okay?”

He looked up at her and said, “Huh, what? Yeah, yeah. I’m just thinking.” 

“What are you thinking about?” she pried. 

He scratched his head, “Just a strange little dream I had when I was napping on the couch. That’s all.”

“Oh, what was it about?”

“Eh, just another drunken dream. I don’t wanna talk about it. It’s crazy.”

“We all have crazy dreams, honey, let’s hear it.” 

He hesitated for a moment and then finally said, nonchalantly, “Well, it was nothing major. I was just all alone, and there was a big freak storm. All the cars and people were gone. And then a man on fire appeared out of nowhere and started talking to me. I think it was God.” He kept the details to a minimum and shook his head when he said the last word.

“You met God? I thought you didn’t believe in him?” she asked.

“Hah, well I don’t really. He just said that he was my guardian. And that there was a storm coming and that I had to warn people about it.”

“Oh yeah? What else did he say, Noah?”

“Look, don’t make fun of it. You wanted to know my dream, and I told you. So leave it alone.”

“I was just kidding,” she said.

“I had the same dream, Daddy,” his little girl chimed in a moment later.

John, who had up to this point not paid any attention to his daughter sitting at the dinner table looked over at her and asked, “What? What are you talking about, baby?”

The little girl looked afraid for a second and didn’t say anything.

“It’s okay, honey, tell me about the dream you had,” he said.

She looked down at her plate of food for a second, and then looked up and locked eyes with him and said in the most matter-of-fact voice, “Well I was at my school, playing with all the kids on the playground, when all of a sudden the sky turned black. The sirens started going off, the wind started blowing really hard, and there was really loud thunder. All the other kids and teachers ran inside the school, and left me alone outside. It started raining really hard, and I felt like it was going to drown me. Then a bunch of lightning started crashing down right next to me. I was knocking on the door and screaming for help, but no one would answer me. I tried to open the door and it was locked. I started crying, because I thought I was going to die, and then that’s when the Fire Man came.”

John noted how the little girl’s voice changed as she was telling the story. It was almost as if an adult was telling him the story of the dream, rather than his own five-year old daughter.

“Did he say anything to you?“ he asked. He looked over at his wife. She rolled her eyes.

Isabel’s voice returned to its normal state of innocence and naivety and said, “Yes, Daddy. The Fire Man told me that the storm was coming and it would swallow me up, but that I shouldn’t worry because by me being swallowed up, it would save all the kids inside the school.”

“What else did he say, honey?” he asked her.

The little girl looked up at him and said, “That was it, Daddy. He disappeared and then I woke up.”

“Well, don’t be scared honey, it was just a dream.” Liz said in a nurturing voice. 

Yeah, just a dream… he thought … a seriously fucked up dream if you ask me!

There was a knock at the front door. John got up from the table and said “Oh, that must be the boys. Isabel, if you ever have any more dreams like that, please tell Daddy.”

She nodded silently as he went to answer the front door.

He opened the door and said “Hey guys! Come on in!” to the threesome on his doorstep. They proceeded to shower him in assorted man-hugs, backslaps, and handshakes.

“Been a long time, Mayor!” said Mike Davidson. He was a Sergeant at the Trenton police department. John Thomas had never cared too much for police, especially in his heyday, but Mike was a stand-up guy. He didn’t abuse his power, and he generously served his community with pride. He was about Six-foot-four, and built like a shit brick house. John always thought he put steroids in his donuts. A couple of years ago, a young girl named Amber Smith went missing and the police had no leads. Mike worked the case day and night and wouldn’t give up until he found the girl. After working a graveyard shift, he was sitting in his cruiser and noticed a middle-aged man driving erratically down the main street in town at 4AM. Thinking the guy might be drunk, he performed a routine traffic stop and questioned the man. The man wasn’t drunk, he was just schizophrenic, as Sgt. Davidson later found out. He noticed a little girl sitting in the passenger seat. Wondering what this man had this child up at this time of the morning for led Sgt. Davidson to be immediately suspicious. After questioning the man thoroughly, and seeking explanations that the man couldn’t provide, he started to interrogate the girl. She was silent and would say nothing. After calling for backup, it was determined that the girl was Amber Smith, and the man was Timothy Acorn, a known sex criminal, and parolee. After the kidnapping, Timothy was locked away for life, and Amber was sent for counseling. Davidson was hailed as the town hero, and the parents were extremely grateful, offering him a $10,000 reward which he declined to receive. “I was just doing my duty, ma’am,” he said to the be-grieved mother of the child. 

“Well if it isn’t the town hero! What’s up Mike?” asked the Mayor.

“Oh, cut it out, John. You know just as well as I that I was just doing my job. Just a freak coincidence and a little bit of luck that I was the one who caught him.”

“Quit being such an asshole, Mike. You’re a hero!” Joe chimed in.

“Well, that’s what they say,” Mike said with a chuckle.

John motioned towards Steve and said “And what about you, Superstar? Got any gigs lately?”

Steve Sanders was about Five-foot-eleven, and weighed about 160 pounds. He had long black hair, tied up in a bandanna, and tattoos up and down his arms. He was an up-and-coming singer for a rock band called The Firemen. None of them in the group had ever been firemen, or even aspired to be firemen, he just thought it sounded cool. Plus he kind of got the idea from the band The Police. He always wanted to be like Sting, so ever since the guys have been calling him “Superstar Steve Sanders,” which he hated.

“A few here and there. Haven’t been able to get anything on the air yet, but we’re still trying,” Steve replied. 

“Well if you spent less time chasing groupies and snorting so much coke, maybe you could write a good song!” said good ol’ Joe. Always so blunt.

The guys laughed at him. “Come on man, you know I’m married and I don’t do that shit.”

“Bullshit, your wife called me the other day and was asking where the hell you were and who the hell was this Tiffany bitch that kept calling your house phone looking for you!” Joe said.

The guys were roaring now, “That stupid bitch. I told her never to call that number. Believe me, I got an earful when I got back from the road. Now about the cocaine, I plead the fifth.”

Sgt. Mike Davidson winked at him and said, “I didn’t hear a thing.”

“Alright, alright. Come on guys, to the garage. Let’s get this road on the show,” the Mayor said like a true leader of the pack.

(i will post the next chapter in a couple of days, so please share and like this post if you enjoyed the content)